The town is taking the next step in searching for a downtown wastewater solution by contacting the area’s property owners. More public presentations are planned for 2024.

Last month, Westbrook officials held a meeting for downtown property owners and residents to review the conceptual wastewater plan for the town center and the price tag attached to it. Coming out of the meeting, officials said that further discussions will be needed before a final decision is made.

Town Planner Peter Gillespie told the Harbor News in early January that the town was trying to contact even more property owners than were at the meeting.

“We will be spending the next few weeks reaching out to the property owners in the Town Center as we realized that many were unable to attend our Public Information Session; we are also working on some further details on the financial impacts to taxpayers if we bond the costs,” Gillespie said.

Any final decision on whether or not to move forward with implementing the plan will require a town vote, but first, the town needs to determine the level of interest from property owners before moving forward.

“We feel that it is critical that we make an extra effort to communicate further with the directly impacted property owners before further action is taken,” Gillespie continued.

The meeting last month was attended by about 50 residents along with First Selectman John Hall, Gillespie, Westbrook Economic Development Commission chairman Jim Crawford, Planning Commission chairperson Marilyn Ozols, and engineer Brian Curtis from the firm Jacobson and Associates.

The Plan

The conceptual plan calls for a gravity sewer collection system to service 50 properties in the proposed area. The sewer lines would be hooked up to each property, and existing septic tanks would be pumped out and closed.

Currently, the area handles about 17,700 gallons of wastewater per day. Under the proposed model, that number would jump to about 41,300 gallons per day.

Leaching areas could be established under the Riggio building, Ted Lane Field, and the Town Green. A treatment facility at 1316 Boston Post Road would be built, though Gillespie clarified that it would be a small treatment center mostly underground, similar to what’s used at the outlets.

Gillespie reiterated numerous times at the meeting that no final decisions have been made and that the plan, at this stage, is just conceptual, meaning it could still be tweaked.

The Numbers

The cost estimate to construct the proposed plan is $12,577,904. Furthermore, each property would pay an annual maintenance fee to use the service.

According to the presentation, the annual maintenance cost to be paid by the property owners -assuming no assistance from the town – would be $2,600 per equivalent dwelling unit (EDU). An EDU is the approximate volume of water used by a single family. Since the area the proposed plan would service is mostly commercial, each property is likely to have more than one EDU.

As EDUs are added to the area, that price tag would come down, and increasing the development and density of the area could also decrease that number.

In addition to potentially bonding the project, Gillespie said that the town is investigating ways to pay for the project using state and federal grants. The state has about $1 million in American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funding earmarked for the project.

Gillespie told the audience last month that the project is going to be several years long due to the number of moving parts.

The History

Working to revitalize Westbrook’s town center has been a decades-long goal. The Town Center Revitalization Committee was first formed in 1997, and a 1998 report listed sewage disposal as a main concern for the area. Over the years, residents have reported that prospective businesses have decided to open elsewhere due to the constraints the lack of an adequate system places on the area.

A 2021 survey showed that 72% of respondents felt the town wasn’t doing enough in the downtown and felt the town should do more.