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Genesee County government leaders made the most of their 30 minutes with Rep. Chris Jacobs on Wednesday afternoon, informing the recently elected congressman of the major challenges they face in maintaining bridges, acquiring rural broadband and boosting the water supply.
Jacobs appeared at the County Legislature’s Committee of the Whole meeting at the Old County Courthouse, a session set up specifically bring him up to speed on pressing issues in Genesee County – one of eight counties comprising the 27th District that he represents.
It includes all of Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming and Livingston counties and parts of Erie, Monroe, Niagara and Ontario counties. Jacobs won a special election on June 23 to fill the vacant seat, and was sworn in as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives on July 21.
County Manager Matt Landers, Highway Superintendent Tim Hens and Legislature Chair Rochelle Stein provided plenty of food for thought – letting Jacobs know about:
- “An unacceptable level of bridges that are headed in red flag status and in need of significant repair.”
- A lack of high-speed internet on some rural roads that “leaves us behind”;
- The “heavy lift” that is the estimated $75 million Phase 3 of the county’s plan to ensure an adequate water supply well into the future.
BRIDGES
Genesee County is unique, Landers said, in that it is one of a few New York counties that has the “sole responsibility” of maintaining all bridges in the county.
“That has been a burden on Genesee County for a long time,” he said. Throw in the fact that Genesee has regularly shared revenue with its municipalities, and the result are budgets that are “very tight and lean for years. As such, our infrastructure is suffering.”
Landers said that insufficient revenue sources have led to “an unacceptable level of bridges that are headed in red flag status and in need of significant repair.”
Hens said the county maintains 95 bridges of spans of at least 20 feet, with 60 percent of those on county roads and 48 percent of them being structurally deficient or obsolete. The county also is charged with the condition of several smaller bridges.
“Genesee County has been beating the drum for roads and bridges for probably 10 years now,” Hens offered, adding that the average age of the 95 bigger bridges is 65 years – the end of their lifespan. He said he foresees a “tsunami of bridges” coming at the county, all needing to be replaced at the same time.
Projecting to 2029, Hens said $29 million will have to be allocated in order to maintain those bridges, “assuming that we do get continual delivery of federal aid from our regional partners at DOT and FHWA (Federal Highway Administration).”
Federal emphasis in recent years on interstate highways and the impact of COVID-19 on local finances are additional roadblocks in this area, he noted.
“But it’s one that we continue to press forward, so whatever help you can provide us,” Hens said to Jacobs, adding that he has prepared spreadsheets to illustrate the county’s plight.
Jacobs replied by stating that a federal infrastructure bill is “long overdue” and added that rural broadband is a “critical” piece of that legislation.
Stein said the county is “not in the position where property taxes all have to go toward” bridges and infrastructure, but residents pay their property taxes with the expectation that infrastructure and public safety needs will be met.
Hens touted a philosophy of “streamlining project delivery” – doing more for less by being creative and using available materials and manpower.
To illustrate this, he shared that the county invested $70,000 into the restoration of a small bridge in the Town of Bethany, which ran through a large dairy farm. With the bridge closed, the farmer was incurring up to $1,000 a day to haul silage and hay around detours.
Hens said the county couldn’t wait for federal aid to come, so it turned the federal aid back and addressed the situation in house.
“We essentially will have the project done in seven weeks at a cost less than our 5 percent local share of just the design phase of the project,” he said. “If the county went with the federal plan from start to finish, it would have been a $1.6 million project. (Now) we’re going to have a new bridge in place that will last for 20 to 30 years for about $70,000.”
The congressman's response to that statement indicated he wasn’t sure if he heard Hens correctly.
“Seventy thousand?” Jacobs said. “Seventy thousand versus $1.6 million? (With COVID-19), we’re going to have issues with the debt and deficit. It’s not just that we have to cut doing things or not; we can do things more efficiently. If you take what you just did and extrapolated that throughout the country, can you imagine how much money that would be?”
Hens said that federal funding process comes with “strings attached” and usually is structured in a generic way – not looking at the actual project – and takes about 18 months from the design work through construction.
BROADBAND
While not a lot of time was spent talking about broadband capabilities, the message was clear.
Stein said lawmakers are aware of a huge project under way in the county to increase high-speed internet on rural roads, but there are still roads that are without broadband technology.
“That’s a problem for our schoolchildren, especially in COVID with the hybrid model of in school and out of school,” she observed. “That leaves us behind and we have to have an even playing field.”
WATER
“Public water has been the key to this community since the early 1990s, and we have progressed a spine-type background into our communities and we are at a junction right now where we’ve got to make the next big jumps,” Stein reported, adding that despite great strides some residents are without public water due to the high cost of infrastructure.
She said the USDA is “an incredible partner” but other funding sources must be found as the county’s water project moves into the next phases.
Landers outlined Genesee’s countywide water system that has the county acting as the overseer, with vital connections to the Monroe County Water Authority and the City of Batavia. He said the structure eliminates the need for small aquifers and wells in towns and villages.
“It’s a model that we’re proud of,” he said. “There are things we never would have envisioned, such as how cows love drinking public water,” he said, drawing some laughs. Because farmers and small towns have jumped on board, the “demand has increased more than we could have ever imagined.”
He said management is mapping out demands for the next 10 years or so, trying to stay a step ahead, and have forged contracts with all the municipalities and agreements with Great Lakes and Erie County Water Authority.
Calling it a complex arrangement that includes water user surcharges to help pay down the debt service, Hens said the county is embarking upon Phase 2 with a $30 million price tag, which will be followed by Phase 3 at an estimated cost of $75 to $83 million.
“Phase 3 which would generate enough water to replace the City of Batavia water plant, but also bring in about 17 million gallons of water from Monroe County and Erie County,” he said. “It’s a very heavy lift for us so any outside help we can get from our partners at the federal level, whether its USDA or Congress, would be greatly appreciated.”
Hens made note of the rising food processing industry in the county – an offshoot of agriculture.
“They’re tremendous users of water. So, for us, water is gold, and the more water we can get here for our residents to support jobs and industry, the better off we are,” he said.
AGRICULTURE AND STIMULUS
On other subjects, Jacobs said he was “thrilled” to be appointed to the agricultural committee by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and reiterated his claim that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is holding on to $3 billion in federal stimulus funds.
Acknowledging that he has a lot to learn about the farming industry, Jacobs said he has met with local farm bureau leaders and wants to form an agriculture advisory roundtable to meet with him on a regular basis.
He said the roundtable will help him “to have a pulse of what’s going on in our district and also help me to have the right message when I’m at important stages like the budget process.”
Jacobs said he believes another stimulus bill will happen in September, and has signed onto legislation supporting local governments in the next stimulus bill. He then took another shot at Cuomo, urging the governor to release $3 billion from the first CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act.
“We need to push him to do his administerial job to get the money to the local communities,” he said.
