Windham Town Council receives update on sewer project

By Ed Pierce

Last spring Windham voters approved a proposal to develop and construct a new sewer system for the town and on Tuesday evening, town councilors received an update regarding progress being made on the project.

Windham voters approved a plan to create a sewer system 
for North Windham last year and the initial phase of the 
project is expected to be completed by January 1, 2026.
FILE PHOTO 

Windham Town Manager Barry Tibbetts briefed the council about what has happened since the project was initially proposed and where things stand with moving forward with costs, financing and options available for the town.

“The original cost was estimated at $40 million and we have obtained $40 million from the State Revolving Loan Fund,” Tibbetts said. “We selected an engineer for the project and NWH will be the installation contractor.”

He said that both the Portland Water District and the installation contractor have informed the town that they will be meeting prior to the Windham Town Council meeting on April 28 and will be able to give councilors a guaranteed price for project costs.

Tibbetts said everything that has been accomplished with the sewer project so far has been done to minimize any impact to the town’s tax rate.

“Overall I think we’ve made good progress and we’re waiting on the guaranteed prices,” he said. “We do not anticipate any tax increase associated with this project.”

According to Tibbetts, no residences in Windham will be required to hook up to the sewer system once the installation has been completed and it is operational, however, businesses near the sewer line will be required to join the system.

“Once hooked up, businesses will have a regular sewer bill,” Tibbetts said. “For everyone who wants to hook up to the system though, we’ll try and make it as easy as possible to connect.”

Most of the areas where the sewer lines will be installed will use low-pressure sewer, which Tibbetts said is more cost-effective.

“The low-pressure sewer is less expensive that the gravity type of system,” he said. “It will allow us to go greater distances and have smaller pumping stations and be able to use one vendor for those stations.”

Because of geography, the area near the new pumping station at Manchester School in North Windham will have to use a gravitational system, but most of the other areas will be able to use the lower-pressure sewer lines.

Councilors asked Tibbetts about how the upcoming construction of the new middle school in Windham would affect the new sewer system.

“Between the high school and the new middle school, they will add about 20,000 gallons a day and that will help lower costs for everybody on the system,” he said.

Tibbetts said additional phases for the project may still need up to $3 million in capital infrastructure funding, but believes that expense can be obtained either from an expanded tax base resulting from new development or through further grants to the town or by applying new bonding as existing town bonds expire.

The initial phase of the sewer project is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2025 with everything becoming fully functional by 2026. <