Oct. 6--BALLSTON -- Town workers will clean up the mess left behind by a contractor installing pipe for the Saratoga County Water Authority on Oak Street, Councilwoman Mary Beth Hynes said Thursday.

The Delaney Group stopped working along Oak Street and the Zim Smith Trail in Malta and sued the water authority to be released from its contract. According to court papers filed in Saratoga County Court, the water authority broke its $4.7 million contract with Delaney when it failed to pay a $1.4 million bill the contractor submitted July 18. The Delaney Group stopped work Sept. 15.

Delaney filed a similar suit in early September, seeking to nullify a second contract, worth $5.6 million, with the water authority.

Supreme Court Judge Thomas Nolan will rule Tuesday whether or not the authority's board may make a claim on Delaney's bond insurance company to pay a new contractor to finish the work.

In the meantime, Delaney has until the weekend to pave Oak Street and a portion of the Zim Smith Trail where workers installed pipe from Eastline Road to the Round Lake bypass.

Hynes, a member of both the Ballston Town Board and the water authority board, said she asked the water authority to reimburse the town if its highway crew does the paving. The authority board agreed and extended the offer to Malta. Town officials have not yet responded.

"This is a public safety issue. It needs to be corrected, and (highway superintendent) Joe Whalen said he could do it," Hynes said.

Asphalt will be available for about another month before local asphalt plants start closing down for the winter, said county public works Commissioner Joe Ritchey.

Delaney was working on the 28-mile water line in two different places. In Malta, Delaney's workers were finished installing pipe, but the work was not done along Daniels Road in Saratoga Springs and Greenfield. None of the asphalt was disturbed in that location, however.

In other business at its meeting Wednesday, the water authority agreed to give $10,000 to the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks and put aside their disagreement about the use of Moreau Lake State Park.

The association complained because a portion of the county water line and the water filtration plant is under construction in the state park.

"We respect each other's position, the value of the Adirondacks and the state park and the value of the water line," water authority Chairman John Lawler said.

The board will make the donation as well as conceal the water line with plantings.

Also Wednesday, the board paid $9 million worth of bills, repaid a $6 million loan to the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors and set a budget for next year totaling $749,556.

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