Author: Brendan Doran

June 9, 2017

HORNELL, NY – A very well respected housing development company out of Rochester, Park Grove Reality, has agreed to purchase the old Marion Rohr building for $1. The plan is to construct 22 market rate apartments with a Historic preservation designation to the century plus old building. Filing for historic status will bring much needed tax breaks to get the project up and running.

The lease is for a one year option and that time will be used for building planning, getting the Historic designation tag, and obtaining financial assistance. The total cost of the project will be over $5 million and as of this moment the company is about a million dollars short of their goal.

The IDA will still own the building during this one year period and continue to pay the insurance and heat bills.

Griffin concluded, “We have done everything to get that building marketed over the past years, new heating system, new roof along with many upgrade, and it’s really nice to get this property occupied and back on the tax rolls.”

June 9, 2017

HORNELL, NY – The IDA will soon be looking at putting railroad line switches into the South Yards to make the nearby businesses accessible to railcar traffic.

“We currently have some unused state money that was originally planned for that purpose, and we want to see if we are still eligible to use it,” explained Griffin. “That is the only designated heavy industry area left in the valley, and we would like to make as much use of it as possible.”

The purpose of running railcars in that direction would be to deliver storage to Alstom warehouses, Gray Manufacturing, and Lin Industries. According to the Director, any area designated for heavy industry will want to utilize rail services.

Also the IDA is currently in negotiations to sell all building materials tax free to the future Medical Arts building planned for the old Kmart Plaza. “Anything we can do to get that project up and going with no delays is a top priority for us,” explained Griffin.

A resolution was passed to invest up to $10,000 for the renovation of the tile floor at Trikeen Tile. “They have been having issues up there with that floor for a long time and it’s about time we made a move to get it taken care of.”

And finally the iIDA has accepted the lowest bidder to replace the roof on Alstom’s plant 3 (across from lamacs AutoMaxx). The new rubber roof will run just over $200,000 with additional asbestos removal on the building coming in around $11,000. This work will be contingent on Alstom signing a long term lease extension of up to 13 more years. Their current lease expires very soon and Griffin would like to get this negotiated before they make any financial commitments to infrastructure.

The new Center for Excellence is planned for that building so it is mandatory to get it up to code. “The front of the roof on the building is in bad shape and leaks,” said Griffin, “So we would like to get right on it.”

June 9, 2017

HORNELL, NY – At yesterday’s monthly IDA meeting it was announced that the final papers are about to be signed and the old Sunset restaurant will officially be in the hands of the Hornell IDA.

“If anyone here is thinking about starting a restaurant, we will be happy to sell it to you,” said a joking IDA Director Jim Griffin, “but in all seriousness they were going out of business anyway and we seen the opportunity purchase it for an expanding Alstom Manufacturing.”

According to Griffin, Alstom plans on running a 3000 foot test track immediately adjacent to the building, and they plan on purchasing all or some of the property for that purpose.

The new track will run right up next to the building but will not affect the actual structure, stopping just short. The track will be so close as to make any future plans about reopening the building as an eatery obsolete, so a decision will have to be made sometime in the future about what to do with it.

June 8, 2017

HORNELL, NY – Hornell Mayor Shawn Hogan announced Tuesday morning that with the recent retirement of two veteran police officers the city will immediately begin interviews for those replacements.

Hogan said that none of the potential candidates have been through the Police Training Academy and the city will have to provide that to whoever is selected. The first three candidates were scheduled for an interview right after the Board of Public Safety meeting was adjourned.

June 8, 2017

HORNELL, NY – After getting news that funding was being cut to provide a police resource officer at the Hornell Jr/Sr High School, the school district stepped up and agreed to provide the $50,000 extra needed to bring one back.

The counties Social Services Department informed the city and school district that funding would end for the position at the end of the school year and unless someone came up with the money one would not be back.

“We did not have the luxury of providing a full time officer,” said the Mayor, “so some form of cost sharing had to be negotiated.” Under the terms of the agreement, the school wants to clarify the duties of the officer and Hogan said that he and Police Chief Ted Murray will review it and then sign the agreement.

The position is for 10 months beginning July 1st and the school was very happy with the job Jason Day has done in the past and he will resume the position.

June 7, 2017

HORNELL, NY – Hornell head football coach and Athletc Director Erik Werner was present at Wednesday afternoon’s monthly BOE meeting and laid out plans to add an Arkport student to the Hornell football team. After Werner met with Arkport Superintendent Jesse Harper and Athletic Director Dale Steiner, it was mutually agreed upon to move forward.

According to Superintendent Doug Wyant, “combined programs” are nothing new in Section 5 and are frequently done to give a student the opportunity to play a sport his school does not offer or used to offer but abandoned it because of declining enrollment.

Werner stated that it will not affect Hornell’s classification (currently class B in football) and the student is responsible for all transportation and participation costs. Wyant finished by noting that Section 5 closely monitors this to prevent any school from becoming a superpower in any sport by absorbing smaller schools players for the sole purpose of winning championships.

June 7, 2017

HORNELL, NY – Welliver Construction Superintendent Mick Pavlick had some good news for the Hornell BOE Wednesday afternoon. The 2016-17 Capital Outlay project is for the most part complete. The contractor is finalizing closeout paperwork and once that is completed a final payment will be issued.

The lengthy project included the Intermediate pool and roof replacement, Jr/Sr High site work, A & B gym renovations, and classroom renovations.

The Far west parking lot will be completed in a matter of days with the top coats of asphalt being put down today and tomorrow and with the lane striping completed by Friday. Work on the south parking lot will not begin until school is completely out with completion estimated at mid-August.

The 2017-18 Capital Outlay Project will soon be starting up with renovations to bathrooms at the Jr/Sr High School.

June 6, 2017

CANISTEO, NY – Canisteo village mayor Monica Recktenwald was full of praise Monday night for the Canisteo Community Support Group and everyone else who volunteered their time to make the Crazee Daze weekend a successful celebration. “I cannot remember ever seeing that many people at the parade,” said Recktenwald, “and it definitely was a community effort.”

In other news a resolution was passed to put “No Outlet” sign at the beginning of Glenn Avenue to avoid unnecessary turnarounds by larger vehicles.

It was also noted in the department reports that the number of junk vehicles are down considerably in the village.

Invenergy will be holding a number of open houses in the village this summer to keep the public informed and to answer any questions about the Canisteo Wind Project currently taking place.

The village board also agreed to spend up to $3500 to have a water storage tank inspected which is a prerequisite to securing a grant for water infrastructure upgrades.

The board also gave the green light for the Canisteo Police Department to lend a car and an officer to help out in emergency situations at the Watkins Glen race weekend.

And finally there will be a fireworks display hosted by the Canisteo American Legion on July 1st starting at 10 pm.

June 2, 2017

HORNELL, NY – New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli visited City Hall Friday afternoon with some good news for city residents. The state currently owes Hornell residents a total of $1,334,407.53 in unclaimed funds with a total of 3,375 accounts.

After a warm welcome by Hogan, DiNapoli explained that banks, insurance companies, corporations and the courts are among the many organizations required by law to report dormant accounts to the State Comptroller. These organizations must attempt to notify you by mail and publish the information.

Despite these efforts, many funds remain unclaimed and are turned over to the Office of the State Comptroller who in turn holds the funds until claimed. There is no time limit on how long people have to collect as DiNapoli stated that he is still in possession of monies from the 1940’s-50.

DiNapoli’s staff is currently set up in the main lobby of City Hall for the day and if you cannot make it down it’s very easy to check and see if you have money coming by going to the website www.osc.state.ny.us and search under the unclaimed funds link.

DiNapoli finished his presentation with great praise for the city and especially for Mayor Hogan and presented him with a plaque from his office for his years of dedicated service to the community.

June 1, 2017

HARTSVILLE, NY – The Hartsville town board conducted a special meeting Wednesday evening to decide on a new town clerk and the meeting was adjourned without any decisions being made. The first dilemma that was left unresolved was the approval of minutes from previous meetings. Apparently, officials seemed to believe that the minutes were improperly labeled and edited by the former clerk and thus failed to get approval by the three present board members. The board finally agreed to listen to the audio recordings from the previous meetings and go back and correct the minutes in a future meeting.

Then it was the issue of electing a new town clerk. The board has elected a temporary clerk for the last two meetings to replace Jessica Henderson who resigned after five months on the job. After a lengthy executive session, Supervisor John Bowles emerged and abruptly adjourned the meeting after announcing no clerk has been appointed.

Kay Miles filled in as temporary clerk this month and Pat Mullen filled the duties last month. Many in the crowd were in favor of reappointing Miles who held the post for 10 years previously but it seemed that Bowles was dead set against that.

Things were so bad toward the end of the meeting that board member Tom Dobell stated, “If it’s going to continue to be like this in the future, I’m not coming back.” Bowles took intensive heckling at the conclusion of the meeting from people calling him a dictator among many other things.

May 28, 2017

DANSVILLE, NY – The #1 seeded Livonia Bulldogs knocked off the #3 seed Hornell Red Raiders 12-0 Sunday Afternoon in boys baseball to take home the Section 5 Class crown. Livonia moves on to play Fredonia next Saturday at Niagara Falls High School in the far west regional playoffs. Hornell finishes the season 15-4 and Livonia 20-2.

May 26, 2017

CANISTEO, NY – A new business officially opened its doors Friday afternoon in downtown Canisteo. Blush Spa & Salon, located on 4 South Main Street, will off a variety of beauty services for men and women.

Owners Courteney and Mike Buchinger told WLEA that some of the services provided will be; all hair services (men and women), Specialty waxing, messages, body wraps, facials, manicure and pedicures, lash extensions, and makeup.

Hours will be Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 9am to 7pm – Friday 9am to 5pm – Saturday 9am to 3pm – Sunday by appointment. They will be closed Mondays. Call anytime to schedule an appointment (607) 698-4040.