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LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen on Jan. 21 approved spending up to $5,500 from the Joint Sewer Reserve Account to purchase and install a pump needed for the dewatering process at the Wastewater Treatment Plant.
“At the treatment plant the dewatering sludge, part of the dewatering process, is use of the polymer injected into the centrifuge,” Mark Holt, sewer superintendent of Jay and Livermore Falls, said. “We receive the polymer in 55-gallon drums that we transfer to a day tank that is calibrated so we can track the amount of gallons that we use. The transfer pump that we have had for 25 years has died.”
The pump that died is used for the transfer, Holt stated. “I was hoping to get a new pump in place before we had to run another dewatering cycle but we fired up the centrifuge today so we did the transfer basically by hand,” he noted. “It’s not convenient, it’s not a way to operate moving forward but we will get through this session.”
Holt said a new pump is about $4,300-$4,400. “We are going to have to have new brackets made on the wall,” he noted. “I’m thinking we can complete the project for $5,500 or less.”
The purchase would also be brought to the Jay Select Board’s next meeting for their approval, Holt said. The plant, which is owned and operated by Livermore Falls, serves sewer users in Livermore Falls and Jay. The two towns are splitting costs of upgrades to the plant at an estimated $21 million when it is completed in 2026.
“So you have got to have it,” Chair William Kenniston asked.
“We have to have it,” Holt replied. “It will be the same brand and manufacturer of the polymer pump that feeds the centrifuge that we purchased three years ago. It’s a little bit different in design and has a different purpose. That pump was just under $10,000 installed.”
Kenniston asked about the funds in the reserve account.
“Currently the Joint Sewer Reserve Account has a balance of about $237,000,” Holt responded. “There are about $25,000 in expenditures from it that have already been approved so you have about $212,000 left in that account. It is healthy, yes.”
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