Portsmouth EDC Chair Rich Talipsky issued a statement today clarifying the context around the presentation on the economic impact of sewers in Island Park that was featured at last night's Town Council meeting. The PEDC’s full presentation is posted on their web site, and also attached below. Talipsky said:

The PEDC in "approving" this presentation to the Town Council has not "endorsed" the concept of sewers. Our reason for the presentation is to present an economic aspect of a sewer plan (with some hypothetical, but realistic scenarios) to create a construct for further study of the issue to ensure all the hearsay and innuendo surrounding this issue is properly analyzed and documented, Per the first and last slides in the presentation:

First Slide states:

• In our opinion the current public debate of the waste water issue affecting the Island Park/Portsmouth Park area is lacking in consideration of some very important financial realities and potentially powerful economic alternatives.
• We are here this evening to engage in this discussion.
• We understand that what we present here will have to be fully studied from a non-economic view and will require the review and concurrence of several other town bodies. But, we felt it critically important to address it to you, the Town Council, at this point.

On the last slide we asked that:

• The Town Council direct the Town Administrator to assemble and lead a team to analyze and report to the Council on the competing economic outcomes and risks for the town and all property owners of Waste Water Management vs. Sewers in the Island Park/Portsmouth area, including
  • The results of substantive discussions on the development of relevant property & participation in a sewer system (in particular the Cardi property).
  • The fiscal impacts and risks to the town.
  • The economic impacts to the citizens of Portsmouth in costs, property valuations, property liquidity and risk.

Large potential development concepts (such as the Cardi scenario used in our presentation) have potential significant impact on the Town and must involve the Town Council, at least for information, in their beginning concept stages. This was part of our reason for presenting it to the Town Council early without a rigorous analysis. It is meant to start a dialogue to engage all the potential stakeholders and eliminate the multiplicity of hearsay and undocumented historical information that has not been formally discussed or has not been discussed in a consolidated forum.

We understand that there may be flaws in our analysis and we welcome any and all comments in a structured process that will result in a compendium of factual data on the issue for future reference.

The PEDC understands that it is not in our charter to examine the non-economic aspects of this issue.

However, we felt it important to provide an economic brief on which to start a comprehensive discussion of an important issue, and ensure that the citizens of Portsmouth are part of an informed decision process, of what may happen to a large Heavy Industrial Zoned parcel in the future

Editorial note: Written from a press release.