GLENVILLE – The town was awarded a $575,000 matching funds grant from the state for its Complete Streets project.
The $575,000 will help the town to continue to transform Freemans Bridge Road.
The project will add one mile of new sidewalks between Dutch Meadows Lane and Route 50, contrasting color and textured crosswalks and pedestrian traffic signals. Three additional CDTA bus stops will be added along the corridor to help increase access to public transit.
“It’s part of a larger strategy for Freemans Bridge Road,” said Town Supervisor Chris Koetzle.
The full project has been a focus of Koetzle’s since he took office 14 years ago, Koetzle said.
“Starting on Town Center and building out from there,” Koetzle said. “This project will connect Freemans to Town Center and then all of the sidewalks off of that, Glenridge into Woodhaven. We have money for the Van Buren sidewalk into our parks. All of these will begin to connect. This is actually the last piece that connects the major parts of our walkability initiative.”
The town has received a number of different funding awards for the full project over the years, Koetzle said.
“It’s kind of like a puzzle piece, we’re putting it together piece by peace,” Koetzle said. “I took a lot of criticism early on, by folks who didn’t see the vision, who said, ‘Oh, you’re building a sidewalk to nowhere.’ Well, today we can now say that they’re all going to connect, to not just the town, but the town to other towns and communities.”
The project would likely be completed in 2024, Koetzle said. This year work will be done to connect Glenville and Scotia.
“Obviously there’s a lot of data about better physical fitness, less emissions, all these great benefits to people and the environment,” Koetzle said. “But, I think beyond that, what’s so important is it helps build community.”
Glenville was one of 25 municipalities that was awarded funding through the DEC’s Climate Smart Communities Grant program.
“We continue to see increasingly extreme weather each year and these grants help empower locally-driven, bold action to help meet New York’s ambitious climate goals while setting an example for other municipalities to follow,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a press release.
The funding helps municipalities afford projects that often save taxpayers money over the long term, according to Hochul’s announcement.
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