ERVING — Funding a water tank mixer that would prevent bacteria growth, rescinding the borrowing of $125,000 to develop a Lead Service Line Inventory and Replacement Plan, and zoning bylaw amendments highlight the five-article Special Town Meeting warrant set to come before voters on Wednesday.
The meeting, which will start at 7 p.m., will be held at Erving Elementary School.
Article 2, if approved, would appropriate $51,000 for the construction phase of a water tank mixing project.
According to consulting firm Tighe & Bond’s project background, Erving’s 600,000-gallon “welded steel reservoir-style water storage tank” that is located off Route 2 tested positive for coliform bacteria last year. In response, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection recommended installing a mixer within the tank to help prevent bacteria formation.
The town appropriated $26,000 for the project’s engineering phase, or Phase I, at the March Special Town Meeting. Article 2 on Wednesday’s warrant is an anticipated Phase II step for the project.
Article 3, if approved, would rescind the borrowing of $125,000 to develop the town’s Lead Service Line Inventory and Replacement Plan.
According to Selectboard Chair Jacob Smith, the state requires that every municipality undergo an assessment of its water piping to check for the presence of lead. Water Superintendent Peter Sanders previously said this assessment would almost certainly not reveal lead in public pipes.
The town submitted an application to the state for a forgivable loan that would fund the project in its entirety. As a precaution, though, residents voted to borrow $125,000 during the March Special Town Meeting, which would have funded the project if the application for a forgivable loan were to be denied. The application was approved, however, which negates the need to borrow the money.
Approval of Article 5 would amend and recodify Erving’s zoning bylaws. Specifically, an affirmative vote would revise the zoning map that was last amended on May 11, 2022 and adopt changes that were made after a series of public hearings. These changes reassess special permit authorities; account for an expansion of marijuana-related establishments such as retail businesses; and decrease the minimum lot area that is required in Erving’s Rural Residential and French King districts, among other revisions.
“We included things that we would need for Erving’s future,” Jacquelyn Boyden, principal assessor and Planning Board chair, summarized at a public hearing on April 26.
The full amended zoning bylaw, color-coded to indicate changes, can be reviewed at rb.gy/ohdl5.
Other articles outlined on the warrant involve transferring $18,000 from the Recreation Revolving Account “to the continuing appropriation to be established for general maintenance of parks” and acquiring easements for the Church Street Bridge replacement project.
The full five-article warrant can be viewed at rb.gy/nzusp.
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.