Bellingham voters reject sewer project extension
BELLINGHAM – Special Town Meeting voters Wednesday rejected an article to expand and extend town sewers to the Wethersfield West area of town.
The article required a twothirds vote to pass and was overwhelmingly rejected by a majority of voters.
The town is planning to reconstruct Taunton and Nason Streets from Wethersfield Road to North Main Street. Taunton Street and the entire west side of the Wethersfield neighborhood were identified as a viable area for the expansion of town sewer according to the town’s sewer master plan.
The town mailed out a questionnaire and held a few meetings last year in an effort to determine if residents want to get town sewer. The results of the questionnaire were inconclusive and similar input provided at informational meetings did not clearly indicate whether the residents in
this neighborhood did or did not want sewer. Bringing it to a vote at a town meeting was the only means to finally decide the matter.
The town’s initial sewer plan in 2016 was based on the 2002 sewer master plan for properties west of Caroline Drive off route 126, also known as Wethersfield West. After receiving input and signed petitions from residents, the selectmen voted on Aug. 24 to establish the Wethersfield West Sewer Plan. Once it was decided to move forward and bring the question to the voters at town meeting, a decision was made to get an engineering firm involved to refine the cost estimates. Atest probe project and preliminary engineering study was also performed and completed in May.
Had voters approved expanding sewer to Wethersfield West there would have been three direct costs to homeowners, including a sewer betterment, a sewer connection fee to existing septic system and a sewer user charge.
According to town officials, the cost per single family home for sewer expansion proposed in the Wethersfield West Sewer Plan is estimated at $14,000, which is the amount the town would have assess each homeowner as a sewer betterment.
Once connected to the town sewer, homeowners would have incurred sewer user charges, which means the average customer’s utility bill (water, sewer, and trash) would have gone up by about $210 per quarter with sewer added.