This November 5th Howland residents will be asked to support two very important projects. The first project is to paint/coat the water tank to stop corrosion. The tank painting is a project that has been placed on the back burner for too long. Our 500,000-gallon water tank is drastically in need of applying rust prevention coating to prevent it from deteriorating further. The first estimate for applying an interior/exterior rust prevention coating was $700,000. We have been looking for several years for grants to try and offset the cost of this project. This year Senator Collins is supporting our request for Congressional Spending funding to offset the cost. This funding will offset at least 75% of the cost. The most the residents will be asked to fund is a maximum of $140,000.
The second is the construction of a salt/sand storage facility on lagoon lane. Last year the Environmental Protect Agency notified us that we needed to either contain or treat the runoff from the salt/sand pile on Valley Ave. We reached out to the engineering firm of Al Hodsdon to quote the cost of a salt/sand storage facility and found that the price tag would be $1.6 million dollars. Trying to ask the residents to fund $1.6 million dollars was not what I wanted to do. So once again I started applying for additional Congressional Funding that would allow the federal government to pay for 75% of the project. The Town of Howland will receive 1.2 million of the 1.6 million in federal funds. If Howland residents approve these two projects, that is $1,760,000, we will not have to repay. Please support these two article questions on November 5th.