MRRA eyes $2M bond to fix aging infrastructure at Brunswick Landing
The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority plans to float a $2 million revenue bond next year to pay for upgrades of aging sewer, water and electrical systems at Brunswick Landing.
MRRA Executive Director Steve Levesque told The Times Record that aging sewer infrastructure is creating drainage problems and creating additional expenses at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station.
“We have water that’s coming in from the ground, infiltrating old clay pipes, whose joints have been busted. We also have old manholes that are brick, and all the mortar disintegrated,” Levesque told the newspaper. “Then we have drains from the roofs of buildings and from different drainage points that, rather than going into the storm drain, lead right into the sanitary sewer system. And we have to pay for that.”
MRRA maintains 17 miles of water and sewer lines at Brunswick Landing and faces additional costs in bringing older former Navy buildings up to code for re-use by businesses wanting to locate there, the newspaper reported.
In its latest economic scorecard, MRRA reports that 64 businesses have located at Brunswick Landing since the base’s closure in May 2011 — including Mölnlycke Health Care, Kestrel Aviation, Oxford Networks, American Bureau of Shipping, Flight Level, Savilinx, Tempus Jets and RollEase. By the end of this year, MRRA reports 750 new jobs will have been created, with more than $1 million in taxes being paid to Topsham and Brunswick as a result of redevelopment.
That rapid growth enabled MRRA in June to pay off a $3 million loan from the U.S. Navy 10 years before it was due.
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