The village board voted 5 to 0 to chase federal money for its cracking treatment plant, while a separate $2 million state grant depends on a contractor award before October 1.
Union Springs Mayor Robert Thurston Jr. and four trustees needed exactly two minutes on June 29 to tee up the biggest money question of the village’s summer: whether a lakeside community of 1,075 people can land $2 million in federal block grant funds to help finish rebuilding its wastewater treatment plant.
This story came from public records we pulled ourselves
Get the next one, plus overnight incidents, in your inbox at 6 AM. Free, no spam.
The special meeting at the village office, 26 Chapel St., opened at 5:17 p.m. and adjourned at 5:19 p.m., according to the official minutes. In between, the board passed Resolution No. 18 of 2026 on a 5 to 0 roll call, with Thurston, Deputy Mayor Donna O’Hara and Trustees Bill Boyd, Jeremy Smith and Brian Cornell all voting aye. The resolution scheduled a public hearing for 6 p.m. on July 21, 2026, at the board’s regular meeting, on the village’s intent to apply for up to $2 million in Community Development Block Grant funding for its Wastewater Treatment Infrastructure project.
The CDBG program is federal money routed through New York State Homes and Community Renewal. The resolution notes the state has announced up to $29.2 million available through the 2026 program, with up to $25 million of that set aside specifically for public infrastructure projects. Finger Lakes Daily News, which first reported the hearing on July 17, confirmed the $29.2 million statewide figure and reported that written comments could be sent to Village Clerk Christine Van Horn at 315 889-7341 through July 24.
This is not the village’s first swing at the program. At its regular meeting on June 16, the board voted unanimously to pay $3,500 to reapply for the CDBG grant this year, with G and G municipal consulting writing the application, according to the June meeting minutes. Van Horn was directed to notify the village’s engineering firm that the board wanted to move forward.
The program runs on its own procedural clock. The 2026 request for applications from Homes and Community Renewal lists a public hearing as a pre-application requirement, which is what the July 21 session satisfied. The open round document, published in March, says applications may be submitted any time after March 20, 2026 and before December 31, 2026, as projects are deemed ready, and notes that funding for public infrastructure and housing activities will be announced under a separate request for applications. Eligible applicants are non-entitlement units of general local government, the counties, towns and villages too small to draw CDBG money directly from Washington, and the program’s stated principal purpose is benefiting residents of low and moderate income.
The stakes go beyond the $2 million ask. A second $2 million is on a shot clock of its own.
An October 1 deadline worth $2 million
In a June 12, 2026 letter to Thurston and the board, Eric A. Pond, a professional engineer and senior vice president at Barton & Loguidice, D.P.C., laid out the math. The village is eligible for a $2 million grant from the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation, identified in the letter as a SWIFT grant, but only if a contractor Notice of Award for the Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvements Project is issued before October 1, 2026.
To hit that date, the firm is splitting the project into multiple contracts with the village’s authorization. Contract 1 covers the Solids Handling Building and related improvements. Contract 2 covered the plant’s roof replacement, which is already in the punch list and walk-through stage per the June minutes. Contract 3 will cover the remaining improvements in the village’s approved preliminary engineering report.
That restructuring came with a bill. The board voted June 16 to accept Amendment No. 5 to its engineering services agreement, adding $73,025 and bringing the total agreement with Barton & Loguidice to $2,192,025. The original owner and engineer agreement, signed January 24, 2019, was worth $25,000. Four prior amendments added $2,094,000 as the project’s scope grew.
Amendment No. 5 pays for more than paperwork. According to the letter attached to the minutes, it covers subconsultant costs for architectural, structural, mechanical, plumbing and electrical work across multiple bid packages, a structural assessment of the plant’s cracking aeration tanks, value engineering on the Solids Handling Building, updating the design to meet the 2025 New York State code, and design of a new generator system that the original plan assumed would not be needed.
Where the engineering money goes
The fee schedule in Amendment No. 5 shows how a small village project becomes a seven figure engineering effort. Final design phase services now total $538,475. Construction phase services are budgeted at $452,250, on top of $435,000 already authorized for preliminary design. A resident project representative, the engineer’s on site eyes during construction, is budgeted at $390,000. Even funding assistance, the line item for chasing grants like the CDBG and EFC awards, has grown to $43,763.85.
Money is already moving through village accounts. The June bill audit included $50,516.66 in sewer fund vouchers and a $45,003.40 voucher on the treatment plant project, while the April abstract approved in May carried $71,950 in plant project vouchers. The village is also pursuing an insurance claim for damage at the plant, though Public Works Supervisor Joe Smith told the board in June he does not think the payout will be enough to cover the repair.
A village working every funding angle
The minutes from May and June read like a catalog of grant applications. In May, the board approved having the Camden Group complete a SECURE grant assessment application on the village’s behalf, noting that every wastewater treatment plant in New York State will need a plan by May 2027. The same month, Thurston reported that funding requests for the plant had been added to the congressionally directed spending lists of both U.S. Rep. John Mannion and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, with Barton & Loguidice calling the outlook favorable.
The state’s biggest water pot was in play this summer too. The Environmental Facilities Corporation’s 2026 Water Infrastructure Improvement round made $425 million available statewide before its application period closed July 27, according to the corporation’s grants page.
Union Springs has recent practice winning big awards. On February 5, 2024, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that Union Springs, Aurora and Cayuga would share a $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative award in the program’s seventh round for a joint application titled Cayuga County’s Quaint Lakeside Village Corridor. The three villages combined their nearby downtowns along Cayuga Lake into a single proposal built around lake access, walkable neighborhoods and retail variety, according to the state announcement. Thurston said at the time the award “will have a long-lasting impact on us as well as our neighbors.” The DRI work is now entering its contracting stage: in May the board voted to submit its request for proposals to the New York Department of State for approval.
Small tax base, big fixed costs
The village that has to carry all this was incorporated in 1848 and covers 1.75 square miles on the east shore of Cayuga Lake. Its board meets the third Tuesday of every month at 6 p.m. at 26 Chapel St. The 2020 census counted 1,075 residents.
The infrastructure strain shows up in the small line items as much as the large ones. In May, the board approved emergency repair quotes for the water system’s air stripper from USW Industrial: $620 for an initial site visit, $3,062 per day for a two person crew, and an estimated $800 for cleaning and repair materials. In June, Smith reported that Ross Valve had rebuilt the Center Street water tower pit. The board is also preparing to accept bids of approximately $35,000 to widen the sidewalk between the grocery store and Millpond.
Sewer costs already reach residents’ tax bills. At the May meeting, Van Horn reported that outstanding water and sewer balances had been added to the tax warrant that took effect June 1. The village also tracks revenue from its boat launch month to month, and the clerk is working with Civil Service to hire a parking attendant for the launch. The workload behind the grant chase is heavy enough that Van Horn spent June 23 in Groton at a daylong Municipal Capital Project training, closing the village office for the day. And the June public works report included one more quiet indicator of aging pipes: the crew replaced ten feet of clogged sewer line.
New revenue is arriving in smaller increments. Local Law No. 1 of 2026, adopted June 16 after a public hearing, adds a $60 permit fee for furnace and central air installations and a $25 yearly fee for short term rentals. At Frontenac Park, the village is weighing a $94,459.61 quote from Adirondack Cabling and Security, dated June 2, for six security cameras and three wireless bridges, a cost Trustee Cornell hopes to offset through a possible sheriff’s department grant or the DRI project.
Summer life in the village keeps rolling while the paperwork moves. The village calendar lists Music in the Park on August 14 and an Artisan Market at Frontenac Park on August 16. Trustee Smith told the board in June that the August band night act will be The Arena, with two bands already booked for next summer, and the mayor’s report noted the new scoreboard at the ball field is up and running to good reviews.
What happens next
The July 21 hearing has come and gone, and the written comment window closed July 24. The minutes of the July meeting had not been posted to the village website as of August 6, so the board’s formal action on the application has not yet been made public. The board’s next regular meeting is set for Tuesday, August 18, at 6 p.m. at 26 Chapel St., per the village calendar.
The harder clock is the state’s. The contractor Notice of Award that keeps the $2 million Environmental Facilities Corporation grant alive must be issued before October 1, 2026. As of today, Union Springs has 56 days.
Sources & Verification
Village of Union Springs, Special Board Meeting Minutes, Resolution No. 18 of 2026, June 29, 2026: unionspringsny.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Special-June-Board-Meeting-minutes-2026.pdf. Village of Union Springs, Board Meeting Minutes, June 16, 2026 (including Barton & Loguidice Amendment No. 5 letter of June 12, 2026): unionspringsny.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/June-Board-Meeting-minutes-2026.pdf. Village of Union Springs, Board Meeting Minutes, May 19, 2026: unionspringsny.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/May-Board-Meeting-minutes-2026.pdf. Finger Lakes Daily News, “Union Springs to Hold Public Hearing on Grant Applications Tues.,” Ed Vivenzio, July 17, 2026: fingerlakesdailynews.com/local/union-springs-to-hold-public-hearing-on-grant-applications-tues/. NYS Homes and Community Renewal, 2026 CDBG Request for Applications: hcr.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2026/03/2026-rfa-cdbg-cfa-open-round.pdf. NYS Homes and Community Renewal, DRI Round 7 Central New York announcement, February 5, 2024: hcr.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-central-new-york-winners-seventh-round-downtown-revitalization. NYS Environmental Facilities Corporation, State Water Grants page: efc.ny.gov/wiia. Village of Union Springs website, Village Info and Calendar pages: unionspringsny.gov. U.S. Census Bureau 2020 decennial figures as compiled at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Springs,_New_York. Edited by: the CNY Signal news team. Published: August 6, 2026.
