Troy council awards $9K in NIP grants

TROY, N.Y. >> The Troy City Council announced the distribution of $9,000 in Neighborhood Improvement Program grants among 16 local groups and projects at its monthly meeting Thursday night.

Grants ranging from $100 to $1,000 were unanimously approved by council members through an annual program that was initially removed from the city’s 2017-18 budget, but was restored after Councilman Robert Doherty, D-District 4, was able to secure alternate funding for the program from the city’s Capital Resource Corp., for which he is also a board member. The council received 16 applicants, with all receiving some funding after review by a committee including council members Jim Gulli, R-District 1, John Donohue, R-District 6, and Erin Sullivan-Teta, D-at large.

“While the projects are small in dollar amount, the results are huge to our city’s neighborhood revitalization efforts,” council President Carmella Mantello said in a statement issued after the meeting. “Many of these projects dovetail into larger economic development projects [or] neighborhood quality of life and code enforcement projects, and provide a sense of pride to that particular neighborhood.”

The list of award recipients includes $1,000 each to the New Mt. Ida Cemetery and the Burden Pond Preservation Committee; $893.90 to the Hillside North Neighborhood Association; $753 to the Lansingburgh Historical Society; $750 to the Troy Military Banner Committee; $655 to the Riverside Neighborhood Association; $610 to the Lansingburgh A Team; $600 to Richard Kiernan and group for work in the Ferry Street area; $500 each to the Lansingburgh 9-11 Memorial, Osgood/South End Neighborhood Watch and Lots of Hope, and the Stow

Farms Neighborhood Association; $462 to the Eastside Neighborhoods Group; $300 to the Frear Park Conservancy; $250 to the 11th Ward Veterans Memorial; $125 to the Little Italy Quality of Life Committee and $100 to the 5th Ward War Memorial.

“We thank the volunteers and neighborhood organizations for all their hard work and dedication,” Mantello concluded.