Residents Receive Assessment Notices

Assessment notices have been sent to 192 property owners for the three-phase Route 117 water project that was completed last year. The total cost of the project was just under $8 million, of which $1 will be paid by the assessments.

Public Works Director Steve Masalin said the average residential assessment is around $4,700. Property owners may pay in full between now and Dec. 8, or they may choose to pay in annual installments at 2.75 percent interest for up to 20 years.

Property owners who wish to appeal their assessments must do so in writing to the Water Pollution Control Authority before Nov. 24. In addition to name, address, property description and amount of the assessment, the appeal must include a detailed statement on the reason for the appeal.

The first phase of the project, which began in 2002, brought water from the Highlands to the high school along Gallup Hill Road; the second phase went from the high school to Ledyard Center along Colonel Ledyard Highway, and the third and largest phase went up Route 117, from Groton to Village Drive, just north of Route 214.

According to a list of frequently asked questions about the project, the potential to connect to municipal water is considered an improvement, and therefore a benefit to the property. It provides residents with a backup should their wells fail, and improves the town’s fire rating with the installation of hydrants.

Appeals will be heard on Nov. 22 and again on Nov. 29, if necessary. Masalin said the town has received a few appeals, each of which will be considered for merit. But he warned that in many cases relief is unlikely.

For example, one property owner based his appeal on the fact that he did not vote for the original bond issue that financed the project.  Another owner said her house was too far away from the road to be connected to municipal water.

Masalin said these probably are not sufficient reasons to be granted relief.

“Always there will be some individual property owners who don’t need or want municipal water,” he said. “We still need to go by their properties to get to those who do want it and need it, especially in distressed areas,” he said.

He gave the example of public schools, which benefit the town, even though not all taxpayers have children in the schools.

“This is a long-term solution,” Masalin said of this and other municipal water projects in town. “You may not seem to need it now, but your well could fail down the road.”

And should that happen, property owners would be poised to connect to municipal water at a nominal cost. He added that residents should get a break on their homeowner’s insurance because fire hydrants have been placed at regular intervals along the water line.

Masalin said all Ledyard taxpayers are required to shoulder $6.3 million of the project’s cost. The town also received a $700,000 grant for the project.

In addition to the assessment, residents must still pay to have their homes connected to municipal water.

Even so, at a recent meeting of the Town Council, WPCA Chairman Terry Jones said the project has been a good deal for property owners. The assessment portion of the project accounts for only about 12 percent of the total cost.

“The town has been very gracious,” Jones said, noting that the bulk of the project is being paid for by town taxpayers. He called it “a great project, but not without cost.”