“crumbling infrastructure” : Reader asks what will be the ultimate cost to the Village taxpayers
What is perhaps most interesting about this article is the fact that when he has testified about the effect of adding 500 new families to downtown with the apartment projects, Ruitshauser has not been concerned about the effect on infra structure. For instance, at one hearing he noted that new sewer pipes would need to be dug under the streets downtown to accept the flow of sewage from the projects, and these would feed into the old pipes. But, then he suggested there would be no effect on the existing decades old pipes that flow to the sewage treatment plants.
Its clear as the apartment projects move forward and as we hear remarks about “crumbling infrastructure” that we really don’t know what the ultimate cost to the Village taxpayers will be. The projects are going to be an eyesore as well as a pocketbook sore in years to come.
Millions of dollars sounds like a lot of money until you think about what else we spend money on. I would much rather spend a few million dollars on updating the pipe system, thereby preventing burst mains and other things that would have to be dealt with on an emergency/expensive basis (as happens fairly often in NYC), than on turf!
It’s the old song: no prevention, no foresight, no planning. Just wait until something breaks. What if it happens in the depths of winter?
The hell with the pipes we need a parking garage.
Agreed #1, unless the Village starts spending big time on capital improvements for the next century, the old Town Garage, Ken Smith Chevrolet and Brogan Cadillac won’t be the only things crumbling in the CBD. But the majority of growth in the Village budget has gone to wages, pensions and healthcare, mainly for public safety. These fixed costs now crowd out the Village’s ability to make forward investment in things like sewer mains. But we have turf and tanks !