12/7/07 - Legislature will seek final offers on DMV site

Sale and lease options both considered

(As published by Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel reporting)

The county Legislature decided Thursday night to seek final offers for both the sale and lease of a River Street property that could be the site of a new Department of Motor Vehicles office.

The property is in the BOCES plaza on River and Port Watson streets in the city, and the decision to lease or buy it will likely be determined at the Legislature’s Dec. 20 meeting.

The Legislature went into executive session to discuss the negotiated sales price of the preferred property identified by the Legislature’s ad hoc space needs committee.

Legislators Kay Breed (R-Cortlandville), Newell Willcox (R-Homer) and Danny Ross (R-Cortlandville) voted against discussing the prices in executive session.

A price for a runner-up site on Cleveland Street in the city had also been negotiated, but the ad hoc committee chose to focus on the BOCES plaza site at a meeting Tuesday morning.

After Thursday’s meeting was reopened to the public, the legislators voted on whether to direct County Administrator Scott Schrader to negotiate a final sale price of the property or to have him find out the cost of leasing the site.

If a site is leased, the money would have to be paid for out of the county’s general fund budget. If the Legislature decides to purchase, the funding would come from the county’s share of tobacco lawsuit settlement money.

They first voted to ask for a price to purchase the property, with Legislators Breed, Willcox, and Tom Williams (R-Homer) voting against the measure. The legislators then voted on whether to ask for the cost of leasing the site, with Legislators Don Spaulding (D-6th Ward), Dan Tagliente (D-7th Ward), John Steger (R-Preble and Scott) and Legislature Chairman Marilyn Brown voting against the measure.

Legislators John Troy (D-1st Ward), Steve Dafoe (D-Homer) and Carol Tytler (D-3rd Ward) had originally voted against asking for a lease price, but they changed their vote after Breed asked “why there is opposition to considering both prices.”

Joe Armideo of Homer owns the BOCES plaza, and any purchase or lease of the existing empty lot on River Street would involve the purchase of an adjacent residential property.

The prices have not been released for the BOCES plaza site nor a site on Cleveland and River streets that had been one of the final two sites under consideration.

But it was disclosed that the Cleveland Street site costs $115,000 more than the BOCES site at a meeting of the ad hoc committee on Tuesday.

As this issue develops, I will be sure to look at the long term costs of leasing versus purchase. This does not appear to be clear cut, and each method has its advantages.

In addition, I hope to be able to post the Ad Hoc Committee's support information for public review and comment - it has not been posted on the County web site.