Waitsfield residents and others will have a chance to learn more about Waitsfield’s proposed municipal wastewater system next week.
The first community meeting takes place on May 8 at the Village Meeting House in the Waitsfield United Church of Christ from 6 to 8 p.m. It will include light fare. At that meeting the project planning team will be sharing some specifics about the system, including which system has been selected and how it will operate.
Annie Decker-Dell’Isola, municipal project manager for Waitsfield, said the project planning team will have a detailed update on the system and how it was evaluated and selected. That includes an evaluation of what treatment entails, what materials and chemicals are used and how those materials are managed and stored.
The select board, at its April 29 meeting this week, approved a resolution of necessity that tees the town up to be able to apply for state and federal funding for a wastewater system if a June 11 bond vote passes.
To apply for such funding, a town must hold a positive bond vote allowing it to borrow up to $15 million, although the select board and wastewater planning committee have been clear that absent state and federal funding, the project will not go forward. At this week’s meeting, the select board discussed passing a second resolution, after conferring with the town’s bond counsel, making it clear that without state and federal funding, the project won’t go forward and the town will not be borrowing $15 million.
Waitsfield’s eligibility to capture state and federal funding is improved by the fact that the town owns the property where a municipal system will treat wastewater and because the town is so far along in the planning and design of such a system.
The May 8 meeting will include details about how the final design engineering is going as well as updates on funding sources.
The town’s plan 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 current 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.
The May 8 meeting will be accessible via Zoom and the link for that meeting can be found on the town’s website at https://www.waitsfieldvt.gov/
