Rockland County Executive Ed Day Announces $5.8 million in Economic Development Grants

COUNTY PRESS RELEASE – Rockland County Executive Ed Day announced Tuesday, December 19 that the county has been awarded more than $5.8 million in state grants for economic development.

The awards made in Rockland County include funds to expand private businesses, revitalize communities and encourage tourism.

“This investment in Rockland County will pay off in terms of increased economic development,” the County Executive said. “Rockland is in an era of renewal and we thank the state for recognizing our efforts to create a welcoming economic environment.”

The Regional Economic Development Council awards include $84.8 million for 113 projects in the mid-Hudson Region, which includes Rockland County. That’s an increase over last year, when the Mid-Hudson region was awarded $83.3 million.

Rockland County received more than $3 million in awards last year.

In the first three years of the program, 2011-2013, Rockland County received a combined total of $5 million.

Day became County Executive in 2014 and made it a priority of his administration to seek funding through the Regional Economic Development Council.

“We thank Lucy Redzeposki, our Director of Economic Growth and Tourism, for reviving our participation in this program and steering our applications through the process,” Day said. “All of Rockland County will benefit.”

Awards were made to a variety of businesses, municipalities and non-profits throughout the county, including revitalization efforts in Sloatsburg and West Nyack, infrastructure improvements along the Sparkill Creek in Orangetown, building projects at Nyack Hospital, rehabilitating trails that run through Rockland County and funding to promote a beer festival at the Garner Arts Center in North Rockland. The Town of Stony Point was awarded funds to study shared services

Numerous Rockland businesses were also given grants to help them grow, including Cambridge Security Seals in Pomona, Chartwell Pharmaceuticals in Congers, Praxair Surface Technologies in Orangetown, and VITS International Inc., in Blauvelt.

The grants announced this week include:

• $1.05 million – West Nyack Hamlet Green Revitalization: The Town of Clarkstown Wetlands Restoration project will restore a degraded wetland and construct a porous pavement parking lot at the adjacent town park. This project will improve water quality in the Hackensack River and enhance revitalization efforts in the Hamlet of West Nyack.

• $1 million – Phase II of the Tuxedo Sloatsburg Corridor Revitalization Project includes expansion of 7 Lakes Inn, creation of a bike shop adjacent to Harriman State Park with access to Sterling Forest trails, transformation of a long-vacant grocery store into a mixed use space and significant landscaping to showcase the Historic Stewart farm.

• $864,000 – VITS International Inc. will expand in its current manufacturing facility in Blauvelt and will purchasing new fabrication equipment to keep up with increasing demand for its printing and packing  supplies.

• $730,000 – Cambridge Security Seals will expand its existing facility in Pomona, which will enable the company to construct an additional three production lines and the support equipment, as well as provide necessary warehouse space to keep up with demand for their products.

• $700,000 – Chartwell Pharmaceuticals Congers Expansion Project to expand its manufacturing footprint for finished dose manufacture and logistics. The project will include new laboratories, office, storage and production space to enhanced production capacity.

• $340,000 – Nyack Hospital Transitional Care Unit: Nyack Hospital will renovate and retrofit existing space on the fourth floor 4-Maze Nursing Unit to create a 16-patient Transitional Care Unit. Room partitions will be reconfigured, a new fire sprinkler system will be added and the HVAC system will be modified along with electrical and plumbing as needed. A dining room and country kitchen as well as an activity room will be created in addition to the patient rooms.

• $220,000 – Construction of Sparkill Creek/ Route 303 Culvert: The Town of Orangetown will replace an inadequately sized and deteriorated culvert along the Sparkill Creek at Route 303 with a built-in-place concrete culvert. Water flow and water quality will be further enhanced by removing a deteriorated pump house in the stream and restoring the streambank.

• $157,040 – The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference will build and rehabilitate eroded and worn sections of the Ramapo, Dunderberg Trail and Kakiat, Triangle, and Tuxedo-Mt. Ivy trails. These trails intersect and connect with long-distance trail systems, including the Appalachian Trail, the Long Path, the 150- mile Highlands Trail, and the route of the new Empire State Trail.

• $120,375 — GARNER Historic District: GARNER Arts Center will develop and promote “The Craft Beer Immersive Arts Festival”, a special event planned for May 18-19, 2019, which will combine agritourism, craft beverage and art resources, increasing tourism awareness and visitation to the area.

• $66,000 –Praxair Surface Technologies, Inc., Orangetown, Lean Manufacturing Skills Training. Praxair will offer skills training to low and middle skills employees in three Lean Manufacturing model areas: Waste Elimination; Machine Maintenance; and Workplace Organization.

• $25,000 – Rockland County Shared Services Program Rockland County will evaluate the feasibility of shared service between the Town of Stony Point Police Department and the Rockland County Sheriff’s Department. The project will study the possibility of, and provide cost estimates for, the consolidation of police dispatching services between the town and county.

In addition, Rockland County will benefit from two additional awards made to organizations in the region:

• $500,000 – Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County will encompass the seven counties of the Mid-Hudson Region including Rockland County and create marketing materials for distribution via websites and social media to raise awareness and provide funding to producers for participation in the New York State Grown & Certified Agricultural Producer’s Grant program.

• $40,000 – Pace University Mid-Hudson Municipal Redevelopment Readiness. The Land Use Law Center at Pace Law School will use its regional land use and sustainable development conference to advance economic growth in the region, including Rockland County. The conference highlights local government approaches for overcoming challenges and finding solutions that target new ways to plan, regulate, and design communities.

For more information on the grants go here or to:

https://www.ny.gov/sites/ny.gov/files/atoms/files/2017AwardsREDCRound7Bookletdjunys.pdf