Leaders studying service systems

$18M outlay needed to maintain water, sewer

PORTLAND >> Members of the Board of Selectmen listened Wednesday to a broad-scale analysis of the status of the town’s water and sewer operations — and estimates of the money that will need to be spent over the next 15 year to maintain those systems.

The presentation, by a representative of the firm Tighe & Bond, was intended as a tablesetter for continuing discussions about whether the town should join the Metropolitan District Commission as a full member. But Wednesday’s presentation

also served as a sobering picture of the dramatic investments necessary to continue to provide water and sewer service in town.

Tighe & Bond estimates the town will need to spend $18 million over the next 15 years just to maintain the existing water and sewer systems.

That estimate does not include any of the other major infrastructure repair programs and projects — such as road and sidewalk repairs — that the town will have to take on during that same period. Nor does it explain how the town will be able to come up with the funding necessary to make those improvements.

The town’s last major investment in the sewer system occurred in 2005, and 2006 for the water system, First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield said.

The analysis, which was prepared and presented by Frederick Mueller, the principal engineer for Tighe & Bond, also focused on the impact on the sewer and water rates over the next 15 years and a comparison with the rates that would be paid if the town joined the MDC.

The Tighe & Bond analysis was undertaken when the MDC first proposed Portland join the eight-town cooperative as a full member. The MDC made its own analysis and also funded the $50,000 T&B analysis as a prelude to talks about Portland becoming a member.

Bloomfield, East Hartford, Hartford, Newington, Rocky Hill, West Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor are the current members of the MDC.

At present, the town buys a portion of its water — 146 million gallons a year — from the regional agency. That is approximately twothirds of the town’s annual water needs, Director of Public Works Richard D. Kelsey said Thursday.

Bransfield said the town pays $500,000 for the water it buys from the MDC. She also said discussions with the MDC and its Chief Executive Officer Scott W. Jellison continue on a regular basis.

Jellison was among the approximately 30 people who attended Wednesday’s session in the Mary Flood Room of the Portland Public Library.

In addition to five of the selectmen (Deputy First Selectman Brian M. Flood and Selectman Michael Pelton were both absent), members of the Water and Sewer Commission and the Long-Range Capital Committee also took part in the meeting.

If the town did join the MDC, the district would take over sewer operations. The water pollution control authority would be abolished and the employees would lose their jobs, Mueller said. However, costs associated with water and sewers could be “significantly reduced,” he said.

Jellison said before the town makes a decision about joining the MDC, it has to resolve a simple question: “What is the goal of the town of Portland? Does it want to expand or not?”

Perhaps the most vexing question that would have be addressed, however, is how joining MDC would affect residents who do not have municipal water and sewer and likely never will.

There are approximately 2,270 water customers and 1,526 sewer users, officials said. But the roughly 2,400 residents who are on wells and septic systems will have to help pay the town’s share — 2.4 percent — of MDC’s annual operating costs.

LRCC member Gary Nolan described that as “the big stumbling block.”

“That’s going to be a very hard sell,” Nolan added.

Meanwhile, as the LRCC prepares to met to lay out the town’s capital needs for the coming year and beyond, Chairman Michael Agogliati said those sessions “should be very interesting.”