Selectmen Give Green Light to Melmark Sewer Agreement

It appears after a lengthy effort and concerns of town officials, Melmark New England may have expanded sewer connection.

The Board of Selectmen unanimously voted Monday night to allow an inter-municipal agreement -- with Lowell and Tewksbury -- for the non-profit school's kitchen and bathrooms to be connected to a private sewer line along River Road.

At last week's meeting, Melmark officials hoped the agreement would be voted on, but selectmen delayed any action in order to improve the wording of the agreement. Of key concern was the potential for Melmark to expand their facility and tap the expansion into the sewer lines. Melmark officials said there was no plan to do that, but selectmen wanted that to be clear in the agreement.

"The end agreement just defines the use is for their current property with the current buildings," Selectmen Chair Alex Vispoli said. "It doesn't include any future build-out."

Melmark has been looking into buying a neighboring property.

"We did not know that prior to the request," Vispoli said. "Once we heard that, we wanted to make sure we weren't setting a precedent that the town would approve any additional project."

The agreement is now in the hands of Lowell and Tewksbury officials.

Founded in 1998, Melmark New England serves children with autism, brain injuries and other neurological diseases.

The private sewer line was built after a developer -- Avalon -- swapped property with nuns and built them a convent with the sewer line. The developer said there would be no 40B development there, Vispoli said, but then they did build a massive 40B development.

"There's some history in that area, and we just wanted to be sure that this agreement was crystal clear that [the current agreement] is what we were approving," Vispoli said.

The sewer line's capacity does not raise any concerns, he said, since the line has far more capacity than is currently being used.