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water district

Amenia awards contract for water district upgrades

Amenia awards contract for water district upgrades
Amenia Town Hall on Route 22.
Photo by Nathan Miller

AMENIA — Town Board members awarded a contract for improvements to the Lavelle Road water pump house at their regular meeting Thursday, Nov. 20.

The award is a significant step forward for upgrades to the town’s water district, which serves the central Amenia hamlet surrounding the intersection of Route 44, Route 343 and Route 22.

The successful bidder, Trinity Construction of Selkirk, New York, estimated that it will cost $1,298,633 to complete the work of upgrading the existing pump house and the well fields nearby. The bid, the lowest of four submitted, was approved by project engineers Delaware Engineering.

During public comment, resident Ken Topolsky read the letter he had presented to the Planning Board urging adoption of a moratorium on new development applications while the Comprehensive Plan Review Committee completes its work to revise the plan. Exempted from the moratorium, Topolsky suggested, could be any application that was initiated with the town two or more years ago.

Resident Judy Moran spoke in support of the proposed moratorium, finding it “reasonable.”

Planning Board member James Walsh spoke of the high volume of applications coming before his board, significantly adding to the daily workload of the board’s secretary. He asked the board to consider a remuneration increase in view of that load.

Leila Hawken
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