BY CRAIG FREILICH
North Country This Week

POTSDAM -- The Town of Potsdam has approved moving to a "map, plan and report" stage in the development of the proposed SH56 water and sewer districts.

After an update from C2AE consultant Kevin Feuka, the town board approved a resolution to ask C2AE proceed with that step.

Meanwhile motor-maker LC Drives' plan for a factory in the districts is a key element in decisions to be made by possible grant funders and by the town to ultimately go ahead with the water and sewer projects.

The map, plan and report phase requires showing the boundaries of the proposed districts, with a general plan of the districts, and a report of the proposed method of operation.

This would be "the first official step to fulfilling the requirements to possibly move ahead, present it to the public and for a possible vote" by residents and businesses in the districts, said Supervisor Ann Carvill.

The plan, which was proposed years ago, could be moving toward the hearing phase and possible construction.

The plan has always depended on whatever cost is to be borne by the several dozens residents of the proposed districts being affordable. Until recently, that was not seen as achievable.

Testing of wells and other factors in the zone revealed some contamination of drinking water that is presumed to come from septic systems too close to the wells.

That added another factor in favor of creating the districts that are "much needed," Carvill said, for business development and the welfare of citizens living there.

The available grant and loan funds "are a pretty significant amount compared to what we expected," said Carvill, and could push the plan forward.

So far it appears that roughly 53 percent of the combined districts’ $10.3 million price tag could be forthcoming from USDA Rural Development grants, and other funds are still being sought.

The fact that average income in the town is on the lower end of the economic scale helps the USDA’s favorable outlook on funding, and helps the likelihood of further approvals.

In a memo to the board, Feuka called the USDA’s support “an exceptional 53% grant funding.”

“This could likely increase to near 76% by a US Economic Development Administration grant with firm commitment by LC Drives to locate in Potsdam,” he said.

“So it seems now might be the time to move ahead” with the map-plan-report requirement before a public hearing is held and a possible vote is scheduled, Supervisor Carvill said, and “I am cautiously optimistic” that the grant funding will be secured.

“It would be a great day for Potsdam,” she said, because the districts “would become an economic zone for development, and provide safer water for the citizenry and businesses.”

Feuka’s memo explained that if all the steps are ticked off, including award of sufficient grant funding, construction of the water and sewer systems could begin in spring 2021 “so sufficient construction is completed by December 2021 to meet LC Drives intended connection date.”

The funding appears to be at the axis of a series of decisions. The town must secure adequate funding to proceed. The approvals have depended in part on the stated intention of LC Drives, the innovative motor manufacturer, to build a factory in the two districts providing as many as 300 jobs, which would likely be a factor in the granting authorities’ decisions to help fund the water and sewer projects.

And the water and sewer plan is likely to be a factor in the company securing financing for the factory. If LC Drives can hook up to the town water and sewer services, that will save them the expense of providing those services for themselves on their own, improving the chance the company can build here.

So LCD Drives participation could make the project viable; as a larger user of the water and sewer service, their participation would lower the burden of the projects’ costs for the residents and other businesses...

The project could make the factory possible. The factory could make the project possible.

The town has been working for years to establish new water and sewer districts along State Rt. 56 north of the village to provide a water supply and sewage service to about 100 properties in the corridor up to the Sissonville Road area.

Town officials had decided that they would only pursue it if the plan ultimately would be affordable to existing residents, and that had been an impediment to development.

But engineering consultants at C2AE in Canton, who had studied the idea for the town, determined that enough grant and loan support from state and federal authorities might be found to make affordability, and the project, a reality.