Watertown spending Covid relief money on 40 projects

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - Watertown is working on 40 projects with the $22.3 million the city received in federal Covid relief funds.

“We have a couple of them that are nearing completion, quite a few of them in design, and a lot more that we still need to get through,” said Watertown City Manager Ken Mix.

The plans call for investing more than $4 million into the future of Thompson Park, which includes creating a master plan.

The city will also invest in infrastructure to update more than a dozen water and sewers projects. It comes after the city saw half a dozen water main breaks this year.

“It gives us an opportunity to get some of those taken care of for hopefully the next 50 or 60 years that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to do without increasing water rates,” said Mix.

Now that all the funds have been distributed, Mix says the city’s next step is to find contractors for everything as soon as possible because there’s a deadline.

“$22 million in projects, normally that would be 5 to ten years worth of projects for us, so it is a really tight schedule but I think it is doable,” he said.

Mix says all the projects need to be contracted out by the end of 2024 and all the money spent by the end of 2026.

Copyright 2022 WWNY. All rights reserved.