On Thursday, March 15, Town of Wawarsing Supervisor James Dolaway signed the final papers to complete the no-interest loan for the Napanoch Water District. People on hand included Town of Wawarsing Clerk Jane Eck, town employees Berdella Smith and Cathy Paone as well as several members of the Napanoch Public Interest Group: Bill Smith, Steve Bradley, Joe and Linda Geiselhart, and Bucky Green. They all came to celebrate the close of a long, painful and exhausting chapter in the hamlet's history. The loan, which is for an amount of $7.1 million and comes from the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation, is going to offset the debt owed by residents of the Napanoch Water District since its creation over a decade ago. The loan will save residents in the district some $4,593,136.80 over the next 30 years. The loan's benefits will be felt by local taxpayers starting with next January's tax bill. This year, the district's residents will pay more than $300,000 in interest.

Among the most satisfied and relieved about the loan was Supervisor James Dolaway. "I am just thrilled. It's a great feeling to get beyond this issue and start dedicating more time to other town concerns. I spent a lot of time on this and now I can focus on other projects: Kerhonkson sidewalks, getting our Rail Trails together, the Kerhonkson Sewer Upgrade and the Kerhonkson Bridge."

Jane Eck estimates that roughly half of her time as Town Clerk has been spent gathering facts, figures and documents about the "Napanoch Water" issue. "We ate, slept and breathed [Napanoch Water]." And while she admits that there is still more to be done – hooking up businesses like the Ricke Len's Diner II to the district as well as finding a permanent solution the community's water concerns, Eck feels that this was a huge step in the right direction.

Steve Bradley, a longtime area resident was delighted with the loan's completion and wished to thank other members of the group including Doug and Diane Hart, Sal and Cindy Nicosia, Barbara Bleitzhofer and Frances Irwin that helped with gaining signatures for a petition.

Bradley also wanted to extend his thanks on behalf of all Napanoch residents to, "all of the ladies in the town's bookkeeping department, all of the clerks and the supervisor for all their hard work in getting this done."

The loan's final approval will be officially completed on Thursday, April 12, 2007. The town does not anticipate any problems with this final piece of the application's puzzle.

* * * A Brief History

It was in 1995 when Leo Henderson, then community development director, went door to door in the hamlet of Napanoch and asked residents what they felt was their most pressing issue. Mr. Henderson came back with the answer: municipal water. In fact several people had complained about sulfur water and shallow wells that would dry up from time to time.

So in 1996, the town created the Napanoch Water District and construction began in 1998. Prior to construction, the town hired the engineering firm of Camp, Dresser and McKee to oversee the building of the district's infrastructure, which would be done over six phases. Each phase corresponded to a different geographic area within the hamlet of Napanoch as well as the creation of its water tower.

At some point during the construction the Town Board decided to hire the Saugerties based engineering firm Brinnier and Larios to oversee the completion of the construction as it was not satisfied with the performance of Camp, Dresser and McKee. And in the Fall of 2003 the district went online and municipal water was reaching much of the district. But Dolaway recalls that complaints about discolored water and water quality began to filter into the Town Hall in late Spring of 2004.

As of last year, the current Town Board resolved to seek a possible lawsuit against the firm of Camp Dresser and McKee in the hopes of recouping some of the money paid to the firm for a job, it feels, was done poorly.

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