01/17/2026
School St Bridge: As many of you have heard, we recently received unexpected, difficult news that the bridge has been downgraded to an 8 ton capacity. Here is how it all unfolded. In September, State DOT did a safety inspection on the bridge. The result of that inspection was a “red flag” report showing deterioration of the steel girders spanning the length of the bridge. This downgraded the bridge to a 17 Ton capacity, at which time we posted it at 15 Ton to be on the safe side. This rating would still allow busses, fire trucks, plow trucks, etc. to pass safely. We consulted an engineering firm, who met with Town Officials at the bridge to come up with a plan for replacement. The bridge currently sits on the concrete pillars of the dam owned by HRBRRD. To prevent future issues, we determined we would build a truss style bridge, which sits independent of the dam, that way if the dam ever required repair or replacement, the work could be done independently of the bridge and not affect the superstructure of the new bridge. To replace the bridge with this style design was an estimated $3M, significantly more than we had expected. We also discussed adding a pedestrian walkway across the bridge, which would span from bank to bank of the waterway, thinking this would be a good thing for the community members and children who walk the bridge, helping keep everyone safer. This addition would increase the total cost to $5M, which is clearly an unmanageable amount for our small community to take on. Our hope was to get the bridge funded by the BridgeNY grant program, with minimal cost to the Town. Once the grant was announced for 2026, the engineering firm would have their grant writers assist the Town in getting the grant submitted. Fast forward to November, the Governor announced that the Bridge NY program would not be funded for the 2026 year, which was obviously devastating news for us to absorb. We started looking for other funding options, reaching out to our local representatives at both the State and Federal level, with little luck. Our hope was to get another year out of the current bridge, and hope the grant program would be reinstated in 2027. This past Tuesday, I received a call from the NYS DOT bridge inspection unit. Apparently, State DOT has since changed their inspection guidelines to mirror the Federal Bridge Inspection standards. This change, which creates much stricter standards, and is retroactive to past inspections, caused our bridge to be downgraded to an 8 Ton capacity. So on Monday the bridge would hold 17 Ton, but on Tuesday it could only hold 8 Ton. We were given 2 weeks to re-rate the bridge, and have ordered new signs that should be here next week. We have notified many of the local agencies who may use this bridge, of the change, and will continue to do so as more are brought to our attention. Feel free to spread the word for us if you know of any. To say the least, this situation has really put us in a bind, and we are exploring any and all available options to rectify the issue as quickly and as financially responsible as possible. If anyone has any questions, feel free to call my office and I will answer them to best of my ability.
