Water Line Repair
Will Cost $650,000
By M. D. Drysdale

Restoring proper water pressure to Randolph residents along Route 66 and Radio Drive will cost close to $650,000, the selectboard was told last week Monday by Town Manager Peter Butterfield.

It’s a lot of money, and the number of customers along that line is not great, he conceded, but he declared that the work needs to be done and held out the hope that substantial grants would be available.

Water pressure begins to decrease as soon as you get out of the former village area, so that the Ledgewood Apartments at Harlow Hill, the new Catholic Church and the Green Mountain Gospel Chapel, as well as customers along Radio Drive and Fish Hill are getting very poor pressure, Butterfield said.

They pay, of course, the same amount as water customers everywhere else.

Butterfield recommended that the town take advantage of a zero-interest, five-year loan of up to $50,000 for engineering.

In addition, he said, he is exploring the possibility of special funding from the U. S. Department of Agriculture. That might be available, depending on the median income of people in the water district.

The town manager pointed out that even though the Route 66 line does not serve a lot of customers, it is an obvious growth area for the town and needs to be served.

If more users are added to the system, the burden on the current users should decline over time, he noted.

"And if we can get some grants, it will be a win-win for us," he concluded.