Reprinted from The Connecticut Post © Copyright 2009
May 8, 2009

By Susan Silvers, Staff Writer

TRUMBULL -- Some residents think there's a lot to make a stink about in Trumbull.

Dana Misner, a new resident of Stoneleigh Road, expected a sewer assessment similar to the $15,000 to $18,000 over an 18-year period that has been typically levied in town for other projects over the last few years.

"When we received the bill, it was in the range of $22,000," she said. "It is $22,376."

Alan Ornitz of McGuire Road said he couldn't believe the town, which has a AA bond rating, projects an interest rate of 4.5 percent for bonding to finance the estimated $21.5 million sewer project.

"At current interest rates going out 18 years, the rate the town should be paying out should be 4 percent, maybe as low as 3.75 percent," said Ornitz, a certified financial planner.

Laura Pulie of Quaker Lane has noticed depressions in land above some of the new sewer pipes installed on Oldfield Road and Quaker Lane, but said that kind of settling shouldn't be taking place so soon after paving last November. "I think they could have compacted some of the trenches better," Pulie said of work done by the town's contractor, Mark IV Construction.

Pulie, a licensed civil engineer who works for the town of Fairfield, may be better qualified to assess that situation than many neighbors, but she said it doesn't take an expert to know that things don't seem right about the sewer assessments she and neighbors received in April.

These three residents were among those who flooded a public hearing of the Water Pollution Control Authority with complaints two weeks ago in Town Hall, and the passions were so strong that another hearing is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in a larger space at Trumbull High School.

Several factors have contributed to controversy over assessments for the new sewers in the area that extends east of Route 25 in the northeast part of town to the Shelton border.

A major complaint is that owners of the 735 homes along the sewer lines got their bills last month, for a project they thought they'd start paying for next year.

"The people initially thought the first payment would be due in 2010," acknowledged Joseph Solemene, the town's sewer administrator. But with the construction industry experiencing a slowdown, the contractor finished the work in two years instead of the anticipated three. So when the bills went out last month, homeowners weren't expecting them -- and the pressures from the recession added to their displeasure.

Other questions have arisen over how much extra work, such as sidewalks and storm drains, the town has included in the assessment figures, a burden those directly affected say should be shared with Trumbull residents as a whole.

Among taxpayers affected are Deborah and Michael Herbst, whose son Timothy is the anticipated Republican nominee for first selectman challenging Democrat Raymond G. Baldwin Jr. this fall. A lawyer, the younger Herbst on Wednesday fired off a Freedom of Information request to Baldwin and other officials seeking paper and digital documents, including bids, contracts, voicemail and e-mail correspondence on the projects between town officials and the contractors.