Village wins UPWP grant to study reducing speed limit village‑wide; trustees to explore school‑zone ticketing cameras

Village officials announced they have been awarded a UPWP grant to fund engineering work evaluating a villagewide speed limit reduction and other traffic-calming measures and that staff will pursue groundwork to consider automated ticketing cameras in school zones.

The mayor reported the UPWP award increases the village’s project funding estimate from an initial $75,000 to $100,000, with roughly $90,000 expected to come from the grant and $10,000 as the village match for consultant/engineering staff time. The draft UPWP funding window in the consultant materials runs from April 2025 through Dec. 31, 2026. The village will proceed with contracting and procurement of a consultant to complete the study.

Separately, trustees said they will meet with the Ballston Spa Central School District superintendent (referred to in meeting as Superintendent Duke), representatives from Assemblywoman Walsh’s and Senator Tedisco’s offices and law-enforcement personnel to discuss the logistics and legal steps required to allow school-zone ticketing cameras. Trustees said such cameras would require enabling home-rule legislation and subsequent board approval; the board is at an exploratory stage to determine how a cooperative, district-wide approach could work, and to review an Albany template of enabling legislation.

Trustees emphasized the effort is at the study and exploratory stage: the UPWP grant will fund an engineering assessment of streets where the village could reduce limits from 30 to 25 mph and recommend other traffic-calming measures. Any deployment of automated ticketing for school zones would require state-level authorization via home-rule legislation and a local board vote.

The board said it will report progress on procurement and the outcome of the scheduled interagency meeting to the public.