CROMWELL — As Turkey Creek Regional Sewer District wraps up one multi-million dollar project, the board members seemed surprised to find themselves gearing up for yet another one. After several months of attempting to address grievances with bills coming from the town of Syracuse, TCRSD passed a motion to begin a $53,000 study that will help the board determine the process on becoming self-sufficient.

The meeting minutes from Syracuse’s January 2017 meeting indicate a discontent with TCRSD, stating “It as stated that in previous years the flow from Turkey Creek Regional Sewer District was excessive enough to cause sewage back-ups on Medusa Street.” The minutes go on to cover several areas of back-and-forth communications between TCRSD Superintendent Timothy Woodward and the town of Syracuse.

Woodward read through these minutes and announced to the TCRSD board he felt he had been misquoted in several instances, but focused his attention on Syracuse’s discussion on how to annex TCRSD from its system. Larry Siegel is also quoted in the minutes as stating TCRSD was notified of construction projects before they started, a claim Woodward vehemently denied.

In a lengthy discussion about this ongoing discontent with Syracuse, TCRSD board president Rex Heil took a vote on beginning the study, with Heil being the only one to vote against it. The motion passed and project engineer Brian Houghton, Jones and Henry Engineering, was assigned the task of starting the study.

Woodward updated the board on several repairs and maintenance work done during the past month including: new chlorine for water plants, replaced gearbox with one backup gearbox in place, replacement of two circuit boards installed in 1997 and a Vactor truck sensor issue. Woodward also complimented his team on the quick repair of a major sewer leak on Crow Road that was causing a pump to run 11 to 12 hours each day. Once the source was located and the lateral repaired, the pump was back to running between one to two hours each day.

TCRSD will also be adding additional sewage dumping from a local company to its workflow. Woodward introduced the owners of Keep It Clean Pumping Services LLC, Tanner and Catrina Miller, noting the small family-owned business had provided six months of records to the district and the partnership would benefit both parties. The next regular meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 16, beginning at 7 p.m. at the Cromwell office.

In other news:

In planning for the upcoming reversal study, it was noted funds gained from sewer systems cannot be used to fund water systems and vice-versa.

TCRSD is in a 40-year contract with the town of Syracuse with 13 years remaining.

TCRSD board estimates the full reversal of flow back to Cromwell will cost approximately $2.5 million.

The board approved the addition of online bill pay and is beginning the process of adding it to the website.