Water Treatment Plant Upgrade and Expansion

For more than ten years, the Town of Essex has sought cleaner water for its residents. The Town of Essex is under a consent order by the New York State Health Department and the EPA to substantially upgrade our water treatment facilities and operations, with a project cost of almost $3 million including various actions to date. The Department of Health has recently given the Town of Essex the “green light” to proceed with our planned upgrades which will see a demolition of the current Water Treatment Plant at Beggs Park and the construction of a brand new facility. This construction is slated to begin late summer/early fall. As we learn more about the project and its timeline, we will post PDFs and additional information here to allow for maximum transparency. Please contact Supervisor Ken Hughes if you have any questions related to the project.

February 23, 2024 - Divers from Seaway Diving & Salvage Company returned for an unanticipated second day of work to remove the previous gate and check valves from the manhole and to install the new one. Removal of the old infrastructure proved to be an all day job yesterday. Despite the challenges, they were successful in their efforts.

February 9, 2024 - Work on the site has stalled briefly as contractors, engineers and town officials worked hard to determine best ways to divert raw water given our high lake water/ground water challenges. At the Town Council meeting last night, the Town Council approved a bid by Seaway Diving & Salvage Company to provide diving services to replace an 8” gate valve and a 8” check valve that feeds the current water treatment plant. This company will provide the necessary repairs and install the necessary materials so that not only raw water diversion can take place, but our Water Operator can control the flow of water from the lake as needed and as required.

Once the divers complete their work (hopefully within the next two weeks, then VMJR can continue their work of water diversion to the water treatment trailer. This will allow our temporary filtration to begin, providing you potable water while the current plan is decommissioned and demolished.

January 12, 2024 - The following quarterly update on what we have done as it relates to this project: The general contractor (VMJR) has mobilized at the project site and has been working towards completing the temporary treatment items prior to commencing work on the demolition and plant upgrades.  They have completed the distribution line tie in where the temporary treatment plant will discharge into the municipal system.  They have also ran the water main from behind the temporary treatment trailer, that is located at the project site, installed the temporary larger diameter PVC chlorine contact time piping, and associated valving and main work to the discharge point as previously described.  They have excavated the area to work on the raw water tie in, but ran into trouble with all the recent rainfall/snowmelt and lake levels significantly rising. VMJR is working on a dewatering plan to ensure the area can be dewatered prior to completing the proposed tie in.  VMJR has also begun building the temporary pump station housing, although cannot install until the temporary raw water connection is completed. The electrical contractor (Triangle Electric) is also working towards finalizing the temporary treatment electrical service items.  The temporary power has recently been activated by the utility.

January 8, 2023 - Perimeter fencing was installed today to provide security and safety to the general public. This fencing will remain installed until the water project has completed.

December 21, 2023 - The first of monthly meetings with the General Contractor (VMJR) took place today. Construction and excavation efforts have been paused due to significant ground water/water table challenges that make diverting raw water away from our current plant to our new temporary treatment trailer. Recent rains and unseasonably warm temperatures have caused for flooding in the excavated area where the tie in is to take place. Without a dry area to work in, tying in is impossible. The Town is considering a plan to engage large pumps to divert water away, but high lake levels in the immediate area coupled with crashing waves make any pumping solution a non starter.
UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, BEGGS PARK IS CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC. Energized above-ground electrical conduit, open and active excavation pits and ongoing construction efforts force the Town to make this decision for the foreseeable future. Fencing will be erected in the near future to reinforce this request and to protect the general public and their pets.

• November 1, 2023 - Progress to get the project started has been slow, but steady. Materials are being procured and stored at our Wastewater Treatment Plant. Our Project Superintendent has been on site daily working to prepare the site for digging and excavating. Silt fences have been installed and temporary underground utility work is expected to begin shortly. The Water Operator continues to prime the raw water pump daily with assistance from various Town staff to ensure water from the lake enters into our system

• October 10, 2023 - Town of Essex officials will meet with the VMJR Project Manager as well as their newly hired Superintendent for this project. This week, VMJR plans to get acclimated with the site, go over logistics and discuss potential issues as they onboard the new Superintendent. Material will begin to flow to the site while working with site subcontractor coordination.

• October 6, 2023 - We were informed on October 3 that General Contractor VMJR has found a Superintendent for oversee this project and he is slated to start on site Tuesday, October 10. This means that mobilization will begin in earnest and work will begin on temporary water bypass to our treatment trailer.

• September 1, 2023 - We received word today that NYSEFC has reviewed and accepted our MWBE Utilization Plan and Partial waiver request for the Essex Water Project # 17629 for our General Contractor. All four of our contractors have now been reviewed and accepted by NYSEFC, which means that our project can begin to proceed. Please stay tuned to this webpage for complete details on what we learn and how it will impact Beggs Park and drinking water in the future.

• July 7, 2023 - Final funding approvals are now taking place through our four contractors and New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation. Once these are finalized between those entities, then funding holds can be released and work can begin. Our engineer and Essex County Community Planning continue to advocate on our behalf with these entities to move the process along. Beggs Park remains open for the foreseeable future.

• May 16, 2023 - Notice to Proceed documentation for the four contractors has been signed and delivered to our engineer.

• May 2, 2023 - Detailing for our temporary water treatment trailer is complete! This trailer, upon its conclusion of use for us in Essex will become the property of NYS Rural Water Association and will travel the state providing temporary water treatment to municipalities in need.

• April 13, 2023 - Triangle Electric has begun their work to lay temporary electrical conduit from the utility pole to the area where the new water treatment plant will be located.

• April 7, 2023 - Representatives from the Town, the Engineer and the four contracting agencies met today to review the scope and schedule of this project. A draft construction timeline has been developed, subject to change. Of particular note from this conversation that will affect neighbors and the general public are the following:

  • During the project, contractors will most likely begin assembling between 6 and 7am Mondays through Fridays with work to officially begin around 7am. Deployment this early will mean that noise will be generated at these hours of the day. This is an unavoidable aspect of the project and we apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

  • For liability and overall safety concerns, as well as for space and storage needs of the contractors, the entirety of Beggs Park on either side of the access road is expected to be closed off to the general public, including access to the dock and the lake as well as the parking area near the playground. This anticipated closure is regrettable and Town officials are working to identify an alternate location to access the lake for leisure and recreation.

• March 29, 2023 - The pre-construction meeting with contractors, engineers and local officials will take place on April 7, 2023 @ 11am at Essex Town Hall.

• March 4, 2023 - Late last week, representatives from Cedarwood Engineering came to Essex to give Town authorities the final sign off on contracts for General Contractor and HVAC. As of this writing, all contracts have been signed by the Town and we are now awaiting final authorization from the contractor before a pre-construction meeting can be held, which we expect to be in the coming weeks.

• January 13, 2023 - An update from Cedarwood Engineering on where we currently stand with the project.

• November 30, 2022 - An update overview on where we stand with this project as of today (Status of Construction Contracts)

  • Electrical Contract (Triangle Electric): Agreement & Change Order 1 Executed

  • General Contract (VMJR): Agreement will be executed shortly.  The Town completed the resolution to award the change order costs for this contract.

  • 2022 Rebid Contracts

    • Plumbing Contract (Pipeline Mechanical): Resolution of Award completed.

    • HVAC Contract (Hyde-Stone): Resolution of Award completed.

  • Both the 2022 plumbing and HVAC contracts will be executed after the contractor provides bonding and insurance for review.  We are also requesting schedules from all contractors so we can compile and form an overall schedule for construction.  At this time, we are anticipating a spring start date.

• November 18, 2022 - At their November 10th meeting, the Town Council approved a change proposal of +$445,719.00 for VMJR, the project’s General Contractor. Their total contract is now $1,527,719.00. Other original bids from Fall 2020, for comparison were $1,620,720 and $2,071,920.

• November 16, 2022 - The Town Council officially awarded the Plumbing and HVAC bids from the 9/27/22 bid opening at their 11/10/22 meeting to the two apparent low bidders listed below.

• September 27, 2022 - At a Special Meeting of the Town Council held today, sealed bids were opened for the Plumbing and HVAC contracts for our Water Treatment Plant. The apparent low bidders are:

  • Pipeline Mechanical - $255,000 including a 5% bid bond

  • Hyde-Stone Mechanical Contractors - $28,800 including a 5% bid bond

• September 20, 2022 - On September 16, the Town Supervisor received the go-ahead to sign the contract and change order for Triangle Electric. We are now awaiting updated pricing from VMJR before we move forward with formally signing their contract.

• September 7, 2022 - The Town held their pre-bid meetinng today for Plumbing and HVAC. Details on the meeting can be found here.

• September 2, 2022 - The Town is in process of rebidding the Plumbing and HVAC contracts for this project. The pre-bid meeting for these contracts will be held at 10am on Wednesday, September 7, 2022 at Essex Town Hall.

• August 19, 2022 - The temporary treatment trailer is well underway and nearly completed. We are thrilled with its progress. Morris Coolidge, our NYRWA consultant has done a great job putting it all together. We look forward to getting this project underway in (hopefully) the coming months.

• August 19, 2022 - We have learned that Collett Mechanical has pulled out of our project as the Plumbing/HVAC contractor. We will work with our engineer and Essex County to re-advertise for this very important part of our project.

• April 20, 2022 - The Town of Essex was notified that they have been awarded a WIIA grant in the amount of $1,053,229 to help offset costs related to our Water Treatment Plant Upgrade.

• March 11, 2022 - In an effort to reduce overall costs of the project, the Town of Essex, in conjunction with NYS DOH, NY Rural Water Association and Cedarwood Engineering has approved a plan to design and build our own temporary treatment trailer at a cost not to exceed $50,000. This effort is being made to create an alternative option to the temporary treatment plant that was previously created and bid out on in the original bid. Those costs for a temporary treatment plant were significantly higher than the $50k that we are looking at spending now to achieve the same result. Stay tuned as developments unfold.

• March 11, 2022 - Costs have risen based on inflation and supply chain shortages, which are all subject to review by our engineer. Those costs increases are reflected below:

  • VMJR - +307,882.00

  • Triangle Electric - +46,910.00

  • Collett Mechanical (HVAC) - +48,375.00

  • Collectt Mechanical (Plumbing) - +298,780.00

• December 17, 2021 - NYS EFC has given us the okay to proceed after questions arose related to Change Orders that were submitted on the project prior to the start of the project. Our engineer will now be working with contractors to schedule next steps in the process so that we can hopefully begin construction in the coming months.

• October 14, 2021 - The Essex Town Council held a public hearing to consider a $1 million increase to the $3 million dollar bond that we currently hold. The Town Council decided to table the approval of this bond increase pending legal review as it pertains to the treatment of the change orders that we have received from two of the three contractors.

• March 18, 2021 - The Essex Town Council formally approves the apparent low bidders, as listed below as the contractors for the project. You can get further details on those resolutions, once they are published, by clicking here.

• October 8, 2020 @ 6pm - The Essex Town Council conducted a Special Meeting for the purpose of opening qualified sealed bids.
  The following companies are the apparent low bidders:

  • General Contract - VMJR Companies @ $1,075,000.00

  • Electrical Contract - Triangle Electric @ $248,300.00

  • Plumbing Contract - Collett Mechanical @ $230,321.00

  • HVAC Contract - Collett Mechanical @ $37,605.00

• September 14, 2020 @ 3:35pm - Updated Timeline for Water Treatment Plant Bidding/Awarding (PDF)

• June 17, 2020 - Essex County Bids/RFP website which provides drawings and addendum information.

• June 15, 2020 @ 10am - The pre-bid meeting for interested contractors will take place at the Essex Fire Department, 2659 Route 22, Essex.

• May 28, 2020 @ 6:30pm - The Essex Town Council will hold a Public Hearing (location Essex Fire Department, 2659 Route 22, Essex) for the purpose of soliciting feedback relative to the proposed increase and improvements of the facilities of Water District #1 in the Town of Essex. (View Resolution) The general public is invited to attend. Water District residents are encouraged to attend as this project directly affects them. If you are unable to attend, the meeting will be live streamed.

  • The Town Council will hold an Emergency Meeting immediately after the Public Hearing which affords them the opportunity to motion and consider for approval legal resolutions to allow the project to move forward.

• May 27, 2020 (Please note that the latest project costs are not reflected within the reports below. For latest project costs, click here)

  • The report entitled "17-011 Essex Combined Pilot Report" is the report summarizing the results of the pilot study for Department of Health approval.

  • The "DOH Basis of Design Report_Jan 2018" was completed to obtain conceptual approval of the project to commence the pilot study.

• May 21, 2020 - Project Manual Bidding Set and Combined Drawings

• May 18, 2020 - Notice to Bidders (PDF)

• May 14, 2020 - The Town Council will hold their regular monthly meeting. At this meeting, they will schedule a Public Hearing within 10-20 days of their meeting date so that they may adopt the Bond Resolution, the Estoppel Notice and the Public Interest Order.