MONTICELLO — The Village Board of Monticello discussed a proposed water plant project of Kiamesha Lake during their meeting Wednesday night.  Water Supply Engineer of Barton and Loguidice, Roy Richardson, presented before the Board some details of layout designs for a new plant replacement.

Village officials noted that they started to have a need for water over the years as the plant was said to have gone downhill.

“When this project started it was upgrading some waterlines...and then update other pieces and parts of equipment. Now we’re basically saying the plant is done,” stated Richardson. “We’re getting a whole new plant. We can salvage pieces of existing equipment for administrative use. [But] the whole plant is going.”

His team originally went into the project thinking they could save equipment like the clearwells and some of the pumps.

However, as the inspecting process continued, it was revealed a lot of it was not salvageable.

“There was a lot of sins in the past that are coming back to haunt us, so we went new,” Richardson explained.

Water will be pulled out of Kiamesha Lake, with currently two intakes. One of the existing intakes was abandoned years ago and “nobody knows where it is.” The other one was stated to have been experiencing some issues.

“Rather than band-aiding again, we’re going to put a whole new intake in right from the lake and give [the Village] a clean source,” stated Richardson.

The process of implementing the new plant would involve taking over the real estate on site.

Alleviating this will be the fact that the Village already owns this real estate.

The nuclear well was assured to be buried under filters and piping that can’t be accessed.

“So this will give a lot of operational efficiency to the plant. It will give you a plant that will bring you into the future instead of trying to band-aid,” promised Richardson. “When this job started we were talking about band-aiding. Now you’re getting a robust unit that gives you redundancy, gives you efficiency, gives you reliability, and it’s gonna be great for the future and that’s what we’re really looking to do.”

When asked by Trustee Theodore Hutchins how much this was estimated to be, Richardson responded that so far they secured $18 million in funding  but estimate it to be $24 million.

Richardson sees this part of the plant being in operation in 2026 after a full year of construction.

“It’s going to take time. Acquiring materials isn’t what it used to be – it takes time to procure things. Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) for the pumps, I heard some are a year out,” explained Richardson.