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SARATOGA SPRINGS — On November 15, 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law a bipartisan infrastructure law aimed at, among other things, rebuilding the country’s roads, bridges and rails, expanding access to clean drinking water, ensuring access to high-speed internet for all and tackling the climate crisis.
Eight weeks later, newly minted Saratoga Springs Mayor Ron Kim announced as one of his first actions in office the initiation of a city Infrastructure Committee. The group would be tasked with prioritizing a list of city projects with needs that could be addressed by those federal funding opportunities. Kim appointed former city Mayor Joanne Yepsen as chair of the city Infrastructure Committee and requested each council member propose appointments to staff the committee.
“It’s really a generational opportunity where monies from the federal government can address some substantial projects and infrastructure,” Kim told the City Council last week, during a presentation by Yepsen.
“Our goal is to not miss opportunities, and to be shovel-ready for as many of these projects and funding applications as possible,” Yepsen explained.
The Infrastructure Task Force held its inaugural meeting on March 2, identifying city priorities and grant-fundable projects. Subgroup categories were organized based on the way the funding is divided in the bill, Yepsen said. Those subcategories: Transportation, Water-Sewer, Climate, Energy and the Environment, and Health & Human Services.
More than 70 potential projects were identified, and following an RFP process the city selected the Delta Development Group as its consultant to assist in securing potential funding. Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Pennsylvania, Delta specializes in community planning and funding strategies with a core focus on economic growth.
The contract between Delta and the city in the amount of $25,000 began Aug. 1 and runs through the end of this calendar year. “They’re really grant writers and more importantly they’re right on top of how and when the funds will be released and going to flow for the areas through the legislative action,” Yepsen said. “We have a real opportunity to garner the significant amount of funds from the federal and state level. It’s a five-year program and we’re well into the first year.”
According to an Aug. 19 report by Reuters, the Biden administration has funded more than 5,000 projects to date and released around $113 billion. The administration will award billions of dollars in additional grants through the end of 2022.
Regarding Saratoga Springs, five grant applications have been submitted and one awarded; Rise Housing and Support Services received more than $2 million from the U.S. House’s Transportation HUD Appropriations Bill, through Congressman Paul Tonko’s office.
RISE Housing and Support Services is a human service agency that has been serving people in Saratoga and the surrounding counties since 1978. The funds will be used to construct a homebase day center.
“To put a little more detail on what was funded already - many of you have contacted our office because of the homeless situation in our downtown area,” Mayor Kim said. “One of the needs that we have not had an answer to for several years is a Day Facility for homelessness, for people who don’t have an alternative place to go. The funding Congressman Tonko has secured through the federal government is going to create a Day Program Facility at the RISE off of South Broadway,” the mayor said. “So, this is one of the very concrete uses of the funds that the federal government has offered, and it’s just the first of what we think are going to be many needs that we’ll be able to address through the various programs being offered.”
Consultants from the Delta Development Group will visit Saratoga Springs next month to tour the city and visit various need projects identified by the task force, Yepsen said.
An open-to-the-public meeting with the Task Force will take place at 4 p.m. on Sept. 21 at City Hall.
