Vassalboro select board meeting draws large audience

by Mary Grow

As expected, the Dec. 14 Vassalboro select board meeting attracted a large audience – 70 or more people filled the Vassalboro Community School cafeteria, 60 or so to listen to or join discussion of the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s sewer rates.

The VSD serves about 200 customers in East and North Vassalboro. Its collected sewage goes to Winslow and from Winslow to Waterville’s Kennebec Sanitary District treatment facility.

The main purpose of the Dec. 14 discussion, select board chair Chris French said, was to hear from VSD officials. Vassalboro’s legislative representatives were invited to listen and share information on possible funding sources; Rep. Richard Bradstreet attended, Sen. Matthew Pouliot had a conflicting commitment.

Also present was Laurie A. Stevens, northern New England regional director for RCAP Solutions. Her organization, she explained, helps small towns with water and wastewater needs. RCAP Solutions is federally funded, so neither VSD nor the town would be charged for services.

VSD superintendent Chuck Applebee, who has been associated with VSD for years, provided historical background to the present financial situation.

In the 1970s, he said, Vassalboro had two choices for sewage disposal that would meet state requirements: pipe to Winslow or build its own treatment system. Desiring local control, the town built its own system in 1980 and 1981, and VSD was organized.

By 2012, the system, consisting of three sand filter treatment beds in North and East Vassalboro and miles of pipes, had two problems. The beds were past their 20-year life expectancy; and the system could not meet new phosphorus control requirements.

In December 2013 VSD trustees hired an engineer to evaluate three options. They could connect the Vassalboro system to Winslow; they could rebuild each Vassalboro bed and add phosphorus treatment; or they could create a combined system within Vassalboro and add phosphorus treatment.

All three choices were expensive, Applebee said. The trustees chose the least expensive, connecting to Winslow, at a cost of about $7.8 million. Work started in 2019 and was finished in the fall of 2020.

Project funding included $4 million in grants, an unusually high percentage for which Applebee commended district trustees. They still had to borrow money; and the main reason for the 2023 problem is that VSD is about $3 million in debt.

In addition, Winslow recently announced a 25 percent increase in the rate it charges Vassalboro.

Consequently, rates to VSD customers, which have already gone up, are slated to increase by 60 percent in January. Several residents said they cannot afford the proposed quarterly costs.

Select board members and Town Manager Aaron Miller started to look into VSD rate increases after residents raised the issue in June. French said discussions with Winslow were delayed as that town changed town managers.

Related issues raised during the hour and a half discussion included a “ready to serve” fee charged – unevenly, residents said – to people who live along the sewer lines but are not hooked up because their septic systems are working.

VSD was denied a $1 million grant from the state. Bradstreet said he is seeking more information on reasons for the denial.

Resident Tara Karczewski-Mitchell asked a list of questions compiled after a Dec. 6 community meeting. Answers established that the VSD and the Town of Vassalboro are separate entities; that VSD needs and uses all its properties, except an old sludge dump off Taber Hill Road that would need environmental testing before being put on the market; and that in Applebee’s opinion, no engineering errors on the post-2013 connection significantly affected costs.

Karczewski-Mitchell’s last question, how 200 customers can be expected to repay a $3 million debt, drew applause from the audience.

After the discussion, many residents signed a petition asking select board members to ask voters to spread sewer costs among all residents, not just sewer users. The main rationale is that keeping sewage out of Outlet Stream benefits all residents.

In other business at the Dec. 14 meeting, select board members:

— After a quarter-hour discussion, voted unanimously to close the transfer station all day Sunday, Dec. 24; and voted 2-1, with French opposed, to close it at noon Sunday, Dec. 31.
— Unanimously approved revised cemetery rules.
— Agreed they should meet in person with a representative of the only engineering firm that bid on redesigning the transfer station (see the Dec. 7 issue of “The Town Line”, p. 3).
— Postponed action on a policy on public comment at select board meetings; installing a generator at the town office (and perhaps the North Vassalboro fire station); and considering changes to Vassalboro’s TIF (Tax Increment Finance) ordinance and to land use regulations.

Miller reported that Delta Ambulance had sent notice of a substantial fee increase for 2024, from $15 per resident to $25 per resident. French translated it as increasing the town’s payment from about $65,000 to about $107,000.

Miller said he had asked Delta officials to organize a meeting with representatives of the towns it serves.

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, Dec. 28.