New Milford’s second sewer superintendent in eight months quits.
NEW MILFORD — The superintendent of the New Milford’s sewer system, Michael Finoia, will resign Friday, little more than a week after saying he could no longer be responsible for the excessive amounts of septic waste being accepted by the Water Pollution Control Authority.
Robert Pudelka quit in September after two years in the job.
Finoia’s departure comes at another crossroads, as the commission considers increasing sewer rates to the repay the town millions owed for a 2012 plant upgrade.
After the meeting, the commission and town decided to accept Finoia’s resignation, which he had threatened during a tense meeting of the Sewer Commission last week, Gronbach said.
“We asked to meet with him, because that Sewer Commission meeting was so contentious, just to get to the bottom of his resignation threat four months into the job,” Gronbach said.
“But up to the point he threatened to resign, there were no conversations about it.” Finoia said during last week’s meeting he hadn’t broached the issue before because of the town’s “money problems.” Gronbach said money differences between the town and WPCA had nothing to do with Pudelka’s resignation last September and should not have prompted Finioa’s.
“All the financial issues are between the town and the Sewer Commission,” Gronbach said.
The money differences stem from a sewer-plant upgrade in 2012 in which the town paid for the $22 million expansion and the WPCA agreed to pay the town back with sewer-line connection fees.
The commission was set to discuss a 5 percent increase in operational costs before Finioa’s threat derailed last week’s meeting.