By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- Massena Village Board of Trustees voted 3-0-2 in favor of the New York Power Authority’s proposed license review agreement. Trustees Tim Ahlfeld and Albert “Herb” Deshaies abstained.

The deal is to bring to a close the review of the 2003 St. Lawrence FDR relicensing agreement between the village and town of Massena, the Massena Central School District, municipalities in Waddington and Louisville, St. Lawrence County and NYPA.

While Massena’s elected officials said they were in favor of the agreement, several members of the public said they felt the board should reject the proposal and take a new approach.

Mark Scott, who is Waddington’s former town supervisor and former vice chairman of the Local Government Task Force, told the board that if they approve the deal despite misgivings, they are “telling the world it’s a good deal.” The LGTF,composed of local elected officials, has been negotiating the deal with NYPA.

“This isn’t a handout. This is owed to the communities,” he said. He was talking about unsuccessful requests the LGTF made for cash payments to offset the tax impact from NYPA’s 33,000 acres of tax-exempt land along the St. Lawrence River.

He pointed to other power companies operating in the area that produce far less electricity but make substantially larger reparations than NYPA. He pointed to Brookfield Power, which operates hydrodams in St. Lawrence County and pays $6.4 million per year that’s split among Colton-Pierrepont Central, Colton and the county. He also noted that a wind farm in Lowville that pays $3.5 million annually to Lowville Academy under a payment in lieu of taxes program.

Scott urged the board to “oppose those who wish to control and steal our natural resources.”

Joel Grigg of Massena said the LGTF communities should act like a union.

“This is a union town. Why are we not thinking like that?” he said. “Let’s work together with all the communities and say ‘enough is enough.’”

“If you all stand together, you have that clout,” said James Hidy, Massena’s former mayor.

Massena resident Jim Lyon said the local communities should attack NYPA from a public relations angle.

“I would go after them with a good PR firm,” he said. “See what you can legally put on a billboard.”

Mayor Timmy Currier told the room that he had no problem voting for the proposed agreement.

“”It’s a review, not a re-opening of negotiations,” he said. “NYPA is not responsible for our economic woes in the North Country, nor should we look to them to solve it.”

LGTF Chairman Joseph Gray told the board that the only way to really fight NYPA is with a costly lawsuit, more than the North Country could afford.

“In my view, to expend more taxpayer money, when there is clearly no chance to improve the results, not only is a waste of time, but is irresponsible,” Currier read from a prepared statement.

The trustees all agreed with the mayor.

“I like it better than the supposed alternative,” Trustee Matthew Lebire said.

“It’s only a review of what went on 10 years ago,” Trustee Francis Carvell said. “Are we going to get more? No.”

A summary of the tentative agreement released by NYPA:

• Up to $5 million in funding for an economic development and strategic marketing and global search study by a top-tier management consulting firm to assist the LGTF communities to identify and attract businesses and industries. The study will include identifying alternatives to deploy and leverage existing monetary and power resources;

• The use by businesses and farms in St. Lawrence, Jefferson and Franklin counties of a large portion of hydropower—239 MW—that Alcoa temporarily relinquished at its Massena operations. The low-cost power will reduce electricity costs by a total of $10 million a year for up to three years;

• Initiation of an energy efficiency and renewable energy-savings program for LGTF government and school buildings that will include $1.5 million in grants to fund energy audits for identifying opportunities for reducing energy costs. The program will be aligned with the Governor’s statewide BuildSmart NY initiative for reducing energy use in public buildings by 20 percent by 2020;

• Funding support for emergency response infrastructure and services, anticipated for Massena Memorial Hospital, Louisville Company #2, and the Massena and Waddington rescue squads, with the amount to be determined by an ongoing study;

• Improvements to an emergency access road to Wilson Hill Island in the Town of Louisville and an evaluation of improving access to town property in the vicinity of the Iroquois Dam, part of the St. Lawrence-FDR project;

• Annual financial support for the maintenance of identified roads in the vicinity of the hydroelectric plant that are used by NYPA for its operations;

• Hiring an independent recreational facility consultant to assess possible measures for increased recreational boating opportunities and fishing tournaments to support additional tourism, with NYPA committing up to $7.5 million for the improvements;

• Additional funding of $1 million for a shoreline stabilization program for landowners adjacent to St. Lawrence-FDR within the Towns of Waddington, Louisville and Massena, with elimination of current restrictions on the length and cost of the erosion mitigation initiatives; and

• Working with the LGTF, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and outdoor fishing clubs to identify additional opportunities to enhance walleye spawning in upstream tributaries of the St. Lawrence River.