POMFRET – With consultant bills mounting, Pomfret officials are working to re-enter a regional engineering program the town’s previous administration pulled out of.
First Selectman Maureen Nicholson said she plans to speak with John Filchak, executive director of the Northeastern Connecticut Council of Governments about paying back into a group program in which participating towns essentially share the cost of using a staff civil engineer.
“Since a decision was made by former selectmen to stop paying into the program, we’ve had to pay that same engineer, Syl Pauley, on an hourly basis for help,” she said. “The program would have cost us about $10,000 for the fiscal year. But our engineering bills for the last six months are already up to $13,000.”
During the last couple of years, Pomfret officials have been working to complete a host of infrastructure projects, including a new emergency operations center, a firehouse extension, a library parking lot addition and the laying of new sidewalks along Pomfret Street.
“One of the problems with not having an engineer is things get missed,” said Nicholson a former first selectman who took office again in November. “With the sidewalk project, we’ve learned ramps are missing and inspections weren’t done. All that now needs to be remedied.”
Nicholson said it was not clear to her why former First Selectman Craig Baldwin decided to leave the regional program.
"But I did my best to advise him it was a good idea to stay in," she said.
Filchak said five of the regional council’s member towns – smaller municipalities without a full-time engineer - avail themselves of the group’s engineer-sharing program.
“We charge on a per capita basis and the service covers a gamut of civil engineering work, from permit preparation and plan reviews to septic system and hazardous waste work,” he said. “This is a program we started 10 years ago and (Pauley) knows these towns he works for.”
While Filchak prefers towns sign on at the beginning of the fiscal year in order to get a better sense of how the costs will be spread out, he said there should be no issue with Pomfret coming back on board now.
“We’d charge based on a pro-rated figure, but they can come back anytime,” he said.