Fairlee
The $4.1 bond being sought for the proposed project is the subject of a public informational meeting scheduled for 6:30 tonight at the fire station.
One new wrinkle to the project is that, in order to qualify for federal funds to support the project, Fairlee would have to switch from its current flat-fee rate system to installing water meters for each of its 350 customers.
“The USDA in all their wisdom, I guess you’d call it, is making us move ahead with meters,” Town Administrator Brian Hanson said on Tuesday. He estimated that installing the meters would cost roughly $250,000, which is the main reason that the total amount of the bond has increased from the $3.9 million estimated in early April, when Selectboard members first pitched the idea to the public.
Though the bond would authorize the town to borrow up to $4.1 million, Selectboard members, including Chairwoman Cathy McGrath, have said the actual amount borrowed will be far less because Fairlee can reasonably expect to get much of the funding from other sources.
The project would achieve three main goals — first, it would replace a failing 265,000-gallon municipal water tank off Bald Top Road, at a cost of about $1.1 million. Second, it would seek to address the presence of water-fouling magnesium with a $1.4 million filtration and softening system. And third, it would replace about 1.6 miles of water main for an additional $1.4 million.
The town hopes to pay for at least some of the bond with an increase in fees to the water system’s municipal customers, and it also hopes to recoup much or all of the tank replacement through legal action against the company that built the tank 12 years ago (the tank was meant to last 75 years).
But a federal grant through the USDA’s Water & Waste Disposal Loan & Grant Program in Vermont, could pay for as much as 45 percent of the town’s out-of-pocket costs for the project.
USDA spokeswoman Pollaidh Major said there’s no way to predict how much the town might get from the program, which finances projects with a mix of loans and grants.
“It’s based on the availability of both grant and loan funds in D.C.,” Major said. “It would be competing at the national level, rather than the state level.”
Major said that, when deciding what the split could be between loan money and grant money, the USDA considers the amount of money that would be paid by system users, relative to the median income of those users. She said the USDA targets making sure that no more than 1 percent of the median household income is spent on water.
Fairlee Water Department Chief Operator Lance Colby was at the Bald Top Road water tank Tuesday afternoon, inspecting it to see whether the entire tank really needs to be replaced, or whether a roof replacement might work.
It’s one of many unknowns, Colby said, that makes him think the town is moving too quickly.
“My opinion is, they should wait until everybody could have a full understanding of what needs to be done and what doesn’t,” he said.
Colby has also questioned the need for the water filtration system, and to replace some of the 1,600 feet being pursued by the town.
Colby was joined in his inspection by members of an advisory committee formed by the Selectboard to come up with formal recommendations on the projects. “We’re all concerned about the fastness,” Colby said.
But McGrath said voters shouldn’t look to the upcoming June vote as a firm commitment to the project, but a means of keeping the town’s options open. She said she and other town officials are still weighing what courses of action should be pursued, and that the town might slow down if the USDA’s financial package isn’t favorable, or if the optimal course to pursue isn’t clear.
“We’re guaranteed that money for five years,” she said. “We could postpone the projects over that five-year time frame.”
Major said that the USDA favors the metering system because it promotes the conservation of water, a federal goal, and it also helps to protect the public investment, because it’s easier to identify and repair leaks in a metered system.
A second informational session is scheduled for June 6, and the townwide vote will be held from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on June 14.
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.