A state grant could fund the majority of repairs to the Westerlo Highway Garage, a task that the town has struggled to complete due to residents’ concerns about high cost.

The results of a lab report in Knox indicate there are higher than recommended levels of contaminants in the Knox Highway Garage’s well water. 

Planning chairman Robert Price says the current Knox garage is structurally sound and can be upgraded for $62,000 while building a new garage would be costly.

Knox’s town board held a special meeting to host a tour of its facilities, highlighting items in need of repair — some simple and some not as much.

Community service can turn a young man’s life around, the town's supervisor says.

"We'll do triage," Knox's Superintendent Vasilios Lefkaditis, told the town board as he showed pictures from a recent tour indicating problems at the highway garage and transfer station he said are too expensive for town funds to cover.

Including the public in plans for Westerlo's town buildings could improve plans as well as engendering support from the people who will have to fund it — the taxpayers.

The special election comes just a few months before a large general election but several years after stalled plans to fix a leaking roof and a weathered highway garage.

A delay in the town's badly needed building projects, though unclear how long, is likely.

One of the more persistent concerns from residents was on the maintenance of the new, $1.8 million highway garage, so it would last longer.