The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting approved a $32,120 contract with a Kearny, N.J.-based company to reline a failing stretch of sewer near God’s Acre.
The elected body voted unanimously at its Feb. 19 meeting to approve the contract with National Water Main Cleaning Co.
The 300-foot portion of sewer along Main Street, from St. John Place to Locust Avenue, was constructed in the early-1900s and the town discovered a problem with it after conducting a water infiltration and flow study, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.
“This actually has a sag in it, and a kind of a disconnect,” he said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “During unseasonable weather, rain, you can actually see water flowing and that is where we get the infiltration.”
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the contract.
The company that the town is hiring had been the low bidder on a previous and successful sewer project on Main Street, between East Avenue and the firehouse, Mann said.
“The funds are currently available in our budget,” he said. “We actually had monies left over from the previous relining which allowed us to come and do this work and we think it’s a very worthy project.”
The selectmen asked whether the funds are coming from the sewer’s major maintenance fund (yes), whether the funds had been appropriated for sewer relining (yes, and on Main Street) and whether the sewer line in question is directly connected to the one that recently was redone (not directly).
Moynihan said, “I’m still a little confused about the appropriation.” He asked whether the selectmen or town Water Pollution Control Authority oversees allocations from the major maintenance fund for the sewers.
Mann said the Board of Selectmen needs to approve the purchase of services, as it always does, though the monies themselves had been allocated during last year’s budget process.
“We asked for it in our budget and the monies, whether they’re coming from increasing sewer use fees or being allocated from the major maintenance fund, these monies were asked to be allocated from the major maintenance fund,” he said. “Moving forward, we might raise the sewer fees to offset some of these costs so we do not deplete the major maintenance fund on capital items.”