MALONE — A North Country state senator met with Franklin County legislators Thursday morning, recapping the recently concluded session in Albany and hearing from elected officials on two broadband projects.
Sen. Daniel G. Stec, R–Queensbury, was in Malone on Thursday and sat down with the county legislature during the board’s work session. He said he supported the five-year postponement to the state’s electric bus mandate as part of this year’s budget agreement in Albany.
“I used Saranac Lake School District as my go to example in Franklin County because it’s geographically the largest school district and as you all know it’s routinely in the morning, on The Weather Channel, the coldest point in the lower 48,” Stec said, adding between the cold winter temperatures and the long bus runs he had concerns over the feasibility of utilizing electric buses in the district, “After years of trying this year they finally did postpone it five years and that was in that bill and I voted for it.”
Stec also spoke on the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
“We are right at the spot now where we are trying to electrify everything and we don’t have the infrastructure or the supply to do it,” he said, “We aren’t going to get there overnight and we aren’t going to get there inexpensively.”
The final state budget scrapped the CLCPA’s initial deadline for emissions regulation, according to Stec.
“I think we need to be realistic in our approach, we postponed the CLCPA a little bit,” he said, “That was with a lot of gnashing of teeth. The governor is the one who opened that door, a NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) memo came out that it was going to cost us a lot of money if implemented so she (Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul) said she wanted to talk about it.”
According to Stec, the number one call he received from constituents last winter dealt with high electric bills. He also touched on artificial intelligence and data centers on Thursday as well.
“I remember Governor Cuomo back in the day, he was like AI is the future of the economy and he was right. It is and we need to be on that and it’s also obviously national security,” Stec said, “You start talking about AI and all that and we are in a race with China and we don’t want to lose that race it’s like a new space race. But it’s all power and energy driven, now we have put ourselves in a corner where we are trying to electrify things that always haven’t been electric, all new home construction, getting out the gas stove business, all restaurants are going to be using electric. We are taking away that capacity that could be going to, and I know it’s politically charged but data centers, the next round of the economy that’s going to be driven by energy.”
BROADBAND
According to County Manager Donna J. Kissane, the county is moving forward with its larger broadband project, in the northern portion of the county, while holding off on a smaller project towards the south end.
“Right now we continue to move forward with a larger project, MIP (Municipal Infrastructure Program) 3, we had sent an email last week asking for what we needed to see in order to move forward and the state did do some good things to help us,” Kissane said, “If we get a $1 million bill from construction we can submit the invoice and they will upfront us the money, we will pay it, and then show them proof of payment. That’s a big change for us on that.”
Kissane said Empire State Development put in for an extension on the MIP 3 project with the federal government. MIP 1 remains on pause in Franklin County.
“That’s our smaller project in the southern end,” she said, “The construction costs came in a little higher than what could be afforded in the project, that’s a little over $5 million, the installation and construction bids are too high so we are negotiating that. Yesterday Joel Perry and our project managers, Airosmith, met with the bidder and started negotiating that to see if we can bring that down so that we can meet the total costs of the project that we have.”
RESOLUTIONS
Legislators passed a pair of resolutions later Thursday related to the two broadband projects authorizing acceptance of an amendment to the MIP III grant disbursement agreement with Empire State Development and the ConnectAll Office and authorizing acceptance of an amendment to the MIP I grant disbursement agreement with the state’s Urban Development Corporation.
Both resolutions passed by a vote of four legislators in favor and three opposed.
According to the MIP 3 resolution, the county is working towards a proposed amendment to the grant disbursement agreement that provides for additional grant funding and incorporates modifications to the approved network design, adding acceptance of the amendment will enable Franklin County to secure additional funding to support broadband infrastructure improvements while maintaining alignment with the approved project objectives.
The acceptance of additional grant funding is in the amount of $12,308,000, according to the MIP 3 resolution.
Andrea M. Dumas, R–Malone, expressed frustration with how difficult it has been to work with some of the other groups involved in the broadband project, adding National Grid has raised the project’s costs.
“We have been held not to say hostage, but almost like hostage through the whole process with ConnectAll and ESD, and even the power companies,” Dumas said, “We don’t have a pole in the ground yet. This has been a struggle to get broadband to a few houses.”
According to the MIP 1 resolution, the county is working towards a proposed amendment to the grant disbursement agreement that provides for additional grant funding and incorporates modifications to the approved network design.
“I think the comments from ConnectAll are extremely concerning, it’s not the fault of this board, I think they put another program in place that they don’t have it completely outlined,” Dumas said, “Other counties are leaving this program and we’re working hard to figure out how to keep it moving forward but they aren’t giving us the exact answers that we are asking for.”
The resolution authorizes the county manager, upon the review and approval of the county attorney, to execute the amendment to the grant disbursement agreement with the state’s Urban Development Corporation and authorizes the acceptance of additional grant funding in the amount of $3,427,778.27.
“MIP 3 is moving forward at this time and we are waiting for some answers on MIP 1,” Kissane said, “While the resolution was approved it will be dependent on the county attorney and my approval, and we will let the board know if we think it’s ready to go forward.”
According to legislator Joe Shoemaker, D–Saranac Lake, of the two broadband projects he is more concerned about MIP 1.
“We are asking really tough questions but I genuinely think everyone is working hard to find us solutions that we are comfortable with so we can see this project to completion,” he said, “I don’t think this is a can we can keep kicking down the road. We are going to get the answers we need to feel comfortable or we’re not.”