By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- Massena, Louisville and Waddington are working on a list of recreation projects to submit to the New York Power Authority that they will fund with $7.5 million promised through the St. Lawrence-Roosevelt Power Project relicensing deal.

Town and village officials from the three communities met with NYPA today to discuss it, Town Supervisor Joseph Gray told the board.

“We agreed we will prioritize those lists by town … and hopefully it comes in under the $7.5 million we’ve been allocated,” Gray said.

“We have to make sure that $7.5 million is spent on recreation,” Councilman Thomas Miller said, adding that Massena has gotten similar grants from NYPA in the past but may not have followed through on their end.

“I think there were some projects that were not completed … we need to be more vigilant about that,” Gray said.

The relicensing deal was a 10-year review of NYPA’s 50-year license with host communities Massena, Louisville and Waddington to run the St. Lawrence-Roosevelt Power Project.

The deal was lambasted by many local leaders as inadequate, despite the fact that most of them later voted in favor of it. The main concern is that there isn’t enough money in the area to sue NYPA and the state.

Mark Scott, a former Waddington town supervisor who used to be on the Local Government Task Force, told several local boards of trustees and town councils that most of what NYPA offered are things they have to do anyways, such as a shoreline stabilization review, which is required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He also said that NYPA may be dishing out $5 million for a study, but none of the local communities have the financial means to implement it.

Other local leaders said the deal isn’t equitable with what NYPA gives in western New York, where the Niagara Power Project doesn’t impact anywhere near as much shoreline, but the host communities get more out of it.

According to NYPA’s figures, their deals total $78 million in investments in the North Country, creating 224 jobs and retaining 110.

Those same numbers from NYPA say their deals total $229.4 million in western New York investments, creating 570 jobs and retaining 1,600.