FRENCHVILLE, Maine — Frenchville held a special town meeting earlier this month in which residents approved opening a one-year $275,000 line of credit for wastewater work in addition to funding for grader repairs and a new utility task vehicle, or UTV.
The project will upgrade a municipal pump station that hasn’t been upgraded in decades.
The $275,000 includes $215,000 for the town’s portion of improvements at the pump station, located at the intersection of U.S. Route 1 and Church Avenue. In addition, $60,000 will be used to upgrade the aeration diffuser system in the wastewater basins, located at the treatment facility on Route 1.
The funds will be borrowed from Katahdin Trust Company at an interest rate of 4.87%.
When the one-year period ends on the credit, the town will look at securing a long-term bond through the Maine Municipal Bond Bank to take advantage of better lending rates.
The meeting lasted roughly half an hour, and only about four residents attended. Town Manager David Cyr said there was some discussion about the town’s total indebtedness, as the treasurer’s statement on the warrant indicated a total of $1.04 million in outstanding bonds as of Dec. 31 of last year. The total now would be reduced by about $150,000, he said.
The town has received a total of $1.5 million in grant funding for wastewater system repairs. About $200,000 of this will help with the pump station repairs, a project totaling roughly $400,000.
If the town does not take action to borrow money for these projects, which match the grant funding, it will end up needing to borrow much more money to complete the project, Cyr said.
A resident also questioned why more people were not in attendance at the meeting, but Cyr said this was ultimately beyond his control.
The pump station repair work is estimated to be completed by October 2026. The project should be completed fairly quickly, as it mostly involves replacing aging equipment, Cyr said.
Residents also approved borrowing $50,000, out of which $40,000 will be used to repair the town’s grader and the remaining $10,000 will help purchase a new UTV. The fire department has already raised $22,000 towards the new UTV. Frenchville will borrow the money from Acadia Federal Credit Union for this at an interest rate of 4.50%.
The warrant also included an item that authorized the town to enact the Sept. 2025 General Assistance Ordinance and its appendices for 2025 and 2026. Cyr said this item, which lets the town issue assistance, is fairly standard and gets taken up every couple of years.
