$457K grant will help pay for new water storage tank

TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. >> The State Environmental Facilities Corp. has awarded the town a $457,200 grant toward the $762,000 cost of replacing the Halcyon Park Water District storage tank.

The new tank, with a capacity of 120,000 gallons, will replace a 75,000-gallon tank that was erected in 1978 and has interior and exterior coatings that are failing.

The new tank will have interior glass fused to steel.

Ulster Supervisor James Quigley said the town hopes to complete the project in 2020. “We need to replace that tank,” he said.

The town is bonding the entire cost of the new tank and will use the grant money as a partial repayment.

The Halcyon Park Water District serves 158 customers that use an average of 24,607 gallons per day, according to the grant application. The system had peak usage of 71,120 gallons per day during the past year.

The need for a larger tank is being driven, in part, by the state Thruway Authority wanting to connect the highway’s Ulster Service Area to it. That site, on the southbound side of the highway, abuts the Halcyon Park neighborhood.

An engineering report stated the service area would use an average of 12,000 gallons of water per day, though possibly as much as 24,000.

The town expects to sign an “out of district” user agreement with the Thruway Authority under which the authority will pay for water used at the service area.

Prior to discussions with the Thruway Authority, the town planned to put up a new 85,000-gallon water tank at a cost of $445,000.