HORTONVILLE – Delaware Engineering’s Bill Brown asked the board to give the okay to move forward with opening contracting bids for the Hamlet of Callicoon’s new water wells and wastewater system at the Town of Delaware board meeting on April 10. Currently, there is one general contract, as well as an electric contract, however Brown said the State now requires them to break the contracts up by trade. 

“We did meet with Sullivan County Department of Public Works, New York State Department of Transportation, the railroad and New York State Department of Health as they are all involved in different pieces of the project,” said Brown. “The last couple of months we have worked through all the regulatory stuff to get all the permits in line. The next step is to go out to bid on the project.”

Brown said he wants to give a generous timeframe for bidding to give contractors enough time to draft their proposals. 

“Whatever contractor gets the work is probably gonna have a number of subcontractors,” he said. “Under the railroad, we have to do a jack and bore, which is a specialty process. There’s building work between the concrete and general carpentry work on the building. For the water lines that will be going in, some are open-cut and some are under the DOT road where we have to use directional drilling.”

Brown recommended a three or four-week period to put the project out on bid and the board decided to hold a special meeting to open the bids on Wednesday, May 15, a week after their next regular board meeting. They will then have a week to review the bids before awarding the bid during the week of May 19, with an exact timeframe to be decided on at the regular meeting on May 8. 

According to Brown, the hydrogeologist for the project, Sterling Environmental Engineering, completed the water quality tests and everything came back clean. He said that it will now go to the Department of Health (DOH) and the Delaware River Basin Commission for their sign-off. 

“We have to get their approval in order for the water to be used as a water source,” Brown said. 

He also said that the River Basin Commission will have review fees, which he said will likely be a few thousand dollars. 

Brown also said that the goal construction start date for the water project is late spring or early summer and to go through the bulk of the summer and into the fall. 

“Depending on if we have a winter or not, we will roll water line work into next spring,” Brown stated. “There is about 7,000 feet of water line planned to be replaced, along with the replacement of the water tank on Del Vue [Road]. We plan to put a stainless steel tank up there to replace the existing one. One of the big pieces is the new well house behind the [Delaware] Youth Center that will be up off the ground a bit for the flooding concerns.”