SCITUATE — The town received a last-minute offer of a low-interest loan from the state to fund extending Scituate’s sewer system north, which would let the town expand and raise new growth revenues.
Voters at the special town meeting April 13 will decide if the town should finance the loan, which is now estimated at $21 million but could change as the design and bidding process advances.
“It could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, considering we're going to be looking at an interest rate at 2%, if not less,” Select Board Chair Andrew Goodrich said. “We're talking millions of dollars in savings.”
Goodrich said that the commercial district in North Scituate “cannot grow” because the sewage system does not stretch outside of it. The loan would fund building out the system northward from the intersection of Gannett Road and Country Way up to the western mouth of Musquashcut Brook.
The state notified the town that the sewer expansion project was eligible for a low-interest loan March 23, and the town needs voter approval to finance the loan by June 30.
Town Administrator James Boudreau estimated that the town would save $9 million over 30 years with the subsidized low-interest loan.
Before learning that Scituate was eligible for the state loan, the town placed on the special town meeting warrant an article to approve an up to $27 million loan to finance the project. It also received a $5 million grant for the project from MassWorks that will only materialize if the town meeting vote passes.
“If we don't approve the borrowing, then we don't have money for the sewer. We don't do the project. We lose the $5 million grant and we lose the low-interest loans,” Boudreau said.
Goodrich said the town will borrow roughly $21 million from the state for the project if the article passes. The select board, capital planning committee, and advisory committee all unanimously voted to recommend favorable action on the article.
The loan would come from Massachusetts’s State Revolving Fund, a program that “provides subsidized loans and grants to improve or protect water quality and infrastructure systems in the Commonwealth.” Rob Little, the senior principal on the team contracted to design the expansion, said applications for the program are “very competitive.”
“This is unexpected, and it's also fantastic financially for the town of Scituate,” Little said.
The town contracted Woodard and Curran, an engineering and operations firm, to design the expansion and estimate the cost. The state has approved the firm’s estimate of $27 million, Little said.
If the loan is approved at the special town meeting, Woodard and Curran project manager Dan Scott said that the firm plans to finish obtaining permits for the project in August. The town could then begin a one-month bidding period and award a construction contract by the end of October.
Scott said that construction would likely begin construction in the spring of 2027 and would take 20 to 28 months.
If the project is completed, construction of new property subject to taxes could raise the town’s revenue, though it would be years before that money is realized. It will also be several years before the town can charge betterments to fund its debt service payments, said Mike Gibson, chair of the capital planning committee.
Goodrich said that the select board plans to fund debt service payments with rates, grants and betterments without dipping into the general fund.
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