Restore NY grants to fund Mohawk Valley projects Tuesday, January 15, 2008
NEW YORK STATE — Projects throughout the Mohawk Valley, including the city of Amsterdam's Mohasco reconstruction, will receive major state grants, according to an announcement this morning by Gov. Eliot Spitzer. In Utica, Spitzer visited the historic Stanley Theatre to highlight $100 million in Restore NY grants that will go to municipalities throughout the state to encourage economic development and neighborhood revitalization. Local Mohawk Valley projects that will receive funding through the Restore NY program include: -The village of St. Johnsville, which will receive $2.08 million for the St. Johnsville Industrial Revitalization. This project will make this industrial site ready for construction of a new industrial building by Cellect LLC, one of the village’s largest employers. The funding will finance the demolition of a hazardous industrial building. -The village of Sharon Springs, which will receive $500,000 for the Spa/Bath International Resort and Pavillion Cottages. This project will preserve and rehabilitate the last remaining portion of the historic Pavilion Hotel (Cottages), one the mineral spring resorts in this area during the 19th Century. The cottages are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as part of the Sharon Springs Historic District. The Cottages will be converted to market-rate condominiums. -The city of Amsterdam, which will receive $2.5 million for the Mohasco Redevelopment Project. Funding for this project will remediate and reconstruct an urban brownfield property in the center of the city's former factory district. This facility experienced a massive industrial fire in 1991 and has been vacant and deteriorating since that time. It will be re-used for mixed residential and commercial functions. Since the fire, the city has invested approximately $4 million into this clean-up effort. -The city of Gloversville, which will receive $534,000 for the demolition of a vacant and structurally unsound church and attached office building at 59 South Main Street. It will be replaced with 45 units of market-rate housing by a local developer. More information on the Restore NY program can be found at http://www.empire.state.ny.us/restoreNY/default.asp.
Governor to focus on fighting upstate blight BY MICHAEL GORMLEY The Associated Press
Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s first “state of upstate” address today is expected to include a shower of grants to level blighted buildings in neighborhoods and to entice employers to grow in their place. The speech in Buffalo will detail how he proposes to use a $1 billion fund to revitalize the long stagnant upstate economy — in many cases connecting university research with employers. Spitzer will also detail how another $100 million in grants will be spent under the Restore New York Communities Initiative already approved by the Legislature. “In the 1970s, we came together to rescue another part of the state that was struggling — New York City,” Spitzer said in last week’s State of the State speech. “Now is the time for us to come together and do for upstate in our time what our predecessors did for New York City a generation ago.” Spitzer, as a candidate for governor, made revitalizing upstate a major issue. He compared upstate west of Albany to Buffalo as similar to Appalachia. But resistance is already beginning in New York City, its suburbs and Long Island where there are areas with a critical lack of affordable housing, where property taxes are driving seniors from their family homes, and where Wall Street’s difficult year is forcing layoffs and a subsequent decline in one of the state’s biggest sources of tax revenue. Spitzer also has proposals addressing those problems, but the spending he called for generally in his State of the State speech appear to conflict with his call for no more than a 5.3 percent increase in spending, a projected deficit of more than $4.3 billion, and a need for tough decisions in a worsening national and state economy. “What we have to do is pace ourselves, given the fiscal realities of the moment,” Spitzer said in an interview Monday. “The worst thing you can do at a moment of economic uncertainty is to pull back from those investments that will build for the future,” he said. “If we’re smart, we can make tough budget decisions that will pay for the investments we need to make in education, in infrastructure and in health care ... without hurting ourselves. We can afford to do it. And I’m not raising taxes.” Reconciling the plans and the costs won’t likely happen Wednesday. But Spitzer’s budget proposal to the Legislature is scheduled for Jan. 22. The Senate’s Republican majority said Tuesday it is willing to work with the Democratic governor with whom it has feuded since June. But the Senate majority says its “Upstate Now” program of tax cuts, capital spending and energy subsidies is best. “Cosmetic proposals are nice,” said Republican Sen. Dale M. Volker of Erie County, “but we need to roll up our sleeves, put our work boots on and get back to work in addressing these serious challenges facing our region.” The Assembly’s Democratic majority, often an ally for Spitzer, made it clear Tuesday that it wants to work with him but has its own priorities. “It is time, my colleagues, to accept the ‘olive branch’ that Governor Spitzer is extending to us,” Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said in his annual address to the chamber. “I understand there is doubt. Doubt and dissent are important in a democracy. Let us not, however, fall prey to cynicism.” Silver then outlined general priorities for expanding health care, improving education, and taking a look at the property tax burden. “The People’s House,” as Silver calls the Assembly, “must always be independent.” On Tuesday, the administration announced that that 64 projects statewide will share in $100 million in grants under the Restore New York program. Forty-four projects are upstate, and most of that grant money will pay for demolition or reconstruction of vacant or obsolete buildings for reuse. Host municipalities will have to provide at least 10 percent of the total cost through cash or services. The competitive grants are aimed at the most run-down parts of cities. The program is “turning gutted buildings into new, productive facilities,” said Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno of Rensselaer County. “These projects will help generate optimism among residents, and help foster an environment that encourages job creation.”
CAPITOL Officials praise Restore NY program Watervliet was left out, mayor says BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Bob Conner at 462-2499 or bconner@dailygazette.net.
The Restore NY program was praised at an Assembly hearing Wednesday by local government officials as a good way to combat urban blight and promote revitalization. The only problem, according to Watervliet Mayor Mike Manning, is when your city doesn’t get an award, but neighboring municipalities do. “This puts Watervliet at a disadvantage in the competition with these communities for maintaining and attracting residents and businesses,” he testified. Watervliet did not apply in the first round of funding, and was turned down in the second round by the Empire State Development Corp., which administers the program. It is hoping to get funded in the third round, for the 2008-09 fiscal year. Manning said later that the city will likely apply for the maximum available, $2.5 million, but the exact projects it will seek funding for have not yet been determined. The three-year Restore NY program, an Assembly initiative, was funded at $50 million the fi rst year, $100 million the second year and $150 million the third year, which is the upcoming state fi scal year. That third-year funding is included in Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s proposed budget and is expected to be in this year’s enacted budget, said Robin Schimminger and Sam Hoyt, two Assembly Democrats from western New York who were co-chairing Wednesday’s hearing. Schimminger said he expects the program to be renewed in some form after this fiscal year. Schimminger said later that Tonawanda, in his district, did not succeed in its first-year application for Restore NY funding. He said he thought the reason was political, because the area was represented by “a double D,” a Democratic assemblyman and senator, at a time when the governor, George Pataki, was a Republican. Spitzer is a Democrat. Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings said Restore NY has been helpful in revitalization efforts, including the pending Wellington Row project on State Street east of the Capitol. Funding for that was awarded under Pataki, although Jennings is a Democrat. Hoyt said there is too much paperwork in the program, with the city of Buffalo having to submit four copies of a 4,000-page application. The city wanted to submit its application on computer disc instead, Hoyt said, but ESDC rules would not allow that. He said he hopes the agency will adopt more flexible regulations. The testimony of Richard Tobe, of Buffalo’s Department of Economic Development, reflected the bleak economy of many cities in western New York. Tobe said thieves break into empty houses to rip out the copper, and Restore NY money is often used for demolition. Asbestos is present in about 40 percent of demolished houses, he said, which drives up demolition costs. The city also pays more to remove the foundation, so as to better prepare a site for potential future use. Meanwhile, he testified, there is the question of what to do with the empty lot. The city used to seed them, he said, but found the seeding did not take, so discontinued the practice. Hoyt said seeding has been done successfully in other cities, such as Niagara Falls, because the cost is low and they reseed if it doesn’t take the first time. Tobe said plants grow on the lots anyway, and the city mows them. Daniel Gundersen, ESDC’s upstate chairman, said “the Restore NY initiative provides critically needed resources in order to complete projects that can transform communities particularly urban cores.”
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