“Let’s hope we get it,” is the way Maybrook Mayor Dennis Leahy described a village request for a $690,000 state grant to replace the 90-plus year old water tower on Prospect Avenue.

Maybrook applied this week for a NYS Environmental Facilities Corp. (EFC) Water Infrastructure Improvement Act (WIIA) grant to replace its existing water storage tank. The grant would only finance up to $690,000 of the estimated cost of $1.15 million. The village would fund the remaining $460,000 through issuance of long-term bonds that water district taxpayers would pay over an estimated 40 years.

The grant application requires that adequate funding already be in place. So the village board met in special session last week to approve a $1.15 million bond resolution, noting in the bond resolution that “it is anticipated that grant funds…may be available to pay all or a part of the cost”.

Village Engineer Sean Hoffman explained that, in order to apply for the grant, the village has to show it can pay for the entire project and the village “does not have the fund balance to pay for this,” thus the need for the bond resolution although it is anticipated that the grant, if approved, will pay for 60 percent.

In addition, Hoffman said, because the grant application deadline was fast approaching, Maybrook Public Works Chief Matthew Thorp drew up an estimated project cost. “It may come in less,” Hoffman said.

At the special session, the bond resolution passed unanimously.

At a prior regular village board meeting, Thorp had said a new water tower would double the tank’s capacity to 500,000 gallons. The old tank would be torn down, with that cost included in the $1.15 million estimated cost. He also said the cost to re-paint the current tank would be about the same as erecting a new one, especially given issues during past repainting with blasting off the original lead paint. Hoffman added that the current tank, erected in 1931, “has outlived its usefulness”.

“This is our number one priority now,” Leahy said. “You can’t put bandaids on things.”

Board members agreed with Leahy. “At the end of the day,” Trustee Daryl Capozzoli said, “you can’t but a bandaid on a 91 year-old tank.”

“This is a no-brainer,” Trustee Kevin Greany added.

Hoffman estimated that the State will probably announce grant awards by late fall/early winter. The project will then take six to nine months to design and another estimated nine months to completion.

Leahy said the availability of this grant was first brought to the village’s attention by the grant writing firm of Millennium Strategies Inc., the Town of Montgomery grant consultant who also works with the town’s three villages. Millenium is also working with Maybrook on its application for a NYS Empire State Development New York Forward grant. The village has submitted a letter of intent (LOI) for the grant and will hold a public hearing on this grant proposal 7 p.m., Mon., Sept. 12. Hoffman said the grant would assist with revitalizing downtowns in smaller communities like Maybrook.

“The village already adopted the Traditional Downtown Design District intended to encourage redevelopment in the area surrounding Main Street,” Hoffman noted. “This funding is intended to build upon those earlier efforts.”

Also in the works for Maybrook is its LOI to the NYS Empire State Development for funding under its Restore NY program. Hoffman said the grant would provide financial assistance “for revitalization of commercial and residential properties for community development and neighborhood growth”. The full grant application is due Oct. 9.