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by Dan Veaner
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Friday, 19 December 2008 |
 The fate of $4.2 million of State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Environmental Bond Act money was in limbo last year when Lansing's sewer project was killed. The project was halted when town officials were unable to bring the cost to affordable levels for residents who would have been in the sewer district.
Since then officials have been trying to get the DEC to give the Town some or all of the money for smaller projects, and to reimburse the Town for monies spent. Last summer Town officials met with the DEC to ask whether the Town could use the money for four projects. "We were requesting requesting reimbursement for planning and design costs," said Town Supervisor Scott Pinney at Wednesday's Town Board meeting. "They turned us down. We were also asking if we could possibly use that money for a stand-alone plant. They turned us down on that."
That was not the answer officials
were hoping for. The DEC said no to $1.5 million to reimburse the town
for planning and design costs incurred when the large sewer project was
being developed. They also said no to using the money to build a
stand-alone sewer treatment plant that could have brought sewer through
the area being considered for development as a town center. A request
to be reimbursed for the Kline Road Bypass, a project that was actually
completed in the Village of Lansing, was not addressed.
The DEC did say the Town can use $3 million to pay for the Warren Road
sewer project collection system, because the project falls within the
boundaries of the original larger sewer project. But Town officials
worried that could actually hurt the project rather than help it.
But Pinney said a Rural Development low interest loan could be in jeopardy
if grant money is used for Warren Road. "Maybe it will help for that
project," he said. "But maybe not, because we are so far along
already."
Councilman Bud Shattuck, who chaired Lansing's sewer committee
concurred. "I'd hate to have that grant go away," he said. "Unless it
funds the project in whole it may not be worth it."
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