Home renewal grants
RPI’s Neighborhood Renewal Initiative has been granted $240,000 that will be divided into 30 grants of $8,000 each and provided to qualified local residents with incomes below 50 percent of the median income. The funds are for use toward improving owner-occupied homes in areas with code violation, energy conservation, and life safety concerns.
The Hillside Homeowner Rehab Program, as it is called, will help residents in an area bounded by Eighth Street to the west, Hoosick Street to the north, Poestenkill Gorge to the south, and 15th Street to the east.
HSBC Bank and the Troy Rehabilitation and Improvement Program NeighborWorks Homeownership Center will be administering the funds. TRIP will also help out residents by providing credit counseling, identifying low-interest loan funds, and locating other resources for homeowners. The Troy Architectural Program, Inc., will oversee the projects and ensure that the work is properly completed.
Budget surplus for ‘02
The city of Troy has reported a surplus of $620,000 for 2002, the seventh consecutive year of balanced budgets. Mayor Mark Pattison said the financial situation of the city has improved dramatically since he took office in 1996 in the midst of a negative $21 million fund balance and chronically imbalanced budgets.
City Council officials have pointed out that the budget turned out favorably after they lowered Pattison’s proposed tax increase to eight percent from 13.
Pattison did, however, caution that future administrators need to be very conservative with their budget estimates. If a city ends any year with more than a one percent deficit, the state Financial Supervisory Board will take control of any spending. The board has been serving an advisory role for Troy since 1999, when the city met the requirement for regaining control.
RPI conference center
The Institute is renovating a large building on Broadway Street, converting what once housed a Rite Aid and a liquor store into a “state of the art” conference center. The center is meant to work in conjunction with a new upscale hotel that is planned for the old Proctor’s Theater building.
The liquor store is owned by state Assemblyman Pat Casale and operated by his sister. Because the building has been for sale for seven years, he did not have a lease for his location. He said RPI had allowed him to extend his stay, but he expects to shut the store down soon, after selling three wine cellars worth of vintage wine.
RPI purchased the building approximately a year ago. While the primary function of the building will be the conference center, the top two floors will be housing Institute offices.
Bill punishes activists
A new bill proposed to the state legislature by Richard Smith of Eerie County and John Kuhl, of Eerie and Steuben counties respectively, would mandate harsher punishments for environmental and animal rights activists, including branding as terrorists, jail time, fines as high as $10,000, and registration of their names in a database similar to that for sex offenders.
The bill proscribes defamation of facilities and their owners, a provision that has angered activists because it could prohibit the publishing of conditions under which animals are housed, and “causing a physical disruption,” which would appear to ban peaceful protests. It also bans activist groups that have been branded “terrorist” from raising funds for their cause, and citizens from donating to them.
Many activists have pointed out that breaking and entering, trespassing, criminal mischief, burglary, and the like are already illegal, so the bill would be doing nothing but limiting Constitutionally protected free speech.
