AGAWAM — The City Council voted unanimously on June 21 to spend $2 million in Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds to replace a dam, construct an access road, and build hiking trails and parking spots at the former Tuckahoe Turf Farm, though it won’t be enough to cover the estimated $6.1 million cost.

The property, which stretches from South West Street to South Westfield and Pine streets in Feeding Hills, is a 292-acre former farm acquired by the town in the early 1990s. It is currently designated as open space.

The property includes a former irrigation pond constructed in 1960 with a maximum capacity of 54 acre-feet, or approximately 17 million gallons. The largest share of the $6.1 million project is the cost of replacing the dam on the pond, known as Nine Lot Dam. Its earth foundation construction received a rating of “poor” after a 2008 inspection by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Initially the town hoped the dam could be repaired, but “as it turned out, the dam needs to be completely rebuilt,” said Mayor William Sapelli. “The costs have doubled since we started the project,” he added.

Sapelli gave a presentation to City Council that laid out his plans for the construction, which would ultimately turn the currently undeveloped land into a new park, providing “passive recreation” activities such as hiking, fishing and kayaking.

In addition to the dam replacement, the project budget provides for the creation of park amenities such as trails and a footbridge. Councilors Cecilia Calabrese and George Bitzas each questioned whether the project could be done in stages, repairing the dam first, then adding park features in the future.

“It sounds to me like timeline priority number one is access to that dam and repairing the dam. And at that point, maybe we can kind of slow down maybe, put the brakes on and see what funding comes, so that we’re not over burdening the town to fund this project,” said Calabrese.

But according to Scott Medeiros, an engineer and vice president of Woodard and Curran, a piecemeal approach won’t work.

“There’s some permitting nuances associated with some of the disturbance and some of the billing and impact,” he said.

Jennifer Bonfiglio, the town’s chief procurement officer, agreed, saying that there are few savings to be found outside the necessary spending for the dam.

As the project is currently budgeted, only one line item — “Trails and Footbridge,” at a cost of $168,000, approximately 3 percent of the total project cost — could be cut without affecting the dam work, she said. Still, Bonfiglio was optimistic about the budget overall.

“Based on some experience we’ve had with some other projects that we’ve seen across the commonwealth, going out to bid, they have been coming in a little bit lower,” she said. “I think the engineers in this market right now are really including some very high contingencies, because we just don’t know what’s going to happen. So we’re optimistic that this could come in much lower than estimated. But again, that’s an unknown.”

In addition to the $2 million in CPA funds, the town plans to fund the project with $1.5 million in payments from Consolidated Edison, which is leasing 50 acres of the property for a solar energy array. The town collects $150,000 annually in rent from the power company. The solar farm puts out 5 megawatts of AC power.

The town also anticipates receiving up to $450,000 in state grants to help fund the project. If those come through, taxpayers will still be on the hook for about $1.5 million. This funding will most likely come in the form of borrowing on municipal bonds, a matter which would have to come before the council again to be approved.