by John Osborn ·
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
With a new school year only a month away and a state spending deadline looming, selectmen voted unanimously this week to convene a rare summer Town Meeting later this month to seek voter approval to borrow an additional half-million dollars from a state revolving fund in order to begin construction of the long-awaited town center sewer system this year.
The Special Town Meeting will be held Aug. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Bromfield School Auditorium. Attendees will be asked to increase the amount of money the town may borrow from the original $2 million authorized in 2009 to $2,540,000, an increase of 27 percent.
But there will be no special election to approve the new borrowing. That's because the town's portion of the cost to upgrade the wastewater treatment facility on Massachusetts Avenue and build a collection system to serve roughly 73 properties in and around the Town Common will remain below $2 million. Town Administrator Tim Bragan told Selectmen Tuesday evening that the betterment fees that businesses and residents in the new sewer district must pay will make up the difference.
A sense of urgency has surrounded the project since late spring. The project depends for its financing on a loan from a federally subsidized state revolving fund, from which money is available at 2 percent interest, payable over 20 years. The town learned late last year that it had qualified for the program. But to remain in the program, Harvard was told it must begin construction in 2011 and finish work no later than June 30, 2012. The project was originally scheduled to start in April of this year.
It wasn't until late April, after months of administrative delays and wrangling, that the Worcester office of the state Department of Environmental Protection finally accepted a design proposed by Norfolk Ram, the town's engineering consultants, for an upgrade to its wastewater treatment plant. After scrambling to prepare detailed plans, Harvard finally released the bid documents for the system in mid-June.
Four bids were submitted and opened by town officials last week. The low bid for the system, submitted by Ricciardi Brothers General Contractors of Worcester, was $2,069,000, close to the original $2,000,000 estimate of the Town Center Sewer Action Group more than two years ago. Harvard was "well-served" by its consultants, said Selectman Tim Clark, who has served as liaison to the project since its inception. "Our estimates were spot on."
The total amount of $2,540,000 is due to a five percent contingency required by the state, plus another $321,000 for engineering management, and $46,000 for police details for traffic control.
While final numbers were not available as of Wednesday afternoon, Bragan told the Press that while betterment fees will increase slightly, that amount will remain within the $18,800 limit promised by Selectmen at Town Meeting in 2009. The impact on taxpayers will be minimal, he added. Debt service costs for property owners will decline to zero over the 20 years of the loan.
If voters give town officials approval to proceed on Aug. 18, a contract will be signed within days and construction will likely begin in September, just in time for the start of school.
"It's going to be a nightmare," said School Committee Chairman Keith Cheveralls, at a Capital Committee meeting on Tuesday. But it's "the right thing for the town," he said.
The town expressed its "political will" in 2009 to get the project done, said Chris Ashley, current Chairman of the Town Center Sewer Building Committee; now it's all "coming to a head."