This morning Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara announced $920,000 in state funding for the City of Amsterdam to address immediate emergency repairs needed to infrastructure. The funding is being accessed through the NEW Water Infrastructure Emergency Assistance Program established in this year’s state budget, an initiative Santabarbara played a key role in crafting following the emergency repairs needed to the sewer system in Amsterdam last year.

The funding was requested to make immediate repairs to a failing sanitary sewer line on Pershing Road and emergency repairs to a damaged water transmission main on the Route 30 Bridge that serves south side of the city. The city was forced to temporarily shut down the water main. An estimated 4,000 people are impacted by the closure.

In a letter to New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos last week, Assemblyman Santabarbara called on the Environmental Facilities Corporation to support the funding requested by the City of Amsterdam through the state’s new initiative [copy of letter attached]. In the letter, Assemblyman Santabarbara noted that the section of the city’s sanitary sewer system on Pershing Road has repeatedly failed over the years, leaving homes without service for extended periods of time, causing sewage to flood into people’s homes, property damage and the need for costly cleanups. He notes that Amsterdam Mayor Michael Villa also issued an emergency declaration identifying the sanitary sewer system on Pershing Road as a “threat to the public health, safety and welfare of its residents,” which was included in the city’s application for emergency funding [copy of both official declarations attached].

This announcement makes Amsterdam the first municipality to receive funding through this new program, which expedited emergency funds to the city within two days of the completed application. The estimated cost of the emergency repairs on Pershing Road is $560,000 and $360,000 to repair the water main on the Route 30 Bridge.

“After we were forced to deal with emergency repairs to the city’s infrastructure on Forest Avenue last summer, I immediately began working to establish the Water Infrastructure Emergency Assistance Program for situations just like this,” said Assemblyman Santabarbara. “Not only was my program established, it was also funded in this year’s state budget, and now we are seeing it in action,” Santabarbara added. “It’s a big win for upstate cities like Amsterdam that can now receive the help they need, when they need it, for unexpected emergency repairs to aging infrastructure.”