Voters in Allenstown said no to all the proposed monetary issues brought forth on this year’s ballot for the town and school district.
In a to 388-264 vote, Allenstown voters again nixed a $15 million expansion for the Suncook Wastewater Treatement Facility, serving both Allenstown and Pembroke.
At the town’s deliberative session, voters changed the original warrant article to stipulate the expansion would only go through if at least half of the total cost could be defrayed with matching state and federal grants the project qualifies for.
The state Department of Environmental Services put a moratorium on sewer hook-ups in 2002 after several instances in which the plant’s flow exceeded it’s allowed capacity. Since then, development in Pembroke and Allenstown has slowed.
The plans included installing secondary clarifiers which would relieve the exisiting clarifiers of their current capacity and flow problems. Overall sewage capacity would increase from 1 million to 2.1 million gallons per day.
Under the terms of the 20- year bond, Pembroke would pay 52 percent of the total costs and Allenstown 48 percent, based on flow. According to the plans, the new additions to the plant would not be up and running for about 10 years.
Mike Trainque of Hoyle, Tanner and Associates, the engineering firm spearheading the project plans, said the expansion qualifies for a number of grants at various public informations sessions on the issue.
The Allenstown Board of Selectmen would have taken out the bond as soon as 50 percent matching grants are secured. The grant money would decrease Allenstown’s share of the cost to about $3.6 million.
Sewer commissioners have said money from the plant’s septage process, which takes in septage from other towns in a process separate from the plant’s sewage process, would also go toward the expansion.
That fund is also being used for odor control and engineering costs, so commissioners have said they cannot commit to a specific amount that would be devoted to the expansion costs.
The town will go to a default budget for 2008-09 of $4,865,968. A total of 272 voters approved the proposed budget of $5,057,964. The remaining 264 thought it best to take the default.
In the hotly contested race for one open Board of Selectmen seat, Roger Lafleur won with a total of 132 votes, unseating incumbent Selectman Sandy
McKenney.
Chris Roy, the current Road Agent, will go into his second term having gained 369 votes for his seat, more than the other two candidates, James Rodger and David Bouffard, combined.