Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues, it's 8.15 and I'm pleased to welcome a first-time guest to the microphones here on FLX Morning, the mayor of the village of Cayuga, Don Wilson is here. Good morning, Don. How are you, sir?
Don Wilson: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I appreciate you being here. We're going to get into the projects that we want to talk about here in just a minute. We hear the DRI initiative and hear that terminology bandied about in a lot of different places, but I'm not sure if people are aware of the process that you have to go through to actually get this DRI funding money, so can you kind of walk us through the steps that you had to go through to be able to successfully garner the money to do the projects we're going to talk about?
Don Wilson: Our first attempt at trying to go after this kind of grant funding was through New York Forward. When that came out, it would have been 2023, we tried to go after it. We worked with Cayuga County, put in our application for New York Forward. We weren't successful, but Moravia was in Cayuga County and they were awarded and worked through that. And then that grant cycle, they had announced that neighboring communities could go after the downtown revitalization initiative. So not only did Cayuga go after New York Forward, but so did Union Springs and so did Aurora. So we got with county planning, the three of us, and we wrote an application for DRI and all three of us have well more than the 10 million worth of projects that we were awarded. We could probably maybe triple that between the three villages of the stuff that we could actually use funding for. So we submitted the application and we were successful.
Paul Szmal: And that leads us to the point now where you've got basically three big projects that you're looking to accomplish here. The first one is the redevelopment of Beacon Bay Marina.
Don Wilson: Yeah, Beacon Bay Marina was once the Beacon Feed Mill, a real cornerstone for the village of Cayuga for as long as time goes for the village. I mean, 1857, we were incorporated and Beacon Bay was already in business at that time as a feed mill. So as they shut down in the 80s, it became a vacant property that was transferred into a marina. It's an operating marina now with Cayuga Wood and Boat Works and Mahaney Canvas in there. So they went after a grant to put in a 19 room lodge with more marina capacity for boats and then some infrastructure upgrades and things there. So I mean, they're looking at a $5 million project with a two and a half million that they can get from the DRI grant. And they were also awarded the million dollars worth of Restore New York after the DRI was announced too. So they've got a lot of investment going there.
Paul Szmal: And I was taking a look at some of the artist renderings for what this is going to look like. And if this project comes to fruition the way it's designed, that's going to be pretty amazing. I think it'd be great to see, it would be a big pillar building block to get the Village of Cayuga moving forward towards a little bit of commercial business. Something that we don't have. That is our only operating commercial business within the village, aside from Airbnb. But other than that, that's our only operating business in the village. So it would be a good cornerstone.
Don Wilson: And one of the other things that you're working on is some housing too.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, we just had Ithaca Neighborhood Housing. They rebuilt the old Cayuga Elementary School into 41 units of affordable housing in the village. It was a big influx in population in the village from the just under 400 to about 550. So a 20% increase in population in one building. So another thing that was awarded was the old village rec hall. He's planning on turning that into four high-end apartments. So the village owned the rec hall. It didn't quite get dilapidated, but it got to a point where the village couldn't afford all the repairs and everything that it needed. So we put it on the block and it sold. This developer went after DRI money and he had got awarded just under a half a million to get going on that too. So that'll be helpful.
Don Wilson: Yeah, and these are going to be two-bedroom loft style, as you said, higher-end apartments.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, that's his end goal, yeah.
Don Wilson: We're talking with Cayuga Village Mayor Don Wilson here on FLX Morning this morning. The third project is a transformation of McIntosh Park.
Paul Szmal: McIntosh Park has been a cornerstone for the village my whole life. I'm a fourth-generation Cayuga kid, so I've always been a part. That park has been a huge part of the village. So what we're going to do there is new baseball fields, a new pavilion, paving, drainage work, new playground that's going to be ADA compliant. The big thing for me in that project is the pavilion. With the rec hall getting sold and now we're looking at putting up 7,000 square foot pavilion, our comprehensive plan has always reflected farmer's markets, artistry, music, things that wanted to be done in our parks. With this pavilion, we can provide that. We would have that space to do those things in our comprehensive plan, along with a sidewalk and along with all the upgrades that we need at that park as far as drainage and everything for the sports events. It would be huge for the village of Cayuga, and that $2 million, there's no match to that. For a municipal project, it's no match. So if we can get this to where we want it, it'll be a big shot in the arm for us that doesn't necessarily come out of the coffers of the village of Cayuga.
Don Wilson: So I kind of feel like with the awarding of this grant money that there's a bit of a transformation happening here.
Paul Szmal: Well, long overdue. But you're right. And I think that's the whole point with some of this DRI type stuff, is it is designed to transform the community and bring alive some of the projects that are kind of long forgotten or at the top of the chopping block, but just can't kind of push over the edge. It's the stuff that costs a lot of money or people are afraid to make the risk. And hopefully, we can work with the Department of State and Empire State Development and get these projects pushed over the line and in years to come, the village of Cayuga will see this revitalization. Same thing with Aurora and Union Springs. I mean, this is a shot in the arm to all of us. We all have park projects that are involved. We all have different properties that need the revitalization. So this money will hopefully be a shot in the arm to all three communities and a big one for the village of Cayuga.
Don Wilson: What is your long-range goal once, obviously, the short-term goal is to try to get these projects through to completion, but what's the long-term goal beyond that?
Paul Szmal: Well, long-term goal for the village of Cayuga has always been to kind of keep the small historic residential feel, but also invite in the old school, small business, tourist trendy kind of atmosphere, but also keep it a residential community where the middle class families have been able to raise their kids forever. So we're trying to maintain some of the old and bring in some of the new and still keep that small town America feel. And hopefully, we can achieve that. I mean, it's a tough ask, but I think that the people of the village of Cayuga have always been a hardworking group of people. I think that cautiously optimistic is a good way to look at this as far as the growth goes. I mean, because change can be nerve-wracking and scary and you don't know what's next. So with us, with the village of Cayuga, it seems like we've always tried to go after some kind of revitalization, some kind of movement as we've watched business leave from the 70s and 80s. We've kind of been a bedroom community. Airbnb has brought some new stuff in as far as the tourism attraction goes. But as far as any kind of commercial business, it's only been the beacon. So we're hoping to bring in some of that small business atmosphere, some of the mom and pop type feel.
Don Wilson: Yeah, things like boutique stores, hair salons, services like that, things of that nature. Small restaurants, things like that. A very, very, I guess, kind of old forge-ish, Lake George type feel, you know, where it's really that small town atmosphere that people seem to love. And I love it. I mean, I grew up in Cayuga and I moved to Alaska for a while and then I came home. And the village of Cayuga has always been home. And it's just a beautiful place to be. And I'm hoping that we can keep that charm and provide a little bit of growth going forward into the future. And I think that the DRI and some of this movement that we're doing, we'll be able to achieve that.
Paul Szmal: And when do you anticipate some of these projects actually getting underway?
Don Wilson: Well, I'm sure that this next year we'll be going back to kind of that strategic investment plan, but more localized. So we did this as a region and now we'll be doing it as just a village. So ESD, they'll be working with the Hall project and with Beacon Bay, the private property plans. And then the Department of State will be working with the village of Cayuga on the McIntosh Park plan. So a lot of it's going to be actually drafting hard, tangible plans going forward for all the properties, what we really expect out of them, you know, and then kind of finalizing what the actual cost will actually be. And of course, financing. So I'm sure that the next year of this is going to be pretty much financial and planning. And I would expect, hopefully, that by fall 2026, spring 27, maybe even sooner, we start seeing some actual shovels go in the ground.
Paul Szmal: Fantastic. That's my expectation. I don't know for sure, but I would expect that that's kind of how it's going to go.
Don Wilson: A fun fact, really, is Oswego. Oswego in 2016 was the first DRI awarded. It took them seven years to get done completely. So we just got awarded in 24, seven years, so 2031, we should expect that all projects be completed if we go off that Oswego timeline.
Paul Szmal: Right, right. So that's kind of what we're kind of looking at. I'm hoping it don't take that long, especially with things being divided among three villages, you would think that we'd be able to get most of that stuff completed a little bit faster. But time will tell.
Don Wilson: All right. Well, I appreciate you coming in and filling everybody in on this. And I'm excited for the plans for the future here.
Paul Szmal: I appreciate you having me in here. If I can talk about Cougar, I love the place. I'll talk about it anytime.
Don Wilson: Absolutely. It is 826 on FLX Morning.
