RANGELEY – Town officials were notified recently that Rangeley will receive a $135,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development grant for construction on a pump station, Town Manager Perry Ellsworth said Monday.
In total, the project is expected to cost $685,000, and the USDA grant requires Rangeley to borrow the remaining $550,000 from local banks before receiving the Rural Development money, Ellsworth said.
“We haven’t got our grant yet,” he explained. “We need to spend the $550,000 before we get any grant money from Rural Development. Once we’ve spent the $550,000 we’ll convert it to a rural development loan” at a lower interest rate than the town can get at a bank, he added.
The pump station project has been at least five years in the making, Ellsworth said. Years ago, the station on Main Street began malfunctioning intermittently, causing sewage backups on Main Street properties.
“Yes, we’re pleased because (the grant money is) going to help us complete a project that has been an environmental concern to us for a period of time,” Ellsworth said. He added that town officials expect the project to be finished by June.
“We’ve built the building and we’ve ordered pipe and pumps,” he said, but until the pumps arrive and the ground thaws, the work, being done by T. Buck Construction of Auburn, is “at a standstill.”
Ellsworth said Monday he credits Sewer Superintendent Jerome “Frenchie” Gouvremont with getting Rangeley the USDA grant money. “He really has been the guy who has pushed this project through,” Ellsworth said. And “he’s the one who has done most of the work toward getting the grant.”
Comments are no longer available on this story