On Tuesday, the New York Power Authority will vote at its regular monthly meeting in White Plains on approving the 10-year review of the 2002 St. Lawrence-Roosevelt Power Project relicensing.

Of the eight local governing bodies that needed to approve the measure before sending it to NYPA, the Massena Central School District and St. Lawrence County Legislature voted against it. County lawmakers will hold a special meeting on Monday to re-vote and it is expected to pass.

The towns of Lousiville, Massena and Waddington, along with the villages of Waddington and Massena and Madrid-Waddington Central School District voted for the proposal. The Town of Lisbon opted out of the deal in exchange for NYPA returning several parcels of land.

The tentative agreement includes:

• Up to $5 million in funding for an economic development study to assist the LGTF communities to attract business and industry. The study will include identifying alternatives to leverage existing monetary and power resources.

• The use by businesses and farms in St. Lawrence, Jefferson and Franklin counties of 239 megawatts of hydropower that Alcoa temporarily relinquished. The low-cost power will reduce electricity costs by a total of $10 million a year for up to three years.

• Initiation of an energy efficiency and renewable energy-savings program for LGTF government and school buildings that will include $1.5 million in grants to fund energy audits for identifying opportunities for reducing energy costs. The program will be aligned with the governor’s BuildSmart NY initiative, intended to reduce energy use in public buildings by 20 percent by 2020.

• Funding support for first responders at Massena Memorial Hospital, Louisville Company #2, and the Massena and Waddington rescue squads, with the amount to be determined by an ongoing study.

• Improvements to an emergency access road to Wilson Hill Island in the Town of Louisville and an evaluation of improving access to town property in the vicinity of the Iroquois Dam, part of the St. Lawrence-FDR project.

• Annual financial support for the maintenance of identified roads in the vicinity of the hydroelectric plant used by NYPA for its operations.

• Hiring an independent recreational facility consultant to assess possible measures for increased recreational boating opportunities and fishing tournaments to support additional tourism, with NYPA committing up to $7.5 million for the improvements.

• An additional $1 million for a shoreline stabilization program for landowners adjacent to St. Lawrence-FDR within the Towns of Waddington, Louisville and Massena, with elimination of restrictions on the length and cost of the erosion mitigation initiatives.

• Working with the LGTF, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and outdoor fishing clubs to identify additional opportunities to enhance walleye spawning in upstream tributaries of the St. Lawrence River.

To read more about recent developments, click here and here.