By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- In light of the recent Alcoa announcement to cut 487 jobs, the village Board of Trustees on Wednesday rescinded a previous motion to spend $1.2 million on a water, sewer and box culvert project that would have been tied in with the Parker Avenue bridge repairs.

Alcoa’s decision to halt smelting operations and permanently close the east plant could have drastic effects on the village’s tax coffers, the board indicated.

“I think we all agreed it was a good idea at the time … do we want to spend the money at this point with the financial climate,” Mayor Tim Currier said.

“Considering the dramatic news of the past few days, it just makes sense to pull back,” Trustee Matt Lebire said.

“Second,” Trustee Albert Deshaies immediately replied.

The motion passed unanimously.

The state Department of Transportation sometime next year will replace the decaying Parker Avenue bridge, possibly as early as spring and wrapping up by the fall of 2017, DOT Region 6 Public Information Office Michael Flick said earlier in 2015.

The $1.2 million project the board halted would have been done at the same time.

Flick said in September the total bridge replacement will cost $17 million.

It will include replacing the existing road network connecting Maple and Willow streets and the bridge with a three-way roundabout across from Blevins Motors.

The new bridge will have two lanes. It used to have four. DOT closed the outer lanes on Dec. 30, 2009. Flick said in March that the drains were letting too much water run onto the supports, which corroded them over time.

He said the bridge is safe just using the inner lanes.