Eagle Road residents seek sewer

SAUGUS – Residents in the tiny Eagle Road neighborhood have asked town officials to consider footing the bill for approximately 250 feet of sewer line so they can tie into the town’s sewerage system.When Lawn Pro received a special permit for its business on Lark Avenue, one of the conditions was it had to run a sewer line from Route 1 down Wren Street to Eagle Road. Precinct 4 representative Janet Leuci said Lawn Pro would finish the project by fall, as is required, but residents are now concerned about the cost to them to continue the line up Eagle Road.Leuci said with the Inflow and Infiltration fee, which would be $3,900 for a three bedroom home plus a fee of $100 per fixture coupled with the cost of running the sewer line, the project borders on prohibitively expensive for the roughly four homeowners affected.”It really shouldn’t be the neighborhood’s responsibility to construct the line in the street,” she said. “I think the town should take some responsibility.”Selectman Michael Kelleher asked Leuci why Eagle Road should take precedent over any other neighborhood in the same predicament and Leuci said simply because of opportunity.Since Lawn Pro will be laying its line, she said, it’s the perfect time for the town to pick up the slack and run it the rest of the way.Department of Public Works Superintendent Joseph Attubato agreed it would be timely, but said the project could cost $200,000 or more.”That’s just an estimate,” he said. “It would depend on who did the job, and the water table is a little high there. There are little things like that you don’t see.”Leuci said she thought the project would not only benefit the residents but also the town. She also reminded them that she wasn’t asking for anything more than anyone else in town received.”When my street was sewered, I didn’t have to pay,” she said.Kelleher asked if Leuci had identified a funding source to pay for the project, but she said that would be up to the town manager.Town Meeting member Al DiNardo also encouraged the board to consider the project. DiNardo said the neighborhood is in an obscure part of town and doesn’t ask for much and he believes ultimately that it should be the town’s responsibility to extend the line.Kelleher asked Town Manager Andrew Bisignani not only to look into the problem but to also do an inventory to find out how many other neighborhoods are in Eagle Road’s predicament.”There are less and less,” Attubato said Wednesday. “The town is about 90 percent sewered. There are little areas that still need it but not many.”