Brockport Village Trustees are taking the first steps in procuring an electric vehicle for the Building Department/Code Enforcement office. During their regular meeting Monday, February 6, trustees authorized Trustee Katherine Kristansen to move forward with the process of obtaining price quotes for the purchase of an electric charging station for the car. The station will be installed at the village hall.
Trustee Katherine Kristansen said the purchase of the charging station will qualify the village for a grant which will help cover the cost of the electric vehicle. Obtaining the vehicle is also part of the certification process for the Clean Energy Communities Program, Kristansen explained.
“Already there is a vehicle budgeted for the codes department,” Kristansen said. The purchase of the charging station, “opens the doors for a grant that will help us to be clean and green and move us forward.
“Why would we want (an electric vehicle)?” Kristansen asked. She explained that the electric car would lower costs and be more environmentally friendly.
Mayor Margay Blackman said the $50,000 grant would cover the cost of the electric car and might additionally provide funding to begin the process of replacing village streetlights with LED lights.
Trustee Kristansen also discussed a process which is underway to obtain a grant from the Local Waterfront Revitalization Program. “I’m really excited about this,” Trustee Kristansen said.
She said the grant will involve a number of stakeholders in the community working together – the village, the Town of Sweden, the College at Brockport, Seniors’ Choice at Heritage Square, and downtown village merchants.
The 50/50 grant is open-ended in regards to amount, Kristansen said, and would help to, “expand the beauty and efficiency of our canal front and … provide us with funds to get the village comprehensive plan done.”
The process is in the planning stages, she explained, and currently stakeholders are being asked to provide wish lists of projects they would like to see accomplished. That list will then be turned over to the village’s grant writers.
Kristansen noted possibilities for improvement exist along the entire length of the Erie Canal in the Town of Sweden, from areas along Redman Road such as college housing, Heritage Square and the Town of Sweden Park, to Commissary Park on the College at Brockport campus, to the downtown area of the village and east.
In other business, trustees authorized an application for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG grant) to help with the cost of extending and replacing certain sidewalks in the village. Trustees also adopted a resolution expressing the Village Board’s intent to act as Lead Agency for the accompanying SEQR process.
The CDBG grants are available through Monroe County and Mayor Blackman said typically they are used by the village for infrastructure projects. “This project will benefit pedestrians,” the mayor said.
She explained the project includes approximately 6,500 square feet of new sidewalks and replacement of approximately 7,330 square feet of existing sidewalks along portions of State Street and Utica Street.
New sidewalk is planned along State Street between Oxford Street and 250 State Street. Replacement of sidewalk is planned along State Street from Main Street east 140 linear feet; along Utica Street from the railroad bridge to the north 912 linear feet; and along Utica Street for 80 linear feet in front of 12 Utica Street.
Mayor Blackman noted the new sidewalk between Oxford Street and 250 State Street will reach Allied Builders, Inc. and facilitate employees who live in the village and walk to work.
