Leader-Herald |
Unexpected state requirements and the delays to accommodate them mean Fulton County will spend $750,000 more on a sewer line expansion — and the last bit of its COVID-era federal funding.
The Fulton County Board of Supervisors voted without opposition Wednesday — with supervisors Cynthia Breh (R-Oppenheim) and Joseph DiGiacomo (R-Broadalbin) absent — to pay contractors nearly $166,000 for extra work to extend sewers along the Route 30 and 30A corridor.
The work comes in part because the state Department of Environmental Conservation required that some areas of the project be double-encased near wells, which engineers did not anticipate, and part because re-designing those aspects of the project caused delays, County Administrative Officer Jon Stead told supervisors.
“The engineers said they never heard of this before,” Stead said. The new requirements and the delays added about $750,000 to the $8 million cost.
The project was funded by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a COVID-era funding pool meant to help get municipal governments through the economic downturn and supply-chain problems the pandemic caused.
The $1.9 trillion package sent $10.4 million to Fulton County for a variety of projects, including the first phase of a $30 million plan to connect wastewater infrastructure from Mayfield and Northville 15 miles away to the Gloversville-Johnstown Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The idea is to encourage more commerce along state routes 30 and 30A between the cities and more rural, tourism-oriented communities in the northeast part of Fulton County.
The project took two forms: $7.2 million to Manfred Construction to install the sewer mains; and $673,000 to MCJ Construction to build a pump station for the network, to be wired for $75,000 by Stilsing Electric Inc.
However, the delays and cost overruns mean MCJ has billed the county for more than $331,000 in work. While the sewer district created around the project, Fulton County Sewer District No. 5, should pay the cost, it doesn’t have any money in its accounts, yet.
Fulton County Attorney Jason Brott is preparing an intermunicipal agreement to allow the district to reimburse the county, but in the meantime, Stead said, he’d like to pay at least part of the $331,000 bill.
Brott recommended using virtually every last penny of the $78,000 left from the rescue act funding, combined with nearly $91,000 from the county’s contingency fund. That would pay about half the cost.
“The pot is empty, now. There’s nothing left in it,” said Supervisor Richard Fogarty (R-Stratford). “This cleans up our ARPA money, because this has to be spent by 2026.”
Elise Stefanik, who represents all or part of 15 different counties in Upstate New York in the state’s 21st Congressional District, has been a longtime ally of Trump.
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President Donald Trump has officially endorsed a candidate for New York governor after Rep. Elise Stefanik dropped out of the race.
Trump threw his support Saturday to Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who launched his gubernatorial bid earlier this month. Stefanik ended her campaign Friday.
“Bruce is MAGA all the way, and has been with me from the very beginning,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Bruce Blakeman is a FANTASTIC guy, will win the big November Election and, without hesitation, has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Governor of the ONCE GREAT STATE OF NEW YORK (IT CAN BE GREAT AGAIN!). BRUCE BLAKEMAN WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”
Stefanik and Blakeman are both Republican allies of Trump, but the president initially refused........