Harvard Town Sewer

1
Harvard Town Sewer

• Public Information Session
• March 19, 2009
• (with costs updated as of March 9, 2009
• Changes are in red throughout)

2
Summary of changes from data presented on March
3rd

• If you went to the March 3rd meeting, your paper
  slides will have different numbers than this
  version
• Change summary
• In response to property owner concerns regarding
  ownership for the plant upgrade, we approximated
  an appropriate cost for the town to carry
  (2/3rds, or 390,667). This reduced the average
  private betterment by 20
• We also added increased some property GPD
  projections based on feedback. We also increased
  municipal property GPD projections to address
  potential future uses. These changes together
  increased total projected usage to 87 of
  capacity and raised average private annual sewer
  costs a bit

3
Background

• Town Center Sewer Action Group was asked to
  consider possible town center septic/sewer
  solutions by the selectmen
• Options considered
• No action
• Municipal only solution
• Combined municipal/private district
• Investigation included analysis of
• Engineering design
• Capital costs and their distribution between
  town/taxpayers and private owners
• Ongoing operational costs and sewer fees

4
Decision Process

• Review initial proposal with BOS for approval
  (completed 1/20/09)
• Review and finalize proposal with district
  property owners and acquire feedback (early
  March)
• Review final proposal, principles, circuit
  breakers and articles with BOS (late March)
• Based on above, modify and prepare final proposal
  for town vote in May
• Article to create sewer district
• Article to finance capital expenditure
• (if needed) Article to pursue muni-only plant
  improvements

5
Max. town benefit
Max. efficiency
Taxpayer savings
Max. efficiency
6
Details Funding

• A municipal bond in the amount of about 1.9 M
  for 20 years at 2
• About 75 of funding to come from betterments
  assessed to private properties that are served by
  the new sewer system and are improved in value
• About 25 of funding to come from taxpayers for
  the municipal improvements (adding municipal
  properties and upgrading nitrification system in
  the plant), to be offset by sharing of
  already-in-place operating costs that are today
  fully borne by taxpayers

7
Capital Cost Sharing
8
"Win/Win Slide added 03/09/09
One-time connection cost
End of capital debt for Taxpayers and Private
betterments
Taxpayer break-even in 7th year assuming 80
connection rate
Taxpayer savings of 16 As usage fees
generate Revenue against plant operation
9
Details - Construction

• Changes to the existing treatment facility on
  Mass Ave to accommodate additional load
• Replacement of the existing pump station at
  Harvard Elementary School
• Sewer connections and service to four municipal
  buildings and 70 private property units,
  including single family homes, multi-family
  dwellings, commercial properties, and churches
• A low pressure sewer system comprised of
  underground pipes through which septic output
  would flow from property connections

10
Betterment Calculations

• Betterment is apportioned across properties
  fairly by assigning shares in the sewer called
  sewer units. One sewer unit is normalized to one
  single family home. All properties within a
  class (single family home, church, commercial,
  multi-family, municipal) have their sewer units
  calculated the same way. Then the total cost of
  the project to build the sewer is divided by the
  number of sewer units to get a cost per sewer
  unit. Multiplying this by the number of sewer
  units for a property gives the betterment.
• In order to provide each property an estimation
  of their betterment, the sewer unit calculations
  for each property class were
• single family home 1 sewer unit
• church building with seating 3GPD times number
  of church seats divided by average Harvard
  single family home GPD Title V usage
• commercial greater of 1 sewer unit, or square
  footage/4000
• multi-family .67 sewer unit per dwelling for
  units with lt 3 bedrooms, 1 sewer unit per
  dwelling for units with 3 bedrooms
• municipal square footage/5173.3 (divisor
  reflects title V usage ratio between commercial
  use and office use)

11
Details (1) Costs to Private Property Owners

• Betterment Costs incurred by all properties that
  are bettered by the sewer infrastructure passing
  by their property. The betterment may be paid up
  front or billed over a number of years with
  additional interest. Current financing
  assumptions are 20 years at 2 interest rate
• Connection Costs These costs will only be
  incurred if you connect. It is comprised of the
  cost of the grinder pump (see below) and its
  installation as well as a connection fee that
  goes into a fund for repairs and maintenance of
  the sewer going forward. Each property is
  treated the same at this point in the model
  5500 for the installed grinder pump cost and
  1500 for a connection fee.

12
Details (2) Costs to Private Property Owners

• Annual Sewer Costs These costs will only be
  incurred if you connect. The sewer rates are
  estimated by making an assumption about the
  portion the town will carry and how many people
  will connect. The maximum rates in our model are
  capped so that sewer district residents do not
  need to worry about who else is connecting or not
  connecting. Each resident will experience a rate
  that is no greater than the rate they would
  experience if everyone connected. The sewer rate
  is calculated for each property by multiplying
  the cost per gallon per day times current water
  usage from town records. For multi-family
  properties sharing one water connection the flow
  was apportioned equally across the dwelling
  units.
• Grinder pump cost An electric-powered grinder
  pump is needed to grind and pump septic contents
  into a low pressure sewer system. The pump is
  installed on each individual private property.
  The cost of the initial pump and installation is
  included in the connection cost estimates below.
  The pump requires electricity, maintenance, and
  has the potential to be replaced every 20 years.
  The pump and system have reserve so they are able
  to handle flushing for a time in the event of
  power failure.

13
Principles System Design Assumptions

• A low pressure force main design for collection
  infrastructure will be used.
• The existing treatment plant with upgrades will
  be used and the district's capacity is limited to
  80 of the maximum plant capacity per DEP
  mandate, or 18,400 GPD.
• Total capacity of plant 23,000 GPD
• Allowable use by DEP 18,400 GPD (80)
• Current use by schools and library about 6,000
  GPD
• Available capacity available for use by proposed
  sewer district 12,400 GPD
• Each property connecting will need to install and
  own a grinder pump to delivers pressurized and
  macerated effluent into the collection system

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Principles - Connections
15
Principles - Betterment
16
Principles - Costs
17
Principles Governance and Decisions
18
Request to Proposed District Property Owners

• Familiarize yourselves with costs and ask
  questions
• Review detailed property statement
• Validate assumptions
• Address/owner
• Number of bedrooms
• Usage estimate
• Square footage (commercial) or seats (church)
• Review cost projections
• Est. Betterment Costs
• Est. Connection costs (grinder pump connection
  fee)
• Est. Annual Sewer Fees (usage fees cost to run
  and maintain grinder pump)
• Provide feedback via online survey at
  http//www.ratepoint.com/survey/62d89d56dcf4fdcb1f
  0314b6ae4cd5f6

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Request to Town Voters

• Understand benefits of the proposal
• Cost sharing reduces future tax burden
• Town center vitality
• Protect value and usability of municipal
  buildings
• Evolving church needs
• Support for existing commercial needs
• Avoids future mounded systems
• Watershed and wellhead protection
• Understand tax implications of proposal
• Modest (15/household) tax increase in years 1-6
• Break-even on project by Year 7 and tax-neutral
  until year 20
• Tax savings of 16 starting in Year 20
• All Materials can be found online at Harvard Town
  Web site