The town will request $8.9 million for a new senior center at Town Meeting May 19, instead of the $9.7 million recommended by the Finance Committee last month by a 6-3 vote.
The estimated cost remains $9.7 million, as pegged by architect Leigh Sherwood, but the town is seeking a Community Development Block Grant of up to $800,000 that would reduce the price tag.
Town Administrator William Keegan announced at the Board of Selectmen's meeting last night that the town can't endorse full funding at Town Meeting if it plans to pursue that grant.
"One of the things we have learned over the past week is that in order for us to preserve the town's grant eligibility, we cannot authorize the full funding of this project if we want to make our case for federal assistance through this program," Keegan said in a press release.
If Town Meeting supports funding the senior center, the selectmen will call for a special election in June to ask voters to support a Proposition 2 1/2 override to fund the project.
If the override passes, the town will apply for the $800,000 in the next round of block grant funding - from October to February of 2009. The grant is administered through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
"Not fully funding a project is a bit unusual," the press release stated, but it is "a requirement of the grant to demonstrate the need for this federal funding source."
The town will present a "substitute motion" at Town Meeting requesting $8.9 million.
The proposed senior center would be two stories and 19,500 square feet, reduced from 20,600 square feet in earlier plans. It would be constructed of brick, metal and glass.
In other business, Director of Engineering David Field went before the board last night to discuss a $2 million sewer rehabilitation project along ten miles of sewer pipeline scattered throughout town.
Field said that preparatory work on the project has already started and the project will wrap up sometime in October.
"This is a significant step forward for us in addressing an ongoing problem for many, many years," said Keegan.
Residents who will be affected by the project will get a one-week notice to limit their water use, said Field. "They don't need to stop using water completely, but they need to limit their water use. Don't plan your laundry for those hours that we're going to be disrupting your service, don't run your dishwasher, but you can still flush the toilet and wash your hands."
After the one-week notice, the department will send out another notice 24 hours in advance of the work. Residents will get a final notice from the department, letting them know the work is done.
The project involves the removal of an estimated 1.2 million gallons of infiltration, or surplus water, in the sewer system by lining it with fiberglass piping and sealing the holes and leaks. It does not involve excavation and costs between $40 and $60 a foot, said Field.
The work will involve 43,000 linear feet of sewer main testing and sealing, the sealing of 557 service connections, installation of 15,000 linear feet of cured in-place pipeline, the installation of 896 feet of short liners and the rehabilitation of 2,300 vertical feet of sewer manhole.
"I love the communication plan that you have in place," said Selectman Paul Reynolds. "When you finally get to taking care of something like that, you also have to deal with the practical implications of 'nobody told me, I didn't know what was going on.' You already have that in place with the one-week notice and the all-set notice."
Daily News staff writer Anna Kivlan can be reached at 781-433-8336 or akivlan@cnc.com.
