Jaffrey officials plan to ask voters to approve a $5.5 million bond at March Town Meeting that would allow the town to purchase a new well site and build a water treatment plant to share with Peterborough.
Peterborough voters have already approved funds for the project, during its 2019 Town Meeting. Both towns expect to use water rates to pay back the bond over a 20-year period. Both towns said they will rely state and federal grants to offset the project costs.
The project is expected to cost $12.3 million in total.
Jaffrey and Peterborough would co-own the well site, which is located on the corner of Sharon and Jaffrey, and the treatment plant which would be built on the site.
Each town would pay the individual cost to connect their own water system to the site.
The three wells on the site would provide up to an additional 556,000 gallons per day for the towns.
During a bond hearing on Tuesday, Select Board Chairman Frank Sterling said if Jaffrey didn’t secure enough grants to offset at least $2.5 million of Jaffrey’s costs, the town would not move forward with the bond. That’s because if Jaffrey bonds only $3 million, the town expects it can keep water rates level. Anything beyond that would require a rate increase.
In May, Peterborough voters approved up to $8 million in funds for the project, expecting to bond no more than $4 million, with the remainder coming from grants or other sources.
Jaffrey and Peterborough have already jointly filed for grants from the state’s Drinking Water and Ground Water Trust Fund, as well as United States Rural Development.
Jaffrey is retiring a water project bond in 2021, and between those savings and anticipated additional revenue from increased water usage by local manufacturer MilliporeSigma, which is currently expanding and expects to nearly double its water usage in the next few years, Sterling said the town doesn’t see a need for increased water rates.
The additional need for water for MilliporeSigma is one of the reasons Jaffrey has been looking for additional water sources. Currently, the town operates three wells, and while its current water supply is enough to supply Jaffrey, Sterling said if one of the wells has to go offline, or there is an extended drought, it will be difficult to ensure a steady water supply.
“I’m not sure we could meet the demand,” Sterling said. And once MilliporeSigma increases its demand for water from its current 89,000 gallons per day to a projected 151,000 gallons per day, Sterling said the demand would “[cut] our margin of error to what I would consider an unacceptable level.”
Jaffrey has drilled for wells in other locations in the past, seeking a fourth well location, but has been unsuccessful.
“There’s more holes in Jaffrey than a sieve,” Sterling said, of the process of drilling for potential water sources.
Also during Monday’s bond hearing, the board discussed using a $1 million bond or loan to do road work on both paved and dirt roads in town.
“I don’t think it’s any secret, you can drive around town and the roads are terrible,” Sterling said. “We’re getting further and further behind.”
“We know we’ve been underfunding for roads for years,” Selectman Kevin Chamberlain said. “This is the result of 30 years of underfunding this budget line.”
Town Manager Jon Frederick presented the board with two options for the road article: The town could take out a loan, at 2.25 percent for seven years, or a 10-year bond at a rate of 1.45 percent.
Selectman Jack Belletete questioned whether the town should be more aggressive, and take out a larger loan to address more roads. Sterling suggested that proper road maintenance had been deferred so long he didn’t want to risk voters not approving the project.
The town has done an analysis of the worst roads in town, and given them priority, though Frederick said the only roads which “had to be done” were Stratton Road and Etna Street, both of which were torn up in 2019 to put in new utility piping and need to be resurfaced.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com.