SOUTHWICK – Members of the Finance Committee met with the Board of Selectmen and School Superintendent Dr. John Barry last night to discuss connecting the sewer to the schools.
Selectboard Chairman Russell Fox asked Barry to explain to the group what the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has mandated regarding the connection of the renovated high school to the town sewers. Currently, there is no sewer line that runs past the school campus.
Barry said negotiations took about a year, but the school department and DEP have come to an agreement.
“We can continue to use the septic with additional monitoring,” said Barry. “We have to install more equipment in the fields – that’s what we do going forward until there’s a connection.”
The renovation project includes a pipe from the school to Powder Mill Road. It does not include a pipe that runs by Woodland and Powder Mill schools.
Members of the board wondered if that would be a cost to taxpayers.
“We see that as a district cost,” Barry said. “We think we could use unexpended CIP (capital improvement) funds to get that connection done so that there’s no cost to the taxpayers.”
Barry said the DEP agreement buys the town time to get the school connected to the sewer. Once that connection is made, the neighborhood can be connected.
Selectwoman Tracy Cesan was concerned that there would be problems with DEP for not connecting right away, but Barry said there is time.
“They know what this costs,” said Barry. “There isn’t a strict deadline for when this will happen, just the expectation that it will.”
As long as the septic system holds up, the school can remain using that system until the sewer connection is made.
A warrant article on the Town Meeting agenda May 20 asks voters to spend $3 million to extend the system to Powder Mill Road.
