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Lowville’s Hand in Hand Early Childhood Center
Awarded Nearly $3M in Northern Border Regional Commission Grant Funding for
Expansion Project
Published: August 23, 2023
at 02:00 p.m.
By: Nick
Altmire
Lowville, NY- The Hand in Hand
Childhood Center in Lowville has received nearly $3 million in federal
grant funding for a planned expansion project.
The funding was
announced today by the Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC) as part
of $43.6 million in total funding awarded through the Commission’s 2023 Catalyst
Program to 66 projects across communities in the Commission’s four member
states of Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont. According to a press release
from NBRC, the Catalyst Program is designed to stimulate
economic growth and inspire partnerships that improve rural economic
vitality across the four-state NBRC region.
The 2023 Catalyst
Program grant round was highly competitive, according to NBRC, with 187 applications
received requesting over $151 Million in project funding.
New York had 71 applications considered, totaling $64.9 million in funding
requests, with a total of 12 projects in the state receiving funding
totaling $10.8 million.
The Hand in Hand
Early Childhood Center project in Lowville received the largest award of
any of the 66 funded projects, covering the entire project amount of $2,996,422.80.
According to the press release, the Hand in Hand project will expand their
flagship center in Lowville by adding two classrooms and 24 more potential
childcare slots. The proposal also includes the creation of two satellite
facilities located at the northernmost and southernmost school districts in
Lewis County. These satellite facilities would provide approximately 32
childcare slots at each school campus.
Additionally, the
Development Authority of the North Country (DANC) received a $2,455,079
award to complete a $3.5 million multi-jurisdictional telecommunications
project bringing affordable, high-speed broadband to approximately 488
unserved households in rural communities in Jefferson, Lewis
and St. Lawrence Counties. The project will result in 63.3 miles of new
fiber and bring digital parity to rural residents, according to the press
release from NBRC. The DANC award was the second largest among the 66
projects funded through the NBRC 2023 Catalyst Program.
It appears that
some funding applications submitted by Lewis County for broadband projects
in the county were not awarded funding in this round. We’ve reached out to
County Manager Ryan Piche for additional information on the details and
status of those projects and have not heard back. According to the NBRC
press release, depending on the availability of funds, the NBRC anticipates
another round of Catalyst awards in 2024.
You can view the full press
release from the Northern Border Regional Commission here for a list of
all of the projects awarded funding.
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