Legal and land acquisition costs for Waitsfield’s water project are over budget by 385 percent. Construction costs for the project are slightly under budget.
The Waitsfield Select Board received the news this week at its December 19 meeting when members of the town’s water task force briefed the board on costs to date and estimated costs to finish the town’s municipal water project.
Construction of a $7.6 million municipal water project got underway in late fall of 2010. Work on the project came to a halt when a Superior Court judge ruled that the road right of way where the town had drilled the well for the project was not a town road. The town began negotiating with two landowners to purchase 0.77 acres and 1.22 acres of land around the wellhead.
This summer the town settled with one landowner, the Damon/Richards family, for $230,000 for the 0.77 acres of land. The town went forth with condemning 1.22 acres of land from Virginia Houston, a process that lasted through this fall when the court ruled that there was a necessity for the condemnation and sent the case through for a three-judge panel to determine what compensation was due to Houston.
This week the select board learned that legal, administrative and land acquisition/condemnation costs for the water project were estimated at $989,000 versus the budgeted $257,000. According to task force members, some of that overage can be covered by a $592,000 contingency created when other parts of the project came in under budget.
The town had planned to use the $592,000 contingency funds to pay to bring the water lines into each user’s property and some users signed on to the project based on that expectation.
The water project is funded by state and federal loans and grants. The town is trying to access state funds and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources will not release funds until the town can provide “well source title” requirements. To provide the proper documentation, the town needs to hold title to the Houston property and won’t be able to do that until the three-judge panel has ruled, Houston is paid and title passes to the town.
Not only will the state not release the funds, it is not willing to review past, present and future water project spending until such time as the title is cleared, making it impossible for the town to know what project costs are eligible for coverage by the state program and what costs might be ineligible.
The project is still on schedule to be completed by next fall and the town needs to continue to work on easements for water lines and getting a bid out next month to stub the lines into individual properties.
Task force members told the select board that to get funds flowing from ANR, and to get project components reviewed for eligibility, the town attorneys need to provide a letter to the state outlining the status of the property. Houston has appealed the condemnation decision.
The town’s inability to access the state funds may require that the town increase the funds that it is borrowing for the project until the title is cleared, which will create additional short-term interest costs of $100,000.
Board chair Kate Williams said she had been working with the town’s attorney on the issue and said that she and the attorney would continue to work with and work on the state to see if funds could be released and project costs reviewed for eligibility.
{loadnavigation}
