By Vicky Wedig
Editor
Homeowners in the Geneva Landings and Delavan Club condominium associations will be charged $440 each for the repair of a sewer line the developments share.
Geneva Landings, which is west of the Delavan Club off Borg Road, petitioned the Delavan Lake Sanitary District to take ownership of the sewer system throughout the condo association, said DLSD Administrator James DeLuca. He said Delavan Club, which is east of Geneva Landings off North Shore Road, plans to turn over its system to the district next year.
Before taking over Geneva Landing’s system, DLSD inspected it and found items that needed repair. DeLuca said the condo association took care of all of the repairs that lay within Geneva Landings. But a main sewer line off Borg Road that is shared between the two developments needed repair. DeLuca said private contractors installed the line when Delavan Club was developed, and the line was sagging.
“The sag was pretty bad,” he said.
The repair cost $138,836. The 315 homeowners in Delavan Club and Geneva Landings will be charged $440.75 each, DeLuca said. The DLSD Commission approved the special assessment Friday.
The nearly $139,000 price tag is higher than originally planned. DeLuca said a representative of R.A. Smith based the original estimate on completing the work within half the length between manholes.
“He thought if we could get to one end of the sag, we would have sufficient pitch to fix it without tearing up the road,” he said.
However, DeLuca said, once crews began the repair, they discovered the line was “back pitched” upstream to the other manhole. Bradford Contractors had to cut into the road after all and repair the line from manhole to manhole “to get the pitch done right,” DeLuca said.
The change added $60,000 to the cost. The DLSD approved a change order and payment to Bradford Contractors on Friday.
DeLuca said two people attended a public hearing about the special assessment for the repair – one resident and the association’s property maintenance manager. The resident requested the $440 assessment be broken up into six payments, and the commission approved that arrangement.
DeLuca said residents who can’t afford the $440.75 in one lump payment, will be billed about $75 every other month on their sewer bills.
The DLSD commission is scheduled to approve dedicating the Geneva Landings infrastructure into the DLSD system on Dec. 18. The commission meets at 9 a.m. at DLSD headquarters, 2990 County Road F South.
With the sewer system under DLSD’s jurisdiction, it will become part of the district’s maintenance plan and will be routinely inspected and repaired.
“That takes a little burden off of them,” DeLuca said.
Completing needed repairs like the main sewer line also will help residents avoid unexpected costs and sewage back-ups, he said.
