Click image for Haverhill City Council agenda.
It is Haverhill’s time to, as they say, pay the piper—not in the traditional sense, but rather to borrow $26.2 million to replace a force main sewer pipe that failed in June and make related improvements.
Haverhill city councilors are expected Tuesday to place on file the required 10 days a loan order to set aside the money for engineering and construction related to the South Mill Street pumping station and force main sewer line. The failure of a 1970s-era 42-inch line sent millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the Merrimack River for several days while temporary bypasses were laid.
In a memorandum Thursday to Mayor Melinda E. Barrett, Public Works Director Robert E. Ward emphasized the emergency nature of the work, explaining, the price tag is “based on preliminary cost estimates and cannot wait for final design; securing funding now is essential to ensure work can proceed without delay once engineering is complete.”
The city’s approach will be to replace what was once a single line with two new 36-inch parallel force mains between the South Mill Street Pump Station and the Wastewater Treatment Plant on S. Porter Street. Ward explained state environmental officials have “made clear that the permanent solution must include redundancy in the force main system.”
Ward added, the city will save time and money by also replacing aging interior pump station piping that was already scheduled for a future plant upgrade. He also noted the borrowing covers the $380,000 a month cost of the temporary bypass pumping. Wright-Pierce continues to engineer the project and, the public works director wrote, the city will not borrow as much if costs come in less.
The proposed borrowing order acknowledges the loan is backed by ratepayers and will be submitted to Massachusetts Clean Water Trust, while seeking any federal or state aid available.
In other business before the City Council, members will consider a zoning amendment that would designate overlay districts where Battery Energy Storage Systems, or BESS, operations can be sited.
Back in May, City Solicitor Lisa L. Mead drafted an ordinance that would allow battery storage at the former Dutton Airport off Route 110 near Northern Essex Community College. City Environmental Health Technician Robert E. Moore Jr. told councilors, while most of the 96-acre airport site is off limits because of the presence of endangered Blanding’s turtle, the actual 15-acre airport land is flat and far enough away marsh areas to accommodate a battery storage facility. It is also near a transmission line and off Interstate 495.
Before any Council action, it’s Planning and Development Committee meets Monday night, Aug. 24, at 6, to rank possible overlay sites to “understand how each candidate area performs from the perspective of public safety, environmental protections, infrastructure capacity, emergency response, water resources, surrounding land usage and municipal operations.”
Such sites commonly called “battery farms” look like rows of metal shipping containers filled with batteries used as backup energy during peak demand periods. They store electricity from solar and wind installations, for example.
Philip Rice of Rice & Brouillard is also requesting approval to convert an existing one and a half-story commercial building at 125 River St., into a three-family residence with a mix of two- and three-bedroom units at 125 River St.
The Haverhill City Council meets Tuesday night at 7 p.m., remotely and in-person at the Theodore A. Pelosi Jr. Council Chambers, room 202, Haverhill City Hall, 4 Summer St. As a public service, 97.9 WHAV plans to carry the meeting live.