VERGENNES/PANTON — Residents of Vergennes and Panton will decide on Wednesday, Feb. 12, whether to support up to $3.52 million in a bond and/or loans to fund replacing almost a mile of some of the system’s most troubled water lines.

Voting will be held at the Vergennes-Panton Water District (VPWD) office at 63 School St. in Vergennes between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. that Wednesday.

An informational meeting is set for this coming Wednesday, Feb. 5, at 6:30 p.m. in the district office.

If the bond is backed the project would go out to bid this year and work would begin sometime in 2026, according to District Superintendent Jonathan Deming

Deming said the district could not wait until Town Meeting Day to hold the vote because of a deadline imposed by a state revolving loan fund that is in line to support the project, which is being designed and will be overseen by Hoyle, Tanner & Associates Inc. of Burlington.

The lines to be replaced run from Main Street to its intersection with Green Street in Vergennes, a stretch that Deming said testing showed to be problematic, including “low fire flow issues,” and from the intersection or Main Street along the length of Monkton Road and, Deming said, “all the way out past the railroad tracks” into Ferrisburgh for about a quarter mile “or maybe a little more.” The VPWD serves some customers in areas of Ferrisburgh next to Vergennes and Panton.

According to Deming, there are several problems with that latter stretch of line, which has seen several breakages in recent years, including a recent major one in January.

“Part of it is that it’s 1930s pipe. You’ve got a lot of deterioration in it, and you lose a lot of your flow in friction. Then I know there’s a lot of six-inch line in there that I know is going to be eliminated because we’re going to put in a larger 12-inch line. And some of that six-inch line has some galvanized lines hooked up to it, so those are going to be removed, and at least copper run to the curb stops,” Deming said. All the new lines along the roads will be copper, he added.

Deming said the estimate for the full length of lines to be replaced runs around 5,000 feet.

One unknown at this point is the exact impact of the bond on ratepayers. The good news, Deming said, is the district is paying off another loan this year, thus offsetting any new future bond payments.

On the other hand, he said the VPWD board is almost certainly already looking at higher rates in 2026, the earliest any impact of a new bond is likely to be felt in rates, due to rising costs of district operations.

Deming hopes people will come and ask questions on Wednesday and then cast ballots next week.

We’re going to have the educational meeting on the 5th, and then the vote on the 12th,” he said.