Released: Oct. 23, 2011
Local government grants totaling $640,000 was approved Thursday for a Niagara County tri-city water study. Lockport, North Tonawanda, and Niagara Falls will be exploring sharing their water services in order to cut costs.
These types of grants are state run and approved, and are not available to the public – the state’s legislative is responsible for appropriate funding approval, and the decision is generally voted on by a board committee.
“Thursday’s grant allotment would be utilized to develop a regional water efficiency project to consolidate the public water treatment and supply that would achieve a 10-year projected savings of $10,424,160, according to state officials.”
The New York Department of State’s Local Government Efficiency Program will administer the grants, and are working out previous recommendations made by an analysis firm.
Bird's Eye View of Lockport, NY via Google Maps
The plan is to route Lockport potable water from North Tonawanda through a 13-mile raw water line, which will be used to channel Niagara River water to a treatment facility in Lockport.
“Other suggestions included closing water treatment operations in North Tonawanda and Lockport and have treated water provided by Niagara Falls to all three cities. That move was estimated to cost $20 million.
In the tri-city study, the firm analyzed 24 water and waste water shared service agreements between two and three cities.”
In an effort to help municipalities, special districts, school districts, and law enforcement agencies in areas throughout New York state, Secretary of State Cesar A. Perales said the funding is part of $4.74 million state assistance fund, designed to streamline government services and operations to reduce costs and property taxes.
The funding will support 29 initiatives, with nearly $4 million in funding from grants to implement 10 consolidation and efficiency projects that are estimated by grantees to generate $62.3 million in savings to taxpayers over the next 10 years.
City of Lockport Mayor Mike Tucker added:
“Sharing services, we believe, is the way to ease the burden of taxation on our residents as well as continuing to offer quality services.”
By: Bradley Barks
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