Catskill stream bank, retaining wall repairs are delayed

By WILLIAM J. KEMBLE Correspondent

CATSKILL, N.Y. The Town Board has agreed to send $1.5 million back to the bank after being unable to start repairing a stream bank and retaining wall along the Kaaterskill Creek before winter.

The wall on Woodstock Avenue behind the firehouse is not going to be done this year, said town Supervisor Joseph Leggio. We wont have the permits until next June. The contracts are signed; everything was ready to go. We were on time and on schedule.

State regulations required the work to be completed before the end of September to avoid harming fish habitats.

We did the bids, we got the contracts and did everything we had to do, but the weather, fish spawning in the creek and surveys put the project off, Leggio said.

The Town Board earlier this year authorized borrowing $2.1 million to finance about 20 projects to repair damage from Tropical Storm Irene, which struck in August 2011.

The interest due in April ... is approximately $40,000 for the whole year, Leggio said. The recommendation was to take $1.5 million and pay off the bond, save the interest and then re-bond in the spring. To re-bond it, the process will cost us approximately $2,500, but we can probably save $12,000 to $15,000 in interest for the next six to seven months.

Federal funding is expected to cover 75 percent of the project cost; the state will cover the remaining 25 percent.

Leggio said the last of a series of smaller projects is nearing completion after a $98,199 contract was awarded in September to K.C. & Sons Construction of Saugerties to make culvert repairs along state Route 23A.

They started on the lower end of Catskill Avenue, Leggio said. They are working on building up the (culvert) banks. They are supposed to be out of there in the next few days.

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Catskill stream bank, retaining wall repairs are delayed