County awards $100,000 in municipal trails grants and $400,000 for farmland and open-space preservation; Graphite Range stewardship formalized

On Sept. 10, Saratoga County supervisors approved a package of trails, farmland and open-space actions, including municipal trails grants, farmland/open-space preservation grants and agreements for stewardship of the Graphite Range Community Forest. The 2025 municipal trails grant program awards $100,000 to 14 municipalities; the grants were presented as leveraging $513,814 in combined project costs across the municipalities. The county approved funding two farmland and one open-space preservation projects totaling $400,000 to preserve a combined 349 acres in the towns of Boston, Galway and Milton. Supervisors authorized a professional services stewardship agreement with Saratoga Plan Inc. to provide day-to-day management and stewardship of the Graphite Range Community Forest for a two-year term at $25,000 per year. The committee also approved a memorandum of agreement adding the Northern Gateway parcels to the Graphite Range Community Forest project and allowed a sewer easement conveyance over county land in Clifton Park to connect a residence to an existing manhole along the Zim Smith Trail. Discussion vs. decision: actions approving grants, stewardship and easement conveyance were formal decisions taken by the committee. Staff framed the grants as leveraging larger project costs; no public controversy or dissent was recorded in the meeting transcript.