Water project needs county funds

NORTH EAST — The Town Board held a special meeting Saturday, Jan. 30, to review and approve payment requests relating to the water main construction project that the town has been working on with the village of Millerton. The submission for payment from the contractor came last month and the board needed to approve payments that will go to the village, allowing the village to then pay the contractor.

The town has a joint water project in which both municipalities have funds from a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) financing the work; the project is being managed by the village and according to North East town Supervisor Dave Sherman, the village is at the point where it needs additional funds to make its payments.

“It will have more funds available when Dutchess County finishes the contract papers to use a portion of 2005 block grant monies the town and village had to be allocated to work being done currently,� Sherman said, adding that in addition to Drilling Technologies being the main contractor, the village of Millerton also did some of the work itself to save money, for which it will also be reimbursed with grant funds.

The project is for water main construction along Fish Street, South Center Street and Mill Street, which will be tied into 8-inch water mains. In the village’s case it’s also connecting customers to a new main so that eventually the old main will be taken out of service. The benefit of the work is that an actual loop will be developed on the southern part of the village, which will also tie together Mill Street and Mill Road as well as West Street. There was also some work done in North East under the town’s water construction project to tie in full-size mains and hydrants to provide good pressure and flow for customers and improve fireflow to hydrants throughout the area.

The project work was primarily for 2008 block grants that both the town and the village applied for, in the amount of $150,000 each for a total of $300,000. Each municipality was instead awarded $100,000, for a total of $200,000.

“The village has 2005 monies that had not been expended previously ... initially programmed for use in the development of the parking lot on South Center Street,� Sherman said. “What was agreed at that point and submitted to the county was to allocate $81,500 to the 2008 project granted and the work occurring [now] for the parking lot project. The $81,500 is going to the water project; the remainder of the $150,000 is going to the parking project.�

Once the work is done there will be some pressure testing. The water will also be tested as per normal procedure, to make sure it’s safe; it will also be sanitized to kill off bacteria. It will then be flushed through, tested again and then put into service and connected with the rest of the system. Before that process is finalized, however, it will be signed off on by an engineer and the Department of Health.