Town officials last week approved a $26,000 contract with a Bridgeport-based environmental company to clean out an oil tank at Waveny House and replace its service lines.
The lines right now are taking in water and that’s causing the burner to blow out so that town workers have to restart it, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.
“We need new service lines installed,” Mann told the Board of Selectmen at its regular meeting, held Aug. 21 at Town Hall. “They are putting in a new fill tank on top.”
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted in favor of a $26,311 contract with CTR Industries. One of two vendors to bid on the project, the company will remove fuel from the tank and clean it out as part of the work, Mann said.
The selectmen asked whether Waveny House needs new tanks (no, though this one will be pressure-tested), how old the tanks are (not sure but it’s “relatively new”), whether it’s likely the tank itself is leaking (no, it’s from the fuel lines), where the money for the project is coming from (approved capital improvement budgeted for Waveny) and whether New Canaan replaced the burner last year (yes).
Devereaux asked what was the likelihood that Waveny House could get natural gas.
Mann said it’s “not unlikely” but the town still needs to address the failing oil lines now “because it continues to blow out.”
Though the town is in talks with Eversource about getting natural gas to Waveny House, “we do not have [formal] plans,” Mann said.
“To get gas lines to Waveny—which we are looking at, we are trying to install gas lines to Lapham, to the pool, to the paddle hut—it’s half mile run from the high school to Waveny itself, or from the YMCA. So it’s quite a bit of distance to run.”
Williams asked where the lines would run in order to bring natural gas to Waveny House. Mann said it depends on what part of the main line they tapped. From the high school, the line could run under the milled parking area toward Waveny House, from the paddle hut along the main road through the park, and from the YMCA along the same road from the South Avenue side.