POUGHKEEPSIE – In time, just about any roof will begin to leak. It’s happening to two important City of Poughkeepsie structures.
One is the Financial Plaza garage.
The original plan was to borrow $750,000 to fix it but an engineering evaluation elevated the cost substantially.
Acting Commissioner of Finance William Brady told the common council the city has already lined up $150,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding. Now, he said, they are going for more money, including additional CDBG dollars.
“We are now applying for additional funding of $250,000 through the Dutchess County Property Tax Relief grant and additionally still, possibly another $100,000 from 2016 CDBG money,” Brady said.
The council unanimously approved the financing for that, and an interfund
transfer of $300,000 for repair of the sewer plant roof.
It wasn’t all money spent Monday night.
The council voted to accept a grant of almost $130,000 under the Dutchess County Shared Services Program to fund two consultants in the finance department.
Those actions drew praise from Mayor Robert Rolison, who noted the shared services money has been sitting in county coffers for a few years.
“This additional $130,000 actually was money that the county identified that had not been spent in, I believe, in 2013 on shared services,” Rolison said. “We made application for that money after it was suggested to us that we do it. I’d also like to thank County Comptroller Jim Coughlan who signed off on this and he had to do that for us to access this money.”
The $130,000 will be used to implement recommendations made by the state Comptroller’s office.
