DEC Brings Climate Smart Communities Grant to Lexington

LEXINGTON  - Yes, people in the town of Lexington, there is a Santa Claus who, this Christmas, arrived with a million gifts.

To be more precise, Jolly St. Nick slid down the chimney with $1,131,662 neatly wrapped from the NY Department of Environmental Conservation Climate Smart Communities grant program.

The matching funds will be used to help construct a new highway garage, a project that has been on the wish list of local government leaders for years.

DEC unwrapped the pecuniary present on December 23, part of $16 million being distributed to municipalities statewide within Round XIV of their Regional Economic Development Council Initiative.

“I am ecstatic,” Lexington town supervisor Jo Ellen Schermerhorn said in a phone interview. “This is about a lot of people working together,” led by Lamont Engineering.

The need for upgrades in the highway department dates back two decades and more, to the period when the late Kenneth Becker was supervisor, searching diligently for outside funding support.

It was well known the existing highway garage, located along Route 42, was the site of numerous flooding incidents, most dramatically in the summer of 2011 and Tropical Storm Irene.

Becker’s earlier town board efforts set the groundwork for now working with the Department of Environmental Protection to sell that land through the New York City agency’s flood mitigation program.

DEP has been prepared to buy the property if and when the town was able to come up with another spot situated out of the flood plain.

Lexington’s road department is currently spread out, housed primarily in makeshift quarters at Mosquito Point, along Route 23A, while using the deteriorating Route 42 structure for some storage.

There is also a modern winter sand storage building along Greene County Route 13 where the fresh facility will be constructed.

Lexington’s new home base will be a single story 58-by-152-foot wood-framed structure constructed to the southwest of the existing salt shed,” documents from Lamont Engineering state.

“The building will have six 16-foot-wide by 14-foot-tall truck bays, as well as administrative/office areas, storage, a break room, and unisex restroom with shower,” Lamont Engineering states. 

The when’s and wherefores are uncertain. The DEC grant will cover half of the estimated cost of the project, meaning Lexington must come up with the rest, a financially daunting mission.

Other economic avenues are already being sought. “We’ve been talking to the Catskill Watershed Corporation about maybe providing some funds,” Schermerhorn said.

Dollars brought in by the sale of the old garage to DEP will be invested in the new facility and once the new headquarters is finished, the Mosquito Point building can be sold, recouping additional money.

Acknowledging there is much to do before breaking ground, Schermerhorn was optimistic, saying, “so far, the public is behind this project.

“We had a top notch group of people who know construction and who we trust working on this, giving it a sense of community,” Schermerhorn said.

Councilman Bradley Jenkins, a veteran highwayman, was a member of the special committee, joined by current Lexington highway superintendent Kevin Simmons and former Lexington town supervisor John Berger, a respected professional contractor.

They, and others, teamed with Jason Preisner, an associate principal engineer with Lamont Engineering who wrote the grant application.

The deadline was July, 2024, awaiting word from DEC in what is a highly competitive selection process with dollars dispersed statewide.

DEC, on their website, stated, “the [total] grant awards…represent the largest ever awarded thanks to funding from the Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022.

Sean Mahar, the DEC interim commissioner stated, “municipalities that participate in the Climate Smart Communities Grant program are taking local climate action to reduce pollution and protect New Yorkers from severe weather and other climate impacts.”

“This is all wonderful. Fantastic,” Schermerhorn said. “We have a ways to go but it has been amazing, seeing the key elements coming together. 

“The whole idea of the committee was to get as many people as possible involved, with experience in this type of effort, so the community knows they are all part of the decision,” Schermerhorn said.