Fill pile costs near $ 800k

FAIRFIELD — Remediation and construction of a berm at the Public Works fill pile has cost the town close to $ 800,000, according to a finance department audit.

The fill pile, in place for decades, was shut down after neighbor complaints about noise, and the discovery of a small area contaminated with PCBs and lead. The town is suing Julian Enterprises, the company it contracted with in 2014 to manage the pile and ultimately reduce its size.

Instead, the town claims, Julian did just the opposite. Julian has countersued for defamation and the combined court cases are pending.

The town’s bill so far for the fill pile totals $ 779,513.

According to the audit, the soil testing and remediation took up the largest chunk of the bill, totaling $ 396,260. Of that, $ 246,907 was paid to CT Tank Removal.

Joseph Michelangelo, Public Works director, said $ 285,934 for remediation came from an appropriation from fiscal year 2017 contingency accounts. He said since December 2016, $ 109,675 was spent collecting and testing soil, and was paid through the Public Works operations budget.

“As we did have some time to plan for these expenses,” Michelangelo said, “the DPW budget was able to absorb these.”

The second- largest component was in- house labor by Public Works and Conservation to construct the berm to help hide not only the fill pile, but other activity on Richard White Way from residents on Pine Creek and Fairfield Beach Road. Labor costs came to $ 212,822, which includes overtime. The split was $ 172,783 for DPW labor, and $ 40,039 for DPW and Conservation management.

Overtime, Michel anagelo said, added up to $ 33,360, and again, he said, will be absorbed by the department’s budget.