I have been living in the Lost Lake area of Groton, MA for the past seven years. I am deeply concerned about the proposed Lost Lake Sewer project. Registered letters (at a cost of about $2000.00) were mailed to only 325 residents of Lost Lake asking whether one agreed or disagreed to the Lost Lake Sewer project. I am a little confused… the Lost Lake sewer project is expected to reach Lost Lake, Four Corners, and run into Ayer, yet only 325 residents were sent questionnaires implying that only those 325 would be funding the entire project, since it was implied that those 325 homes were polluting Lost Lake. If other parts of Groton will be utilizing this system why didn’t others receive a registered letter too? Additionally, all residents received another questionnaire in their Groton electric bills concerning the Lost Lake Sewer project. Why the redundancy?
Surely the Board of Health would know which homes are directly polluting Lost Lake. The Board of Health should prohibit occupancy in any and all homes that are directly polluting Lost Lake until such time that the septic conditions are acceptable. My septic system as well as others around me is in perfect condition and is not polluting Lost Lake, thus there is no need to tie into a sewer system as well as no need to pay for it in any way unless we request to tie into it.
Why is Groton trying to force only 325 homes in the Lost Lake area of town to pay for the entire project when clearly more than just Lost Lake residents will benefit from a sewer? The last time I looked at my address it read “Groton” not the “Lost Lake” area of Groton. If this is the way that Groton wants to charge residents, then the Lost Lake population should not be required to pay any monies towards a new fire station since we already have one in the Lost Lake area. Additionally,, Lost Lake residents should not be required to fund the proposed Fitch’s Bridge project since it is not in the Lost Lake area. Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? My point is if Groton wants to put in a new sewer system, either the polluters should fund the entire project or the entire town of Groton should fund the project.
In this economy I really do not know where people will get the money to pay any additional fees, taxes and/or betterment fees for a proposed $13 million Lost Lake Sewer, a proposed $9 million fire station and a fix to Fitch’s Bridge at an unknown cost. Taxes in Groton are already too high. Listed below are problems that continue to exist in the Lost Lake area of Groton:
- Roads and streets are in deplorable condition where they are constantly being re-patched as opposed to being re-paved.
- Trees and/or brush are never cleared unless several calls are placed to public works or the residents do the clearing themselves.
- If you talk to anyone in Groton and mention that you live in Lost Lake you are regarded as living in “the poor section of Groton”.
- Homes generally have smaller lots of land. The taxes on land in Groton are based on a sliding scale with homes with the least amount of land being charged the most per acre land tax, whereby Lost Lake area residents are generally paying the most for their land.
The Lost Lake area of Groton continues to be penalized and the Lost Lake Sewer project is another example of how we are penalized. As a resident of Groton with a working and continually maintained septic system, I do not and cannot afford to support a Lost lake Sewer project.
Sincerely,
Carol Daigle
14 Balsam Walk
I completely agree with your valid points. I too live in the Lost Lake area and have made Numerous calls to the town regarding road conditions, down limbs and more. All of which have been over looked. Why should we have to pay this when our homes are causing no problems. We all pay HIGH taxes in Groton already. Is there any way to know which homes are effecting Lost Lake.
I agree with Carrie and Carol. If a home which is serviced with private septic fails, it is incumbent on the owner to repair the problem. When I bought the house I am in, the septic system was a disaster. The seller paid to bring the system up to Title 5 standards. I see zero reasons why my tax dollars should be subsidizing the repair of other peoples septic systems- no one was asked to subsidize the repair of my own system. I won’t ask you to finance the repair of my septic system and you ought not to ask me to finance the repair of your system. Now, if a clear majority of people in a certain area of town such as Lost Lake want to band together and finance the construction of a septic system to meet their common need, go for it. If memory serves, the two most recent extensions of the sewer district (from Main St. down Old Ayer to the corner of Peabody, and the already voted on extension further down Old Ayer to the farm property purchased by Thomas More College) were bought and paid for not by the Town but by the owners whose properties benefited from the betterment. In the first case cited above, the Town even billed those residents on Old Ayer for re-paving of the road after the install of the pipes and pumps, grinders, etc., which is an absolute outrage in my view but no one challenged it). The message: pay for your own betterments. As for the identity of problem properties on or near Lost lake, any curious person can send a public records request to the chair of the Board of Health- a response is due in 10 days. I cannot think of any exemption which would allow the Board to withhold the info requested. Sincerely, Alan Hoch.
After this letter stirred considerable interest and follow ups on the Talk About Groton email list, Selectman Josh Degen posted this clarification from Town Manager Mark Haddad:
“I have cut and pasted a further explanation from an email issued by our Town Manager Mark Haddad with his consent below:
First of all, I want to thank Selectman Degen for his efforts in trying to clarify the mis-understanding of the facts discussed on the Groton List Serve. I truly appreciate Josh’s efforts and I asked him to respond. The purpose of this email is to provide all the Selectmen with the facts. First of all, there seems to be some confusion as to the survey sent out with the July Light Bill and the registered letter sent out to 335 residents. The survey was sent out to all Light Customers and is for informational purposes. There was never any statement of judging or counting unreturned surveys. It was sent out to gage the knowledge and understanding of all town residents of the Lost Lake Project.
The second survey was sent to all abutters who will be sewered if the project is approved. It asked for them to vote yes or no on the project based on them absorbing all the costs of the project with no public assistance. I insisted that this be done in order to provide the Selectmen with solid input from those directly affected. We were very clear in the letter on what the costs of the project are and that if they did not return the survey it would be considered a yes vote. This was done based on our history in trying to get people to respond to these types of issues. It took us nine months to complete the income survey and we didn’t want to repeat that process. We also provided them with self-addressed stamped envelopes to return the survey. We were not trying to be underhanded or disingenuous. We have compiled the results and plan on providing the Selectmen with a breakdown of the results including returned and not returned. It is unfortunate that some residents jump to conclusions without all of the facts. I hope this clarifies the issue. We will be discussing this in more detail with the Board at your September 4th meeting. Please remember that we presented a draft of this letter for the Board’s approval and the Board had no comment on the letter before it was sent out. Please call me with any questions.
Mark
Mark W. Haddad
Town Manager
Town of Groton
Sent from Josh Degen’s iPad”