Lindale Community Septic Ribbon Cutting

Built in the 60s and expanded in the late 80s, Lindale is home to 67 families off Rte 116 in Middlebury. About three miles from downtown, the park is an important contributor of workforce housing to the community, but too far to connect to the municipal wastewater system.

Most of the homes in the old part of the park were connected to their original individual wastewater systems, which had not been upgraded in the 60 years since they had been installed. Many were failing, and some residents even reported sewage backing up into their washing machines and bathtubs. The park is largely built on Addison County clay soils, limiting the potential to repair the systems on site and causing stress to the park's finances as systems needed to be pumped in some cases weekly.

The Lindale Community Septic project began in 2017 with a planning grant application to the Vermont Community Development Program (VCDP). The planning grant led to negotiations with a neighboring landowner to acquire a parcel with capacity to support a new system. In 2021, AHW refinanced the park with tax-exempt financing from VHFA, allowing us to close on the parcel and begin design development work with pre-development loans from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund. Construction funding was secured from many partners in 2022, including Rural Development's Water and Environmental Programs, the ANR Healthy Homes Program, the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board, VCDP via the Town of Middlebury, and the EPA via Congressionally Designated Spending thanks to Senator Sanders. The project broke ground in 2023 and was completed in September 2024.

*Directions*

From Middlebury, head east on Quarry Rd until it ends at Case St/116. Turn left onto Case St/116. The park entrance is a couple hundred yards down on the right. Once you have turned into the park, bear left on Skyline Drive and park along the right-hand side of the road.