Three water projects receive funding

Three north country communities will receive funding for clean water projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Gov. David A. Paterson's office announced Thursday.

The town of Rutland and village of Sackets Harbor in Jefferson County and the town of Brasher in St. Lawrence County are among the municipalities selected to receive federal economic stimulus funding for water and wastewater infrastructure improvement projects through the state Environmental Facilities Corp., according to the governor's office.

A total of 22 communities throughout the state will be awarded $130 million in this round of funding.

Sackets Harbor will receive $8 million to replace its aging sewage treatment plant and sections of its sewage collection system.

Rutland will receive $2.2 million to build collector sewers to connect the hamlet of Felts Mills to the city of Watertown's treatment plant.

Brasher will receive $1.4 million to build a sewage collection and treatment facility for the hamlet of Helena.

"I'm very happy that those communities will be receiving stimulus money," said state Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, D-Theresa. "Many of our communities are unable to proceed with development because they lack the necessary infrastructure to support expansion. These are critically important to let our communities grow and prosper."

Sackets Harbor Mayor F. Eric Constance echoed that sentiment in reaction to the news. The village is operating its sewage treatment plant under a state Department of Health consent order.

"There's too much spillage and groundwater leaking into the system," he said. "Our capacity has been constrained. We kept having to do different improvements to the system to build homes in the village."

A new sewer plant means "we won't have to worry about this process anymore. We'll just have a brand new sewer plant that will give us all the capacity that's needed for further growth. We're elated and we want to thank all the parties involved."

The mayor said the village hopes to wrap up the design phase of the project in the next month or so, put the project out to bid in the fall and have a signed contract by the end of the year. Construction is expected to take about two years.

Brasher Town Supervisor M. James Dawson said he was "delighted" to hear the news of the town's $1.4 million award, but wasn't certain yet whether the funding would be enough to move forward with the project.

"I don't think we can build it for that," he said. "It was more than that as I recall, around $2 million. We'll have to wait and see how much it's going to cost."

The town applied for the stimulus funding to add a municipal sewage system to the hamlet of Helena. "We have a very old hamlet and some of the septic systems aren't up to snuff," Mr. Dawson said. "They don't have proper leach fields."

He said municipal sewage could eliminate the problem of well contamination from failing septic systems and improve the water quality of the St. Regis River.