ELLENVILLE – There are a number of projects that are currently being tackled by the village's engineering firm, Barton & Loguidice. So many, in fact, that Glenn Gidaly and Don Fletcher from B&L took us through each one to give us a quick breakdown about what we can expect to see happening as the months pass.

First up is the new wastewater treatment plant, which is being funded both through a $5.2 million no-interest loan through the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) and a $1.9 million grant through USDA Rural Development — which is a result of the federal government's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly referred to as stimulus funding.

A few weeks ago, news broke that the project was receiving another grant from EFC, this time in the form of roughly $330,000 to pay for 58 pole- and roof-mounted solar panels and other improvements that will "result in the greenest wastewater treatment plant in the Hudson Valley," says Glenn Gidaly.

"We are projecting that 14 percent of the total energy costs will be supplied through the panels," he says. Energy costs will be further reduced by other innovations, too.

"We're looking at taking the effluent that goes to the creek after it's been treated and using that as a supplemental energy source to help heat the buildings, light the buildings," says Fletcher. "Effluent heat recovery is what it's called." Fletcher added that the design will also incorporate other process innovations such as premium-efficient motors (which are composed of materials that generate less heat, thereby needing less energy to cool) and variable frequency drives (which can be adjusted so that they only operate to match demand, cutting back on waste).

The plant's capacity will improve the village's current capacity of 800,000 to 1.1 million gallons a day, allowing for future growth to the municipality, and if needed the capacity can be raised to 1.4 million gallons.

"It's a very interesting project in that we have to build it alongside a plant that's still operating," says Gidaly, who says the plant should be nearly completed in 2010. "That's a very, very small piece of property, so it's going to be quite a challenge."

While the new sewer plant will undoubtedly be a great benefit, it's hardly the kind of selling point that will bring droves of people moving to Ellenville. That's where the forthcoming work to Liberty Square comes in.

The downtown street-scaping project is being funded through a $296,000 grant through Congressman Maurice Hinchey's office, and will involve all new curbs and sidewalks throughout the triangle featuring the Boy with the Boot fountain right off of Canal Street. But that's not all we'll be seeing through this federally funded project.

"We're going to be putting in some historic street lighting that's going to go on Canal going down towards the Shadowland Theatre, and we're investigating both LED lights and/or solar lights," says Gidaly. "And I believe the plan calls for six new light fixtures. And we're also planting some new trees, and some additional garbage pails and some street furniture.

"And lastly, there are six separate crosswalks that are going to be delineated, where, essentially, you cut out the asphalt that's there, and you mix it with a color and you re-lay it onto the street." This project will start its construction phase in 2010.

Two more similar projects that are small in scope are the Beckley Street Bridge rehabilitation and the new sidewalks on Warren Street. Both projects are being funded externally — the bridge project, set to start in 2010, is funded through stimulus money, and Warren Street's sidewalks, for which construction has already started, was funded with a $100,000 Multi-Modal grant through State Senator John Bonacic's office.

"That particular program is designed to promote pedestrian access and pedestrian mobility so people could walk from their residential areas and get into downtown safely," says Gidaly.

Another project Barton & Loguidice is working on is improvements to the village's water system. The Ulster County Department of Health has cited the village, mandating improvements to the system in terms of corrosion control and because one well — a backup, unused well known as Harris 1, located south of Siegel Drive — is being infiltrated by surface water, known as Ground Water Under the Direct Influence, or GWUDI (pronounced 'gweedee'). This means that the village must now filter the well as though it were a surface-water well. In addition, the water system also needs some pressure improvements because of inadequate fire flow capabilities in some areas. Currently, the project's in the evaluation stage.

"We're going to finish the evaluation, we're going to update a report that we did approximately two years ago, and we're doing an evaluation of the water treatment plant with the evaluation we previously did, and we're going to submit grant applications looking for funding," says Fletcher. "With the intent to have a funding commitment by the end of the winter so we can be designing it in 2010, and what I'd like to see is construction in 2011."

"I think we have a very good chance of attracting significant grant money because of being cited by the health department for the deficiency," adds Gidaly. "You get extra points in ranking and rating if you get a DEC consent order on a sewer plant or a health department schedule to get things done, so that's going to help us in getting points."