Gaffney Drive project may cost taxpayers over $500,000

The city of Watertown expects infrastructure repairs and upgrades along Gaffney Drive needed to serve expanding development in the area to cost about $715,000 to complete.

The city is hoping a $99,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Business Enterprise Program will help cut the local cost. The City Council agreed earlier this week to apply for the grant, but first had to pass a resolution committing funding to the project, said Kenneth A. Mix, city planning and community development coordinator.

Earlier this month, the Jefferson County Local Development Corp. awarded the city a $100,000 grant for the project.

Including the two grants, the city could pay about $516,000 for the project if the grant is awarded. The project includes three phases:

■ Phase I: Upgrade the sewage main along Gaffney Drive near Coffeen Street for $400,000.

■ Phase II: Acquire a private sewer main that runs east-west from the boundary of land owned by developer Patrick M. Donegan to Gaffney Drive for $90,000.

■ Phase III: Upgrade a sewage pump station along Gaffney Drive acquired by the city in 2008, for $225,000.

The project's estimated cost could vary because the city has not yet purchased the privately owned main or solicited bids for any of the work.

"We're expecting that the funds could be available by the time phase III is ready, so the funds would be used for that portion," Mr. Mix said.

City Manager Mary M. Corriveau said Monday night there is no timeline for the project, although Phase I could begin this construction season.

The project will serve existing businesses and proposed development in the area.

Hemisphere Management, Rochester, has received approval to build a four-story, 118-room Towne Plaza Suites Hotel, an adjacent three-story, 106-room Fairfield Inn and a restaurant on a seven-acre plot at Gaffney and Commerce Park drives. Site work on those projects has not yet begun.

The infrastructure also would serve a proposed Hilton Garden Inn proposed by Millennium Development Inc., just north of the existing Holiday Inn Express. The Hilton's developer, Mr. Donegan, is in the midst of the city's approval process.

The grant program is administered by the USDA. While nearly all of the grant programs offered by the agency have population limits that exclude the city from applying, the Rural Enterprise Grant Program has a population limit of 50,000, Mr. Mix said.

The U.S. Census Bureau lists the city as having a population of 36,990, although that information was collected during its 2000 census.

"This program is supposed to support small business enterprises that have 50 or fewer employees or under $1 million of gross sales during any given year," Mr. Mix said. "The hotels we're looking at are probably above those limits, but the project would also support some of the other smaller businesses that are a part of the Donegan project and some of the existing businesses along Gaffney."