NEW SCOTLAND — Between expensive change orders and cost overruns due to a once-in-a-century pandemic, New Scotland has been placed in the position of having to lend itself the money to help pay for the town’s long-in-the-making signature project. 

The town is looking balance its books and make taxpayers whole by allocating its remaining portion of American Rescue Plan Act funding, first received from the federal government some two years ago, to the Hilton Barn project, altogether setting aside about $285,000 of the $600,000 received in ARPA dollars toward the barn project. 

The funding allocation and bookkeeping revelation took place during the town board’s December monthly meeting, at which time additional projects related to infrastructure and transportation were discussed, but the board ultimately decided that other avenues were available to help pay for a water study and senior van. 

With the remaining roughly $130,000 of federal funding being earmarked in December for the barn, New Scotland’s pandemic funding allocations ended up looking like this:

— About $285,000 to cover change orders at the Hilton Barn project;

— $199,000 for playground equipment at two of the town’s parks, on Swift Road and in Feura Bush;

— $30,685 to install a chain-link fence at the town’s Clarksville wells;

— About $30,000 in vandalism clean-up costs at Feura Bush park. 

— $23,000 to streamline the town’s general code; and

— $3,400 for equipment to livestream town meetings.

Other options

The water study, which would have received about $10,000 in federal funds, would have specifically looked at the Swift Road Water District, but would also have taken a town-wide look at water quality issues as well as what it would take to consolidate New Scotland’s water districts. 

But some board members were apprehensive about setting aside money, at least $10,000, for the water study test. 

They worried about the contractual implications of being able to fund a study on what is now a tight schedule, and if it would even qualify for the federal funds, in part because there was no clear plan for the study, which made it hard to know how much it would cost and what it would cover. Some board members said it was important to have a clear plan for the project before spending any money on it. 

Funding fairness was also an issue. 

It didn’t sit right with some board members that water-district customers would be the only beneficiaries of spending meant for the whole town. While those board members said they were committed to doing the water study, they decided instead to wait and hear about the scope of the study, and then pursue funding it. 

The board also took a pass on helping to fund a second senior citizen transportation vehicle. Early in the public allocation process, the board set aside about $50,000 for a new senior van, but those plans changed recently due to a $130,000 grant from the state that will cover all the costs of a new senior passenger bus. 

With the state grant, the board reasoned that, with over $30,000 already raised for a senior van — about half from the village of Voorheesville and half from donations — the federal funding could be spent elsewhere. 

The board ultimately decided to focus the remaining funding on the Hilton Barn largely because promises had already been made and someone had to pay for them.

Barn history

The massive Hilton Barn, built in 1898, was going to be demolished for a housing development. Instead, the town moved the structure — 120 feet long and 60 feet high — across Route 85 to its new setting near the county’s rail trail. Parkland now surrounds the barn and it is envisioned by town leaders as a recreational center for the burgeoning, once-rural town.

At the end of 2019, the town was awarded $411,000 by the state to help pay for the project. The grant was matching, meaning New Scotland had to come up with $411,000 to receive $411,000, but the town’s portion didn’t have to be actual money; it could be in the form of in-kind services. 

The town also planned on tapping a parks fund developers have to pay into if they don’t set aside open space on their project. There was about $250,000 in the fund at the time of the 2019 announcement. 

The barn initially had an estimated project cost of $1.2 million, but then COVID happened and costs, construction in particular, soared; ARPA was meant to help state and local governments cover those types of skyrocketing costs, lending credibility to the town’s decision to use the last of its federal pandemic money on the barn. 

But the board also has its past self to deal with, as some members have long said taxpayers wouldn’t be directly impacted by the project, which isn’t exactly true anymore. To help pay for the additional project costs and change orders, New Scotland had to loan itself money from the town’s A Fund, one of the four pots of money used to fund local government services. 

So it was decided, in the interest of transparency and fiscal responsibility, that the remaining pandemic money would be used to help pay back the A Fund, and New Scotland residents by extension.