The building at 34 Chestnut St. in Oneonta has a potential buyer, but the Common Council would need to approve the installation of an accessible ramp that would be on the public sidewalk.
At the city Finance and Human Resources Committee meeting Thursday, May 29, City Administrator Greg Mattice said the potential buyer is interested in setting up a family medicine practice in the building, former home of Townsqaure Media.
Mattice said the proposed design includes a ramp and stairs to meet accessibility requirements. The ramp would be constructed along the face of the building on Chestnut Street, and would be in the city’s right-of-way on the sidewalk.
The new building owner would pay for the ramp construction, but the city would need to approve the use of the sidewalk for the ramp.
Mattice said that he would consider creating an agreement similar to past agreements — such as the sidewalk agreement with Green Earth, which has a patio on part of the sidewalk along Market Street — as long as there is at least six feet of clear space and path for pedestrian circulation on the sidewalk itself.
The committee members discussed the need for further review, potentially by the Landmarks and Historic Preservation Commission.
Search continues for water leak
In other business, the committee heard an update on the search for a water leak that was hemorrhaging half a million gallons per day at its peak.
Director of Public Works Chris Yacobucci said that the leak has slowed to 250,000 to 350,000 gallons per day. Although the leak source has not been identified, he suspects it’s in the high-volume service area that serves the city’s two colleges; since school has been out, there’s been less water lost to the leak, he said.
DPW is continuing its search for the leak, testing water for fluoride and chlorine. The city also has spent $20,000 on leak detection specialists and other conventional methods of investigating its source.
“It’s easily hid if it’s a break under a stream, if it’s a break near storm sewers, where it’s not really going to present itself,” Yacobucci said. “If it was in the middle of a street, we would see a giant hole the size of several houses at this point.”
The council is considering purchasing four new water distribution system iHydrants and three iHydrant retrofit kits for existing hydrants to assist with leak detection for $38,544, which would be paid out of the water contingency fund. The fund currently has $109,000.
Yacobucci said that the new and retrofitted hydrants would monitor water pressure in the entire high service area and help detect leaks by giving an idea of roughly where the pressure drop occurred.