OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford O’Brien and Gere engineer Mike Manning gives a presentation to the Fredonia Village Board Monday on planned upgrades to the village’s water filtration system.

Fredonia has a lot of renovations coming up for its water filtration system, and the Village Board heard a presentation about it from O’Brien and Gere engineer Mike Manning at its workshop this week.

The project has a price tag of $1.65 million. Mayor Athanasia Landis said the village has a $930,000 state grant in place to help fund the start of the project, and it will attempt to get another grant next year for the remainder of the work.

Manning said there is set to be work at the water treatment plant, the Vineyard Drive pump station and the Webster Road tank/pump station. There will also be a new disinfection system put in.

At the treatment plant, there will be added automation, filtering and tank improvements, new water flow meters and other instrumentation.

Manning said the biggest part of the project is renovations to the upflow clarifiers. “Clarifiers are your first barrier against contamination in the system. What they do is remove the heavier stuff that comes in the plant,” he said.

At the Webster Road site, O’Brien and Gere’s proposed work includes the addition of an emergency generator for backup power, replacement of a drive that helps control pump output and addition of a mixer and an aeration system to the tank to improve the quality of the water and remove bacteria.

“The Vineyard Drive pump station is the part of your infrastructure that ties into the Dunkirk system,” Manning continued. “When that runs correctly, you’ve got backup … of not quite your average flow but pretty close to it. Unfortunately, the pipes are undersized and the pumps are aged.” The pump and pipes will be replaced. A generator will also be installed at that site.

In addition, a spur line that dead-ends on Cottage Street will be looped into the main system, but Manning said since the new loop will have to go under the nearby CSX tracks, the railroad must approve that portion of the work.

The treatment plant work is estimated at $953,000, “probably two-thirds of that’s associated with the clarifiers,” Manning said. The Vineyard Drive project should cost about $260,000, the Webster Road work comes in at $207,000, and the Cottage Street loop should be around $50,000. The remaining part of the $1.65 million would constitute a contingency fund for unexpected issues.

Manning said design of the project should wrap up in March 2019, and the village should advertise for bids and April and award them in May. Construction is envisioned to start in June and last a year. The state Health Department will have to approve the final plan.

Trustee Doug Essek asked if the village will be buying water from Dunkirk while the clarifiers are off-line, and Manning confirmed it would.

Mayor Athanasia Landis said before the presentation she was very excited for the project to begin, and that “this plant has been neglected for years.” After Manning was done she added, “My ultimate goal would be to not only upgrade the whole plant or fix the reservoir … but also improve and increase capacity.”