Peterborough and Jaffrey Select Boards are moving ahead with a formalized agreement to build and share a water plant on the Jaffrey border.
The plant is to be built on the property known as Cold Stone Spring, and its total cost is estimated at $12.6 million, with Peterborough responsible for a $7.7 million portion, and Jaffrey $4.9 million.
Both towns have already gotten approval from town voters for the project, which will purchase a property on the Jaffrey and Sharon town line with three certified drinking wells already dug. The towns have agreed to share the cost of building a water treatment facility on the property, and individually shoulder the cost of connecting it to their own water systems.
Once built, the facility will be co-owned by both towns.
One of the hurdles the towns still had to get over was funding the project. While voters in Jaffrey approved the treatment facility, a caveat in the warrant article requires a certain amount of the funding to come from grants or loans.
Jaffrey Town Manager Jon Frederick said the town has already secured multiple sources of funding, including a $430,000 grant from the Drinking Water/Ground Water Trust Fund, a loan of $3 million from the state Department of Environmental Services revolving fund, a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant, a $1 million grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission, and a donation of $1.16 million from Jaffrey developer MilliporeSigma, which needs the additional water to move forward with an expansion plan.
Frederick said while the project has satisfied the grant funding requirements laid out in the warrant, the towns are still pursuing other grants and loans.
If the two towns decide to dissolve the agreement, the town that leaves forfeits the equipment. Both towns have funded their portion of the project separately, and would be responsible for their own portion of the debt.
The agreement solidifies several items that the towns have previously agreed upon regarding how the plant will be run. The cost of operating the plant would be based on metered usage of water flowing to the individual towns.
Treatment of the water is a joint cost, based on water usage, and water will be treated to the state’s drinking water standards.
The management of the plan will be run by an advisory committee with three members from each town, including a Select Board member, a water operator/citizen and the town administrator or manager. The committee is to meet once a month.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.