Faced with an estimated project cost that would have every property owner in the Agawam Beach and Mayflower Ridge neighborhoods paying $32,000 to get sewer service, the Board of Selectmen Tuesday night indefinitely postponed the project.

The highly protested sewer project and an opinion from attorneys regarding a group home for the mentally ill slated to open on Lynne Road were both addressed Tuesday, drawing more than 100 people to the meeting.

The board discussed looking at other options for cleaning up the water rather than focusing solely on the increasingly expensive expansion of the sewer system. However, the Selectmen ultimately voted 3-2-0 to postpone the project on Tuesday, with members Begley and Schneider against the delay.Their decision came after a public meeting on the project Saturday morning.

"I want to stress that these [numbers] are the best guess we have," Water Pollution Control Facility Director Guy Campinha said Saturday after giving what he called a "ballpark" estimate.

The betterment fee is the amount each household along a new sewer line is required to pay to cover the cost of the extension. The exact fee cannot be known until the project is complete.

The lowest bid for the project was just under $3 million, Campinha said.

Agawam Beach and Mayflower Ridge residents have been steadfastly against the sewer extension. The two neighborhoods are the last of 12 that the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection in 2000 recommended be sewered by 2024.

Confusion as to whether the project must be completed immediately or if it could be put off or not done at all has been mounting. Town officials previously said the DEP mandated the projects be completed, but Campinha clarified on Saturday that the town would determine whether to begin the project.

"The state has never mandated this issue," he said. "It's not the state's determination as to whether we do it or not."

The clarification prompted the room of nearly 100 angry residents to yell "Don't want it!" and "Leave us alone!"

Town officials have argued at previous meetings that the project should be completed now because the state currently has loan funding available for municipalities expanding sewer systems at a low 2-percent interest rate.

On Tuesday, Campinha said postponing the project will not eliminate the town’s ability to receive this funding in the future, however the interest rate could be different.

There is currently no known state funding available to lessen the blow of construction costs, as there was for the town's most recent sewer contracts covering Parkwood Beach and Cromesett/Oakdale.

The betterment has only been set for the Parkwood Beach contract - roughly $15,000. Cromesett/Oakdale has an estimated betterment of $22,000.

"This can't be. It isn't right," Swan Lane resident James Feely said Saturday. "I only make $500 a month in Social Security. When you only make $500 a month ... you can't even buy a pair of sneakers."

Neighbors told Campinha and members of the Board of Selectmen at the Saturday meeting that they felt they did not have a say and would be forced to foot the bill for a project they did not want and could not afford.

"We're you're citizens. We're who pay the taxes. I feel like I'm being railroaded," said Mayflower Ridge Drive resident Deanne Fearing.

Residents urged the Selectmen present - Chair Walter Cruz and members Steve Holmes and Ellen Begley - to vote on the project Saturday, prompting Holmes to stand up and explain that the board would violate the Open Meeting Law if it voted, as it did not have an agenda for the meeting and did not indicate it would be voting.

Neighbors then tried to get the Selectmen to indicate which way they would be voting on Tuesday.

"I'll say this: I don't have $32,000 in my pocket either," said Holmes. "The only way I could see to vote this forward is if there was a way that everybody [across all three contracts] paid the same. ... If we can't do that, in my mind, we need to find another avenue to get [the project] done."

To assure residents that their opinion would relayed to the Board of Selectmen, Holmes asked how many were in favor of the project as it stands.

No one in the room raised their hands.

All of the hands went up when attendees were asked if they were opposed to the project.

"You can sum it up in three words," Agawam Beach resident Liz McEvoy said after the meeting. "'Make it fair.'"