JAY — Selectpersons voted Monday to use up to $28,000 from a joint reserve account to have a building built over new equipment at the Livermore Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Livermore Falls and Jay share the cost of maintaining the plant based on sewage treated at the plant. Jay’s share this year is 52.3 percent and Livermore Falls share is 47.7 percent. The plant is owned by Livermore Falls.
The board’s vote is contingent on Livermore Falls selectmen also approving the joint expenditure of up to $28,000 from the account. The two town boards previously approved taking $60,000 in 2013 from the account for the project.
Initially, the entire project was anticipated to cost $200,000 but it is now looking like only $150,000, including a building to go over new equipment, Mark Holt, Jay Sewer Department superintendent, told Jay selectpersons.
A new bar rack and a rag press were installed at the plant.
They are $28,000 short of the money needed to complete the project, Holt said.
The building, which will be built to engineering standards, was initially expected to cost less but now it is looking at between $55,000 to $60,000, Holt said.
Different options have been reviewed. Currently, the best option is to build it out of insulated concrete forms because of the damp atmosphere that the equipment is in and weather conditions outside, he said.
New treatment plants are being built using the insulated concrete forms, he said.
A lot of the labor is going to be done by plant staff.
“We are doing it in-house with assistance,” Holt said.
If the $28,000 was used, it will leave $10,000 in the joint account. There is a plan in discussion to replenish the account, he said.
Some of the money that was set aside for the building was used to build a rag press. The employees at the Livermore Falls plant built it for less than what it would have cost to buy, he said.
It is already saving money, Holt said.
The bar rack, which removes solids from the sewage flow, cost about $65,000 and went online in September 2013. To protect the equipment from the elements last year, a make-shift shelter was built and a portable heater was used, he said.
The new building has to be built before the weather gets cold, Holt said.
Holt will give the board an update on the project at its Sept. 8 meeting.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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