CONNOQUENESSING TWP — Residents Thursday night continued to oppose a proposed multimillion-dollar sewer plan in the township.

While township supervisors and engineers tried to bill the plan as a long-range benefit that would increase home values and spur development, residents — about 100 of whom turned out — said they didn’t believe the officials value-added assurances or agree with their intent to encourage development.

“We’re already too much like Cranberry for me,” said resident Ray Gilliland, adding that he owns seven rental properties in the township as well as his own home. For Gilliland, public sewer service comes with a collective tap-in cost of about $30,000, according to figures in the planning document, called an Act 537 Plan.

The plan, in its current form, calls for building a treatment plant near the intersection of Dick Road and Boy Scout Road. That plant would serve the township’s Route 68 corridor as well as areas to the north and south of the road.

Township engineers said Thursday that areas of the township served by Butler Area Sewer Authority (BASA) wouldn’t see service changes as a result of the project — which is expected to take about five years to complete and cost about $14.8 million

Charlotte Grimme, who lives at 734 Dick Road, where the treatment plant would be built, said residents don’t want to promote growth and development in the township. Most people, Grimme said, moved to the township to escape suburban living.

She reiterated Thursday her promise to make the township seize her land using eminent domain, and chastised the supervisors for what she said was the planning process’ “extreme secrecy.”

“I think we have the right to continue this lifestyle we’ve created for ourselves,” Grimme said, adding that she fears the treatment plant will lead to the township becoming “a bedroom community for Pittsburgh.”

Grimme, like other residents, also disputed the supervisors’ assurances that the township won’t raise taxes to pay for the plant, and that the public sewer service will increase property values.

Quite the contrary, in Grimme’s opinion. She’s convinced the tap-in and monthly user fees with public sewage service will drive people out of their homes, making it even easier for developers to acquire property.

According to the township’s plan, an expected tap-in fee would be $3,000 per equivalent dwelling unit — a volume-based measure of average outflow produced by one family — and monthly user fees would be about $68.

Officials say both of those expenses are lower than a proposed alternative to the plant: building a collecting and transportation system that would send sewage to the BASA.

Even those residents not in outright opposition to the plan said they disagreed with the township’s planning process.

Resident Ed Tanski, who owns Buttercup Woodlands Campground and is a member of the Evans City Water and Sewer Authority, advised the supervisors to table the proposed Act 537 revisions and create a sewer authority to take over the planning process.

Tanski said the board he serves on recently finished its own $10 million plant construction project, and called the process a “hair-raising experience” that can easily be derailed. He advised the township to put together a five-member board staffed with experts and community members, and to take the task away from the supervisors.

“The proper authority working with the proper engineers ... can come up with the right plan for the township,” Tanski said.

The next step in the process would be for the supervisors to formally accept the draft plan and send it to the state Department of Environmental Protection for review and approval.

However township Supervisor Terry Steinheiser said this morning it was “much too premature” to take that step.

Steinheiser said he thinks the best action to take is for the township to put together a board to help direct the planning process.

“Probably by the time everything is in order ... we’re looking at four to five years down the road. This is going to take some planning,” he said this morning.

Several residents Thursday night voiced concerns about costs and the data on which the plan was created.

Resident James Ewart said he was concerned that cost estimates were “lowball estimates,” and he worried that any plant built would already be over capacity because of projected growth.

According to the draft plan, the township is expected to grow at a rate of 1.4 percent annually until 2040.

Ewart’s brother, John, also had cost concerns — these associated with salary figures he said were contained in the township’s plan: $120,000 for a plant operator, and $40,000 for an administrative staff member.

“This whole thing is a house of cards,” John Ewart said. “The numbers don’t make a lot of sense, and they aren’t going to get better. They’re only going to get worse. The cost of this is going to continue to escalate.”

Hillis Kaltenbaugh of Shannon Road said he wanted officials to consider a smaller-scale alternative: Fix the malfunctioning on-site sewage systems in the township, and do away with a large-scale project that most residents don’t want or need.

“Take care of the Route 68 corridor and Winterwood, and eliminate ... putting the cost of the system on the rest of the township and people who don’t need it.”

Kaltenbaugh’s sentiments were echoed by several other residents who spoke — including Grimme, who again questioned why the township wanted to place the plant on her property, which is in a floodplain and also classified as wetlands.

Grimme provoked applause and laughter with her characterization of the plan: “What they want to do is ... flow everybody else’s (expletive) down into our beautiful valley.”