By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM -- The Potsdam Board of Trustees voted in a special session Thursday afternoon to hold a hearing Monday, July 16 on funding for the Crosstown Canal Project.

The hearing will start at 4:15 p.m., before the regular July board meting.

Trustees will solicit public comment on an application for $750,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds to go toward the rehabilitation of the canal, a century-old component of the village’s storm water sewer system.

The project is expected to cost a total of about $15 million over several stages.

The next stage would be for rebuilding the canal, some of which is a century old, and another for finding one or two sites for storm water storage upstream.

The grant will be to begin the next phase of the work, which is expected to cost $6 to $7 million in total, before the final phase costing about $8 million, according to Mike Tamblin and Charles Prior of engineering firm Environmental Design and Research.

The village will speak with the engineers before they plot out exactly what the next stage will be.

The project is designed to improve the canal’s capacity to hold and carry storm water through the elimination of impediments to the flow of runoff through the village to the Raquette River, and by rebuilding sections to prevent further deterioration of the system.

Sections of the village, particularly between Market and Leroy streets and around Canal Street, have been subject to flooding after sustained periods of rain or during heavy rainfall.

Village Administrator Greg Thompson says his thinking at the moment is that they will start with a closer examination of the discharge site at the Raquette River and Canal Street, and then examine the canal from that point back to Market Street.

If the silt buildup there is significant, they may begin by clearing that section to see if that improves the flow upstream. That, he said, would guide them in designing the next steps.

Legal notices will be posted before the hearing.