Grant money sought for Center septic project: Town Board seeks State, County money

In a special meeting following its work session on July 12, the Town Board unanimously approved the filing of applications for State and County grants to offset costs associated with the Center wastewater project.

Project construction costs, according to the Town’s outside consultants, Lombardo Associates, are expected to total $3,117,030. Grants writer Jennifer Mesiano Higham has identified two sources of money she believes the Town could receive for the project.

The first is a New York State Water Quality Improvement Program grant that could total $2.5 million. It would require a local match of $625,000. A second source of funding could come from Suffolk County and the application is for $250,000 that would need a $250,000 local match.

If both grants are forthcoming in the full amounts, the match for the State funds could be reduced to $529,257 by applying some County money to the Town’s share, according to Deputy Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams.

That $529,257 could come from the resources held by the local Water Quality Improvement Projects Advisory Board. Its money comes from 20% of a 2% transfer tax paid by buyers of Island property. The other 80% of that transfer tax is used to fund acquisitions of land preserved for passive uses.

Town Board policy requires prior determination of where money would come from to make the local match. That wasn’t always the case, but failure to establish that determination could result in having to default on a grant for lack of ability to pay the local municipalities match.

That would make it difficult to qualify for future grants.