STRONG – In a meeting that lasted less than two minutes, selectmen voted Tuesday to extend the bidding period for a residential septic system on Pillsbury Road.

A residential septic system in Strong might be repaired if the town receives a bid for the work. The town is eligible to receive up to $6,000 from a state grant designed to abate water pollution caused by leaky septic systems, but it has not received any bids. The deadline is looming.

Selectman Jeff Murphy says he hopes a bid will come through before the extended deadline, which is 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14.

Contractors are busy this time of year finishing up projects, he said.

“I’m crossing my fingers it will happen,” he said, adding that the town need only one bid to get the grant.

The state-funded grant program, executed by the Department of Environmental Protection, “provides grants to towns to help replace malfunctioning septic systems that are polluting a water body or causing a public nuisance,” according the department’s Web site.

In his ninth year serving the town, Murphy has been instrumental in attaining the grant in previous years. More than a dozen systems have been repaired or upgraded in the town since he has taken office, he said, including one for a day-care facility last year.

If a pending environmental bond in the Legislature does not pass, the program may disappear, he said.