Thank you to Devin Bates and Local 22 & Local 44 for doing a story today on saving our Bridges! It should air at 6:00pm tonight!
ALSO, an important phone call today from Joshua Kretser. He is the head of the Clinton County Transportation Committee. We had a really nice chat today about the bridges in Keeseville. Joshua assured me that everyone on the transportation committee and everyone in the County Legislature is in support of saving the bridges. It is a matter of finding the right grants to fund the bridges. We talked about some potential options in how we could accomplish that task. One potential option would be that the County donates the bridge to the town, and the town donates the bridge to a non-profit to raise funding. After the bridge was restored, we would then donate the bridge back to the county. This would have to be done by contract, and was just one suggestion. I looked into this last summer, and there was a lot of issues with towns that have done this in the past, but I didn’t have time to explain a lot of that on the phone as I had a meeting to go to.
To clarify an error of mine, I learned that Clinton County does not have a grant writing “Team” as I have previously stated, and that everyone involved with writing grants also does many other things at the county.
I do know Essex County uses an office to write grants, and there could have been some confusion on that point. In Clinton county it is a few people and Prioritizing resources needs to happen a lot. I explained the issues from 2008, and how we are trying to stay positive, and avoid the negative.
I did have to leave the phone call a bit early, but I also mentioned the trees near the swing bridge, and then later sent a photo of it to him. Hopefully that will be addressed soon.
One of the great things about this phone call today was hearing that the transportation committee is in support with us.
A simple phone call creates a working relationship to find solutions. I asked for an update on the Old State Road Bridge Historical Structure report grant, and Joshua was going to look into it to see if it was awarded.
I also learned today that Clinton County can not take fund raised money from a non-profit organization. We had hoped to be able to help offset the remaining 20% the counties needed to pay by fundraising. We are checking to see if the local towns can accept fundraising, and then donate the money to the counties. It might be a possibility.
I think the best thing we can do right now is get both Essex and Clinton County working together to apply for federal grants to save our bridges. With all of the infrastructure money that was passed, there must be a solution somewhere. I’m here to provide the county any help and information they need to make that happen. THANK YOU Joshua, and thank you Clinton County. We can get creative and make this happen. It’s just going to take some out of the box thinking.
