HATFIELD — A $12 million project to upgrade, repair and make town’s wastewater treatment plant safer for its operators will be considered by residents at annual Town Meeting in May.
The Select Board and Finance Committee both voted unanimously to support having a warrant article on the topic so the project at the nearly 40-year-old plant at 260 Main St. can take place.
The decision at the March 8 joint meeting comes after the town received a preliminary funding commitment notification about a grant and loan to be obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“I think it would be wrong if we don’t move it forward,” Select Board member Edmund Jaworski said.
David Prickett, president of DPC Engineering, LLC of Longmeadow, told the boards that a conceptual financial plan would be supported through the USDA grant, which would cover up to a quarter of the cost.
The remaining $9 million to $9.5 million would be paid for by the town with USDA financing for up to 40 years, at a 1.25% interest rate, and with an annual payment of $300,000 per year, Prickett said.
Among the elements of the project, Prickett said, are installing a screening system to remove objectionable material that hampers the system, such as flushable wipes; repairing interior elements of the tanks that allow solids to settle out and be separated from liquids; and using sodium hypochlorite disinfection that will be safer for operators than chlorine gas.
If the project moves forward, town boards will have to decide how the funding is done. Under one scenario, where half is paid by the users and half is paid through the taxation, Prickett said a person living in an average home assessed at $300,00 would pay an additional $61 per year, while those with sewer lines would see their bills go up by $280 per year.
A more precise plan will be presented prior to Town Meeting.
Town officials have been setting the stage for the project for a while, last fall voting to increase the water and sewer rates based on a Water & Sewer Rate Study completed in January 2020 by DPC. The revenue from that is going toward both operating expenses and improvements for both systems.
The adjustments were also needed to get the USDA money, as the agency requires that these rates be set at more than 1% of median household income. Prickett said Deerfield enacted a similar rate increase to access a USDA grant.
Finance Committee Chairman Darryl Williams said kicking the can down the road will end up costing more, so he supports the project, if it is funded correctly.
“I personally think the only way to go forward with this is with a (Proposition 2½) debt exclusion,” Williams said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
