Florence Township Council votes to allow Tall Pines residents to access new water/sewer network that will be built to service the coming high school.
By: Scott Morgan
FLORENCE The Township Council voted last week to hook residents of the Tall Pines development into a new water/sewer network that will be built to service the coming high school off Cedar Lane.
The decision to link the residents of the 46-house development off Florence-Bustleton Road comes after about a year and a half of debate and consideration. Tall Pines residents looking to change from well and septic systems approached the Township Council in early 2003 to ask what it would take to tap into the township’s water/sewer system. When the answer turned out to be a lot of money, the discussion died down.
But after voters last December passed a $43.5 million referendum to build a new high school off Cedar Lane, close to Tall Pines, the discussion resumed when residents and officials realized they could tap into the water/sewer system that would service the new school.
Township officials have spent the past several weeks considering whether the proposal was a good one. The pipes, according to Township Administrator Richard Brook, would be built to the curbs of the residents, but would not actually connect residents to the system. It would be up to residents themselves, he said, to decide whether to tap into the system.
According to Mr. Brook, the development’s residents will have to pay a utility assessment, regardless of whether they use the system. That assessment, he said, would be a price determined by the value of each individual house as it would be worth with a water/sewer system in place. A house with a water/sewer system, township officials have said, would likely be worth more than one serviced by well/septic.
Though Mr. Brook did not have an overall estimate for the houses in Tall Pines, he said that whatever the utility assessment, the homeowner could take up to 10 years to pay it off.
For those homeowners who would connect to the pipes, officials said during last week s meeting, the cost of the hookup (based on the overall property value before the hookup) could range from about $18,000 to roughly $30,000, also payable over 10 years. Officials said, however, that though that price might seem high, it would be far easier on residents’ wallets to connect now than later, should the system go in. It’s cheaper for the residents to do it this way, said Mr. Brook.
Officials did not have an estimate for how much it would cost residents if they waited to connect, likening trying to guess the cost to predicting the future with a crystal ball. Township officials did say, repeatedly, that no residents would be required to connect their homes into the system, should it even be built.
Residents of Tall Pines who have frequented recent Township Council meetings have largely expressed approval of the project. Surveys sent to these residents by township officials came back overwhelmingly support the plan, though some residents cautioned officials to tread lightly over sensitive environmental areas near the development.
Township officials, in turn, have stated they will gauge such angles before construction starts.
The school’s share of the project, according to district Business Administrator Bruce Benedetti, will be about $481,000. The district will need to receive construction bids for the project by the spring, he said.
In the meantime, Mr. Brook said, "a tremendous amount of surveying and engineering work" must be conducted, plus several approvals must be granted by the state, before construction on the system begins. He said the planning process could take as much as a year, ending in late 2005.
The new high school is scheduled to open in September 2006.