Millerton talks sidewalks for grant application

MILLERTON — The village recently held a public hearing to discuss application ideas for the 2012 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), which is awarded based upon a priority list determined by the county.Despite holding the hearing, the Village Board already had a fairly good idea about what it thought the grant money should go toward, if awarded. The application subject — sidewalks — is not a new one for Millerton. “The village is the business district of the town, and it’s very important that it’s pedestrian friendly. It’s a great place to walk around and leave the cars behind, and then when transient people [drive by and] see parking spots, it’s more attractive for them to stop as well,” said Mayor John Scutieri. “And, of course, it’s very important that we have good, safe sidewalks, which often crack and break from the salt and ice.”The village applied for block grants to repair and restore sidewalks in both 2009 and 2010; the 2009 grant was approved, the 2010 grant was not.“We’ve been working on sidewalks for years,” said Scutieri, who added the board has not made a formal decision but is leaning heavily toward applying for funds for a sidewalk project in 2012. The project would be to replace the sidewalk on the “busy side” of Main Street, by The Moviehouse and Terni’s on down, and if there’s enough money, possibly extending the work either to Taro’s and Gilmor Glass, or instead onto South Center Street where the North East Community Center (NECC) is located.The CDBG award for sidewalk and other infrastructure projects is $150,000; smaller projects qualify for grants worth $100,000. In Millerton, receiving block grants from the county, as well as other grants, has been instrumental in providing the village the means to undertake large projects. Otherwise, the village has to fund its own projects, which wind up being on a much smaller scale.“We’ve been working in bits and pieces, whenever we have a reserve account with some money in it, we’ll tick off 100 feet or so,” Scutieri said. “But right now we’re working on 35,000 feet, all thanks to grants. No village of Millerton tax dollars are involved in that.”That work is being done on a stretch of sidewalk from Valentine’s Monuments on Main Street east to Maple Avenue.“Whenever you see smaller sidewalk projects, typically that’s with tax dollars,” Scutieri added. “When you see bigger projects you can be pretty confident they’re funded with grants.”