HILLSBOROUGH: Sewer project could cost $24,200 per lot

By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
   Nearly 200 property owners in the Claremont area of the township face paying about $24,200, plus interest, each for the extension of a sewer line.
   The township Municipal Utilities Authority built the line into the area after years of petitioning by residents who were plagued with failing septic systems on the small lots. Construction began in April 2010 and ended in November. On Dec. 15 the first connection was made to the system.
   Residents can learn how Tax Assessor Debra Blaney calculated the cost at a meeting Monday, July 9, at 7 p.m. in the courtroom of the municipal building.
   Ms. Blaney’s report recommending the special assessment is available at her office. Her recommendation would go to the Township Committee, which would order the levying of any assessment.
   The Claremont area is in the eastern part of the township, north of the Borough of Millstone. The total number of properties affected is 191, which was divided into the $4.6 million total cost of the project. The report says that 159 of the 191 property owners have signed papers agreeing to an assessment.
   The construction cost just over $3 million and road improvements added $.2 million, the report says.
   The special assessment is justified, in part, because it would increase the value of homes, says Ms. Blaney’s report. According to her study, the sewer line increases the value of a property from $23,800 to $56,000, with the average at $40,200.
   If homeowners paid principal plus interest (estimated at 1.5 percent) twice a year for 20 years, the total amount a property owner would pay is $27,739.30, the report says.
   The report suggests a $605 payment on principal twice a year, plus interest that would be almost $177 for the first payment to $4.54 in the last.
   Failing septic systems were a problem in the Claremont for more than 20 years, according to the report. It was estimated in 2006 that about 20 percent of septic systems in the area had failed in the prior 15 years, said the report.
   ”The health officer of the township concluded that the failing septic systems were discharging raw sewage to surface and ground water, causing a public health threat,” says the report. “The raw sewage seriously impacted the potable wells located on each small lot which supply residents with drinking water.”
   The process to amend the township’s wastewater management plan started in 2006.