BEMUS POINT — Maple Grove Jr./Sr. High School will move forward with long-discussed plans to decommission the Maple Grove Water Treatment Plant.

A municipal agreement was signed at the Nov. 17 Bemus Point Central School Board of Education meeting with the South and Center Chautauqua Lake Sewer District. Throughout the 2025 year, the district officials have been in discussions about various improvements that could be included as part of the upcoming May 2026 capital project.

At the board’s Aug. 18 meeting, Superintendent Joseph Reyda gave the initial presentation regarding the wastewater treatment facility plan. This presentation listed two different opinions for how to go about the project. The first option was to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant. This option would have had a total cost of about $1,721,000, with about $31,000 each year in operations and maintenance costs that would remain. The goal of this option would have been to bring the building into compliance with design. While this project would have likely qualified for some building aid, the 20 year cost of replacement would still total about $3,609,914.

Option two involved some different potential plans that would ultimately connect the school to the county sewer system. This project, when initially presented, had the option for the project to be run by either the school district or the county sewer district. For a school district run project, the total cost would be about $1,714,000. While this project would be paid for and controlled by the school district, the county would operate the infrastructure through an outside user agreement. The project could potentially still obtain a 25%-50% grant, but not through the state department of education. The school district would also be able to apply for building aid for the work from the school to Dutch Hollow Road. However, no building aid would be available for work outside of school grounds

Lastly, while this is part of a greater project that is not tax-neutral, there would be residential savings as this would not require residents along the new sewer line to connect to it.

For a project led by the county sewer district the total cost would be about $2,783,000. While the project would be paid for and controlled by the county, the school district would ultimately take on the costs of any new infrastructure. The district would be charged for these costs over the course of 30 years. This project option would give a better position to try to leverage both grant funding and zero-interest loans from non-SED organizations. However, this project would require that residents along the new sewer line connect to it. Residents would be forced to pay an initial hookup fee of $5,000 to $7,000, and would then take on an annual sewer fee of about $354 per year.

“This is a very good example of a regional service that is benefitting both us, the school district, and the community,” said Reyda. “It enables us to shut down a sewer plant that discharges directly into one of our creeks. So it is a good thing.”

After presenting these options the district-led project was listed as the main recommendation moving forward. The district chose to move away from the county-led project as it would have added additional expenses for many families, according to Reyda. Reyda noted that there is still an upcoming vote for the project, which will be occurring in May 2026. After this vote, Reyda stated that the expected planning is set to take quite some time. Currently, the project is expected to begin in the summer of 2028, according to Reyda.