Board Approves $60 Million Sewer Upgrade

With little fanfare, and no debate, the Board of Directors unanimously approved a $60 million upgrade to the town’s sewage treatment plant as part of a relatively brief, uneventful meeting Tuesday.

“It needed to be done,” said Lisa O’Neil, a Democratic member of the board.

 Mayor Louis Spadaccini said it was important for the town to maintain its infrastructure, and noted that a grant through the state’s Clean Water Fund would cover about 22 percent of the total cost of the project.

“It’s important that we act on it now or face losing the state funds at a later date,” Spadaccini said.

 The to the town's Hockanum River Water Pollution Control Facility off Olcott Street will serve several factors. First, it will make the town compliant with levels in treated water that empties into the Long Island Sound that take affect in 2014. It will also renovate and update much of the equipment at the existing facility, which process about 6 million gallons of sewage a day and was last upgraded in 1991, and create a new system of processing and disposing of the sludge that is generated as a result of the treatment process.

Water and Sewer Department Administrator Edward Soper said after the vote that the project now needs permit approval from the state, and then a request for proposals will be sought, but that he expected the project should get underway by July. Soper said the upgrade should take about three years to complete and would not result in any disruption of sewer service during that time.

“The construction will have to be supervised very methodically to ensure there’s no disruption in service,” he said.

To finance the upgrade, Soper said the average customer's quarterly sewer bill would gradually increase over a five-year period from its current rate of about $76 to $106.

 The board also presented Matthew Peak, a Republican who in late December in the middle of his third consecutive term, with a rocking chair for his contributions to the town, as is customary for departing directors.

“It’s certainly a distinction that is well earned and well deserved by director Peak,” Spadaccini said during the presentation.

has replaced Peak on the board.

And the board heard a request from the Economic Development Commission to pass a film ordinance in town, which members of the commission said would position Manchester to capitalize on a planned film studio that is in development in neighboring South Windsor.

Democrat Jay Moran did not attend the meeting because he was out of town on business.

Manchester Patch toured the current Hockanum River Water Pollution Control facility Tuesday. You can check out the video (minus the smell).