ALBANY — Local governments throughout the Empire State will benefit from almost $13.7 million in Shared Municipal Service Incentive grants announced Thursday.
Of that, nearly $1.4 million will go toward nine regional projects — including a pair of proposed joint water systems in Jefferson County — to improve local government efficiency.
"We're facing uncertain fiscal times and the need to increase government efficiency is taking on even greater importance," said state Sen. Elizabeth O'C. Little, R-Queensbury. "I applaud the recipients for their initiative in pursuing these grants, which will help them continue to deliver high-quality municipal services while controlling costs for local taxpayers."
Sen. Little represents the 45th Senate district, which includes Franklin, Clinton, Essex, Hamilton, Warren and Washington counties. She also chairs the Senate's Local Government Committee.
The villages of Ellisburg and Herrings were awarded $386,400 apiece toward establishment of water systems with municipal partners.
Ellisburg is working to share a ground water source, storage and transmission main system with the town, eliminating a storage tank and water source redundancy. The village will contract with the town's water department for operations and maintenance, eliminating the need to create a village department.
Herrings plans to develop a joint water system with its neighboring village of Deferiet to replace both villages' decaying systems. Herrings's water supply was contaminated in 1991 when tetrachloroethylene and other cleaning solvents leaked from Crown Cleaners into the ground.
"This project combines the needs of each village into a single, affordable project benefiting the users in both villages," according to a release from the governor's office.
It would include demolition of existing storage tanks and construction of a new one, replacement of some water lines, water treatment plant upgrades and installation of new remote-read meters and additional fire hydrants.
The city of Watertown will receive $86,940 for the Greater Watertown Water Quality Improvement Project. This is a joint initiative between the city and town to study means to control disinfection byproducts produced as water is treated to improve drinking water quality for all the municipalities connected to the regional system, which include the towns of Champion, LeRay and Pamelia.
"When water is treated, certain byproducts are formed that, in large enough levels, can be hazardous," said Michael A. Lumbis, the city planner who wrote the grant application. "We don't think the levels are hazardous, but it's an EPA requirement to perform this study."
Gary E. Pilon, city water superintendent, said the study will probably take about a year.
"We'll look at alternative processes to ultimately develop a master plan on how to most benefit our users and how to share costs," he said.
Other area grant recipients include:
■ The village of West Carthage will get $52,164 for a feasibility study to explore, along with the village of Carthage, the formation of a shared full-time police department to serve both villages. The project will build upon recommendations detailed in a 1999 management study on police consolidation.
■ Lowville Academy and Central School District will receive $34,776 to work with the village of Lowville and the town of Lowville to study the development of a shared garage and maintenance facility. The state Department of Transportation will act as a consultant for the study, which will examine such issues as intermunicipal agreements, space requirements, possible locations and the services to be shared at such a facility.
■ Franklin County will receive $260,820 to purchase an asphalt paver with other county municipalities.
■ The village of Saranac Lake will receive $152,145 to study the feasibility of combining governments with the town of Harrietstown.
The SMSI program offers technical assistance and grants to groups of two or more local government units to develop projects to achieve savings and improve municipal efficiency through shared services, cooperative agreements, mergers, consolidations and dissolutions.
A complete list of grant recipients is available online.
