Tenney Hosted Water Infrastructure Roundtable in Marathon

In Cortland County, Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R) hosted a water infrastructure roundtable to address the challenges facing Upstate communities.

Tenney made an announcement regarding Marathon's request for a federally funded water project. The request was made earlier this year to the Appropriations Committee where the committee then approved a $600,000 request this month. Tenney says it will now continue in its legislative process. 

This comes in light of a water main break in Marathon's river this past winter. This temporarily caused a shortage of clean drinking water. Both of Marathon's water pumps were 80 years old and the town decided to try to preemptively replace the working pump before it breaks as well.

Tenney says she is excited to help Upstate in DC because she knows how forgotten small towns can become. 

"We're happy that we have this opportunity to help Marathon out," said Tenney. "To me, it's important to have the water infrastructure and this project was really well-received and it got bipartisan support for it, so I'm really excited about that."

Tenney goes on to say the House Appropriations Committee has an October 1st deadline to close the budget. She also added she would continue to communicate with the town of Marathon as this process continues and that advocacy is critical to the project's success. 

Members of the roundtable also included Village of Marathon Mayor William McGovern, New York Assemblyman John Lemondes, and New York State Senator Peter Oberacker.

The discussion also included conversations about other towns with poor water quality and the lack of bandwidth and cell service in Upstate areas. Tenney said anyone who has concerns should talk with their local representatives and submit a formal request.