LUBEC — With just a few loose ends left to be tied up, Lubec’s $5.1 million sewer project could move from the drawing board to the trenches as soon as next week, according to Town Office Manager Normand Laberge.

A meeting with Maine Department of Transportation officials next Tuesday should pave the way for the town to dig across Route 189 for the installation of sewer lines. That work will be done by the Ramsdell Construction Co. of Machias. Ramsdell was awarded the contracts for the sewer lines, pump stations and the dechlorination plant, a package worth about $2.8 million.

Ramsdell will start work at the South Lubec Corner, heading into town from there. “After we get the permits to open up Route 190, we ‘ll be ready to go,” Laberge said. “We’re eager to get the lines started as soon as possible since that’s the portion of the project that’s most susceptible to delays, particularly with the considerable amount of ledge in Lubec. As it stands now, we’re on schedule to have the sewer lines and the treatment plant itself finished at about the same time, which benefits us financially because we won’t have to pay for one component to sit idle while the other is finished.”

The $1.4 million waste water treatment plant will be built by Thomas DiCenzo Inc. of Calais. The plant will be located at the end of Pleasant Street, and construction will probably start in late May. Most of the remaining $900,000 is for engineering work performned by Wright-Pierce Engineers of Topsham. The construction work by both Ramsdell and DiCenzo should continue into the summer of 1992, and the system should be operating by that fall.

The project is mandated by federal and state environmental agencies, since Lubec does not have waste water treatment facilities and untreated sewerage is dumped into the ocean. Most of the cost will be paid by a combination of grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

Lubec will pay its share of the project through annual user fees, now estimated at $220 for the average user. Although many towns impose an interim user fee during construction, Lubec’s fee will not take effect until the system is in operation.

The federal and state financing package does not cover the cost of connecting each building to the line at the street, but the prospects are good that the town will receive a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to assist property owners with that expense.

“Our preliminary application was very well-received,” Laberge said, “and we have a good team working on the final application. Our main concern now is that the CDBGs are distributed over two years, meaning there could be a lag between when some of the work is done and when we receive the funds. We want to provide assistance through a combination of grant and loans, based on the homeowners ability to pay, and I think we will be able to arrange the grant agreement to do that.”