The Town of Clayton, N.Y. has announced funding has been secured to undertake a $4.3 million project to upgrade a 100-year-old sewer system with work slated to begin this fall.
?It’s going to be ugly,? Mayor Norma J. Zimmer said. ?The whole distribution system is very old.?
Construction workers will be tearing up village streets well into next summer to replace every old sewer pipe in the village, she said.
While village officials do not want to disrupt summer tourism or bother residents with noisy construction work, Zimmer said the project is long overdue and Clayton must get this done to prevent further problems with the aging system.
The project is funded through a $470,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development office and a $3.7 million no-interest loan from the state Environmental Facilities Corp.
Zimmer said project engineers at O’Brien & Gere Engineers Inc., based in Syracuse, will put the project out to bid in mid-June after determining specifications of the new sewer pipes, setting priorities and finishing designs for the work.
By then, she said, the village board will have a better idea of where the work will start and when.
The village started seeking outside funding for the project after a 2010 report by the Development Authority of the North Country Engineers found that at least one-fifth of its water and wastewater systems were in ?poor condition.?
At that time, officials said Clayton’s wastewater collection system, which is more than 100 years old, has been neglected for decades and the village must take action as soon as possible to prevent system failures.
