Upgrade to Vernon sewer plant delayed by supply chain issues | Vernon

At Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, Water Pollution Control Facility Director Robert Grasis provided the council with a project update.

Grasis said that the upgrade, originally planned to be completed in July 2023, has now been pushed back to an estimated completion date of Sept. 2023. He attributed this to a delay in receiving equipment and some needed components not being available.

He said the contractor working on the upgrade, New Hampshire-based Methuen Construction, has been substituting some of the delayed components with temporary materials, but as the upgrade progresses, this becomes less feasible.

Grasis also said some of the new equipment that is received cannot yet be installed because other needed components have not yet arrived.

But Grasis said the delay would not cause any issues with the plant meeting state requirements, and the budget for the project should not go up as a result. He added that the upgrade is currently still under-budget.

“We’re trying to progress as best we can,” Grasis said.

Grasis also said that as part of the upgrade, an emergency-call system would be included in the facility that would be in place during after hours and weekends. Under the system, if anything went wrong, an on-call operator would be notified to come to the plant.

The system would allow the plant to only be manned for one eight-hour shift a day, which would likely make it cheaper for the plant to operate, Grasis said. He said it has also been difficult finding people to work second and third shift, and the new system could alleviate this need.

Mayor Dan Champagne said Tuesday that the people who work second and third shift would be moved to first shift, and depending on how that goes, there would be a shift in manpower and possibly a reduction in staff.

He said firewalls would be put in place to protect the computerized alarm system from hackers.

Champagne said he believes those working on the upgrade are doing the best they can in the conditions handed to them.

“Nobody expected COVID, nobody expected all that rain last year, and no one expected that supply chains would be so screwed up in a short amount of time … I think they are doing a pretty good job of working around it,” he said.