WESTMINSTER — There are three commercially zoned areas in Westminster that are not serviced by municipally-owned water and sewer.
The revised 2015 Town Plan 6.1, up for discussion and approval on Oct. 6, pays more attention to improving access to water and sewer services within those commercial districts.
An aging water and sewer infrastructure owned by the Village of Bellows Falls is coming due for long-delayed upgrades and maintenance, and the same system has been serving the villages of Gageville and North Westminster within the town of Westminster. The communities face long term decisions on how to maintain a system they don't own, and how to find a way to access water and sewer services from the three commercial zones to attract businesses.
Contiguous portions of North Westminster along Route 5 and in Gageville along Route 123, have been served by Bellows Falls water since 1996. Terrace Village, North Westminster, and Westminster Station, all have some of their wastewater treated by the Bellows Falls treatment plant.
The rest of Westminster is served either by smaller water companies or by well water, and on-site sewage disposal.
With Saxtons River proceeding with plans to upgrade its wastewater treatment plant to a pump station, tentative discussions to try to connect the Gageville system to the Saxtons River station died when the town could not respond in time.
According to Westminster Town Manager Russell Hodgkins, talks failed “because we weren't moving fast enough,” adding that while these plans are on hold, they have not been abandoned completely.
In the wake of Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, many low-lying Vermont towns discovered the hard way that building business districts in the lowlands of the state's waterways increases the risk of devastating losses.
One of the commercial districts is located partially in a floodplain, but out of the floodway. Building in a floodplain is allowed within certain FEMA regulations.
Allen Brothers, sits in one commercial zone along Route 5, and was inundated by three to four feet of water during Irene. Both sides of Route 5 were flooded, and the fields to the east of Route 5, in the floodplain, have only been partially used for growing since. The fields are now home to two large propane storage tanks sitting on stanchions above the high water level, amid a few crops on the southern half of the field.
There is also a sign advertising acreage for sale at its entrance.
The stanchions for the propane tanks raise them above the 100-year flood water level, and keeps all the electrical valves and explosion prevention ports above that level, said Hodgkins, and this is allowable (though the permitting was done by his predecessor, he noted) development, in commercially zoned floodplains.
Ideally, Hodgkins explained, the Route 5 corridor near Allen Brothers and Westminster Station could get connected to water and sewer lines in Bellows Falls.
A “loop” that connects water and sewer now through systems A and B in abutting Bellows Falls in North Westminster, would connect along Route 123 to Saxtons River, be routed back along Back Westminster Road to Exit 6 of Interstate 91 in Westminster, and down to the Route 5 corridor and Westminster Station, and north again back to Bellows Falls.
But for now, at least, Hodgkins said this is part of the town plan, which notes that the town will explore, through feasibility studies, the future of municipal water and sewage disposal systems for commercially zoned districts.
A public meeting to comment and discuss the Westminster 2015 Town Plan Draft 6.1, will be held Oct. 6, 2015, at 6:30 pm at the Westminster Institute, 3534 US Route 5, Westminster. The proposed Draft 6.1 contains updates from the previous adoption dated in 2012. The full text of the proposed Draft 6.1 may be examined and/or obtained at the Town Office during regular business hours or viewed at www.westminstervt.org.