VOORHEESVILLE — The village of Voorheesville is in a fixing up mode heading into the new year.

The past year was spent working on budgets and passing plans for many projects that will be taking place in the 2006.

The top job, according to Mayor John Stevens, is the completion of a water project.

A half-million-dollar tank will be added and existing pipeline that runs from Clayton A. Bouton High School on Route 85A to New Scotland will be replaced. The pipeline actually begins on Martin Road.
"We added water customers that way," Stevens said. "The water out there wasn’t necessarily the best."

Also in the works during the year was a plan with the town of Guilderland. A pipeline that will interconnect Voorheesville and Guilderland will start being installed in the spring.
"It will allow our two municipalities to exchange water," Stevens said.

Also passed this year was a one-million-dollar plan for renovations to the firehouse in the village located on Route 156.
"I think it passed 3-to-1 or 4-to-1," Stevens said. "We will focus on bidding during the winter and hopefully begin construction in the spring or summer.
"It speaks volumes about the community that approved it," Stevens added. "We are looking forward to that. It’s mostly bringing it up to code and OSHA requirements."

Barton & Loguidice is the engineering firm in charge of the project.

Plans are still in the works for an expansion to the Voorheesville Public Library.
"I wrote a letter in support to get a grant or some funding to put a vault to secure our historical archives," Stevens said.

A plan for a senior-housing project is also being worked on in the village. Plans to build 48 units of public housing on Mountainview Road by St. Matthew’s Church are in the works.
"Senior housing is going along as planned," Stevens said. "We had to change the zoning to allow it and we had public hearings and it passed through the zoning board of appeals and we made the same requirements with the planning board. We received a lot of support. Now that Amedore pulled out of New Scotland, we’ll have the only senior housing in the area."

The Omni Corporation will spearhead the project on some property that was sold by St. Matthew’s Church.

There were some changes in the village offices as well.

Linda Pasquali took over as the senior clerk/treasurer position. She had been the assistant to Gary Washburn, but Washburn resigned in the fall.

Karen Finnessey was hired to be the deputy clerk/treasurer.
"It’s worked out very well," Stevens said. "We’ve gotten a lot of cooperation."

Eileen Bates was hired as a part-time clerk.
"We had a lot of turnover," Stevens said. "But we seem to have stabilization. I’m looking forward to that."
At the mayor’s request, the village was audited this year by State Comptroller Alan Hevesi. The comptroller was critical of the Voorheesville’s bookkeeping procedures, stating that the village had "significant weaknesses in payroll-related internal controls that caused errors to occur and remain undetected."

The village staff and elected officials worked with Hevesi’s office throughout the summer and implemented all the of recommendations listed in the audit report, Stevens said.

The village is also planning to do some work on the intersection of Swift Road and Route 85A across from the Voorheesville Elementary School.
"It’s a difficult entrance and exit," Stevens said. "We had a study done by Barton & Loguidice and we are looking to correct the highway. It’s a steep decline."

Stevens said the project has been estimated to cost a half-million dollars. The village has also looked to see if it can receive a grant or state money for the project.

Stevens and the village board also looked at how to make the railroad crossing near the Voorheesville Diner safer.
"We received grant money in order to correct the gates so they come down in both lanes of traffic. We want to improve the safety. We have a lot of people who walk to the post office. It’s in the works and should be ready to go by the summer of next year."
"It’s a lot of little things," Stevens said of Voorheesville’s accomplishments in 2005. "The biggest thing that happened was the changes to the well system. If anything happend to our water, we would all be heading to Nichols’ Market to get bottled water."