Nearly $580,000 in grants from the Northern Border Regional Commission will help upgrade telecommunications in Massena, rehabilitate a rail line at Newton Falls and Star Lake, and rebuild the floor in a downtown Clarkson University building.

The commission approved a $111,000 grant for the Village of Massena and partners to partially fund the upgrading of existing telecommunications infrastructure in the village’s commercial district and extending the current fiber optic networks to the St. Lawrence Centre, the regional shopping more.

The St. Lawrence Industrial Development Agency is getting a $234,155 grant to help rehabilitate a 46-mile section of rail to the former paper mill site at Newton Falls and the Benson Mines/J&L Steel Property in Star Lake.

Clarkson University in Potsdam will receive $234,153 to renovate the floor of a downtown campus building that will provide space for up to 15 new business startups supported by Clarkson’s Shipley Innovation Center.

The announcement of that and other grants by the NBRC drew plaudits from Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, who passed on the announcement in an email release.

“This is great news for our North Country community and I thank the NBRC for providing this important funding,” said Stefanik. “These grants are tremendous news for the North Country and I applaud the NBRC for this announcement.”

The NBRC is a federal-state partnership whose mission is to help alleviate economic distress and encourage private sector job creation throughout the northern counties of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.