By CRAIG FREILICH
North Country Now

POTSDAM -- The New York Power Authority has awarded a contract for an initial engineering report intended ultimately to move Potsdam’s ailing East Dam hydro generators back on line.

The Power Delivery and Integration division of international industrial design and engineering firm Hatch has been contracted by NYPA to “get the ball rolling” first by “scoping” the job, according to Village Administrator Greg Thompson.

Among the elements of their responsibility is to determine the “feasibility of the hydrology -- the water flow – to sustain generation at both dams” on the Raquette River in the village, Thompson said.

After that, they will look at what needs to be done to repair the machines.

The newer West Dam station is generating electricity after years of difficulty, but the old east plant, resurrected in the 1980s after decades of sitting idle, is troubled by failed gearboxes, with neither turbine spinning since 2015. The first attempt at an overhaul failed, and a very tight village budget forced postponement of any further work on the units.

If the repair work is to be done, NYPA will be managing the job, and has offered the village a low-interest loan to supplement the $750,000 committed to the job by the state Office of Community Renewal and $250,000 secured by Assemblywoman Addie Jenne.