Voters approve steps to buy West Swanzey water system and accept state loan financing

Voters approved Articles 5 and 12, clearing the way for the town to pursue purchase and improvement of the West Swanzey Water Company.

Article 5 describes a $6.4 million low-interest loan program with 40% principal forgiveness to purchase and upgrade the privately owned system. The proposal said the system needs a pump house and storage tank to improve fire flow and overall capacity; supporters told voters those upgrades would enable commercial growth along Route 10. “If we're gonna go fishing for businesses, we need to make the bay is having water and soil on Route 10 especially,” a supporter said, urging approval to secure grant-funded, forgivable financing.

Town officials indicated the $600,000 purchase price was “presented to us” and had not yet been negotiated; a resident asked about the number. Town staff explained the valuation for the water company rests largely on water rights and permitted wells rather than the accounting statements, and that buying an existing system is significantly less costly than drilling new municipal wells. North Swansea’s larger system was cited as a comparison for operating budgets and scale.

Article 12 authorized the selectmen to begin the process to purchase the water company under RSA 38:4; meeting presenters emphasized that if the articles failed, similar forgivable funding would likely be unavailable in the near future and the matter could not be reconsidered for two years. Both articles passed (voice votes; tallies not specified in the transcript).