MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury residents will find three separate bond proposals on their March 4 Town Meeting Day ballot, including a request for up to $50 million for a major makeover of the community’s 24-year-old wastewater treatment plant at 243 Industrial Ave.

The Independent has previously reported on the town’s plans to upgrade its treatment plant. Officials with the engineering firm Wright-Pierce have estimated it will cost around $28 million to repair and update the facility’s aging equipment and infrastructure, and another $22 million to improve its solids-handling process, through which septage-sludge is currently treated and deliquefied to produce fertilizer to spray on land.

Town officials are organizing public walk-throughs of the wastewater treatment plant — as well as a video for those who might want to remotely visit the plant and hear an explanation of the bond request — to drum up support for the March 4 referendum. The Independent will get a walk-through of the plant on Feb. 11 to inform a bond vote preview story before Town Meeting Day. Middlebury qualifies for grants to draw down some of the debt service on the wastewater treatment plant repairs and upgrades; what isn’t covered by grants will need to be paid back through an increase in wastewater rates. Emmalee Cherington, Middlebury’s director of public works planning, said it’s too soon to tell what kind of rate hike is in the offing if the bond vote passes.

Middlebury’s current wastewater charges include a base rate of $52 per quarter and a usage rate of $7.55 per 1,000 gallons.

Middlebury selectboard members still have time to tweak the 2025 town meeting warning, which will feature two other — much more modest — bond proposals that, if approved, would be converted to low-interest loans, Cherington noted. They include $2 million in proposed improvements to a major municipal water pump station off Rogers Road, and a $1 million plan to install a stormwater treatment system for the Adams Acres subdivision.

ROGERS ROAD PUMP STATION

The Rogers Road station was built during the 1970s. It receives wastewater from the Halladay Road pump station, Route 7 South, Foote Street, Middle Road and Buttolph Acres neighborhoods.

“It (serves) a lot of residential properties and some commercial properties,” Cherington noted. “It has outdated technology and age-related deficiencies. It’s also one of the larger pump stations that we have in town. So anything we can do to increase its capacity helps the system as a whole.”

It’s a station that currently has a dry-pit configuration, meaning some pump system components couldn’t function properly if submerged in water. This became a big problem during flooding in August 2023, when the station was overwhelmed. So the town wants to retrofit the structure with new submersible pumps, and use the dry-pit for expanded wet-well storage capacity in emergency situations.

The proposed project also calls for age-related improvements to the pump station, the installation of new piping and controls, and integration of a standby generator.

Middlebury has qualified for a $2 million low-interest loan (2%) from the federal Clean Water State Revolving Fund.

“To receive that (20-year loan), the town must show community support for the project in the form of a positive bond vote,” Cherington explained.

ADAMS ACRES

Adams Acres is a more than 40-year-old development bordering Route 7 South. It includes Boardman Street, Wilson Road and Willow Drive. When the town inherited those roads post-development, it also became responsible — along with the actual property owners — for adhering to the state’s evolving stormwater runoff rules. Adams Acres includes around 12 acres of impervious (paved) surfaces.

The bottom line is that the Adams Acres stakeholders must design and build a stormwater treatment system to serve the area, while also accounting for flows that enter the site, Cherington noted.

Middlebury has hired Aldrich and Elliott to provide a conceptual design for treatment of an area that encompasses 62.4 acres, including 21.77 acres of impervious surfaces, and 5.55 acres associated with roadways. The town is proposing to install two separate treatment practices to meet the required standards.

Cherington said the town has received a $232,000 grant from Vermont Agency of Transportation (requiring a local match of $58,000) to apply to the project. In addition, the town has qualified for $1 million low-interest loan from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund. Again, the town must show community support through a positive bond vote to clinch the loan.

It should be noted that the Adams Acres property owners — including G. Stone Motors, Desabrais Glass, Middlebury Legion Post 27 and Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects — are to collectively assume majority responsibility for the loan payback.

“The (payback) is divided based on the amount of impervious service that each permittee owns,” Cherington said. “The town is on the hook for around 12-13% of the overall project.”

The loan payback would be reflected in wastewater rates.

John Flowers is at [email protected].