Wilton voters will consider a $200,000 bond request during Town Meeting in March to purchase upgraded standby generators for the town’s two sewer pump stations.
During a public hearing Friday, the Select Board explained the need for the new generator.
“The generators are 1980s install, but if you look at them, they look like they were made in the ’50s,” said Select Board Chair Kermit Williams. “They’re basically diesel generators, and they are not very reliable. They run, they ran when the power went out, but also we get a lot of problems with them starting and stopping.”
Williams said during a recent long power outage, town employees had to go to the pump station several times to reboot the generators to make sure they were running. He said the new generators would run on propane, and would be installed outside of the building.
According to the warrant article, the town could accept up to $200,000 in bonds, but the town would also be authorized to apply for and accept grants or other funds to reduce the amount, and specifically references the State Revolving Fund.
“This bond is different from a classic bond, because those are with the New Hampshire Bond Bank, which is the municipal lending agency of choice,” Williams said. “But this is done through the Clean Water Fund, which is a revolving fund.”
Williams said there were two reasons to take the bond out through the revolving fund, the first being that the town has already been approved to take the loan at an expected interest rate of about 2 percent, “which these days is probably a good interest rate.”
The other is that the revolving fund offers a 15 percent principal-forgiveness program. It is anticipated that the town will receive up to about $30,000 in principal forgiveness from the State Revolving Fund loan program.
Repayment of the bond will not be through taxation, but be made by the town’s Sewer Commission through ratepayer funds.
Williams said the Sewer Commission is not a separate organization or entity from the town, and ultimately, it is the town that takes the loan, which is why it must be approved at Town Meeting, even though only sewer-users will be responsible for paying back the funds.
Sewer Commission Chair Joanna Eckstrom spoke at the hearing, encouraging residents to approve the bond.
“I strongly urge and hope people support this,” Eckstrom said. “It’s a benefit to the entire town, whether or not you are a sewer user.”
Eckstrom said public buildings, including both the elementary and middle/high school, use town sewer, and having working pump stations is crucial to the protection of the Souhegan River.
Williams agreed, saying that preventing overflow into the river was a priority.
“The potential for the sewer to overflow into the Souhegan is definitely there. If there was a long period that the power was out and the generator that was there failed, there’s no other option,” Williams said. “There’s nothing that anyone can do, if you can’t pump that into the system.”
As is usual for bond items in Wilton, the town will take the matter up first during Town Meeting. Bond items require a ballot vote, and voters have an hour to cast their ballot. Typically, the moderator will move through the remainder of the warrant while keeping the poll box open until the hour has passed.
Bonds require a three-fifths majority to pass.
Wilton’s Town Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 16, at 6:30 p.m., at the Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative Middle/High School.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.