The Saratoga County Trails and Open Space Committee approved moving funds to reimburse municipalities for closed grants and debated how to handle a larger-than-budgeted slate of 2025 grant requests at its August meeting.

Committee staff reported four municipalities are closing out 2022–23 trail grants — the towns of Greenfield, Milton and Monroe, and an additional Greenfield 2022 project — and that $40,000 will move from the trails grant reserve fund into the operating account to reimburse those municipalities. Jason (staff member) said the transfers will remove those four items from the committee’s outstanding chart for the month.

Separately, the committee approved a resolution to move $24,825 from the open space grant reserve account to the open space protection account to reimburse the Town of Greenfield for a closed 2023 open-space project. That resolution was moved, seconded and approved by voice vote; the minutes record the outcome as "Aye." No roll-call tally was recorded.

Budget context: staff said the committee received 14 applications for 2025 trails grants requesting a total of $137,460 while the committee’s trails budget for the year is $100,000. Staff said they will not move a resolution this month and will present allocation scenarios next month, including options used in previous years such as reductions across applicants or use of fund balance.

Open-space applications are also oversubscribed: staff reported a $450,000 open-space budget against application requests totaling $600,560. Staff said they held a subcommittee meeting with Saratoga Plan and supervisors Ball and Grasso to request additional information from applicants and expect to present both trails and open-space grant recommendations next month.

Staff also reported work on related items: seven pending open-space farmland protection projects, two outstanding projects from 2021 and 21 pending trail projects countywide. Staff said they will begin the county’s annual agricultural district inclusion period in mid-September and continue coordination with DOT and FHWA on an environmental assessment for the Zim Smith corridor.

Why it matters: the committee’s decisions will determine which municipalities receive reimbursement this year and how the committee allocates limited grant funds in 2025; staff flagged several outstanding projects and a funding shortfall that will require policy decisions or use of reserves at a future meeting.