Town meeting overwhelmingly approved borrowing $1 million to fund a proposed $4.5 million upgrade for the aging wastewater treatment plant
WARE — Town meeting on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved borrowing $1 million to fund a proposed $4.5 million upgrade for the aging wastewater treatment plant.
Kanzaki Specialty Papers, the largest employer in town, and a heavy user of the municipal system, has agreed to contribute $1 million to the project.
The 178-18 vote also means the town can apply for a state MassWorks grant to cover $2.5 million of the costs -- because Kanzaki says the upgrade will allow them to add about a dozen more jobs.
Residents will also have the option to vote on whether the town's portion of the borrowing should be funded via a tax increase. A proposition 2-1/2 debt exclusion vote is on November's election ballot.
Town Manager Stuart Beckley said the tax increase would average $20 per homeowner for the estimated 15 to 20 year life of the bond.
Opponent Bill Jackson was recognized many times by the moderator. He said Kanzaki should also fund the town's $1 million portion. The company began paying the town an extra $6,000 per month in January to accept its heavy metal-laden waste water at the treatment plant.
"I think that kanzaki can well afford to put in their own pretreatment plant that they should have done many years ago," Jackson said.
Kanzaki was told by state and federal regulators it must treat its waste before sending the slurry to the Ware plant. But a company-funded $20,000 study completed by the Andover engineering firm Wright-Pierce determined that $4.5 million in upgrades would allow the company to continue to dump its waste in the Ware system.
Although the company had agreed to construct a $2.5 million pre-treatment facility to satisfy the government, the Wright-Pierce solution would make more sense, Stephen P. Hefner, Chief Executive Officer and President of Kanzaki Specialty Papers, Inc. told selectmen in June when the idea was first made public.
"Tonight is a no-brainer -- let's get some money into this town," resident Cathy Buelow-Cascio said at Tuesday's town meeting. "Yes, Kanzaki might have gotten away with some things in the past, but let's go forward.
Kanzaki has 227 employees and paid $140,500 in taxes to the town last year.