ANSONIA – Members of Ansonia’s Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA)want answers about the potential sale of the city’s wastewater assets.
In a meeting on March 6, board members said they’re being kept in the dark about the sale of the wastewater system they supervise.
“We haven’t been told anything about this sale, any information. Who’s looking to buy it, who’s coming to look at it, what kind of prices. Officially, technically, we’re completely out of the loop,” board member and Alderman Dan King said.
The Board of Aldermen voted to put the WPCA up for sale last December, after an appraisal valued it at around $54 million. In January, Aquarion visited the site and told the city it was interested in buying. Last month, the Aldermen voted to enter into negotiations with Aquarion.
The next step is for Aquarion to name a price to the city, at which point the city will come back with its own offer.
During the meeting’s public session, Ansonia resident and former Planning & Zoning Commission Chairman Bart Flaherty said the public hasn’t been kept in the loop about the potential sale.
“No one ever said why they’re selling it,” he said.
WPCA board member and Alderman Chicago Rivers said that repairs at the facility are expensive, and that by selling it, those costs can be offloaded onto a private entity.
In December, city corporation counsel John Marini sent The Valley Indy an email echoing Rivers’ remarks.
“Ansonia’s plant is 15 years old and that comes with an ever-increasing cost to our taxpayers,” the email read. “We believe it may be more cost effective to privatize/regionalize the wastewater treatment plant. It’s certainly worth exploring.”
WPCA boards set budgets and provide oversight of the WPCA employees and infrastructure. Click here for more info.
Members of the board asked whether the WPCA will have any say as to whether or not it’s sold. So far, it’s been in the Aldermen’s hands.
Rivers said that any potential sale is still early in the process, and that a sale would have to get approval from the Aldermen, after which it would go to public hearings and finally a referendum.
An attorney for WPCA was present at the meeting, who consulted with them about the sale during an executive session.
Staffing Issues
WPCA Superintendent Jason St. Jacques told the board that the plant is understaffed. He said there are currently three employees working there, while they are supposed to have eight.
In addition, he said the plant is falling short of state requirements, with none of the staff holding a Class IV Wastewater Operator license (the state requires at least one employee to have this license).
He said WPCA gave hiring advertisements to Ansonia Economic Development Director Sheila O’Malley in February to be posted publicly, but that posting never occurred.
“We are under a microscope right now for that,” he said.
O’Malley confirmed that she had received a Class III operator posting and hadn’t made it public. She said she wasn’t sure whether or not there was money in the budget to hire for the position.
O’Malley also said she had posted a hiring advertisement for a Class IV operator twice, but had taken it down after no one applied. St. Jacques said in the meeting that cities across the state were struggling to hire Class IV positions.
Board members said during the WPCA meeting that they intended to send out another job posting – for a Class II operator – in the coming weeks.
