RICHMONDVILLE — It's an exciting time for the Town of Richmondville.

The Town Board at a special meeting on Thursday, June 18 voted unanimously to award an $11.42 million bid to Vacri Construction Corporation for a long-awaited and much-anticipated major project that will provide public sewer service to much of the town, most notably Warnerville.

Town Supervisor Jeffrey Haslun and Councilmen Eric Haslun, Todd Sperbeck, George Horning and Harry Rode all voted to award the bid to Vacri, who submitted the lowest bid among six firms who submitted bids. Board members and many others in the town feel having public sewer through the Warnerville corridor should spur development and business growth along that stretch, bolstering the town's tax base and offering other benefits.

"Hallelujah!" exclaimed Jeffrey Haslun after the vote, expressing his happiness and relief at the clearing of this major milestone on a project that originally started taking shape four years ago.

"It's been a long road but we got there. This will change the whole face of Warnerville," Sperbeck said.

"This is just the beginning," added Horning.

Eric Haslun and the other board members thanked Engineer Brendon Becker of Lamont Engineers for all his hard work on the project, work that will continue on until its completion. Becker said now that a bid has been awarded, Vacri hopes to start construction in August or September, with a projected completion date of October, 2027.

Becker said the project will involve the laying of about 26,000 linear feet of sewage pipe and the installation of four pumping stations along a stretch of about three miles or so from the village line of Richmondville to the village line of Cobleskill. He said pipe and other fixtures will alternate between both sides of Route 7. Becker added that much of that stretch already has public water.

When asked by Sperbeck about possible cost overruns and change orders, Becker said they will inevitably come up but believed that the 30 percent contingency, or cushion, built into the project's budget should be more than enough to handle them. He said the total project budget is about $17 million, more than $5.5 million more than the Vacri bid.

"There should be plenty of fluff in the budget," said Becker, who added the town should be able to put a one-inch paving overlay on all Town roads with money left after the project is completed, and possibly add other enhancements like cameraing some of the sewage line and other items.

Becker said he has worked with Vacri before and has confidence in the firm.

"They've been in business for decades and I'm not worried about their competence in doing the job," he noted. "You see them doing a lot work on I-88 and they do a lot of bridge work for the DOT (state Department of Transportation)."

Bids ranged from the low of $11.42 million submitted by Vacri up to $14.72 million.

"A good turnout," Becker said of the bids. "There was a lot of interest in this project."

The project is being funded 80 percent from grants, and the other 20 percent with a 30-year, zero-interest loan to be paid back by the town, Becker explained.

Jeffrey Haslun said that once the project is complete and operable, maintenance and repairs will be handled by the Village of Richmondville Sewer Department, either with their own personnel or with subcontractors. All costs for maintenance and repairs will be the responsibility of the town, Haslun added.

The town is paying the village $1 million for the village collecting and treating sewage resulting from the project.