Castine voters pass sewer, water projects Library, transfer station hours to stay same

CASTINE – Voters at the annual town meeting Monday approved borrowing for two major water and wastewater improvement projects but balked at extending the hours at the library and the transfer station.

The two big-ticket items were the first on the town meeting warrant and it took residents about an hour and a half to decide, according to the town’s finance officer, Karen Motycka. Much of that time was spent reviewing the history of the wastewater treatment plant and the proposed project.

Residents approved borrowing $3.5 million for the wastewater treatment plant project. The proposal involves the installation of new equipment, including backup systems that will increase the plant’s capacity and ability to treat wastewater and to meet current environmental standards.

The treatment plant was built in the 1970s and has outlived its design life by about 14 years. Despite efforts to upgrade the town’s sewer system, the plant still receives high rates of storm water infiltration that make it difficult to treat wastewater effectively and causes violations of the town’s discharge license, the most recent in November 2004.

Since then, town officials have been working with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to design the plant upgrade project.

Work on the project is expected to begin this summer and to be completed by the fall of 2008.

Voters also approved borrowing $550,000 to install a filtration system on the town’s Wadsworth Cove Road well in order to remove arsenic from the water. Although the level of arsenic in the well has remained constant since it was drilled, according to town officials, changes in federal regulations have lowered the allowable levels of arsenic in municipal systems from 50 parts per billion to 10 ppb.

The town has been blending the water from the Wadsworth Cove Road well with water from other town sources, and has maintained a level of 16 ppb, according to Motycka.

That project also will begin this summer and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Residents approved a budget of $119,119 for the Witherle Memorial Library. That amount included cost-of-living raises for employees and additional staff hours in order to ensure that there are two employees working at all times when the library is open.

The budget did not include an additional $7,512 which would have allowed the library to be open an additional five hours each week. The selectmen and budget committee had recommended against the increase in hours, noting that it was an effort to keep the increase to the amount raised in taxes to a minimum.

Voters also rejected a petitioned article seeking to increase the transfer station attendant position from part time to full time. The position will remain a 26-hour-per-week job.

The municipal budget decreased by more than $55,000 this year. With the articles approved on Monday, the budget stands at $1,709,528. But, despite the budget decrease, Motycka said she anticipates an increase in taxes of about 5 percent.

Residents will tackle the school items on the warrant beginning at 7 tonight at Delano Auditorium. The proposed school budget this year is $1,133,992.64, an increase of $9,928.80.