Peabody mayor ups pond cleanup bond

PEABODY – Mayor Michael Bonfanti won’t back down in his fight to bond for the nearly $1 million needed to clean up one very large mistake that left a local pond contaminated.Between 1997 and 2006, the city was denied permission to dispose of residual waste (dirt, iron, etc.) through the South Essex Sewerage District. Public Service Director Dick Carnevale made the call to pump all the waste into two onsite lagoons built with the ability to handle only half that amount. Naturally, they overflowed and the residual waste found its way into Lower Spring Pond.The state Department of Environmental Protection fined the city $25,000 in 2006 when reports of the contamination arose. That amount was lowered to $6,000 after the city consented to cleaning the pond entirely by Oct. 1, 2008, or face a $1,000 a day fine until they did so.City Councilors voted 6-5 against Bonfanti’s $950,000 bond request last month, choosing to instead use reserve funds to clean up the mess that has become Spring Pond over the past 10 years. Their decision didn’t sit well with Bonfanti, who brought the issue to the table yet again with a second request, only this time for $960,000.”I strongly believe now is not the time to spend down our operating reserves for capital projects, but rather we should finance this project with the sale of municipal bonds, particularly when the cost to borrow funds are very favorable,” he said, adding that the reduction of Peabody’s reserves could result in future increases in the cost of borrowing.The bond would cover the installation of suction pumps to prevent further discharge from entering the pond, as well as a Trak-Vac system that would remove settled residuals from the floor of the pond into a sewer system at the South Essex Sewerage District.Councilors decided Tuesday night that Bonfanti’s most recent request needed to be further examined and moved it to their next Finance Committee meeting scheduled for May 15.