JEFFERSONVILLE — Design Engineer Eric Michelitsch from Delaware Engineering gave an in-depth progress report on the Youngsville Water Tank Replacement Project to the board members of the Town of Callicoon on July 14. The technical status report outlined the heavily-regulated and multi-step process of replacing the existing water tank in Youngsville with a brand new tank; it also included a change order, which increases the total cost of the project by $35,118, and a $95,000 payment application to the contractor for work already completed. After Michelitsch finished his report, Supervisor Tom Bose summarized: “The main thing you have told the board is we are within budget, and under budget,” even with the inclusion of a standby generator and the addition of an American flag at the top of the tank. The board swiftly and unanimously approved both the change order and the payment application.

Michelitsch began his report by outlining completed work: “Both the foundation and the tank have been constructed, and the new electrical shed has been placed, however the process of moving over the electrical components to the new system has not occurred yet.” He said the next phase will be cleaning and disinfection of the new tank, after which they will fill the tank so it can undergo testing in order to put it into service; this will require coordination between Tweedie Construction (the contractor), Aquastore (the tank’s manufacturer), and the water district operators in Youngsville, including Water Superintendent Kevin Klein, who was in attendance.

“In parallel with this work, the electronics and controls from the existing shed will be relocated, and replaced as needed, to the new electrical shed,” said Michelitsch, who anticipated that most of this work will occur within the next two months.

Michelitsch said he’s provided the board with a change order for review that includes incidental work done by Tweedie Construction and also provides a more comprehensive overhaul of the electronic components than what was included in the original contract. “The project is within budget, even after accounting for this new change order. It won’t be costing the town any more; we are using some of the remaining budget within the grant to fund this change order.” 

Once the change order has been approved, Michelitsch said Tweedie will order the rest of the materials immediately and be back on site within two weeks. He said the next step is to complete any remainder of the construction, the installation of electrical components, and the demolition of the old tank once the new one is tested and in service.

Bose asked, “When that time comes to change over, there will be absolutely no interruption in service to the users?”

“Correct, so basically what we assume is once the tank is cleaned, disinfected, filled, and tested, making sure all the components are functioning as intended, what we would do is get approval from the Department of Health to bring it on line. At that point, it’s essentially as simple as turning a valve and bringing the new tank in, and then what we would do is then shut off the old tank and then disconnect that from the system,” said Michelitsch.

Bose asked Michelitsch if the water from the old tank would be transferred to the new tank. “To a certain degree, that all depends on the level of the tank,” said Michelitsch, who added that his intention would be to use as much of the existing water as possible.

Michelitsch suggested that the town should complete a routine tank inspection in three to five years. He said the new tank has an electronic mixer that assists with water quality, maintains the chlorine level, and prevents freezing in the winter; it’s also equipped with a sacrificial anode that diverts corrosion away from the parts of the tank.

Michelitsch added that the grant funding deadline is in December and there were no anticipated issues with project completion. “I believe the longest portion will be the tank testing and just making sure that we are in contact with the Department of Health, making sure that we are turning over samples in a timely manner so they can be processed,” said Michelitsch. 

Bose said, “This has been a long process from the beginning of searching grant funding for this and then, after four years of application, being successful, bringing it to construction phase and now getting close to the actual bringing it into service… we’ve been shooting for this improvement for the Youngsville water district for quite a while.” 

The change order that the board approved for electrical upgrades brought the total cost of the Youngsville Water Tank Replacement Project from the previous amount of $759,805 to the new total project cost of $794,923.