Jim Lord of Dirigo Engineering, left, explains to the Wilton Select Board what the next phase of the water transmission line project will be on Tuesday, June 6. Brian Ponce/Franklin Journal

WILTON — The Wilton Select Board received a visit from Jim Lord of Dirigo Engineering on Tuesday, June 6, to share updates on the water transmission line project.

“[Wilton Town Manager Perry Ellsworth] had reached out to me with some concerns about what’s next,” Lord stated to the board.

According to Lord, the water transmission line project is still in its planning phase. He stated that the project is almost complete, and they are waiting for permits.

“Plans are at 95% complete, we’re simply waiting for the permits to come in to finalize,” Lord said. “It makes no sense to finalize it until we see all the final conditions that the regulatory bodies will put out.”

Lord stated that until the permits come back, the most the town can do to move the project forward is establishing a bond counsel.

“Your bond counsel is going to basically walk you through all of the USDA requirements to get interim funding set up,” Lord said to the board. The offer from the USDA, which was discussed at a public hearing in November of last year, is a $7.3 million loan coupled with a $2.2 grant. Multiple financial options were discussed, but the Select Board and Lord heavily favor the USDA loan.

Currently, the planning and design phase is being funded by the town, but once this phase is completed, the town will be reimbursed for the cost of this phase by the Drinking Water Program.

Lord doesn’t expect any construction to take place this year, but he took that into account setting the timeline for the project.

“We haven’t had [any expectations of beginning the project] knowing that the permits would take too long to get,” Lord said. “That, and water work and wetlands work we really like to do in the dry season.”

The water transmission line project dates as far back as May of 2019, when former Water and Wastewater Superintendent Heinz Grossman mentioned that the water transmission line was nearing the end of its life expectancy at a town meeting. The current pipeline is made of asbestos cement and has a life expectancy of 75 years.

According to Grossman, the pipeline was installed sometime in the 1950s, which means it is reaching the end of its life expectancy.

Lord and Dirigo Engineering were awarded the contract in April of 2021 with Lord coming back to the board in July of that year to go over the overall estimate of the project, which was estimated at $7.3 million.

In March of 2022, Lord presented two options to the board on the project: replace the line as is or move the water transmission line to run along North Pond Road to Colby Miller Road, then to Weld Road and connect back at a station across from the town office.

The benefits of moving the line include increasing availability to more customers along those roads in the future, a reduction in environmental impact, a decrease in insurance costs for property/homeowners along the rerouted line and easier access for repairs.

To help offset the cost of the project, Grossman discussed the possibility of increasing water and sewer rates to increase the chances of grant funding for the project with the board in August of 2022. An increase of 55% was mentioned as a long term goal by the time the project is completed. A staggered water rate increase was implemented in November of last year, with a 10% incremental increase at the beginning of this year and 2024.

Ellsworth expressed concern of having a plan in place to demonstrate repayment of the USDA loan that is expected to fund the project. According to Ellsworth, the annual payment following completion of the project is estimated to be $337,000.

“We’ll need to develop a plan, which will include showing what it’s going to take to get to being able to do that [repay the loan].

Lord agreed and stated that a rate increase was “more than likely”, and the rate increase would need to be in effect for one year before the first payment of the loan is due.