With kudos to Superintendent Seth Nuttelman for negotiating a much-better-than-expected construction price, the Water Commission broke ground Thursday on a new 1.3 million gallon storage tank at its 117 Stark St. processing facility.

Actual construction of the new tank will begin next Monday and is slated to be completed by early December, Nuttelman said. He explained that the existing two million gallon tank was built in 1977 and needs to come offline for between 4-5 weeks for routine repairs.

Nuttelman said the new tank would allow the water department to maintain fire protection to the city while the old tank is being rehabilitated, while also providing greater system capacity and flexibility in that operators can use the tanks independently or consecutively.

The project will cost $935,000 and be funded by a 20-year bond that will be repaid by water department customers. The prestressed concrete tank was designed by Fluet Engineering of Gilford, the general contractor is Preload of Hauppauge, N.Y. and the site contractor is the Piscopo Co. of Belmont.

The tank will be 30 feet tall above ground — part of it will be buried — and measure 86 feet in diameter. The water department has intake pipes on Paugus Bay that take in the water and pump it up to the Stark Street plant, where it is treated and stored. The department operates as an enterprise fund within the City of Laconia, meaning that customers, not taxpayers, pay all of its costs.

Nuttelman observed that the cost of the new tank is "well under" the anticipated cost of $1.3 million, something he attributed to the poor economy and the desire of many contractors to accept work even though their profits may be lower than when the economy was booming and their services commanded a premium.

Water Commission Chairman Greg Page praised Nuttelman for "an outstanding job in seeing this project through from conception" to Thursday's groundbreaking and to eventual completion.

"He's done his homework and made some very good choices," Page said.

Fellow commissioners Richard Breton and Paul DiBona were equally complimentary of Nuttelman.

"This is a very good thing for the city of Laconia and our customers," said DiBona.

Breton, who is a former city councilor, said he was "very happy" with the lower-than-expected project cost.

Mayor Matt Lahey, who attended the ceremony along with Ward 6 Councilor Armand Bolduc, called the new tank "a necessary, vital project" that was "well planned out by Seth Nuttelman and the commission."

"This is a very good time to be doing capital projects," Lahey said.