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Editorials
When addressing the Lancaster Town Board recently, resident Shirley Phillips of 80 Christen Court declared, “When people are using every dollar to survive at this time, for you to propose this project (Town Hall expansion) rubs me the wrong way. There’s a recession, everybody is trying to get by and $2 million of taxpayer money is a lot of money to be spending now.”
Phillips began her comments by asking the board why they had spent $2 million six years ago on a Walden Avenue building that is still only 10% occupied. “Now you want to spend another $2 million to build a Town Hall addition. Why can’t we transfer the expansion operation to the Walden Avenue building (3949 Walden Avenue)?”
Town of Lancaster Supervisor Robert Giza declared, “Part of the problem is that we would be fragmented. We have the Building Department on West Main Street; the Police, courts, Highway Department, Recreation and Parks and Office of Emergency Management (OEM) on Pavement Road; other offices here and Dog Control on Walden Avenue.”
Giza continued, “Before we even merged the police departments (Town & Village of Lancaster), we knew we would have to update the old Nike Base station being used as a police facility on Pavement. It is a flimsy operation and was never meant to last. It is outdated and lacking safety features.”
“We bought the Walden Avenue building at the right price and it is right sized for the combined police forces, courts and OEM. There is room there to bring in cars in the winter to thaw them out. We will be doing things in there we can’t do now.”
As for the Town Hall expansion, Giza said they would move his office, the Assessor’s office and the Town Attorney’s office into the new building addition. “We are going to redo the Town Hall downstairs offices and bring over the Building Department over. We pay $22,000 a year to the Village to rent the building they are now in.”
Phillips interjected, “So I still say, ‘why can’t this project go into the Walden Avenue building’? We own it. The taxpayers paid for it! Ninety percent is unused. What are you going to do with it?”
Giza replied: Have you tried to build something lately? It shocks me to see what the costs are.”
"It shocks me too as a taxpayer," interjected Phillips.”
Giza told Phillips, “You don’t understand the whole thing. If we lose power here (Town Hall), we are done. We have no backup generation. The new building will have backup generation power.
Phillips interjected, “It would be a lot cheaper to buy a generator. You just want a new office.”
Giza retorted, “I’m almost done (out of office). Don’t say that. That really angers me!”
Phillips: “We’ve done with what we’ve had for all these years. When people are using every dollar to survive at this time, for you to propose this project (Town Hall expansion) rubs me the wrong way. There’s a recession, everybody is trying to get by and $2 million of taxpayer money is a lot of money to be spending now.”
Comments
Phillips is dead on when she asks whether we can take on a $2 million project at a time when the economy is in the dumps and people are reigning in their spending to make a go of it.
When the project was first proposed, the timing was right and the expansion was less encompassing as was the price tag of $1.2 million. The design was changed to make the building’s use more accessible and sound. The new design does have merit.
However, considering the town is spending $7 million to repair/replace waterlines to improve water pressure and reduce waste, has intentions of spending several hundred thousand dollars to mitigate flooding and drainage issues and needs a new police facility big time, it is not inappropriate to question whether the Town Hall expansion should be on a project shortlist.
Phillips is dead wrong in saying that the Walden Avenue building should be used for Town Hall expansion.
As for the Walden Avenue ‘white elephant’, what is the town doing but sitting on its hands and wasting money? Why is it that at a recent Town Board meeting when a resident asked on the status on the building and what the current estimated renovation costs would be, Supervisor Giza said he had a good idea on what the costs would be, but he would not publicly say?
At a January 5, 2009 Town Board meeting Councilmember Ron Ruffino said he had met with Senator Charles E. Schumer at breakfast and spoke on getting police station funding. “If we got that money it would be paid back over the next 50 years.
Councilman Ruffino interjected that he actually contacted Schumer’s aide here and talked about showing him the current site and the proposed new site; “having him look at what we’re operating out of now.” Ruffino stated that it was his goal to have the project renovation funded through federal dollars than taxpayer money.
Councilmember John Abraham added that there is stimulus money out there for buildings and technology. “It is something we should consider as well for outfitting this building; heating, cooling, whatever.” Ruffino added security needs as well.
At that meeting, resident Mike Fronczak opined that considering the Town did not formally have the Walden Avenue building appraised for sale as they publically stated they would, did not formally put the building up for sale or did not include a cost analysis included to build a new police facility on Town owned property, “the taxpayers are being shortchanged in looking only at this process only.”
Ruffino stated that “it was the opinion of experts that hands down the Walden Avenue Colecraft building was a much better location than a new build on Pavement Road and was a bigger bang for the buck.” “That’s how the study (Trautman) came out.” Ruffino declared that the town is looking at this with the best interests of the taxpayers and police in mind.
(Comment: Nonsense! The police should have had a new build on Pavement Road several years ago. They bought a white elephant and will not admit to the mistake. This huge faux pas and waste of taxpayer money should be remembered at election time.)
“I just want to make sure that just because it may be federal dollars that will go into making a police station happen, we pick the best option between a smaller new build and the refurbishing of an old 76,000 square foot building that has been taken off the tax rolls,” Fronczak said.
Fronczak makes a good point when saying a present day study should be performed to weigh the costs and advantages of a smaller new build on town owned property vs. throwing money into an old building that has been taken off the tax rolls and no longer generates revenues.
The study and the experts Ruffino and Giza refer to were from near six years ago. There is no question the police need a new facility. There is opinion that the courts are in decent condition and need but some updating. There is also opinion that a new build on town-owned property is a better option. It would be smaller in size, but state-of-the-art and energy efficient, and the Walden Avenue building could be sold and put back on the tax rolls.
The town had publically stated at several Town Board meetings that they would pursue selling the building. They did a 180 and went back to supporting the renovation of the Walden Avenue building; a project six years in the making and found to be too costly every time a formal or informal inquiry was performed.
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