Winter Harbor OKs water line maintenance deal

WINTER HARBOR – Local selectman have inked a deal with the town’s utility districts that lays out how repairs to water and sewer lines in the former Navy housing developments will be funded, according to local officials.

Two of the three housing developments – Ocean Heights and Harbor View – use asbestos-concrete pipes for water lines and clay pipes for sewer lines. Officials with the local water and sewer districts negotiated maintenance deals for the lines with selectmen after raising concerns about the possible cost of replacing the pipes.

There are no safety concerns or looming maintenance costs associated with any of the systems, according to local officials. If at some point the lines do have to be replaced, however, it could cost approximately $800,000 to do so, officials have said.

The deal selectmen and the districts agreed to on Monday does not include the Misty Harbor development. Local officials have said the townhouse units there were built at a later date and that they are not sure what sort of pipes were used when the lines were installed.

The town accepted ownership of the developments – 80 units in all – from the Navy earlier this year, following the closure last year of the Navy base at Schoodic Point. The town, with the help of Philadelphia philanthropist Fitz Eugene Dixon, is renovating the housing units for civilian use and hopes to sell them individually as soon as possible.

The town agreed Monday to pay any maintenance costs, with the exception of some specific improvements to the water systems, with profits earned from housing sales. The water district agreed to pay $20,000 to install “backflow preventers” at each development to keep the systems from being contaminated if there is a break in any of the water lines.

Peter Drinkwater, sewer district chairman, and Shirley Chase, water district chairwoman, each said Wednesday they sought a deal with the town to protect the districts’ users, who number in the hundreds, from the potential cost of replacing the pipes.

“We’re all set,” Chase said. “Everybody’s happy.”

Drinkwater said that the deal also protects Winter Harbor taxpayers from having to pay any pipe replacement costs, should any arise.

“I’ve seen the [sewer] pipes, and they’ll probably be there for another 50 or 60 years,” Drinkwater said. “In the near future, I see nothing that needs to be done to them.”

Winter Harbor Town Manager Roger Barto has said the town will approach Maine’s congressional delegation about getting the federal government to fund any pipe replacement project at the housing projects, all of which are located in the town’s village.