Lost Lake Sewer; Selectmen ask: 'Where Do We Go From Here?'

Town Manager Mark Haddad told Selectmen Monday night, "The bottom line is that voters were overwhelmingly opposed (to the $12.9M Lost Lake Sewer proposal) at Town Meeting. I think finances were a big part of it. I am asking Selectmen to have two members meet with me and the Dept. of Environmental Protection...They have been very forgiving believing that the project was moving forward." All applications for various approvals for the Lost Lake Sewer project are still before the state for funding including the inter-basin transfer with Ayer and the low interest loan. As long as the project itself doesn't change, this will remain the case.

Selectmen Chairman Stuart Schulman asked, "Where do we go from here? Lost Lake Sewer Committee member Carol Quinn resigned. Are we going to bring this back or are we going to say to Lost Lake 'you're on your own'?"

Colleague Peter Cunningham noted, "State funds are limited. I'm not sure they will still be there. We need to try to build a consensus, with different financials. This is not just isolated to Lost Lake but the whole community. It could affect the town water supply. It may be more than the town kicking in more than 25 percent. I am not sure you can pull together another lake meeting."

Schulman pointed out, "There are sizable factions in town that do not want to pay anything. There are sizable factions in town that want to pay more and there are sizable factions in town that didn't have the full information." He added that there are people who jumped to conclusions about the consultants and the (water) testing.

Board of Health member Dr. Susan Horowitz painted an unsettling picture of the state of some homes at the lake. "We've been at this since 1997. There are 13 properties