Wiscasset voters will soon gather for a special town meeting to consider funding for the town’s wastewater plant relocation.
The Wiscasset Select Board set a date and approved a warrant for a Tuesday, Dec. 3 special town meeting the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 19.
The meeting warrant will ask voters to appropriate $353,750 from the town’s undesignated fund balance as a grant match to secure $4 million in funding from the Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund, according to Town Manager Dennis Simmons.
The infrastructure fund provides one-time funding to municipal, tribal, and infrastructure districts to adapt their critical infrastructure to reduce vulnerability to climate change, according to maine.gov.
The funds will be put toward the first phase of the wastewater treatment plant relocation, which includes preliminary and final design, initiating construction, and construction oversight, according to Simmons. Phase one will cost approximately $7,075,000.
“I know no one loves a special town meeting, but this one’s really important in terms of moving toward the next phase of building the wastewater treatment plant, so I hope folks turn out,” said Wiscasset Select Board Chair Sarah Whitfield. “And we’re getting a good deal for the amount that we’re putting towards it, in terms of the funding we’re getting from elsewhere.”
Simmons said while the town is striving to obtain as much external funding as possible, it is highly unlikely that the entire project will be funded solely by outside sources.
“The town will need to contribute some of its own funds,” said Simmons.
In a Nov. 5 special town meeting by referendum that gathered over 2,300 ballots, Wiscasset voters approved the relocation of the town’s wastewater treatment plant. A total of 2,375 voters cast their ballots, with 1,416 approving the relocation, 832 rejecting it, and 128 voters leaving the question blank.
At a cost of $51,150,000, the town will relocate its wastewater treatment plant to the public works site on Hodge Street and build a new public works site and salt shed on a parcel of land near the transfer station on Fowle Hill Road.
Of that total, $4 million will be devoted to building a new public works building and salt shed.
The development of a new wastewater treatment plant is estimated to cost $39 million, wastewater treatment plant is estimated to cost $39 million, according to documentation provided to the town by William Olver, president and senior managing partner of Olver Associates Inc. The town has been working alongside Olver Associates., a civil engineering company based in Winterport, since 2023 to analyze the costs associated with the project.
In May, the Maine Department of Transportation began accepting applications for funding through the Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund. The fund provides up to $75,000 for scoping and design work or up to $4 million to support matching funds for construction or direct construction costs.
Out of 43 towns that received awards, the town of Wiscasset was one of two awarded the maximum amount of $4 million. According to Simmons, the grant stipulates the town must appropriate 5% of the total project cost, amounting to $353,750.
Simmons said any funds awarded will be combined with the $5 million in congressionally directed spending that the town received in March.
In addition to outside sources, Simmons said funding for the wastewater treatment plant relocation could be taken from town resources such as capital reserves, undesignated fund balance, loans, bonds, or a combination of these sources.
“As we continue to secure funds, we will gain a clearer understanding of our financial obligations and the best way to structure the overall financing.”
The special town meeting is at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 3 at the Wiscasset Community Center, at 242 Gardiner Road.
The next meeting of the Wiscasset Select Board will follow the special town meeting.
