Marathon Goes After a Second $1 Million for Peck Memorial Library After Its $4.5 Million NY Forward Win

Mayor Scott Chamberlin gaveled in a public hearing at 18 Tannery Street on the evening of July 15 with one number on the table: up to $1 million in federal Community Development Block Grant money to make Peck Memorial Library, the 131 year old brick anchor of Main Street, accessible to every resident of Marathon. Before the meeting ended, the village Board of Trustees voted to apply.

The vote puts this village of 892 people in position to stack a second seven figure award on top of the $4.5 million NY Forward package the state announced in May. If the application lands, the library at 24 Main Street would draw roughly $2 million in combined state and federal investment, more than $2,200 for every man, woman, and child in the village.

The legal notice, signed by Chamberlin and posted July 9, spells out the ask: the village “is applying for up to $1,000,000 in CDBG funds to undertake handicapped accessibility improvements to the Peck Memorial Library.” The CDBG program is run by the New York State Office of Community Renewal, which the notice says will make roughly $20 million available statewide for the 2026 program year across housing, economic development, public facilities, infrastructure, and planning. The hearing was held under Section 570.486, Subpart I of the federal regulations that govern the program, and written comments were accepted until noon on July 17.

There is a procedural wrinkle that explains why the village, not the library, is the applicant. Only municipalities can apply for CDBG money. “A municipality must apply, not a private entity like the Library,” the Marathon Neighborhood News reported after the July 15 meeting, describing the board’s vote in favor of the application. The board’s own June 17 minutes laid out the plan a month earlier: the library intends to put in an elevator with the CDBG money, and it separately holds a $1 million grant that piggybacks on the NY Forward award, which it plans to use to reside the building and restore the opera house upstairs.

It is a small board doing the paperwork. The June 17 session that set up the reapplication drew Trustees Light, Alexy, and Wilchek alongside Chamberlin, with Deputy Mayor Fralick absent and Clerk/Treasurer Morgan Gofgosky keeping the minutes. The hearing notice itself listed Clerk Laura Padbury at 607 849 3812 as the contact for accessibility accommodations at the hearing itself, and noted that written comments could go straight to the mayor’s desk at 18 Tannery Street.

This is Marathon’s second run at the same pot. In October 2025 the village held a hearing on a CDBG application of up to $860,000 for the same accessibility work, according to a notice reported by Cortland radio station WXHC on October 7, 2025. The 2026 bid raises the request by $140,000.

The $4.5 million already on the board

The CDBG bid does not stand alone. On May 12, Governor Kathy Hochul’s office announced six funded projects for Marathon under the NY Forward program, the small community counterpart to the Downtown Revitalization Initiative. Marathon won its $4.5 million award as a Round 3 NY Forward community, one of 25 project announcements across Central New York that day.

The six projects, as itemized in the governor’s release: $1,277,000 to enhance Lovell Field and the Civic Center with a walking trail and river overlook, a picnic pavilion, a pickleball court, resurfaced basketball and tennis courts, and a renovated public restroom. $1,200,000 to activate the IMTS building so a tool manufacturing business can expand and add jobs. $1,000,000 to transform Peck Memorial Library. $540,000 to create new rental housing at 19 and 21 Cortland Street. $300,000 for a small project fund covering mixed use and commercial property improvements. And $183,000 to open a new coffee shop and bakery at 1 Broome Street.

The library line is the largest award for a public building in the package. The state’s description of the project includes restoring the second floor, adding an elevator, renovating bathrooms, repairing exterior elements, and replacing the roof, with the second floor opera house returning to active public use as what the mayor calls the village’s social hub.

“This type of funding is so important to the growth and improvement of our rural villages,” Chamberlin said in the May 12 announcement. State Senator Lea Webb, whose district covers Cortland County, put a number on her own reaction in a release from her office: “I’m thrilled that Marathon has been selected to receive $4.5 million through the NY Forward initiative.” The governor’s office also noted that Marathon is certified under the state’s Pro Housing Communities Program, a prerequisite for NY Forward and DRI money that rewards municipalities working to expand housing.

A building that predates the elevator requirement by a century

Peck Memorial Library is a two and a half story brick building constructed in 1894 and 1895, and it is one of two Marathon structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places, along with the Tarbell Building. The library operates under its own board of trustees at 24 Main Street. The building has no elevator, which is why the board minutes describe the CDBG money as the path to installing one, and why the second floor opera house has stayed out of reach for anyone who cannot manage the stairs.

The building took a hit three days after the board’s vote. On Saturday evening, July 18, a microburst the National Weather Service survey estimated at 70 to 80 mph tore through Marathon, part of a storm system that also produced an EF1 tornado in Broome and Delaware counties. The Marathon Neighborhood News reported that a roof hatch at the library blew off, roofs on Front Street were damaged, and one home had its roof punctured and a wall destabilized. Longtime residents compared the damage to the floods of 1935 and 2005.

Chamberlin declared a state of emergency on Sunday morning, July 19. Most of the village was without power until 11:15 p.m. on Monday, July 20, and the hardest hit properties waited until Wednesday. Village Electric Superintendent Eric Leet credited neighbors for the recovery: “I know people are good and I saw many acts of kindness.” Street Superintendent Matt Kenyon coordinated cleanup help from the towns of Caroline, Lapeer, and Marathon, the Town of Cortlandville, the Cortland County Highway Department, and the state DOT. At Marathon Cemetery, where roughly 200 trees came down, groundskeeper Thomas Eustice told WBNG it was the worst storm he had seen in eight years on the job, before a tree service stepped in to clear debris at no charge.

Three more grant plays in one summer

The July 15 agenda shows the CDBG hearing was one of three funding moves the board took up in a single meeting. Trustees also had a NY Main Street Program resolution and a New York State WIIA grant application resolution on the agenda. WIIA, the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act program, is a competitive grant run by the state Environmental Facilities Corporation for municipal drinking water and wastewater projects. The board’s August 5 agenda lists the Galatia Street water line under old business, along with a Civic Building contract and a cybersecurity item under new business.

The June 17 minutes show how tightly the village watches smaller money while chasing the big grants. An emergency chlorine tank repair at the wastewater treatment plant came in with a $30,000 estimate; the board instead weighed a contractor offer, through engineering firm B&L, to replace the damaged block and parge it for $4,200. The same meeting approved $114,370.87 in bills, $85,890.67 of it from the electric fund, a reminder that Marathon is one of the few Cortland County villages running its own municipal electric department.

Why a village of 892 is swinging this hard

Marathon sits at the junction of Interstate 81, U.S. Route 11, and State Route 221 on the Tioughnioga River, 14 miles south of Cortland and 26 miles north of Binghamton. The 2020 Census counted 892 village residents, down from 919 in 2010, in an area of 1.13 square miles. The village was incorporated in 1861.

What Marathon lacks in population it makes up in draw. The Central New York Maple Festival, held April 18 and 19 this year, marked its 54th annual edition and routinely pulls crowds more than triple the town’s population into a village smaller than a single Syracuse neighborhood. The NY Forward projects aim at that same visitor economy: a restored opera house, a new coffee shop and bakery at 1 Broome Street, and upgraded riverfront recreation at Lovell Field.

What happens next

The state’s 2026 CDBG open round works in two steps. Under the request for applications posted by Homes and Community Renewal, public facilities applicants file a pre application first, and projects deemed ready are invited into the full application through the Consolidated Funding Application portal, with the open round accepting submissions before December 31, 2026. An invited applicant then has 60 days to complete the full application.

Written comment on Marathon’s application closed at noon on July 17. The board of trustees meets next on August 19, the third Wednesday of the month, at 7 p.m. at 18 Tannery Street. If the Office of Community Renewal invites Marathon into the full application, the village will be filing for the second time in 10 months, this time asking for $1,000,000, with an elevator for a 131 year old library riding on the answer.