4/27/07 - South Main property deal is off

(As published by Cortland Standard, Corey Preston reporting)

After four months of back and forth, the county Legislature officially laid to rest Thursday any plans to purchase property along south Main Street.
Now only a judicial ruling against the county can revive the deal.
A resolution to purchase the two commercial properties involved in the controversial land deal for a public health facility — the Moose Lodge property for $250,000 and the Robbins Vending property for $300,000 — failed to receive the required two-thirds majority vote, with 10 legislators voting for the purchase, and eight voting against it.
The bid to purchase the two commercial properties, excluding four residential properties originally involved in the $894,000 deal, had been touted as a way to both cut the county’s losses in a looming legal challenge regarding the aborted purchases, and to keep the county’s options open as it seeks to fill numerous space needs.
Thursday’s vote was a victory for legislators who felt that, at this point, the county should simply let a lawsuit regarding the Legislature’s decision to overturn its original purchase of the properties run its course, rather than purchase properties without a declared purpose.
“I’m satisfied because I just don’t think you purchase property without knowing what you’re going to do with it,” said Legislator Kay Breed (R-Cortlandville), who has been a critic of the proposal since it was first announced. “If we end up having to buy it (due to the lawsuit), we’ll have to take it from there, but right now I hope this is over and done with so we can move forward.”
Legislator Carol Tytler (D-3rd Ward), who chaired the ad hoc committee that has been looking at the land deal for the past three months, voted in favor of the purchases, but ultimately she agreed the county needed to move forward.
“I think the majority of people felt that the best thing to do is wait to see what happens with the court case and I can understand that,” Tytler said. “I hope we can take this time to regroup, take a close look at all of our space needs and work out a true plan for how we’re going to address them.”
A master plan for dealing with the county’s space needs — including new space for the Health and Mental Health departments, for which the property was originally intended, new space for a county jail and space for a motor vehicles office — has been a buzzword in recent weeks as a number of legislators have called for prioritizing the county’s space needs.
“I don’t think it necessarily has to be the jail first, but we have to look at all the possibilities available and really discuss how we want to do it all,” said Legislator Merwin Armstrong (Cuyler, Solon, Truxton). “This thing has been kind of an albatross hanging over this Legislature for too long now.”
With a lawsuit from the Moose Lodge and the potential for other lawsuits from other property owners looming, some legislators questioned how the county can move forward with addressing its needs before the suit is decided.
“It’s going to be hard to do anything until we know what it’s going to cost us,” said Legislator Dan Tagliente (D-7th Ward).
Speaking during the meeting in favor of purchasing the properties, Tagliente suggested that the county could face significant costs from its pending legal battles, noting the county’s original two-third vote to purchase the properties had been overturned by a simple majority vote to reconsider those purchases.
“That’s the first thing a judge is going to look at,” Tagliente said.