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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 24, 2003 

CONTACT: Jorja-Ann Marsden 
(413) 298-4714 

TOWN OF STOCKBRIDGE TO BREAK GROUND SEPTEMBER 30 ON $6.5 MILLION SEWER PROJECT 

The Board of Selectmen and the Sewer and Water Commission of Stockbridge are pleased to announce that the Sewer Expansion and Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade Project will formally begin construction with a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday September 30, 2003. All residents of the Town are invited to the event which will be held at the Town's Wastewater Treatment Plant on Route 102 at 12:00 Noon. Comments from the Selectmen, Commissioners and Legislators will be followed by lunch offered to those attending. Tours of the Treatment Plant will also be available for townspeople. 

The groundbreaking is the culmination of five years of community meetings and studies by the Sewer and Water Commissioners to deal with the increasing number of failing septic systems in the Glendale, Mahkeenac and Goodrich Street sections of Town. In 1999 the Town authorized the Commission to formulate a Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan which was completed by Weston and Sampson Engineers, Inc. of Glastonbury, CT in 2002. The Plan proposed upgrading the Wastewater Treatment Plant and expanding the existing sewer collection system to those three areas of Town at an estimated cost of $9,000,000. The Town was then successful in receiving a financing commitment from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection for a low interest loan (2%) from the Massachusetts Water Pollution Abatement Trust. This commitment was accepted by the Town Meeting voters at a Special Town Meeting held in April 2002 with final approval coming from the DEP at the end of the year. 

Contractor bids for the project were received in May and brought especially good news, as they were $2,000,000 less than original estimates. Last month the contracts were awarded to Ludlow Construction, Inc. of Ludlow, MA for the Sewer Collection portion of the project and J. H. Maxymillian of Pittsfield, MA for the Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade. Tuesday’s Groundbreaking Event marks the beginning of the construction portion of this entire project. Completion of the Wastewater Treatment Plant is expected for next fall. The sewer collection system will be completed in two years.