by Rachel Hunter
The Eldon B. Conklin Gouverneur Community Center on Jan. 6 opened its doors to Highway Department and Department of Public Works superintendents from across St. Lawrence County.
The meeting was organized by Town of Fowler Highway Superintendent Randy Durham (who serves as president of the St. Lawrence County Highway Superintendents Association). Special invitations were gratefully accepted by NYS Senator (SD 49) Mark Walczyk, NYS Senator (SD 45) Dan Stec, NYS Assemblyman (AD 117) Ken Blankenbush, NYS Assemblyman (AD 116) Scott Gray and their staff personnel. All were invited to ride in a snowplow during the 8 a.m. coffee hour. The showcased equipment was from the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), Town of Fowler, Town of Gouverneur, and the Town of Hermon. The experience gave the political representatives the insight required to better advocate for the needs of the North Country.
All then were invited to enjoy a scrumptious breakfast during the hour-long meeting and Q&A session with the political representatives about funding concerns in the executive budget.
Town of Fowler Highway Superintendent Randy Durham opened the session by asking an update on CHIPS. Faithful readers of the Gouverneur Tribune Press will recall that FY 2025 Executive Budget includes investments to continue road, bridge and safety improvement across New York. A portion of the budget is allocated as follows: $577.8 million in funding for the Consolidated Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS) and the Marchiselli Program, and $100 million for the Pave our Potholes (POP) Program. The FY 2025 executive budget is outlined at governor.ny.gov.
NYS Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush said: “It’s never enough…”
NYS Senator Dan Stec said the following: “It’s not likely at all that they will ever cut it. But I know a lot of people make the drive all the way to Albany every year. Every time I talk with the highway superintendents, I thank them for doing that. It seems odd to me that government has to panhandle to government to do something as basic as paving roads. But I’ll tell you this: The first year that you take the foot off the gas, that’s when we start looking at cuts. You have to keep advocating. You are well-received. It is a non-partisan issue. That’s good.
“The geographic divide… The NYC folks I don’t think necessarily understand the function and the nature of the highway departments upstate as much as we all do. It is a non-partisan issue. The nice thing about it is that the formula is fair. It’s a non-political formula… So the only thing you really have to worry about is arguing how big of the pie is for CHIPS. There is a fairness to it where you don’t have Democrat-run communities getting more funding than Republican. None of that. Everyone likes the formula. So really, it is a simple discussion: “How much can we put in there?” And that’s when you coming to Albany and knocking on doors helps. This time of year, the governor has already put together her budget. We will have to see what that is in a couple weeks. So, her work is done. I always tell everyone who is advocating for stuff that is in the budget… You want to make as many bites in that apple as you can. That means, start at the executive and start early. In the late summer/early fall, as a group, highway superintendents should be lobbying the governor for more, arguing with her first, and try to get her number up. And then obviously react to her number, and come in like you do in the winter, and talk to us. But like I said, the good news is that this is one area of Albany where it is not partisan at all. And everybody likes the highway department. Is it going to go up? I hope so. I know we all do… It has been easier to vote against the budget in the past few years, under one-party rule, because the priorities are off.
“The media will ask: “Is there anything in the budget that is good?” For crying out loud, at $239 billion, there better be a lot of good stuff in the budget. There’s a lot of good stuff in the budget, but is that the right number? No, it is too high. So then it is about priorities. I won’t make political speeches, but you guys read the news. You know where some of our money is going. It is $2.5 billion to NYC for one project that is questionable in nature. (That funding) would go a long ways to up CHIPS funding. It would go a long ways to fixing the Medicare reimbursement for nursing homes… We all drive the roads, every one of us – Republican and Democrat, rich and poor, working and retired, school buses… It’s an easy argument to push for more, and we will. But we always need your help.”
NYS Assemblyman Gray then said: “I think he said it best, like he always does… I would just like to say that last year they proposed a cut. The opposite party from us, they pat themselves on the back… When you go into Albany, make sure you advocate… and don’t settle for restoration.”
NYS Assemblyman Blankenbush then said: “There’s always a tougher fight in the Assembly than it is in the Senate. There 150 of us in the Assembly. When you have 60-some of those coming from NYC out of 150… Like Dan said, when you take a look at the upstate areas, the Republican and Democrats are pretty much in line with helping with CHIPS funding. But in the Assembly, we have that group of people who think the MTA is more important than our roads. And you know, that is the fight that we have when we are trying to get this budget through, and increasing the budget for CHIPS funding. That’s the fight we’ve had every since I’ve been down there. But they will spend a lot of money on that MTA. Back in the day of Governor Cuomo, they passed a bill that said that if the MTA had a percentage increase one year, then the same percentage increase would go for CHIPS. Then, when Andrew Cuomo became the governor, he did away with that bill. Trying to get that back is always the battle in the Assembly. We do that every year. Every year, you’ll find out that they’ll show you a decrease in CHIPS funding. By the time April 1 comes around, you’ll get it back up… But that’s our fight in the Assembly compared to the Senate.”
NYS Senator Walczyk said: “Know that from the North Country you have an alliance here that is right on board. Infrastructure matters. We understand what you are going through in town barns. We will support you in whatever way we can. As Ken pointed out, it would be great to get some parity and policy in headlines about the MTA and the mess down there, and all the silly things that the governor is trying to do to bail out the MTA. You all are the exact opposite than that. You are an efficiently run system. You share services exactly where it makes sense to. You go on your own, and you figure it out with really small staffs in the most efficient way possible. When we increase funding in CHIPS, we know that it is going to smart money. It is going to be about… Do we buy that with cash? Do we finance it? Can we leverage for this? How do we reduce the tax rate for our town? It is the opposite when you fund the MTA. They just look to have more contracts for political pay-off in NYC, and they continue to waste more and more money. So, this is smart money. As Senator Stec put it, there’s a lot of good. CHIPS is definitely part of the good in the New York State budget. We will do all that we can to support you.”
Senator Stec then said the following: “I want to thank and encourage y’all. The inter-municipal cooperation when we have emergencies and storms that hit… I know you have your own budgets to worry about. There are turf wars… It could easily become: “Good luck. You do you.” But I’ve never seen that with the highway departments. You guys have been good to each other, and I think the public sees and appreciates that. When it hits the fan and you are dealing with Mother Nature stuff, and you lend your hand to a neighboring town, that’s wonderful. I think it is a good-news story. You have a $65 billion capital plan for the MTA, and the MTA is the worst managed, corrupt entities in the state – very inefficient. Then, you throw into it the bad politics of congestion pricing to pay for it, which is just an increase in taxes in what is already the most-taxed state. You compare favorably to that. It is easy for us to say, “Hey, whatever you do for the MTA…” They worry about mass transit, and that’s all they focus on. Our job is to make sure that we are fighting to make sure you guys are getting more. We all want to increase CHIPS. Like Mark said, it is one of the high points, and it is defendable because it is the formula. It is not hand-waving and magic numbers. It is a formula that is tested, and makes sense. No one is complaining about the formula. The only thing is, how big is the pie? Any time I talk to highway folks about storms… track your time, track everything. We need to hit those emergency thresholds. If you don’t have those numbers, you can’t get reimbursed. Any time it starts, start tracking.”
There was no further questions on CHIPS. Other topics discussed include the following: Tier 6, recruitment and retention of employees, training, storm damage recovery, and much more.
The highway superintendents across St. Lawrence County were encouraged to attend Advocacy Day in Albany this March 2025. On that topic, Assemblyman Blankenbush said the following: “That matters. Everybody, even from NYC, knows when you guys are down there… and it really does get people to zero in on what we are trying to do. Don’t think that you are traveling to Albany, and that it doesn’t work. Because it does work. I want to encourage you to keep doing that.”
The St. Lawrence County Highway Superintendents Association plans to hold future trainings and meetings to benefit the municipal departments. Much gratitude was extended to Dave Spilman, Jr. and the Gouverneur Community Center for the use of the facility. A 50-50 raffle was conducted, and all funds donated were given in support of the work of the Gouverneur Community Center, which is made possible thanks to a collaboration between the Town of Gouverneur and the Village of Gouverneur. For more information, visit gouverneurcommunitycenter.com.