An April 25 article about Corcoran's sewer plans created the misleading impression that city decision-makers are actively considering a municipal waste treatment plant in lieu of connection to the metro-wide (MUSA) sewer system. This is not true. There is no community support for building a municipal plant and the City Council has never seriously discussed this possibility.
Council Member Paul Jacobs and City Planner Norm Gartner have for years been the lone advocates of this approach. Mr. Jacobs, the managing director of a local, on-site wastewater treatment cooperative, sought unsuccessfully to obtain a franchise to operate wastewater systems in Corcoran. The city recently prevailed in two lawsuits against his cooperative resulting from the cooperative's refusal to obtain city permits before constructing septic systems for Corcoran residents.
Mr. Gartner, who is the cooperative's consulting engineer, has been open in his desire to design a municipal treatment plant for Corcoran. His advocacy of a municipal system for Corcoran, contrary to our comprehensive plan, community sentiment and simple common sense, clearly places his own business interests ahead of what's best for our city.
On April 24, the night before the article appeared, well over 100 Corcoran residents attended an open-mike session at City Hall to discuss comprehensive plan land use issues. The citizens who commented on the planned MUSA sewer system emphatically supported bringing the MUSA system to downtown Corcoran without delay. Not one citizen, and curiously, neither Mr. Jacobs nor Mr. Gartner, suggested the city even explore a municipal system.
In my 10 years of direct involvement with Corcoran city government, I can't recall more than a handful of citizens ever demonstrating any interest in the Jacobs/Gartner concepts. The City Council and Planning Commission have never accepted their proposals and their efforts to mislead both the reporter and the public are an unfortunate disservice.
The MUSA sewer system is less than a half mile from Corcoran's border. It will arrive at the border within the next year and will be a mere three-fourths of a mile from our planned downtown sewer district. The city's sewer-phasing plan anticipates the downtown sewer connection to occur by 2010.
The Corcoran City Council and Planning Commission will hold a joint session at City Hall on May 22 beginning at 7 p.m. to take additional public comment on the planned, MUSA-based sewer system and related elements of our comprehensive plan. The comprehensive plan is unequivocal that the MUSA system will be a part of Corcoran's future.
Despite Mr. Jacobs' longstanding mission to impose his wastewater cooperative and agenda on the community, the city of Corcoran is committed to becoming a part of the MUSA sewer system.
