Proposed plans for a new water and sewer garage to replace an aging facility would see the town bonding more than $2 million, but the exact project details still aren’t complete.
The Niskayuna Town Board during a special meeting on Thursday, Feb. 16, approved holding a public hearing for a plan to improve facilities for sewer districts 6 and 1 and consolidated water district 1. The three public hearings, one for each district, will be held during the board’s meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 28.
Town officials are seeking to build a new Water and Sewer Department garage at 1034 WTRY Road at a cost not to exceed $1.465 million, and to acquire land at a cost not exceeding $575,000. Supervisor Joe Landry said the town is planning to bond the expenses.
“Even before we get to bonding we have to hold these public hearings,” Landry said.
The current garage at Blatnick Park is an “antiquated building” and is not sufficient for the town’s needs, Landry said. He said the new garage would be next to the town highway garage, so all the public works employees would be side by side allowing for greater equipment sharing and cooperative efforts.
“It would allow you to use everything together … maybe sharing of employees and sharing of equipment,” Landry said. “It is really something that would benefit the town.”
Councilman Jonathan McKinney shared Landry’s sentiment and said, “The water and sewer garage is pretty old and is was built in parts over time so it doesn’t flow well.”
McKinney was concerned about the lack of information on the project given there will be a public hearing to solicit comments and concerns from residents.
“If you maintain vagueness up until the last minute nobody can ask questions … you can’t get any intelligent information,” McKinney said. “The public should have ample time to digest it so they can make … comments.”
As of the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 22, the agenda for the board’s Feb. 16 special meeting hadn’t been posted online. Landry on Feb. 22 said the meeting was posted on the town’s meeting calendar online and agendas were available at the special meeting.
In the resolution, it’s stated the improvements of “original furnishings, equipment, machinery, and apparatus” are included in the more than $1.46 million maximum estimated cost.
Landry said department heads are looking at the proposed bond and a completed list of items and estimated expenses wouldn’t be finalized until after the public hearing.
“I anticipate that the March committee meetings will finalize a lot of this,” Landry said. “The bond resolution is a different resolution … the public hearing is limited to construction of the garage.”
He added the meeting might include “just a couple of slides to explain what it is and what we are looking at.”
Officials haven’t determined what the current water and sewer garage will be used for after the move.
“Eventually we will be demolishing that building and that is right in the middle of the park, so that would be used for park purposes,” Landry said. “There is a lot of discussion right now of what that could be, from more parking areas to fields to buildings … there are a lot of different types of park purposes.”
The town acquired the WTRY Road property during a land swap with the school district about a year ago. The district traded the town for open space in between Town Hall and the high school.
