With the fate of a long-term, low-interest state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) loan in doubt, the chairman of the committee overseeing construction of the new town center sewer system said this week that the town should “sit tight” until July before putting the project out to bid or applying for other funds. Such a delay, he said, means that work on the new system is unlikely to start until early 2011.
In an e-mail to the Board of Selectmen (BOS) Town Center Sewer Building Committee (TCSBC) Chairman Chris Ashley confirmed that Harvard is “below the … cutoff” on the list of clean water projects that DEP plans to fund in fiscal year 2010, but, he observed, “There is a significant likelihood we will advance in the ranking.” Meantime, he said, because DEP rules will disqualify applicants who go out to bid without DEP authorization or apply for funds, including short-term loans from other sources, “we need to prepare our plans … let the process run and start to think in terms of construction this time next year.”
Getting State Revolving Fund (SRF) funding has for the past year been a key goal of the various committees planning the new system. At Annual Town Meeting and town election last year, Harvard voters overwhelmingly approved the spending of up to $2 million to build a new sewer system to serve churches, municipal buildings, businesses, and residences in the center of town, upgrading the problematic system that today handles wastewater from the new library and town schools. Though their remarks are not enshrined in the enabling articles or recorded in Town Meeting minutes, the selectmen promised to return to voters if they were unable to finance the project with a 20-year loan at 2 percent interest or below.
At present, the best source of low-interest financing is the SRF of the DEP, with $300 million in federal and matching state money available in 2010 and subsidies that keep the interest on its loans at 2 percent. This year, more than 69 projects applied for SRF funds, with some towns, such as Holyoke, Worcester, and Framingham, submitting more than one request.
Thirty-three projects made it into the DEP’s so-called Intended Use Plan (IUP) for calendar year 2010. Harvard is number 48 on the priority list, which rates projects using criteria ranging from the seriousness of the problems being dealt with to median household income (so-called “economic justice” criteria). Harvard received a rating of 71. By contrast, New Bedford scored 151 points and is in line to receive $24 million toward a multi-year $161 million project to correct sewer overflows during heavy rains.
Still, as Ashley and others noted at the most-recent TCSBC meeting on Monday, the list will likely change in coming weeks, and Harvard’s position on it could well advance. Towns must have their funding in place by June 30, or they will be dropped from the list. Given the hardships they face, some towns could choose to defer projects in spite of SRF grants. Towns not ready to put shovels in the ground by October will also lose their place. And DEP has said it will use any additional federal stimulus money it receives to expand the number of projects it funds.
The possibility of influencing the next iteration of the list through active lobbying of the DEP is a real one, according to Fran Yanuskiewicz of Weston & Sampson, the engineering firm drawing up plans for the sewer collection system. The DEP has scheduled a public hearing for April 6; Yanuskiewicz said Harvard should use whatever influence it has to make itself heard.
Meanwhile, Ashley recommends that his committee finish up engineering plans for the new system, which are due to be complete with estimated costs and detailed construction specifications by next month. “We will monitor the status of projects ahead of us … and will be prepared to file our plans and paperwork as soon as possible” should Harvard make it onto the list, he wrote in his e-mail to selectmen. But even if the town could start construction in October, he said, “the whole project would be difficult to execute this year and does not dovetail well with our school schedule.”
The BOS plans to hear Ashley’s recommendations at its April 6 meeting, BOS Chairman Ron Ricci said in an e-mail to the Press this week.