Water Project Is Over Budget
Town Sends Revised Budget For Approval
A rump session of the Petersburgh Town Board attended only by Supervisor Smith and Councilmen Heinz Noeding and Alan Webster consisted almost entirely of Heinz Noeding explaining revisions to the budget for the Water Infrastructure (WIIA) grant, the $1.235 million project to renovate the Petersburgh Water District system. The revised budget figures have been put together by Councilman Noeding in close consultation with the town’s engineer for this project, Tom Suozzo of Cedarwood Engineering.
The grant budget needs to be revised because there are some significant repairs and improvements that have had to be done to parts of the system that were not in the original WIIA grant budget. The biggest of these are the repairs to the inlet and outlet pipes of the water tank undertaken last week because they were leaking badly. This cost was about $65,000 plus engineering, construction oversight, and diagnostic costs. In addition, the pumps for both Well #2 and Well #6 were replaced at a total cost of about $25,000, which was not included in the original budget for the project.
Also, some of the items in the original WIIA budget were budgeted too low and need to be revised upward. Engineering costs are being revised upward by about $24,000 and construction oversight costs by $7,000. The pumphouse/GAC building budget has been revised upward by $20,000 because the price of steel has gone up since the original WIIA grant budget was prepared. And finally, the original budget included an item for an auto switch for the generator, but now it has been determined that the entire generator needs to be replaced, which adds nearly $30,000 to the budget.
To balance some of these additional costs, some other items in the WIIA budget have been reduced. Three test wells were planned in the original budget at $20,000 per well, along with pump tests for these wells at $7,500 per well. The plan now is to drill only one of these test wells, which generates a savings of $55,000. Also, the original plan was to abandon Well #5 and Well #6, but now that Well #6 has a new pump and is producing plenty of water, only one well is to be abandoned, which saved $7,500. And since Well #5 is to be abandoned, a control system for the artesian overflow on that well which was in the original budget is not needed, for a savings of $12,000.
Noeding also reports that the engineer is proposing a simpler SCADA system (“less bells and whistles,” said Noeding) which would cost $20,000 less than the one originally budgeted. Also, the budget for replacement of hydrants and gate valves associated with hydrants has been reduced by $8,000, from $51,000 to $43,000.
The net overall increase in spending for the project will be in the neighborhood of $80,000, with no new income, so the amount that the Water District may have to carry as a loan at the conclusion of the project has gone up by that much. Noeding said the administrators of the grant have let him know that the amount they plan to spend on the project, $741,000, will not change, so any additional spending will be paid by the Water District.
The project does have a contingency budget of $67,500, so if all of the items in the project stay under their respective budget lines and the contingency does not have to be used, it would cover most of the part that is now over budget.
Noeding said a little less than half of the total budget has been spent so far, and most of the remaining amount will be lumped into one big contract that will be put out to bid in a few months, with the idea that construction will start in the Spring of 2021. The biggest wild card left in the process is the question of whether bids for that project come in higher or lower than expected. If they are significantly higher than expected, it could create an over-budget situation much worse than the one the Board is dealing with now. So there remains a good deal of uncertainty until those bids are received and a contract is signed for the remaining work.
The Board approved the revised project budget, and it will be sent to the Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) next week for approval. Members of the board hope to meet next week with Taconic to come to a final agreement on what parts of the project Taconic agrees to pay for. A verbal agreement with Taconic is already in place, but EFC would like Taconic to put in writing its agreement with the Town about this project.