Village Talks Water

MILLERTON — The village is preparing for the potential addition of a new commercial business on Route 22, next to the Associated Lightning Rod. In preparation for that eventuality, the mayor has already contacted the rural water department.

"I strongly recommend he not drill a well so close to our pump," Mayor Michael Cawley said. "I believe that we should go on record to not have them drill a hole into the aquifer."

The proposed tenant collects used batteries and used tires, according to Cawley.

The tricky part is that the property on Route 22 doesn’t fall into either the village water system or the town water system.

"We cannot stop them from drilling a well," Cawley said. "But the health department can."

One of the problems in that area is that there’s a "spider network" where people are hooked up through various extensions. It makes a "very delicate" area for the watershed.

According to the mayor, the town of North East must be required to hook up the commercial property to its water supply.

In the meanwhile, Cawley and his board further discussed the needs of the water district, with an eye on revisiting the possibility of a future sewer system.

"We need to talk about water infrastructure here in the not too distant future," Trustee Jack Thomas said. "I would like to read through [the engineer’s report] and become aware of what we have and where we have to go and what the town thinks we need to do to meet their needs."

"The infrastructure mechanically has all been replaced," Deputy Mayor John Scutieri said. "The question is, do you want to do it piecemeal or do you look for grant funding and do it all at once?"

Scutieri said that to make that decision the village should hold a workshop and invite Village Engineer Ray Jurkowski, who wrote the report.

"We need the engineer," he said. "And that’s what grants are made for. If we’re ready to seek out funding for water... we should invite him to the next meeting."

"The more educated we are about this, we can make an educated decision, because this will have a long impact," Thomas added.