Realizing that future commercial and industrial development will require increased wastewater capacity and treatment, the Batavia Town Board tonight passed a pair of resolutions that seek to address the Town’s short-term and long-term needs.
The board, at its regular monthly meeting, authorized:
-- Acceptance of a $30,000 Engineering Planning Grant Award, which would pay most of the estimated $36,000 cost of a wastewater treatment assessment and planning study;
-- A contract with Clark Patterson Lee for engineering and grant assistance support services related to the study.
The EPG grant comes with the stipulation that the Town would be responsible for a 20 percent local match, up to $6,000.
The contract with Clark Patterson Lee is for $24,750.
“The grant is one of many that we have received, and helps support our strategic studies and needs assessment model that I have embraced,” said Town Supervisor Gregory Post. “We have a good handle on the collection (of wastewater) and this study will lead to upgrades to the pump station and gravity lines, as well as provide us with the design and construction of a permanent solution.”
The Town received EPGs in 2013 and 2014 for the development of long-term sanitary sewer collection system plans for the east and west sides of the Town. This current project is set up to address the wastewater treatment needs for the Town.
In a letter dated Jan. 12 to Town Engineer Steve Mountain, Eric Wies of Clark Patterson Lee wrote that the “primary alternative will be the upgrade of the joint City/Town Wastewater Treatment Facility … and the report will be a tool that can be used to guide the Town through potential treatment upgrades at each phase of future development.”
Post said the study will “give us a better timeline in order to complete the work that is imperative for us.”
“We’re looking for a design for needed improvements that enhance our score for getting grants and loans,” he said. “Agencies tend to support ready-to-go projects, not those where no plan is in place. Our purpose is to be ahead of every potential failure by 20 years.”
Post noted that developers are more apt to choose locations where strategic planning is evident, and that those new businesses will, in turn, help fund the cost of increased wastewater collection and treatment capacity.
In other action, the board voted to contract with Wendel Consulting Services LLC for a total of $9,500 for Geographical Information System (GIS) programming, maintenance, consulting and training for one year, and voted in favor of the installation of a 96-watt LED street light at the corner of Barrett Drive and Route 5 (the location of the new East Pembroke Fire Hall) at an annual cost of $153.33.
