Water continues to flow safely after fire

MILLERTON — In the early morning hours on Monday, Feb. 3, the home of the Village of Millerton’s Water and Highway Department building experienced a fire that left nothing housed within its walls, only its cinder block structure. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

“There’s nothing left. The whole building burnt with everything in it,” Peter Dellaghelfa, the Village’s Superintendent of Public Works, said. “Our highway department trucks, our park and rec trucks, our lawnmowers, everything. Everything’s gone.”

The village’s wells are housed on the site, so water operator VRI Environmental Services, located in Lagrangeville, moved quickly to assist with a plan on how to move forward. VRI took action before the blaze was extinguished to ensure water operations continued.

One well was impacted by the fire, but mayor Jenn Najdek confirmed to the News on Friday, Feb.7, that the village water system was continuously monitored throughout the fire — and in its aftermath.

To ensure safety and continuity, a provisional setup was implemented for the system, and water quality remained uncompromised. Additionally, water testing has been repeatedly conducted with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Board of Health approving its quality.

“Now they’re having to treat it manually out front … We can’t use one of the wells,” Dellaghelfa said. “All the wires, the whole computer, the guts melted to it. It’s a [temporary system], almost the same as before, but it’s just kind of tapped straight into the well instead of being in a nice holding tank, and now they keep having to change little jugs because they can’t run it like that right now.”

The Millerton Water District’s temporary system has been reviewed and approved by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Dutchess County Board of Health.

According to the 2023 annual drinking water report, the Village’s water system has been serving approximately 2,000 residents, some being located in the town, through 600 service connections. Even with the Village losing one of its wells, according to Dellaghelfa, residents did not experience any water service gaps that day due to the fire. However, some may have seen a brief cut the following day which was caused by a water leak. “We’re moving as fast as we can on it. We have to demo out the building. We have to make a temporary structure to house everything, and then we can go,” Dellaghelfa said, explaining the New York State Department of Health had tested the well for safety purposes.

Located on Route 22, the Millerton Water Department has been housing two 10-inch diameter well shafts in an unconsolidated aquifer, filtering through 50 feet of sand and gravel. The water is then pumped into an elevated storage tank, which is chlorinated at the pumping location before going out to residents. For now, the Village’s water will be conditioned as required and pumped from well number one, the “doghouse,” to a water tank.

“I lost my office, my computer. I lost everything. I had some of my own stuff in there ... It’s a big change because we were pretty used to working out of there,” Dellaghelfa said. “We did a lot of our own mechanical stuff for the equipment in there, and so now we’re having to share with other people. It’s different.”

Shortly after the fire, the Village of Millerton declared a state of emergency, effective Monday, Feb. 3. It will be in effect for 30 days or until it is reversed by Najdek.

“Luckily, the town of North East has been helping us, and they just let us work in their new facility up here, which is beautiful,” said Dellaghelfa. “If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know what we would have done.”