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Waterford selectmen approve funds to clear sewer easements and maintain water‑tank coatings
Summary
The Board of Selectmen approved a $100,000 appropriation to clear cross‑country sewer easements so crews can inspect lines and a $45,671 allocation for the town's water‑tank management program to preserve ARPA‑funded recoating work and maintain tank safety.
The Waterford Board of Selectmen on Monday approved two utility capital appropriations: $100,000 to clear cross‑country sewer easements and $45,671 for the town's water‑tank management program. The measures were presented by Jill Stevens, the town's director of utilities, and will be forwarded to the Board of Finance as required.
Stevens told the board the $100,000 request will fund clearing of overgrown easements so crews can use rented brush‑hog equipment to access roughly 16 miles of sewer easements and perform inspections. "We want to get these clear cleaned up and cleared so that we can use our brush hogs and other tools...to be able to keep them open moving forward," Stevens said. She added that clearing will likely reveal some infiltration and inflow issues that will need mitigation.
Board members pressed Stevens on maintenance cadence and equipment. Stevens said the town typically rents the brush hog for about a month each year and tries to clear problem easements every other year depending on vegetation regrowth. "So this will add a couple of days, maybe a week to that rental period," she said.
On the water‑tank request, Stevens described the town's use of specialized inspectors to decide when recoating or replacement is necessary. "CoreTech is who did the inspection for Fargo," she said, describing nondestructive testing used to measure coating thickness and steel integrity. The requested $45,671 would sustain a tank‑management program intended to preserve previous ARPA‑funded interior and exterior recoating work and avoid larger replacement costs later.
Stevens said the coatings used are approved by the state Department of Public Health. "It's a paint and polymer coating that is approved through DPH," she said, adding that some tanks such as Rogers Hill will be considerably more expensive to rehab and may be considered in future capital plans.
Both appropriations were approved by voice vote; the chair instructed staff to forward the measures to the Board of Finance for the next steps.
Next steps: the approved requests will be forwarded to the Board of Finance for review and inclusion in the fiscal year 2027 capital plan.
