Riverhead was not selected by the state as a “testbed site” for Empire State Development’s Smart Cities program.
Empire State Development on Friday announced the designation of 10 sites across the state, including one on Long Island. The Village of Southampton was selected for its proposal to remediate groundwater contamination around Lake Agawam.
“We were glad to have had the opportunity to apply,” Riverhead Community Development director Dawn Thomas said today. “Although we were not successful in obtaining designation, it was a valuable learning process wherein we acquired critical information about the program and how it could benefit Riverhead taxpayers in the future by drawing high-tech innovation industries as well as quality jobs to the region,” she said.
“We are grateful to Arieli Capital for putting us in touch with the technology companies that assisted us in preparing the application,” Thomas said.
Riverhead submitted proposals for three projects: smart mobility, using technology to assess/predict traffic and reroute motorists so they can avoid jams; smart irrigation, using artificial intelligence to sense plant needs, so that irrigation can be minimized; and contaminant removal, to improve and enhance municipal water supplies. Total proposed funding for the three projects was $1.75 million.
The Smart Cities program is a joint effort of Empire State Development and the Israel Innovation Authority. The program was announced during a July 2019 trade mission to Israel by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Israel-based Arieli Capital, the company identified by Triple Five in May as the entity that would be handling business development for the Calverton Aviation & Technology project at EPCAL, alerted the Community Development Agency to the Empire State Development program, Thomas said.
Southampton Village and upstate Jamestown got the lion’s share of the funding, with $200,000 each. The City of Syracuse upstate got approval for $150,000 in funding. The seven other proposals were funded at amounts less than $100,000.
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