OXFORD — The town expects to award a bid for sewer plant equipment next week, putting groundbreaking for the project on track for next spring.

At its meeting last week, the Board of Selectmen authorized Town Manager Michael Chammings and board Vice Chairman Scott Owens to award the equipment bid to either Ovivo USA or GE Water and Process Technologies.

Earlier this month, Ovivo bid $1,248,763 for the system, compared to the $1,422,950 bid by GE.

The companies are competing to provide the specialized waste treatment system for the proposed state-of-the-art facility. 

Rather than using chemicals to treat waste, the proposed system uses a series of fine screens, or membranes, to slough off solids and sterilize remaining wastewater using ultraviolet light. 

A “life-cycle” analysis, taking into account long-term energy and maintenance costs, by engineering firm Woodard and Curran indicated that the GE system, although a costlier base bid, was less expensive over the long run, about $2,467,000 compared to $2,852,500 for Ovivo’s offering. 

On Tuesday, Woodard and Curran Vice President Brent Bridges said the engineering company was still analyzing the two bid submissions and should make a recommendation to the town Dec. 3. Equipment fabrication could take as long as six months. 

Ovivo and GE gave presentations to the Board of Selectmen in a three-hour work session Nov. 20 and their presentations prompted additional questions about product warranties, lengthening the process, Bridges said.

If the board selects a company next week, it can finalize its discharge permit application with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and start the bidding process for constructing the actual facility and sewer lines.

On Tuesday, Town Manager Michael Chammings said DEP was waiting on the specific treatment system before considering the town’s entire permit application. 

Bid requests for construction of the sewer plant itself should go out for pump station and collection systems in December, Bridges said. A second bid package, for the facility construction, should go out this winter. 

Groundbreaking on the project is expected to begin next spring and the entire project should be finished by the end of 2014, Bridges said. Earlier this year, Bridges estimated groundbreaking for the project in late autumn. 

Last December, Oxford voters authorized selectmen to borrow more than $20.2 million for the project. In April, the board took out a $13.7 million loan from the Maine Municipal Bond Bank to fund construction.

The proposed sewer project, expected to cost as much as $20 million, is broken into two phases.

The first phase includes constructing the sewage treatment plant at the Welchville Dam and running sewer lines north and south on Route 26 within the town’s commercial Tax Increment Financing District. 

The second phase proposes extending sewer lines north and west into residential parts of Oxford. Selectmen and Woodard and Curran are still waiting on possible funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture before expanding the system. 

Chammings has previously said the town intends to repay the loan using user fees, TIF funding and possible USDA grant money.

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