Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that a Senate panel had given preliminary approval for $250,000 to the Town of North Hempstead for the New Cassel Revitalization Project.

The news came as the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2005 Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies bill last week. With the bill's passage by the Senate Appropriations Committee, the bill will now be sent to the Senate floor. The bill must then go into conference with the House version before being approved by Congress.

"I want to commend the Town of North Hempstead and the residents of New Cassel for working together to rally behind this project and now for taking the necessary steps to bring it to fruition. On Long Island it is so important that we invest in the future of our main streets, like in New Cassel," Senator Clinton said. "I am so pleased to have secured these preliminary funds because I am committed to helping the Town of North Hempstead in any way that I can because main street revitalization is so important, especially on Long Island."

This funding comes in addition to $75,000 in HUD Economic Development Initiative funds that Senator Clinton secured along with her colleagues last year to support the effort.

In March, Senator Clinton met with North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman in Washington DC to discuss federal support for the revitalization and to continue the ongoing conversation, started by former Town Supervisor May Newburger, about the future of the area. Senator Clinton's office has met with the town representatives and the New Cassel Revitalization Group many times and will continue to work with them on this important project.

The Town of North Hempstead has undertaken an ambitious economic and environmental revitalization of the hamlet of New Cassel, an economically distressed community, with 9 percent of its population living below the poverty level.

In 2002, North Hempstead gathered residents, business and property owners, civic groups, labor leaders, clergy, seniors, homeowners, renters, government officials, and youth to create a vision for a revitalized New Cassel. The resulting New Cassel Vision Plan calls for a proposed reconstruction of the Prospect Avenue and Union Avenue corridors, New Cassel's main streets, to help create a walkable, mixed-use downtown area that is attractive to new retail and commercial investment.

The Vision Plan has the support of many community groups including: New Cassel Environmental Justice Project; New Cassel/Westbury Neighborhood Advisory Council; Unified New Cassel Community Revitalization Corporation; New Cassel Improvement Committee; the New Cassel Business Association; the Westbury Community Improvement Corporation; the Carman Community Association; Sustainable Long Island; the Long Island Progressive Coalition; the Institute for Sustainable Development; KeySpan Energy, and LIPA.