Southborough wastewater committee finalizes grant application plans for Route 9 and downtown

The Town of Southborough Wastewater Committee on Wednesday agreed to press forward with two grant applications: a planning grant for the downtown district and a Route 9 sewer planning/design application that would fund hydrogeologic and preliminary permitting work.

Committee members said the downtown request will be a $50,000 planning grant to support a master plan, while the Route 9 proposal will fund hydrogeologic investigations, test borings and preliminary permitting to identify plant and disposal sites. Anna Wojcick, a staff member supporting the application, said the team has been revising application text and will upload documents to the SharePoint site for review.

The committee described why the work matters: the town lacks wastewater treatment capacity in key corridors, which members said has limited private development and economic activity. Al Hamilton, Wastewater Committee member, told the group he had briefed the Select Board and secured its support for both grants and “the concept of providing a 25% match” should the town receive awards. The committee also reported legislative support: Representative Kate Donahue offered to write a letter, and the Select Board chair, Andrew Dennington, was identified to provide an organizational signature for the application.

Most immediate tasks are editorial and logistical. Anna Wojcick said the last official day to submit the applications is June 4 and that contracts from successful awards typically must be signed by the end of the fiscal year (June of the following year). The committee set an accelerated review schedule — multiple special meetings and a plan to have materials in SharePoint — and asked members to post draft text and comments there. Claire (last name not provided), who posted a section-by-section worksheet to the SharePoint drive, told members the worksheet also lists assignments by application section.

On site control, the group agreed they do not yet control a definitive plant or disposal site and that the grant work will include site identification and screening. Sam Stivers, Wastewater Committee member, summarized inputs from Bob Moss (who has been developing impact estimates) and said Moss provided preliminary estimates on potential development capacity and square-footage for Route 9 and downtown that have been incorporated into the application. Committee members discussed several candidate locations: a town-owned parcel behind the transfer station (Middle Road), the municipal golf course and developer-controlled parcels often referenced as the Bartolini and Dell properties. Claire suggested using a town-owned site as the temporary address in the application with language explaining site evaluation is ongoing.

Technical work the Route 9 application would fund includes hydrogeologic assessments, subsurface borings, test pits and less-intrusive geophysics. Chris (last name not provided) warned that if the town pursued using reclaimed effluent for irrigation at the golf course it would “raise the bar in terms of level of treatment” required, including likely disinfection and more stringent removal of color and turbidity. He added that odor concerns are manageable: "by and large, in particular, these size facilities, the odors are generally managed quite well," and mitigation depends on siting and technology.

Letters of support and private development context were discussed. Committee members reported that developers Ferris and Depetri had agreed to provide letters of support for Route 9; Atlantic Management — which owns part of the Dell site — was identified as a potential near-term private interest but committee members called that position "squishy" and said Atlantic had not finalized plans. The application has limited character space for describing private development impacts (committee members noted 500-character and 1,000-character fields for different sections) and agreed to use the anticipated-outcomes field to describe how sewer capacity could drive future development.

Process and legal questions arose about collaborative editing and open meeting compliance. Members asked the town clerk to confirm whether co-editing a SharePoint document by multiple committee members would raise an Open Meeting Law issue; Alan Belniak, Wastewater Committee member, agreed to email the clerk for guidance. The committee also scheduled extra meetings (Wednesday and Thursday evenings and, if needed, a Friday noon slot) to finalize text before the portal upload. Vanessa (IGX administrator) had reserved time to enter application data; the committee planned to have materials ready so the town’s grant administrator could submit them early in the submission window.

The committee closed the meeting with a motion to adjourn; a roll-call vote recorded Aye from Alan Belniak, Claire, Brian Shea, Sam Stivers and Al Hamilton.