The Waitsfield Select Board further advanced plans for a municipal wastewater system this week when the board approved plans to have its engineers undertake the first 30% of final design work.
At its January 9 meeting the board discussed funding for this phase of the work, which is being done by Dubois and King. The 30% phase will cost $182,000 and the town’s wastewater planning team spent an extensive amount of time working with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation maximizing the town’s eligibility for Clean Water State Revolving Fund funding to cover portions of that fee.
That work involved showing that the median household income in the services areas of Waitsfield and Irasville Villages, was low enough to qualify the town for that funding. The state had originally calculated the town’s eligibility based on the whole town median household income of $77,000. The median household income in the service area is $32,000 and the state median household income is $66,000.
Those figures mean that the town will qualify for a $153,674 subsidy for the 30% design phase. The town will cover the balance of the cost, $28,326, with ARPA funds. That leaves the town with $180,340 in unallocated ARPA funds.
To get this far in the planning process, Waitsfield has received $199,418 to study the feasibility of municipal wastewater and to undertake the PER. Both of those loans have been forgiven by the state.
The estimated cost of the wastewater system is $15.6 million, and it will be able to handle about 84,000 gallons per day. That disposal ability will provide the town with the capacity to provide wastewater to users in the service areas as well as provide capacity for 35 one- and 35 two-bedroom dwelling units in the service area with additional capacity to accommodate 8% growth in commercial usage in those areas.
The Wastewater Planning Team will attend the January 22 select board meeting to provide a detailed project status update and proposed project timeline through 2024 and beyond. These next steps will include among other things, the additional project design phases. Additional funds will likely need to be allocated to cover the costs of the future phases, which are likely to receive less subsidy, and more discussion will be needed on January 22.
