VOORHEESVILLE — It was touted this week in tweets and press releases: $400,000 for the village of Voorheesville’s Main Street sewer project. The only issue: The grant has been in place for over 24 months.  

Mayor Rich Straut said he wasn’t sure why the funding was announced again, but surmised it had something to do with the village hitting another threshold in the project, what Straut called “closing on the financing.”

An inquiry to the governor’s office was not returned before this story was posted. 

Straut said the state’s Environmental Facilities Corporation — the grantor and administrator of the funds — will be bringing the project to its board for final financing approval because in November the village board of trustees accepted an-almost $745,000 bid from RB Robinson Contracting of Tioga County in the Southern Tier for construction of the project.

As soon as this spring, shovels could be in the ground for a scaled-back version of the project first proposed in 2019. The scaled-down nature of the project also affects its state funding. It will online be using  $231,000 of its $400,000 awarded New York State Water Infrastructure Improvement Grant.

When it was proposed, in September 2019, the project was to service 175 properties and cost $3.6 million. The current project will serve 68 properties — 50 new and 18 existing would be eligible to tie into the new system — and cost $1.049 million.

The proposal is to add 50 parcels along Main Street and Voorheesville Avenue, and the 18 Pleasant Street homes that flow into an existing leaching field behind Village Hall.

No one is being required to connect to the new system, but there is still a fee for living in the benefit district. 

Straut said the village is currently in the process of finalizing the construction contracts with RB Robinson.

At a board workshop on Thursday, Straut said he was authorized to sign the agreement after village attorney Rich Reilly has had a chance to give the documents a once-over. 

Once the contract is signed, Straut said, he expects Robinson to begin to “place orders and get all their equipment and logistics lined up over the winter.” The mayor said he expects work to start in the spring, but added that it has yet to be finalized because the agreement has yet to be signed.