By MIKE BARATTA – As many of you know, we have many projects in the works right now thanks to our Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant we received from New York State. These village owned projects are finally coming to life, I will outline each village project below with a status, and expected schedule.
Southside Lighting – This project will re-energize the streetlights on the south side of the Court St bridge, down to the on ramps each way for route 17. This project has completed design and is currently getting DOT permits, and is being bid out to prospective contractors for spring construction.
Parking Lots – This project will re-pave all village parking lots, and better lay them out with more obvious signage for easy identification. These include the lot behind the movie theater, the Court St lot, the county lot behind CVS, and the Hyde Lot. This project also includes an infrastructure improvement in the Court St. lot to replace a sewer line running behind Lake St. This project has completed design and is being bid out to prospective contractors spring construction.
Marvin Park – This project will completely re-build the bathroom facilities, re-surface the existing basketball and tennis court, Repair the pillars at the entrance, add signage, Replace the fencing along Main St. Improve the walking trail, add to the existing playground and resurface the play area to new standards, and completely rebuild the skate park with a “cast in place” concrete design. This project has completed design and is being bid out to prospective contractors for spring construction.
Central Fire Station – This project will put a new roof on our historic fire station as well as restore the historic clock tower. This project is in detailed design now, and is scheduled to be bid to contractors this spring for summer construction.
Water Front Project – This project includes improvements to the river walk for easier maintaince, improvements to draper park to add a preforming area and kayak dock, and improvements to the nature trails along the Owego Creek. This project is in detailed design and is scheduled to be bid to contractors this spring for summer construction.
North Ave Art Park – This project turns the vacant “pit” next to Fire Station number 2, across from the Community Shop into a new village park focused on the arts. This project is in design, and is scheduled to be bid out to contractors late spring.
This update is just for the projects of the DRI that the Village of Owego is responsible for managing, there are many other projects that were awarded to private business or other organizations that are also progressing in design or construction. As you can see we have a lot of dust to look forward to this coming summer, but this all means a better village for everyone who lives, works and enjoys spending their time here in Owego.
We as a Village Board are committed to working hard to keep our projects moving forward in a transparent way, and on budget. These projects are 100% funded by NY State with no local match and are not costing taxpayers any extra tax revenue.
Our Village new village hall at 22 Elm St. has officially hit its one-year anniversary. This new building is the product of a grant received after the 2011 flood from the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery and came in under budget. The building has provided a great space for our offices and board room.
Our DPW staff continues to work hard around the village, we have recently been trimming trees and getting ready for a great spring and summer with the lack of snow plowing this year it has helped us get ahead of a few tasks.
Owego EMS is currently in the process of re-furbishing two of our ambulances, the process takes the existing back end off our ambulance and re-furbishes it to new conditions and then attaches it to a brand new truck frame. This is being done with funds generated by the EMS service. As always we would like to thank all of our volunteers that provide great service to our residents.
Owego Fire department in the last year took delivery of a brand new fire truck, replacing our oldest truck. We would also like to thank all of our fire volunteers for the great service they provide to our residents.
As always our board meetings, and any work sessions are available live in person at 22 Elm St., or online via Go To Meeting software, and we also record and post them to YouTube, just search Village of Owego to find our channel.
