Town and Village benefit from $270 thousand state grant

   Senator Dale Volker, Assemblymen Dan Burling, 147th district and Joe Errigo, 130th district, invited guests, town and village government representatives and highway superintendents gathered at the York Town Hall on August 29 to unveil the road equipment purchased through a New York State Shared Services Grant secured through Senator Dale Volker’s office. The towns of Avon, Caledonia, Leicester, Mt. Morris and York cooperated on the application for the $296,410 grant to purchase a road widener and a roller. The five town highway departments will share ownership and use of the heavy equipment.

   "We learned in the legislature and in Livingston County, that shared services makes sense. We’re going to see this kind of cooperation continue," Volker told the crowd gathered for the presentation of the check.

   Burling and Errigo agreed, saying that the Shared Services Grant is an example of people working together across party lines to form productive partnerships that benefit the people of Livingston County.

   "This is people working together to make good things happen," Burling commented.

   "We work together with people and with Senator Volker, the senior senator in this area," Errigo added.

   Russ Page, Leicester Highway Superintendent, said neighboring towns had been sharing a similar piece of equipment borrowed from the county DPW. With a short construction season, that led to scheduling difficulties and some projects had to postponed altogether.

   "This purchase makes the timing much better and gives us more of a window to do these projects," Page said.

   Leicester Supervisor Gary Moore also expressed their appreciation to the town clerks who had a large part in the filing of the necessary paperwork.

   The supervisors from the towns who cooperated on the purchase, all expressed their appreciation to Volker, Burling and Errigo for bringing the grant money back to Livingston County. All of them expressed that a purchase of this magnitude would be totally out of reach for many Livingston County town budgets that are being squeezed by rising costs and dwindling revenues.

   "Mt. Morris couldn’t otherwise afford large equipment expenses. Grants like this are very important to our community," Mt. Morris Supervisor Ken Troglauer told the state officials.

   David LeFeber, Avon supervisor told the state representatives that Avon appreciates all grant money that has to the town and agrees that consolidation is the way to stretch those dollars. LeFeber referred to the consolidation of the Avon town and village office building.

   Caledonia Supervisor Daniel Pangrazio, Jr. thanked Volker for his hand in this grant but also for his help in securing a $50 thousand grant the town used to repair a culvert on McIntyre Road.

   Caledonia Mayor Joe Caluorie had much to thank the senator for as well. The Village of Caledonia received a $100 thousand grant through Volker’s office to pay for the costs of connecting its municipal water system with the Monroe County Water Authority. Caluorie said without the grant, taxpayers would have had to absorb the cost of the water project in addition to paying the higher water rates associated with the switch to Monroe County Water.

   "We owe a great debt to you, Senator Volker," Caluorie said.

   With the 2008 construction season coming to a close, the two pieces of road equipment will be stored in Avon until spring when the five town highway departments will cooperatively schedule their use.