Norwich — Plans are in the works for Norwich Public Utilities to provide city water service to 17 homes on Lawler Lane now served by an aging and inadequate community well.

The project, estimated to cost less than $750,000, calls for NPU to extend new water lines along Lawler Lane and Evergreen and Sunnyside streets behind the homes and disconnect and fill in the community well, now managed by the Countryside Drive Association. A new fire hydrant would be installed on Lawler Lane as part of the project, NPU officials said.

Residents in the association contacted NPU to request the utility take over the system, built as part of the subdivision development in 1953. Because of low yields in the community well, customers have been on water use restrictions, and the system has no emergency power backup system. The water lines also have exceeded their lifespan.

The project would be funded through 20-year assessments of the homes to be connected to the system and would not cost existing NPU water customers or ratepayers anything, NPU General Manager Chris LaRose said. NPU has applied for a 50 percent grant and 50 percent low-interest loan from the state Department of Public Health, with 25 percent of the grant for consolidation of a small water system and 25 percent for a project in a distressed community.

State action on the grant request is expected in December. The Norwich City Council has referred the project to the Commission on the City Plan and scheduled a public hearing for Jan. 2, 2020 on an ordinance to allow NPU to bond the cost of the project. LaRose said the cost estimate of $750,000 is “very, very conservative,” and he hopes the final cost is closer to $500,000.

LaRose said he plans to explain the project at the Dec. 17 planning commission meeting and at the Jan. 2, 2020 City Council public hearing.

The Countryside Drive Association already has approved the project in a unanimous vote in August, NPU officials said. The Norwich Board of Public Utilities Commissioners approved it in October.

The homes are located along Lawler Lane starting at the junction of Canterbury Turnpike, with the Moriarty Environmental Sciences Magnet School diagonally across Lawler Lane from the first home. The school already is served by the city water system, LaRose said.

The project would extend a new 8-inch diameter water line along Lawler Lane and a 4-inch diameter line along the two rear streets.

If the approvals are granted this winter, LaRose said construction would be done in spring and summer, preferably when school gets out. The project would cause one-lane traffic at times in the construction zone, but LaRose called it a straightforward project, and installing the Lawler Lane main should go “extremely fast.”

c.bessette@theday.com