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SCHUYLERVILLE — The village of Schuylerville has been awarded $4.5 million to revitalize its downtown, New York Gov., Kathy Hochul announced during a recent gathering in Lake George.
“When people look back and say: What was the turning point? You’re going to remember this day,” said Hochul, using a phrase often referenced by historians regarding the 1777 battles at Saratoga and the surrender of the British army in Schuylerville as the “turning point” of the American Revolution.
“This is the day it all begins,” Hochul said. “We have the 250th anniversary of the battle(s) of Saratoga coming up soon. Let’s celebrate 2027. Our goal is to greet the world with a really transformed village in time for that, so that’s the timetable we’re looking at.”
The $4.5 million awarded Schuylerville in the NY Forward grant measures about three times the village’s annual general fund budget and will be used to partially aid a handful of large projects. Among them are improvements to building facades, fixing broken culverts to revitalize the canal way, assisting the eventual development of a proposed multi-use building at a key location on Broad Street that currently sites vacant property, and helping fund a multi-year, multi-million-dollar project at Fort Hardy Park.
Schuylerville, which calls itself “America’s Most Historic Village” is home to about 1,400 residents. In 2022, its Village Board of Trustees appointed a 7-member committee for the NY Forward Task Force to lead the public participation and grant-writing process, and subsequently submitted a letter of intent to apply for the $4.5 million NY Forward Grant.
Timewise, most, if not all the projects, are anticipated to first “break ground” in 2025, Schuylerville Mayor Dan Carpenter said during the monthly village board meeting Jan. 8.
The Fort Hardy Park project specifically, will likely result in a potential tax increase in order to see the $20 million, 20-year project through to its completion - a tax burden shouldered by households in the village, which currently number about 700.
Any such increase related to the park, however, would be “miniscule,” compared to the more immediate circumstances regarding the infrastructure of the local water system as it pertains to Schuylerville and the neighboring village of Victory, the mayor cautioned.
A handful of years ago, the Schuylerville-Victory Board of Water Management (SVBOWM) retained C.T. Male Associates to prepare a Water System Master Plan. That 51-page report was released In May 2020 and notes that “the majority of the water mains within the Villages of Schuylerville and Victory are 100 to 120 years old and are well past their useful life.” Included was a $7 million water project infrastructure upgrade, Mayor Carpenter said. Most of the funding for the upgrades has potentially been identified, Carpenter added, but the SVBOWM has yet to act on securing the funding. “This water upgrade is going to affect both villages… inaction is going to cost us.” Costs associated with the upgrades would be shared by the two villages.
“Our water rates are going to go up – and that’s nothing to do with the (downtown revitalization) project we’re talking about today,” Carpenter said. “When people are upset about taxes going up because we’re improving the village, because we’re bringing in new businesses and we’re doing an upgrade to the park – the amount is miniscule compared to what will happen with the water if they continue to do nothing.
“That’s going to be because for the past 30 years we’ve had an aging infrastructure and we’ve had our head in the sand. We have done nothing to update or fix it and have been doing emergency repairs for the past 30 years,” Carpenter said. “Sitting down with CT Male, we identified that had we applied last year – in early 2023 – almost 75% of the ($7 million) cost of that water upgrade should have been eligible to be covered by grants. But, I cannot promise you if the Water Board takes another year that it’s going to be covered 75%.”
The Schuylerville-Victory Board of Water Management holds meetings monthly. The next scheduled meeting will take place 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 22 at Victory Meeting Hall, 23 Pine St. in Victory Mills.
