MENTZ - Replacement of the Haiti Island bridge is still a long way from being completed, but progress is being made.

Mentz Town supervisor Peter Marshall said he and a representative of the state Department of Transportation will meet at 9 a.m. today to look at the bridge, and with verbal approval to select an engineer, Marshall and town councilor Richard Nielens Jr. are going over 1,500 pages of engineering review prior to choosing an engineer for the project.

“We will select an engineer within 30 to 60 days,” Marshall said.

The town is in the initial part of the design phase of the project.

“The appropriations total for the design phase is $260,000 in town, state and federal funds combined,” he said. The town's portion of that amount is 5 percent or $13,000. Marshall said once the engineer is chosen the project will go out to bid and contracts will be signed.

He wouldn't speculate on a time frame for the completion of the bridge.

“We're moving as quickly as we can,” Marshall said. “This is the first time we've had a project anywhere near this magnitude.”

The bridge, whose ownership has been debated since 1980, is finally going to be replaced. The town board resolved to authorize the town of Mentz to pay in the first instance 100 percent of the federal and non-federal share of the costs of the bridge work, 80 percent to be reimbursed from federal funds and 20 percent paid with non-federal funds (15 percent state, 5 percent town) once the DOT approves.

The town also resolved to appropriate funds in excess of the total project's stated costs if necessary.

When the state turned over responsibility for the bridge to the towns of Conquest and Mentz in the 1980s, the two towns fought the state and won. But the state appealed, and the appellate court ruled that both towns were liable for construction and repairs.

The bridge slowly fell into disrepair, and a crisis involving a snowplow that fell through a hole in the bridge in 1990 led to the state's construction of a temporary Bailey bridge to serve the families on the island.

In 1996, Mentz supervisor William Jones, tried to collect close to $10,000 in repair bills from Conquest, which took the case to the county Legislature. The Legislature decided that Mentz was 95 percent responsible for the bridge because it received tax and assessment benefits from the island, took over repairs and had not consulted Conquest after the 1990 incident.

Mentz appealed the Legislature's decision, saying it was based on an old map (1925) and that the island was really located more in the town of Conquest per a 1974 map. The court upheld the Legislature.

Last year, a portion of the bridge collapsed, closing it to all but pedestrian and all-terrain vehicles until Mentz contracted with Slate Hill Constructors, a Warners firm, to begin more than $67,500 in repairs.

Since then, state Sen. Michael Nozzolio and Legislator Dave Axton have worked to get federal funding for the project, estimated to cost $2 million. Funds earmarked for another bridge were diverted to this one in the amount of $1.69 million.

The state will pay most of the cost of preliminary engineering work and consultants in the first three phases of the project, added to the $1.69 million appropriated for construction.

In other news:

* The town supervisor meets with the DEC Wednesday afternoon to address the Hayden Road bridge problem.

* The town is asking the Owasco River Railway Corporation to remove deed restrictions on the right of way that forbids the town to use its former property for a transportation, communication or electrical corridor. A property owner whose parcel is split by the former track bed wants to clear it at his own expense.

* A problem with the Church Street Apartments operating at a loss during 2008 resulted in a request for a reduction of the formula for a three-year pilot to half the $33,590 in required taxes. The town will request documentation of the loss before deciding the matter.

Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net