Fire District seeks funds for cost overrun

NORTH CANAAN — Cost  overruns for the nearly complete sewer extension on Route 7 South may or may not filter down to property owners affected by the Canaan Fire District project.

Residential and commercial property owners will be assessed a share of the project cost, but exactly how much depends on a number of factors. The only sure answer is that none of it will be sorted out before the end of the year.

Additional costs, associated mainly with the need to blast out far more ledge than anticipated, have caused the final cost to swell to about $2 million. The contractor and engineer have been paid for the originally contracted costs. What remains up in the air is how and when costs for several contract extensions will be paid.

Fire District Warden Anthony Nania has applied for additional grant and loan funding through the federal Agricultural Rural Development Program.

“I am very confident more funding is coming to us,� Nania said. “I have been informed by the government they have my application, and they have approved the new numbers for the project.

“But getting the funding depends on Congress passing a budget. They have not put forth a budget for the current fiscal year and have been operating the country on a series of resolutions. I don’t think a budget will be passed until the Republican majority is seated in January.

“It’s not that the money isn’t in the budget. We just can’t get it until the budget is actually passed.�

He is hoping to get at least the 45 percent the fire district received initially for the project, and is looking for other funding sources. The Fire District itself may take on a share of the added costs. As well, negotiations with the contractor on a final cost have yet to be done.

That puts the final number left to be raised a difficult figure to pin down right now. Nania said it’s all very preliminary, but could be as much as $200,000. The responsibility for that lies with the 12 property owners along the extended sewer line.

“But that doesn’t mean an equal share for each,� Nania said. “New assessments will be based on the share already agreed to. Mountainside [Addiction Treatment Center] is paying for more than 80 percent of the project, or about $1 million. They would pay that same 80 percent of whatever we can’t get funded of the additional costs.�

Nania said it should all be sorted out after the first of the year. The first billing on assessments likely won’t be done until the first quarter of 2011.

Meanwhile, some minor issues with the pumping station, namely a leaky roof, are being resolved. Mountainside and one residence are hooked up, and others will be invited to connect if they so desire beginning very soon.