A special meeting of the Dunkirk Town Board was held March 28 to discuss the changes made to waterline sizes for the Roberts Road leg of the North Chautauqua County Water District (NCCWD).

“You did this once before, actually on Dec. 20, 2016,” Town Attorney Jeff Passafaro said. “You adopted all of these resolutions which we’re going to readopt tonight, but you adopted them with a maximum cost of $1,315,000. Now, based on the amended map, plan and report from the engineers, and the desire to increase the capacity of the main transmission lines in conjunction with North County Water from eight inch to 12 inch and some associated changes with that, the maximum cost to expend is increased to $1,586,000. It has been the premise on which this board has proceeded, that the county of Chautauqua, through which North County Water District runs, will actually furnish the additional compensation of about $271,000.”

According to Passafaro, the county legislature approved that on March 27 to their understanding. However, the increased funds won’t burden town or county residents as the money is coming from a grant obtained by the NCCWD that is in turn disbursed by the county.

“It’s important to note that it’s not costing the residents any more,” Town Supervisor Richard Purol stated. “The amount that they had figured out in the very beginning they will pay. This increase is all being done with an extra $3 million that was received through a grant, which is why we can extend the lines and everything else. It doesn’t make sense to run up to a watertank with an eight-inch line, 12 is what we need.”

The watertank, according to the board, is proposed to be going on Miller Road. It’ll have a 12-inch line going all the way under the Thruway bridge and up Roberts Road. From the corner of Route 20 and Roberts Road to around where Sullivan’s is it’ll make a connection there for an emergency line either way for Pomfret.

As it stands Roberts Road, from the top of the hill all the way to the thruway bridge, is going to have 12-inch piping; and New Road, Franklin Avenue and Greenhurst Avenue will all be eight-inch lines.