Pequannock finally ready to move forward on sewering Village Area

After several years of planning and a number of starts and stops, the $12 million Village Area sewer project appears to finally be ready to move forward — really, this time — Township Manager Dave Hollberg said Monday.

The work, which will bring sewers to about 320 homes and 55 businesses in the neighborhood just south of Jackson Avenue, will be paid for by $11,425,009 in bonds authorized by the Township Council in September 2010. Jackson Avenue, Evans Place, a section of the Newark-Pompton Turnpike, and Sunset Road from the Turnpike to the Boulevard will also be sewered.

Local officials had thought last spring that the project would be done by now, but Hollberg said that the town couldn’t move forward without completing prior assessments left over from the Pequannock and Munson Avenue sewer projects.

"We needed to get that done, but now that we’ve completed that, we can move ahead," he said.

One addendum to the project might be made, Hollberg said. He explained that the township’s engineering department is exploring the possibility of crossing Route 23 at two points, instead of just one as had been previously planned, in order to provide the eastern side of the highway with sewers that could spur commercial development.

Once it’s decided whether to amend the plans, the work will go to bid, and construction should start in the late spring/early summer. The manager said the sooner the project is begun, the better, as the lagging timeline has impacted capital projects like the county’s plan to repave the Newark-Pompton Turnpike and the town’s plan to pave the Village Area’s roads, which have fallen apart as a result of gas and water main work and repeated heavy flooding.

"It’s urgent," Hollberg said. "After the water blending facility is complete, it becomes the top-priority project for this year."

Once the sewers are installed, the bonds will be repaid through a combination of sewer utility monies and assessments against individual homeowners. When it winds up, approximately half the town will have sewers.

Email: janoski@northjersey.com