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The Town of Lansing is moving forward with a $2,006,500 water tank and pump station project that will improve water pressure in the central part of the Town including the Whispering Pines and Warren Road neighborhoods.  Town Engineer David Herrick says the Bone Plain Pressure Zone project is the largest engineering project on the Town's docket at the moment.  The two-phased project includes a new water tank to be constructed in Dryden, just over the town line on Bone Plain Road, plus a pump station near the existing tank on Village Circle.  Herrick says the new facilities should be online by the Fall of 2015.

"I would hope this project will be complete by early Fall or the end of Fall of next year," he told the Town Board last week .  "All portions should go out for bid -- the tank and the water main from Farrell Road to the tank.  It is my understand that the Highway Department will be interested and available to do some of those little interconnections between existing systems in the Village Circle area and along Warren Road.  But the larger part of the project including the major extension on Farrell, Schofield, Bone Plain and the tank would be a public works project."

For over a decade the Town has had water pressure and supply problems in central Lansing.  The Tompkins County Health Department demanded system upgrades.  Plans for a tank on Bone Plain Road have been in development for several years, beginning with Scott Pinney's administration.  Bean Hill Lane, Forest Acres Drive, Hillcrest Road, Grandview Drive, Placid Terrace, Pheasant Way, Whispering Pines Drive, Arrowood Lane, Village Circle Place, Village Circle North, Village Circle South, Warren Road, Springbrook Circle, and Farrell Road,most of the Woodland Park PDA and the Village Solars project will be directly benefited, and officials say the improvements benefit the whole of Lansing's Consolidated Water District (CWD).


The project includes a new pump station near the existing Village Circle Tank and the construction of a transmission main extension to a new Bone Plain Road Water Tank.  That will include 8,300’ of 12” pipe, with valves and hydrants, running to Bone Plain Road, 1,440’ of 12” main for a low pressure transmission main to allow switching over the existing parallel 10” distribution main to the new higher pressure zone, and 620’ of 12” main to connect mains on Village Circle North and Springbrook Circle.  

Herrick said that a lot of progress has been made in the planning of the project.  The current focus is getting easements along the water main routes and doing soil borings to understand the bedrock along the new mains. 

An easement on NYSEG's system on Dutch Mill Road is in progress.  Ten landowners will also need to grant easements.  Two, including NYSEG, are in Dryden, with the rest in Lansing.  The majority of those are already part of the Consolidated Water District.  The town is in the midst of purchasing a 1.5 acre triangular-shaped corner of land just over the Lansing-Dryden line that will house the new tank, which Herrick says will be located as far from the road as physically possible.

"A driveway will be rather nondescript," he said.  "We'll try to leave as much of the vegetation between the road and the far backside of the parcel as we can.  The water main and the drive will run pretty much parallel to the edge of the NYSEG property line.  We know there is some urgency in getting things wrapped up for the purchase of the parcel on Bone Plain.  We've got a subdivision map that's going to be needed on file with the Town of Dryden finalized."

Town Attorney Guy Krogh told the board that getting approval in Dryden will be easier than usual because it is a municipal project.

"Dryden had communicated that it will not need a Planning Board review," he said.  "It will be done in-office, because that's how their minor subdivisions are set up.  Plus you have a governmental immunity question there.  Certain governmental functions aren't subject to site plan review and things like that.  I think it will go smoothly."

He added that bids can go out sooner than anticipated.

Town officials say the project will not result in a tax increase, but surcharges will slightly increase.  A water surcharge of $0.05 per 1,000 gallons is proposed to cover part of ongoing Operation & Maintenance (O&M) expenses.  The O&M surcharge for the new pressure zone infrastructure will increase from $0.57 to $0.62 for the CWD, and from $1.02 to $1.07 for CWD Extensions #1 and #2.  Officials estimate that the minimum quarterly water bill for a single-family residence in 2014 will be $47.00, and $51.50 for Extensions #1 and #2.

Herrick also reported improvements will be needed in the Burdick Hill pump station, which contains three pumps that have been 'upsized' incrementally as the Town's water needs have increased.  Water is pumped from the Bolton Point station to the Burdick Hill tanks, from which it is routed to water tanks throughout the Water commission's boundaries.  Herrick said that the pump station has been running constantly for the past decade, and an upgrade will allow the pumps to run intermittently.  He said the upgrade makes sense for next year, especially because of the new Burdick Hill and Bone Plain tanks.

Water district projects are paid for by properties within the district, not by general town taxes.

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