By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- Municipal lawmakers here say although Alcoa and government officials have promised the aluminum giant will retain 600 jobs at the Massena west plant, the area needs to get away from dependence on industry.

Meanwhile, Massena’s supervisor says the town will not contribute to kickbacks aimed at keeping Alcoa around.

“We must not lose sight of the fact that we cannot continue to rely primarily on industrial jobs. We must continue to count on them to some degree, and pursue those jobs for potential growth opportunities,” Mayor Tim Currier said. “However, we now know more than ever, that we must continue to focus on diversified job-creation and growth strategy.”

Gray said Alcoa will not receive any municipal money as part of a $69 million state bailout.

“We have not been approached for anything like that nor do we have plans to pursue anything like that,” Gray said.

“This announcement, I think, was a bit of a wakeup call. We need to work hard to have more of a diversification in our economy,” Town Supervisor Joe Gray said. “We can’t let out guard down. We need to pursue efforts to diversify our economy and provide greater stability. For many, many years have been reliant on Alcoa … we can’t do that anymore.”

He said NYPA will soon release an economic development study they funded as part of the St. Lawrence-Roosevelt Power Project license review, and the town should take heed of its suggestions.

“It’s going to have new ideas to take advantage of our resources,” Gray said. “We need to take elements from that study, move it forward and develop a better mouse trap.”

“One of the things we talked about was tourism and recreation. That’s one component that won’t replace Alcoa jobs, but we can develop it,” Gray said. “We need to make sure people understand when we talk about fishing that it’s a year-round venture here.”

Alcoa had announced Nov. 2 that they would close the west plant smelter and renege on their pledge to modernize the east plant.

The corporate welfare deal announced Tuesday grants Alcoa a $68.8 million corporate welfare package in exchange for a pledge to keep 600 jobs in Massena through March 20, 2019. The company will receive $30 million from the New York Power Authority in power discounts and $38.8 million from the state.

Sen. Charles Schumer said the new package does not include a provision requiring east plant modernization.

The NYPA discount is in addition to millions of dollars in discounts and incentives Alcoa has already received from the agency.

“The $30 million is just an estimate because the number could go down if aluminum prices increase,” NYPA spokesman Steve Gossett said. “The $30 million is what Alcoa will now be saving on top of the incentives it has already received from the state. And those amounts are not cash payments, rather the savings that results compared to the wholesale price of electricity.”

Alcoa’s bailout equates to the state spending roughly $64,600 per employee without the NYPA power subsidy. Once NYPA’s deal is factored in, it goes up to about $113,300 per worker.