LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen voted Monday to appoint Deborah Coffin to fill a vacant position on the Budget Committee.

The term expires in June, and she will have to seek reappointment if she wishes, Town Manager Kristal Flagg said.

Selectmen also opted to have a repair done at the treatment plant before a sewer main problem on Union Street is fixed. A bar rack/screen is not working at the plant. A repair was initially estimated to cost as much as $200,000, including a building. It has since been estimated that replacement could cost a lot less.

The board discussed the Union Street problem that Sewer Department Superintendent Greg Given and Flagg brought to selectmen’s attention on March 4.

Given said then that a sewer main collapsed on Union Street and needs to be repaired immediately before sewage starts backing up into homes and lawsuits are filed.

Flagg said that public works foreman Bill Nichols has a rough estimate of $45,700 to fix the problem. Of that amount, $5,200 is for the sewer repair, $28,500 is to repave the road, and $12,000 is to do the sidewalk on Union Street. Nichols was not at the meeting.

Union Street was not a road Nichols had chosen to pave this year, she said.

Board Chairman Bill Demaray said he would like to get the treatment plant fixed and then decide what to do about the Union Street problem.

Selectman Louise Chabot pointed out that Given said the Union Street repair was a necessity.

Demaray asked if the system was working now.

“Just barely,” Flagg said.

Flagg also told selectmen that it would cost about $1,305 to get a SonicWall, a wireless firewall installed for security reasons on a fire department computer.

Software cannot be loaded onto the computer to send payroll information, which includes very sensitive information, to a computer at the Town Office, she said. Once the firewall is up, then fire Chief Tim “TD” Hardy would be able to send other information, including run sheets, and be able to receive emails sent by town staff. His computer would be tied into the town’s computer system, she said.

There is no money in the Fire Department budget for it, she said. The money could come out of administration or possibly contingency since there may be a little left in that account, she said.

“I don’t know what to do, but we really do need it,” Flagg said.

In another matter, she said Eastern Pine Estates, the former Rambling Rose Mobile Home Park, on Souther Road has a new owner. The park was sold by a bank at auction, she said.

The Bank of Maine had received a foreclosure judgment on the park on Nov. 2, 2012. Brandy Pond II LLC of South Portland had 90 days to redeem ownership. The Bank of Maine sent the town of Livermore Falls a check for $10,112.90 in January to pay one year of back taxes to prevent the town foreclosing on the park, if Brandy Pond did not pay.

Prior to the town receiving the bank’s check, the park owed $79,458.99 in back taxes and sewer fees.

Sewer fees owed back then were $51,624.49. Of that amount, more than $18,000 of it was owed to prevent the town from foreclosing in April.

The sewer system at the park has been faulty, according to an attorney hired by the park’s Resident Association.

Flagg told selectmen Monday that the new owners are working with residents of the park, the town’s Sewer Department representatives and the town to find out how much of the sewage actually went into the town’s sewer system.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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