High cost for sewer tie-ins surprises Rochester residents after council OKs extending lines on Home Services

Jan

High cost for sewer tie-ins surprises Rochester residents after council OKs extending lines

posted by admin in Sewer Septic

After an impromptu meeting with residents who gathered at City Hall Tuesday night, councilors voted unanimously to extend sewer lines to a neighborhood across from The Rochester Shoppes plaza.

While it was clear residents were interested in having the ability to hook into city sewer, they seemed caught off guard when they learned the costs.

Residents of Pine Lane and Florence Drive were told city ordinance requires each of them share the cost of extending the eight-inch line and installing a stub on their properties â€” in this case a $9,100 hit. Additional costs vary depending on the length of pipe connecting the home to the line.

Residents would have to pay either when their septic systems failed and they hooked on to city sewer or when they sold their home.

The per-home cost comes from the $145,000 that City Engineer Tom Willis estimated it would cost to run 1,600 feet of sewer.

Councilors were pressed to act because road work is currently being done in the area, which means it would cost more to go back in and lay the line later on.

“If we don’t do something tonight then the sewer line’s not going to get (done) because it will be too late come August,” said City Manager John Scruton.

Willis wrote councilors, saying The Kane Company, which owns a large parcel in the neighborhood, is laying a few hundred feet of sewer line up the new Pine Lane Extension for its land.

Kent Melchior of Pine Lane said he and neighbors were concerned the city wasn’t taking into account the possibility that Kane will develop house lots, which could lower the per-home cost of getting service to each of the existing homes.

“So if there’s house lots, that cost of bringing the line should be split by everybody,” he said.

Neighborhood residents are not strangers to City Hall. Several of them have been petitioning against a possible rezoning change that would allow commercial use in the neighborhood, which Kane Company representatives have expressed interest in.

Pine Lane is being extended to Washington Street, across from the entrance to The Flatley Company’s plaza, and the existing entrance to Florence Drive will be closed off due to traffic pattern changes at the Spaulding Turnpike interchange.

Some residents previously had concerns with the new 26-foot width of Pine Lane Extension, but Melchior said plans are moving forward.

Tags: anc, company, neighborhood, properties, rangers, sewer, traffic, tuesday night