Seeking grants for Water Street bridge

FALLS VILLAGE — The fate of the one-lane bridge over the Housatonic River that connects Falls Village and the Amesville section of Salisbury was the subject of a special meeting of the Falls Village and Salisbury boards of selectmen at the Falls Village Town Hall Wednesday morning, Oct. 27.

All three Falls Village selectmen attended, as did First Selectman Curtis Rand and Selectman Bob Riva from Salisbury.

Also on hand were Steve McDonald, an engineer from WMC Consulting Engineers of Newington, who is familiar with the bridge; the highway crew chiefs from both towns; and Board of Finance member and former First Selectman Lou Timolat of Falls Village.

Rand began the discussion by saying the one-lane bridge (variously called the Iron Bridge, the Amesville Bridge and the Water Street Bridge�) is under continued — and hostile — scrutiny from the state Department of Transportation.

Problems with the bridge include a large, extended pothole on the Falls Village side. Falls Village highway crew chief Tim Downs was skeptical about  patching the hole, but as of Monday evening, Nov. 1, it was indeed repaired.

McDonald, whose firm was involved in the last round of repairs on the west (Salisbury) side of the bridge, said the towns have several options.

A federal local bridge program could provide a grant covering 80 percent of the cost of replacing the bridge, but that would probably involve widening the bridge to two lanes.

But not necessarily. McDonald said other nearby towns such as Canton and Farmington have come to successful arrangements with bridges of historic importance. He suggested his firm go ahead and apply for the federal grant program and proceed into the evaluation stage.

Rand said the feedback from Salisbury residents was clear: Townspeople want the bridge, and they want to keep it as close to the way it is now as possible.

Falls Village First Selectman Pat Mechare took a cautious line, noting that Falls Village (with a substantially smaller tax base than Salisbury, anticipated increases in the education budget and several projects in the works) is not awash in extra cash.

She said Falls Village would agree to an evaluation study, “to see exactly what we have and how much it will cost� to fix it.

“Beyond that we can’t commit.�

McDonald said WMC had prepared the federal application before, and said there is no cost to apply.

So the Falls Village selectmen voted to authorize WMC to apply for the federal program.

Rand said Salisbury would be the lead town on the application, and the selectmen would vote on a similar resolution at their meeting Nov. 1.

There was some good-natured sparring between the representatives of the two towns over who uses the bridge the most — Salisbury residents coming to Falls Village, or the opposite. No consensus was reached.