By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
    If a conceptual plan to extend sewer infrastructure to the 67 residents living in the Heritage Acres subdivision, located at the intersection of Payne Road and Two Rod Road, moves forward it would be the first collaborative effort between the town of Scarborough and the Sanitary District.
    Heritage Acres was originally included in plans to extend sewer to Haigis Parkway, but because the “price tag was going to be quite large,” the subdivision was pushed back to a date “down the road,” said Town Manager Ron Owens at last Wednesday’s town council meeting.
    Sanitary District Supervisor Gary Lorfano said the district would work with the town and help with the funding of the project because the area is in “serious need of sewers.” He said a sanitary survey conducted in 2004 determined that several private systems are failing. The reason behind the systems failing, he said, is a combination of small lots, high water tables and poor soil conditions.
    Owens estimated the project would cost $2 million dollars. As part of the collaborative effort with the sanitary district, the plans call for cost sharing with the town paying 60 percent, the district paying 30 percent and Heritage Acres residents paying the remaining 10 percent. Individual property owners would likely have to contribute $3,000 toward the project.
    “Traditionally the sanitary district looks to the town to fund sewer extensions,” Owens said. “The sanitary district realizes part of their mission is to provide sewers to people who need them.”
    Owens said there would need to be a 60 percent majority in favor of the extension for the project to come back to the council, which will then need to appropriate $1.2 million for the town’s share of the project. Owens said the project would likely take two years to complete. In the first step forward, Lorfano will meet with residents in July to determine if they are in favor of the plans.
    “I know there is a lot of support, (but) it comes down to they are going to have to pay a portion of it,” Lorfano said. He said the district strives not to burden existing users by raising rates. With this collaboration, he said the district expects to recoup the funds through user fees over a 20-year-period.
    The council was in favor of moving the conceptual plan forward as Ron Ahlquist said it has been a “very frustrating (situation) for people who have lived in the neighborhood for a long time.”
    Council Chairman Jeffrey Messer favored moving the conceptual plan forward to a neighborhood meeting, but asked for a read out of how many residents, including those living in the vicinity of the subdivision, would want to hook up to the system. Messer, who has been on the council the longest out of the current seven members, said he recalled discussions from the mid-nineties about extending the sewer to Heritage Acres.