Town and village seek county grants for wastewater and fencing

NORTH EAST— Members of the North East Town Board had a lot to discuss at their 7 p.m. meeting on April 14, including to approve joining forces with the Millerton Village Board as co-applicants for two county grants.

The grants are through Dutchess County’s Municipal Investment Grant (MIG) Program, which typically awards funding on a competitive basis to entities with taxing authority, like municipal governments, and fire districts.

According to the county’s guidance and program overview for 2022, its funding is geared toward local initiatives focused on “community improvements for municipalities, fire and rescue agencies, and residents… as well as  nonprofit… and water and wastewater public authorities.”

The overview stated the MIG Program “will continue to fund general shared services that result in cost savings, with a focus on redevelopment and improvements to existing municipal parks and recreation areas, Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA]-accessibility improvements at public facilities, construction of new sidewalks and connector trails, critical improvements to infrastructure and facilities, and enhancements to agency capacity and capability to respond to fire and rescue operations.”

The two MIG grants the Town Board approved on April 14 that it will apply for along with the village are for further engineering work for a planned wastewater system and for a fence around the shared town and village highway garage.

“There’s an enormous amount of engineering work that goes into a wastewater system, this is why any opportunity to get grant funding for that is wonderful,” said town Supervisor Chris Kennan on Friday, April 22, noting that the engineering, design, planning and environmental consulting firm that is already working with the village on its wastewater project will “get into the whole design of the system.

The town is simultaneously planning for its own wastewater system in its Boulevard District along Route 44.

“In terms of the town, our plan is to form a wastewater district, which encompasses  the Boulevard District of Route 44, which would be very important to any businesses that are there or which would like to be there,” said Kennan, explaining further how it would work with the village and the town each having their own districts.  “The wastewater district idea is we each form a district and then they get connected.”

The Village Board likewise discussed the MIG application at its board meeting on Monday, April 19.

Mayor Jenn Najdek said the village application, which has the town’s support, would be specifically for the design and engineering costs of a wastewater system and that the village would apply for the maximum amount of $200,000.

With the application due Wednesday, May 4, Najdek said the Village Board will hold a workshop on Monday, May 2, to approve the MIG application.

Later on the 19th, the mayor and her board passed a resolution for the preparation of a map and planning report to aid in the creation of a potential wastewater system in Millerton.

Meanwhile, at the Town Board’s meeting on the 14th, Kennan said it applied separately for an MIG grant with the village’s backing for fencing of the new shared highway garage on Route 22.

The town asked for $150,000 from the county to complete the fencing around the site.

“So we have two applications,” said Kennan. “One is for the village for wastewater and one is for the town for fencing, but we are each supporting each other’s applications, which makes it a little complicated.”

He stressed the town is “also moving forward with our wastewater district, so we want to continue with that. Engineering work is being done on each, the Boulevard District and in the village wastewater district. This is a vitally important project; there is no more important project before us.”