LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen at their meeting on Tuesday unanimously approved spending up to $5,000 from the joint sewer reserve account for culvert purchases.

In an email last month to Jay Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere, Mark Holt, the sewer superintendent, shared information about the Livermore Falls Wastewater Treatment Facility upgrade project. The information from the email was shared prior to Tuesday’s meeting. 

A change order for the upgrade project includes site work and retaining wall, fence line, paving and drainage improvements, according to the email. It includes replacing two 15-inch culverts that have overflowed several times in the last few years, causing washouts of an access road and Foundry Road, where the plant is located, Holt noted.

The plant, owned and operated by Livermore Falls, was built around 1972 and upgraded in 1998. It serves sewer users in Livermore Falls and Jay. The two towns are splitting the cost of the upgrade.

The culverts are expected be replaced with 36-inch culverts which will adequately handle stormwater runoff, thus eliminating damages, Holt wrote. To reduce costs for the upgrade project, Livermore Falls plans to provide the culvert materials for the contractor to install, Holt wrote.

“The reasoning for this was the town can purchase the culverts cheaper than the contractor due to the State bid pricing that is honored by the low bidder for municipalities,” Holt wrote. “If we purchase and supply the culvert pipe we save the sales tax that the contractor would pay as well. Also, the contractor is allowed a 15% mark-up on the materials they supply, so we would save on their mark-up as well.”

Paris Farmers Union was low bidder for the 36-inch smooth bore corrugated plastic culvert pipe at $48.70 per foot, Holt wrote. The culverts require 100 feet of pipe plus one band and hardware set, he noted.

Town Manager Carrie Castonguay confirmed Holt had already taken the request to the Jay Select Board, which approved it.

“This is what he had talked about once,” Selectman Jeffrey Bryant said. “We had all that rain and it had nowhere to go.”

The results were seen during the tour of the plant, Selectman Bruce Peary said.

Selectman Jim Long questioned using funds from the reserve account when there is $7 million from Congressionally Directed Spending available for the upgrade. “Even if it does mean that we are paying an extra 15% because it is money that is not coming from ratepayers,” he stated.

Chair William Kenniston responded that Holt would probably say there are other ways to spend that money.

The joint sewer reserve account had a balance of $186,000 as of June 30, according to Holt. Expenses approved from the account include $12,000 for paving and possibly $6,000 for a biochemical demand incubator.