MECHANIC FALLS — Town councilors meeting with Mechanic Falls Sanitary District trustees Thursday agreed that while there’s no money in this year’s budget to pay the town’s sewer bill, it must be paid.

For the past few years, the town had been appropriating $30,000 to pay for water that flowed from the town’s catch basins through the water treatment plant.

At last May’s town meeting, that money was taken out of the budget, the rationale being that the amount the town was paying ought to be greatly reduced with the completion of a project that eliminated 22 of the town’s 38 catch basins.

Not so, said Bill Olver, the sanitary district’s consulting engineer. The recent sewer separation projects required an $885,000 loan that is scheduled to be paid back at the rate of $44,000 a year for the next 39 years.

In fact, Olver said, while the town’s bill increased from $30,000 a year to $42,200, the “$42,200 a year doesn’t even cover the added $44,000 in debt service payments,” Olver said.

This didn’t sit well with Councilor Roger Guptill.

“What I don’t understand is why the state isn’t required to pay for the MDOT’s catch basins,” Guptill said.

Sanitary District Director Thomas Schultz noted that the response when the district billed the Maine Department of Transportation for the state’s nine catch basins was: “We have never paid and we will never pay.”

Town Manager John Hawley said what bothered him was the fact that it appears the state is leaning toward turning over responsibility for Route 121, where the state’s catch basins are located, to the town.

Olver suggested town officials talk with their state representative and the governor, appeal for relief as the only way to keep future costs down.

Sanitary District Trustee Mike Baird called the situation another example of unfunded mandates picking the pockets of the people.

“As much as we don’t want to, we have to pay the bill,” Councilor Nancy Richard said. “Still, it’s a hard pill to swallow.”

In view of the fact that the town has no money allocated to pay this year’s bill, Sanitary District trustees accepted Hawley’s offer to pay the bill in July, probably by tapping the town’s fund balance, and to make sure money for next year is in the budget going to voters in June.

“If you can wait until July, there is no need for me to call a special town meeting,” Hawley said.