Northfield municipal project to increase water supply, taxes

By Danny Robinson
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

As the town of Northfield grows as a community, there are several key factors that must be addressed. These factors keep the community running smoothly and efficiently.

One such concern is the water supply, which delivers to the townspeople and surrounding areas. Recently, Northfield has overhauled its water storage facilities to meet the changing needs of the area. On April 1 of this year, construction began on a two-part project that will ultimately cost $2.2 million to manufacture, according to Northfield Municipal Water personnel. Although badly needed, this production will raise consumers' taxes significantly in order to compensate for the finances.

"It will definitely affect the customer; anybody that has access to the water pays for the water bill, and his or her rates went up considerably for the system," said Bill Lyon, who works for the Northfield Municipal Water board.

Dale Mauldin, 19, a junior communications major from Belchertow Mass., said, "I don't care how much it costs, just as long as we don't have another water restriction like the one we had my freshman year. That was due to contaminates in the water."

But an even greater concern is the tax rate increase, which will likely accompany the improvements.

"The taxes in Northfield are not the highest in the state; in fact, they are somewhere around the twelfth highest," said Northfield Municipal Manager Charles Morse. "They are, however, close to being in the top percentile in central Vermont, which is the Washington County and Montpelier area."

"You don't have a lot of counties to compete with, so the taxes are an issue, as well as the utilities," Morse said. "We, however, are faced with high-energy costs, because of the economics of Vermont."

Northfield residents are also voicing concerns about the economic impact.

"I don't think that people understand the issues in exactly what they need to build that cost that much money," according to Bill Estill, communications professor at Norwich and a Northfield resident. "When you think about that much money and what it might do to our taxes, it's a scary proposition."

Although taxes will be affected, according to Lyon, the repairs to the water system are badly needed.

"The existing water system requires work," Lyon said. "Over a period of time you start looking for what those improvements could be, and these improvements have been identified for 20 years or so."

The improvements will start with the first part of the operation.

"There's work in the well field, which includes a new water pump and rehab and improvements to the two old pumps," Lyon explained. "It will become an automated system, while the existing system was manually operated."

Lyon added that " this will have controls on it and will converse to each other through radio waves.

"The system will notify each of the pumps of the elevations in the reservoirs," Lyon said. "It can then turn the pumps on when needed, and turn them off when not needed."

Lyon said that the other part of this project is a "new million-gallon reservoir located on Garvey Hill. That will, with the existing 500 gallon storage, give the community a million and a half gallons in storage."

"That's three days' supply; we're using about 500,000 a day, and it also furnishes fire flows for fires and emergencies," said Lyon.

Water is essential to the preservation of any community and affects many different aspects of people's lives.

"And as far as the cost of taxes, I think everybody understands that what you are paying for is the quality of life in a peaceful rural setting. We have a small community, so the cost for taxes is high," said Morse.

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