COBLESKILL — Now that the Schoharie County fair is over, a Carver Construction crew was gearing up Monday to complete the approximately $1 million worth of paving, sidewalk and water main work along MacArthur Avenue and several side streets.

The long-planned project between state Route 7 near the state college and South Grand Street near the fairgrounds “should be substantially complete by Sept. 1,” said Jim Gillespie, project manager with Lamont Engineers.

Final completion, including grass planting and other restoration work, is scheduled for Oct. 1.

“It’s on schedule and on budget,” Gillespie reported to the Village Board last week.

The area is part of the route for the annual FAM Funds 5-kilometer run/walk to benefit area charities; paving is expected to be done in time for the Sept. 27 event, Gillespie said.

A crew was working on connections to a new water main Monday, Gillespie said.

Altamont-based Carver Construction, the general contractor on the $1.05 million project, “has bumped it up to a 10 hours a day” to get the work finished, he said.

Water service has continued to area homes and businesses as new lines were installed, he said.

Lamont Engineers of Cobleskill was hired by the Village Board in June 2007 for $84,915 in design services for the current project.

In addition to MacArthur Avenue, work is also being done along Florence, Grove and Everett streets and Mallard Lane.

Although the pavement has been torn up and limited to local traffic for several weeks while water pipes and storm drains were installed, work was mostly halted during last week’s fair to avoid traffic conflicts, Gillespie said.

Because of a low underpass on South Grand Street, some large trucks headed to the fair have typically used MacArthur Avenue, according to Gillespie. This year, however, most fair-bound equipment appeared to come from the other direction, via Mineral Springs Road, he said.

The MacArthur Avenue route also is a path for trucks from Mill Services, a wood-finishing factory.

The long-planned project had originally been expected to be mostly funded by state or federal money to upgrade sewers and water mains, because of demand from the former Guilford Mills lace-knitting factory near the fairgrounds.

“When Guilford closed [in 2001], the funding went away too,” Gillespie said.

The MacArthur Avenue route, which bypasses the western end of the village and avoids a narrow railroad overpass bridge on West Main Street, was also an alternate route to the still-closed former Guilford Mills site.

After plans were divided into separate projects, with some outside grants and loans, sanitary sewers were replaced in 2003 and 2004, then storm drainage in 2005, he said.

The earlier projects cost about $400,000, according to Village Clerk/Treasurer Sheila Hay-Gillespie.

About $85,000 of that came from the Appalachian Regional Commission. A $216,500 38-year loan came from the Rural Development section of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with the remaining $98,550 from the village sewer reserve fund, according to Hay-Gillespie.

The current MacArthur Avenue area project is being financed by village loans.