NEW YORK DEPARTMENT OF STATE ANNOUNCES MORE THAN $2.4 MILLION IN ...

The New York Department of State today announced that $2,444,175 in grant funding is being awarded to counties and municipalities across the state to fund seven projects that reduce government costs through consolidations, shared services or internal efficiencies. As part of the annual competitive Local Government Efficiency Grant (LGEG) program, six of the awards will offset costs associated with implementation, while the remaining award will help with planning projects.

"New initiatives that find efficiencies and save taxpayer dollars are critical to ensuring long term health and viability of local governments," said New York State Secretary of State Robert J. Rodriguez. "The Department of State is proud to work with New York's counties and municipalities to incentivize and reward these forward-thinking measures."

The awarded projects include:

• Village of Rensselaer Falls - Village and Library Local Government Efficiency Resiliency Project - $400,000

The Village of Rensselaer Falls and Rensselaer Falls Branch of Canton Free Library share an 1872 square foot building at 212 Rensselaer Street in the village. This funding will support the design and construction of a net-zero rehabilitation and expansion project to improve the shared space, modernize and enhance delivery of services.

• Albany County - Albany County and City of Watervliet Records Digitization Project - $308,896

The award will support the digitization and indexing of several series of paper and microfilm format records held by the applicants. The newly scanned and indexed records will be uploaded to Albany County's Shared Laserfiche Electronic Content Management System.

• Montgomery County - Countywide Law Enforcement IT Department - $50,000

Montgomery County and county police departments located in the Village of St. Johnsville, Village of Canajoharie, City of Amsterdam, and Village of Fort Plain, has been facing challenges in its information and technology (IT) operations. These issues arise from fragmented technology departments, inefficient communication, a lack of standardized information technology practices, and unnecessarily high costs. The need for a consolidated IT department is crucial to streamline operations, enhance collaboration, and leverage economies of scale, ultimately leading to significant cost savings.

• Town of North Hempstead - North Hempstead Joint Tree Assessment & Community Forestry Management Plan - $540,000

North Hempstead, alongside the Villages of Port Washington North and Thomaston, seek to implement a Joint Tree Assessment and Community Forestry Management Plan. This project will improve tree management, help mitigate erosion, maintain biodiversity, improve resilience, and contribute to the overall health and well-being of the environment and the community.

• Brockport Fire District - Mutual Aid College Student Bunk-In Program - $490,500

The Brockport Fire District in conjunction with the Bergen Fire Department, Churchville Fire Department, Murray Joint and Hamlin-Morton-Walker Fire Districts will establish a mutual aid program for college students. Funding will assist with the purchase and renovation of housing to implement the Mutual Aid Bunk-in program to target local colleges and universities (especially SUNY Brockport) with the goal of bringing in students as firefighters to help staffing needs.

• Tompkins County - Countywide Rapid Medical Response - $629,779

Tompkins County's pilot Rapid Medical Response Team will provide professional emergency medical services (EMS) throughout Tompkins County. Staffed and operated by Tompkins County Department of Emergency Response, the Rapid Medical Response Program will be a basic life support first response program to assist community-based fire department operated rescues in providing EMS to residents and guests of Tompkins County to provide patient care in a timely manner.

• City of Watervliet - Code Enforcement Collaboration Study - $25,000

This project will investigate the viability of an intermunicipal code enforcement agreement across four neighboring municipalities, the Cities of Watervliet, Cohoes, Troy and Albany. This will streamline and standardize regulations, reduce overhead, improve enforcement efficiency, and build upon the Capital Region's growing tradition of regional cooperation to address challenging economic and workforce conditions.

The seven awards were selected among 12 applicants for the 2023-24 LGEG funding. Applications were submitted through the state's Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) process and subsequently graded on various criteria including, but not limited to:

• return on investment to taxpayers;
• project scale;
• scope;
• municipal readiness;
• public engagement;
• work plan; and
• budget detail.

Currently, DOS is accepting applications for available LGEG funding with priority being given for projects that focus on information technology, including cybersecurity; emergency services, including EMS; regional water and wastewater planning and design and intermunicipal actions that incorporate climate change mitigation. Applications for the existing round of funding will be accepted until 4:00 POM on Friday, May 10. For more information, please visit: https://dos.ny.gov/2023-2024-local-government-efficiency-grant-program-re-release.

Additionally, pursuant to the LGEG guidance, applications must include at least two eligible local government entities.

LGEG grant applications may fall into two categories - implementation grants or planning grants. Implementation grants may award municipalities with up to $200,000 for each involved municipality, with a maximum cumulative grant award of up to $1,000,000. For implementation grants, the local minimum match is 10%. For planning grants, awards may be granted up to $12,500 for each participating municipality with maximum project costs not exceeding $100,000. For these grants, the minimum required local match is $50,000 of project planning costs.

The LGEG grant program is just one of the grant programs administered by the Division of Local Government Services within the Department of State. The Division provides technical assistance and competitive grants to local governments. For more information on LGEG or any programs administered by the Division, please contact [email protected]or call 518 473-3355.

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