Community Corner

Mayor Wray: Sleepy Hollow Will Enjoy Adequate Water Supply at Last

It's been a good week for water and sanitation in the villages -- marked by some dramatic signs of just how desperately we need the good news.

First came the announcement that the state would be funding a multi-million dollar renovation of the Tarrytown Pump Station, moving our waste along to the Yonkers treatment facility when it works and bubbling up into the streets or rerouting untreated into the river when it doesn't. (As if on cue, a Sleepy Hollow manhole cover exploded Monday on North Broadway, apparently pushed by the pressure of pent-up sewer gas).

On Tuesday came the notice in Sleepy Hollow that, yet again, the village had suffered a water main break and residents might experience brownish water at the tap. This is an occurrence villagers are all too used to, especially during summer months when our insufficient reservoir dips dangerously low -- in fact, it's illegal, by law we should have a 24-hour supply and often only have 8. 

By this time next year, Mayor Ken Wray, says these water problems will be but a memory and the village will finally have enough supply not only to support its current residents but meet the needs of anticipated growth to come.

Thanks to the Rockefellers Brothers Fund, a parcial of National Trust for Historic Preservation land they manage off Lake Road, will be granted to the village (by way of a 99-year easement) to bury a tank and create a second reservoir.

At about 140 feet by 15 feet deep, the reservoir will hold 1.6 million gallons of water, bringing the supply to a total of 2.4 million gallons. Though the process of securing a site took a while -- "we've been at this for a couple years now," Wray said, he was so grateful the Rockefellers, who are "just being very very generous to the village. This is going beyond being good neighbors."

The Rockefellers were instrumental in finding a site on their land that would work, Wray said, the goal of course being to make this as nondescript and natural looking as possible. Only about one foot of the tank would come above ground, which would be covered with landscaping and native species. 

As far as a timeline: following Tuesday's announcement, the plans will be brought before the public at an open hearing on July 9. Simultaneously, the village will be working to reopen a new environmental review for this particular site, secure approval from the Town of Mount Pleasant, and seek bond financing.

While the GM Corp. has offered $650,000 -- in anticipation of the water that large-scale waterfront development will demand -- the village will use long-term bonds to meet the rest of the $4 million total estimated construction costs.

From here, the project goes out to bid, hopefully by Labor Day, said Wray, "if things go well." Construction could begin this year, and could go over the winter, with about a four-month work window. "The biggest part is digging the hole," he said. It's assumed this will require a lot of rock removal, "but you never really know until you get into it."

By summer of 2014, Wray anticipated a water supply for once that's more than sufficient -- just on time for Joe Cotter to get his Certificate of Occupany for the River's Edge development at the former Castle Oil site about when he'd be ready to get it, which would not be possible without this new water supply.

"The immediate effect will be making enough water for our current needs," Wray said. "And we really can't approve another unit of housing without an adequate water supply."


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