State awards funding to NUAIR, Cortland County business

NUAIR, the organization working to integrate drones in the national airspace system, and a Cortland County dairy-product maker will use state funding in separate projects.

The funding is part of more than $100 million that the board of directors of Empire State Development (ESD) recently approved for 23 projects statewide.

The Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance, Inc. (NUAIR) will use a grant of up to $600,000 to pay for some of the costs of developing, testing, and educating companies on the integration of unmanned aerials systems (UASs) into the national airspace system, ESD said in a news release issued Monday.

Unmanned aerial systems are also referred to as drones.

Formed in Syracuse in 2012, NUAIR includes private industry, academic institutions, and military assets and operations, working to safely integrate drones into the national airspace system.

Syracuse–based NUAIR serves the Federal Aviation Administration.

Byrne Hollow Farm, the d/b/a name of C’ville Yoghurt, Inc., will use a grant of up to $500,000 to help acquire land in Cortlandville in Cortland County.

Byrne Hollow, a manufacturer of cultured dairy products, will build a new 40,000-square-foot yogurt-manufacturing facility, which it will also use to conduct employee training.

As a result of this project, C’ville will create 78 jobs, 40 of which the company has already created.

 

North Country

The St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Authority will use a grant of up to $8.67 million for a portion of the Phase 2 costs to fix 46 miles of railroad track on the Newton Falls railroad line in Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties.

Crews will complete the project in December 2016. It aligns with of the North Country regional economic-development council’s strategy to “preserve and rehabilitate” rail structures in the Adirondacks.

 

Ithaca

The City of Ithaca will use a grant of up to $1.8 million to help pay for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Ithaca Commons, a three-block area in downtown Ithaca, along with the replacement and upgrade of underground utilities. Ithaca crews completed the project in August, according to ESD.

 

Mohawk Valley

The nonprofit Griffiss Local Development Corporation (GLDC) will use a grant of up to $590,710, to demolish building B240 in the Griffiss Business and Technology Park and combine the parcel with other GLDC parcels to create a 25-acre commercial site in Rome.

The GLDC will complete the project in August 2016, ESD said.  

The Town of Verona will use a grant of up to $500,000 to construct and install a core gravity collection system in the hamlet of Verona and surrounding residential areas.

The system will prevent potential pollution that may result from old, “poorly constructed,” and non-maintained septic systems.

 

Craft-beverage marketing

The ESD board also approved an additional $2 million for the Craft Beverage Regional Marketing Grant Program.

The program will support marketing initiatives that target craft-beverage businesses located across New York.

 

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com