LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen will hold a special town meeting June 15 to ask voters to raise $4.6 million more for a $14 million upgrade to the Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Fire Station.

Two bids were received for the project in May, which was estimated in February at $12.2 million. Upgrade costs have continued to rise since 2018. T Buck Construction of Turner was the low bidder at $13.9 million. A New Hampshire company’s bid was about $200,000 higher, Sewer Superintendent Mark Holt said.

Funding needs to be secured before a contract can be awarded. The bids were opened May 18.

“We have until mid-July to sign a contract with T Buck,” Holt said.

Voters agreed to raise $3.9 million for a loan in 2019 for what was estimated then as a $5.75 million upgrade. The rest was to be paid by grants. By November 2019, the estimated cost had risen to $7.75 million.

Voters will be asked to raise $4.6 million, which includes $100,000 for contingency and the funding gap of $1.7 million,  from the $12.2 million estimate for the project.

The total of the loan would be about $8.5 million and the remainder of the $14 million would be paid by grants.

Jay Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere recently submitted a grant application to apply for $1.7 million in congressional direct spending.

Holt and Livermore Falls Town Manager Amanda Allen credited LaFreniere, who was not at the meeting, for the work she did on the application.

The upgrade will be split 50-50 by the towns. Livermore Falls owns the plant but operation and maintenance is paid for by a formula based on sewage flow from each town. All of Jay’s sewage is treated at the plant.

The plant is ranked second in the state for improving the environment and for financial need, Holt said.

Authorities will continue to apply for grants to try to lower the cost of loan.

The plant was built in the 1970s and received a nearly $6 million upgrade in 1998, although not everything was upgraded then.

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