By Matt
Breslow
Staff
Writer
Published June 11
2007
NORWALK - Flooding
solutions and a new police contract are on the agenda for the Common Council
tomorrow.
Three flooding-related projects will go before the council at
an 8 p.m. meeting at City Hall.
The council must
approve a $1.7 million special appropriation, which would come from the Water
Pollution Control Authority's reserve cash, to hire a Missouri firm to fix
sewer lines in the Westport
Avenue service area.
"During wet weather peak
flow periods, the sewer system in this area is unable to handle the volume of
flow, and as a result, the city has experienced sewer overflows and back-ups in
this area," Finance Director Thomas Hamilton said in a recent memo.
The
problem has caused sewage to back up onto streets and private properties. Until
the sewer lines are fixed, the city has placed a moratorium on new developments
that would add sewage to the Westport Avenue service
area.
Insituform Technologies Inc. was the low bidder on the project,
which also will address illegal hook-ups, involving items such as downspouts and
sump pumps, from 15 residential properties to the sewer system.
Another
agenda item calls for the council to approve a $334,000 contract amendment with
Tighe & Bond, a consulting firm that studied flooding in
Norwalk.
The
amendment calls for the firm to design fixes for storm drainage problems that
cause flooding in the Olmstead
Place-Fitch Street and Buckingham Place-Lockwood
Lane areas.
Also, the council must decide
whether to accept an arbitration panel's award on a new police contract. Police
have worked without a contract since July 1.
State-supervised arbitration
on a new pact began in March after members of Norwalk Police Union Local 1727
voted down two tentative agreements between city and union
negotiators.
The city mostly prevailed in arbitration, which involved
salary hikes, medical coverage and other issues. If the new contract is adopted,
union members' pay would increase by 14 percent over four years. The contract
would go before a second arbitration panel if the council rejects the award.
