Pay attention, people! Something important just happened that is kind of wonky and in the nerd realm but has the possibility of saving local voters lots of money.
Years ago, while trying to develop a municipal water system, Waitsfield was simultaneously trying to develop a municipal wastewater system. The town secured grants and loans for engineering and feasibility studies. The town had $900,000 in state and federal grants and almost $700,000 in state loans.
Voters rejected the single, large "big pipe" wastewater system, leaving the town with the need to use some of those funds on some type of wastewater system or pay back $679,000 in loans. Using its planners and consultants the town created a revolving loan fund for townspeople to borrow from when building smaller decentralized wastewater systems, reducing how much money the town needed to repay.
Last fall, planners and consultants found a way to use some of those big pipe funds to cover the cost of stormwater construction and repair costs on Bridge Street. That did two things: It further reduced the amount of money the town will have to repay for its big pipe debt and it helped fill a budget shortfall for the Bridge Street and covered bridge repair project which came in $240,000 over budget when the bids came in.
And now those same consultants and town officials have negotiated with the appropriate authorities and convinced them to let the town apply the federal and state funds to retire a large part of the big pipe debt and apply funds to the cost of the septic system at the new town offices.
This is a coup, albeit a wonky one. What it really shows is that when towns spend money on the right planners, contractors and engineers, the return on that investment is significant. To have negated most of these large debts and turned them into credits for the town is a huge accomplishment.
The town has a loan fund for people to create decentralized waste systems that will replenish itself with loan repayments once the town has satisfied the state. The town will not need to borrow more money to complete the Bridge Street project; the cost of building new town offices will go down by the amount of the septic system. Rather than paying back $36,000 a year for the big pipe expenses, the town will pay back $8,000 a year for 12 years and will receive $20,000 per year on decentralized wastewater loans for eight years after that.
That is a coup, but there was nothing lucky about it. It took perseverance, insight and hard work.
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