Plaistow Planning Board members on April 16 pressed for a clearer status update on the town water system, asking staff to brief the board on where water mains exist, which sections of Route 125 have service, and what grant funding is available to extend the system.

Members said some properties near Route 125 still lack municipal service and described intermittent water quality problems at individual wells. One board member said a property owner had been quoted about $15,000 to install a filtration/softener system to reopen a longtime daycare site, and members questioned whether extending municipal water would be feasible for that area.

Board members noted the town has received grant funding tied to Superfund remediation work and that some smaller loop extensions and targeted connections have been completed where grants and bids were secured (members referenced recent grant-funded work on Wilder Drive and other local patches to community wells). They emphasized that projects of the scale needed to loop the town’s entire distribution would be multi‑year and financially large — “millions of dollars,” in members’ remarks — and that funding availability remains the primary constraint.

The board asked staff to arrange a briefing with the public-works or water manager (a staff member identified in discussion as Greg) to present a map of planned loops, the schedule for current grants and bids, and the estimated funding gap. Members said a visible, web‑hosted map of the town’s water plans would help public understanding and would be useful to planners working on economic‑development and zoning questions.

Ending: Planning board members requested a staff briefing and a public-facing map or update to be shared with the board ahead of the next meeting so members can evaluate water-service constraints in conjunction with master-plan and economic-development work.