NIAGARA COUNTY: Legislators seek more information on Christian Academy plans

Local News

March 28, 2007

By Jill Terreri/terrerij@gnnewspaper.com The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Wed Mar 28, 2007, 12:19 AM EDT

Prospective buyers of county land will need to explain their plans for the site in front of lawmakers.

Members of the Legislature’s Administration Committee on Tuesday agreed to wait on taking action on an offer of $375,000 from the Christian Academy of Western New York for 16.5 acres on Davison Road.

“We don’t know who these people are,” said Administration Committee Chairman Jason Murgia, D-Niagara Falls. “We want to see who we’re doing business with. We have to protect the county’s best interests.”

Board members of the academy will be asked to speak before the committee’s next meeting, in April.

The land sale, which passed unanimously at Monday’s meeting of the Public Works Committee, must pass the Administration Committee before the full Legislature votes on it.

Without offering many details, Murgia said lawmakers had concerns about how the school plans to finance the renovations.

If the land was used as a school, it would not return to the property tax rolls.

If the sale is finalized, the school would move from its location at 120 Main St., which it rents, to the land on Davison Road.

The land has been for sale for some time. Two other bids the county received were far lower than the school’s offer.

Sale of the land does not include nearby baseball fields and a cemetery.

The cemetery was used to bury patients who died at an infirmary, also on the land.

County employees cut the grass at the cemetery and the county will allow public access to the site even after the sale, according to Public Works Commissioner Kevin O’Brien.

In other business, a resolution by Legislator Harry Apolito, D-Lockport, to examine the benefits of hiring an insurance firm, Correction Risk Services, which specializes in insuring prison inmates, was put on hold.

Risk Manager Jennifer Pitarresi said the county explored the possibility of hiring a health insurance company for inmates last fall but decided it was not cost effective.

The committee tabled the resolution, suggesting that Pitarresi supply Apolito with the information on the costs and benefits of the measure that was compiled last year.

Apolito said he would like to go back five years to see how much money could have been saved if the county utilized the service.

On another Apolito resolution, a plea to eliminate county property taxes for the City of Lockport’s water line was tabled again. Lawmakers said Apolito didn’t bring them new information on the measure, which is why they want to hold off on it.

Apolito did bring them a letter from the city’s attorney, John Ottaviano, but lawmakers said the letter didn’t change anything.

The city pays property taxes on its water line, which runs from North Tonawanda through Pendleton and Wheatfield. Last year, the city paid $62,000 in property taxes to the county.

In other action, Murgia decided not to move Administration Committee meetings away from the Public Safety Training Facility, as suggested by Legislator Peter Smolinski, R-North Tonawanda.

Smolinski made the suggestion because the facility is used for the county’s dispatch operations and other security-sensitive tasks.

Contact reporter Jill Terreriat 282-2311, ext. 2250.

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