NEW SCOTLAND — An abundance of federal dollars has New Scotland looking for its share of funding to keep the water running in case of an emergency. 

At its May 11 meeting, the town board approved a $20,500 task order for Stantec to prepare a grant application that would have the Federal Emergency Management Agency footing the bill for quite a few very expensive generators. 

The generators would be largely used to keep municipal water flowing in case of power outages.

Garrett Frueh, the town engineer, explained to the board that FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program is typically a 75-25 federal-local split; but recently, that’s been upped to a 90-10 cost-sharing agreement. 

“It’s a pretty good opportunity with this grant,” Frueh told board members.

Frueh said that, when Stantec estimated the generators’ cost in 2013, the cost was between $60,000 and $80,000 for each generator. “So that’ll be part of this exercise,” he said. “We’ll be updating that to some current costs, which we all know are escalated; a little bit higher currently.”

Federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, of which the town received approximately $602,000, may be able to be used for the town’s 10-percent share of paying for the generators. 

The locations that would receive generators include:

— Clarksville Water District well field;

— Clarksville Water District booster station;

— Clarksville Water District;

— Feura Bush Water District booster station; 

— Feura Bush Water District;

— New Salem Water District booster station; 

— Osterhout Community Center; and

— New Scotland highway garage.