St. Lawrence County Legislature approves trio of highway resolutions

Mike Gagliardi, Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
·2 min read
1

Dec. 10—CANTON — St. Lawrence County legislators passed three highway resolutions during Monday's full board meeting.

The first resolution modifies the 2022 budget for increased fuel, repair, and road maintenance expenses in the highway department.

"Along with the overall price increases of equipment parts," the resolution states, "there have been several costly inter-departmental repairs this year, and these increases are offset by an increase in revenue."

In particular, the rising cost of asphalt has made paving projects more expensive this year. Still, the department completed its intended number of paving miles this season plus an additional 10 miles.

The resolution calls for $225,000 in increased appropriations, but sees that number offset by $225,000 in increased revenue.

"This should take care of our budget until the end of the year," Highway Superintendent Donald R. Chambers said during last week's Finance Committee meeting.

The second resolution approves state funding for replacement of the Lazy River Road bridge over the Grasse River.

"Originally the board approved this as a federally funded project ... However, the county was awarded Bridge NY funding since we started the initial design, so now the NYS DOT wants us to sign another agreement to utilize funds for the remainder of the project," Mr. Chambers said.

The resolution states that 95% of the bridge will be funded through Bridge NY, and 5% will be covered by the county.

Construction on the project will begin no later than 24 months after the award is received, and will be finished no later than 30 months after that.

The third resolution authorizes the issuance of a negative declaration related to the replacement of the Lazy River Road bridge.

The negative declaration is in regard to the environmental assessment that had to take place before the project could begin. It was determined that the project would not have serious negative environmental impacts.

"In order to move forward with this project a full environmental assessment needed to be done," Mr. Chambers said.

The project seeks to move the existing bridge partially downstream to accommodate better architecture for it.