PARIS — Wastewater treatment providers have delayed action on whether to sell the town a riverside parcel because of concerns the $1 price tag proffered is unfair to its ratepayers. 

The Board of Trustees of the Paris Utility District did not rule out a deal to transfer the seven-acre parcel along the Little Androscoggin River so the town can establish a new park, but said the current offer was not in the best interest of its de facto owners, who are taxpayers and sewage treatment system users. 

Instead, trustees directed PUD plant Manager Steven Arnold to contact state regulators and an attorney about subdividing the parcel to separate the section the town wants from the pump station it maintains. 

The move delays but does not dash hopes of turning the lot into a park that could offer residents kayaking, ice skating and other recreation opportunities. 

The lot, in addition to the large pump which transfers sewage from around the Paris Hill area to the wastewater plant on 7 CN Brown Road, contains several closed wells and a one-story building.

Central to any agreement however will be negotiations on the asking price. Town officials have asked the PUD to sell the land for $1, the same price the PUD paid in 1967 when it acquired the land to establish its headquarters and build a pump station. 

However, PUD trustees said that agreement included absorbing and paying off $400,000 in debt owed on the property, which it did through raising bonds that were ultimately paid off by ratepayers. 

To recoup that expense and satisfy state regulators who must ultimately approve any deal, Arnold said it should be sold for an unnamed price. 

“From a financial standpoint there’s a value to the land; on the other hand, the $1 doesn’t do anything for the ratepayers,” Arnold said.

Trustees said they weren’t opposed to selling the land, just the current offer. 

“We’ve been talking about how to make that parcel a better place for years — it’s great the town wants to step up and make it happen,” Chairman Raymond Lussier said.

In addition to approval from the PUD board, which oversees the wastewater treatment system processing the wastewater of 900 residents daily, state regulators at the Public Utilities Commission must finalize the deal. 

The commission has the final say over whether any local water supplying utility, such as the PUD, is authorized to sell, lease or otherwise change the status of property, according to Harry Lanphear, PUC administrative director.

In order to lay out a proposal, Lanphear said the PUD would need to file a letter laying out what it is seeking to do. After review, assuming ratepayers wouldn’t be adversely affected, the deal could go through after a public hearing, he said. 

“If it’s a very straightforward issue, it can be done quickly, as little as a few months,” Lanphear said.  

But if there’s a potential impact making the question a bigger issue, it could take longer. 

“This sounds like a fairly straightforward thing, but until we see what the details are, we don’t know,” he said. 

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