The Waitsfield wastewater project planning team is applying for state funding to move the wastewater project from 30% design to the completion of design and expects to qualify for a forgivable loan of $100,000 towards the $600,000 it will cost to get to final design.
The town has set aside $150,000 of its ARPA funding that can go towards the balance of that work and will likely here in September abouts its eligibility for Vermont ARPA funds that will cover any design shortfalls.
Wastewater team member and select board member Chach Curtis updated the board at its June 24 meeting.
“We’ll need to figure out how to bridge a gap, if there is one while we wait for those other funding sources to come through,” Curtis said, noting that while the town had been recommended for $7.5 million in Congressional Direct Spending funds, those funds are typically awarded in the winter and the money distributed after that. He said the timing for funding from USDA would be later this summer.
The town’s $15 million wastewater project for Waitsfield and Irasville villages will be heavily reliant on state and federal funding. The funding stack included the following sources before the town received word that it had been nominated for the $7.5 million in CDS:
- Vermont Pollution Control grant $3 million.
- State ARPA village wastewater funds $1 million.
- USDA Rural Development grant $4.75 million.
- Congressional Direct Spending $3.5 million.
- USDA direct loan $2.35 million at 2.25% for 30 years.
Curtis told his fellow board members that the town has the ability to use Dubois and King engineering to keep the progress going on final design of the project and can put a pause to that work to sort out funding if there are timing gaps.
“Our ask is that the town sign the next agreement with Dubois and King to continue the work,” Curtis said.
“If we get the state ARPA funds that we anticipate we will be able to cover the shortfall to get the final planning and design done,” he added.
The board considered signing a new memorandum of understanding with the Mad River Valley Planning District, engaging planning district executive director Josh Schwartz to prioritize the wastewater work, but ultimately, at the recommendation of select board member Brian Shupe who serves as the select board representative to the planning district’s steering committee, as well as the chair of the steering committee, the board opted not to sign a formal agreement. Instead, Schwartz’s work will continue as part of his regular duties helping member towns advance planning and infrastructure goals.
At last week’s meeting, the board learned that the current municipal project manager (and the town’s former town administrator) Annie Decker-Dell’Isola was leaving the project manager position to work with the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board.
