Councilman: Grant for clean water could be lost: Use it or lose it, he tells TB colleagues

Councilman Gordon Gooding challenged his Town Board colleagues at Tuesday’s work session to use a $1.25 million grant to develop a wastewater project before the money is lost.

The grant was awarded to the Town under the previous administration when it was expected that a system would be installed to treat wastewater in the Center.

But the plan, developed by Pio Lombardo of Lombardo Associates for a single treatment system to be located on Manwaring Road across from the Sylvester Manor farmstand, stalled in the face of overwhelming public opposition.

Despite former supervisor Gerry Siller’s determination to see the wastewater system built, the proposal ran into objections from residents who argued that individual Innovative Alternative (I/A) septic systems could do the job at far less cost.

Those who favored the Lombardo proposal said it would allow refitting at one site to treat emerging contaminants not yet known. To refit individual I/A systems would escalate the cost of employing that method, they said.

There were also debates about the effectiveness of the two systems, with those favoring the Lombardo system saying it would reduce nitrates to lower levels than the I/A systems could achieve.

So strong was the opposition to the Lombardo plan that the implementation of the two alternatives were both stalled, leaving the grant money on the table, but not yet forfeited.

What’s unclear is how long the money will remain earmarked for a Shelter Island plan. What is known is that the federal government had rendered an opinion a few months  ago that the money could be used either for a wastewater plan or a project to provide potable water in public buildings in the Center.

What concerns Mr. Gooding is nothing has happened to move any project forward since that fact has been known.

“If we don’t use it, we lose it,” he said.

He noted Town Engineer Joe Finora is poised to begin work on a plan, but is waiting directions from the Town Board.