Board approves bonding $3.48M for water tank
The Town Board has authorized $3.48 million in bonding to pay for a new storage tank for the Ulster Water District.
The vote — a redo from a month earlier because a roll call was not taken the first time — approved bonding that’s required by the state Water Infrastructure Improvement Act (WIIA). The town plans to apply for a grant under that act later this year.
“You have to provide the [state Environmental Facilities Corp.] evidence that you have approval to do bond financing,” town Supervisor James Quigley said.
“We are laying the groundwork to file ... for a WIIA grant when the 2019 round opens,” Quigley said. “The project cost is $3.4 million. We hope to be able to get a grant for 60 percent of the project ... and the final 40 percent will be financed through the WIIA loan program.”
The project would replace the existing 4.8 million-gallon steel tank with a 3.5 million-gallon concrete tank that is expected to have a longer useful life.
“[It’s] cheaper to rebuild a smaller tank out of concrete that does not require interior painting or exterior painting and has a life expectancy of 60 to 70 years,” Quigley said. “That is as opposed to repainting a tank on a 15- to 20-year schedule that costs $2 million plus every time it gets painted.”
Quigley said last year that the new tank will be smaller than the existing one because the town also gets water from the city of Kingston.
“The original reason the tank was built at 4.8 million gallons was that the town had its own water source at the time, and it was subject to interruption,” the supervisor said.