Lunenburg Sewer Commission Approves Leak Waiver, Orders Pressure-Line Design for Laurel Lane

LUNENBURG -- June 9, 2026, Lunenburg Sewer Commission approves a $6,127 waiver and orders a pressure-line redesign at a troubled Laurel Lane address. The commission voted 5-0 at its June 9 meeting to forgive the sewer portion of a $6,260 bill at 1790 Massachusetts Avenue, where an underground leak ran undetected beneath a property trailer for roughly six weeks during the winter; the resident will be billed only for her normal minimum usage. On a separate matter, staff abandoned a $9,000-plus gravity sewer repair proposal for 100 Laurel Lane after a field probe confirmed the site lacks adequate pitch and that the originally proposed manhole connection would have required raising the road surface, instead, the commission directed staff to design a three-connection E1 grinder-pump pressure system serving 100 Laurel Lane, its accessory dwelling unit, and 104 Laurel Lane, with bid documents to follow. The meeting also surfaced a policy concern: staff said an independent review of the commission's sewer regulations found no clear authority to charge additional betterment fees when a single-family property converts to multi-family use, a gap members said could grow as state zoning changes drive more infill development, and staff said they will bring the question to town counsel.