Who's Responsible For Regular Maintenance Of WPCA Facilities?

East Windsor officials are beginning discussions about who ultimately is responsible for the upkeep of parts of the town’s ’s infrastructure.

During a joint meeting Tuesday of the boards of finance, selectmen and the WPCA, officials pondered who pays for what when it comes to the semi-autonomous agency.

First Selectwoman Denise E. Menard said because there is fairly new WPCA superintendent, new members of the boards of selectmen and finance, and a fairly new town treasurer that the meeting was necessary to examine whether there are things that can be done differently in managing the WCPA’s infrastructure.

“This is not a case of anything being done wrong,” Menard said.

WPCA Superintendent E. Arthur Enderle III said his concern is that that the authority has sustainability in its infrastructure. Because the authority’s work is largely out of sight and out of mind for the town, it’s a

Paul Anderson, chairman of the WPCA board, said he there are three issues that have to be addressed: ownership of the WPCA building and responsibility for its maintenance; clarity on the funding of  future sewer projects; and the handling of the North Road Sewer Project loan.

In addressing ownership, Enderle said he’s not sure where the responsibilities for maintaining the building on South Water Street lie.

Menard said she would have to check the assessor’s card on the property to see who is listed as the owner of the property the town or the WPCA.

Dennis Greci, sanitary engineer for the bureau of water management in the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said determining who actually is responsible for the WPCA assets can be tricky. 

Greci told officials at Tuesday’s meeting that in a lot of towns the trend has been to separate the wastewater treatment budgets from the rest of the government to keep it from being politicized. He said with the isolation the WPCA funds most of its operations through user fees.

Anderson said the agency has an annual budget of about $1.2 million to pay for normal operations. Any major projects are paid for by money raised through one-time connection fees, he said.

“The problem we get is major items,” Anderson said. “We don’t a method to pay for buildings.”

Enderle said the authority has a lot of infrastructure and he is concerned about planning for the failure of the equipment such as a pump station. He said they need a budget for such instances because it takes time to order the parts.

Currently, there are three pump stations in town that are more than 40 years old, Enderle said.

“Some of our equipment has outlived double it’s useful life,” Enderle said.

WPCA Chief  Operator Edward Alibozek said the utility recently completed work on a new pump station, which cost $50,000, and a sewer line break on Bridge Street in December, which cost $22,000. The authority found ways to fund those projects within its own finances, he said.

“We didn’t come to the town for those,” Alibozek said.

Officials said regular maintenance on the main WPCA office has not been paid for, although employees had painted the inside and done other minor maintenance. There is no budget for the maintenance.

“If there had been maintenance paid for over the last 10 years by someone, I’d say they should expect to be paying for it,” Jason Bowsza, board of finance chairman, said. “But apparently that hasn’t happened.”

Bowsza warned that if the WPCA becomes part of the town’s regular capital improvement planning program, it would fall victim to the same process that has left the town’s roads in disrepair and its trucks falling apart.

Enderle said his intent was to put the information on the table for the town.

The officials scheduled another meeting on the subject for February 7.