BRATTLEBORO — Town Meeting representatives have voted to deny permission to sell the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, countering the Selectboard's Jan. 19 decision.
The facility, in need of repair, provided municipal water beginning in the 1880s, and the town disconnected the reservoir from the municipal water system approximately 35 years ago. The Selectboard had voted 3–2 to sell the reservoir, a measure that needed final Town Meeting approval.
Representatives killed that strategy by a voice vote at the March 20 Annual Town Meeting.
Selectboard Clerk Jesse Corum, a proponent of the sale, told Town Meeting representatives that the town had two duties: to supply potable water and to treat the waste on the other end. He wondered how the town could ask ratepayers outside of the eight-family Chestnut Hill neighborhood to pay for its upgrades.
“Enough, already. Time to unload the dam,” he said.
“We as a town need to be very wary of selling assets,” said District 3 representative Elizabeth Gentile, a Chestnut Hill resident. She also said the reservoir played an important role in the town's history and listed multiple birds using it as a stop over.
“I don't think selling it is realistic.” Selectboard Vice-Chair Dora Bouboulis countered. “It's a town asset. We should hold onto it."
Sell or repair?
According to Director of Public Works Stephen Barrett, the state inspects all dams yearly and has asked the town repeatedly to repair the facility and write an emergency action plan.
Because of the volume of water in the reservoir, the state classifies Chestnut Hill as a dam.
In summer 2009, the town commissioned DuBois & King Consulting Engineers of Randolph to conduct a study of Chestnut Hill. The firm proposed eight courses of action, ranging from draining the reservoir and knocking a hole in the dam, to bringing it to code, to filling the site completely.
Cost estimates for the various alternatives ranged from $135,000 to $629,000.
Barrett suggested DuBois & King's $219,000 scenario, which would restore the dam and meet all safety requirements.
“No major upgrades or maintenance costs have occurred in the last 50 years, so the proposed upgrade should last for many years to come,” said Barrett.
The Chestnut Hill dam is further branded as “high hazard” because of the potential risk of damage to the community if it fails.
According to the engineers' report, “The state generally follows the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers guidelines for Hazard Classification, which defines a dam as high hazard if failure of it would result in loss of 'more than a few' lives or 'excessive' economic damage."
Representatives debate
“Collectively, most residents at the June 25 Selectboard meeting expressed the general view that the reservoir was a positive, defining element of the neighborhood and one that they would like to see maintained,” according to the DuBois & King report.
Many representatives said they had received calls from people in their districts about the reservoir. George Harvey (District 3) said he knew selling the site could increase tax revenue, but he didn't see a good reason to sell.
Tom Finnell (District 3) suggested using the reservoir for “pump storage,” a method of generating alternative energy.
Water could be pumped uphill from the West River at night when electric rates were at their lowest, he said, and then flow downhill during the day when the demand for electricity was higher, generating electricity that could be sold at a higher rate.
Lynn Corum (District 3) asserted that the damn was not safe. She called an assertion by Gentile that local students used the site as part of their curriculum a “stretch.”
She suggested the site be sold so a developer could put it into enterprise. It wasn't fair for eight homes in a better section of town to ask the rest of the town to pay higher water rates so the reservoir could be repaired.
Peter Falion (District 3), noting he was distressed at the town's “inability to address what the state is telling us,” urged the town to at least repair the dam to the point it is no longer in violation of safety standards.
Next steps
“A neighborhood is a neighborhood, and you have to preserve [it],” a happy Barrett said as he left the meeting.
Barrett said the newly reconstituted Selectboard must decide what to do next. He hopes the board will go with his original $219,000 recommendation, which would add an overflow pipe and make repairs to the gatehouse and dam.
Barrett noted that the discussion has helped bring to light potential uses for the property.
“There are so many ideas now that people are talking,” he said.