4/20/07 - Legislature to vote on land purchases

(As published by Cortland Standard, Corey Preston reporting)

A resolution to purchase the two commercial properties involved in Cortland County’s controversial land deal will go before the full county Legislature at its meeting on Thursday.
Whether the plan to purchase will receive the needed two-thirds majority vote remains to be seen.

The General Services Committee, in a special meeting Thursday, voted 3-2 to forward a resolution to the full Legislature calling for the purchase of the Moose Lodge and Robbins Vending properties on south Main Street.
The committee was hopeful the county could negotiate its way out of contracts for the remaining properties involved in the deal, all of which are residential properties.
The Moose Lodge property at 151 and 157 Main St., along with a parcel behind 6, 8 and 10 Randall St., would cost the county $250,000, while the Robbins Vending property at 159 Main St. and a parcel behind 7 Williams St. would cost $300,000.
Those were the agreed-upon prices prior to the county’s reversal of an initial decision in December to purchase the properties.
Those voting in favor of the purchases — committee Vice-chairman Dan Tagliente (D-7th Ward), Tom Hartnett (D-4th Ward) and John Daniels (D-Cortlandville) — supported the decision as a way to leave the county with options, while also saving the county from a costly settlement or lawsuit with the possibility of nothing in return.
“We can’t move forward with the different projects we need to do if we’re stuck in litigation,” Daniels said. “I just think we should get the properties purchased and hopefully we can do something positive with them.”

Honestly, is this the way that government should be run??? I have a hard time allowing the Legislature to spend $550K on properties in the 'hope' that something positive can be done with them. Still no plan for anything in there, and I sure don't want the County to spend another $10K on sketches for a revised site.

The two committee members opposed to the resolution — Kay Breed (R-Cortlandville) and Newell Willcox (R-Homer) — countered by saying they had no interest in purchasing the properties without knowing how they would be used.
“I’m just not hearing what our alternatives are — if these properties are bought, what are we going to use them for?” Breed said.

Another item of note - Steve DaFoe, Chairman of this Committee was absent AGAIN!!! He has been all but absent since the initial vote in December. And John Steger (R-D15) could have played an important part in this vote, but was absent as well.