The Town of Sweden has received a $4,327,000 funding commitment from Rural Opportunities to expand public water on Lake Road South to the Bergen Town Line; Redman Road between Fourth Section Road and White Road; and Countryview Terrace. It will be the largest infrastructure project in the town’s history and the first public water line expansion since 2010.
In April of 2018, the town filed an Income Survey with Rural Development to prove that the town met income qualifications for funding assistance. After consulting with RD representatives and the Town Engineer, the Lake/Redman/Countryview project was selected as the first project to pursue.
Therein followed several months of engineering, environmental reports and a refined income survey specific to the project. The federal government shutdown in December 2018 slowed down the process for a month, but in January 2019, Sweden Supervisor Kevin Johnson received permission from Rural Development to begin the application process. It had taken 10 months of concentrated effort to receive permission to apply.
The Lake/Redman/Countryview funding application was filed on May 10, 2019. In July, the Rural Development engineer requested well water sampling from the proposed district. The town engaged a laboratory to conduct the four required tests on a dozen samples in a very short time frame.
On September 6, 2019 Supervisor Johnson was asked to drive to the Canandaigua office of Rural Development to accept a preliminary funding offer. The final funding notification arrived on September 23, 2019.
The town has a lengthy list of tasks to complete at this next stage. Johnson plans to call a public information meeting regarding the project late in 2019. Property owners in the district will learn much more detailed information about the project and will be asked to sign a petition agreeing to the district formation. For additional information about the project in the meantime, contact the Supervisor’s office at 637-7588.
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