COLRAIN — After months of scrambling to identify funding and engineering services, the Colrain Sewer District has received an earmark in the state budget from state Sen. Paul Mark, D-Becket, and assistance from the engineering firm RCAP Solutions.

Barnhardt Manufacturing Co., which has been processing the sewage of 21 homes, announced its pending closure in early December 2022, leaving the residents of the Colrain Sewer District to search for a quick solution in the following months. The company has processed the sewage free of charge for years, with other manufacturing companies in the space always doing the same. With no new businesses moving into the building, the residents must find a solution or the homes will be condemned.

“It is obvious it has to be solved one way or another,” Selectboard member Thom Griffin said during a meeting this week.

Complicating the matter is that the homes are part of the Colrain Sewer District, an independent entity created by a 1997 legislative act empowering residents of Church, High and Griswoldville streets, as well as one residence on Main Road, to manage their wastewater. This means the town has no jurisdiction to assist.

Barnhardt is running a skeleton crew in the space and is set to stop processing the sewage on Sept. 1. This leaves the residents tasked with finding a short-term solution that can be executed by this September deadline and a long-term solution that the district can use to solve the problem indefinitely.

A core of hard-working residents has been meeting with representatives of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, local politicians and engineering firms to find a solution. In February, they elected a board for the district and now host bi-weekly meetings over Zoom.

The group originally created an appointment with the Selectboard this week to ask for money to find a short-term solution, but just learned that Mark created an earmark for them in the state budget, District Commissioner and Moderator Patrick Geary explained at the Selectboard meeting.

The draft budget from the House, Senate and governor has already been created and a final budget will be negotiated in the coming months. This earmark has the potential of being taken out of the final budget. It is unknown how much the earmark is for.

The group also started working with RCAP Solutions (Resources for Communities and People) out of Worcester, part of a national network called Rural Community Assistance Partnership. They work with small rural districts and have assisted with projects for the Monroe Water District (which serves 35 homes), the Grandin Water District in Northfield and Conway wastewater issues.

The company is a non-profit and has not charged Colrain for its services so far.

According to Cole Whitaker, a resident of the Colrain Sewer District, RCAP Solutions told the group they were the most “urgent and dire” problem the company has ever seen.

In terms of long-term solutions, Geary said, “Funding sources have been identified and applied for.”

“We are a mighty small group of people working really hard,” said Jade Mortimer, the district’s clerk. “I think we are making good steps forward.”

Bella Levavi can be reached at 413-930-4579 or blevavi@recorder.com.

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