Old Lyme needs $7.5M more for controversial sewer project
Jack Lakowsky
Old Lyme — The town will need $7.5 million more than
expected to install sewers at Sound View Beach, which it owns, however the
Board of Selectmen wants more information before sending the question to
voters.
Steve Cinami, chairman of the Water Pollution Control
Authority, said voters will now be asked to approve $17.1 million, up from the
$9.5 million voters approved in 2019. The $7.5 million is up from a previously proposed
increase of $4.5 million, which did not include other necessary parts of the
project.
Selectman Jim Lampos, who lives in the Sound View
neighborhood, said the $1,932 yearly cost to users is about $300 shy of
unaffordable by state standards. If the state deemed the project unaffordable,
it could not go ahead.
But he pointed out the costs for users to connect to the
main sewer line and the systems in East Lyme and New London, are not included
in the yearly user fee. Neither are maintenance costs.
Lampos, and First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker, said
property owners need to know their entire cost before the $7.5 million request
moves forward. They also want more information on the cost-sharing agreement
between Old Lyme and the private beach associations, Old Colony Beach, Miami
Beach and Old Lyme Shores.
"We need to know, solidly, what we're getting ourselves
into," Lampos said.
State funding will cover half of the $17.1 million. Sound
View Beach property owners will have to pay back $8.5 million to the state
Department of Energy and Environmental Protection at a cost of $1,932 a year
per dwelling unit. There are 270 dwelling units.
The yearly cost per unit has now increased about $570. Sound
View residents will pay $522,000 a year for 20 years to repay the loan, Cinami
told selectmen in a meeting Monday.
The town's three private beach associations are splitting
the remaining portion of the $61 million cost of the project, which includes
shared infrastructure, a pump station and the lines that carry sewage through
East Lyme to the New London treatment plant. The state has ordered the town and
beach associations to undertake the project in an attempt to stop septic tanks
from polluting Long Island Sound.
In a June 10 meeting, Cinami said property owners are
responsible for pipes from their property line to their house, while the town
is responsible for what's between the property line and the sewer main.
Cinami said he wants the town to send an informational
postcard to residents leading up to an Aug. 4 informative town meeting. Cinami
said at that meeting he won't answer questions about the need for the project,
only its financing. He said he will bring more information to the next Board of
Selectmen meeting.
He also spoke to unexpected costs, which could drive the
project beyond the state's affordability cap. Cinami, who owns a construction
company, said that unlike other projects he has managed, there's no existing
sewer system beneath Sound View that would need to be removed at an extra cost.
With $3B in federal funding frozen, charging station projects across CT mothballed, scaled back
In June 2024, the town of Wallingford unanimously approved a
special permit and site plan for a privately developed facility that would be
devoted exclusively to charging electric vehicles (EVs).
At the time, the project was touted as the first of its kind
in the U.S.
The plan submitted by Gem Property Group LLC intended to
develop a 2.04-acre vacant lot just off Exit 15 of Interstate 91 at 1 Miles Dr.
The proposed facility was approved for up to 38 EV charging stations, 36 of
which would be beneath a canopy.
There would be no gas pumps, just EV charging stations.
The project also proposed a 3,000-square-foot retail
building for a convenience-style store to provide packaged food, beverages and
other items for people waiting while their vehicles charged.
A year later, anyone driving past that property can see it
remains undisturbed, covered in tall grass and with no visible signs of
site-preparation work.
In an exclusive interview with Hartford Business Journal,
the developer said the EV project is now dead, primarily because of, well,
climate change — that is, changes to the regulatory climate.
Following the election of President Donald Trump and his
administration’s subsequent decision to freeze more than $3 billion in National
Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) funding, as well as the state
legislature’s decision to reduce similar EV support, the Wallingford project is
not the only significant charging station development in the state to be
canceled or scaled back.
That will slow down the state’s efforts to expand charging
infrastructure, which is seen as crucial for the broader adoption of electric
vehicles.
‘Unplugged’ for the moment
Elizabeth Verna, a principal with Verna Builders &
Developers, said her family runs Gem Property Group and has owned the
Wallingford property on Miles Drive for more than a decade.
A year ago, she said she was bullish about the EV charging
station development. Now, her family is considering alternatives because
interest in the facility has evaporated.
Verna said the potential tenant was relying, in part, on the
subsidies and backed out of the project after the federal funding was frozen.
“After speaking with the Realtor, everything just went cold,
which is fine,” she said.
“It’s maybe a blessing,” she continued. “If government
incentives were needed to keep a market strong, then it would have been risky
to put a tenant in there that was surviving only because of subsidies or
incentives.”
She added that she thought the Miles Drive site was a great
location for the project.
“EV is not charged right now,” Verna said. “It’s unplugged,
for the moment. I’d love to plug it back in.”
‘We just pared back’
So would Michael Frisbie.
He and his business partner, Abdul Tammo, own
Hartford-based Noble Gas Inc., which operates 13 gas stations across the
state and is developing four more. EV charging stations are planned for each of
the new sites.
In February 2024, the town of Orange approved a Noble Gas
proposal for a nearly 8,400-square-foot facility off of I-95 that would feature
an EV showroom with charging stations, and include a gas station, convenience
store, ice cream stand and drive-thru coffee and sandwich shop.
Noble Gas also is opening a station in Windsor that was
supposed to feature up to 20 EV chargers. Its new gas stations in East
Hartford, Hamden and Newington will each also have a few EV chargers.
Frisbie, though, said the Orange and Windsor projects have
since changed.
“We just pared back in Windsor so that we don’t have as
many, but we still have some,” he said of the EV charging stations.
Instead of 20, the facility has four.
“When, hopefully, the subsidies open up again — which I
think they will at some point — then we are already positioned to be able to
add on,” he said.
As for the EV showroom and service center, “they’re on hold
for the moment, until such time as (the subsidies) come back,” Frisbie said.
“We will have EV charging at the facility that we’re going to be building in
Orange.”
He said Noble Gas still plans to eventually build the EV
showroom, but “it’s probably part of phase two.”
Despite the setback, Frisbie said he is “still committed to
pushing forward with the infrastructure for EV vehicles.” He envisions creating
Noble Gas fueling facilities that include high-speed diesel pumps and EV
chargers.
“I’m actually driving an EV, even though I own gas
stations,” he said. “So, we think the future of EV is still pretty strong. The
challenge is, we were planning on using some of these subsidies as part of the
investment.”
He noted there is still some charging-station funding
available aside from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI)
program.
Eversource Energy, for example, states on its website that
it offers EV charging rebates for Level 2 and DC Fast charging projects, with
rebates of up to $250,000. It adds, however, that the number of rebates granted
each year is limited.
‘A perfect storm’
Attorney Lee D. Hoffman, chairman of Hartford law firm
Pullman & Comley who focuses on clients developing energy projects,
said the current political and regulatory environment for electric vehicles is
difficult.
“You have a perfect storm of problems right now,” Hoffman
said. “Nothing that’s insurmountable, but the federal administration froze the
(National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure) funding, and it’s not clear what’s
going to be the permanent fallout from that. We don’t know if it’s a temporary
hiccup, or if that funding is never going to come out of the current
administration.”
In addition to the funding freeze, the so-called “Big
Beautiful Bill” making its way through Congress makes significant changes to
the Biden-era EV tax credits. The bill phases out the clean vehicle credit,
which allows a tax credit of up to $7,500 for consumers buying a new EV, and up
to $4,000 for buying a used EV.
The credits were intended to encourage consumers to buy
electric vehicles.
Eliminating the tax credits and freezing the funding creates
uncertainty, Hoffman said, particularly for construction projects that
generally have to order equipment and materials well in advance.
“If I’m delayed in getting my financing by 60 or 90 days, it
may result in 120- or 180 days’-worth of delay because of supply-chain issues,”
Hoffman said. “The charging equipment may get sold to somebody else who isn’t
waiting on NEVI funding.”
In addition to the dramatic federal changes, EV projects in
Connecticut have been waiting to see what the state legislature would do with
its resources.
During the recently ended legislative session, lawmakers
passed a bill, which Gov. Ned Lamont was expected to sign, that caps the Public
Utilities Regulatory Authority’s EV charging program expenses at $20 million
per year for the two-year budget.
Rep. Jonathan Steinberg (D-Westport), co-chair of the
Energy & Technology Committee, said during debate on the bill that the
program was among several that “got haircuts, but were not decapitated.”
Hoffman said the spending caps are less than what has been
in place previously, “but it is still a significant amount of money that can be
expended on this infrastructure.”
Frisbie said Noble Gas is a Connecticut family-owned
business, and regardless of the federal or state cuts, is here to stay.
“We’ve invested a lot of money in the state of Connecticut,
and we’re happy to do it,” he said. “We’re glad to be here.”
Others also are undaunted by the cuts. A developer in
Enfield recently proposed building an EV charging station and café on an
0.55-acre vacant lot at 1561 King St., in Enfield. The facility would
include 21 charging stations.
For her part, though, Verna said the plan is to replace the
Wallingford EV station project with something else, perhaps a medical office
building. But that remains to be determined.
“I don’t have any brilliant ideas right now,” she said. “I’d
love to have an EV station there, but what are you gonna do? You can’t have
everything.”