FARMINGTON — Selectmen on Tuesday reviewed an estimate for replacing a storm drain off Front Street and agreed to wait and discuss other options at their next meeting.

The estimate from Dirigo Engineering in Fairfield recommended replacing 1,400 feet of storm drain from the Better Living Center parking lot to the Sandy River, installing six new catch basins and rip-rap. The cost, including engineering and legal expenses, came to $197,000.

The estimate did not include a 30-foot section crossing Front Street where a large sinkhole developed at the entrance to the Better Living Center this summer, Town Manager Richard Davis told the board. The hole was large enough to warrant three loads of gravel to fill it. The pipe running across Front Street to the scrapbook store is collapsing, he said.

Since then, the town has undertaken investigative work including using underground cameras and smoke testing of pipe that reveals work that needs to be done to the storm drain pipe, he said.

The Front Street drain carries storm water to the river with much of the downtown area contributing to the system. Backups of storm water have caused overflows of catch basins that are believed, after the testing done by the town, to be caused by collapsing storm drains in the ball field area off Front Street.

Dirigo suggested changing the 42-inch diameter metal pipe to a 48-inch storm drain in the same location.

An underground pipe break on Broadway a few years ago was replaced with money from the undesignated fund balance at a cost of $250,000, Davis said. He didn’t recommend using the fund to cover this repair.

Public Works Director Denis Castonguay is seeking estimates from local contractors to do a “patch work job” on Front Street and in the ball field until the town is in a better financial situation, he said.

The board decided to look at those estimates at its next meeting on Dec. 8. If the estimates are low enough, the payment may have to be taken from the highway operation budget, Davis said.

While the project would be difficult to do in the winter, it could be done in early spring if the funding can be found, he said.

Another option was to ask the University of Maine at Farmington to help; the drain pipe runs across the UMF ball field.

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