Upgrades to Chalybeate Park.
More American flags.
Better broadband.
Better connections—mostly sidewalks—between the upper and lower village.
Those were just a few of the ideas floated Thursday when about 50 Sharon Springs neighbors turned out to suggest ways to best spend $22 million in NY Forward funding.
There’s some specific criteria for how the grants can be used; projects forwarded to the state for consideration this fall must also be transformational and shovel-ready.
And while the Local Planning Committee’s meeting are open to the public, the open house was an information session that asked those on hand to use Post-Its and stickers to share their thoughts on SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
It was also a chance for people like Tony Desmond, representing the Sharon American Legion, to get help filling out an application.
Application deadline is 5pm Wednesday, August 2.
Applications, criteria, more information on NY Forward, and a local survey are available online at SharonSpringsNYF.com.
Mr. Desmond came to the open house to find out whether expanding the Legion’s Main Street flags throughout the village would be eligible for funding.
Only if they’re located within the boundaries of the Main Street target area, he learned.
“Fine,” he said. “We’ll just tweak some things, move some flags around. They get pretty expensive—but they add a lot to the character of the village and we think they’re important.”
Across the room, Jane Hickey talked with Tanya Zwahlen from Highland Planning about improvements she’d like to see at Chalybeate Park.
More seating? More landscaping? Access to water? Relocating the nearby DPW building?
SUNY Cobleskill President Marion Terenzio and Sharon Springs Deputy Mayor Denise Kelly are co-chairs of the LPC.
Other members are Elliott Adams, Tony Daou, Lance DeShazo, Barb Handy, Austin Jetton, Maureen Lodes, Julie Pacatte, Arianna Parsons, Brent Ridge, and Carol Vacca.
As members of the public came and went, Ms. Kelly and Mr. Ridge discussed the fact that even the projects not eventually picked for NY Forward funding will have a “leg up” on other state funding simply by virtue of having been vetted and picked.
There’s no LPC meeting in July; they’ll be back August 15 and September 19 to review and evaluate proposed projects. Consultants also held a pop-up event before yesterday’s concert in Chalybeate Park.
This is the first year of NY Forward, which is modeled after the Downtown Revitalization Initiative—just for smaller communities.
Other winners in the Mohawk Valley were the Villages of Cooperstown and Dolgeville.
Cooperstown is looking at projects that will increase apartment-style housing and the number of year-round businesses, link existing neighborhoods with Main Street and Otsego Lake, and make the village hall a community anchor, and is exploring the feasibility of mixed-use development near Doubleday Field.
Dolgeville, which sees itself as a gateway to the Adirondacks, is looking for projects that capitalize on its history and waterfront while diversifying housing options to keep existing residents—and attract new ones—and enhance economic opportunity and community resilience.