by Rachel Hunter
Paving is due to occur in the Village of Gouverneur on September 23 and 24, Village of Gouverneur Mayor Ron McDougall at the Village of Gouverneur Board of Trustees Sept. 15 meeting. The first street to be paved will be Grove St.
“Two days will take care of it, right (Village of Gouverneur Department of Public Works Superintendent TJ Simmons)?”
“Oh yes,” Supt. Simmons said.
On Wednesday, Sept. 16 Supt. Simmons issue the following public notice: “The Village of Gouverneur, Department of Public Works, would like to advise our motoring public that on Wednesday, September 23rd, we will be paving Grove Street (From South Gordon Street to Pooler Street). On Thursday, September 24th, we expect to be paving on East Barney Street (From Clinton Street to North Gordon Street). Work will begin at 7:00 am and continue throughout the day. Of course, inclement weather will change this schedule. During these two days, throughout the day these streets may be shut down to thru traffic and only emergency vehicles will be allowed through. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your cooperation.”
Village of Gouverneur Mayor Ron McDougall also at the village board meeting on Tuesday night reported the following: “Jaine Witherell has passed and she now has her full-fledged license. We’re very happy for her. We know it is not easy, and we appreciate somebody going after it. So that means that all three operators are now licensed.”
Supt. Simmons then provided the Village of Gouverneur Board of Trustees a run-down of some of the projects handled by the DPW during the month of August:
“We installed a new manhole on Bellevue St. to gain access to our sewer mains for flushing purposes,” Supt. Simmons said.
“We repaired a hydrant on East Main Street by G&R Auto that got struck by a vehicle over the weekend, and was not reported to the Gouverneur Police Department.
“We picked up Truck 16, which is our 1999 International from Vikings, after the new Proline Box was installed. They did a great job on it. They painted the frame while it was up there and stuff. It looks great.
Several days were spent marking out shutoffs for the GIS program for DANC.
Shared Service: The Village helped the Town to vac out the pump station so they could repair the pumps and floats in one of their stations. We helped the Town with the water break on the West Side, which they had many in the month of August. The Town helped us hot-patch several areas on North Gordon, East Barney, by the high school, Waid Street and John Street. We used 14 tons of blacktop to patch those areas.
“We dug up a sinkhole on East Barney by Clinton Street, and found that the catch basin pipe and basin needed to be rebuilt. We also found that sewer main was broken. We replaced the catch basin, an eight-foot section of sewer main.
“The DPW spent several weeks prepping for paving by rebuilding catch basins, manholes and replacing the boxes that needed to be repaired.”
At the conclusion of the report, Village of Gouverneur Deputy Mayor Charles Newvine asked: “The power plant – of course it is not on there, but it says that the KW produced is just 4,000. That’s kind of low, isn’t it?
Supt. Simmons responded: “It’s the flow of the river… We try to run it. Usually we start just one generator in the morning, and by 10:30, it’s down below the dam. And according to the FERC license, they would like us to maintain a minimum of two inches flowing over the dam during operation. So we haven’t been able to run it.”
Deputy Mayor Newvine then asked: “And you said that new milling machine is working pretty good, huh?”
“Yes, we received our milling machine. I picked it up at LeBerge and Curtis in Canton last Tuesday and it works amazing. Our machine handles it perfectly. It takes so much stress off the guys. We literally can do our own milling around our manholes and stuff. I think it is a great machine. It’s a nice piece of equipment.”
There were no further questions for Supt. Simmons following his report.
The next meeting of the Village of Gouverneur Board of Trustees is to be held on Tuesday, October 20, 6 p.m., in the municipal courtroom.