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Community Project Funding Requests FY23

Our communities – not bureaucrats in Washington – know how best to direct local spending. Every year New York State pays more in taxes to the federal government than it gets back in return. I support the Community Project Funding program because it brings taxpayer dollars back to upstate New York to help fill gaps and create greater opportunity across our region.

I am committed to ensuring that any federal funding that is brought back to our region is spent transparently and responsibly. As with any federal program, Community Project Funds must be held to the highest standards of accountability, and I will hold community beneficiaries to the highest standards.

The 15 projects I supported were subjected to a rigorous review process, including extensive consultations with a variety of stakeholders.  I prioritized three key criteria:

  1. A strong demonstration of community support and local partnerships;
  2. A demonstrated benefit to local communities, especially those that are under resourced; and
  3. A clear plan to obligate funds awarded in a timely manner and for the intended purpose.

The projects I supported are listed below, each of which fell into one of three categories: (1) water infrastructure improvements; (2) research and economic development; and (3) health care services and public safety. For any award that may be granted, I will continue to work closely with all recipients to ensure federal funds are spent appropriately and in the interest of the American taxpayers.

Water infrastructure improvements

  • Secure access to safe and reliable drinking water in the City of Norwich
  • Invest in flood and runoff mitigation in the Upper Susquehanna Watershed.
  • Support a cleaner and more reliable water source for the Town of Orwell.
  • Support a cleaner water source for the Town of Schuyler.
  • Upgrade the outdated Waste Water Treatment Plant in the Village of Marathon.
  • Replace the deteriorating septic systems with a new public sewar system in the Village of Oneida Castle.

Research and economic development

  • Support upgrades to transportation and stormwater infrastructure in a key corridor in the City of Rome.
  • Invest in an open and collaborative environment for companies to test smart and autonomous devices in Rome’s Griffiss campus.

Health care services and public safety

  • Support investment in our police officers and crime prevention in the City of Binghamton.
  • Support an expanded location for substance abuse and mental health treatment in Cortland County.
  • Support expanded and integrated care options for substance abuse and mental health treatment in rural Central New York.
  • Invest in a Utica University Crime Lab to help law enforcement more reliably collect digital evidence for crimes and train the next generation of cybersecurity experts.

On April 27 and April 29, Congresswoman Tenney submitted the following to the Appropriations Committee under the Community Project Funding Program. These projects will be evaluated by the Committee to potentially be funded under the 2023 Fiscal Year Appropriations.

*Listed in alphabetical order

Proposed Recipient: City of Binghamton
Project Title: Binghamton Community Policing and Crime Prevention
Recipient Address: 38 Hawley Street, 4th Floor, Binghamton, NY 13901
Amount Requested: $864,078
Project Description: The project will increase community policing efforts and crime prevention by purchasing city-owned plate readers, purchasing city-owned pole cameras, improving the vehicle fleet, employing evidence-based community policing models, training opportunities for crisis prevention and leadership, and a citizen police academy to increase transparency and build trust with the community and at-risk youth.
Purpose:This funding is a good use of taxpayer resources since it will combat the rise of violent crime in Binghamton, investing in several evidence-based strategies to address crime and build trust between our department and the community we serve. It will also fund strategies such as hot spots or place-based saturation policing to address specifically identified communities most plagued by violent acts. These strategies along with community driven units will help provide community stakeholders an opportunity to voice concerns about specific problems affecting their communities.

Proposed Recipient: City of Norwich
Project Title: City of Norwich Water Main Replacement
Recipient Address: One City Plaza, Norwich, NY 13815
Amount Requested: $2,850,000
Project Description: This project will replace 5,760 linear feet of the water main distribution line on South Broad Street, and 640 linear feet of the water main distribution line on East Main Street, including appurtenances and service lines in the heart of the city.
Purpose: This funding is a good use of taxpayer resources since these distribution lines were installed in the 1880s and are not at the end of their useful life. Their replacement will also reduce risk for lead exposure for everyone receive the city’s water service. Finally, the water lines are undersized and lose a large portion of their water to leaks in the system. The replacement will reduce the risk or a pipe failure that will shut off water distribution to the city.

Proposed Recipient: City of Rome
Project Title: Park Drive Revitalization Project
Recipient Address: 198 North Washington Street, Rome, NY 13440
Amount Requested: $3,000,000
Project Description: The project will implement critical transportation and stormwater infrastructure to support the redevelopment of 60 acres of vacant urban land of former U.S. Air Force ownership. It will provide quality transportation corridors and transportation options to steward a healthy community and region. Bioretention swales, separated bicycle paths, smart street lighting, curbing, transit stops, and ADA improvements will all be included in this reconstruction project.
Purpose: This funding is a good use of taxpayer resources since it will directly support the booming job growth within the Griffiss Business and Technology Park, the United States Department of Defense investments into the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL/RIO, Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS) and Defense Finance and Accounting Agency (DFAS), and the flourishing silicon carbide semiconductor ecosystem at Marcy Nanocenter.

Proposed Recipient: Cortland County
Project Title: Cortland Rural Mental Health Facility Capital Project
Recipient Address: 60 Central Avenue, Cortland, NY 13045
Amount Requested: $2,995,000
Project Description: The project will renovate a county owned building in the downtown area of the City of Cortland to relocate the county Mental Health Department and treatment/services.
Purpose: This funding is a good use of taxpayer resources since it will help provide needed space to the Cortland County Mental Health Department (CCMHD). The COVID-19 pandemic heightened the necessity of obtaining an improved and larger location for these services, as high-priority behavioral health needs and demand for CCMHD treatment/services increased. In both 2020 and 2021 CCMHD provided record high number of outpatient sessions. Federal and state data show this increased demand for mental health care is forecasted for years to come. Failure to address the CCMHD physical space needs will have long term negative service and fiscal consequences to taxpayers and limit treatment/service availability to those most in need. Moving the CCMHD to this new County owned and renovated building creates positive opportunities and invests in both Cortland and CCMHD, significantly benefiting the community. NYS Office of Mental Health reviewed and offered support of the new location for critical treatment/services offered by CCMHD. Stable, inclusive, accessible, telehealth capable, and therapeutic physical environments for vulnerable/disabled populations are a priority for New York state and the community.

Proposed Recipient: Griffiss Institute
Project Title: Smart-X Internet of Things (IOT) Living Lab
Recipient Address: 592 Hanger Road, Rome, NY 13441
Amount Requested:  $3,000,000
Project Description: The project will provide for a lab that will be an open and collaborative environment where vendors and developers can integrate, test, experiment and demonstrate their smart technology capabilities.
Purpose: This funding is a good use of taxpayer resources since it will support the goals of the City of Rome Smart City vision and economic development in the region. The integrated research fabric will connect GBTP, Innovare, NY UAS Test Site and SkyDome resources (people, equipment, and ideas) with Rome's Air City, and Woodhaven Riverwalk enabling New York State’s first smart, autonomous-friendly village. It will also build on the work of the existing SkyDome Trusted Smart-X Experimentation Environment project funded in fiscal year 2022.

Proposed Recipient: Oneida Health System, Inc.
Project Title: Building a Stronger Tomorrow in Rural Central New York: Capital for Behavioral Health Services
Recipient Address: 321 Genessee Street, Oneida, NY 13421
Amount Requested: $1,000,000
Project Description: The project will renovate an existing building located on the main campus of Oneida Health to support an urgent care/testing center upstairs and a HRSA-funded Behavioral Health Integration and Intensive Outpatient Program downstairs.
Purpose: This funding is a good use of taxpayer resources since it will offer the community a local provider of behavioral and/or substance use disorder services, backed by a consortium of community and medical providers. These renovations will allow the behavioral health/substance use programs to be co-located and integrated within a diverse medical campus including a hospital, primary care, women’s health, cancer services and many other providers. This will allow patients to seek holistic care without having to go to another facility, creating a robust, patient-centered, yet continuous plan of individualized treatment, reducing hospitalizations, long-term stays, and death by suicide. Central New York is a largely rural area with a significant lack of local behavioral health and substance use disorder providers. While Syracuse, the closest metropolitan area to Madison County, has specialized health providers, many community members are unable receive care because lack of proper transportation. This program has the potential to significantly reduce the risks of overdose, suicide, and other long-term health outcomes in the region that suffers mortality and self-harm hospitalization rates at significantly higher rates than the rest of New York State.

Proposed Recipient: Tioga County Soil and Water Conservation District
Project Title:Natural Filter Restoration and Climate Resiliency in NY’s Southern Tier: Focusing on Watershed Community Resilience
Recipient Address: 183 Corporate Drive, Owego, NY
Amount Requested: $1,580,628
Project Description: The project will be used for the implementation of water quality and habitat improvement projects including the provision of flood attenuation, climate resiliency, habitat connectivity, and ultimately better water quality for local communities in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Purpose: This funding is a good use of taxpayer resources since will address local needs through mitigating flooding impacts in the Upper Susquehanna River Watershed through restoration of natural filters. Over the years this region has been hit by many debilitation floods that have provided extensive damage to private property and infrastructure. This project will also strive to engage impacted watershed residents through outreach and education. This includes landowners, but also public entities such as local schools, universities, and municipalities.

Proposed Recipient: Town of Orwell
Project Title: Orwell Water System Improvements
Recipient Address: 1999 County Route 2, Orwell, NY 13426
Amount Requested: $2,351, 200
Project Description: This project will construct a new transmission and main connection to the nearby Town of Richland to supply water to Orwell during the problematic dry season, thus ensuring the Town will have sufficient and reliable drinking water at all times.
Purpose: This funding is a good use of taxpayer resources since in will address demonstrated water supply and water quality issues with the Town of Orwell’s water system. In the most recent drought in July 2020 the wells supplying the town dried up and the town had to haul in water. Subsequently, the Oswego County Health Department (OCHD) issued a notice of water supply violation. The Town then issued an Emergency Declaration for this period of water hauling and supply deficiencies and signed a Bilateral Compliance Agreement with the OCHD to acknowledge the supply issue and illustrate their commitment to solve it. Even worse, the nitrate levels in the town wells have been increasing over the past several years and in the Fall of 2021, exceeded the New York state Maximum Contaminant Level. The OCHD immediately requested that the source that exceeded the MCL be shut off and the Town has had to rely on only one other well. Then in February 2022, the nitrate levels in the other well also exceeded the NYS MCL. The Oswego County DOH issued a violation to the Town of Orwell and issued a letter of support to connect to the more reliable Town of Richland water supply.

Proposed Recipient: Town of Schuyler
Project Title: Town of Schuyler Graham, Brown & Newport Road Water District
Recipient Address: 2090 State Route 5, Utica, NY 13340
Amount Requested: $1,000,000
Project Description: This project will extend the municipal water system to the Graham, Brown, and Newport Road areas of Schuyler to replace the contaminated well-water supply.
Purpose: This funding is a good use of taxpayer resources since it will remedy a confirmed water contamination problem in the area. Recently in 2019, 25 homes in the project area tested their well water supply. Of the 25 tests, 16 tested positive for coliform and 7 tested positive for both coliform and e-coli. In addition, 2 tested positive for methane. This equates to numerous homes within the project area having unacceptable supply. These results indicate that the aquifer in this area may be susceptible to pollution and demonstrates the importance of connecting the homes in this area to the municipal water system.

Proposed Recipient: Town of Whitestown
Project Title: Buy-out of Repetitive Flood Loss Properties
Recipient Address: 8539 Clark Mills Road, Whitesboro, NY 13492
Amount Requested: $227,400
Project Description: The project will facilitate the buy-out eligible/approved residential properties in Whitesboro severely damaged by repeated flooding as a proactive attempt to implement a permanent repetitive flood loss.
Purpose: This funding is a good use of taxpayer resources since it will help assist in the implementation of the existing Sauquoit Creek Channel & Floodplain Restoration program. Since 2010, there have been five major floods, with a handful of more minor events, along the lower Sauquoit Creek in the Town of Whitestown and Village of Whitesboro, which is located within the Town. On July 1, 2017, and October 31, 2019 (2019 Halloween Storm/Flood), approximately 200 of the same residential and commercial properties experienced flooding and damage ranging from foundation collapse to basement flooding to first floor flooding. Repetitive flooding costs federal, state and local governments, and taxpayers a substantial amount of money in clean-up and recovery efforts. While a significant investment, the NRCS Floodplain Easement Program, and subsequent buy-out of eligible/approved residential properties in Whitesboro severely damaged by the 2019 Halloween Storm/Flood, represents a proactive attempt to implement a permanent solution to repetitive flood loss. It allows approved recipients to receive the necessary compensation to relocate and the area where they once resided is restored to its natural state. Consequently, it will also reduce the great cost ensued by the repeated flooding.

Proposed Recipient: Utica University
Project Title: Utica University Crime Lab
Recipient Address: 1600 Burrstone Road, Utica, NY 13502
Amount Requested: $734,014
Project Description: The project will be used to create a proposed 1,200 square foot crime laboratory to provide an open floor plan space that will support a full-range of crime scene investigation activities.
Purpose: This funding is a good use of taxpayer resources since it will improve the collection of digital evidence which is become an increasingly important part of most criminal investigations. The collection of digital evidence has a number of implications for and impacts the collection of physical evidence at a crime scene. Techniques for retrieving digital evidence may damage or alter physical evidence. Similarly, collecting physical evidence can damage digital evidence. The National Institutes for Standards and Technology (NIST) standards and guidelines on digital incident response and evidence collection are silent on the impact on physical evidence. In addition, the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC) standards on physical evidence do not sufficiently address the impacts of physical evidence collection on digital evidence.

Proposed Recipient: Valley Health Services, Inc.
Project Title: Valley Health Services Skilled Nursing and Neurobehavioral Care Facility
Recipient Address: 690 West German Main Street, Herkimer, NY 13350
Amount Requested: $2,000,000
Project Description: The project will create a new, state-of-the art 160 bed skilled nursing facility with a 20-bed neurobehavioral unit and a 20-bed memory care unit in Herkimer County.
Purpose: This project is a good use to taxpayer resources since it will address a significant unmet medical need in upstate New York. The new facility will focus on services needed most by the community and will address current service gaps such as end-of-life care, dementia care and specialized units for sub-acute, clinically complex residents and those with neurobehavioral conditions. Once the new facility is constructed, Upstate New Yorkers will be able to access neurobehavioral services locally, close to family and friends, and will no longer need to access those services out-of-state or in the New York Metropolitan Area, where even the capacity there for neurobehavioral care is insufficient to meet what is essentially a statewide demand for those services. The aim is to move away from an institutional care model for those requiring 24-hour skilled nursing, to a residential model that promotes dignity, personal expression, family engagement and independence.

P
roposed Recipient: Village of Canastota
Project Title: South Canal, Commerce & State Street Sewar Separation
Recipient Address: 205 South Peterboro Street, Canastota, NY 13032
Amount Requested: $1,507,605
Project Description: This project will separate storm water from sanitary sewers to assist in preventing combined sewer overflows into the Canastota Creek.
Purpose: This project is a good use of taxpayer resources because it will help the village finally reduce excessive combined sewage overflows into Canastota Creek, improving water quality for all those in the watershed. Their current combined sewer system is easily overwhelmed by wet weather events and this shortcoming can only be relieved through the construction of a separate stormwater sewer system. In addition, the village is designated by the USDA as a disadvantaged community so they would have trouble affording the project themselves and need federal aid.

Proposed Recipient: Village of Marathon
Project Title: Waste Water Treatment Plant and Pump Station Rehabilitation
Recipient Address: 18 Tannery Street, Marathon, NY 13803
Amount Requested: $3,480,960
Project Description: This project will make repairs, updates and replacements to the Village of Marathon’s aging waste water treatment system.
Purpose: This project is a good use of taxpayer resources since it will help improve the water quality of the Tioughnioga River, Susquehanna River, and Chesapeake Bay. With the raising of state and federal water quality standards the village’s Waste Water Treatment Plant now requires expensive upgrades and replacements which would be expensive for the village to take on alone. On top of this last year the facility saw pump failures and the loss of backup generator necessary to keeping the plant operational during power loses. This reinforces how the plant needs this investment to protect the health of residents and the environment.

Proposed Recipient: Village of Oneida Castle
Project Title: Village of Oneida Castle Sanitary Sewer Collection System
Recipient Address: 1 First Street, Oneida Castle, NY 13421
Amount Requested: $4,152,000
Project Description: The project will provide public sewer to the entire Village of Oneida Castle. It will replace private, deteriorating septic systems by connecting to an existing sewer tributary and the City of Oneida Wastewater Treatment Plant, who will operate and maintain the Village’s sewer system. Construction of the proposed project will include approximately 22,000 linear feet of gravity sewer main, 1,100 linear feet of pressure sewer main, 2,500 linear feet of sanitary force main, 7,000 linear feet of gravity sewer laterals, and a pumping station.
Purpose: This project is a good use of taxpayer resources because it will replace the village’s failing septic systems with a public sewer system, removing pollution from the Mohawk River and other communities downstream. As a low-income community, access to affordable, reliable wastewater treatment would help to provide financial security. It would also bolster economic development in the village with public sewers providing a path to community revitalization and transformative housing.