Village bonds $7.5M for improvements

The board of trustees unanimously approved bond resolutions for $3 million for electric system improvements and a $500,000 for athletic field improvements at their briefing session on Sept. 4. Another bond resolution for $4 million to resurface roads was also approved.

The bond will be issued in February. There is a public referendum period of 30 days and a period of 20 days where a person could seek to stop the bonds if they have reason to believe it does not pass legal requirements.

The board passed these resolutions at the briefing meeting because they wanted to start the process as soon as possible.

According to Michael Schussheim, the village comptroller, the current electric rates will cover the cost of the bond. Schussheim also said that they rates will not increase during the current fiscal year, which ends May 31.

“Right now, there are no plans to file for any rate increase,” said Schussheim.

The electric system work includes improvements to four engines at the power plant, upgrading village streetlights and infrastructure with the village’s road resurfacing project. The streetlight upgrades include Willets Court, Vanderveer Court, Princeton Road, Oakdale Road and Glenwood Road. This section of the electric improvements will cost $300,000. As part of the village’s street resurfacing project, roads that will be resurfaced include Richmond Road, Hollywood Court, and Argyle Place. The electric infrastructure will cost $950,000.

The athletic field and road resurfacing bonds are paid for with money from the village’s general fund, which comes from real estate taxes.

The engine upgrades are CO2 catalysts, which will reduce CO2 by 70 percent after the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency cited the Electric department for alleged violations dating back to 2009. The upgrades for the four engines will cost $1.6 million.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Phil Andreas, the superintendent of the Electric Department. “There was a change in regulations.”

This upgrade will help electric department generators run longer in times of non-emergency use when energy demand is at its highest, like a summer heat wave. In an emergency, like a blackout, the engines can run indefinitely.

Previously, each engine would have 50 hours of use per year at such a time.

“The best way to describe it is that it gives us a lot more flexibility to meet the needs of customers,” Andreas said.

At the briefing session, Andreas said that the engines would have to be replaced eventually, but it is cheaper to repair old engines than to buy new ones, and the Electric Department thought it was a reasonable accommodation for now.

The athletic field bond will cover a lot of different work around fields in the village.

“It runs the gamut,” Schussheim said of the improvements. They range from seeding fields to upgrading the lights and sprinkler systems. The lights alone cost more than $300,000.

“Right now we do the spec, and then it goes out to bid,” said Harry Weed, the village Superintendent of Public Works. The work on the athletic fields will start this fall when baseball season is over. Weed hopes to have the work done by the spring.

All three projects were ruled to not have a significant impact on the environment.