By Winslow Durgin,Special to the Sun Journal

MECHANIC FALLS – A Standpipe Road couple brought their grievances over the effects the town’s water tank project has had on their property to the Town Council on Monday night.

Mark and Paula Stotts complained that whatever erosion control measures workers initially installed failed during rain on Thanksgiving Day weekend, and reinforced erosion control devices failed again in rainstorms Jan. 14 and 18.

Mark Stotts noted that while he supported the town’s project to put up a new water tank on the top of the hill, what he had feared for the past three years could happen did happen.

“We take the brunt of whatever comes off that hill,” Stotts said.

Stotts said what concerned him the most was a small diesel fuel spill that became evident Jan. 24. He pointed out that the couple’s plans for an organic farm could be jeopardized if the diesel should ever get into the garden soils.

“It’s tough to get organic certification. We’ve been working for five years for that niche market,” he said.

Matt Callahan, K&K Excavation’s manager for the Standpipe Hill project, said they had responded as soon as they were alerted to the problem.

“I don’t know how the fuel got there but we dug out what we think was the extent of the contaminated soils,” he said.

Callahan noted that the removal of the contaminated soil was monitored by the state Department of Environmental Protection, which also advised in efforts to control erosion.

Callahan said he also was frustrated with certain aspects of how the project had gone. “And if we had 5 feet of frost in the ground, we wouldn’t be here tonight,” he said.

Town Manager Dana Lee noted his delight that K&K was able to schedule the work for winter rather than wait for the warm, wet weather of spring, has long since vanished.

“We have tried to be proactive. I think our response has been good, fast and respectful,” Lee said.

He apologized that the town’s efforts had, in some respects, come up short and promised “we will work with whomever to make it right.”

As a step in that direction the council, following Lee’s recommendation, approved a change order in K&K’s contract that calls for additional permanent erosion control measures along a 370-foot stretch of Standpipe Hill.

“It’ll mean we have a whole heck of a lot less water bothering the Stotts,” Lee said.

The $8,000 change order will come from money saved for blasting at the water tank site.

In other business, the council appointed Larry Burgess to the Recreation Committee and Dustin Worth to the Budget Committee and also approved a charter change that sets the date for the annual town meeting and municipal elections as the third Saturday in May.

Town Clerk Shirley Marquis announced that nomination papers for municipal election candidates will be available on Feb. 17. This May, voters will elect one person to the town council, two to serve on the School Committee and two to serve as sanitary district trustees.

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