RENSSELAERVILLE — The Rensselaerville Water and Sewer Advisory Committee continues to make progress determining a solution to the town’s water problems as it races against the clock to be eligible for funding once a plan has been locked in. 

Chairman Ed Csukas announced at the town board’s Dec. 14 meeting that the committee selected the engineering firm C.T. Male to carry out an inspection of the town’s decades-old system, which draws from Lake Myosotis and has been failing to regulate the quality of water that’s used by hamlet residents. 

Csukas told the board that C.T. Male is already familiar with the system, having been tasked with a water main replacement project in the 1980s, and recently taking an informal walk-around with former committee chairman Bill Bensen.

For its full report, C.T. Male will charge $67,300 — near the middle of the full range of quotes the committee had received, Csukas said, adding that seven companies put in a bid, with quotes ranging from $44,500 to $120,800.

“I interviewed the two finalists that we narrowed it down to because I presume we’ll be doing quite a bit of interfacing with them, and I wanted to get that gut feel that there was going to be chemistry there,” Csukas said, adding that he “absolutely got that” with C.T. Male.

As Csukas had explained to the board in September, the report will allow the committee to put together a plan that it can then give to the state when the committee asks for money to complete the project itself. That project’s ultimate cost is unknown right now, Csukas said this week, but is expected to be major. 

“Whether this project is going to be $1,000,000 [or] $2,000,000, I have no idea at this point,” he told the board, which, being in charge of the town’s roughly $3.3 million budget, needs no reminder that outside financial help will be essential.

This is especially true since the cost isn’t actually a town burden but a water-district one. Residents who live within the special district are fully responsible for all its expenses. According to the 2024 budget, water district residents will owe the town $58,888. 

Town attorney William Ryan told the town board he expects that any grant the committee gets will cover the cost of this preliminary report, but until then, Csukas said he hopes to get a bond to cover expenses, which will be “billed monthly based on work completed” with no deposit required.

However, Csukas said he wants there to be a 20-percent contingency budget so that “in the event we come across something we haven’t thought about until now and we need some funds to pay for that extra work, that we’re not scratching our heads trying to figure that out.”

Fortunately for residents, Csukas said that, with a bond, there will be “no impact” since the district recently paid off a bond from 2017, offsetting district expenses. 

“In the meantime,” he said, “we are going to continue to pursue other methods of funding this project which we could then immediately pay off, or pay down the bond and not have it be a 30-year debt or whatever.”

The board voted unanimously to accept the committee’s recommendation and expects to authorize Supervisor John Dolce to sign the contract with C.T. Male at its Dec. 28 meeting. 

Csukas stressed that “time is of the essence,” since, to be eligible for upcoming state funding, the town will need the engineers’ report by the end of May so it can work on its application. 

“There’s no time to waste,” he said.