LISBON — Voters will weigh in on borrowing more than $8 million to replace failing infrastructure in town.  

The town proposes a $1.5 million bond for road repairs. Meanwhile, the Lisbon Water Department wants the town to approve borrowing up to $6 million to replace 10,000 feet of pipe and make other improvements.  

The town plans to put the two bond questions on the Nov. 5 ballot. The public gets to weigh in on the proposed bonds at a hearing Sept. 3 at 7 p.m., at the town office. 

The cost of water department improvements would be borne by ratepayers rather than taxpayers, according to Water Superintendent Bill Alexander. What the impact would be to ratepayers is still unknown.

Much of the system’s original cast iron pipes have reached beyond their 100-year life span and are failing. So are some of the pipes replaced in the 1950s and 1960s. The new pipes will increase water flow capacity and firefighting capabilities and should last another 100 years. 

“We’re having failures in the water lines that are significant failures – essentially like blowouts,” he said. “We’re getting holes in excess of 6 square inches in the water lines and the bolts are corroded on the gates.” 

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As an example, the 8-inch cast-iron pipe at Main and South streets failed in February. The pipe was repaired but shortly after, but the water department had to perform two other repairs at the same intersection because a valve failed. It cost $100,000 for those repairs, and it’s not a permanent fix. 

“Replacement of this infrastructure is way overdue,” he said. 

With around 30 miles of pipe the water department maintains, Alexander estimates there have been about 13 breaks in the last 12 months. 

“It’s taking money out of our budget to repair these things,” he said. “We’ve exceeded our budget on water line repairs from what we’ve normally carried in the past.” 

The project will include replacement of mains, taps, services, curbs, valves and hydrants located on and around Route 125, along with other infrastructure improvements throughout the town. 

Alexander has a list of 27 streets that require attention, some more immediate than others. Priority areas include Route 125, Summer, Main, High, Maple, Union, Patterson, Zamore, Reid, and Beatley streets. 

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Alexander said he wanted to make sure the water department had the funds approved to start tackling these problems while working in conjunction with the town’s road projects. He said the work could take a number of years so the impact to ratepayers won’t hit all at once.  

The town proposed to issue up to $1.5 million in bonds to finance the reconstruction of 2.4 miles of Pinewoods Road from the intersection from Spruce Street to Cotton Road. 

Lisbon Public Works Director Randy Cyr said new gravel and grading is needed and utility service to homes may need to be upgraded. The road was never built for the kind of traffic traveling on it today, he said and argued just repaving the road would be throwing money away. 

Basically the road has to be reconstructed because of the heavy dump trucks from the pit down the road,” he said. 

The gravel pit, which is owned by Dube Excavation, means there are as many as 40 or 50 trips of loaded 80,000-pound dump trucks on the road. 

While the town doesn’t have a traffic count for the road, Town Manager Diane Barnes said the road is heavily traveled, with mobile home parks and recreation parks in the area 

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Cyr said there are two mobile home parks along the road with 200 to 300 units in each park. 

With only $475,000 budgeted annually for paving, Cyr said it would take the town three years to fix the road and it’s not the only one needing attentionStarting with Lisbon in February, he has a 10-year paving plan and there are other roads in the town that are “horrible because they haven’t kept up with it.” 

The town has about 75 miles of two-lane road to maintain. Roads last 15 to 20 years but Cyr estimated it will be as many as 35 years at the current rate before the roads have all be redone or repaved. It means the town is never really gaining.  

He said it was a measured decision to consider borrowing the money for the project and Cyr said the town doesn’t want to raise taxes. 

You have to pay it all back so we’re trying to make do with what we’ve got, but some of these projects are kind of out of reach for us as far as funding,” Cyr said.  

According to Barnes, the road will be financed through a 10-year bond with a 3% interest rate. Assuming the current tax rate stays flat, it would increase $0.23 to $23.33 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2021For a home valued at $200,000 the increase ups the tax bill by $46. 

Cyr said spending $800,000 to repave the road rather than rebuild it, would only last 5 or 6 years. 

“It’s just one of those projects,” he said. “You’re either going to fix it and fix it right or don’t do it at all.” 

dmoore@timesrecord.com


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