RANDOLPH — Sonny James is fed up with a continuing glitch in the alarm system at the town’s new pump station.

The town’s sewer and pump station inspector said 18 alarms sounded last Monday at the Water Street station.

Work began on Randolph’s new wastewater pump station in July 2010. Technical Construction Inc. in Turner was awarded the $482,950 contract.

Last June, selectmen signed off on the sewer project, nine months after its scheduled completion date. The holdup included an electrical programming issue with computers and an electrical glitch in the pump station’s alarm system.

Selectman Ed Gorham said the town deducted $64,558 from the final payment to Technical Construction to cover overruns on legal fees and engineering.

“Nothing has changed,” James said at a selectmen’s meeting last Tuesday. “We had alarms on the 20th, and the day after that. On the 22nd there were three alarms and yesterday we had 18 alarms. Seacoast Security called me three times. It’s the same thing happening.”

James said he expected some alarms Sunday and Monday because of the heavy rainfall, but not 18.

“This is getting to be a nightmare,” he said.

Selectmen agreed that the town attorney may need to get involved.

James was told to draft a letter to Technical Construction’s engineers to let them know what officials want done to fix the problem. James said he asked for certain things when the pump station was under construction, but those requests went by the wayside.

“This station is more of a headache than the old station,” he said.

Andrew McPherson of Technical Construction visited the site last Thursday with his engineers and town officials.

He said his company is tracking when the alarms sound and recording the times they occur.

“We want to see if they’re coming from high flows early in the morning and afternoon when people are home,” McPherson said. “We’ve also adjusted the timing when the emergency generator comes on and the pumps kick on. There seems to be a little bit of a snag between the pump and the generator. There was a time neither one of them ran 10 or 15 seconds, which triggered the alarm.”

Engineers also looking at raising the float system to equalize the water level in the station, he said.

“We’re still under obligation to fix it,” McPherson said. “We were paid in full, but do have a bond, which is similar to an insurance policy that’s still in effect. We’re bonded to them, so it will get fixed. Legally, we can’t walk away and we wouldn’t.”

Mechele Cooper — 621-5663

mcooper@centralmaine.com