Federal money will pay for sidewalk repairs

SAUGERTIES, N.Y. » The village expects to use about $359,000 in state-administered federal funds to repair some 861 feet of bluestone sidewalk in the business district.

At a Village Board public hearing Monday, officials said the money would come from money remaining from aid for crosswalks that were installed several years ago.

“The money initially came from the Surface Transportation Enhancement Program from the Federal Highway Administration,” said project manager Kenneth Baldwin. “This is leftover money from the project that was done on the sidewalks, where they put the brick across the intersections.”

There will be 394 feet of sidewalk repairs along the east side of Partition Street, south of Main Street. Another 467 feet of repairs will be made on the south side of Main Street, with the length about even on each side of the intersection of Main Street.

“There are some areas inside the project limits ... [where] there are patches of the existing sidewalk that are OK and may be left alone,” said senior engineer Daniel Farnan.

Baldwin said damaged bluestone will be replaced, while the remaining sections of sidewalk will be restored to avert tripping hazards.

“Most all of it is going to have to be picked up to meet the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standard,” he said. “So even though we’re not going to replace it, there’s still going be the need to raise up what is going to stay there.”

Village Board member Terry Parisian said using bluestone is not cost-effective in the long term, and he suggested that concrete with an appearance of bluestone would require less maintenance.

“You are going to be redoing it in five years,” he said. “You’re wasting $280,000. You [should] start looking at the future instead of every five years.”

Village officials said the project still needs approval from the state Department of Transportation and that the work is not expected to begin before April 2018.