Town Buying Bartlett Road Property For $2.7 Million For New Sewer Pumping Station

The town is poised to make another large real estate investment this week.

The Select Board is expected to sign a $2.7 million purchase and sale agreement on Wednesday for the town to acquire 77 Bartlett Road, a residential property with a main house and guest house. The property will serve as the location of a new pumping station to support the addition of sewer service in the area of Bartlett Road, Raceway Drive, and Somerset Road.

The seller is Asta King, who has owned the property since 2006, when it was sold for $1.09 million.

The two houses on the property - a three-bedroom, two-bathroom main house and a two-bedroom, two-bathroom guesthouse - are described as "move-in ready" and will be used for Nantucket Sewer Department housing once the "Somerset Area Needs Project" is completed.

The sewer extension project will also include drainage and roadway improvements, as well as a bike path extension to Hummock Pond Road.

Funding for the acquisition was previously authorized within Article 22 of the 2024 Annual Town Meeting, which included appropriations for capital expenditures of the town's various enterprise funds.

According to a memo on the pending acquisition written by the town's real estate specialist, Tracy MacDonald, to the Select Board, the negotiations for the property have been ongoing over the past year.

"Project Management Office/Sewer Department was asked to address significant stormwater management issues and necessary roadway improvements in the area along Bartlett Road, Raceway Drive, and Somerset Lane," MacDonald wrote. "Preliminary work was conducted in 2019 with conceptual design and initial recommendations which identified 77 Bartlett Road as a low-lying ideal location for a new pumping station to service the area. Active negotiations have been going on with the owner of 77 Bartlett Road for a year. An appraisal was acquired by the housing office as well as all inspections of the property and real estate specialist was able to come to a mutually beneficial agreement with the owner for the purchase of the property."

The deal to buy 77 Bartlett Road comes on the heels of another significant real estate acquisition by the town. Last month the Select Board signed a purchase and sale agreement to acquire a $1.9 million single-family home in Naushop that will be used to house municipal department heads. The funding was approved at Town Meeting, and that deal is expected to close in August.