GLENVILLE — Plans to extend town water service into the Glenville Business and Technology Park in the works for the past decade are finally moving forward, as officials continue to eye larger infrastructure upgrades still in development.
The town this week was awarded a $273,788 federal grant to expand water service into the industrial park, a move that will benefit existing businesses and help attract new ones, according to Supervisor Chris Koetzle.
“This is directly linked to new jobs in the town,” he said.
Koetzle said a portion of the industrial park is currently hooked up to the village of Scotia’s water system, which lacks adequate pressure to meet manufacturers’ needs and creates safety concerns around fire suppression.
Town water, he added, also comes at a cheaper rate compared to the village, which will help drive down costs for businesses and bring in new revenue for the town, which will benefit residents hooked up to the system by reducing rates.
The $1.7 million project, which will extend town water into the entire business park, has already gone through engineering and could break ground as early as next spring, according to Koetzle, who noted talks around businesses and the Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority contributing funds towards are ongoing.
Ray Gillen, Metroplex chairman, in an email said the agency covered the survey cost for the new waterline and has recently committed another $5,000 to complete a secondary survey.
He added that Metroplex also paid $57,000 to bring water service to the 100,000-square-foot BelGioiso Cheese factory that opened in the park in 2020, splitting the cost with the company.
“Metroplex has been working with the town and the Galesi Group to attract new employers to the business park and this requires upgrades to the water lines so we are very appreciative of this funding support,” Gillen said.
The Glenville Business and Technology Park has seen an increase in activity over the last decade, with several large businesses opening and others in the early stages of development.
Koetzle estimated that the industrial park has created at least 1,000 jobs in town over the last decade, and noted the park’s continued expansion will be a benefit to all residents.
A number of large employers have set up shop in the industrial park in recent years, including the telecommunications service firm CTDI and Old Dominion Freight Line. BelGioioso, earlier this year, invested an additional $6 million to retrofit a former Navy Depot building into a cold-storage warehouse.
In June the Galesi Group, which owns much of the park, announced plans to construct an 85,000-square-foot warehouse in the park. The company has constructed three buildings in the park in the last five years, including two for the Capital District Transportation Authority and one for Adirondack Beverages.
“It’s been a huge economic driver for the town,” Koetzle said.
He added that extending water service into the industrial park is the first in a series of upgrades the town is looking at to improve and extend water service.
The town is in the process of trying to secure funding to upgrade its aging water plant and to extend water service to approximately 700 and 900 households not hooked up to the system.
Koetzle said the town has submitted an application for a $22 million state grant to help pay for the costs, and is looking into a variety of funding options to move the project — still in the early planning stages — forward, including using capital reserves, grants, federal coronavirus-relief funds and possibly bonding.
“We’re not there yet,” he said. “Getting this grant was really the first domino and now it really kind of opens up the possibilities and we’ll be sitting down and discussing that in the coming weeks.”
Contact reporter Chad Arnold at: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @ChadGArnold.
Categories: -News-, News, Schenectady County, Scotia Glenville
