Former village mayor and dedicated local historian and preservationist Miguel Hernandez hopes to get a 12-foot waterwheel installed at the intersection of North Highland and Aqueduct Street in Ossining.
The waterwheel will be a working replica of the kind that were once used here back in 19th century Sing Sing, only this one will be solar powered. The moving monument will sit on a parcel of unused land owned by the village and it will look like this image Hernandez created here.
All in all it will cost $8,000, Hernandez said, a sum which he aims to raise through crowd-sourcing, including through a new program here on Patch. Stay tuned for more on how to contribute to this project.
"I think it will draw positive attention to the Village in terms of an art object, a recollection of Ossining’s past and as a symbol of renewable energy," Hernandez said.
The waterwheel will teach of a time when water was the 'fuel' that powered local industries and farms. And Hernandez hopes it will lead to other renewable resource usage to come: "I am positive that this display will show that water from the Kill Brook and from the Kill Brook Reservoir can still be used to provide power to such public buildings as the Joseph Caputo Community Center and the Ossining Water Filtration Plant thereby advancing the cause of clean environment and reducing the costs of commercially generated electricity to taxpayers," he said.
The water that will turn this wheel will be drawn from the nearby Sing Sing Kill by means of a small, solar-powered submersible pump set in a pool of water in this stream. "There is more than enough water there year-round this purpose," he said.
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