Voorheesville receives $250K insurance payout after cyber theft
Enterprise file photo — Michael Koff
Construction work was underway last summer inside and outside of Voorheesville Elementary School as part of the district’s $25 million capital project. The district will tap contingency funds from the project to replace a 50-year-old cast-iron water main.
NEW SCOTLAND — The Voorheesville Central School District is being made whole following the cyber theft of $1 million from the district’s capital construction fund last month.
Voorheesville is in the midst of a $25 million capital project, building a new bus garage and upgrading its schools.
The district announced on Oct. 16 that it had been the victim of a theft, and that it had already recovered three-quarters of the stolen $1 million.
Superintendent Frank Macri told school board members on Nov. 3, “At this time, there is no new legal or criminal development to report. That remains an ongoing active investigation, so I can’t really share that.”
But what Macri could share was, “We’ve been working with our insurance carriers to make sure that we’re going to get refunded some of our funds. We’ve been notified today that we'll get another additional $250,000 from one of our insurance policies.”
Macri noted that the district had worked with various law enforcement agencies on the incident, and that he was told Voorheesville’s experience happens “more often than you can imagine.”
Main replacement
The restitution comes just in time as Voorheesville was recently made aware of a much-needed costly repair.
Macri on Nov. 3 told board members that the district discovered the existing 50-year-old cast-iron water main running to and into the elementary school was at high risk of failure. During work related to the ongoing construction in the building, the cast-iron material was found to be brittle and failed, requiring replacement of the main inside the building.
The failure raised concerns about the remaining exterior section of the main, which runs from the building to the village water supply at the corner of Maple Avenue and Altamont Road. The concern is that, when the external section is exposed and connected to, the 50-year-old cast iron pipe will be frail and fail.
Putting off the repair will only stave off the inevitable, Macri told board members, as the pipe is expected to fail within “a year or two.” To pay for the repair, the district is planning to tap contingency funds from the current capital project.
