Area gets $65 million in state funding
Kingston will receive $4.7 million in aid
More than $65 million in state funding has been awarded to municipalities and programs throughout portions of the Mid-Hudson Valley region, according to Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston.
Of that amount, $4.7 million has been awarded to Kingston from the New York state Regional Economic Development Council, Cahill said.
Other area municipalities and programs were awarded funding for various projects, he added.
“The New York State Legislature and the Assembly specifically, has made it a priority to invest in our state’s families and localities,” Cahill said. (The funding) will build upon this momentum, helping to boost employment and quality of life in the region.”
In Kingston, the announcement of the $4.7 million award comes in the same week the city said it had been awarded $2.2 million by Gov. Andrew Cuomo from the state’s Environmental Facilities Corp. for water infrastructure projects.
“This year’s combined funding of over $4.7 million is the largest that the City of Kingston has secured through the CFA (Consolidated Funding Awards) process and will dovetail with other grant funding the City has secured for some of these large-scale projects,” Mayor Steve Noble said in a press release. “Each of the projects will have a direct impact on the growth, stability and well-being of our community members and for our city as a whole.”
“It is rewarding to see how working in a team with other city departments and the County leads to our increasing success when applying for state funds that support community improvement projects,” said Kristen Wilson, Kingston’s director of the Office of Grants Management.
For Kingston, the $4.7 million
is to be used in this way:
• Kingston/Ulster County Transit System Integration, $400,000:
Kingston and Ulster County Area Transit have fully integrated, with the local Citibus merging into the County transit system. As a result of this integration agreement, the city is scheduled to pay the county $225,000 per year for five years. The grant will partially fund costs of this integration effort to reduce the costs to local taxpayers.
• Hasbrouck Sewer Separation Phase 2 Project, $1,611,200:
The city has begun the Hasbrouck separation project, which is estimated to remove 54 million gallons of stormwater annually from the Hasbrouck sewer system and will reduce overflows to the Rondout Creek, improve Rondout Creek water quality, and reduce water treatment costs.
• Dietz Stadium Green Infrastructure Site Improvements, $2.5 million:
The newest funding will enable the city to rehabilitate and re-pave the parking lot around Dietz Stadium using green practices, which can include bioretention features such as rain gardens, bioswales, or recharge gardens, permeable pavement and stormwater street trees.
• Kingston Point Rail Trail Phase, $250,000:
The construction of Kingston Point Rail Trail Phase 2 includes paving a 10-12 foot wide Americans with Disabilities Act-accessible path for pedestrians and bicyclists that will traverse over an old bridge, pass behind the Trolley Museum of New York and end at a small trailhead on East Strand Street.
Cahill pointed out that other programs and municipalities in the region also received funding:
• Arm of the Sea Productions Inc. — Workforce Expansion ($18,750).
• D&H Canal Historical Society — Workforce Expansion ($20,000).
• Historic Huguenot Society — Construction of Visitors Center ($290,000).
•Hudson Valley Seed Company — New Headquarters and Public Gardens ($181,000).
• Mid-Hudson Pattern for Progress — Ellenville Strategic Planning ($50,000).
• Open Space Institute,
Inc. — High Point Carriage Road Reconstruction ($600,000).
• Stockade Works — Production & Postproduction Equipment ($145,000).
• Scenic Hudson Land Trust, Inc. — John Burroughs Black Creek Trail Project ($600,000).
• Town of Gardiner — Sewer Inflow and Infiltration Study ($100,000).
• Town of New Paltz — Stormwater Management Along the Empire State Trail ($475,700).
• Town of New Paltz — Sewer Inflow and Infiltration Study ($80,000).
• Town of Wawarsing — Kerhonkson Sanitary Sewer Collection System Improvements ($750,000).
• TRANSART Cultural Services Inc. — Burger Matthews Restoration Final Phase ($85,000).
• Village of Ellenville — Sewer Inflow and Infiltration Study ($30,000).
• Village of New Paltz — Sanitary Sewer Overflow Abatement ($267,320).
• Direct Refreshments, LLC — Construction of a 50,000-square-foot Manufacturing Facility ($800,000).
• Climate Action Planning Institute — Greenhouse Gas & Climate Action Projects ($99,548).