Putnam Secures Agreement with Danbury for Sewage Treatment
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Putnam County Executive MaryEllen Odell secured an agreement from the City of Danbury last week to provide the sewage treatment necessary for the development of the Route 6 corridor.
Odell said access to sewage has long been an obstacle to development along Route 6 because the roadway borders a protected New York City reservoir.
“It is rare to get to work together across municipal and state lines, and I want to thank Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito for seeing the value in regional collaboration,” said Odell, who is leaving office at the end of the year. “Opening up that stretch of Putnam for development will create jobs for our residents and grow our tax base, and it will provide revenue for the City of Danbury.”
The letter of intent signed Dec. 13 outlines a project in which a sewer line would connect 3.5 miles of commercially zoned land along Route 6 Southeast to Danbury’s sewage treatment plant, which has excess capacity. Danbury would take 300,000 gallons of sewage a day from Putnam and charge no more than it charges other Connecticut municipalities that contract with it to treat their sewage.
“I’m excited to enter into negotiations on an historic inter local agreement with County Executive Odell and our neighbors in Putnam County,” Esposito said. “This would be a significant benefit to both of our communities, and I look forward to continuing these discussions and moving this project ahead in the coming months.”
Vincent Tamagna, project manager in the county’s Planning Department, said the pact will benefit Putnam and Danbury.
“There a many small parcels along that stretch of road. It’s not like anyone will be building a large mall or compete with Danbury, rather we will attract more people to support the regions businesses,” Tamagna explained. “In fact, the sewage may open up opportunities to develop more housing, which will mean more consumers to shop in both the City of Danbury and Putnam County.”
Odell said Putnam has pledges of approximately $5 million in federal and state grants for the project.
In 2017, Odell secured a $1.2 million state grant from the Empire State Development to study the project. Subsequently, Putnam received additional grants, including: $750,000 from NYS Department of Environmental Conservation; $1,147,500 from Empire State Development; and $2.125 million from the House of Representatives Community Project Funding (CPF).
“This is one of the largest opportunities we have had in decades to build on our economic infrastructure and environmentally improve a very important commercial corridor,” Odell said. “We worked close with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and gained their support in improving and repairing many of the parcels of land that have failing or soon to be failing septic systems. This is a win for our environment as well as our future economic outlook.”
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
