Village Applies For $½ Million To ‘Jumpstart’ 22 Main Upgrade

By JIM KEVLIN

The Village Board has applied for a $500,000 CFA grant that, if approved, would “hugely jumpstart” a $2 million planned renovation of 22 Main, the historic Village Hall, according to Mayor Jeff Katz.

The grant, plus the village’s $166,000 match, would pay for one-third of the work.

CFAs (for consolidated funding applications), administered through the Mohawk Valley Regional Economic Development Commission (one of 13 statewide), are the Cuomo Administration’s single point of access to state ec-dev funding. This round of applications is expected to be awarded in October, ahead of November’s election day.

If received, the grant “will cover a lot of the less glamorous things: insulation, electrical work, painting, window work, sidewalk work,” said Katz. “It will improve some accessibility internally, but this grant is not for the major accessibility issue we talked about at the Fair Street entrance.”

In December 2012, a CFA grant enable work to begin on the $2 million sidewalk replacement now under way.

Katz said Trustee Cindy Falk, who prepared the application, had identified the state Environmental Protection Fund, which includes historic preservation, as a potential source of funding for the 1898 federal-style structure, built by the Clark family to house the library, YMCA and museum. Robert Sterling Clark donated it to the village in 1932.

Four years ago, Lou Allstadt, now a village trustee and a neighbor to Village Hall, became interested in the structure’s renovation and formed the Friends of 22 Main. As a trustee, he had to step aside from the Friends, but has been able to move his interest forward as chairman of the Village Board’s buildings committee.

The village has contracted with Holmes-King-Kallquist, a Syracuse architectural firm, which developed a plan that identified the Fair Street entrance in a way that resolves handicapped-access challenges for the whole building. A glassed-in foyer would include an elevator, an entry point to the two upper floors as well as the basement.