WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand announced on Tuesday, Dec. 27, that several of their priorities for the Mohawk Valley were successfully passed in the final omnibus funding package for Fiscal Year 2023.

The senators secured a total of $7,869,000 for projects across the region, including $3 million to construct and renovate behavioral health care facilities in Herkimer and Madison counties and $2 million to upgrade water infrastructure in Oneida Castle.

“From helping train the next generation of cybersecurity and law enforcement professionals at Utica University to better water infrastructure to expanding the healthcare in Madison and Herkimer County, this federal funding will help address many of the core issues facing the Mohawk Valley and Central New York,” Schumer said.

“This funding means good-paying jobs, safer communities, cleaner water, getting lifesaving healthcare where it’s needed most and so much more. I am proud to deliver this major over $8 million investment in the Mohawk Valley and CNY’s future.”

“This funding will be transformative for the Mohawk Valley,” Gillibrand said. “It will protect our environment by replacing miles of aging sewers, it will fund cutting-edge research to fight crime, and it will provide critically needed health care services close to home. I’m proud to have fought to secure this funding and I will keep fighting to bring federal dollars home to New York.” 

A full list of projects that received funding is below:  

• $717,000 for the Utica University Crime Lab to provide an appropriate platform for cutting-edge research and learning initiatives. In addition to housing the Crime Lab, Utica University’s Economic Crime and Justice Studies building is also the setting for: conferences involving Center for Identity Management and Information Protection (CIMIP) and Economic Crime Institute partners; residencies for UC’s graduate programs in cybersecurity and economic crime management; training for law enforcement professionals on the local, state, and federal levels; and, corporate training in fraud prevention and identity protection; 
• $4.15 million for the Village of Oneida’s Oneida Castle Sanitary Sewer Project to provide funding toward the construction of new sewers and a wastewater pumping station that will serve 625 residences; 
• $1 million for Oneida Health Systems, Inc. to renovate to an existing building located on the main campus of Oneida Health for multi-use care/testing center and Health Resources and Service Administration-funded Behavioral Health Integration and Intensive Outpatient Program. 
• $2 million for Valley Health Services to construct a new, state-of-the-art, 160-bed skilled nursing facility with a 20-bed neurobehavioral unit and a 20-bed memory care unit. The new facility will focus on services needed most by the community and will address current service gaps such as end-of-life care, dementia care and specialized units for sub-acute, clinically complex residents and those with neurobehavioral conditions.