On Monday evening, February 16th, 2026 members gathered for the renewed Committee of Old Lyme Shared & Internal Sewer Infrastructure Project (composed Miami, Old Colony, and Old Lyme Shores – the Town was absent, but is invited to attend future meetings). It had been some time since the group had assembled, but with the recent project activity it was long overdue. The agenda covered a broad range of topics, but we were able to get through them in just over an hour.

Meeting Notes

Cost Sharing Agreement (CSA)

The group of beach representatives reviewed several elements of the Cost Sharing Agreement:

• Commitment to the 2020 CSA which include all four parties
  • Miami Beach Association
  • Old Colony Beach Association
  • Old Lyme Shores Beach Association
  • Town of Old Lyme
• The need to appoint a representative from each party
• Agreement to send a letter to the Town of Old Lyme reminding them of their obligations under the 2020 Cost Sharing Agreement

Bond Resolution Confirmations

The beaches agreed that we need to confirm with bond counsel that the various bond resolutions individually and in aggregate support the Clean Water Funds (CWF) Interim Financing Obligation (IFO) for Construction Phase application as it relates to Table 4.

Operations & Management Team

The Town of East Lyme and the Connecticut Water company were contacted to poll their interest in operations and maintenance management and billing for the sewer system. We will need a scope of work to issue a request for proposal (RFP). Jay Moynihan volunteered to draft that for review.

Construction Market Adjustments

While Fuss & O’Neill requested the contractor submit their market adjustment for the shared project mid-month, we expect that will be arriving by the end of the month, about 7-10 days later than originally hoped. They requested a one-week extension, which was granted. Once received, Fuss & O’Neill is expected to review and present to the beaches.

CWF Grant & Loan Forgiveness Order of Operations

We discussed the importance of gaining the State’s commitment to apply the CWF Grant BEFORE applying the $15M in loan forgiveness. We also discussed the value in applying the loan forgiveness to the design loans to stop interest from accruing on that balance (would only apply to the shared project loan).

Fuss & O’Neil Project Management Costs

Project construction monitoring costs have risen significantly. There was discussion of putting this function back out to bid or seeking cost reductions, since there should be some “economies of scale” with four projects so tightly coupled.
Amtrak/Bridge/Paving Concerns

Other Permitting & Timing Items

We discussed the need to validate with Amtrak that we are good to move forward with the project and that we synchronize with DOT on road paving. The Town also should have $150k in ARP (American Rescue Plan?) funding for needed bridge work. These issues require more investigation prior to our next meeting.

Subsequent Activities and Outcomes

CWF Grant & Loan Forgiveness Order of Operations

The following day, we met with the State of Connecticut DEEP and Treasury representatives and discussed this topic with them. We were informed of the following, related to this topic:

• The loan forgiveness funds COULD be applied to the principal portion of eligible costs incurred during the design phase that fall under the Shared Interim Financing Agreement (CWF 720-D).
• Loan forgiveness funds COULD NOT be applied to the interest accrued on the Shared Design IFO to date.
• When the loan forgiveness funds are finally applied to the Shared Design IFO, we have two options for how to handle the accrued interest:
  • We can retire the obligation outright by paying off the accrued interest
  • We can capitalize the accrued interest by rolling it over into the Shared Construction IFO

This treatment of the application of loan forgiveness funds means that they will be applied AFTER the 25% CWF Grant funding is applied. This sets a favorable precedent for how the remaining loan forgiveness funding will be applied to the Construction phase. As noted previously, this treatment is the common sense answer. The 75% CWF loan subsidy is derived by first applying the 25% CWF Grant subsidy to the eligible costs. One would assume that “loan forgiveness” means exactly what it says – and that appears to be the manner in which it will be treated.

Letter to the Town of Old Lyme

On Tuesday evening, we understand that the Miami Beach Association voted to authorize their WPCA Chairman and their Association President to sign the letter to the Town of Old Lyme. On Wednesday night, the Old Lyme Shores Board unanimously authorized the President to sign the same letter. The Chairman of the Old Lyme Shores WPCA asked that his name/office be removed from the letter. He stated that the OLS WPCA did not have another regularly scheduled meeting until March 12th and would determine whether to present the letter to them for authorization for him to sign at that time.

On Thursday, the Chair of the Committee of Old Lyme Shared & Internal Sewer Infrastructure Project confirmed receipt of a copy of the letter signed by all three association Presidents and two of three WPCA Chairman (a copy is available here). The letter was sent to Town Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker. We requested that she forward to the appropriate person on the Town’s WPCA, since with last week’s mass resignations we were unsure whom to contact. She acknowledged receipt of the letter and informed us that she would share it with Mary Daley, WPCA Chair and Dennis Miluzzo, Vice Chair. She also indicated that the Town would let us know soon whom they will appoint as their representative to the committee.

In Closing

All in all, we have made positive progress this week inasmuch as:

• • • We confirmed favorable treatment of the loan forgiveness and CWF grant funding
    • We informed the Town of their continuing obligation to the Shared Project
    • The Town’s response appears to indicate that they understand their obligations and will continue to participate in the meetings

We still have more issues to tackle, but this was a good week’s work for a small group of volunteers.

John Cunningham

OLSBA President

February 19. 2026