Guilderland Water and Wastewater Superintendent Timothy McIntyre recently announced that the ban on lawn sprinkling will continue until Albany’s water main break is resolved.

Now, residents have water again, but a boil water advisory is in effect until testing can be completed.

Recent rains have made lawns green but made reservoir water brown. That coupled with a water main break in Albany, from where Guilderland purchases water, has led the town to issue a ban on lawn sprinklers.

New Scotland and Bethlehem will continue to share water sources and infrastructure, according to New Scotland Supervisor Thomas Dolin, while homes along the Guilderland border could get outside water if the Weatherfield system is upgraded.

County Legislator Herbert Reilly says he recalls the pain he saw in Clarksville years ago from polluted water and so has drafted a bill to protect public water supplies from blasting.

The engineer said the water system will run up-slope and through the woods from the Swift Road pump station to Route 85.

_{John F. Dearstyne Jr., New Scotland}

ALTAMONT — The congressman, in a black overcoat and shiny shoes, bent down to touch a pile of rusty and broken pipes outside the cement-block well house on Gun Club Road. The wind was chill and the gray sky held snow on the first day of spring as a bevy of local officials clustered about Paul Tonko.

Jeffrey Moller, Altamont’s superintendent of public works, wearing a jacket with his name on it and work boots, had gathered the pipes to illustrate for the congressman some of what was underground in the village.

For the owners of four different buildings along Maple Avenue near Main Street in Altamont, warmer weather can’t come soon enough. They have been without running water for about four weeks, ever since their pipes froze.  

NEW SCOTLAND — A decision about a solar vendor for municipal energy is expected in the next few weeks, and the proposed town water-well law is still on tap, according to town board members.