State officials are celebrating a major energy milestone with the completion of the Champlain Hudson Power Express, but some Rockland County business owners say they are still paying the price. The clean energy transmission project has been hailed as a win for New York, even as shopkeepers along its route describe a punishing year. The split reaction has left a sour note on what the state is presenting as a success.
Governor Kathy Hochul is celebrating the project's completion, saying that because of the line New York will remain a national clean energy leader. The Champlain Hudson Power Express is a hydropower transmission project that the state has long promoted as a key part of its energy goals. For officials, finishing the line marks the end of a major construction effort.
For some business owners in Stony Point, the picture looks very different. They say the construction tore up their communities and their businesses and left them still not close to recovery. According to the report, the work blocked access to storefronts for most of the last year, choking off the customers they depend on.
David Cho, the owner of Stony Point Bagels on Route 9W, said he had to cut his entire staff to blunt the revenue losses tied to the construction. He described being cut off from his customers for much of the year as the project moved through the area. For a small business, that kind of disruption stretched over months proved deeply damaging.
At Rock's Kitchen, the owners said they had cut staff and dipped into their personal retirement funds just to stay alive. One described the toll in blunt terms, saying the project had decimated the area and questioning whether those behind it were satisfied with the result. The frustration reflected a sense that the community had been left to absorb the damage.
A chamber of commerce vice president said that if all 112 affected businesses apply for funds, each one might receive only enough for about a month's rent. Most of the businesses, she said, had reported tens of thousands of dollars in losses. She added that the program had not yet begun accepting applications for that relief.
The gap between the celebration and the losses framed the day for the businesses in Rockland County. While the state marked the completion of a project it sees as central to its clean energy future, owners in Stony Point said they were left counting the cost. They were still waiting to see whether the promised help would be enough to keep them open.