HOULTON, Maine — On Monday Aug. 12, the Houlton Rotarians were joined by Greg Sherman from the Houlton Water Company for their weekly luncheon. Sherman, the general manager, did a presentation on the different parts of the company and how they have been working to maintain, grow and improve.
Sherman was the guest of Rotarian Cameron Clark of Cam’s Lawn Care. Houlton Water Company is owned by the town of Houlton and supplies water, sewer and electricity to Houlton. They also provide electricity to surrounding areas.
The company is maintained by a six-member board of directors, and by 20 employees. This team has received various awards over the years for their dedication to safety, public health and services.
For the water side of the business, the company has been dedicated to keeping a constant water supply for the area. Keeping up with finding new wells, maintaining the land around these wells to keep the water clean for its consumers. After testing the wells this year, they were pleased to verify that the water is free from the six unwanted compounds.
The two main wells are the Coleman Well in Hodgdon and the McPartland Well in Houlton. Between the two wells they can supply over 1.2 million gallons of water per day.
While many are thankful to have a local water company, the area is extremely fortunate to have Houlton Water Company’s team taking care of the sewer and waste. There are five employees who maintain the sewer collection and make sure things are operating properly. Back at the plant, they have three employees taking care of processing, freeze drying, and transporting of roughly 600-900 tons of dried sludge.
On the electricity side of the business, there are six linemen who work to keep electricity going to the 5,500 Houlton Water customers. Over the last eight years or more, Houlton Water has been working with New Brunswick Power, to develop a new source for electricity, to help keep costs at the affordable price they are at now.
The current electric source was expected to rise dramatically in price in the future, so the company explored a partnership with New Brunswick Power to keep costs closer to where they are now and maintain reliability to its customers.
