Allenstown News : town meeting

Stimulus funds available for Allenstown sewer expansion

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:58:00 GMT

Allenstown will hold a special Town Meeting on Saturday, June 13, to see if residents will approve a bond issue for $1,625,000 to upgrade the town’s aging wastewater treatment facility, with half the money to be reimbursed by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the other half to be paid from the Suncook Wastewater Treatment Facility (SWTF) construction and improvement fund.

In back-to-back meetings Monday, May 18, selectmen and the Budget Committee gave their support to a proposed warrant article for the bond. The article needs a two-thirds majority to pass.

About 50 people attended the public hearings Monday, May 18, in Allenstown Elementary School. After a brief introduction by selectmen Chairman Tom Gilligan, Michael Trainque, an engineer with Hoyle, Tanner and Associates, presented the need for an upgrade of the facillity, followed by his company’s design for the upgrade.

The facility, built in the 1970s, is at capacity, Trainque said. It currently processes 1,050,000 gallons a day. While the Department of Environmental Services has placed a moratorium on new sewer construction in Allenstown, the upgrade would allow the facility to process an additional 300,000 gallons per day.

“For the time being, it would give us additional capacity,” Trainque said.

Representing the Sewer Commission, Dana Clement said the town had had an article on the warrant for “the past few years” asking voters to pay for a full upgrade. Those plans amounted to $15 million, and were defeated, Clement said.

“This is our Plan B -- it’s more modest,” he said.

How it works
“How many of you have ever used an Etch-A-Sketch?” Trainque asked the audience. The main ingredient for the drawing toy, magnetite, is also what makes BioMag, the process used in the proposed sewer upgrade, work.

The magnetite provides ballast, Trainque said. The wastewater materials stored in the feed tank are compressed, allowing the system to handle more waste.

“This allows us to have additional expansion without adding big concrete tanks,” Trainque said. The magnetite is cycled through the system and eventually recovered out of the “sludge,” he said.

The BioMag system is state of the art, Trainque said. It was piloted in Sturbridge, Mass., and was found to provide an increased flow of waste products, better treatment performance, better removal of nitrogen and phosphorus, and a smaller footprint for the entire system. It was eventually made part of Sturbridge’s full-scale upgrade, Trainque said.

The system would be housed in a 20-foot-by-20-foot building, he said.

Trainque also showed a video of two beakers filled with waste material, euphemistically called “mixed liquor.” The beaker on the left was filled to the brim, while in the one on the right, with the magnetite, the waste compacted to about a quarter of the other beaker’s. The crowd did not ask to see the video twice.

Stimulus funds
Clement pointed to the urgent need for this project. In 2002, DES told the town it was at 80 percent of its capacity, and in 2005 DES declared the moratorium.

Since the article was defeated this past March, the ARRA funds have become available, Clement said. Allenstown was approved, and its sewer project is 18th in priority on a DES statewide list of approved projects.

But it’s a number-one priority in Allenstown, and Clement, Sewer Commission Chairman James Rodger, and selectmen urged voters to take advantage of this money while it’s available.

“If we don’t take it, the money will go to someone else,” Clement said. “The taxpayer is not at risk for having to pay the bill.”

But community member Sandy McKenney wanted it in writing.

“I was at the last two meetings where you discussed this,” she told selectmen. “The residents can’t afford to spend the money, and I’m glad the Sewer Commssion found the money in the budget. But I’m still looking for the word ‘guarantee.’”

The wording is there, Rodger told her.

“The warrant article says it will be paid out of currently available sewer funds,” he said. “If the Sewer Commission double-crosses you, this deal will not go through.”

Eric Ranfos asked why the town even needed a bond, if half was paid for by stimulus and half by sewer funds. Clement told him the money is reimbursed through a system called “principal forgiveness,” and the town has to incur the entire debt first.

Barbara Bilodeau asked when the project would be completed, and Clement told her late spring or early summer of 2010. The commission first has to do a water quality study of both the town’s water and the Merrimack River, and they have to wait till the river is low enough and then take samples at least two weeks apart.

“We’ll be OK,” he quipped, “if the creek don’t rise.”

The selectmen’s public hearing was followed by the Budget Committee public hearing and approval of the warrant article. The special Town Meeting will take place Saturday, June 13, beginning at 9 a.m. at Allenstown Elementary School. For more information, call the Sewer Department at 485-5600.

At capacity – Allenstown and Pembroke to try again to expand sewer treatment plant

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:01:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

If voters don’t pass an article proposing an expansion of the sewer treatment plant serving Allenstown and Pembroke at this year’s Town Meeting, there can be no more developments in either town.

The plant’s capacity is for 1 million gallons of sewage per day, and, according to Allenstown Sewer Commissioner James Roger, the plant is already running at full capacity – and sometimes over.

The state Department of Environmental Safety served the plant with a moratorium a few years ago, which prevented the plant from taking on any extra sewage.

If someone plans to construct a home or business in Allenstown or Pembroke, expecting to connect to the public sewer system, they are out of luck unless the plant expansion happens.

“As it stands right now, we’ve reached the capacity of the plant, and we can’t add any more service,” Roger said. “If somebody wants a hook up, we can’t give it to them.”

Dana Clemens, superintendent of the plant, said DES has been involved in the plant’s operations since 2000.

A few times over the past few years, the plant has serviced over its capacity per day, he said.

At last year’s Town Meeting, a warrant article asking voters to approve a plant expansion was of no consequence.

According to Roger, Allenstown selectmen did not approve the article last year, but due to printing deadlines, the warrant was still on the ballot and gained some support from voters, even though it didn’t count.

“We’re hopeful that we can get the selectmen behind us, and then we’ll go to the people and try to give them as much info about it as we can,” Clemens said.

Voters will get several opportunities to become familiar with the proposed expansion plan.

“Our consultant engineer is putting together multiple presentations. We intend to present it to the voters at different meetings between now and March,” Clemens said.

Only two people showed up at scheduled public meetings on the issue last year.

In an effort to soften the financial blow the town would take on with the expansion, Clemens said the plant began to take on septage treatment a few years back to earn extra money.

“Three years ago, when the moratorium hit, myself and the Sewer Commission thought we should do whatever we can to try and assist the town in being able to comply with the moratorium and be able to finance an expansion to the treatment plant,” Clemens said.

The septage service did not impact the treatment plant, and funds made from that endeavor have been set aside in a fund for the plant’s expansion.

“Hopefully by the end of next year, we’ll have made the town around a million dollars,” Clemens said.

Also, many town residents have called in complaints about the smell.

Clemens said they used some of the septage revenue to purchase special covers for the septage tanks that would reduce the odor released into the air.

He added that DES has been monitoring the plant’s use of odor controlling chemicals, and has noted improvement in the smell.

“We’re trying to do everything we can to lessen the impact of our operation on the town’s people,” Clemens said.

‘No’ to Allenstown town, school operating budgets

Hooksett Editor — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 19:42:00 GMT

BY NICHOLAS BROWN

Allenstown will operate its municipal government and school under default budgets in the coming year. Teachers, however, did get approval for a fouryear contract on voting day.

Town vote

Several Allenstown Fire Department proposals – including calls for a new fire truck and two new firefighters – were shot down at the polls on Tuesday, March 13.

But Fire Chief Everett Chaput said he was grateful voters did support putting $10,000 into his department’s capital reserve fund for new equipment.

“The people have spoken and they voted for what they can afford this year,” he said. “All I can do is bring forward what the needs are for the fire department.”

The department’s two biggest rejected proposals were for a five-year lease/purchase agreement for a $275,000 fire truck, and two new full-time firefighters. The truck request failed 102-419 and the call for new firefighters failed 107-413. Residents also shot down the district’s proposed $4,608,697 operating budget. The 239-289 vote cuts the year’s town expenses by about $105,000.

In a meaningless vote, residents said “no” to a $15 million plan to dramatically upgrade the Suncook Wastewater Treatment Plant, which serves both Allenstown and Pembroke and which has been stalled at maximum capacity for more than a year.

The warrant article, deemed defective because it lacked a recommendation from the town’s governing board, got 350 “no” votes to 164 “yes” votes. Residents did support a change to the structure of elderly exemptions, a $6,000 request for the police equipment fund, and a $5,000 request for the highway department equipment fund.

School vote

Allenstown’s public school teachers will get raises this year, after voters approved a four-year contract proposal 289-260.

The contract will add between $138,000 and $156,000 to the school district’s operating expenses in each of the next four years.

Voters denied the district’s proposed operating budget of $9,085,095, giving the district a default budget that’s lighter by about $90,000.

No new positions or large new initiatives were proposed in the budget.

Voters did approve two $5,000 requests to spend surplus money, if it’s available at the end of the fiscal year.

Surplus of $5,000 would go into a building maintenance trust fund, and another $5,000 would spark a trust fund to build, or buy land for, new school facilities.