Medway waives bylaw to proceed with sewer project

3/23/08The Medway Water and Sewer Commission voted unanimously to approve a waiver of a town bylaw which requires private ownership of sewage pumping stations, allowing the town to take ownership of stations so that a $5m sewer upgrade project at the town's main industrial park can continue on schedule. This is the first time a requirement of the bylaw has been circumvented. Pumping stations are normally mandated by the town regulations to be privately owned.

This waiver will keep the project on track for its targeted fall 2009 completion date according to town officials. Had the waiver not been passed, town officials feared that the sewer project would be forced to end.

"We have decided there were extenuating circumstances," said Commission Chairman Robert Heavey. "If we didn't move ahead with this, they would've been out of business on this sewer project."

The commission still needs to come up with a means to charge the industrial park tenants for the station's operation and repairs.

Heavey added that the waiver does not set a precedent for the town, and that other requests "would be made on a case-by-case decision."

Property owners within the industrial park requested the waiver a month ago, citing examples of other towns that also own their pumping stations. Additionally, the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, the agency paying for $3.1m million of the $5m project, said that the town must take ownership of the station because it is the entity receiving the funding to build the station, not the property owners.

"Their decision is an incentive for property owners to move forward in the development process," said Paul Yorkis, who owns property at the site. "That will eventually result in a substantial increase in the commercial and industrial tax base."

The project has been sanctioned as a way to improve the town's industrial tax revenue. Medway Selectman Dennis Crowley, who has served as a liaison for the commission with the state agency on the sewer upgrade, also cited tax growth to justify the waiver, since the project will require more town services.

"Tax relief is really the function here," Crowley said. "We're trying to generate industrial and commercial taxes."

Some Medway residents spoke out against the waiver, as they feel that they will ultimately be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the pumping station.

"I feel like we have been lied to by the town," said Medway resident William Collins. "This station is going to end up as another expense for the taxpayers, when we were promised that the station owners would be responsible. Now, it looks like our taxes will end up footing the bill once again.