The City of Milford will conduct a feasibility study to determine the costs to install a sewer pump station in this area
Milford City Council approved a request to fund a feasibility study that would determine what the cost of installing sewer infrastructure in front of the Bayhealth Sussex Campus would be and to allow a company to create renderings of the system for review.
“The request is for $10,000 for regional infrastructure in front of the hospital,” James Puddicombe, City Engineer, said. “We are looking at multiple property owners possibly splitting the cost of a pump station. The design portion is essentially to look at a general feasibility for performing that work and then, pending an agreement with the landowners, whether or not they wish to enter into that agreement and then the second part of the agreement would come into play.”
According to Puddicombe, the second part of the agreement would include a developer who was considering a subdivision on property in the area. Puddicombe explained that if the current homeowners were not interested in paying for the new sewer system, the developer may be willing to include the cost as part of the new development. The developer hopes to begin the process of designing the subdivision within the next 18 months.
“For long term planning, we would complete a casing under Route 1 that is larger than would be required for a single subdivision,” Puddicombe said. “This would allow us to replace a smaller substation with a larger substation down the line if landowners do not agree to pay for the regional substation. If they do, the casing would be included as part of the cost sharing for the regional substation. If the single substation was put in, you would have a smaller force main, but the city knows they may need a larger force main down the road. We need to figure out if we take the cost on to install the larger one now, but we know we will get those costs back later in impact fees.”
Councilman Jason James asked if the city installed the larger casing, would that mean they were taking on the cost for the regional pump station.
“The intent would be that if the regional approach is not agreed upon by the property owners, the one subdivision would move forward and we will enlarge the casing,” Rob Pierce, City Planner said. “We would incur that cost which would be recouped at a later date. If and when those other properties came online, because they are going to have to abandon the smaller station and build a bigger one, we could recoup the cost at that time. We don’t have the costs yet, but we are trying to give direction to the one particular development that wants to go in. We would need to bring back as part of a design and construction contract for the water and sewer improvements with what is covered and what is not or any impact fees that may be incurred.”
Council approved the request to allow KCI to conduct a feasibility study for the Red Cedar Farms property located east of Bucks Road and north of Cedar Neck Road.
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