State approves $500K for Lyndonville downtown project

Funds also approved for lake dredging, canal bikeshare program

File photo: Lyndonville native Robert Smith wants to turn this block on Main Street, including the Webber Building at left, into a café, hotel and retail shops.

LYNDONVILLE – Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced $761 million in economic and community development funding today in the ninth round of the Regional Economic Development Council initiative.

The funding in Orleans County included $500,000 towards the redevelopment of Main Street building in Lyndonville, $40,000 for a bikeshare program along the canal, and $62,500 for a dredging plan for harbors in Orleans, Niagara, Monroe, Cayuga and Wayne counties.

• The $500,000 for the Lyndonville Gateway Anchor Revitalization will assist in the renovation of 29 South Main Street, a mixed-use anchor project in the village’s downtown.

Robert Smith, a Lyndonville native who works as a financial advisor in California, has plans to turn vacant Main Street structures into a café, a six-room hotel and retail shops at the former Pennysaver building.

Smith will replace windows so they aren’t mismatched, and make other façade improvements, including new steps and doors.

Smith lives in Palm Springs, Calif. He returns to Lyndonville to see family. He is tackling the project to help his hometown. He also thinks the project will be a financial success.

• The state funding also includes $40,000 to the Orleans County YMCA to establish biking, snowshoeing and kayaking classes, and “meet-ups” on the Erie Canal and at the Oak Orchard River.

It will place racks of “bikeshare” bikes in the community to be borrowed by YMCA members outside of club activities at no cost or by other community members for a nominal fee. Bike racks will be located in the villages of Medina and Albion around the canal, according to the announcement from the state.

• The state is also providing $62,500 for a Lake Ontario Shared Regional Harbor Dredging Program.

Niagara, Orleans, Cayuga, Wayne, and Monroe counties have joined together to form the Lake Ontario Regional Dredging Management Council to collaboratively and cost effectively manage the dredging of 19 harbors located along the Lake Ontario shoreline.

Funding will advance preliminary planning, legal, engineering, permitting, and community outreach costs associated with developing a framework for implementation of the 2014 Regional Dredging Management Plan.

To see the full list of projects funded by the state through the Regional Economic Development Council process, click here.

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