WESTERLO — The town of Westerlo has received a grant to restore the bank of the Basic Creek where it runs through the Westerlo Town Park and has been eroding some of the parkland. 

The $30,000 grant was given out by the Albany County Department of Soil and Water Conservation District, which had informed the town money was available for a streambed protection project, Supervisor Matthew Kryzak told The Enterprise this week. He said the town anticipates using the money to add riprap — or a barrier of loose stone — to somewhere between 300 and 400 feet of the riverbank where the worst of the erosion is.

“This grant allows us to … try and keep as much of the park as possible,” he said. “There’s a lot more work that needs to be done to protect the park and the erosion of the stream bed and things of that nature, but this $30,000 grant is an excellent start. 

Kryzak added that the grant was acquired with help from his confidential secretary, Rosemary McHugh, and his assistant, Jade Smith, who he said “do the meat and potatoes” of the town’s grant writing. 

Westerlo has been especially successful among the Hilltowns at acquiring grants — the biggest being a $1.6 million federal grant to expand broadband access in the town, which it got earlier this year.

For the Basic Creek grant, Kryzak said that he, McHugh, and Smith put together a “very detailed” application with photos and a sense of the town’s goals and their perspective on why it deserved the money over other applicants. 

“We work really well as a team,” he said, “trying to come up with the best sales pitch … I think that makes us really good candidates — the level of work that we put into it. It keeps us competitive for grant money that’s up for grabs.”