Selectmen see wisdom of sewer commission
BY PETER B. BRACE
The Nantucket Board of Selectmen last week agreed to take steps toward the creation of a separate sewer commission.

The selectmen agreed to take action on three of the Sewer Advisory Committee’s recommended administrative actions and to prepare articles from two other SAC recommendations.

SAC Chairman and Selectman Michael Kopko said he is pleased with his fellow selectmen’s acceptance of some of his committee’s recommendations — including the establishment of the separate sewer commission.

“The potential is there and I think the will is starting to be there,” said Kopko of the board’s Dec. 27 vote. “Certainly, the citizens are catching on that we need to plan more, and better, and further down the road. It’s a good time to be in the government; there’s potential for progressive change here.”

Of the new powers that the voters might help the selectmen secure, Town Administrator Libby Gibson only takes issue with one of them — the establishment of an independent sewer commission. Currently, the selectmen act as the sewer commissioners.

“Establishing separate commissions decentralizes the government and we’ve been moving toward centralizing the government,” said Gibson.

Of the possible administrative actions, the board is going to:

• Ask Department of Public Works Superintendent Jeff Willett for a prioritized list of needs areas to be considered for addition to the existing sewer districts;

• Ask Willett for the baseline number of connections as of July 2004; the number of potential new connections for the design life of the facility; and the average number of connections per year, all per the Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan.

• Ask Planning Director Andrew Vorce and Willett to prepare a final draft of Attachment A’s Criteria Checklist for adoption by the Board.

The selectmen stopped short of having the Planning Board, Finance Committee and Board of Selectmen talk to various island associations about prioritized Needs Areas in the sewer district. Needs Areas are those parts of the island noted in the Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan as neighborhoods that would benefit most from being connected to Nantucket’s sewer system. Monomoy, Shimmo, Pocomo, Polpis, Quidnet and Wauwinet are all Needs Areas.

Needs Areas that would tie into the Surfside Wastewater Treatment Plant were put on the fast track by selectmen as one of two recommendations that are going to become articles at April’s Town Meeting. The selectmen agreed to write this article as an amendment to Section 41-3 of the Code of the Town of Nantucket (Sewer Districts) to permit Needs Area tributaries to the Surfside plant without a Town Meeting vote.

For this article to make it onto this year’s warrant, however, majority votes from the Sewer Commission, Planning Board and Finance Committee, along with letters of support from Willett and Health Inspector Richard Ray, are required.

The second article the board is going to work on would initiate a home rule petition to give the town the power to: • Operate and maintain sewers;

• Adopt bylaws establishing sewer districts;

• Prescribe its own sewer rules and regulations subject to Town Meeting approval; • Establish an independent Sewer Commission;

• Require connection to the sewer system;

• Capture interest costs, as well as capital costs, in privilege fee calculation;

• Capture Infiltration/Inflow costs in privilege fee calculation;

• Assess charges for late or unpaid bills;

• Charge betterments, special assessments, or any other legal charges to properties being served by collection system extensions, to pay for all costs for sewer-line extensions to serve new connections, both within the current sewer districts and in any areas added to the current sewer districts;

• Be excused from certain provisions of MGL 30B;

• Take any other action deemed appropriate by Town Counsel.

If the state legislature acted positively on Nantucket’s home rule petition for these 11 items, its action would merely authorize these abilities for the town, not mandate them. Gibson added that Town Counsel Paul DeRensis would write the two articles, and the selectmen would tweak them as needed through public hearings.

Regardless of any dissenting views of SAC’s effort’s, Kopko is excited and pleased with the work of the now-disbanded ad hoc committee.

“Being able to tackle an issue in this way has been really effective, so I like this model,” said Kopko. “The four of us would never have been able to tackle this issue.”

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