I’m back and wondering how seriously Windham’s elected and municipal officials are taking the proposition of a sewer. I’ve got a few questions that I would like answered by the time Windham’s residents are asked to vote on this in November 2012.

Was the 302 Corridor Schematic Design and Project (aka, the Spine) devised to create a more palatable cost of $37.8 million for Windham’s voters? I’m beginning to think so. After all, Phase One of the initial Wastewater Facilities Plan submitted on Jan. 3, 2011, had a price tag of $67.8 million. While the Spine (submitted June 7, 2011) will collect 137,000 gallons of wastewater per day, Phase One of the initial Wastewater Facilities Plan was designed to collect 740,000 gallons per day; almost five and a half times as much wastewater collected and over three and a half times as many paying customers would have been added to the initial system. It’s obvious Windham residents will get a lot less by spending less.

The initial plan better addressed all of Windham’s stated goals for having a sewer. These goals of public health, resource protection, and community and economic development are frequently heralded by the town manager and Barry Sheff, the engineering consultant that devised this scheme. With a mere 137,000 gallons of wastewater a day being transported away from the aquifer using the currently proposed sewer, are we significantly reducing the risk to public health and protecting our resources? With fewer customers connected, are we meeting the needs of the community and economic development? I’d say not, but these are not intended to be yes-or-no questions, either.

Does the scaled-back design require greater community-wide taxation to subsidize a system that has too few connected users to be viable financially or in meeting Windham’s stated goals? Will the town be forced to continually go back to the voters asking for more money to expand the scope of the project to be more like the initial Wastewater Facilities Plan? I’d say so.

I’ve heard that to make the sewer as profitable as possible, Windham will need to increase density. By way of explanation, we will need to increase residential and commercial development in areas serviced or to be serviced by sewer in order to increase the number of wastewater customers.

Without a final draft of the 21st Century Downtown Plan and up-to-date Comprehensive Plan (in the works) we do not have a clear vision how increases in density will be managed through land use planning. Further increases in density will also bring community-wide infrastructure (roads, municipal buildings, schools, etc.) and service (police, fire, sanitation, etc.) expenses. For Windham residents to fully comprehend these impacts before a November vote, studies need to be commissioned that examine:

• tax implications with regard to increased development and consumption of Town services,

• tax implications of expanded infrastructure needed to accommodate increased residential and commercial development,

• and Windham resident viewpoints on community changes that will come with increased density.

I somehow doubt that understanding these externalities effects that accompany an activity are a priority for Windham’s leaders when deciding whether or not to put a sewer on the ballot. When examining Windham’s goals in having the sewer, financial viability, and density impacts, I believe, as a proponent of “get it done right,” that the November ballot is an artificial deadline designed to elicit a binary for or against vote.

Patrick Corey is a Windham resident. He can be reached at 892-6164.