MINOT – Using water from the well at the town garage for Minot Consolidated School has saved $60,000 initially and $12,000 a year for a treatment plant, Selectman Dean Campbell told the board Monday.
“I heard comments on the school board that they never had such good water pressure. Everything worked out in the best possible way,” he said after Road Manager Arlan Saunders reported that everything at both ends of the water line project was all buttoned up.
Town Administrator Rhonda Irish attributed the project’s success to excellent communication between selectmen and the School Committee and credited the work of School Union 29 Operations Director Gordon Murray, Saunders, Campbell and Selectman Steve French.
It was French who suggested last September that the committee look into using the town garage well because treating water from the new well at the school had escalated to $78,000.
Water from the school well drilled in 2003 tested high in arsenic and radon gas.
The School Committee had settled on a plan to construct a 10-by-20-foot building to house an elaborate purification system capable of delivering safe drinking water to the school.
When tests showed that the town well could produce more than 100 gallons per minute and that the water met standards for a public drinking water supply, the School Committee ordered laying 2,000 feet of water line from the town garage to the school.
“Total project cost to bring water to the school was $12,000,” Campbell said.
He said that saved $60,000 over what the treatment plant would have cost and $12,000 annually to heat and operate it.
“Estimated maintenance costs were going up all over the place – the cost to change filters because they would be hazardous waste and needs special handling,” Campbell said.
In other business, selectmen awarded the contract for winter sand to Albert Hemond at $1.95 per cubic yard loaded in the pit. Saunders said he anticipates trucking 3,500 cubic yards to the town sand pile the week of Sept. 26. He said he has ordered 800 tons of road salt through the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments’ joint bid program.
Saunders also noted he would likely have a ground speed control installed on the International plow truck in the next two weeks. The system, he said, allows for the most efficient truck speed for a given amount of sand and salt being applied to the road during winter storms.
Responding to a letter from a resident criticizing town emergency services for slow response to a recent call, Campbell commiserated with the writer and pointed out that the timing of calls is crucial with volunteer fire and rescue crews, that there are times when there just aren’t any volunteers in town to respond and the first people on the scene will be United Ambulance.
Campbell then put out a plea for volunteers. “Minot’s not the only town hurting for volunteers. We’re always open for volunteers, and we’ll pay the for training,” he said.
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