OXFORD — The Board of Selectmen tabled a discussion Thursday on a proposed sewer hookup incentive program.

The board is considering a subsidy incentive program for user fees that residents and commercial owners will pay in order to hook up to the new sewer system.

Town Manager Derik Goodine crunched numbers to determine the final subsidy cost.

“Just got bids yesterday so need to run some numbers as examples of costs to find an average and then determine (the) subsidy,” Goodine said Friday of the service connection lateral contract that may be awarded at the board’s next meeting.

Final sewer line connection work areas are being hammered out.

In September 2014, voters, with some reservations, approved a sewer connection ordinance.

The 47-page ordinance requires residents whose properties abut the sewer pipes to connect to the lines through a fee that includes a one-time base connection charge, plus a usage rate based on water consumption. The fee is determined by the estimated number of households that fall under the project’s scope.

Residents with functioning septic tanks will be allowed to keep them until they fail, at which point they will be required to hook into the system. New, private septic tanks and other means of sewage disposal will not be allowed to be built where the public sewer is available, according to the ordinance.

According to information provided to the board by Goodine, he is recommending that the two-year sewer hookup incentive program (dependent on the speed of the hookups) be provided for both commercial and residential users. Pretreatment systems are not covered as part of the incentive programs cost. Homeowners have two years to pay for the hookups.

Goodine said in his recommendation to the board that the program would be in the form of a forgivable (loan) subsidy.

He is recommending that for each year the owner retains ownership of the property, the town will forgive 20 percent of the subsidy. If owners sell their home before the percentage hits 100 percent, they will have to pay back whatever portion is not yet forgiven.

Goodine is also recommending that the construction cost beyond the subsidy be prorated over five years. If the property is sold, any outstanding balance must be paid at time of sale.

Gooding is currently writing a policy that will detail the final terms of the program once they are worked out.

The town has been installing sewer pipes along Route 26 and into neighborhoods that will eventually pump wastewater to a pump station that is expected to go online shortly through its Tax Increment Financing Zone. The wastewater will be sterilized and will flow out into the Little Androscoggin River.

ldixon@sunmediagroup.net