In February of 2004, the town was notified by the state DES that the town's WWTF was approaching 80% of it's permitted flow. In June of 2004, the town retained Tata & Howard to conduct an evaluation of the plant and report on it's condition and submit recommendations. At last night's Selectman's meeting the board received a report from Tata & Howard that basically states the plant is out dated, needs new rotors with automatic controls within the oxidation ditches, recommends the installation of two(2) new center feed clarifiers with flocculators in the center well, recommended the replacement of the existing chlorination/dechlorination system with an Ultraviolet Disinfection System (UVDU), the installation of a packaged centrifuge system within the existing drying bed enclosure, installation of a new generator, installation of a new return activated sludge (RAS) and waste activated sludge(WAS) pumps, the purchase of new laboratory equipment and additional I/I investigations. Additional upgrades would include upgrades to the existing headworks such as a new grit removal system and grinder and the on site construction of a septage receiving facility. Based on this evaluation the estimated probable implementation costs for the recommended improvements which would also include a 25% engineering and contingencies fees was at the time of the report $2,970.000.00. Based on escalation costs of 15%, the estimated probable implementation cost has risen to $3,415.000.00.
All of this was based on the projected population of Winchester being around 5,350 by the year 2026. There was no discussion on just how the town is suppose to pay for all of this or why the plant has been so neglected all these years or where the money ear-marked for this plant has gone in the past. With people exiting New Hampshire in droves ( US Census report ) does anyone seriously think Winchester's population is going to increase to those projected numbers, especially with the town fast approaching maximum build-out and that there are only three potential areas remaining in town for development? While there is no doubt the plant needs some serious upgrades, do we really need to be looking at a complete re-build at such a high cost?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Think maybe it would have been more prudent to spend the $224,000.00 of our taxpayer dollars on repairs to this plant, than chip sealing a couple of roads in town?
They new this when they went with the housing on warwick rd. good job for john gomarlo finding grants, if he has time. Its a full time job holding dale grays hand. Maybe we need more bonuses. At 7am this morning there were 2 cars in town hall parking lot and 1 arriving. Folks this is daley.ntmffmfi
Well I stand corrected, the $224,000.00 was just what it cost to pave the roads. The town blew another $50,597.00 for the 660 tons of chip seal they hired Lane Construction to put down. Talk about wasting money and why couldn't our own highway dept. do this work if if was so necessary that we had to pay outside contractors?
One can only wonder where all the money went that has been dumped into his plant over the years. So much money spent over the years that we could have already had a new plant by now. There has been so much wasteful spending and favoritism in hiring outside help to keep going on with the charade that we have capable town govt. in Winchester. Too many have their hands in the cookie jar and too many times money designated for something gets spent someplace else or just plain disappears with no explanation or what seems like total disregard by our town leaders. We can't afford to allow this type of behavior to continue or we'll all be looking at huge tax increases once again as the trend to spend continues.
The one thing we have going for us is Rick Meleski, if anyone can save us money its Rick. I would put him in charge of water also, maybe hwy. in the future. Sorry Rick, your the man that can change this towns direction.
Post a Comment