I. Council Action Requested.
Title
To authorize the Town Manager to amend the contract with the Portland Water District engineering, design, and cost analysis expenditures, and increase the total project budget by $257,000, establishing a new budget of $1,218,000, and take necessary action to finalize the agreement.
Body
II. Basis for Council Action.
Council approval of this item is required because;
a. The Council has the authority to enter into contracts as the legislative body of the Town pursuant to Article II, Section 3(I) of the Charter, and
b. This order contemplates the repayment of these monies funded by Portland Water District with the collection of sewer assessment fees over a five-year period.
III. Issue Summary.
This is the next step in our objective to have a North Windham Sewer Solution. This commits the Town to obtaining a pre-approval disposal capacity to implement the final application submission to the D.E.P. The Council approved an initial budget of $961,000 by Council Order 20-257 on December 8, 2020.
These additional monies would be funded by Portland Water District (PWD) and recouped through sewer assessment fees. Should the Town proceed, at the end of the study these fees would be included in the Portland Water District Bond approval for implementation. Should the Town determine not to proceed at any point, those expenses would be repaid over 5 years through the sewer assessment fees and North Windham TIF to PWD.
My recommendation is to proceed with the next step of funding with PWD to obtain the best pre-application approval for waste water disposal using drip-irrigation.