Capital Region communities awarded Climate Smart grant

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)-- The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation awarded Capital Region communities part of a $16 million Climate Smart Community grant to support their climate-focused efforts. The recipients are Albany, Lexington, Taghkanic, Columbia County, and Warren County.

Albany received $2 million to accommodate the increasing number of pedestrians and cyclists using Washington Park. The Bicycle Master Plan and Washington Park Area Complete Streets Study will be recommended for the project.

In Lexington, the $1,131,662 will go towards a new highway garage outside the floodplain near the town's salt storage site. Because of damages from Tropical Storm Irene, the highway department will no longer have to work out of a temporary building with limited space.

The town of Taghkanic plans to use the $136,435 it received to replace a failing culvert along Taghkanic-Churchtown Road. The culvert is undersized and likely to fail in a future storm.

Columbia County got $60,000 to complete local government and community greenhouse gas emissions, establishing a baseline of current emissions. Finding an emissions baseline will prepare government operations and community climate action plans to recommend policies to reduce emissions.

Warren County's $99,253 will go towards constructing a pilot composting facility. Data collection from the project will give the county a sense of feasibility in creating a regional composting site.

The funding comes from round 14 of the Regional Economic Development Council Initiative. Under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, all grant funding helps the state reduce carbon emissions.