Politics & Government

Letter To The Council: Wickford Sewer Survey

A letter from Historic Wickford to the members of the Town Council.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

As a service to their members, the Board of Directors of HistWick prepared and distributed a summary of the November 25 Town Council presentation and discussion of Wickford sewer alternatives. We then conducted a survey of the residential property owners within Wickford’s historic district. The owners were given the summary, a copy of the town’s Power Point presentation, and a link to the recording of the council meeting so they could be fully briefed on the subject.

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Each property owner was asked whether they supported or opposed bringing the sewer line to their street at the relevant cost per Equivalent Dwelling Unit (EDU) shown in the presentation. The survey results are as follows:

MAIN STREET & EAST (all neighborhoods added in Alternative E)

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There are approximately 150 properties in this area of which 140 are residential and the remainder owned by churches, marinas, a club and one retail business. The town estimated a total of 176 EDU’s for the 150 properties. (Specific information as to which properties would count for more than 1 EDU was not available.)

Responses were received for 84 of the 140 residential properties for a response rate of 60%:

Opposed

64           76%

Supported

10           12%

Undecided

9             11%

Abstain

1               1%

TOTAL

84          100%

WEST MAIN STREET & NEWTOWN
(neighborhoods added in Alternative D)

There are approximately 48 properties in this area of which 39 are residential. The remainder encompass 9 commercial properties and 1 church. The town estimated 50 EDU’s among the 48 properties.

Responses were received for 18 of the 39 residential properties for a response rate of 46%:

Opposed     

15          83%

Supported

1              6%

Undecided

2            11%

Abstain

TOTAL

18         100%

ELAM & PHILLIPS STREET (Alternatives B through E)

BOONE STREET, WAITE COURT & CRANSTON CIRCLE (Alternatives A through E)

Due to limited time and resources we were not able to complete a door-to-door canvas or compile statistics for the residential properties in these neighborhoods. We did hear, however, opposition from many of the residents who are greatly concerned about the range of possible assessments listed in the council presentation.

I believe the more than 100 responses to the survey represent a significant cross section of the residential property owners who would be required to pay for the alternatives, and a clear statement of opposition to residential service by an overwhelming majority.

Anecdotally, many respondents made remarks to the effect that they had only recently installed new Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems (OWTS) at the direction of the state and town, and/or that their present systems complied with RIDEM regulations and were functioning just fine. A few others recognized that they had yet to comply with the new regulations but they had indications the cost of doing so would be less than the assessment numbers in the town’s presentation.

We hope the council will give these results serious consideration.

This letter is intended solely to report to the council the results of our survey and does not represent an official position of Historic Wickford Inc.

Sincerely,

Laurence W. Ehrhardt

on behalf of the

Board of Directors

 

 


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