Politics & Government

Does Shore Acres Want Sewers? Survey Out This Week Will Ask

A home-grown survey from 2009 showed overwhelming desire for sewers.

The Town of North Kingstown is about to send out surveys to the more than 300 residents of the Shore Acres neighborhood, asking them if they want sewers and other related questions.

That’s because now there is a sewer line under Post Road, so it’s possible for Shore Acres to connect to the sewer — but it will cost. During a Town Council meeting on Aug. 5, a consultant outlined three tie-in options for the area, at estimated costs of $2,140, $1,465 or $1,670 a year for 20 years per resident.

At that meeting, councilors were reluctant to make a decision on what type of sewer for Shore Acres — or even a sewer line there at all — without getting residents’ input. So they asked Town Manager Mike Embury to mail a survey to the residents asking them to say what they thought about the different options.

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That survey will go out by the end of the week, said Council President Liz Dolan Monday. It is due back in two weeks.

This is not the first survey of Shore Acres residents on sewers. Resident Will King and a team of volunteers canvassed the neighborhood in 2009, asking residents if they wanted sewers, and also asking if they would be willing to sign a petition in favor of sewers.

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“We had a team of neighbors assigned to segments of plat 142 who knocked on doors, talked to each homeowner, explained that we were still trying to get municipal sewers in our area, explained that the initiative was called, ‘The Sauga Point Sewer Initiative,’” said King. Sauga Point is the name of the peninsula that comprises Shore Acres, the Cedarhurst condominiums and some other homes.

The results were overwhelming in favor of sewers, according to the spreadsheet of responses he shared with NK Patch. Out of 146 residents reached, 131 said they were in favor of sewers for the neighborhood.

“It indicated to us that there is a large group of homeowners that, although they remain somewhat silent on these issues, nevertheless they feel strongly about this public health issue and see municipal sewers as the right thing to do,” said King. “Anecdotally, we heard many people confirm that the real worry was that the environmental movement across the country will continue to push on state regulators to ratchet up the rules for individual septic systems, thereby driving up the cost of compliance and making municipal sewers a more rational financial decision as well.”

Council President Dolan, while appreciative of King’s efforts, said it was important for the town to get its own results before moving forward.



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