Parking spots may be sacrificed for septic system

By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

CASCO — If anyone saw a couple of adults with hand shovels digging in the playground next to the Casco Public Library, there is no need to call for psychiatric help.

They were not reliving their childhood.

They were employees of Sebago Technics, gathering the information needed to plan a future septic system in Casco Village.

Believe it or not — the current septic system is located under the playground.

The Town of Casco will engage a contractor to put in a leach field sometime this fall, according to Casco Town Manager Dave Morton.

During the Casco Board of Selectmen meeting on Tuesday night, Sebago Technics Vice President of Engineering Owens McCullough was accompanied by Permitting Coordinator Emmerald “Emmy” Irvin.

McCullough provided the board with an overview of the existing septic system and a plan for the future one. His rough estimate cost for the project was $50,000.

The leach field will tie into the library, the Casco Community Center and the building leased by All About Raven Hair Salon and Antiques.

The best potential location of the future leach field is the far corner of the parking lot behind the library. Most likely, the lot would lose eight or nine parking spots, according to McCullough. In that area, there would be a raised landscaping.

The leach field would extend into the woods behind the library parking lot with the required setbacks from the wetlands there, McCullough said.

Having a leach field below the tennis courts would have been ideal — if it had been put in before the courts were constructed.

“The best place to go with the new system is under the parking lot,” McCullough said.

Earlier this summer, Jim Wiley of RN Wiley & Sons Excavating, did some test digs to assist Sebago Technics with its information gathering phase.

One of the septic systems was installed in 1976, while the septic tank for the library was done in about 2002. There are three lines. Some of the lines rely on gravity and others are pumped.

McCullough said the firm is still in the process of gathering more information so that the board can put the construction project out to bid, and get the work done this autumn.

Morton said that there are plan to move the historical building, a former schoolhouse, off the property behind the library.

When the local historical society does that, the town could reclaim the eight or nine parking spots lost during the leach field construction, he said.