Board approves $33,545 contract to replace 50‑gallon day tank at sewer plant

The Board of Selectmen approved a contract on June 15 for replacement of an aging 50‑gallon diesel day tank that serves the wastewater plant generator. Tiger, speaking for the Department of Public Works, said the current day tank is nearly 30 years old and lacks a return‑line design now standard on newer units.

Tiger described the day tank as "inside the building next to the generator and holds 50 gallons," adding that the generator can burn thousands of gallons during extended outages: "This thing can burn, I think, 4,000 gallons in 72 hours," he said as context for keeping the larger primary tank and the day tank redundancy. The DPW described the project as a package — tank, pumps, motors, valves and added safety devices — and said much of the cost is equipment rather than labor.

Because the existing buried tank cannot be removed until the replacement is installed and commissioned, DPW said timing and vendor specialty were the primary drivers for moving forward. Staff reported limited contractor availability for this specialized work and that some regional vendors outsource components of the job.

The motion approved a contract with Hughes Mechanical Equipment in the lump sum amount of $30,494.68 with a contingency of $3,050 for a total of $33,544.68. The board recorded the vote as unanimous.