TOP STORY: Old Lyme Officials Send User-Funded Sound View Sewer Project to Referendum With Warning it Could Still Cost Taxpayers Millions

OLD LYME, CT – The $19.3 million sewer project affecting the town’s Sound View Beach area will be going to a town-wide referendum on Dec. 16 now that the boards of selectmen and finance have determined they don’t have much choice. 

The move leaves it up to all taxpayers to decide if Sound View residents should be required to foot the bill for the sewer project in their neighborhood – with the caveat that the town budget might have to absorb some of the cost. That’s because a state law specifies the town can’t charge homeowners more for the sewer than the value it adds to their property. 

The town-governed Sound View project is part of a combined $73.2 million initiative spanning the private beach associations of Miami Beach, Old Colony Beach and Old Lyme Shores to address almost a half-century of concerns from the state that homeowners’ shoreline septic systems are polluting local groundwater and the Long Island Sound. 

The annual cost to the typical Sound View ratepayer – defined as someone whose house has one bathroom, a kitchen, and four bedrooms or less – has risen throughout the years-long planning process to an estimated $3,121, according to a budget document prepared for the selectmen’s meeting. 

Selectman Jim Lampos during deliberations called out a late-breaking change to the tentative cost sharing agreement between the four beach associations that would add $100,000 to the Sound View project to account for flow from seven properties being diverted for topographical reasons to the Old Colony Beach Association’s system. 

He said the increase spread out over the 20 year life of the loan would add about $450 to the final total, bringing the typical Sound View user’s payment to $62,413. 

Lampos, a Sound View resident who has been the selectmen’s point person when it comes to navigating the complex sewer issue, was part of a 3-0 vote of the Board of Selectmen on Monday evening to send the project to referendum. The Board of Finance less than an hour later confirmed the decision with its own unanimous vote. 

Lampos said he thinks the project is too expensive, arbitrary, and uncertain to support. But he worried defying directives from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) could trigger even worse consequences for the town.

“This is the biggest project this town has ever undertaken, by far,” Lampos said. 

The state agency has warned continued delays will jeopardize state and federal funding amounting to roughly half the project cost. 

Lampos said any move to put the brakes on the project now would be further complicated by $4 million already spent on design and engineering costs for the four beach communities, combined with the potential liability from defaulting on existing agreements signed during the previous administration of then-First Selectman Tim Griswold. 

“If we say ‘you can’t go to referendum,’ we’d also be precluding communities that have already approved and are ready to go forward from proceeding, like Old Lyme Shores,” he said. “It opens us up to an incredible amount of legal liability.”  

Paul Yellen, president of the Old Lyme Shores Beach Association, said last week that his members approved their share of the project contingent on participation by all four beach communities. He estimated the cost for Old Lyme Shores could go up by about 10 to 15% if one party drops out.

Lampos said he was told Miami Beach Association might have to call another vote of its membership after the results of a recent vote turned out to be inconclusive. 

Up to Voters

While the three selectmen were not comfortable putting a stop to the referendum, they agreed it will be a different story if taxpayers at the referendum decide to vote down the project. 

Newly-elected Selectman John Mesham explained his decision to members of the finance board at their meeting. He had floated the idea during his campaign of “an aggressive sewer avoidance program” focused on alternatives that so far have been rejected by the DEEP. 

“I think strategically we need to move this to a referendum, and if it’s a no vote by the town in a form of direct democracy, then we have a stronger standing to say no to DEEP,” he said. 

DEEP Spokesman James Fowler did not specifically address questions about what needs to happen, and when, to satisfy the agency’s directives – or what would happen if residents vote down the question at referendum. 

“The Department understands that the status of the project and each entity’s actions are dynamic,” he said. “Once each entity determines its course of action, the Department will consider the appropriate next steps.”

First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker said the town now has more solid cost estimates, an updated sewer ordinance, and provisions in the draft cost sharing agreement between the four beach communities that are more favorable to Sound View residents than previous versions. 

She referenced those factors as “three legs of the stool” that Lampos has said are necessary to gain the selectmen’s approval. 

“We’re on steadier ground than we were,” she said. “Maybe not perfect, but we’re on much steadier ground than we were this past summer.” 

Town’s Obligation Uncertain

The referendum resolution is an amendment to a 2019 approval by taxpayers of a sewer plan then estimated at $9.5 million. Despite more than doubling, numbers provided by Old Lyme Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) Steve Cinami show state and federal funding secured since then keeps the portion paid by users to $11.2 million. 

Lampos said voters six years ago were assured they would not “have to pay a dime” for the project. 

“Well, you may have to pay a dime,” he said. “You may have to pay quite a number of dimes.”

He cited a state law specifying the town cannot assess property owners for any amount higher than the percent increase in the property value attributed to the sewers.

An appraiser hired by the grassroots Sound View Sewer Coalition in a 2020 report found the sewer system would increase residential property values by 7% and commercial properties by 10%.

Lampos calculated the town, based on today’s home values and the current cost estimates, would be responsible for about $4.7 million. 

He said the number could fluctuate based on the real estate market. 

He emphasized voters at the polls need to know the town could be on the hook for a multimillion dollar bill if the project is approved. 

“So I don’t know where it’s coming from, except for taxes,” he said. 

A public comment period at the start of the selectmen’s meeting, which was attended by roughly 35 people, yielded comments mostly from beach area residents. But one speaker residing in the Old Lyme’s historic district questioned the lack of information about the potential costs town-wide. 

Resident Liz Fowler, of Lyme Street, acknowledged the importance of protecting Long Island Sound before raising her concern with the process. 

“The cost looks like it’s already doubled in the time since this first referendum was put together in 2019, and it’s still not clear to me as a voter or a taxpayer what the ultimate cost would be, and what the thinking is about taking a private property improvement and spreading it to the entire tax base,” she said. 

State election law forbids towns from using public funds to advocate for or against a referendum question once the date of the vote is set. The law allows for neutral and concise “explanatory texts” to educate voters on the question they will be asked at the polls. The document must be approved by the town attorney. 

Lampos and finance board member David Kelsey said the guidance document should include information about the potential cost to the town. 

Shoemaker said she’d do her best to include that information in the referendum explainer that should be ready next week. 

Sewer Spread

Only one speaker during the public comment period came out in support of the sewer plan. Mike Riggio, who lives in the Old Lyme Shores area, described the decision as “kind of an epic moment” for the town and the only viable long-term solution in the face of state pressure. 

“The cost is difficult, but there are benefits in that the values of property will increase,” he said. 

Those opposed to the project raised a range of concerns including the rising and uncertain costs that will hit hardest for owners of lower-value homes – like those near the train tracks – that don’t stand to benefit as much from the improvements. Others said omitting Hawk’s Nest Beach and White Sand Beach from the project is unfair. 

Dennis Melluzo, a Sound View homeowner who sits on the Old Lyme WPCA, criticized the WPCA for rubber-stamping decisions throughout the process without fully looking into the issues or, in some cases, reading the documents they were voting on. 

He told selectmen they’re “going to see 200 households suing the town of Old Lyme for affordability” if the project is approved at the referendum vote. 

Sound View resident Sally Woitowitz, who lives on the outer edge of the project in what’s called “Miscellaneous Area B,” said after the meeting that she will be one of the people filing a lawsuit as soon as the referendum question is approved. 

She said she lives a half mile from Long Island Sound in a town where most residents find themselves a half mile from some type of water body. If she can be required to put in sewers, she suggested those even somewhat close to Rogers Lake or the town’s rivers and tributaries could be next. 

She said situations in other Connecticut towns show that sewer systems have a tendency to spread. 

“One neighborhood, then another, then another,” she said. “People need to know that.” 

Registrar of Voters Jennifer Datum estimated holding the referendum would cost from $2,500 to $5,000.

Shoemaker on Tuesday said referendum will be held in the Town Hall Meeting Room from noon to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 16. A procedural town meeting will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 9 so selectmen can officially submit the resolution and adjourn to the referendum vote.

Absentee ballot applications are available online and in the Town Clerk’s office.

A copy of the resolution and an estimated cost per for Sound View Residents and Taxpayers are posted on the town website.