By Jack Chavez

(June 17, 2021) The Lewis Road sewer expansion project, an initiative some 20 years in the making, was finally confirmed after the Worcester County Commissioners narrowly passed a funding proposal from the Department of Environmental Programs on Tuesday.

The $2.05 million project, which will connect long underserved residents along the road that runs between Sinepuxent Road and Stephen Decatur Highway Landings sanitation service area, will be paid for with a $1.48 million grant and funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. The ARPA money will be used as a stand-in for a $500,000 USDA loan.

The project calls for multiple sanitation facilities to be constructed but will also use existing pipelines and a water tower.

Some commissioners felt that Lewis Road residents were already receiving a sweetheart deal with the grant and low-interest loan. Using ARPA money so residents wouldn’t see their rates increase with the loan seemed unfair to the rest of the county, they said.

“In the issue of fairness, I just don’t understand why the ratepayers over there wouldn’t have to pay for the connection on the road to their house,” Commissioner Chip Bertino said. “Why would the county pay for that? We don’t do it anywhere else. If it’s needs-based, would we apply that to other areas throughout the county?

Residents benefitting from a similar project in Newark were saddled with higher rate costs, even though they told the commissioners it would be a hardship for them.

“We didn’t do anything for them,” Bertino said. “Granted, the ARPA money wasn’t available then and I understand that, but what is the precedent we’re setting (if we adopt this motion)?”

Commissioner Diana Purnell felt that the lengthy time this project has been underway created certain expectations among the public. Bob Mitchell, director of the Department of Environmental Programs, said that Community Development Block Grant money had been considered for the project and that there was an environmental component in researching the proposal to ensure the project doesn’t impact local septic systems and shallow wells, but funding options for Lewis Road were limited.

“This community is not in a priority funding area so they’re not eligible for certain state costs that we could potentially use for another community that you might not even see,” Mitchell said.

Commissioner Diana Purnell said that this use of state money is appropriate for the guidelines of how the money is to be spent.

“The money is for infrastructure,” she said. “To infer that Lewis Road (is special) — no one is special. We all work in the county together … This is something that’s been in the works for 20 years. You can’t tell me that after 20 years of doing water and sewer in this county, there’s been a time where we’ve done anything for this area. … This is money that’s here, that came in from ARPA so we can use it.”

“This is in an area that’s growing by leaps and bounds all around … I think we should use the ARPA money for this very much underserved area.”

Commissioner Ted Elder was concerned about other uses of ARPA money that the commissioners had considered, including the countywide broadband expansion project, which he pointed out would also benefit Lewis Road.

“I expected that the biggest part of that money would go towards providing broadband as quickly as we can,” Elder said. “It seems that every time something comes up (the money is suggested for other uses.) I think it’s a tremendous deal we have here with the grant … plus the 1.375 interest rate. What else can you ask for? That’s why I’m not going to support the motion as it’s been made but I certainly support this. This needs to be done.”

Bertino added that he was worried about the precedent that could be set by giving what he saw as special treatment to Lewis Road.

“If I were a ratepayer in Newark or any of the other locations (served by) the enterprise funds for our wastewater, I’d have every right to say, ‘Well you did it for one and I want a refund or ARPA rates recalculated (based off X, Y, or Z).’ ”

Commissioner President Joe Mitrecic took an opposite stance to Bertino and said he felt that precedent wasn’t  as important as considering the merits of the case in a vacuum.

“I’ve heard the word ‘precedent’ said so many times up here,” Mitrecic said. “We need to take each and every request as it’s presented to us and make a decision based off the merits of that request. One request being turned down doesn’t make it that every request gets turned down.”

Bertino pushed back.

“We become a body that’s driven by personality and not by law (by that logic),” he said. “Precedent does have a place in governance. Because then we can throw everything out and then whenever anything new comes up we can just decide what the heck we want to do. We do need precedent and law to guide us to predictability for those of us who govern and those who represent.”

A public hearing will be scheduled next to inform and hear from taxpayers on the specific details of the project.