The New York Department of State (DOS) announced $8 million in grant awards for 25 projects meant to create efficiencies and lower costs for local governments across the state. The money comes from the Local Government Efficiency Grant (LGEG) Program, which encourages counties, cities, towns, villages and other entities to partner on consolidations, shared services and internal efficiencies. Secretary of State Walter T. Mosley said the funding encourages municipalities to join forces to find savings.
The LGEG program offers individual municipalities up to $20,000 for planning grants and up to $250,000 for implementation grants. All awards are reimbursement grants. Funds may cover legal and consultant services, capital improvements and equipment, and transitional personnel costs not to exceed three years.
- Capital Region: City of Schenectady, $675,000 for a Code Enforcement Assistance Platform; Village of Schuylerville, $35,922 for a Tri-Municipal Code Enforcement Modernization project.
- Finger Lakes: Village of Trumansburg, $1,000,000 for fire and emergency medical services rehabilitation and expansion; Livingston County, $50,000 for a Countywide Code Enforcement Study.
- Long Island: Suffolk County, $906,500 for organic waste reduction; Town of Southampton, $173,700 for shared marine operations.
- Southern Tier: Southern Tier East Regional Planning Board, $301,514 for Broome-Tioga stormwater solutions.
- Western New York: Village of Fredonia, $1,250,000 for water system improvements and regional interconnection; Erie County, $1,126,281 for strategic debris removal; Town of Amherst, $250,000 for consolidated development services technology.
Other awards cover police and school district consolidation studies, EMS and ambulance service projects, water and wastewater studies and shared highway department plans in the Central New York, Mid-Hudson and Mohawk Valley regions.
In this round, priority scoring went to applications involving IT and cybersecurity, emergency management, shared code enforcement and planning, water and wastewater management, or clean energy. DOS said it has made 178 project awards totaling nearly $42 million over the last five years, and that a new Request for Applications is expected in the coming weeks.
Why it matters
Several awards fund shared code enforcement, development services, water and sewer projects that affect permitting and local infrastructure. Municipal officials and developers in the listed areas may see changes in how these services are delivered.
