Councilor wary of sewer costs

Sunday, February 13, 2005

http://www.masslive.com/chicopeeholyoke/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-8/110819\

813227670.xml

By DAVID REID

dreid@repub.com

HOLYOKE - For Ward 6 Councilor Mark A. Lubold, the proposed privatization of the

city's sewer department over the next 20 years is a bad deal whose basic

financial assumptions don't add up.

City consultants who solicited private-sector bids to modernize the wastewater

treatment plant and meet federal clean water standards claim sewer rate-payers

would more than $7 million if Mayor Michael J. Sullivan signs a 20-year contract

with Aquarion Operating Services Company of Bridgeport, Conn.

The contract calls for Aquarion to design about $24 million in plant

improvements, build and operate the plant, hire 26 city sewer workers and accept

most financial liability.

But Lubold does not believe the numbers are accurate.

"In my eyes, there's too much opportunity in the contract for Aquarion to

increase costs," Lubold, an engineer himself, said yesterday. "And the more I

dig into documents, the more questions I have and those questions aren't being

answered."

Lubold and councilors who support the Aquarion contract agree that the Board of

Public Works, which recently proposed an immediate 82-percent sewer rate hike,

should have been slowly raising fees over the past decade.

After the City Council nixed that rate hike two weeks ago, a second public

hearing was held, and the BPW will meet Tuesday at 5 p.m. to consider new rate

proposal.

Lubold, who voted in 2002 for $1.2 million to hire consultants and explore

privatization as an option, said he did so only because city officials projected

savings that could top 25 percent.

"If the City Council hadn't been told that," he said, "we'd have already started

construction" operated by the city.

Earlier this week, Lubold submitted a council order to stop all privatization

efforts "and focus on a city-operated project so the city can move toward

compliance with the (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)."

On Wednesday, the EPA ordered the city to begin construction by July 1 on

improvements to the Berkshire Street treatment plant or risk steep fines.

While most councilors want lower sewer rates, many trust consultants numbers and

will support the Aquarion contract.

And Ward 5 Councilor John P. Brunelle said an EPA official at last week's public

hearing made the case that the city must move quickly to clean up the river.

"But it's wrong to think that the federal government is going to fund the entire

project," Brunelle said yesterday.

With city sewer workers ready to make the switch to Aquarion, and with Aquarion

ready to accept financial risks from lawsuits, construction performance and EPA

fines, Brunelle said, the contract looks attractive from a financial aspect.

"Isn't it our job to save money for people?" he asked. "The transfer of

liability is a huge part of it."

But Brunelle said that Public Works Superintendent William D. Fuqua and city

consultants could have done a better job explaining the savings to rate-payers.

The council could take a final vote Tuesday on whether to transfer $1.3 million

in sewer department funds to pay the first installment of the Aquarion contract.

Many observers say there are enough votes to kill the measure - and therefore

the contract - which needs 10 of council 15 votes.

Wednesday, Holyoke Citizens for Open Government, a grassroots group that opposes

privatization, will hold a 6:30 p.m. public meeting at the Holyoke High School.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~