The town of Clymer will be holding an informational meeting for the public about the planned water system upgrade project in May. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

CLYMER — As the town of Clymer continues work to do a large-scale upgrade on the overall water system, the town board is planning to hold an informational meeting to let the town know about everything that is going on and why.

During the March meeting, Town Supervisor Brian Willink said a day for this meeting has been set for Tuesday, May 13, at 6 p.m. in the Clymer Highway Building, 8026 Route 474. Representatives from Square Engineering, the water project engineers, will also be there.

“The bad thing is, as we mentioned in the minutes, we were hoping to be able to do bids tonight,” Willink said. “The plans have all been submitted to the New York State Department of Health in Albany, but because of working from home they sat on somebody’s desk for a month. So, the whole project basically got bumped back and so now they’ve at least got them picked up off of the desk and delivered to one correct person.”

Willink added that the engineers have been putting pressure on the department to get things moving, but there are no updates on project costs, bid times, or anything else like that, with them currently just waiting on approval from the state before being able to go any further.

As far as the meeting in May goes, Willink said they will talk about things such as the history of the system, why they are doing what they are doing, the amount of money or estimated costs, old versus new piping and hydrants, the new meter system and the costs of wells versus being on the town’s water system.

Willink mentioned the village of Mayville’s water rates which have recently been in the news, saying that the town of Clymer is on the lower end of the regional scale, though he added that they have been fortunate that the system has worked so well for so long, having been put in in 1967.

As of right now though, everything waits on the state for any part of this water project to move forward.

“They’re waiting on the state to approve the plans and then they can start putting the bidding packages together,” Willink said. “They said they’re going to put it in like six different sections so that everybody bids and we can keep it on budget. That’s still the plan.”

The town has also received some easements that are needed to be signed by around 50 property owners, and will be distributing them soon. The informational meeting will end directly at 7:30 p.m. in May, in order for the town to be able to move on and hold their normal town board meeting that night as well.