April 23, 2003

Steinhaus Announces $2M Awarded to Help Local Dutchess Communities

Poughkeepsie… Dutchess County Executive William R. Steinhaus has announced the 2003 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) awards totaling $2,054,000 for a broad range of projects throughout Dutchess County. The County secured $235,000 more for allocation in 2003 year funds than in the previous 2002 year.

We have established Dutchess County’s priority one is housing; priority two is infrastructure and three is transportation. Priorities four and five are activities that benefit youth, offer literacy skills and provide family services for families-in-stress, child care, and elder care. Economic development is priority six. Health services, handicapped accessibility and disabilities is priorities seven through nine. Public safety is the tenth priority of the program followed by substance abuse, the eleventh. Priorities twelve and thirteen are parks and recreation and historic preservation.

The County Executive said, “Housing is now the number one Community Development priority for Dutchess County and, therefore, we have committed a healthy fifteen percent, or $315,000, of the grant to create housing for senior citizens in two areas of the county, Millbrook and Red Hook. Providing new affordable senior housing inventory will free up existing housing stock for other populations that live and work here to now move into.”

Additionally, nineteen percent of the allocation, or $391,140, is awarded to street and road improvements. Approved projects include infrastructure improvements in the Town of Stanford and the City of Beacon. Ten percent of the grant, or $213,000, will improve water and sewer facilities in the Town of Wappinger and the Village of Wappingers Falls.

Neighborhood and public facility projects will realize $212,500 or ten percent of the CDBG award. A parking lot will be constructed near the Village of Fishkill’s main street area and the City of Beacon will assist three highly valued community organizations, the Beacon Community Center, the Martin Luther King Cultural Center, and the Howland Cultural Center with facility improvements.

Handicapped facility improvements will take place in the Town of Dover at the Tabor Wing House; in the Town of Pleasant Valley at the Mill Site; and in the Town of Rhinebeck at the Wilderstein Historic Site. A total of $180,700 or nine percent will be spent on these handicapped improvements.

The remaining funds will be spent on parks and recreation improvements in the Town of Hyde Park at Hackett Hill Park. The Davis and Fowler Avenue sidewalk improvements in the Town of Poughkeepsie in the Arlington area will further upgrade what we have targeted to community and economic renewal.

A total of eleven human service providers have been allocated funds including: the Beacon Community Center, the Dutchess County Community Action Agency, the Martin Luther King Cultural Center, and the North East Community Center for youth programs; the Dutchess County Association for Senior Citizens senior program; the Hudson River Housing River Haven Shelter, which provides for homeless and runaway youth; and Family Services which aids families in stress. Grace Smith House will receive funding for homeless victims of domestic violence and Hudson River Housing will serve homeless populations with CDBG monies.

Mr. Steinhaus noted, “The distribution of block grant dollars to agencies throughout Dutchess County that address a variety of human service issues provides assistance to those people who are in need, including our youth, the homeless, and our seniors citizens”.

Funds will also be allocated to important community-based agencies: the Child Abuse Prevention Center, Literacy Volunteers and the Mid-Hudson Alcoholism Recovery Center.

The CDBG funding is administered by the Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and provides grant funds to municipalities and human service agencies to benefit low-to-moderate income residents of Dutchess County.

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