LEWISTON: New Marketing Plan to 'Turn Hydro Into Jobs'—Gov. George E. Pataki announced on Jan. 28 a major new marketing campaign to use low-cost hydropower from NYPA's Niagara Power Project here to attract industries from all parts of North America to relocate and create jobs in Western New York. The plan provides for a $500,000 national advertising campaign to make decision-makers and company officials aware of the region's power advantages. The hydropower costs less than 2 cents per kilowatt-hour (kwh), 60 percent lower than the national average price of nearly 5 cents per kwh for industrial electricity in 2001. The initiative has received strong backing from state Sens. George D. Maziarz, Dale M. Volker and Mary Lou Rath, Assemblyman Jim Hayes and Assemblywoman Sandra Lee Wirth, with Rath calling the hydropower "Western New York's greatest natural resource to help create jobs and investment." The 17,000 kilowatts (kw) currently available come from a 445,000 kw block of Replacement Power, provided to industries in the Niagara Mohawk Power Corp.'s service territory within 30 miles of the Niagara project. Appli-cations for allocations are available from the Power Authority (www.nypa.gov/hydro) and Niagara Mohawk. The deadline for applications is March 25, 2002.

ALBANY: NYPA Installs Historical Streetlighting at Capitol— The Power Authority has installed 40 new streetlights, replicating a classic century-old design, around the state Capitol as part of NYPA's continuing energy-efficiency improvements at the Empire State Plaza. Funding for the replicas, which cost approximately $4,000 apiece, came from energy-efficiency savings from a series of projects the Power Authority has undertaken in Albany in cooperation with the state Office of General Services. The 22-foot-tall streetlights, each with a decorative cast-iron base and pole, are based on an original retrieved from City Hall Park in Manhattan. The design was common to the late-19th century, when the state Capitol was built. In 1999, NYPA completed a $1 million retrofit of interior and exterior lights at the Capitol. Related projects now under way nearby include a $5 million ventilation overhaul at the plaza's subterranean parking garage, a $2 million lighting retrofit in the 41-story Corning Tower and a plan to upgrade the Sheridan Avenue Steam Plant with a cogeneration facility.

BROOKLYN: NYPA Fuel Cell Helps Power, Heat Aquarium—The New York Aquarium, a Coney Island landmark for half a century, is obtaining about 20 percent of its electricity from a clean, natural gas-powered fuel cell installed by the Power Authority. The 200-kilowatt fuel cell, which began operation at the start of the year, produces virtually emission-free electricity through a chemical reaction without combustion. It will also provide heat and hot water for the 14-acre facility's main laboratory and administration building upon completion of renovations. The Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the aquarium, wanted to augment its existing power source with reliable on-site generation of power and heat. The aquarium is home to more than 350 species and 8,000 specimens of aquatic life.

ALBANY: NYPA Video Aired at King Birthday Observance—  A live broadcast of New York State's annual memorial observance for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on Jan. 21 included a brief NYPA-produced video about the slain civil rights leader. Cable television stations across the state carried the commemorative program, held at the Empire State Convention Center in Albany, with the theme Embrace the Dream: It's More Than Just a Day. The Power Authority's video used archival footage of King along with a message by Joseph Seymour, a NYPA trustee and former chairman, inviting the public to visit a NYPA-sponsored sculpture dedicated to King. The 16-inch-high crystal glass sculpture, Seeds of Enlightenment, is an abstract depiction of a tree and seeds, representing the enlightened ideas that are part of the King legacy. It is on display in Albany's Empire Plaza Concourse, near the Justice Building. The sculpture was created by Steuben, a NYPA electricity customer, with financial support from the Power Authority.

QUEENS: NYPA Scholarship Honors World Trade Center Victim — The Power Authority has established a $3,000 scholarship at Townsend Harris High School in memory of a NYPA employee's daughter who died in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Jennifer Wong, a 26-year-old graduate of the school and of the State University of New York at Binghamton, was working for Marsh & McLennan as a risk management technologist when the attacks occurred. Her father, Ben Wong, works for NYPA's Project Management Division in White Plains. Among other accomplishments cited at Jennifer's memorial service, attended by close to 1,000 people on Oct. 13 at the Queens Christian Alliance Church in Flushing, was her initiation of a program, now in its 10th year, in which Townsend Harris students tutor children from a local elementary school. The financial aid will be given annually to a senior actively involved in community service and planning to attend college. The school has started a similar parent- and student-funded scholarship in her name.

NORTH BLENHEIM: Winter Break Series Returns to Center—The Power Authority's annual Winter Break Series is coming back to the Blenheim-Gilboa Power Project's visitors center here from Tuesday through Thursday, Feb. 19-21, with educational and entertaining programs for elementary school-aged children. The free events, which begin at 11:30 a.m. each day and run about an hour and a half, feature an energy-education program on Feb. 19, a hands-on historical basket-making workshop on Feb. 20 and an interactive workshop on wildlife on Feb. 21. The visitors center has also added an outdoor sports recreation day, from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 23, to its schedule of free winter events. The new Winter Sports Festival offers snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and dog sledding demonstrations; a Catskill Mountain fire-tower exhibit; horse-drawn-sleigh rides and a fly-tying workshop. The fly-tying activity is limited by reservation to the first 30 people. For reservations or more information, please call 1-800-724-0309.

In the Community: An ice rink sponsored by the Power Authority was scheduled to provide a weekend of free skating at the first Niagara Falls Ice Festival, Feb. 2-3.…Staff members at the Blenheim-Gilboa Power Project visitors center, North Blenheim, conducted a Basics of Electricity program for the Henderson Boy Scouts, Hennsonville, Jan. 22.…NYPA staff members briefed the new Bronx borough president, Adolfo Carrion, on the Power Authority's small natural gas-fueled turbine-generators in New York City and on Long Island, Jan. 22….Staff members at the Niagara Power Project visitors center, Lewiston, presented an electric vehicle and an exhibit promoting the center at the annual Winterfest, Bonds Lake, Lewiston, Jan 19….Joanne Willmott, community relations regional manager, gave a Speakers Bureau presentation to the East Aurora Kiwanis Club on efforts to obtain a new federal license for the Niagara project, Jan. 17….The Niagara project visitors center's staff presented overviews of the center at the St. Mark's Science Fair in Buffalo and the Town of Aurora's Winterfest, Jan. 17….Steve Ramsey, senior community relations representative, gave a Speakers Bureau presentation to the Stamford Rotary Club on the rehabilitation of historic Lansing Manor and the Blenheim-Gilboa project visitors center's 2002 calendar of events, Jan. 16….Ron Ciamaga, regional manager of Northern New York, presented checks for $6,000 to the Upper Mountain Fire Company, Lewiston, and $2,000 each to the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center and Lewiston’s St. Mary's Hospital, Jan 14.