New York

The Town of Wellsville is a small community located in south-central wooded and rural Allegany County, New York. Ironically, for a town named Wellsville, one of the biggest impediments to retaining existing employers and cultivating new ones was the town’s reliance on wells. Without a public water system, existing local manufacturers bore the challenge and expenses of operating from their own private water wells, creating critical issues regarding maintenance and reliability, the need for water storage, and fire flows. These issues increase insurance costs, cause safety issues, and serve as a disincentive for manufacturing facilities to expand, or even to remain.

In 2014, EDA invested $465,000 to support the expansion of public water into the Town of Wellsville. The infrastructure improvements will serve 17 businesses that employ approximately 700 workers. The project eliminates reliance on aging and unreliable private water infrastructure and will provide the reliable public infrastructure needed to create and retain good paying jobs, lower operating costs due to lower insurance premiums, eliminate the need to maintain private water systems, and provide for greater public safety in case of a fire or other emergency.