NEW SCOTLAND — At a special meeting last Wednesday evening, the New Scotland Town Board announced that two of the three contracts for the New Salem Water District were filled, selected a firm to evaluate town-owned parks, and discussed the leaky roof of the highway department building.

Water district

The New Salem Water District project was separated into three individual contracts; two have been filled.

The project, in the works for the past 10 years, aims to bring water to over 150 homes in the New Salem area, 75 of which are currently using water from Bethlehem; the remainder use wells, which can be unreliable both with water quality and volume.

The first contract, for site plumbing, was awarded to Casale Construction Services, for the bid price of $2,277,269. 

The third contract, for electrical work and supervisory control and data acquisition, was awarded to Stilsing Electric Inc., at $75,000.

The second contract concerns plumbing inside the new pump station building, and was described as “a lot of paperwork for a small amount of work,” by one board member last week.

Douglas LaGrange, a member of the town board in New Scotland, said the contract not being filled by a bidder is “nothing to be at all concerned about.”

Now, the town has the option to hire a company outright for that contract, rather than going through a bid process. Alternatively, the town can choose to complete the project itself with town employees.

As for a construction timeline, LaGrange said “it’s still a little early to make promises,” and added that weather is a big factor.

Parks looked at closely

About a month ago, town board Supervisor Thomas Dolin, along with board member William Hennessy, and highway Superintendent Kenneth Guyer, visited Stephen Wallace Park off Swift Road.

They contemplated the arrangement of buildings on the property, and the three men discussed how to best use the park space.

The maintenance building is currently at the front end of the park, and the pavilion, with restrooms, is in the back. Dolin thinks maybe the two should be switched, bringing the restrooms closer to the more active area of the park near the baseball field.

Additionally, at last week’s meeting, Guyer expressed interest in seeing the open green space at the park utilized.

The town had been considering hiring a firm to see where improvements to the park can be made, and, last week, decided the evaluation should include all town-owned parks.

Currently, the town is working with Barton & Loguidice to set a scope for the project. No budget or contract has been drawn up yet.

Taking a closer look at town parks “seems like it’s worth exploring,” Dolin told The Enterprise this week.

The town had a parks master plan made in 2003, which will serve as the starting point for any new plans.

Highway building leaking

At last week’s meeting, Guyer brought up his concern about the leaky roof on the town’s highway building, which has been a problem in the past.

Many ideas were given by board members, including replacing the existing roof with a roof of solar panels, simply fixing the roof where necessary, or completely replacing it; the latter will cost at least $110,000, according to an estimate Guyer obtained.

The board also mentioned concerns about asbestos in the roof in relation to any work that may be done on it in the future.

“We owe it to ourselves to understand the history of the current roof,” said town board member Patricia Snyder.

The idea of building a new structure for the highway department, and finding a better-suited use for the current building, was also brought up.