Acres Earmarked For Sewage Plant

     Selectmen, sitting as Sewer Commissioners, agreed Tuesday to reserve 40 acres of the 122-acre site on which the new Bourne Elementary School is being built as a possible location for a wastewater treatment facility to serve Buzzards Bay.
     That decision, selectmen said, did not bind them to do anything. It was simply a promise that nothing would be developed that would preclude the use of that acreage until all of the wastewater treatment studies were complete and a decision could be made on the project.
     Sallie K. Riggs, executive director of the Bourne Financial Development Corporation, asked for that action because, she said, it would be difficult to talk with institutions or others about funding for the project, for example, if no land was available for that purpose.
     Selectman Judith W. Conron asked if the request was premature, since the capital outlay group had said they were planning to discuss the competing uses for that parcel on Monday. That meeting is set for 7 PM in the Town Hall’s lower conference room.
     Others argued that setting aside the acreage for consideration merely put the siting of a possible wastewater treatment plant clearly on the table during the planning for that site’s use.
     Omer Dumais of Tighe & Bond, the company that performed the wastewater study commissioned by the BFDC, told selectmen that the whole parcel, including the 40 acres being recommended for the proposed plant, were located out of the watershed area. He said that acreage was also downflow from where any drinking water wells are, or would be, located.
     Ms. Riggs said the wastewater advisory committee had met with the Bourne Board of Health, representatives of the Buzzards Bay Water District, the school facilities subcommittee and others about the project.
     Selectmen heard that the board of health never took a formal vote on the project, but encouraged communication with the water district, something project proponents indicated they would do.
     Town Administrator Thomas M. Guerino said nothing else would likely be going up while the wastewater studies were being completed. At the moment, he said, aside from the wastewater plant and discharge area proposal, only a possible future expansion of the elementary school and a possible new department of public works facility have been proposed for the site.
     In other action, the board voted 4 to 1, with Selectman John A. Ford casting the dissenting vote, to ask Tighe & Bond to complete the compilation of possible funding sources for the proposed wastewater plant.
     Town Meeting voters authorized the use of $22,000 for that purpose. The majority of sewer commissioners thought it would be more effective for Tighe & Bond to perform that study because they were so familiar with the project. Any other company would have to spend a portion of that funding to familiarize itself with the proposed plant.
     Mr. Ford voted against the motion, saying that if the town sent out a request for proposal for the study, Tighe & Bond might still win the contract, but the winning bid might come in under the $22,000 that had been authorized.