Waitsfield is holdings its first community outreach meeting for its planned municipal wastewater system on May 8 at the Village Meeting House in the Waitsfield United Church of Christ.
The meeting is from 6 to 8 p.m. and will include food, facts and funding updates on the project. A bond vote on the $15 million project is slated for June 11. At next month’s meeting the town will provide updated information about the project of the final engineering and design process, response from users in the service area in terms of willingness to sign on and details about funding.
The town’s goal is to construct the system using grants and loans that will be paid for by system users. There will be no charge for users in the service area to hook up to the system.
Here is the funding plan:
- Vermont Clean Water state resolving fund: $353,092.
- Waitsfield ARPA funding: $28,326.
- USDA Rural Development grant: $2,923,470.
- USDA Rural Development loan $1,7,00,630.
- Congressional direct spending $4,000,000.
- Village wastewater ARPA state funding $6,000,000.
The system will serve properties in the Irasville and Waitsfield Village areas. Wastewater will be pumped to the Munn field where a tertiary treatment plant will be built. At the May 8 meeting, town officials and municipal wastewater project manager Annie Decker-Dell’Isola (former town administrator) will provide an update on the progress of engineers working on final design which is currently at 30%.
Decker-Dell’Isola said several of the funding partners would be present at the meeting as well as representatives from the USDA. An affirmative bond vote is required to be eligible for the types of funding the town will be seeking and the fact that the town owns the suitable disposal field and is 30% through with final designs improves the town’s eligibility for the state and federal funding.
“One important part of our message is that a positive bond vote is not a financial commitment to build the system, it is a demonstration of support from the community,” Decker-Dell’Isola said.
She is working on providing remote access for the May 8 meeting. Details about the wastewater project can be found on the Waitsfield website here https://www.waitsfieldvt.us/waitsfield-community-wastewater-project
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