Part of the updates for the reversal from Syracuse back to TCRSD include ensuring the district treatment plant has the capacity to treat all flow.

CROMWELL – Due to the slightly confusing wording of the town of Syracuse/Turkey Creek Regional Sewer District agreement, TCRSD will pay one more month than planned of the former sewer rate. During Monday evening, March 18, meeting at the Cromwell office, the exasperated board agreed to pay a nearly $900 discrepancy to Syracuse after each area’s legal representative proposed his own interpretation of wording.

The issue boiled down to whether the new sewer rate ($2.02/thousand gallons) would start in December 2018 or January 2019; Syracuse settled on the latter, billing TCRSD the $2.76/thousand gallon rate for the December service bill, received in January.

Locals may recall the TCRSD board has lamented about what they view as 38 months of arguing with Syracuse, finally settling on a lump sum payment (already delivered by hand to Syracuse) and a decreased rate until TCRSD officially disconnects and reverses all flow. This agreement terminates service between the two parties no later than December 2019, a date the board agreed on with ease. Monday night’s updates from Jones & Henry engineer Jeff Hersha took some wind out of those sails as the first change order rolled in. NIBCO, a major contractor for the project requested an additional 22 days just for its first milestone deadline, a request that didn’t sit well with the board.

Former board president Rex Heil spoke up quickly to voice his concerns about the possibility of the district incurring fees because of delays. Because of the agreement with Syracuse, any overages from TCRSD that cause problems for Syracuse will be directly fined to the district; Heil felt the contractor needed to take on that responsibility. After some back-and-forth between Hersha, Heil, and the district superintendent Timothy Woodward, the issue was tabled until the next meeting. The board also asked Hersha to speak with NIBCO about its proposal to see if the company understood the “why” behind the liability request.

The board will meet again at 7 p.m. Monday, April 15.

In other news:

Woodward sent out the flushing schedule for 2019 with a total of four planned.

One hundred eighty flow dishes have been installed in the district with the hope of preventing additional water intake during heavy rains.

A local company approached Woodward with a proposal to purchase 5.3 acres of empty property belonging to the district; Woodward will be contacting IDEM to be sure of liability if the board chooses to sell.