Grant clears way for sewer installation

A $1.13million grant will allow the village to install and connect a sewer line to the city of Oneida.

ONEIDA CASTLE, N.Y. » Oneida Castle secured a $1.13 million grant to put in a sewer line and connect to the city of Oneida.

“This is our seventh year we’ve attempted to get it,” Mayor Jack Deschamps said. “It just came through. The whole grant money is going to be used for a sewer connection to Oneida from the village of Oneida Castle.”

On top of the grant, Deschamps said the project will be financed with zero percent interest.

“We’re very happy. They’re have been a failing septics in the village,” Deschamps said. “A lot of the septic systems in the village were clay based. This is huge.”

Deschamps said he felt bad for some of the homeowners in Oneida Castle whose septic systems have failed and just invested in fixing them. “But with this, we don’t have to worry about failing anymore. Plus all the houses in the village, their market value will go up.”

The village attempted to get a $500,000 grant through the USDA, but that would not be enough to cover what the village can afford.

According to Deschamps, sewer

lines in places like Oneida Castle should be done sooner, rather than later.

“Iwas told by a politician that, eventually down the line, it’s going to be mandated,” he said.

Deschamps added that in the mid to late ‘70s, Oneida Castle had the opportunity to get a sewer system, but it didn’t go through.

“It was for a sewer system hooked up to Oneida. It wouldn’t have cost a penny, but that was voteddown,” Deschamps said. “Now there’s these clean water grants the state has and the intentions for this is to have every village and municipality to have a sewer system, because eventually, the stateisgoing tomandateit and get away fromleach fields. Nowthis isn’t towns or rurals, I’m talking villages and hamlets. We have to act now or face the consequences.”