Dundee gets $600K award for upgrades

DUNDEE—The village of Dundee was recently awarded $600,000 by the New York State Regional Economic Development Councils initiative. The money will go to the village of Dundee’s water system improvement project, aimed at correcting aging water system deficiencies throughout the village. According to the grant award, the project “will benefit 1,689 persons, 946 or 56 percent of whom are low and moderate income.”
Village Clerk Christine Sutherland said the village was notified they received the grant in December. She said the money will cover $600,000 of the total project cost of $885,000. The project will involve the construction of a new 468,000 gallon water tank and installation of a 10 inch ductile iron water main. Sutherland said the new, “glass-lined” tank will require less maintenance than the old one, which will be torn down after the new one is built. She said the new tank will a mixing system in it as well as new sensors.
The money will become available to the village once they receive the award package from the state. Sutherland said the village should be receiving the package “any day,” which wil allow the village to begin spending money once it is completed. She said the village will be spending it in a voucher system as the work goes on, and the village does not receive the full $600,000 at once.
Sutherland said the work must be completed in two years, which is about how long the work should take to complete. She said this is the village’s third time applying for this grant. Sutherland said the village did not score as high as other municipalities before because the scoring has changed since their first application, and she assumes other municipalities must have been regarded as in greater need of the money than Dundee.
The grant is part of a $715.9 million total in economic development funds awarded to more than 800 regional projects throughout the state Dec. 11, 2013. The Finger Lakes region was awarded a total of $59.8 million in funding for projects.