Village gets money for trees, sidewalks

Warwick — The village will receive $85,000 from the county’s Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant this year for the John Street sidewalk replacement project. The village has been a recipient of this grant for several years and has used the grant money to replace sidewalks throughout the village and upgrade bathrooms to be handicap accessible in parks and the American Legion building. The only issue with this grant has been timing. The money must be used during the county’s fiscal year. While the county’s fiscal year is from January to December, the village’s fiscal year begins in June, giving them six months to complete their projects. There are options. Mayor Michael Newhard said that with projects taking up to three months just to do surveying, engineering and the bid process, the village may look into either short-term, no-interest loans from the county or building some extra money into the budget to get started on next year’s project earlier until the grant comes in. Newhard is writing to the county, which distributes the federal HUD money, about loaning the village about $12,000 so village officials can get a jump on the engineering and bid process for the John Street sidewalk project. In the future, though, he thinks the Village Board will at least consider setting aside some funding in next year’s budget in anticipation of the grant coming in January. If at first you don’t succeed... After being turned down for an Urban and Community Forestry Project grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation last year, the village got it just right this year and will receive $7,500 to beautify the village with trees. That effort will be concentrated in the Division-John-Factory street area. But that’s not the only sprucing up that’s happening in the village. The state Department of Transportation will be planting 35 trees on village main streets, which double as state roads. That’s happening in the spring.