By Michael Ryan
CATSKILL - Nothing is etched in stone or cement yet but an energetic effort is underway to make use of the ghostly-dormant lands and structures in and around the once-enlivened Lehigh Cement plant.
The Greene County Legislature, at a recent meeting, approved a resolution authorizing the submission of a grant application related to what is being called the Cementon Redevelopment Project.
Lawmakers took the action following a presentation by James Hannahs, the new executive director of Greene County Economic Development, Tourism and Planning.
Hannahs, hitting the floor running, was named earlier this spring to succeed longtime department head Warren Hart, who retired.
The idea behind the Cementon plan is to, “deploy economic development projects that result in organic and diversified job creation opportunities that expand tax revenue sources, especially within emerging and targeted industries as identified by New York State,” the resolution states.
It is not idle thinking. “New York State agencies have expressed the need for an increased supply of large-scale tracts of developable real estate sites to strengthen efforts launched to attract business within targeted and emerging markets,” the resolution states.
“New York Empire State Development has developed grant programs to assist municipalities in implementing the initiatives necessary to market sites,” the resolution states.
Those initiatives include but are not limited to, “capital improvements (infrastructure expansion and other site work activities), and soft costs (master plans, general environmental impact statements and other study/due diligence efforts),” the resolution states.
“A competitive and popular grant program dedicated to implementing the
aforementioned activities, entitled “FAST NY,” will provide up to $300 million,” the resolution states, in overall funding.
Those dollars can be invested to, “prepare and develop sites statewide to jumpstart New York’s shovel-readiness and increase its attractiveness to large employers,” the resolution states.
“Through the nature of its own business attraction, retention and expansion efforts, [Hannah’s agency] has identified a large tract of land located in the areas known as Cementon, Alsen, and Smith’s Landing,” along Route 9W, between Catskill and Saugerties, the resolution states.
The tract, up to 11 parcels and 4,000 acres, displays, “many characteristics believed to embody a highly marketable site,” the resolution states.
Hannahs noted his agency has, “conducted numerous meetings with the owners of the identified tracts, discussing their desires of expansion and appetite for deploying site development activities consistent with the marketability guidelines set forth” in the grant program.
His agency has, “received general support, positive feedback, and a willingness to partner with [Greene County] to understand the viability of a comprehensive redevelopment strategy for the project area.
“EDR, a professional community planning and engineering company, was
procured from the county’s Roster of Professional Consulting Services to provide a scope of services that would deliver a comprehensive master plan of the scoped site,” the resolution states.
That master plan would be delivered, “complete with a conceptual site plan, completed State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR), finalized GEIS, and a findings statement,” the resolution states.
Getting to the fiscal nitty gritty, the resolution states that Hannah’s agency, this past December, “submitted a prequalifying letter-of-interest to Empire State Development providing a summary of a potential full grant application,” a pre-requisite to being eligible for the money.
Hannah got the State go-ahead to begin the grant process, seeking support from the legislature, which was given, hoping to secure up to 50 percent of the upfront cost for EDR’s work, set at $775,910.
If all goes as wished, the undertaking will create a business scenario, “so that when companies or end users do come and propose their projects, their environmental review, up to the limits of this environmental impact statement, is done,” Hannahs said.
“And that turns a two-year process to get a shovel in the ground into, like, two weeks as long as you get your permit. That is very valuable for end users and industries to be attracted to an area,” Hannahs said.
Lawmakers fully embraced the concept which Hannahs labeled, “a roadmap for the rebirth of Cementon.”
“We would be trying to capitalize on federal and State funding available for bigger projects,” legislature chairman Patrick Linger said.
“This is admittedly ambitious but there are things maybe not thought of yet that may work,” Linger said, noting Cementon is bordered by the Hudson River and a deep-water dock, also located close to the New York State Thruway and CSX railroad tracks.
“To be clear, there are still significant steps ahead of us to move forward with a full grant application when it comes to accessing specific properties for the study, but the county’s support is a big step ahead,” Hannahs said.
This is not the first time eyes have turned toward the abandoned cement plant for possible benefits. In the 1990’s, ex-legislator William Lawrence broached the notion of the spot and its quarry serving as a landfill.
“Today it sounds kind of dopey, but what to so with garbage was a massive issue back then. We went to Pennsylvania to talk to owners of a quarry about how they do it. The conditions weren’t right,” Lawrence says.
Joseph Izzo, one of Lawrence’s colleagues at the time, says, “I remember that very well and I remember everybody going crazy over a landfill that was proposed for the Greenville/Coxsackie area.
“We had a public hearing on it and a vote. It passed by one vote. I can still remember leaving the old courtroom, where we had the vote. The crowd was so mad they threw garbage at us,” Izzo says.
“It never came to fruition. Now we ship our garbage out and we have all the county transfer stations,” Izzo says. The funding currently being accessed for the potential grant emerged from those bygone imaginings.
Cementon and its environs were once bustling commerce and community centers, home to company housing for 300 workers, three hotels and a school that closed in the early 1950’s with one remaining student.
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