Tompkins County committee authorizes application for up to $250,000 to advance resilience projects

The Planning, Energy, and Environmental Quality Committee unanimously approved a resolution authorizing submission of an application to the New York State Department of State's Countywide Resilience Implementation Strategy program for up to $250,000. A planning staff member said the award would fund plan reviews and advance identified resilience projects to about 30% design so they could be shovel-ready for implementation funding.

"It's essentially a application for us to apply for a max of $250,000," the staff member said, adding the grant would pay for plan reviews to pull out resilience projects and potentially fund up to 30% design work. Committee members asked how projects would be selected; staff said they would draw from existing county plans (for example, hazard mitigation and plans for navigating electrical outages), develop a ranking system during the grant period, and could collect public input after an award.

The presenter told the committee that in-kind staff time is an allowable match on this opportunity, which committee members welcomed as a cost-effective approach. Committee members expressed interest in being involved in developing a project list and asked staff to share candidate projects if the county proceeds. Chair called the roll and the measure passed unanimously.