Repaving To Start On Peekskill Streets Damaged by Con Ed

PEEKSKILL, NY — A week after Mayor Frank A. Catalina warned Consolidated Edison to get going already, the company has agreed to pay for much repaving needed after its massive construction project has been underway for a year.

The massive gas line replacement project has led to almost a year of complaints about the condition of the roads. The common complaints of property damage (blown tires) had developed into serious health and safety complaints (large potholes throwing cars out of control), Catalina said last week in a letter to Con Ed.

"Should we not receive a timely and responsive reply, I will direct the City Attorney to draft the necessary documentation to declare the situation you have created, to constitute a State of Emergency in the affected areas and I will direct the City to repave the areas directly or through approved outside contractors, and seek reimbursement, voluntarily or through litigation, against Con Edison," he wrote.

Now Peekskill and Con Ed have reached a preliminary agreement for Con Ed to pay the city $338,193. The city will assume responsibility for the repaving of 16 of the damaged streets.

"We have entered an agreement with the City of Peekskill’s engineer to have the municipality handle repaving 12 streets where Con Edison has completed necessary gas main replacement and are continuing discussion for the remaining streets," said Allan Drury, a spokesman for the company. "This will make the repaving work move quicker as we move toward completion of this major project to upgrade gas service and improve safety."

Negotiations are ongoing concerning the remaining three streets and the amount the City will receive and Catalina expects final settlement on all street repairs to be concluded before the end of this week.

“These negotiations had dragged on for far too long," Catalina said in a press release. "I am glad I was able to push this to conclusion."

This agreement includes most of the affected streets. That includes Lockwood Drive, Albert, Frost Court, Highland Avenue, Orchard Street, North James Street, Cortlandt Street, Howard Street, Oakwood Drive, King Street, Lyman Avenue, Bernard Street and Harrison Avenue.

"We actually prefer to do the work ourselves for several reasons," Catalina said. "First, our men are the best workers in the County and by doing some of this work in-house, they may earn well deserved overtime without affecting our Departmental budgets or our overburdened taxpayers. Second, it prevents us from microscoping every detail of the repaving job to insure corners are not being cut. Lastly, it allows our engineers to determine which areas will be addressed first and allows the City to do the repaving on our timetable and not rely on Con Edison for its completion."

Those areas that the City will bid to outside contractors was discussed at Monday night’s Common Council’s Work Session.

“I will have further updates as they become available,” said Catalina.