Wpca Questions

[Dede DeRosa]

Thank you for publishing the recording of the combined Board meeting to Youtube.  I was traveling last week and unable to dial in live but was able to catch up yesterday.  As a prior WPCA Board Member, I fully understand the issues and challenges with the project and appreciate your efforts on behalf of of OLS.

Based on the recent meeting and the upcoming vote, it seems there are several critical path items that have not been adequately explained.

1. To my knowledge, the State of CT has not finalized the terms of the forgivable loan agreement including the formula for the allocation of the funds to the four entities involved. This has been under discussion for over a year.  I believe this should be a pre-requisite to advancing a supplemental bond resolution or we risk being bound with no guarantee of additional State funding.  What is the status of this and why haven’t the Boards insisted on getting this loan agreement in place prior to the vote?

2. There have been concerns raised about passing the supplemental bond resolution prior to going out to bid.  I understood this to be a requirement of DEEP’s which we can’t escape.  However, please explain more completely why the Town of Old Lyme/Soundview seems to be exempt from this requirement.  The current estimate per modeling done by F&O for Soundview is $14,689,000 with no State funding offsets.  They are being allowed to go out to bid with an existing $9.5M bond.  In contrast, OLS has a total project cost estimate of $15,464,980 and an existing bond of $9.7M and we need another resolution to go out to bid.  Have we asked for a more specific explanation as to what is going on here?  Either the Town is being given some kind of waiver for this requirement or they have obtained additional funding to close the gap that we are unaware of.  Why aren’t all Old Lyme residents being treated in the same way?

3. Finally, we have been in discussions with the Town of Old Lyme for over two years regarding their participation in the Cost Sharing Agreement.  It sounds like DEEP is not requiring the finalized CSA as a pre-requisite to going out to bid but I believe we should.  Why would we want to give up the only leverage that we have to get this long awaited agreement in place especially when the Town has a history of delaying progress on this project?

As was stated in the 10/23 meeting, this will be our last and final vote on advancing the project.    The OLS Residents are being asked to make a leap of faith based on a lot of verbal statements from the State and the Town of Old Lyme.  I certainly understand the need to balance the many open issues with the desire to move forward, but these agreements with the State and the Town are absolutely critical to get resolved before the vote given the difficulty we have had in getting them finalized.

Thank you,

Dede DeRosa

32 Brightwater Rd.

[diane....@oldlymeshores.org]

Hi Dede.  Please give me a call at 860-463-0591 so I can respond to each of your questions.  I don’t think any of us will have the time to reply in writing as promptly as you would like.  After we speak, please feel free to send a reply email that sets out the substance of our conversation.  If I see any inaccuracies in it, I would let you know. 

 

Thank you.

 

Diane Duhaime

President, OLSBA

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