Work will begin next week on a village-wide project in one Schuyler County village to replace its water system. Odessa Mayor Gerry Messmer recently took to the village’s Facebook page to update residents on the project. You can read his post below:
“Residents will see orange cones going up, equipment and piping coming in and being staged around the Village.
“The on-the-ground supervisor will determine which streets get done and in what order. What determines this is the placement of valves and length between valves and the flow of water from the well so we don’t contaminate the new lines. After the pipeline is laid, they must pressure test and sanitize the line before any services can be connected to homes. The most efficient way to pressure test is in 1000-foot sections, valve to valve.
“As each section passes the pressure test, homes will be hooked up immediately with new PEX lines right into your home. The contractor will connect it for you, nothing for you to do but allow them into the basement. Vacri WILL restore all lawns, sidewalks and road sections that are disturbed by the work. It is part of the contract, so don’t worry, you will be taken care of.
“They are starting at the well on the corner of Merchant and Speedway because they want all water entering the new lines to be clean water from the well without sediment in it. This will ensure the current sediment does NOT get into the new lines. They will do Speedway at the same time with another crew. Vacri has a second crew available for a short period of time and will take advantage of it to lay as much waterline as possible.
“We estimate hooking up homes with new services to start in mid-April. By the time all the main lines are in, every home on a new line WILL be hooked up this spring and summer.
“Next is Main Street. This MUST be done next so that the DOT contract to fix our sidewalks can stay on the DOT schedule. That is NOT an Odessa project, but we MUST coordinate our water project with DOT. Fortunately, Vacri is doing both projects so it will go much smoother.
“After Merchant, Main and Speedway are complete they will move on to the other streets in segments that are efficient for the process as determined by the Supervisor for Vacri. These three lines are the main lines that everything trunks off of, it only makes perfect common sense to start with these main lines, and then connect the other lines in between them.
“If your street is not getting a new line, please do not panic. It simply means your line is a new line that does not need to be replaced and is NOT A PART OF THE PROBLEM.
“As the project progresses we will put updates on here to let you know what street is next in the process.
