News from the Underground

While the new foundation plantings beautify the area around the Manse, you may also have noticed the blighted area shown at the right, which appears near the front parking area.  If you look closely, two circular regions are visible amid all the dirt.  There is a story behind it all.

As the Library Building Committee looks toward the day when we have raised enough money to build the expanded Library, the Committee has learned from the experience of other libraries that it is necessary to get "all your ducks in a row" before presenting a final plan to the Town Planning Committee. One factor that has caused problems for other library expansions is an inadequate septic system. While a library typically does not produce large amounts of sewage, and the amount produced does not increase significantly just because the building is larger and houses a bigger collection, the Board of Health wants to make sure that no problems will arise. 

The Library has occupied the Manse for almost 35 years, so none of today's staff or Board was present when the current septic system was set up.  A local plumber, Mr. Rooter, however, has equipment that can locate buried septic tanks.  Mr. Rooter originally surveyed the Library's septic system for the Building Committee several years ago, but recently the Committee needed more definite information that we could present to the Board of Health. Mr. Rooter not only located the septic tank, but they pumped it clean, and determined that it is the best modern type, a thousand-gallon concrete tank. Mr. Rooter provided all this service free to the Library as a donation to the Building project.   

In the process, Mr. Rooter had to do a lot of digging. The Mr. Rooter workers noted that the entire operation could be simplified in the future  if there were access points set up for the tank from the top.  The Library agreed and paid Mr. Rooter to install the necessary access, primarily because the step would need to be done before the inner "L" of the expanded building is converted into a plaza.  So the dirt area is from all the digging and the two circular regions are the new access points.  We hope to have the lawn back next year, especially since, as Erma Bombeck reminded us, "the grass is always greener over the septic tank."