Grant could allow hockey rink to be covered, used all year

The town of Warwick is looking to upgrade its hockey rink at Union Corners Park into a year-round facility that will be covered and can be used for both summertime skating and winter ice skating, Warwick Town Supervisor Jesse Dwyer reported at the June 26 Warwick Town Board Meeting.

Dwyer shared his gratitude for the town’s grant consulting firm, Millenium Strategies, whose services and costs are shared with the villages of Warwick, Florida and Greenwood Lake, for finding a grant opportunity for the town to pursue to potentially fund this project.

“The town is pursuing a New York State grant to fund the project and it’s something that I’ve always wanted to see from the time that I was mayor till now and never really found a project like this, but our grant writers found what they felt was a very good fit for this type of a project,” he said.

Dwyer also thanked the firm for its help in submitting multiple grant applications to offset costs for the much-need Wickham Sewer District repairs. The town has submitted four applications, with two more coming up in late July and early September, he reported, adding that without the technical savvy to compile these grant applications, the town would have to rely on an engineering firm at the cost of $100 to $200 per hour to do this work, if it did not have the contract with Millenium Strategies. This agreement, Dwyer said, enables the firm to write unlimited applications at no extra cost to the town.

The town is also pursuing funding through the state’s Consolidated Funding Application grant (CFA) for its proposed multi-use trail project in partnership with the village of Warwick. Dwyer noted that while the town may not win the grant - especially this early in the project’s development - the CFA provides feedback on how to improve the application for success when the town is better prepared to get the funding.

The multi-use trail would link the downtown of the village with the Price Chopper and ShopRite Corridor on Route 94. According Dwyer, the project is still in its feasibility stage, with the potential route being drawn and ongoing talks with local stakeholders and property owners along the route to ensure everyone supports these efforts.

Town Recreation Director Samantha Walter announced that children of Warwick-area farm workers who attend the summer program at The Alamo Community Center in Pine Island will soon benefit from a swim safety program at Mountain Lake Park. Walter shared that it will be the first chance these children will have to get in a pool and swim, adding that a donation from the nonprofit, Small Things, will provide life jackets for the campers.