BARRE CITY, Vt. (WCAX) – Voters in Barre will decide in November whether to upgrade the city’s wastewater treatment facility. Officials say the facility is long overdue for a makeover and is struggling to keep up with the times.
“The design that it is was not ever meant to process a bunch of wipes and rags, anything like that. It is really meant to break up sticks. Any type of that material,” said Zeburyn Lane, who has worked at the Barre City Wastewater plant for six years.
Lane says throughout his tenure, he’s had to halt production to unclog the facility more than a dozen times.
Without an upgrade, he’s not sure how much longer the place will hold up.
“That is not to mention how many times I have had to fix it just to find out that it really doesn’t change anything. Usually three or four times a day someone has to come down and rake the bar rack because there is so many rags piled up on the bar rack. And what that is doing is causing issues with the flow,” Lane said.
On Election Day, residents will vote on whether to approve a $7.6 million bond to fix the facility’s headworks, a portion of the plant that removes solid materials from wastewater, like rags and grit.
The city spends about $200,000 extra dollars a year on repairs and needs a more permanent fix.
“We would take on debt. We would repay that debt through sewer rates. So we can get this plant into its next generation. We would build a completely new headworks into the plant. It would be a building, the newest technology. It would allow people to continue to use those rags but allow the plant to work,” Barre City Manager Nicolas Storellicastro said.
If voters approve the $7.6 million bond, the city hopes to start the project next spring.
