Lexington Applies for Smart Growth Grant

LEXINGTON - Everybody would be a quadrillionaire in Lexington if money grew on trees but it still doesn’t so government leaders will be seeking dollars from a more fruitful source.

Town council members, at a meeting last week, agreed to apply for a Smart Growth grant from the State Department of Environmental Conservation.

DEC recently announced the availability of $3.7 million overall from their Environmental Protection Fund, a reimbursement-based program.

Those efforts are focused on implementing existing plans or developing new comprehensive plans within the Adirondack Park and Catskill Park.

DEC is working with the Adirondack Park Agency and the Department of State, soliciting applications from municipalities and not-for-profit corporations. Applications are due by January 31, 2024.

The agency wishes to facilitate initiatives that link environmental protection, economic development and community livability within the special conditions of the Parks, their press release states.

Further, the program provides additional evaluation points towards regional or park-wide projects and projects that address affordable housing needs.

The program also provides a separate scoring category for development of comprehensive plans and local land use plans or updates to prior plans.

Lexington could use the dough in multiple capacities with grants ranging from $25,000 to $125,000 “Sometime down the road, we need to consolidate our highway department,” town supervisor JoEllen Schermerhorn said in a telephone interview.

Trucks, equipment and materials are currently spread in various locations including the highway superintendent’s and worker offices (along Route 23A), an antiquated barn along Route 42 and the winter sand and salt shed, near the juncture of Route 42 and Route 23A.

The wish list could include a swing set near the pavilion on the grounds of the Kenneth Becker municipal building, picnic tables and a playground at the popular Farmer’s Market or maybe signage at the walking path and heliport adjacent to the local post office.

“As usual with these grants, we would first have to pay for things, but it is definitely worth it to go after free money,” Schermerhorn said.

The quest for the DEC bucks marks the second such fiscal fishing trip this year. Town officials, in November, agreed to sign onto a private investor effort that would involve restoring the old Lexington Hotel.

Alan Weiss has emerged as the prospective purchaser of the the hotel, an adjacent building that once housed the local post office and an aging barn located across the street (Route 13A) from the hotel.

The town is merely serving as facilitator for the funds that would come thru the Capital Region Regional Economic Development Council.

Monahan Development Corporation prepared the application on behalf of Weiss with an announcement expected in the spring of 2024.

While the competition is stiff for the $4.5 million pool of dollars, Monahan Development Corp. president Jim Monahan says Lexington is a viable contender, despite its smallness and in fact due to it.

Larger metropolitan areas are hoping to tap the same pool but, “the unique thing about this type of grant is that it would have a major impact on a small, rural town like Lexington,” Monahan said.

In other actions:

—Supervisor Schermerhorn announced that the town received the second of two yearly Mortgage Tax payments from the county.

The town annually budgets $30,000 in Anticipated Revenue from Mortgage Tax. The latest check is for $21,798, bringing the 2023 total to just over $48,000, a nice chunk of change getting added to the General Fund.

While happy to have the extra cash, council members even more fondly remember the “good old days” of the pandemic when the town received nearly $80,000 in one payment alone as housing sales boomed.

—Council members scheduled the regular year-end meeting for December 27, at 6 p.m., closing the books and tying loose financial ends on 2023.

The council will be bidding adieu to board member Bennett Wine who did not seek re-election in November, saying he is away from Lexington for long periods of time, attending to family matters.

While he is still able to attend meetings on computer Zoom, Wine said, “since covid, we have been living in Denmark six months of the year.

“I feel if somebody is on the town board, they should be here in Lexington full time. It is better to let somebody else take the torch.”

—Council members observed a Moment of Silence for three individuals with community connections who recently passed away.

Alice Marilyn Dippold of Spruceton Valley was a devoted housewife and bookkeeper for her husband’s business; Lois Martin was known for her numerology and psychic readings; Deborah Spivak was the longtime librarian at the Phoenicia school.