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SCHENECTADY
City housing authority getting $2.1M from feds
Money will be used for improvement projects
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    Federal stimulus money will pay for new stoops, bathroom renovations, playground improvements and more at facilities run by the Schenectady Municipal Housing Authority, the executive director announced on Thursday.
    SMHA will receive $2.1 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Executive Director Richard Homenick said the money will create at least 100 construction-related jobs.
    SMHA will use the money to fi x deteriorated porches at Steinmetz Homes and Yates Village, repair water-damaged bathrooms at Steinmetz and Ten Eyck, renovate kitchens at MacGathan Townhouses, improve ventilation at Ten Eyck and make parking lot improvements at Ten Eyck.
    Homenick said most of the work is categorized as health and safety related. The stoops, for example, are made of concrete and have deteriorated over the years, and they all require handrails. Steinmetz was built in 1943, Yates in 1950, Ten Eyck in 1963 and MacGathan in 1973.
    Approximately $500,000 of the stimulus money will be used to create a central playground at Yates Village and fix garages there. “Yates has a lot of playgrounds that are old and we consider are in need of replacement,” Homenick said. “We will remove a lot of small units and make a centralized area.”
    Yates has 300 families. “It defi - nitely is in need of that kind of entertainment,” Homenick said.
    SMHA has to commit 100 percent of the money within a year of March 19. After that date, the federal government will reclaim unused funds, Homenick said. “We have projects ready to go and we will waste no time funneling the dollars into our economy,” he said.
    SMHA has an additional $1.6 million, which it receives annually from the federal government, for repair projects, bringing to $3.6 million the total it will spend this year, Homenick said.
    “We will use the dollars … to stimulate the local economy through the construction industry. The construction industry has been among the sectors hit hardest by .....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01301