The Peru Gazette

Peru –  Replacing Peru’s deteriorating culverts and the resulting road closures have been primary topics at Peru Town Board Meetings for several months.  In one of his first actions as Interim Town Supervisor, Craig Randall called an emergency meeting on Monday, August 19, to define the funding source to pay Ed Garrow and Son’s $135,789 bill due in two days. Garrow installed the new Cook Road box culvert. The board approved paying the bill at its August 12 meeting but didn’t define the payment fund. Monday night, the board approved taking a $100,000 temporary loan from the town general fund and $35,789 from the highway department reserve fund account. As of July 31, those accounts had $1,891,187 and $135,000 balances. 

Supervisor Randall told the board, “As we all know, this is not the only road where there’s a culvert issue. I think, ultimately, unless someone has a gift from heaven, there doesn’t seem to be grant funds for these smaller culvert projects. We’re going to get a handle on what the costs are. My guess is that we’ll ultimately have to bond for them. We want to keep the public safe on our roads.” 

Highway Superintendent Michael Farrell told the board that he scored three culverts last week. Replacing the Wescott Road culvert is his #1 priority. There’s no alternate route to the road’s four or five homes and unpredictable Salmon River water passes through the culvert. Farrell scored it eight on a 10-point scale (10 being the worst score). The deteriorating Lyons Road culvert carrying Silver Stream scored eight, so it’s his #2 priority. A Brand Hollow Road culvert scored six, #3 on Farrell’s list.

Westcott Road Culvert

Lyons Road Culvert

Replacing the culverts will require designs, engineering, and New York State DEC and US Army Corps permits, meaning construction will not begin this year. Farrell said he would present a resolution to the board requesting authorization to begin engineering studies so that the projects are “shovel-ready” as soon as possible.