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Potsdam concerned both firms hired to do East Dam generator repair won’t be at crucial meeting next week

Posted 1/11/19

By CRAIG FREILICH North Country Now POTSDAM – A meeting to kick off the East Dam hydroelectric rehabilitation project should include both engineering firms hired to do the work or it could be …

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Potsdam concerned both firms hired to do East Dam generator repair won’t be at crucial meeting next week

Posted

By CRAIG FREILICH

North Country Now

POTSDAM – A meeting to kick off the East Dam hydroelectric rehabilitation project should include both engineering firms hired to do the work or it could be delayed, jeopardizing a $750,000 grant.

Village Administrator Greg Thompson says that officials from village government, the New York Power Authority, and engineering firm Hydrotech will have a kickoff meeting Jan. 15 on the $1.8 million East Dam generator project.

The lead engineering firm hired by the New York Power Authority and vetted by the village, Hatch Associates Consulting, might not be there, and that concerns Thompson.

“Hatch has been vetted by the village to do the project. We were not made aware that Hydrotech was being brought in” by NYPA, which is acting as project manager and as lender for part of the funding, Thompson said.

“We have tight deadlines on this project. We don’t want to lose this grant, and we want to get the dam up and running.”

This kickoff meeting is supposed to clarify the scope of the project, set target dates, and provide technical information such as the hydrology at the dam and an analysis of past revenue streams including electrical rates and future projections.

“At this point we should have construction studies, work scopes,” Thompson said. “Without that, people have no ability to view the information,” and that leaves him with an uneasy feeling “considering the importance and the expense of the project,” he said.

He said he wants the engineering firms doing the work should be at the table during that meeting.

“We’re depending on NYPA’s expertise, and I’m sure everyone involved is top-notch, but until we have something in writing about start and closeout dates, I’m concerned,” Thompson said.

The grant in question is a $750,000 Community Development Block Grant, which has a December 2019 deadline for spending on the project. Anything left undone after that will not be paid through the grant unless the federal Office of Community Renewal agrees to an extension. Another $250,000 in state money was secured by former Assemblywoman Addie Jenne, and NYPA has agreed to supply the remainder with low-interest loans.

Earlier this week Thompson said NYPA couldn’t tell him who aside from NYPA personnel would be at the meeting. Not knowing if the engineering firms would be able to share information with him left him worried that the project could be delayed.

Since then he has been told that Hydrotech will attend, but the presence of the first firm hired for the job, Hatch, is still uncertain.

“Hydrotech has been brought in by NYPA, and we’ll be meeting them for the first time,” said Thompson.

The project is to get the two 400-kilowatt generators back in operation after gearboxes in both units failed, one in mid-2014 and the other in early 2015.