The village of Angel Fire has paid a local couple $88,000 to drop a lawsuit filed against the municipality for allegedly requiring them to connect their Angel Fire property to an inoperable sewer system.

Rush Family Limited Partnership No. 2 filed the lawsuit in the Eighth Judicial District Court in Raton May 22 and dismissed its complaint Aug. 30. The village paid the plaintiffs, Avery and Dana Rush, from the New Mexico Self Insurers Fund, an insurance account administered by the New Mexico Municipal League.

Claimants understand and agree that they are releasing all known or unknown, present or future claims against the village of Angel Fire, its elected officials, employees, agents and insurers arising from or in any way related to the claims asserted in the lawsuit or any claims which could have been asserted, an undated, hand-written settlement agreement states.

The Rush familys complaint alleges that on Aug. 21, 2009, the village issued a statement indicating that sewer service was available at the familys residential lot at 44 Beaver Loop in the Valley of the Utes subdivision. From September 2009 to June 2011, it states, the village billed the family for sewer availability.

Plaintiff justifiably relied on Defendants series of negligent misrepresentations and proceeded to design and placed the house on the lot without consideration of locating a gravity septic system, the complaint states. Instead Plaintiff installed the specific sewage treatment system that would connect to the Defendants municipal sewage utility and thereafter completed landscaping on the surface of the lot.

But after the home was built, the complaint states, the village issued a letter in spring 2011 stating the house could not be connected to the municipal sewage system. The family was then forced to remove landscaping, install a pump-operated septic system uphill from the house, and re-landscape the scarring left by the installation process, it states.

Plaintiff unnecessarily spent time and money installing a sewage system and line to connect to the nonexistent sewer line of the village, the complaint states.

The complaint states that the Rush family was seeking monetary damages to be determined at trial, including compensatory and consequential damages, statutory damages, and such other relief deemed proper by the court.

The village settled a separate lawsuit with its Linda Apodaca, its former finance director in May.

Through the earlier settlement, the village paid Apodaca $200,000 to drop a lawsuit she filed against the municipality after she was fired from the position last year. She filed the lawsuit against the village, its Clerk Terry Cordova and then Mayor Stuart Hamilton for allegedly violating the New Mexico Whistleblower Protection Act with the termination of her employment and the Inspection of Public Records Act during her subsequent attempts to review village records.

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Sangre Chronicle > Angel Fire > Angel Fire pays $88,000 to settle sewer lawsuit

A family that owns property in Angel Fire has dropped a lawsuit it filed against the village of Angel Fire earlier this year for allegedly requiring the family to spend money to connect to an inoperable sewer system.

Rush Family Limited Partnership No. 2 filed the lawsuit in the Eighth Judicial District Court in Raton May 22 and dismissed the complaint Aug. 30.

Plaintiff no longer wishes to pursue this matter against defendant and gives notice of its voluntary dismissal with prejudice, the notice of dismissal states.

Angel Fire Mayor Barbara Cottam would not say whether the village planned to settle the lawsuit out of court. She directed questions about the lawsuit to the villages attorney Joseph F. Canepa of Canepa and Vidal, PA in Santa Fe, who did not immediately respond to a telephone message from the Sangre de Cristo Chronicle Tuesday (Sept. 11).

The Rush familys complaint alleges that on Aug. 21, 2009, the village issued a statement indicating that sewer service was available at the familys residential lot at 44 Beaver Loop in the Valley of the Utes subdivision. From September 2009 to June 2011, it states, the village billed the family for sewer availability.

On Jan. 27, 2010, the complaint states, the village issued a memorandum stating that the family would be required to install a grinder pump and other equipment to accommodate the municipal sewer utility. The memorandum stated that the family must use the municipal sewer system to manage liquid waste from the Beaver Loop home.

Plaintiff justifiably relied on Defendants series of negligent misrepresentations and proceeded to design and placed the house on the lot without consideration of locating a gravity septic system, the complaint states. Instead Plaintiff installed the specific sewage treatment system that would connect to the Defendants municipal sewage utility and thereafter completed landscaping on the surface of the lot.

But after the home was built, the complaint states, the village issued a letter in the spring of 2011 stating that the house could not be connected to the municipal sewage system. The family was then forced to remove landscaping, install a pump-operated septic system uphill from the house, and re-landscape the scarring left by the installation process, it states.

Plaintiff unnecessarily spent time and money installing a sewage system and line to connect to the nonexistent sewer line of the village, the complaint states.

The complaint states that the Rush family was seeking monetary damages to be determined at trial, including compensatory and consequential damages, statutory damages, and such other relief deemed proper by the court.

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Sangre Chronicle > Archives > Angel Fire > Family drops suit over inoperable Angel Fire sewer

Visiting Loganville officials got an earful from the Walton County Board of Education at the Tuesday worksession as the two sides continue to try to negotiate sewer for the planned replacement campus for Loganville Middle School.

After talks seemingly stalled last month when Loganville officials seemed to ask the board to pay to install the gray water line to the campus, Superintendent Gary Hobbs said such a result was unacceptable.

Right now they want us to pay for the project, turn it over to them and then pay them a monthly fee for sewer, Hobbs said. I dont think we should have to pay to run the gray water line out and then pay for the gray water as well.

Complaining of long, fruitless negotiations with the city, Hobbs said the system could move back to a plan for septic on site without unduly pushing back the completion date of the project, but hoped to reach an accord with the city yet.

City manager Bill Jones visited the worksession to weigh in on the matter and said they were still willing to work with the system.

Well pay for the pipe, Jones said. Were willing to do the work, we just want to have someone from the school system overseeing it on your end.

Hobbs said any such person would most likely be a hired contractor, as no one in the system has experience with sewer.

Were not in the sewer business, Hobbs said. Thats not what we need to do.

But both felt an agreement could still be reached in the coming weeks, though Hobbs told the board no action would be taken yet.

I wont come to you and ask you to consider it without good figures, Hobbs said.

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Walton Board of Ed., Loganville still at odds over sewer

Published: Friday, October 5, 2012 at 7:02 p.m. Last Modified: Friday, October 5, 2012 at 7:03 p.m.

Portions of Cherokee County near Weiss Lake northeast of Leesburg should have improved sewer service because of a $125,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission.

The grant will assist the Cherokee County Water and Sewer Authority in providing sewer services along sections of county roads 146, 355 and 405. Soil and topography prevent private septic systems from working effectively in this area, according to local officials.

The availability of sewer services is expected to make the location more inviting for housing and business development, as well as to improve living conditions for people already residing in the area.

The authority will install 14,000 feet of sewer line along the three roads.

Gov. Robert Bentley notified Y.V. Vaughn Ledbetter, authority chairman, that the grant had been approved.

The ARC program is administered by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs.

ARC was established by Congress in 1965 as a supplemental grant program to raise the standard of living, improve the quality of life and promote economic development in portions of the 13 Appalachian mountain states. Thirty-seven Alabama counties, including Cherokee, are part of the ARC area.

Follow this link:
Grant to pay for sewer improvements in Cherokee County

The Doylestown Township public water and sewer advisory committee has recommended that the township install a public sewer system to serve the 250 homes in the Pebble Ridge neighborhood. So have staff from the Bucks County Health Department.

Doylestown Township staff the township manager, assistant manager and director of operations added their names to the list of people recommending sewers on Wednesday.

And to many residents who attended a special township meeting on Wednesday, it sounded like the supervisors plan to follow those recommendations.

The supervisors did not vote on the issue Tuesday; they dont expect to vote on it for several months.

But Supervisor Chairwoman Barbara Lyons told one resident, You should plan on sewers.

Assistant Township Manager Sandra Zadell said studies have shown high levels of human fecal bacteria in the stormwater basins and creeks in the Pebble Ridge community several times over the past 14 years. She said that can come from only one place failing septic systems.

Engineers determined through visual surveys in 2008 that 15 septic systems were malfunctioning and 35 others could be malfunctioning.

We have to put our big girl pants on and do whats best for the community because thats our job, Lyons told a resident who questioned her.

Supervisor Ryan Manion said the state Department of Environmental Protection could intervene and force the township to install sewers if it doesnt take action.

Our hands are a little bit tied, Manion said.

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Doylestown Twp. supervisors consider sewers

Unpermitted sewer lines that discharge untreated sewage, known as wildcat sewers, threaten to further delay the already nearly decade-long Act 537 project for West Penn Township and Walker Township.

Sewage Enforcement Officer Scott C. Bieber of Lehigh Soils and Wetlands, the sub consultant hired to redo an outdated needs assessment survey, revisited 230 of 231 homes that were suspected to have septic issues.

On Sept. 25, the sewer committee met with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) where Bieber presented a draft of the needs assessment survey. At the West Penn supervisors' meeting last evening, township engineer Ronald B. Madison, PE said the good news is that the sewer needs of the study areas are not as widespread as the original survey done by Ludgate Engineering showed them to be, which means that a costly public sewer system is unlikely necessary. (The one done by Ludgate previously estimated the project to cost $11.5 million, and it would have left the homeowners who were involved in this option with $104-a-month sewer bill until the debt of the project was fully paid.)

As this new survey was finished, however, the issue of the wildcat sewers followed. Further investigation has to be done, which could delay the completion of the full Act 537 plan update, the deadline for which is Dec. 31. Madison said South Tamaqua has some homes that were built using these wildcat sewer lines, and there might be one in Clamtown and Andreas.

"There may be a lot (of homes connected into wildcat sewers)," sewer committee member Ted Bogosh said, "but until there's further investigation, we don't know."

Photos from the survey show discharge of these wildcat systems clear evidence that the unpermitted wildcats exist but the real problem is identifying exactly which homes are tied into them. Some of the wildcat sewer pipelines, according to Bogosh, are nearly 100 meters long, and some pipelines are short. The main concern of DEP is how many homes are on these systems and how far the pipes run.

Although an investigation is unavoidable, both solicitor Gretchen Sterns and Madison agree that it would be a mistake to do it during the planning stage.

"The need to investigate the wildcat sewers won't go away," Madison said. "It's just whether or not you're doing it now as part of the planning process or later as part of the implementation process."

A major drawback of investigating now, Sterns said, is that the townships will be stuck paying for the planning part of the project, for they are responsible by law for all planning costs. The estimated cost for West Penn and Walker townships since the planning phase of Act 537 began in 2003, up to March of this year, has been $276,907. In addition to that is the $79,200 to have Bieber redo the survey.

To prevent any further unnecessary spending, West Penn supervisors said they would rather let homeowners sort out their sewer issues at their own costs by either having them install on-lot sewer options or having several houses share a system.

Read this article:
Wildcat sewers threaten to delay project

Monday, September 24, 2012

Construction crews will close a section of South Lieser Road in Vancouver on Tuesday, according to the citys public works department. The closure will allow workers to install new public sewer lines.

The work will close Lieser between St. Helens Avenue and Southeast Middle Way, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, according to the city. Detour signs will help direct traffic around the closure.

The installation is part of a Linwood Heights project through Vancouvers Sewer Connection Incentive Program, which aims to make public sewers available to residents now connected to private septic systems. The city hired contractor RC Northwest Inc. of Brush Prairie for the job.

Commuters are encouraged to avoid the area if possible on Tuesday, as delays are possible. Drivers who pass through nearby neighborhood streets should use caution, according to the city.

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Construction to close section of S. Lieser Road

A family that owns property in Angel Fire has dropped a lawsuit it filed against the village of Angel Fire earlier this year for allegedly requiring the family to spend money to connect to an inoperable sewer system.

Rush Family Limited Partnership No. 2 filed the lawsuit in the Eighth Judicial District Court in Raton May 22 and dismissed the complaint Aug. 30.

Plaintiff no longer wishes to pursue this matter against defendant and gives notice of its voluntary dismissal with prejudice, the notice of dismissal states.

Angel Fire Mayor Barbara Cottam would not say whether the village planned to settle the lawsuit out of court. She directed questions about the lawsuit to the villages attorney Joseph F. Canepa of Canepa and Vidal, PA in Santa Fe, who did not immediately respond to a telephone message from the Sangre de Cristo Chronicle Tuesday (Sept. 11).

The Rush familys complaint alleges that on Aug. 21, 2009, the village issued a statement indicating that sewer service was available at the familys residential lot at 44 Beaver Loop in the Valley of the Utes subdivision. From September 2009 to June 2011, it states, the village billed the family for sewer availability.

On Jan. 27, 2010, the complaint states, the village issued a memorandum stating that the family would be required to install a grinder pump and other equipment to accommodate the municipal sewer utility. The memorandum stated that the family must use the municipal sewer system to manage liquid waste from the Beaver Loop home.

Plaintiff justifiably relied on Defendants series of negligent misrepresentations and proceeded to design and placed the house on the lot without consideration of locating a gravity septic system, the complaint states. Instead Plaintiff installed the specific sewage treatment system that would connect to the Defendants municipal sewage utility and thereafter completed landscaping on the surface of the lot.

But after the home was built, the complaint states, the village issued a letter in the spring of 2011 stating that the house could not be connected to the municipal sewage system. The family was then forced to remove landscaping, install a pump-operated septic system uphill from the house, and re-landscape the scarring left by the installation process, it states.

Plaintiff unnecessarily spent time and money installing a sewage system and line to connect to the nonexistent sewer line of the village, the complaint states.

The complaint states that the Rush family was seeking monetary damages to be determined at trial, including compensatory and consequential damages, statutory damages, and such other relief deemed proper by the court.

Read the original post:
Sangre Chronicle > Angel Fire > Family drops suit over inoperable Angel Fire sewer

Nearly three weeks ago, the Tiverton Town Council approved a $58,500 contract with environmental firm AECOM to study the effects of failing septic systems and assess the feasibility of installing sewer systems in northern parts of the town near the state line.

Members of the council and the towns Wastewater Management Commission agreed the study is one step toward complying with Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management regulations and satisfying the requirements of the states Cesspool Act of 2007.

The act required that homeowners and business owners replace failed septic systems with newer septic systems or tie into a sewer system. The act also states that septic systems cant be closer than 200 feet from the shore or other bodies of water used for drinking water or recreation.

At the councils Sept. 10 meeting, Wastewater Management Commission Chairman Leroy Kendricks presented a map of the town highlighting the areas near the state line where septic systems are failing and where hazardous soil had been found, according to a DEM inspection program. They include properties on Bay Street, Cooper Street and Judson Street, as well as Old Colony Terrace.

Kendricks said the program revealed quite a few failures in those areas, calling it a serious problem. The DEM has put the town on notice regarding these systems.

He cited the closure of Fogland Beach early last summer as another reason Tiverton needs to study its wastewater management.

When the beach is closed down because of bacteria counts, its on the entire town, Kendricks said. Is it runoff, is it from septic system?

We know for a fact that the septic system problem may not be the entire problem, but it is certainly a significant contributor to the problem, Kendricks said, adding that stormwater drainage may also need to be looked at. I think the responsible thing to do is to take this thing seriously and get ahead of it.

Its also in the interest of the town to come up with a comprehensive solution, Kendricks added.

In an interview with The Herald News, Kendricks said the study would look at where to recommend sewer installation. The facilities plan would also assess how to finance the system determining betterment fees for residents and businesses, and looking for loans and grants to cover installation costs.

More here:
Tiverton contracts firm to study effects of failing septic systems

Published: Mon, July 2, 2012 @ 12:03 a.m.

By Peter H. Milliken

milliken@vindy.com

POLAND

Completion of a $4.25 million sanitary sewer installation will improve quality of life, raise homeowners property values and bolster economic development potential, the township administrator said.

Sewer lines, gas lines, waterlines any utility makes any community more attractive to businesses. This can only benefit us. It can never hurt us, said James Scharville, Poland Township administrator.

Scharville was referring to the South Struthers Interceptor Sewer, which will eliminate 165 septic systems, many of them failing after having been in use for more than 50 years.

Ive heard many reports of people complaining about odors, especially in the summertime, and there are places where you can actually see black water in the roadside ditches. So this will be a very environmentally favorable project, said J. Robert Lyden, Mahoning County sanitary engineer.

The quality of life for these citizens here will be improved with the sanitary sewer. It will be a benefit to the streams and to the Mahoning River, he added.

The project includes installation of nearly five miles of plastic sewer pipe, carrying sewage to the Struthers sewage treatment plant.

Read the rest here:
Poland official touts sewer project benefits