Exeter NH calls for special Town Meeting to complete sewer project

EXETER — The town Select Board is calling for a special Town Meeting to complete the Squamscott River sewer project.

The board voted Monday to file a petition in Rockingham Superior Court for permission to hold the meeting this summer to secure additional funding needed for the ongoing sewer pipe replacement project. The unanimous decision was made amid major roadblocks encountered in the work, which changed the project’s initial time frame, scope and budget.

Town Manager Russ Dean said the final cost to complete the project is still being worked on and will be made public during the next Select Board meeting on May 22, along with its specifications.

“There’s several steps that we would have to take in order to effectuate this including probably posting for a bond (or a loan) as part of the project,” Dean said.

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Pending approval from the superior court, which could take up to two months, the first session of the special Town Meeting, known as the deliberative session, will be July 11. The second session, where residents will make their final vote, will be on Aug. 15.

Select Board Chair Nico Papakonstantis said although the timing of the special Town Meeting is not ideal, “time is of the essence” due to logistics.

“The reason we can’t wait until after Labor Day when more people will be in town is because the contractor needs to know sooner rather than later,” Selectman Dan Chartrand said. “This is the latest we can (have a Town Meeting) and not incur additional charges (of having the contractors and subcontractors) tearing everything down and having them set it back up. … We don’t want to do it in the summer, but we have to.”

Additionally, Dean also said the pricing of the project could change after August.

“One of the pivotal pieces of having the votes done by Sept. 1 is the guarantee of the pricing that goes along with the project,” Dean said. “The contractor is holding the pricing for us.”

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The project that was initially going to cost $1.6 million is now being done in phases. The first phase of the project, which is the installation of one new pipe, has already been approved for $4.2 million. That amount included the original $1.6 million approved in 2020 for the project, $2.1 million from the town’s sewer reserve fund as well as $500,000 from federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The second phase calls for the replacement of existing pipes discovered to have been corroded, first installed more than 50 years ago. It is currently unknown whether that will be one additional pipe to replace the existing two-barrel system, or two pipes as originally planned to create a three-barrel system.

Town officials say that the cost of a second or third pipe is not expected to be as high as the $4.2 million for the first pipe. That first pipe’s price tag includes extra costs owed to the contractor for compensation and change orders that occurred in the project thus far.

Papakonstantis said staff involved in the project have told him they believe a second pipe could be installed with enough capacity to meet existing demand as well as future development. He said that would allow the town to accomplish the mission for which it originally set out in 2020 to make room for growth.

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How did Exeter get here?

During the 2020 Town Meeting, voters approved a budget of $1.6 million to put towards the installation of a new single pipe to run alongside two existing pipes. The goal was to have a three-barrel system and add capacity for future development.

After the 2020 Town Meeting, an effort to clean the aged existing pipes revealed they had holes and needed to be replaced as well, making the entire project more urgent, according to Paul Vlasich, the town’s interim public works director.