ANDOVER — Resident Pete Coolidge is concerned that the volume of water Nestle Waters North America wants to take from a well in Rumford will negatively affect the town.
“The amount of water they’re going to be wanting to take is a little more than I’m comfortable with, and it doesn’t seem to me like anyone from the Rumford Water District is taking any consideration for folks upstream of the neighboring well users,” Coolidge told the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday.
The volume of water and the number of trucks needed to haul the water would have an impact on Andover residents, he said.
“They were talking 70 trucks a day going out of Milligan’s (Well), heading down Route 5, then meandering down to Poland Spring (Water Co. in Poland),” he said.
Tanker trucks hold somewhat less than 8,000 gallons each and that would mean 560,000 gallons of water a day, Coolidge said. “I’m just not sure that we can support that.”
Selectman Jim Adler asked Coolidge how seriously Andover would be affected because the town is upstream from Rumford and many miles away.
“That’s the problem; we’re upstream,” Coolidge said. “We could lose some of our water before they lose theirs and I’m not sure we should be standing by and letting this happen without more education and more information.”
The next Rumford Water District meeting is at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7, 25 Spruce St., Rumford. Coolidge said he plans to attend.
He predicted that good, clean water is going to become more of a commodity and more and more valuable.
“Water is going to be the next gasoline, folks,” he said. “It’s coming.”
In other business, selectmen approved a property tax rate of $24.65 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. Last year’s rate was $19.60.
Selectman Jane Rich prepared a notice for residents, giving reasons for tax increases. “I drew up that paper that says how much our taxes would be, how much they’ve increased, hoping that it will alleviate some of the questions and rage,” she said.
Rich’s list of reasons are:
* County tax is up from $63,508 to $67,126;
* Education tax is up from $905,435 to $1.23 million;
* Tree growth values have gone down;
* Town valuation is down from $67.2 million to $66.8 million.
“People with homestead exemptions will not feel this increase as much, since the state exemption rate went from $10,000 to $15,000,” according to her notice.
“However, that is mitigated by the fact that we are at 82 percent sales evaluation as set by the State Bureau of Taxation. If we were at 100 percent, you would have received the full $15,000 instead of $12,300.”
Rich will be at the Town Office from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 3 and 10, to address any questions, comments and complaints.
mhutchinson@sunmediagroup.net
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