JAY — Selectpersons accepted the highest bid on Monday for a tax-acquired property and agreed to purchase four pumps to upgrade sewer pumping stations.

Frank Rangel of Jay submitted the highest of two bids for a foreclosed single residence house and property at 2 Otis St. The lower bid was for $12,500 submitted by a Lewiston resident. The town put a minimum bid on the property of $10,000 to cover the town’s interest in it.

The board also voted to upgrade four sewer pumping stations using Gorman Rupp self-priming pumps, the same brand pumps that were installed 25 years ago, and to use up to $95,000 from the Sewer Department Reserve Account. The money for the project will initially come from the department’s operation and maintenance budget. The reserve money will be used to balance the department’s budget at the end of the fiscal year on June 30, and the following year that begins July 1 and ends June 30, 2022, Sewer Superintendent Mark Holt said. He noted it will affect two budget cycles because all of the money will not be able to be spent by this June 30.

The scope of the project is to buy the pumps and equipment, hire Brackett Mechanical to assist in the removal and installation of the pumps, and to purchase miscellaneous parts and equipment for the project. The pumps will cost $70,072.50 and the estimated shipping cost is $3,500, according to Holt.

There is about $394,000 in the capital reserve account.

“Back when the Gorman Rupp pumps were specified, designed and installed, we had the foresight to consider how they would be replaced once they reached the end of their life cycle,” Holt said. “We chose the Gorman Rupp brand largely in part due to their long-standing history in the industry of keeping their pumps and related equipment easily interchangeable no matter what the vintage was.”

The new pumps and equipment will fit precisely into the footprint of the pumps that were installed in 1996 and 1997 and will bolt up to the existing pipe configurations and flanges without the need for major modifications, he said.

“By expending the money from the operation and maintenance budget, then funding it as needed from the reserve account, we are able to keep as much money in the reserve account as possible for future capital replacement projects,” Holt said.

The upgrade project is part of the long-term capital improvement plan.


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