BY CRAIG FREILICH
North Country This Week

POTSDAM – A representative of the engineering firm overseeing the rebuilding of the village wastewater treatment plant and pump station says the work is all but done and the plant is functioning well.

The representative, Matt Cooper of Barton and Loguidice, DPC, also introduced two resolutions for the village board to approve supplemental work that would use some of the mostly untouched $1 million in contingency funds on the project.

The $16 million water pollution plant and pump station upgrade is substantially completed and initial indications are that the plant is operating above expectations.

“We’ve wrapped up nearly all items” in the scope of the original project, with a few minor exceptions, Cooper told the board at its Tuesday night meeting. “The plant is operating very well,” Cooper said.

About $1 million in contingency funds for the project remain, and can be applied to related jobs before the contractors pack up and leave.

The village board gave the go-ahead for the mayor to sign a change order for electrical contractor Watson Electric to install a fan, new lighting, gas strobes, sensors, wiring for an aeration tank solenoid valve, and additional “dry contact” alarms for the administration building, for $66,012.37.

In a separate resolution, the board approved an additional $133,910 for Barton and Loguidice’s extra engineering work on the supplemental projects.

The board approved the resolutions.

Cooper also said there will be more expense to pay independent inspection contractors for the work beyond the original scope of the project.

Most of the work will be done this summer.