Adam Brodsky
Deputy Town Supervisor

As of October 5th , the new water system is 95% complete with the final step being to tie-in the water main into the individual properties. We hope within two weeks to remove the temporary water system and free up pedestrian access throughout the Hamlet. We then will move onto the new sewer system installation. Boswell Engineering will be attending our meeting on Tuesday, 10/10 to discuss progress.

In addition to update the Community on some of the financial aspects of the Project, we are planning on utilizing a portion of the tree bank fund which was set up to be used for public projects which currently has a balance of $238,454. We will use these funds to install over Seventy-five new trees and shrubs Downtown. The streetscape plan is ideally suited for the application of the tree bank funds. Using these funds will help us to offset some of the project costs associated with the new Streetscape.

Now onto my meeting this week regarding the double utility poles throughout the Town. I facilitated the follow-up meeting on the progress of the removal of double utility poles within New Castle. Representatives of Con Ed, Verizon, Altice ( formerly Cablevision), and the Town ( Administration, Police, DPW, Engineering) were all present. I received an update from Tom McArdle of Verizon who reported to the twenty people in attendance that 100 double poles and specifically designated problem single poles had been removed year to date within Town; 47 of them removed in July and August of this year. He further stated that although New Castle only had 150 double utility poles listed on the NJNS list for tracking such poles, he knew the number was far greater. As it stands now, the Town had identified approximately 400 in our Town and Verizon acknowledged that at least 238 were now formally cataloged in the NJNS lists for action. This number did not include the 100 poles that were already removed this year. The NJNS list is a list of double poles the NYS Public Service Commission requires the utilities to maintain and has a deadline for action ( which unfortunately is ignored without sanction).

Verizon assured us that they were committed to removing all of the double utility poles in Town and will be providing us with a updated list of those poles that have been removed. It is our intention to update the complete list of double poles to reflect the poles that have been removed and those that still need action by the utilities. We will post that updated list as soon as we receive the information and will keep the public posted on the progress of these removals.