Newport eyes new water, sewer lines

NEWPORT – Local officials are excited over the possibility of extending water and sewer lines up the Moosehead Trail and out Williams Road to Nokomis Regional High School and Sebasticook Valley Middle School.

A new system would benefit SAD 48 and could also be used as a marketing tool to entice commercial and retail development along the Route 7 corridor.

“That certainly would benefit people,” Thomas Todd, Newport Water District superintendent, said Tuesday. “There is no doubt development on Route 7 is coming. We need to look at the potential there.”

Route 7, also known as Moosehead Trail, has long been looked at for potential retail and commercial development, but the lack of infrastructure has stymied construction. Development has remained clustered around the Interstate 95-Route 100 intersection, known locally as the Triangle.

Recently, local residents have been complaining to Newport selectmen that business and taxes will be lost to neighboring Palmyra as companies continue to locate across the town line.

Despite the economic potential of an expansion, none of the Newport utilities had the money to initiate such a project. Last week, however, Steve Levy of Maine Rural Water, notified Newport Town Manager James Ricker that he wants to aggressively begin seeking federal funds for a Route 7 expansion.

“This is good news,” Ricker said. He said the entire area under consideration is within the Sebasticook Lake watershed. “That is the driving force,” he said.

Selectmen are excited about the economic development possibilities for Route 7 but are equally excited that homes along the lake eventually would be able to hook into the water and sewer lines, therefore further protecting the lake’s waters.

Todd said there are no sewer lines on Route 7 at this time. “The sewer line stops at Vic Firth,” he said, which is a manufacturing facility at the foot of the lake.

“I hear people talking about a million dollars per mile,” said Todd, but he estimated that any water-sewer expansion would cost about $640,000 per mile or $120 per foot. The route to the high school, which currently uses a complicated lagoon system, is 31/2 miles, Todd said.

“An expansion of this sort would certainly benefit many people,” Todd said.

A joint meeting will be held soon between Newport selectmen, officials from the water and sewer districts and Levy to discuss the proposal. No date for that meeting has been set.