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Health & Fitness

Issues: Water and Sewer Systems

WPCA and Water Commission members met with the Town Council to discuss pressing issues in front of them.

The sitting Town Council along with the Water Pollution Control Authority and the Tolland Water Commission met in a workshop last evening to hear the current state of these two public "utilities" in Tolland. Both are run by boards that are made up of volunteers of various backgrounds, and staffed only by the Town Engineer, as part of her other engineering responsibilities in town. As well as manpower concerns, we heard some of the budgeting issues that these two commissions face as result of a myriad of state mandates, regulations and consent decrees imposed by the DEP and the state health department. These volunteers are going out into the field on nights and weekends and in emergencies to check sewer and water pumps and lines and are always available to answer customer concerns. They are also developing responses to state agencies on technical, environmental and health issues. The individuals on these two commissions go above and beyond the call of volunteerism.

This year's town budget included a 24 hour "engineering assistant consultant" position, but advertisements placed over several weeks and contacts with local engineering firms did not yield any interested candidates. The part-time postion was to be funded from the two boards' budgets, not through general tax revenue.  It was to be shared by both commissions, and was to be under the direct supervision of the Town Engineer. The town engineer, the volunteer members and the customers need the additional, part-time staffperson, and this issue will be one of the first that the new Town Council will have to address.

This is an example of the importance of electing an experienced, non-partisan, councilperson this November. Knowledgable discussion and immediate action will need to be taken on the staffing situation; and the other concerns facing these commissions and their customers must be addressed very soon after the election.  At last night's workshop meeting only 4 of the 10 candidates for Town Council were present. Although it was open to the public only I, Craig Nussbaum, Josh Freeman and Rick Field attended the meeting. It is unfortunate that all the candidates did not attend so they, if elected,  could be up to speed on the operational and budgetary facts and concerns of these two commissions.

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I look forward to working with the Town staff and volunteers of the Tolland Water Commission and the Water Pollution Control Authority as a member of the Council to be elected on November 8.

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