I haven’t written about the Village in a while, but that doesn’t mean there is not lots of news. Many of the projects that I have mentioned in the past are getting much closer to being reality.
There are some meetings that will be happening soon. Our Village Board meeting on August 21st will be packed with project data, environmental reviews and some decisions on borrowing funds to fix our infrastructure.
I am excited about our village moving to green, non-fossil fueled energy. We should have Labella engineers to talk about the 2 megawatt solar plant to be located across from the high school on our water pumping site. This will provide long term Community Aggregated electricity with rates that everyone in our village, town and region (individuals and communities) can sign up for. The Village Planning Board has previously completed Site Plan Review and SEQR to move this forward.
We will be doing the environmental review (SEQR) of the main water valve(s) and fire hydrant(s) project as well. This will include our consideration of bonding of the debt for this $500k proposal. The engineering is done, the costs have been established (although they may change downward), and the construction bidding should happen by late September or early October.
Also at the board meeting, we will be moving a resolution for a new grant to follow our current awarded grant on the upgrade and overhaul of our Historic Downtown streets and sidewalks. This will also include moving the hi-voltage lines and addressing the 1938 water main infrastructure. This grant is being considered as a side-by-side to the culvert replacement work the NYS DOT will be doing in 2019-2020.
Next, I want you to know about a special meeting here at our board room on Monday, August 27. The NYS Department of Transportation will be conducting a Public Meeting to discuss their plans to address the flooding issues that have affected our businesses and residents. The cause, bigger storms more often, may never get better. The DOT fix will mitigate the damage to our downtown area (and west). The plan is for a new culvert to be installed parallel to the existing 6 foot keystone culvert. This new culvert will be built in 17 foot wide by 8 foot tall segments and will be delivered and installed in 7 foot sections. The implementation of this project will start behind Gillespie Chevrolet and continue to across the street between Factory and Basin Streets. As you may have heard, this will also change some of the face of our Historic Downtown scene. Legends Bar, Colleen’s Hairdresser and the Grow’s apartment building will be removed. For now that will mean empty space instead of sometimes empty buildings.
And lastly, the engineering is in process for the rebuild of our boat launch(s). The two existing slips will be removed and we will rebuild with a third slip added. Also new docks and appropriate safety measures. With luck and NYS DEC permission, this will happen over the off season and be completed by early next year. And sometime this fall and completed by next spring, all of the Village street lights will be converted to cost saving LED.
Best Regards,
Mayor Bud Shattuck