Cold Spring Moves Forward With Water Main Repair; Waterfront Revitalization Plan
At its meeting Tuesday evening, Cold Spring lawmakers were updated on the status of two key projects facing the village– the Water Main Relining Project and the Local Waterfront Revitalization.
The mayor and board of trustees heard from Water and Wastewater Superintendent Gregory Phillips, who said the Water Main Relining Project is officially underway and that he’s planning to keep residents and businesses along Main Street updated on the daily progress and possible service interruptions.
Phillips said workers began laying down temporary bypass piping so they can begin working on the existing 10″ main which runs from Fishkill Road to Main Street down to the Metro- North train tracks.
The original water main was installed in 1895 and has never been cleaned. Officials suspect that the pipe is significantly encrusted following its decades of use and is the reason behind the occasional dirty water that residents experience.
The project is being handled by Mainlining Service Incorporated at a cost of $965,000. The 10″ mains will be cleaned to the walls of the pipe and a cement lining placed within them.
According to Phillips, the work will be an inconvenience for residents, businesses and visitors to the area, “There will be glitches along the way. There was one already today where part of the temporary line’s couplings blew out and we went up to 600 gallons (of water) a minute and we got some brown water.” There will also be fluctuations with water pressure, “Whenever you change the flow of direction through the pipes, we’re going to have events. We’re going to try to control them. But we’re going to have inconveniences, more this year than last year, I’m sure,” he said.
Phillips reminded residents to sign up at www.coldspring.gov for daily email alerts where he will post all scheduled activities so residents can be informed ahead of time. In addition, Phillips says, he will change the daily phone message at the water plant to keep people up-to-date.
“We’re optimistic that water quality and fire flow will be vastly improved once the work is done,” said Phillips, “Their intent is they’d like to be shaking hands before Memorial Day weekend–that’s very optimistic–I think we need to look at it like that’s the shortest it’s going to be.”
Village officials also heard from Michael Armstrong, the chair of the Special Board for Cold Spring’s Comprehensive Plan/Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan. Armstrong says the panel is moving into its final phase of work on the LWRP, which should take about three months.
Its goal, he says, is for the panel, along with GreenPlan, the consulting firm working with the Special Board on the LWRP, to make a complete draft of the waterfront plan by the end of June so that it can be forwarded to the Department of State (DOS) for preliminary review.
Said Armstrong, “A public workshop is planned for Saturday May 18 to present the draft and to hear comments and answer questions. We will put the draft document on the village website about a week before the meeting.”
After the May 18 meeting and following DOS review, he says, the special board will discuss comments and changes at its June 27 meeting and forward it to the village board shortly afterward.
Armstrong suggested the village board hold its own public hearing on the proposed plan as well, in early July. He pointed out that the Special Board has only $7,000 left from its $27,000 DOS grant to create the plan so far and says it’s watching expenditures carefully with another $6,000 Greenway grant remaining.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.