Planning board sign-offs on Bridge and Culvert streets, two signage proposals in hand, and a $15.87 million sewer bond resolution show the village’s NY Forward award moving from renderings to real work in summer 2026.
On the first evening of July, the five members of the Phoenix Planning Board gathered at the Sweet Memorial Building on Main Street and did something two years of announcements could not do. They approved the actual gray siding, the actual dark shingle roof and the actual light fixtures for the first storefront in the village’s $4.5 million NY Forward portfolio.
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The building is 8 Bridge Street, home of Duskee’s Bar and Grill, and the July 1 vote is the clearest sign yet that the state money awarded to this Oswego County canal village of 2,226 residents is finally turning into construction. Village board minutes from May, June and July 2026 show a downtown program shifting into its delivery phase: design approvals for two funded buildings, two responses in hand for the village’s gateway signage project, and a bond resolution that authorizes up to $12,137,421 in borrowing for a sewer project now estimated at $15,872,000.
Phoenix was named a Round 1 winner of a $4.5 million NY Forward award in early 2023, one of three communities in the Central New York region selected for the state’s small-downtown revitalization program. The village then ran a public planning process from May to October 2023. At its final meeting on October 26, 2023, the Local Planning Committee agreed on a slate of 15 projects requesting $6,517,000, knowing the state would fund only $4.5 million of it. On May 22, 2024, Governor Kathy Hochul’s office announced which projects made the cut: 11 of the 15, totaling exactly $4.5 million.
“I am very excited about the list of NY Forward projects approved by the Governor. This is a blend of private and municipal projects that will benefit the entire Village of Phoenix and the surrounding communities,” Mayor Brian Borchik said in the state’s announcement.
The same announcement carried $19 million for four communities in the region: $10 million for Homer through Round 6 of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, and NY Forward awards of $2.25 million each for Moravia and Hamilton alongside Phoenix’s $4.5 million, the largest NY Forward award of the three.
The money is not a blank check. As the village’s planning documents spell out, “NY Forward funding is a reimbursable grant. Project sponsors must complete their project prior to receiving the grant reimbursement.” That structure is why the summer of 2026, when private owners start pulling permits and fronting costs, matters more than the day the award was announced.
The 11 funded projects reach well beyond facades. Based on cost estimates in the Local Planning Committee’s slate, the approved projects carry a combined total project cost of roughly $21.4 million, meaning the $4.5 million in state money covers about 21 cents of every project dollar, with sponsors and other sources carrying the rest. The biggest single award, $1.4 million, goes to transforming North Island into a canalside entertainment venue with a new music pavilion, a second boat launch, a fishing and boating dock, a walking trail and a small dog park. It is the only fully state-funded construction project on the list.
Back on Bridge Street, the Duskee’s project shows how plans bend once real budgets arrive. The NY Forward award set aside $170,000 toward a $392,000 renovation that originally included a rebuilt rooftop deck, a renovated facade, an expanded kitchen and patio, and two new second-story apartments in the adjacent building. At the July 1 planning board meeting, owner Nick Duskee presented updated visuals, and the minutes record “the change to no longer have roof-top that reduced the extent of the project.” The board approved the siding color, roof and lighting, while noting that “Approval of secondary means of external egress is pending further information provided to the board.”
The meeting also surfaced a piece of village history tied to the property: a 99-year lease agreement between Duskee and the Village of Phoenix dated June 6, 2017. Chairman Doug Deeb asked for a copy of the original lease to include in the project records.
Two blocks away at 15 Culvert Street, the building the NY Forward slate calls the Phoenix Commons is also moving. The award list includes $92,000 to renovate the prominent corner building at Culvert and State streets into a BBQ restaurant with one to two upper-floor apartments. On July 1, the planning board approved a roof overhang for a drive-through at the address for applicant CanLife Creations. Per the minutes, the metal-roofed overhang will extend no more than 16 feet wide, run the length of the roof line, include heating coils to prevent ice buildup, and stand high and wide enough for large trucks and SUVs. Board member Stephen Dates recused himself from the vote; Kevin Dates presented the drawings.
Dates himself is a new face on the board. Village trustees appointed him on June 16 to fill the seat left by the resignation of Ronald Johst Sr., a term that runs through February 20, 2029. Two weeks later he was voting on downtown projects.
The quietest line item in the portfolio may carry the biggest number in village finance. On May 19, the village board approved a bond resolution authorizing a sewer project at an estimated maximum cost of $15,872,000, with up to $12,137,421 in bond anticipation notes and serial bonds to pay for it. The NY Forward slate, assembled in late 2023, listed the expansion of the wastewater treatment plant on North Street at a total cost of $11,243,000, with $784,000 in state money covering about 7 percent. The planning documents called that upgrade “critical for economic development and housing growth in Phoenix and the surrounding areas.” Whatever the final scope, the May resolution shows the village is now committing real borrowing capacity to sewer capacity, the least photogenic and most consequential project on the list.
The smallest award is also in motion. The village received two responses to its Gateway and Wayfinding Program request for proposals, Administrator James Lynch told the board on June 16. Mayor Borchik said he would consult with grant writer K. LaManche before the village picks a designer for the $83,000 signage and marketing project, which the state funds at 75 percent of its $110,000 cost. New gateway signs at the village entrances and wayfinding markers pointing to the canal, the shops and the parks are the visible connective tissue for everything else on the list.
Not everything Phoenix asked for made the cut. The state passed on four of the LPC’s 15 recommendations: a $1 million contribution toward a $7.18 million expansion and modernization of the Enterprise Fire Station at 457 Main Street, $500,000 for start-up office space at White Pines Commons on Davis Street, $190,000 for pavilion and dock improvements at Henley Park, and a $300,000 small project fund for commercial building improvements. Under program rules, if a selected project cannot move forward, the state can reach back into that list.
The rest of the approved slate rounds out a downtown that leans hard on its water. Lock 1 Distillery on Culvert Street gets $106,000 toward a $265,000 outdoor event space with a 4,400 square foot pole barn. A canal-side building at 73 State Street gets $136,000 toward a $420,000 conversion into ground-floor retail with two apartments and a green roof deck. The pizzeria at 20 Bridge Street gets $91,000 to add three-season outdoor seating and open a new cafe in the adjacent vacant space. A wellness center and massage school planned for 74 State Street gets $75,000. Off the waterfront, two Volney Street projects anchor a new cluster: $963,000 toward a 10,000 square foot primary care and behavioral health facility with a total estimated cost of $5,355,000, and $600,000 toward an 8,000 square foot daycare at 102 Volney expected to create 10 to 15 jobs in a village where affordable child care is scarce.
Phoenix has rebuilt itself before, and the village leans into that identity. Incorporated in 1848, the community grew up around the Oswego River, which was canalized with locks and dams to carry commercial shipping between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes. Lock 1 of the Oswego Canal sits inside village limits beside the Bridge House, built in 1917 during Barge Canal construction according to Visit Oswego County, and the village website counts “our very own Bridgehouse Brats” among the things Phoenix boasts. The village’s About Us page notes that “The Great Fire in 1916 was the most devastating, destroying 80 buildings.” The downtown that burned was rebuilt; the downtown being renovated now is largely that rebuilt fabric.
Summer business as usual is threading through the construction talk. The June 16 minutes show trustees authorizing the purchase of a 2026 Case CX60D excavator and a Case 321G wheel loader for the public works department, approving up to $250 for a plaque honoring the late Brad Clark for his dedication to the Village Pond, and fielding a resident’s request for kayak docking, which Administrator Lynch said the local group Phoenix Rising may help fund with a donation. The village’s June 26 fireworks went ahead with food vendors, a class reunion at Henley Park and music from Mike Farrar and the House Rockers before the 9:15 p.m. show.
What comes next is on the calendar. The village board scheduled two public hearings for its July 21 meeting, at 6:50 p.m. and 6:55 p.m., on a pair of proposed local laws, including new enforcement procedures for unpaid traffic and parking tickets. Regular board meetings continue on August 18 and September 1. For NY Forward watchers, the markers to track are simpler: shovels at 8 Bridge Street, a signage contract award, and the first bond sale for the sewer plant. Two summers after the check was announced, Phoenix’s progress is now measured in siding colors and voucher numbers, which is exactly where a $4.5 million bet on a small downtown has to live before anyone can call it a win.
Sources and verification
Every fact in this article was checked against primary documents and official records, including: villageofphoenix-ny.gov, governor.ny.gov, en.wikipedia.org, visitoswegocounty.com. Direct quotes are verbatim from the cited documents.
