Barre town supervisor says board pushing for bigger district to serve people without public water access

Editor:

There has been a lot of talk on the Hub and around town about canceling out the Water District (WD) 10.

As usual the news reports what sells.

The following is the explanation of the reason why WD 10 was canceled.

Also details how much money was spent by the town taxpayers since 2015 on WD 10. ($129,293.95) This includes hiring professional grant writing firms.

Right now there is not a debt service more than $900 per year per water district in the town of Barre.

WD 10 is a small district, there are 30 residential hook ups possible, chargeable dwelling units make it 37 total, approximately 75-83 people.

The town put in requests for grants. The town was expecting a grant for $1,624,800 from WIIA. This grant would have made the water affordable for WD 10.

We received two grants totaling $616,600 approximately. This smaller grant(s) made the debt service increase immensely.

Annual debt service could have cost this WD 10, $3,133.80 to possibly $5,000 to $6,000 annually for 38 years for each unit.

The town has asked Albany about using the grant money received of $616,600 and to let town employees start portions of the water line.

We learned, “that is not how grants work.” The town needs to take out loans and use loan money first. Once the loan money is used, the grant money kicks in.

There are more properties in the town that do not have water. More than the 30 that are in WD10.

The town is presently working on the new water tower project. The present water tower was built 30-plus years ago for the town population of 30-plus years ago.

Last spring there was a break at a fire hydrant in the town. By the time the Highway Department was able to fix it, the water tower was down two-thirds its capacity. We received many calls from residents of “no water” at the town building.

Moving forward: The town is going to be working a project to possibly get water to residents that do not have water.

The way grants work (so we are told) is the more residents and the more people involved in the area of a project, the larger the grant is for the project. This is our goal: to get water to the residents in need.

Dissolving WD 10 was not easy for the board to do. None of us took this matter lightly.

Also, a lot of controversial questions have come up  about windmills and solar fields. The town does not make any money off of these projects until the green energy starts producing MW (megawatts).

The Hemlock Solar project is anticipated to start late fall, but it won’t be until the end of 2027 that MW’s will start being produced.

The windmills are anticipated to begin construction in 2027 and also possibly start producing MW’s in late 2028 or 2029.

If there are questions please come to the town board meetings or email or call the town building.

It’s better to know facts than assumptions.

Respectfully,

Stephen F. Coville II

Barre Town Supervisor