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05/27/2024 02:24 PMAt a special town meeting on June 17, Westbrook voters can approve or deny spending requests relating to two long-term initiatives: funding a wastewater disposal capacity study and funding a feasibility study for a community center. The meeting is at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.
Though the full agenda for the town meeting is quite lengthy — 37 individual items, to be precise — two of the items may be of particular note to Westbrook residents.
Community Center
Interest in bringing a rec center to Westbrook dates back almost 15 years. However, in the last two years, concrete steps have been taken toward bringing the idea to reality.
In December 2022, the Board of Selectmen (BOS) created an ad hoc committee to look into potential locations for a community center. Last month, the ad hoc Community Center Committee recommended the town contract with CHA Consulting at a cost of $167,900 to conduct a feasibility study on the identified possible sites for a center.
Currently, $125,000 is budgeted for the proposal. However, at a May 23 BOS meeting, the board unanimously voted to appropriate an additional $45,400 from the fund balance to pay for the study in full.
That appropriation is on the agenda for the Monday, June 17, meeting.
Per the town’s request for proposals, “the feasibility study would provide focus and definition for activities, size, scope, location, and cost for a community facility.” The proposal also asks the selected firm to conduct two community information sessions, one early in the process and one later.
The ad hoc committee has narrowed the list to three potential center sites. One site is Wren Park, near Daisy Elementary School and the library. The second site is on undeveloped land behind the middle and high schools. The third potential site is the National Guard Armory on Brookside Avenue.
Wastewater
Solving Westbrook’s downtown wastewater problem has been on town leaders’ radar even longer than the rec center, with concerns first expressed in the 1990s.
In May, the BOS unanimously approved using Jacobson Engineering to test the Green to see if the soils there and behind the Riggio Building are suitable for use as a leeching field for a proposed downtown wastewater collection system.
Board members unanimously agreed to appropriate $89,100 from the town’s American Rescue Plan Act funds for the project. That appropriation is on the agenda for the June 17 meeting.
Westbrook Town Planner Peter Gillespie explained that testing is required to ensure a proposed wastewater system meets state water quality standards.
“The contract with Jacobson that was reviewed by the BOS is for further evaluation of areas behind the Riggio Building and on the Town Green that had not been previously tested for septic suitability,” Gillespie said last month.
In December 2023, the town presented a conceptual plan for a gravity sewer collection system to service 50 properties in the proposed downtown service area. The sewer lines would be hooked up to each property, and existing septic tanks would be pumped out and closed.
Property owners asked the town at that meeting to come back with more detailed information on aspects such as the cost to property owners to move forward the plan.
The soil testing is a step toward town leaders getting some of that information to fill in the knowledge gaps.
Citizens would ultimately need to approve the sewer project at a future town meeting. The meeting on June 17 is specifically for funding the soil testing aspect only.
A full list of items on the town meeting agenda is available on the town website.