The following is a letter I sent to Clinton County and Essex County Yesterday.

Here is a proposal on how we can work together to save the bridges in Keeseville.   Clinton and Essex county can work together with their grant writing teams to submit grants for Preserve NY, RAISE, and/or Northern Border Regional Commission State Economic & Infrastructure Development Investment Program FY2022.  You will have a stronger grant application if both counties work together.  

The USDOT recommends bundling of Bridges when applying for grants to reduce overall project costs.  The RAISE grant has a $25 Million grant ceiling and a total of $1 Billion in funding.  We don’t need nearly that much to accomplish what we are asking.  We could focus on ONE bridge, or bundle the bridges together as USDOT requests.  The ONE bridge we would focus on is the Upper Bridge first.

THEN, We have a non profit lined up ready to start fundraising in the community to offset as much of the remaining 20% of each project as we can.  A lot of people have expressed interest in donating to help, but we can’t until the counties both see preservation as a good thing, and work with us.  We can fundraise enough to make an impact, and lessen the burden on each county.  The Town of Chesterfield and town of Ausable MAY also be able to help in some small way as well.  We can do this together.  

The Grant deadline for RISE is July 12th.  Other deadlines are approaching here as well.  As much as a pain as I am being, I am really here to help you in any way possible and do something great for my community.  We have a chance here, and it is my goal to make you all the heroes in this project.  

The only way we can make this happen is if the Counties VOTE for preservation and then restoration.  Let’s get the county grant writing teams on board as well.

Peter Melewski (Former NYS Thruway Authority Head) is the lead author for the bridge section of the 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers NYS Infrastructure Report Card.  He is confirming that Historical Bridges are to be focused on.  

We have a chance to do something really special here.  Art Suckewer of Wrought Iron Bridge works, and other companies such as VS Engineering or Bach Steel can be valuable resources IF you reach out to them.   If Art’s company is selected during the bidding process, he could use the Upper Bridge as a demonstration of his companies ability to do the other two.  

Let’s Preserve History, right a wrong from over a decade ago, and Make History by voting for preservation and restoration of these bridges.  I’m also reminding you of my invite to walk together and tour the bridges.   Timing is critical, and we need to act together.  

Thank you for your time,
Matt