You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout. I’m telling you why. Windham has a town government committed to creating a sewer system that a large number of homes will never be connected to but may very well end up paying dearly for while maintaining their own septic systems.

I guess one might call that taxation without representation or even worse, taxation if you have constipation.

At this time the cost of installing and maintaining the sewer along with monthly sewer fees and other taxes such as a “betterment tax” are far from being decided. What I can say is that it won’t be cheap and could come in multiple phases, each in the tens of millions.

What I find discouraging is that our own very town government may, in fact, be responsible for the supposedly increasing pollution in the North Windham business district. I believe it was in the Comprehensive Master Plan where it stated if development in North Windham began to affect the quality of the ground water, then development had to cease although we know it didn’t and still continues today.

Of course, one can also blame past councils for failing to address the needs of Windham’s future but at this point that’s spilled milk that has dried up. As reported last week in this paper, should we trust one and only one firm’s notion as to pollution figures and the staggering costs of a sewer system for Windham?

The funding for total completion of the sewer system must also be combined with an ever-increasing school budget and undoubtedly municipal budget as well. Will the Windham Public Works Department need a new location sooner than we think? Will the School Committee want another new school soon? The Windham town manager once proclaimed that Windham was a rich town but those days might be rapidly declining with these events hit our bank accounts.

Windham does has a rich history based on agriculture and common sense. Yes, even I want to see development that is orderly and perhaps more importantly, needed, to sustain a lively community. Instead, all I have witnessed is at best unplanned and haphazard development without any regard to present and future infrastructure needs. I do not see how planning for a sewer system in Windham could be any different with the present leadership Windham has.

What I do see in Windham are economic development and planning offices that rely heavily on studies farmed out to private corporations and many of those studies sitting on shelves collecting dust. Windham taxpayers pay big bucks for the staff in town hall and it’s time we truly receive a big bang for those bucks. At this point I believe that the only reason that Windham does not have its own full-time engineer is that it might make others look stupid. Make no mistake about it, Windham’s present development problems are a direct result of a lack of leadership of the past and are going to be paid for by the present and future population of Windham, like it or not. The only question we all should ask is how much are we going to pay for these past mistakes.

With the exception of just a few in South Windham, most of us rely on our septic systems to do what they are supposed to do and pray that they don’t fail. Will town hall help if your septic tank fails? If the sewer pipe goes by your property, do you want to pay a betterment tax as well as property taxes and sewer fees? The sewer pipes will pass properties that have no public water so how will sewer bills be calculated?

The last survey never mentioned the sewer and

yet the town manager concluded that the town wanted a sewer system he dreams of. When we see the total cost of that sewer system, a colonoscopy and triple bypass might be necessary.

Lane Hiltunen, of Windham, believes diapers and politicians are full of the same thing.