What didn’t happen at the State House when legislators abruptly recessed last week, leaving the fate of many bills in limbo, isn’t going to stop Ward 5 Councilman Ed Ladouceur from efforts to make sewers more affordable and implement change.

Warwick-specific sewer enabling legislation isn’t the only casualty of House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello’s decision to bring the session to a close at 9:30 p.m. June 25 rather than dragging the process on to 3 or 4 the following morning, as has been the tradition. While the truck toll bill, online voter registration and measures that would inhibit the development of more charter schools are among the high profile bills left on the table, there’s a raft of other legislation that constitutes hundreds of hours of hearings and negotiations that essentially could evaporate.

To name a few, there’s Rep. Joseph Solomon’s bill for a Rocky Point license plate and the measures of Rep. Joseph McNamara to allow terminally ill patients to use experimental drugs – “right to try bill” – and to create a funding formula for post-secondary educational institutions that rewards graduation rates. McNamara called Rhode Island College’s graduation in four years rate of 20 percent “unacceptable.”

McNamara also said some “real good bills were collateral damage” of the action to bring the session to a close. He said when legislators reconvene they will need to rebuild consensus. Yet, although he has disappointments that many bills didn’t reach the governor’s desk, he said shutting the session down was a good decision.

“The last minutes [of sessions that dragged on to 4 a.m.] remind me of Jurassic World when bills that are extinct come to life.”

Both McNamara and Rep. K. Joseph Shekarchi said a lot of hard work went into Warwick’s sewer enabling legislation and it was ready to pass.

“Eileen Naughton,” McNamara said of his fellow representative, “did a great job working closely with the Senate.”

The bill had its bumps. It failed to reach a vote last year and it returned to the City Council, which stripped it of language concerning connect-capable fees. This year, Ladouceur worked to educate lawmakers on the need for the legislation, but even after gaining House approval it hit rough waters in the Senate, where amendments would have excluded the authority from operating wastewater management districts. The districts are critical for homeowners to obtain low interest loans for the construction of septic systems. In a scramble, the Senate bill was changed and approved. It was placed on the calendar for a House vote, but then the session ended.

“It’s unfortunate,” Shekarchi said of the outcome, “it’s a Warwick bill; it doesn’t affect the rest of the state.”

The “vicious dog bill,” which Shekarchi and Solomon worked on, was also a casualty of the abrupt conclusion of the session. The measure would define a vicious dog and require owners to muzzle and contain them and prohibits the training of dogs for dog fighting and attacks on humans and domestic animals.

“It could be a 60-day delay,” said Shekarchi. “I don’t think it is fatal.”

But Mattiello is making no guarantees that the session will reconvene in September or October as being talked about. So far, Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed sees no reason to reconvene.

Following a press conference Tuesday where Governor Gina Raimondo signed the $8.7 billion state budget approved by the House and Senate, Mattiello told reporters the bills could end up waiting until 2016.

“We can live with that,” he said.

In response to his action, he said, “When 9:30 comes and you don’t have substantial agreement, you go home.” He said he is setting a “new tone and direction” and to do that “you have to pull the plug.”

As far as the sewer legislation it hasn’t left Ladouceur powerless, although immediately following the action he felt hundreds of hours of work had been flushed down the toilet. In an interview Tuesday, he said he thought some changes he was looking to accomplish through legislation could be achieved though the City Council and the authority.

“Essentially, we’re back to square one. To me it means I must go back to the drawing board, and now what I need to do is to get involved with all the people.”

Among changes the legislation would have enabled is for the authority to alter the payment plan and interest fees on assessments. Currently, assessments can be paid in installments over 20 years at rates that run up to more than 9 percent. The legislation would have set interest rates at no more than 1.25 percent above the cost of borrowing the funds and extended the term to 30 years. The measure would have also allowed the authority to create a hardship provision to assist financially stressed property owners and to rework the current linear foot method of assessment that penalizes certain property owners with large tracts or multiple frontages to sewers.

Ladouceur thought some of the aspects of the legislation could be done with council approval of changes in authority rules and regulations. He’s hopeful, however, that legislators will reconvene before 2016 and the bill will return to life like the phoenix.

“Take a breather,” he said, “catch a breath and reach out to both sides [House and Senate] and see if we can pull this together.”