The Orange County Partnership recently announced that the Village of Montgomery and Highland Falls would each receive $4.5 million from the NY Forward Grant Program, giving both municipalities plenty of funding for much-needed projects.

During the 1970s, New York State commenced the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, an economic development program that provided downtown neighborhoods with funding for tourism, recreation, and other community projects. In 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul announced a spinoff from this: New York Forward, a grant program that gave smaller communities a better chance of receiving funding without contending with larger municipalities.

“New York State is focusing on smaller villages and hamlets,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, historian and member of the village’s grant committee. “It was an offspring of the downtown revitalization.”

The Village of Montgomery, as one of 25 applicants for the program’s second round, has worked diligently over the past few years to secure the funding. Its grant committee included Fitzpatrick, Marc Devitt of Devitt Realty & Management, and former trustee Walter Linder, with additional support from DPW Superintendent Buddy Nelson. Additionally, Helen Budrock of Delaware Engineering and Michael Dziuba of Millenium Strategies helped the committee collect feedback from residents and finalize its grant application.

Most importantly, Fitzpatrick stressed that he and the committee had “4,000 residents” behind them, all working together under one goal: to enhance the village’s quality of life. Fitzpatrick considers this unwavering support the “non-tangible” factor that pushed their municipality to the top.

With the grant money in the bag, the committee can begin developing project plans to submit to the state. These projects, as recommended by residents from a 2022 survey, will have an emphasis on improving walkability, traffic flow, parking, and other public works like playgrounds and building façades. Of the locations in the village, the committee wants to focus on the areas near and along the intersection between Route 17K and 211.

Fitzpatrick estimated that the plans would be finalized and submitted to the state sometime around the Fall of 2024. From there, the state will review the plans over the next 16 months and likely approve them by Spring 2025. The village will then enter the development phase and tackle projects that would take about a year or two each to complete. During this whole process, state agencies and consultants will work with the village to ensure that the plans would be the best they could be.

The village and committee are thrilled with the grant and look forward to using the money to better the lives of everyone in the municipality.

“We were so overwhelmed, it’s exciting for everyone,” Fitzpatrick said. “We achieved what we set out to do. We’re happy to bring it home.”