One of Paul Rickard’s first moves as Mount Hope town supervisor was to find out why a so-called state-of-the-art sewer plant serving the Hidden Valley development wasn’t working correctly.
About a hundred families live in that community, and they are still making payments to a decade-old, $1 million-plus loan for the advanced sewer system.
It was once billed as one of the state’s first membrane bioreactor treatment plants and was constructed to eliminate issues plaguing an older facility—but problems haven’t gone away.
“The sewage flow rates are too high,” Mr. Rickard, who toured the plant in his first week as supervisor, told The Epoch Times. “The challenge is to figure out why we have that high flow and come up with a real plan—no one has ever come up with a plan.”
In theory, the sewage flow rate at the plant should mirror the level of water use in that housing development, which averages about 15,000 gallons a day at peak times, according to Mr. Rickard.
However, during his visit, the plant’s daily flow rate was measured at about 80,000 gallons, meaning roughly 65,000 gallons of water was infiltrating the system that day.
The infiltration rates fluctuate because of various factors, including weather.
At the Jan. 16 meeting, the town board hired back Jason Pitingaro, who specializes in wastewater treatment and previously worked on the Hidden Valley plant, as town engineer.
“The engineer is going to do an evaluation and come up with short-term, intermediate, and long-term plans for that plant,” he said. “And we are going to aggressively find grants to cover the costs.”
At the recommendation of Mr. Rickard, the town board also voted to take the first step toward creating a sewer district advisory board consisting of Hidden Valley residents.
“One of the things I heard over and over again during my campaign was that the communication was not great between the Valley residents and the town board,” he said. “I think it is important to give the people in that district a voice, and that is the purpose of the advisory board.”
The first step is to pass a local law authorizing the town to create advisory boards, for which a public hearing was scheduled on Feb. 26. Then the town can act on a new sewer district advisory board.
Mike Meeke and Sean Burke, Hidden Valley residents for 30 and 19 years, respectively, spoke in favor of Mr. Rickard’s new moves in interviews with The Epoch Times.
“If this plant fails, we will have to rebuild another one, and how much more are we going to pay for that?” Mr. Burke said, noting that his sewer fee more than doubled once the new plant was in operation.
He used to pay $700 every year for sewer service. Now he pays $1,700.
New Ethics Law Proposed
On Jan. 16, the town board also voted to schedule a public hearing on Feb. 26 for a proposed ethics law.The town ethics code hasn’t been updated for decades.
All town officials and employees, according to the proposed law, would have to disclose any financial interest in town contracts and refrain from being part of those transactions.
A five-member board of ethics will be formed to advise the town on ethics issues.
“I promised everyone when I was running that my administration was going to be open and transparent,” Mr. Rickard said. “Let’s lay it all out on the table so everyone knows—that’s what ethics is all about.
“People might agree or disagree with our purchase or policy decisions, but at least they have more faith in us and know that none of us have a financial interest in those decisions.”
