BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — The new salt storage barn at the village Department of Public Works site is taking shape.

“Our salt storage facility is well on its way to completion,” Village Administrator Greg Thompson told village board members at their meeting Aug. 21.

“I was able to visit it today. The foundation is completely backfilled, the walls are up. If all goes well we should start installing the tubes for the canvas cover this week,” Thompson said.

Thompson credited town Highway Superintendent John Keleher with his assistance on not only the salt storage project but in the other ways that he has aided Thompson with DPW-related issues.

The Village Administrator said the state Department of Transportation has also provided assistance to the village on the project which ended up saving a good deal on the project cost.

“Also… to the state of New York DOT who gave us free millings from Pierrepont Avenue. That’s how we backfilled the salt storage barn which probably saved the village somewhere in the neighborhood of $140,000,” Thompson said. “I want to say a special thank you to those folks for allowing us to go up there and have that material.”

Hybrid Building Solutions of Pembroke is the firm contracted to erect the new salt storage building. The firm built the town’s salt barn in 2022.

The village will be using some American Rescue Act funds and money the village has secured from the New York State Touring Route Program to pay for the construction.