ALTAMONT — Joriohenen will continue to flow under Grand Street through a replaced culvert paid for with a $835,000 state grant.

The grant was announced by the governor’s office on Dec. 15 as part of $216.2 million in Bridge NY funding, covering 109 projects in 88 communities. Capital Region projects garnered $13.6 million.

The Grand Street culvert is 50 feet long, according to Guilderland Supervisor Peter Barber.

Joriohenen, a tributary of the Bozenkill, flows between St. Lucy’s Church, built in 1888, and Altamont Elementary School, built in 1953 on the site of the demolished Altamont High School. On the other side of Grand Street, Joriohenen flows between a Victorian home and a modern parish center.

“The new culvert’s parapet will be designed to complement the nearby historic district,” Barber wrote in a recent email to residents along with his daily report on COVID news. The gatehouses for the original entrance to the century-old Altamont Fair are at the foot of Grand Street.

“The goal is to replace the culvert during the summer to minimize impacts on the school. The work advances the joint interest of the Town and Village in maintaining safe pedestrian and vehicular access to the popular destinations,” Barber wrote, thanking Donald Csaposs, the town’s grant writer, for securing the grant, and Kerry Dineen, Altamont’s mayor, for her support.

Barber elaborated on Tuesday in an email answering Enterprise questions.

“Over the years,” Barber wrote, “the Town Highway Department has made periodic repairs to the culvert to keep it safe for use. The corrugated steel deck forms are corroding and exposing the underlying concrete.  It has required concrete patching.”

The new culvert, he said, will be 10 to 15 feet longer than the current one and “will involve a precast concrete culvert, new concrete wing walls, vertical-faced parapet and highway box beam guiderail. It will also include new sidewalks and drainage.”

The age of the current culvert is not known, Barber said.

“The Highway Department does not have records for the original culvert,” he said. “The culvert is located on a Village street but has been historically maintained by the Town because of its importance to the elementary school and church.  Grant Street is noted a public roadway since the Village was incorporated.”

Barber also said, “The Town will work closely with the Village, Altamont Elementary School, and St Lucy/St Bernadette Church to minimize inconvenience.   We are hoping to perform most of the work during summer months.”

The new culvert should last 50 years or more, he said.

In the 1970s, the two streams that flow through Altamont were given names from the Mohawk language, honoring the native people who once lived in the area.

The names were based on research done by Tom Capuano who wrote a book-length narrative poem on the origins of the area. The poem is called “The Tale of Tekarionyoken.”

“Tekarionyoken” is Mohawk for “the land between two streams.” Capuano told The Enterprise earlier that, in writing his book, he consulted with a linguistics professor at the University at Albany, Marianne Mithun, who speaks fluent Mohawk.

The two Altamont streams are the “Ostenraky,” which means “the creek of shale bed,” and runs along Euclid Avenue, and “Joriohenen,” which means “the creek that falls from the cliff,” and runs under Grand Street by Altamont Elementary School.

Because of Capuano, Altamont’s creeks officially bear those Mohawk names. Capuano has a letter, dated April 12, 1979, from William Aylward, then the mayor of Altamont, thanking him for his “very constructive recommendation that the streams in the Village of Altamont be named ‘Ostenraky’ and ‘Joriohenen’.”

Aylward’s letter goes on, “By board resolution at the March 20, 1979 meeting, your recommendation was adopted and the streams will carry the names.”