The Skaneateles Village Board voted to award the bid for its East Street water system improvement project, at its Feb. 27 meeting.

The bid was awarded to Elbridge-based Highlander Construction for $232,750. They were the lowest bid out of 14 applicants, Village Mayor Marty Hubbard said.

The work is the first of three phases of water system improvements the village is planning to improve water pressure, particularly for firefighting purposes, originally proposed by GHD engineers to the village last year. This phase will take place this spring with a planned completion date of June 1.

Getting this project completed will provide an immediate improvement in pressure to fire hydrants on the east side of the village. Skaneateles Fire Department Chief Eric Sell thanked Hubbard at the meeting for getting the project under way.

“This is our most important link and we didn’t want to monkey around,” Hubbard said.

This project involves replacing the 8 inch water main with a 12 inch line underneath East Street from the water tower south to Onondaga Street. The 8 inch main will be left in place while the new one is installed, meaning local residences will never an experience a loss of pressure during the work, Director of Municipal Operation Bob Lotkowictz said.

To minimize impact on school buses and emergency vehicles, the bulk of the work will be done during the week of April 14, when Skaneateles schools will be on break. The project will likely involve one lane of the road being closed, though the village still plans to meet with the contractor, town and school district officials to discuss logistics, Lotkowitz said.

The project will not increase water pressure to homes on the east side of the village, however it will increase the capacity of the system to handle increased demand, such as is the case with firefighting, Lotkowitctz said.

Trustee Marc Angelillo thanked Lotkowictz for his engineering work on the project. By not having to hire an outside firm for engineering, he saved the village tens of thousands of dollars, he said.

The board also discussed sending out a notice to East Street residents to notify them about the work.

In other business:

–The village received a letter form the New York State Department of Transportation stating that it will be adding a no parking zone to the west side of Route 41, 50 feet south from its intersection with Route 20.

Joe Genco is the editor of the Skaneateles Press. He can be reached at [email protected].