Cuomo: CNY, Southern Tier communities to use state grants for water-improvement project

Syracuse and neighboring communities across Central New York will use more than $14 million in grants for 12 municipal-water infrastructure projects in the five-county area.

The region encompasses Onondaga, Cayuga, Oswego, Cortland, and Madison counties.

At the same time, communities in the Southern Tier will use nearly $14 million in grant funding for eight similar projects in Broome, Chenango, Steuben, Delaware, and Schuyler counties.

The 20 grants are part of the second round of state water grants funded through New York’s Water Infrastructure Improvement Act, the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in separate news releases issued Monday.

The grants include more than $679,000 for the City of Syracuse, which will use the funding for the $1.1 million drinking-water project. In addition, the Village of Endicott in Broome County will use an $875,000 grant for a clean-water project estimated to cost about $3.5 million, according to data in Cuomo’s release.

New York State based the grant awards on a scoring system that gave “priority” to projects that result in the greatest water-quality improvement or reduction in risk to public health and are “positioned” to advance to construction, among other considerations, Cuomo’s office said.

In addition to grants, the state’s Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) provides interest-free and low-interest loans to communities to further reduce the cost of infrastructure projects.

For example, the Village of Endicott will also use a $2.6 million loan to help pay for its clean-water project.

The state expects nearly $33.7 million in interest-free and low-interest loans to supplement the grants between the two regions, providing a “more fiscally sustainable investment for these communities,” Cuomo’s office contended.

A full list of the grant recipients, loan amounts, and projects involved is available in separate news releases for the Central New York and Southern Tier regions at Gov. Cuomo’s website.

The 2016-17 New York State budget includes $100 million in grants for water-infrastructure improvements.

The additional funding allowed the EFC to broaden eligibility for wastewater projects and provide a total of $175 million in grants for round two.

In addition, the state increased the maximum grant amount for drinking-water projects from $2 million to $3 million, or 60 percent of eligible projects costs, whichever is less, Cuomo’s office said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com