St. Lawrence County IDA gets clean 2023 financial audit

Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
·2 min read

Mar. 31—CANTON — The St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency received a clean audit of its 2023 financial statements.

Last week, the IDA released the results of its independent audit, and also the audits of the other three entities it oversees — the Civic Development, Local Development, and Property Development corporations. All have the same board members and executive officers.

All of the audits note "the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position" of each of the four entities.

"There were no changes, no disagreement with management," IDA CEO Patrick J. Kelly told the IDA board during their meeting Tuesday afternoon.

The audit report notes there were no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses identified. It also says there were no findings or questioned costs in the audit of the IDA's major federal programs.

The audit was conducted by Pinto, Mucenski, Hooper, Van House and Co. CPAs based in Ogdensburg.

During the same meeting, the IDA also released their annual report to the St. Lawrence County legislature detailing all of their economic development activities in 2023. Go to http://wdt.me/o5VhTu to read that document.

Also during the Tuesday IDA meeting, the board approved a $54,000 sales and use tax exemption to Gouverneur-based Cives Steel on a $666,157 equipment purchase. The steel manufacturer is buying and installing a Peddinghaus 40-foot AFPS 863 Anglemaster-HD fabricator, including a hydraulic tank heater, 270 series tooling and Raptor Light Software.

They also doled $86,400 from the American Rescue Plan Act to seven businesses and organizations in St. Lawrence County.

The IDA board approved the funding during its meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

UB's Mercantile LLC in Oswegatchie will receive $25,000 to install self-service gas pumps. Atlantic Testing Laboratories in Canton was approved to get $23,300 to buy a four-post, heavy-duty lift.

Cives Steel Company in Gouverneur is getting $15,000 for five new full-time equivalent workers. The Frederic Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg will get $10,000 in nonprofit assistance.

Clifton-Fine Hospital is slated to get $9,230 to provide medical assistant and coding training for three full-time equivalent workers. Birch's General Store in Cranberry Lake will get $3,350, which supplements an earlier $22,500 ARPA grant to install a new ventilation and roofing system. ENI Mechanical Inc. in Gouverneur will get $520 to provide five full-time equivalent workers in builders exchange training.

The St. Lawrence County IDA is tasked by the county Board of Legislators in administering $3.4 million in ARPA funding. Businesses and organizations that were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic are eligible to apply for the grants.

More information on how to apply is on the IDA's website, slcida.com.