Dixfield makes proposals to Mexico Sewer District

DIXFIELD — Selectmen submitted two proposals to the Mexico Sewer District on Thursday morning regarding use of a sewer main.

At issue is a new contract between the town of Dixfield and the Mexico Sewer District that allows Dixfield's 525 customers to use a sewer main that empties into the Rumford/Mexico Sewer District treatment plant. An agreement must be made within the next few days so the Maine Department of Transportation can go ahead with its plans to replace the Webb River Bridge that connects the two towns.

Dixfield's sewer pipe is attached to the bridge and must be replaced when the new bridge is built. Dixfield will pay for that replacement.

Town Manager Eugene Skibitsky said selectmen unanimously agreed to present the following two proposals:

• Dixfield would own and maintain 100 percent of the forced sewer main, which extends about 2 miles into Mexico, and the Mexico Sewer District would own and maintain about a 1 mile stretch of the main on which several gravity sewer users are connected.

• Dixfield would own and maintain 100 percent of the sewer main from the Webb River Bridge to the Peru interceptor, a distance of about 1,200 feet along Route 2. Dixfield then agrees to pay 95 percent of the costs of maintaining most of the line, except for the section on which gravity systems are located. There, Dixfield agrees to pay 75 percent of such costs.

Skibitsky said the board believes that if the town is 100 percent responsible, then it should have 100 percent ownership.

“These proposals acknowledge that the flow into the pipes is mostly Dixfield's,” he said.

Under the 30-year contract that expired between the two towns last year, Dixfield was responsible for 100 percent of costs for the main that extended from the bridge to the Peru interceptor, then a declining percentage of costs the closer the sewer main got to the treatment plant.

Thirty Mexico customers are on the line between Dixfield and the treatment plant. The remaining Mexico customers, about 770, use sewer lines that are not a part of Dixfield's use.

Paul Dumas, attorney for the Board of Trustees for the sewer district, said Thursday afternoon that he had forwarded the proposals to Lisa Gallant, Crystal MacKinnon and Anne Young, who are the trustees. He said trustees are expected to meet as soon as possible to discuss the proposals, then Dumas will get back to the town of Dixfield with their decisions. He said that meeting will be prior to the Maine Department of Transportation's Aug. 4 deadline.

Skibitsky said the MDOT has set a bid opening date of Oct. 7 for beginning work on the bridge.

Although Dumas would not comment on the proposals, he did say they were a step in the right direction.

“We thank Dixfield for making the proposals,” he said.

eadams@sunjournal.com