STOCKHOLM - Two applications for state grants to fund a $10,000 study for a possible municipal water system to serve the towns of Stockholm and Winthrop have fallen through.

The municipal water study applied to both a grant through the Department of State’s shared services program, and one through the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation, said engineer Tim Burley, whose firm Burley-Guminiak worked with the town to apply for the grants.

Mr. Burley said the towns did not receive the shared services grant due to limited state funding. The second grant is determined by a zero to 200-point scoring system, which is based on such factors as the number of people a water system would serve and the average income of those people, according to www.nywefc.org.

Stockholm’s grant received a score of 80, and this year the cut-off point for receiving grant funding was 146, Stockholm Councilman Robert McCuin said.

The cut-off point is based on the amount of funding NYSEFC has, and it is “not uncommon” for a grant proposal to fall short and wait until funding is available, Mr. Burley said.

“At this point I’m recommending they consider an alternative funding agency,” Mr. Burley said. “The project isn’t dead - we’re just looking for other sources of funding.”

The $10,000 study aims to examine whether it would feasible to create a municipal water system to serve the towns of Stockholm and Winthrop.

Mr. McCuin said complaints of hard and metallic-tasting tap water prompted the interest in the municipal water study.

“We’ve seen high amounts of ground water pollution, especially in Winthrop,” Mr. McCuin said. “Some people have not been drinking tap water because of that.”

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