Pictured is the Ladder Factory, from the Rewey Avenue side in the Village of Newark Valley. (Photos by Keri Blakinger)
The old Ladder Factory, pictured, at one time served as a manure spreader facility, and then as a ladder factory. Later, it had various uses such as salt storage, but has since remained vacant.
Although it is far from being a done deal, the Village of Newark Valley has finally made some noteworthy progress toward tearing down the old Ladder Factory on Clinton Street. The village hasn’t just made progress toward demolition, though; they have also come up with a creative new use for the property – a municipal solar park. The solar array would be large enough to provide energy for all of the village’s buildings and its water system.
News of the positive development came earlier this month when the village received a $100,000 grant toward the Ladder Factory project. Mayor Jim Tornatore said that the grant award has been a long time in the making.
He stated, “First we went to see Assemblyman Chris Friend and we presented the program to him. Then after a period of time we approached Senator [Tom] Libous’s office concerning this.”
Libous was immediately interested. Tornatore said, “We explained the whole thing to the Senator and he said well there’s some competitive grants out there but this seems to be what would be good for the community and if no dollars come up we will back anything you attempt to do.”
About two weeks later, Libous’s office contacted the village with information about the State and Municipalities Capital Program (SAM) grants. On Oct. 1, the village heard back from Libous indicating that they received a $100,000 grant award.
Although $100,000 is a substantial amount of money, it’s only a portion of what will be needed to complete the project. Tornatore said that current estimates put the full project cost between $750,000 and $800,000. It is expected that asbestos abatement and demolition will cost half a million and the remainder of the cost will be for the solar park. The price tag for the whole project will ultimately depend on the bids the town receives, although bidding is still a long way off.
Although the SAM grant is a huge help, the village will still need to secure funding from other resources. Tornatore said that having taxpayers shoulder the burden is not an option.
Tornatore stated, “The tax cap puts us in a situation where it is very difficult to increase the dollars coming in from taxpayers for something like that. So, no, it is not possible for the village to go into any further debt for this project.” Also, Tornatore said that he did not consider it responsible for the village to take on any further bond debt at this juncture. Instead, the village is in talks with Rep. Tom Reed’s office as well as with Empire State Development to learn about other funding sources that the village could utilize for the project.
The Ladder Factory opened in the 1800’s as a manure spreader facility, Tornatore explained. He said that the building was sold in the 1920’s, after which it went into use as a wooden ladder factory.
In the 1960’s, the factory switched to making metal ladders. In 1992, the building was sold and used for salt storage. After another sale, it was used occasionally for other types of storage, although at this point it has been vacant for a number of years.
The structure is now dilapidated and Tornatore said, “It is a blight on the neighborhood.” Hopefully, though, the $100,000 SAM grant is the first step toward fixing that.
