Town of Mansfield
Four-Corners Sewer Planning Advisory Committee
Minutes of the Meeting – February 10, 2009
Present: Nesbitt (chair), Spak, Ferrigno, Plante, Rawn, Pacholski, Tussing, Hultgren, Meitzler
The meeting was called to order by Chair Nesbitt at 7:03 PM.
The minutes of the Jan 27th meeting were approved unanimously on a motion by Rawn/Plante.
Correspondence and meeting reports were discussed. Nesbitt reported on his efforts to obtain documentation for the increase in property values in other Towns when sewers were made available. He had some success for residential, but was still working on getting data for commercial properties. He also reported on his research into available grants for sewer and water systems – which are currently somewhat limited. Hultgren reported that he had talked to CT Water about its plans to serve the area now that the Town of Tolland had voted against having CT Water “wheel” water through its lines. CT Water said their plan to serve UConn and the area were still alive and that they would simply use a differently route to get to the campus.
Meitzler walked members through a multi-page handout that explained how properties are assessed for sewer (and possibly water) improvements. He explained that the combination of an adjusted front footage charge, a unit charge and an outlet charge make up the total assessment and went through some examples as to how these calculations are made. Hultgren reported that staff had modified the allocation of the front foot and unit charges to see if the residential assessments could be reduced, but that this also reduced some of the commercial assessments as well. He said that he concluded that the best way to approach lowering the residential assessments to a reasonable level would be to move a certain amount of the levy to be raised from the residential properties to the commercial properties, and then allocate this amount to the commercial properties using the normal assessment formulas (front footage, unit and outlet charges). Similarly, the reduction to the residential properties would be distributed by theses same formulas so that the reductions/additions to the assessments were consistent. He said staff would expand the calculation spreadsheet to do accomplish this for the 4 corners properties and present it at a future committee meeting. Obviously, the more the Town decides to contribute to the project the lower all the property assessments would be. Considerable discussion took place about the assessments and how they are calculated and implemented.
Nesbitt questioned committee members about invitations for the proposed March 24th stakeholders meeting. After discussion it was agreed that the March meeting would be targeted towards 4-corners property owners and that a subsequent meeting would be for other interested guests as per the listing previously developed. Staff and committee members will contact the property owners personally to invite them to the March meeting.
The next meeting was confirmed for February 24th at 7 PM at which time the presentation will be finalized and questions formulated. Nesbitt and Ferrigno (and anyone else interested) will meet at 1 PM on Monday Feb 23rd to insert some of the final pictures and maps. A meeting on March 10th will be held if necessary to further prepare for the March 24th meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:17 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Lon Hultgren
Director of Public Works
Cc: Committee members
Grant Meitzler, Assistant Town Engineer
Town Clerk
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