Three NNY municipalities get state grants for water infrastructure projects
WATERTOWN, N.Y. (WWTI) – Three north country municipalities are getting access to grants and low-cost financing to improve water infrastructure.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the Environmental Facilities Corporation Board of Directors approved over $175 million in financial assistance for water infrastructure improvement projects across the state.
Work on Carthage bridge project starts
The board's approval authorizes municipal access to low-cost financing and previously announced grants to get shovels in the ground for critical water and sewer infrastructure projects. These investments help make projects more affordable, reducing the need for higher rate increases to fund improvements.
Here is a breakdown of the municipalities in the area that will be getting funding:
Village of Clayton – $8.2 million grant and low-cost financing package for the replacement of the aged raw drinking water intake and approximately 25,000 linear feet of aged water main and associated appurtenances.
Town of Diana – $5.1 million grant and low-cost financing package for improvements at existing Well Nos. 1 and 3, installation of an approximately 350,000-gallon drinking water storage tank and new water mains.
Village of Lyons Falls – $1.6 million grant and interest-free financing package for the planning, design, and construction of wastewater treatment plant improvements.
The Environmental Facilities Corporation is proud to support communities across New York State that invest in clean, safe, and reliable water infrastructure. These approvals are symbolic of Governor Hochul's commitment to affordability, public health, environmental protection, and economic resilience. By making these investments affordable, we're helping municipalities tackle urgent infrastructure needs while minimizing the financial impact of these projects on local ratepayers.
Environmental Facilities Corporation President & CEO Maureen A. Coleman
The EFC Board approved grants and financing to local governments from the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds. This is a mix of federal and state dollars dedicated to financing community water infrastructure projects. State Revolving Fund interest rates are below market rate, and with long repayment periods, communities may save significantly on debt service compared to traditional financing.
EFC's board also approved executing previously awarded grants from the state's Water Infrastructure Improvement program. The board's approval is a critical step in the funding process and will allow communities to access these funds for project implementation. Leveraging federal funding with state investments maximizes the impact of each dollar spent, empowering local communities to make critical system improvements they need to keep their residents safe and ensure cost is not a barrier for project implementation.
State residents can track projects benefiting from EFC's investments using the interactive project impact dashboard. The map can be filtered by funding type and shows a project's stage of construction. Each project announced today will be included on the map once the community executes a funding agreement with EFC.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
18 hours ago
- Fox News
Former top Hochul aide's unearthed family connections to CCP raises alarm bells
EXCLUSIVE: A former top aide in New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul's office is the daughter of a former Chinese journalist whose archived biography says he worked for the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) "Education Department of the News Bureau of the Central Propaganda Department" as a deputy director and served in multiple leadership roles at state-run media outlets, a Fox News Digital investigation found. Fan Xiaojiang, or Elaine, is currently serving as the chief of staff for Democrat Scott Stringer's mayoral campaign and has been involved in Democrat politics in New York for more than a decade, including serving as Hochul's director of Asian affairs between October 2021 and November 2023, according to her Linkedin profile. The latest campaign finance filing shows that she has been paid more than $120,000 by the Stringer campaign since last August. Stringer's campaign declined to comment for this story. Fan, who is originally from Beijing, was recognized by the City University of Hong Kong's Centre for Communication Research in a 2021 press release promoting her role in the Hochul administration. The press release called her an "alumnus" and boasted about her being "one of the very few Asian-American leaders who hold a senior position in the state's government." The press release went on to quote professor Jonathan Zhu, a former supervisor, who said that "Elaine is the third generation of a journalist's family in China, with her grandfather and father each playing a distinguished role in the respective eras of the nation's history." Fox News Digital can now exclusively confirm that this press release was referring to Fan Dongsheng, her father, and Fan Changjiang, her late grandfather. When reached for comment on whether Elaine's father influenced her to go into the media, Zhu confirmed to Fox News Digital that Dongsheng was her father and said, "Although I have never eyewitnessed what Fan Dongsheng told his daughter about career choice, his influence on her is obvious and imaginable." He went on to say that Dongsheng visited the university that his daughter attended a "few times, including a talk to our faculty members and graduate students on his experience in launching and operating Huasheng Monthly, one of the earliest online news websites in China." Prior to jumping into state government in 2014 as the "Queens Borough Director & Citywide Asian American Affairs" for Stringer's comptroller office, Elaine was the "Chief Reporter" for Ming Pao Daily News for almost a decade between 2005 and 2015, according to her Linkedin profile. A few years before she joined the media outlet, the Jamestown Foundation, a nonpartisan defense policy think tank, sounded the alarm about the media outlet being "heavily influenced" by the Chinese government and revealed that sources told them that the Chinese Consulate in New York was their "true boss." This would not be the first time that someone from the Fan family would work for a media outlet influenced by the Chinese government. Fan's father served as the president and editorial director of China Press, or Qiaobao, in New York between 1999 and 2005, according to multiple archived online bios. China Press was not only designated by the State Department during President Donald Trump's first term as "state-backed propaganda" and a "foreign mission," but the Hoover Institution also sounded the alarm, saying in a 2020 report that the "state-owned China News Service and the Overseas Chinese Office of the State Council dispatched editorial personnel to the United States" to found Qiaobao. The elder Fan also served as the "director of the Special Editorial Department of the Chinese News Agency," which now refers to the Xinhua News Agency, a top state-run propaganda outlet, according to the Hoover Institution. Multiple bios said he was also the deputy director of the "Education Department of the News Bureau of the Central Propaganda Department." According to a Chinese government website reviewed by Fox News Digital, the CPD is the "organization primarily responsible for monitoring content to ensure that China's publishers, in particular its news publishers, do not print anything that is inconsistent with the Communist Party's political dogma." After leaving state-owned media, Dongsheng held multiple leadership roles at the Cheung Kong School of Journalism and Communication at Shantou University, a Chinese university that has sections on their website that promote the CCP "Party Building Work" and hosted a themed life meeting a few years ago on "Strive like an outstanding Communist Party member" The editor of China Brief at the Jamestown Foundation expressed deep concerns when Fox News Digital reached out about Fan's familial ties to the CCP, saying she "comes from an illustrious family of CCP journalists." "Her grandfather was one of the more prominent propagandists of the CCP's struggles from the 1930s onwards, while her father worked for a range of party publications managed under the central propaganda department in Beijing," Arran Hope told Fox News Digital. "This included a stint in the United States, where her daughter now works as chief of staff to mayoral candidate Scott Stringer, following a stint as a reporter for another party outlet here. Fan has not distanced herself from her family legacy, quite the opposite. In 2017, for example, she delivered a speech at a journalism school in the PRC (People's Republic of China) named in her grandfather's honor." "More concerning for New York City's voters, she appears to be actively involved in the party's United Front system, which seeks to promote the party's preferences and control both within and without the PRC. She has given speeches at events organized by the PRC Consulate in New York that celebrate United Front organizations in the city," he continued. "These events call for promoting reunification with Taiwan as well as advocating for the 'motherland' and its interests. To have somebody whom PRC diplomats clearly view favorably in such a senior role in New York politics should be cause for concern." Elaine Fan's late grandfather joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1939 and had leadership roles at multiple state-owned media outlets, including as the editor-in-chief of the Xinhua News Agency, deputy director of the General Administration of Information and president of the People's Daily News Agency, according to multiple bios on Baidu. In addition to her father and grandfather, Fan's uncle, Fan Xiaojian, joined the CCP in 1976 and has held multiple roles in the CCP, including as the chief economist and director of the finance department of the ministry of agriculture between 1998 and 2000. He was also a delegate to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and was a member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which Fox News Digital previously reported was "designed to liaise with non-Communist Party members – and ultimately see them work with the CCP to advance its interests," according to a 2021 report from The Diplomat. During her tenure in the Hochul administration, Elaine attended several events hosted by the Chinese Consulate in New York City and multiple groups that make up China's United Front, which works to "co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling," according to a U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report. Elaine was a guest of honor at an event last September at the consulate in New York City to celebrate the 27th anniversary of the U.S.-Fujian Western Overseas Chinese Association, which is a United Front group, according to the Chinese government. She also attended an event called "An Evening of Chinese Culture" hosted by the New York Mets and Sino-American Friendship Association in 2023, which received backlash. According to an August 2022 op-ed from the Washington Post's deputy opinion editor, "China experts have identified" SAFA as "being involved in United Front work – a global effort to propagandize on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party." In 2021, Hochul gave a shout-out to Fan while announcing that Chinatown was a $20 Million New York City region winner for revitalization, saying she "forgot to mention Elaine Fan is now my Director of Asian Affairs." She then told the crowd to "Make sure you get to know Elaine Fan as well." Hudson Institute Fellow Michael Sobolik spoke to Fox News Digital about the totality of Fan's links to the CCP, saying, "This isn't complicated." "If Elaine Fan ever worked for CCP-controlled state media, she shouldn't be welcome in U.S. electoral politics. If Scott Stringer lacks discernment to insulate a campaign from potential vectors of CCP influence, how can he protect New York City from that malign influence in public office?" In September 2023, Chinese Consul General Huang Ping in New York hosted a reception at the consulate to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, which included several officials, including Fan, who delivered remarks at the reception. Hochul's ties to Elaine Fan aren't the first time that her office has faced scrutiny over concerns about CCP influence. Hochul faced backlash last year after it was revealed that her former deputy chief of staff, Linda Sun, was indicted on charges of "violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling, and money laundering conspiracy," according to a Department of Justice press release in September. Sun's lawyers have repeatedly denied the charges, but the indictment revealed some damning communications between Sun and Huang Ping, who left his role as the consul general of the New York City Chinese consulate weeks after the indictment against Sun was announced. Fox News Digital has extensively reported on Ping, who was spotted making visits to top universities, speaking with elected officials and carousing with top media outlets despite his long history of pushing CCP narratives and publicly denying human rights violations against China's Uyghur population. The unsealed indictment revealed that a speechwriter for then-Lt. Gov. Hochul wanted to mention the "Uyghur situation" in China for her 2021 Lunar New Year message, but the plight of the minority group being persecuted by the Chinese government was ultimately omitted after Sun overruled the speechwriter. The indictment says Sun revealed to Ping what the speechwriter wanted to include but insisted that she would not let her boss mention Uyghurs after admitting that she was "starting to lose her temper" with the speechwriter. Ping appeared to chalk up the speechwriter's suggestion as a clueless American who had never visited China and that U.S.-China relations could "sour" because of "people like the speechwriter," the indictment said, prompting Sun to concur that the speechwriter had never visited China. Ping would go on to post Hochul's Lunar New Year message days later on his Facebook page, which did not mention Uyghurs. Fox News Digital reached out to Fan and Hochul's office but did not receive a response.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Alstom opens $75m manufacturing plant in Hornell, New York
French rolling stock manufacturer Alstom has unveiled a new Plant 4 manufacturing facility in Hornell, New York, US. Alstom has invested $75m in the new facility, which will produce stainless steel car body shells for passenger rail vehicles. Spanning 12,542sqm, the site will further enhance the firm's manufacturing capabilities to support other initiatives. The investment in Plant 4 will relocate production from Brazil to the US, reaffirming New York's Southern Tier as the epicentre for rail innovation. Furthermore, it will also boost domestic supply chains within the US rail industry. Initially, the new site will begin production on 200 multilevel commuter rail cars for Chicago's Metra system. The 2021 contract, valued at $775m, can be extended to increase the order up to 500 rail cars. The new facility will create 258 new jobs, including those in mechatronics engineering and robotics-related fields. It will also help retain 390 existing jobs in Hornell. Alstom received $3.4m in federal funding for the expansion. Additionally, it received grants, job credits and tax credit programs from agencies including the New York Empire State Development, the US Economic Development Administration, City of Hornell Industrial Development Agency, the US Department of Treasury CDFI Fund, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, New York State Electric & Gas, and the US Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration. Michael Keroulle, president of Alstom Americas, thanked New York Governor Kathy Hochul and the state, local and federal partners for their support. 'Plant 4 upholds our commitment to making trains in America, also expanding our ability to deliver rail solutions,' he added. Congressman Nick Langworthy expressed his gratitude towards Alstom for its investment boost in the region. 'The Southern Tier is the capital of rail car and train manufacturing, and this investment is a critical next step in continuing this legacy,' he added. According to a GlobalData report, Alstom was the most prolific company in making international expansions in the transport equipment industry between Q1 2019 and Q1 2024. Since 2024, Alstom has announced investments in Romania, Hungary, Turkey, China, Mexico, and Egypt. "Alstom opens $75m manufacturing plant in Hornell, New York" was originally created and published by Investment Monitor, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Cuomo rips Hochul for prioritizing tax rebates over NYC child care vouchers
NEW YORK — In a rare direct rebuke of his successor last week, Andrew Cuomo questioned why Gov. Kathy Hochul earmarked $2 billion for inflation refund checks in this year's state budget, but rejected a request for more state funding for a popular child care voucher program benefiting low-income New York City families. 'They shorted the city on voucher funds this year … but they had the money to give back $2 billion in tax rebate checks?' Cuomo, the front-runner in this month's Democratic primary for New York City mayor, said in an interview with the Daily News Editorial Board last Friday. 'How can you give away $2 billion in tax rebate checks, which means you just had money to throw away, but you didn't fund basic services in New York City?' Cuomo's broadside — which offers an early peek into what his relationship with the governor could look like should he be elected mayor — came after The News asked if he has been rubbed the wrong way by any of Hochul's recent city-related policy decisions. The inflation refund checks, which Hochul proposed as part of her executive budget this spring, will start going out to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers this fall, with joint filers who make $150,000 or less getting $400 and single filers making $75,000 or less getting $200. The voucher program Cuomo referenced provides direct subsidies to low-income city families that they can use to cover the cost of child care for their kids, many under age 5. The program has become vastly popular, but Hochul this spring rebuffed a request from Mayor Eric Adams to pony up more state funding for it, leading the city to shutter new enrollment due to cost concerns. To cover the fiscal shortfall, Hochul and the state Legislature ultimately came to a deal whereby the city must contribute $328 million in annual voucher payments, and then the state kicks in funds for expenditures above that. In response to Cuomo's comments, Hochul spokesman Avi Small said Wednesday that the governor has expanded child care voucher programs 'after a decade of state neglect,' an apparent jab at Cuomo's gubernatorial tenure. 'On the subways or in the grocery store, New Yorkers ask when their inflation relief checks are coming and thank Gov. Hochul for putting money back in their pockets,' Small added. 'New Yorkers win when the mayor and governor work together: Gov. Hochul is ready to get things done, and she hopes whoever wins in November is, too.' Cuomo's swipe at Hochul over the child care issue is notable as he has largely refrained from criticizing her since he resigned as governor in 2021 while facing all but certain impeachment over accusations that he sexually harassed subordinates and mismanaged nursing home policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Hochul critique from Cuomo, who has denied any wrongdoing, also comes after he took a thinly veiled shot at her during an interview with The New York Times this week. In that interview, Cuomo said he regretted resigning and argued he could have accomplished so much more as governor, before musing in apparent reference to Hochul's first elected gubernatorial term: 'Looking back, what has really been done in the last four years, anyway, right?' His shot at Hochul could portend he would, as mayor, be more than willing to use the City Hall bully pulpit to go after her, even though they go way back and have largely enjoyed a cordial professional relationship. That dynamic would mark a total 180 degree change on how former Mayor Bill de Blasio often knocked Cuomo for using his gubernatorial levers to withhold funding from New York City, including for child care programs. While blasting her over the child care issue, Cuomo also said in his sitdown with The News that he and Hochul share similar political sensibilities as moderate Democrats. 'I have a fine relationship with Hochul, I hired her,' he said. 'I worked with her for years, and we have the same agenda.' Cuomo and Hochul go way back. In 2014, as he was seeking a second gubernatorial term, Cuomo tapped Hochul as his running mate to become lieutenant governor. They both went on to win their 2015 elections, and Hochul then served as Cuomo's No. 2 all the way through his August 2021 resignation, at which point she succeeded him, becoming New York's first female governor. _____ (New York Daily News reporter Cayla Bamberger contributed to this story.) _____
