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St. Lawrence County legislature committee votes to release $60,000 for Fort la Presentation Assn.

Posted 10/3/20

BY ANDY GARDNER North Country This Week CANTON -- The St. Lawrence County legislature’s Finance Committee voted to release about $60,000 that the Fort la Presentation Association will use as a …

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St. Lawrence County legislature committee votes to release $60,000 for Fort la Presentation Assn.

Posted

BY ANDY GARDNER

North Country This Week

CANTON -- The St. Lawrence County legislature’s Finance Committee voted to release about $60,000 that the Fort la Presentation Association will use as a matching contribution on a project to mitigate future flooding at their site in Ogdensburg.

The money will go toward a $1.2 million project, mostly grant-funded, that would stabilize the shoreline and raise the elevation of their walking trail. A 2019 flood submerged a good portion of the property that summer.

“For a time, the flooding cut off areas to the trail … and flooded the access road to the lighthouse,” Association President Barbara O’Keefe told the committee. “If any development is going to happen on that site, we need to take care of this issue. It’s a no-brainer.”

Legislator Jim Reagen, R-Ogdensburg, said the association “just needs this money in order to preserve the trail system that they had just finished building when this high water issue came up. It will allow them to move forward on the first phase of the project.”

“To leverage $1 or $2 million with [$60,000] we had set aside… I’m all in favor of letting that money go. We’ve had it all these years,” said Legislator Dave Forsythe, R-Lisbon. 

County Administrator Ruth Doyle said the money the committee voted to release goes back to the 2000s. She said the board was setting aside money annually, up to 2008.

“The idea being when they were prepared to move forward with the capital project, they would come back and that would be available to them,” Doyle said.

The committee took the action during their Monday, Sept. 28 meeting streamed live on YouTube. It still has to go in front of the full board on Monday, Oct. 5 to become official.

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