BY ADAM ATKINSONNorth Country This Week

POTSDAM — The village has received more than $400,000 in expected New York State Touring Routes Program grant money to reimburse the expense of putting up its new salt barn.

Village Administrator Isabelle Gates-Shult told the village board at its meeting Monday, Sept. 24 that the village had received the money and that it was offsetting the cost of the new barn that was constructed last year.

“These funds reimburse the three installments made on the 72-by-100-foot salt barn in 2023. These included payments made in February of 2023 for $106,000, July of 2023 for $213,000 and then September of 2023 for $106,000,” Gates-Shult said.

The administrator clarified that the funds the village received would reimburse the purchase of the salt barn and its construction that the village made up front in 2023.

That expense was initially covered by the village’s fund balance.

The new barn was built at the village DPW facility off Cherry Street by village personnel and Hybrid Building Solutions of Pembroke and completed in October of last year.

In addition to the grant money to reimburse the project, the village was able to save money on the pavement resurfacing at the site of the salt barn as well. The state provided millings from its Pierrepont Avenue resurfacing project which the village was able to use to backfill the site saving them around $140,000.