Town gets grant for sewer line survey

ST. AGATHA – A look at future sewer line extensions will be done in the coming months with a $15,000 grant the town has received from the Local Smart Growth Challenge Grant program from the Maine State Planning Office.

The project will involve a survey of homes along Route 162, Cleveland Road and Brook Road to determine user income eligibility, the cost benefit analysis and engineering recommendations for sewer line extensions.

Although it is very early in the process, sewer line extensions along the three roads could cost $500,000 to $1.2 million, Town Manager Ryan Pelletier said.

“We hope to begin relatively soon on the survey,” he said. “We hope the survey and preliminary engineering analysis can be completed by October.”

Along with the professional study, a door-to-door survey of residents will be done by local staff. The local survey will include such information as the age of present sewer systems, household income of residents along the route, and population count of people in the target area.

The present sewer system has 250 users, along Route 162 and Flat Mountain Road to the Lakeview Restaurant. Users on Route 162 are located from the boat landing south of town to an area just north of Michaud Furniture.

The main system was built in 1967. A few upgrades have been done, with the most recent in the mid-1990s. That upgrade included the Flat Mountain area and some extension on the southern end of Route 162.

The present study area will include residents along Route 162, from Michaud Furniture to the R.F. Chamberland Trucking Co.; Cleveland Road, from the intersection of Route 162 and Brook Road; and Brook Road from the intersection to the residence of Raoul Michaud.

“If the entire area were to be done, we could add between 50 and 65 users,” Pelletier said. “The sewer plant was upgraded in the mid-1990s and it can accommodate a lot more wastewater.

“It would be a matter of installing sewer lines,” he said. “It could bring many new users on line with little increase in operation and maintenance.”

The current user fee is $315 per year per user. Pelletier said with an increased number of users, and little increase in operational costs, user fees could go down.

“We suspect a lot of sewer systems along the route are getting up there in age,” he said. “In the end, the survey will tell us what the cost benefit ratio of future extensions will be.”

The firm selected for the survey also will do grant and funding research for the town.