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Batavia to receive $700,000 in stimulus funding
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Send to friendWe've just received a copy of a press release from the governor's office which says the City of Batavia will receive $700,000 to repave Route 98 between Main St. and Noonan Drive. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2009.
From the press release:
Governor David A. Paterson today announced that the Rochester area is expected to receive at least $74 million in transportation and infrastructure funding through the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This critical funding will go toward much-needed highway and road repair, bridge span work and other long-term improvements to the region’s infrastructure and will create an estimated 1,776 jobs. The Governor was joined by Senator Charles E. Schumer at a New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) Maintenance Facility in Canandaigua.
“I want to thank President Obama and New York’s Congressional Delegation for their work to secure these funds, which will provide Rochester-area projects with the financing they need to move forward,” Governor Paterson said. “These investments update aging infrastructure, making our roads, highways and bridges safer, while also creating jobs, bolstering economic development and ensuring a brighter future for our State.”
In addition to these funds, the DOT will also award $82 million in traditional highway and bridge contracts next year to the Rochester area. This region will also receive approximately $29 million in Consolidated Highway Improvement Program funding, which the recovery funds enabled us to restore to the State budget. In total, the Rochester area will receive more than $185 million in highway and bridge funding in State Fiscal Year 2009-10.
UPDATE: Shortly after originally posting this, I interviewed Charlie Mallow about the funding, then before I could post it, I ran out to cover the fire in Corfu. Here's a few minutes of Charlie talking about stimulus money, other grants and ongoing improvement projects.
- Howard Owens
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I am with you. This is nothing for us. I thought it was going to be for side streets, sewer work, or sidewalks also.
I also don’t care to comment on the political spin or the ideology of the federal government providing stimulus money. Our role in local government is to make sure our city is positioned to receive its fair share of anything that is being offered.
The other grant opportunities are something we are going to go over at Monday’s Council meeting. Jason has prepared a lot of information and I don’t want to pretend to be an expert before I have heard him out. Why don’t you come on down and listen to the presentations? It sounds like they are going to be pretty interesting. (Well, maybe interesting is the wrong word?)
Terry, you need to talk to someone in the state or national level about the pro’s or cons to stimulus money and what they do with the gas taxes. That’s pretty far above my pay grade.
I can say one thing is at least I will have nice roads to walk or bike on with an empty wallet.
;)
Tom G
You stated that some of the stimulus money
might go to the Havester Ave.Buildings,aren't they
owned by the Mancuso family?
Afew years back Tom Mancuso wanted the GCEDC
to purchase his buildings,and he'll keep operating
them?Is Mr. Mancuso looking for another hand out from
tax payers dollars?If so,how about sendings some of that money my way for my home improvements.
Charlie,how bout using some of this money to
give relief to us tax payers,and keep the tax and fees
increases down.
Walking and biking ,NO CHARGE AND FEES!!!!!!
You can do it on an empty wallet,
for how long?.Thats the question.......
If we can use this state money locally to attract some jobs to the only open industrial property we have in the city, I’m all for it. As for Mr. Mancuso, if the man is willing to invest his personal money and take a gamble on the future of our city, why throw stones? How about we respect the man for having enough business sense to make a go of things in this economy?
As for our empty wallets, they are going to stay that way unless smart business people just like Mr. Mancuso pull this economy up. Don’t hold your breath waiting on government to fix anything, its not happening. Government can’t create jobs but, it might be able to build a road to access some land so, a private business man would be willing to invest some of his own cash into putting some people to work.
Isn't that's why Mr.Mancuso wants some
of that stimulus money,"Fix up" his crumbling
buildings? Why can't he open his own wallet?
His wallet isn't empty!
Is Mr.Mancuso going to lure companies in
there that pay $15. or $7. an hour jobs?
Maybe that stimulus should go to the "smaller"
struggling business owners in Batavia.
Tommy,you can stop holding your breath.
P.S. I HOPE NONE OF THIS $700,000 IS GOING
TO "BATAVIAS' FINEST" BACK PAY.AND THE OVER
PAIDED NON-UNION CITY EMPLOYEES RECENT PAY RAISES???
We have alot of other worst streets and roads around here..Were is homeowner relief.I forgot we had to give out raises and car allowances...
It’s a beautiful day outside and we all have a lot going for us.
Happy Easter!
I'd go for a walk,but it's to depressing looking
around this city ,homes and buildings for sale and
vacant, some crumbling.Thinking, whats here for my kids? Maybe I'll take a ride to the buffalo area instead.
By the why, Charlie aren't you part of our
local government? And you never replied to my issues,
so I might be on the right track?
I got it!You're running for a county seat,so
you want to take care of Mr. Mancuso,he might be
your ticket? CHRISTAIN IN 2010!
P.S It's not negativity,it's corruption!
We have excellent ideas they have hyporcritical ideas. Remodel the Harvester building? For what?
What the long term goal? Will there be jobs?
Will they be good paying jobs?
Grant money is buy vote money. And grant money sometimes isnt use for what its supposed to be used for.
Id be careful and look down the road to see what this money should be used for. I do believe the taxpayers should get a break because that is our tax money too!
Grants, loans, funds, its all the workin people money.
Seems they forget who' payin there way so they can eat filet mignon and the tax payer can eat hamburger(not that I eat that, but you get mydrift)
Im tired of the whole charade.
The big challenge is how do we find more people, more entrepreneurs willing to invest themselves and their money in Batavia? Genesee County was built by entrepreneurs, and now they're needed once again to build a new future for the region.
Rather than bitch about what's wrong, why not figure out how to start a business?
I've reservations about bringing in a lot state and federal tax money for the Harvester area. I would rather the redevelopment come from private enterprise. But unless and until the government changes its policies tax-payer funded enterprise zone development, the money is going to go somewhere, I and I think the Harvester area is a prime target for creating opportunity. It would be particularly beneficial if the redevelopment was used to spur a new era of local entrepreneurship. If somehow we could find a new generation of Genesee County residents who want to start businesses right in the heart of Batavia.
Do you really think businesses are going to come to Batavia? I wouldnt hold my breath. Yes there are lots of good people here. Lots of good memories. But look at the BIG picture, all of the US is in a plight. Take off your rose colored glasses. Tell people who have lost there jobs how much hope to hold on to by staying here. Havent you noticed the emptiness on a Saturday afternoon?
Brockport has more activity on their downtown streets. Blahtavia is an echo of a memory that once was life. Had they listened to Sam Pontillo Jr. to build the GCC technolgy center downtown, things may be different. But things really dont look so well now.
The Broadband grant that Charlie mentioned has little to do with Time Warner.
As far as this entire thread goes, I'm with Charlie and Howard. Get up, do something, and quit bitching. Go buy and read "Starting a Business for Dummies" and knock yourself out.
And, of course, I don't mean to leave out any of 1,000 other locally owned businesses that have been around for years if not decades and their owners remain committed to the community. I have yet to meet a local business owner -- and I meet a lot of them -- who has a negative attitude about Batavia. They are here, they believe in the community and they're committed to moving forward, by and large.
And, of course, I'm in the process of getting my own business venture in Batavia up to speed. I'm all in and quite hopeful.
And City Hall and the Mall are completely separate issues. As for the Mall, it is a cautionary tale of how the government can really screw things up. We need to try and make sure that doesn't happen again. And a negative attitude isn't going to be helpful in the least.
Once the buildings are leveled, how much property tax income will be lost? Will the site owners promise, in writing and with penalty, to continue the present dollar amount and index it to any tax rate increases if they take my money?
Who will pay for any environmental studies and then clean up? That isn’t going to come cheap. Does the owner have the money for this? If not, the property could sit vacant for decades and we get nothing for our money. Do we have the name of any business who has said they would come it we make the area “shovel ready”, or even expressed an interest?
Mary is right, the City tax payer took a beating with the new City Hall. We were told that if we only spent millions on it, business would fight to come downtown and into the City Center (Mall). Millions of dollars later, it still has not happened. We were told to spend millions on a ball park and business would want to move here, they didn’t. There are other examples, but the point is, “they” have not been right yet.
If State and/or Federal money are used, so be it, but no more city money. If they say that without city money, there is no project, then fine, no project. We just spent a few hundred thousand dollars on studies for stimulus projects and have not seen any return on our investment yet. Let’s wait and see what happens with that plan before the taxpayer goes not the hook for Harvester Ave.
assessment, they tore some buildings down..Whats to say that by taking down those buildings on Harvester won't have the opposite effect ,and lower the amount they pay now in taxes..
That's my point. We could dump thousands of dollars of city money into this and all we would get is a lower tax base. That's not a great plan. Let private money do this.
“lift the assessed property tax value of the area from $800,000 to anywhere from $3 million to $5 million”
http://thebatavian.com/blogs/howard-owens/city-may-seek-25-million-state...
This is the kind of thing that has the Town worried if they merged with us.
There are a ton of new factory space all over New York that sits empty,so let build some more and see if they come here..I want to see tax payers spend money on that..
The City used to come around and identify sidewalks that needed to be fixed. The DPW would fix your sidewalk and added the bill to your taxes over a set period of years. They also hired companies to help them do the work. If you wanted, you also had the option to pay your own private contractor to fix your sidewalk if you thought that was a better deal for you.
This system worked great. The problem with the sidewalks was that everyone wanted something for nothing and some council members, to get reelected, promised the city would pay the cost from now on, not the property owners. Something for nothing. Where did they think the city was going to get the money? Of course the city had no money for this, they would have to raise taxes to do it, and so they just never fixed anything.
Now look, even you want something for nothing. You say use stimulus money, a one shot deal. Sure, use it if you can get it, but the only way to fix the problem correctly is to go back to the old way. Add the cost of repairs to the property tax over a period of 10 years.
But, if they went back to the home owner paying, you would hear screams all over town and you know it. Everyone still wants something for nothing. Where will the money come from for repairs, year after year? Don’t blame the DPW workers for this.
I would pay good money to see you put to work with the DPW during the middle of winter and in the middle of summer, plowing the roads, fixing water main breaks, and repaving roads.
I'm quite sure that you wouldn't be so quick to run your mouth afterward.
I bet that's what your boss said, lay him off. You don't sound like you enjoyed that. You said you had a "union" job. What do you say to the people who say unions caused the problems? Or make fun of union members standing around because it was not their job to sweep up around them? Or union members being paid even when not working?
The DPW guys don't just drive around, but do drive from job to the other as the jobs are assigned. How did you think they got there?
Can we please get back on the stimulus
money issue? I got my popcorn ready!
Thank you.
That stimulus money is a loan that my children and grandchildren will have to pay for their entire life. I may be a naysayer on this one but I am very reluctant to hold out hope that it will turn the economy around. The infrastructure jobs it may create will be short lived in duration. Those people will then have to fight once again to put food on the table when the jobs run dry. Plus they are jobs that need some specialty knowledge. I as a soon to be unemployed paramedic don't have the credentials needed to apply or get one of those jobs. This stimulus bill has far too much pork in it. I am not saying that President Obama made a bad choice, I am just saying that he should have held the line as he claimed he would in his campaign. How many times did I hear him state that he wanted to eliminate pork barrel spending in DC. Right out of the gate we get this. I am tired of hearing that this company and that company want bailout money. We gave it to the banks and look what they did with it. I live in a very modest house. I have finally seen the end of the light when it comes to credit card debt. We as a society have to realize that life is not a free credit card ride. You need to be held accountable for your spending. This stimulus package just makes it ok on a government level. They are telling everyone by their actions that it is ok to be foolish. We will bail you out.
If this is such a good idea and such a sure thing, why haven’t they ever been able to get private money to invest in this?
The stimulus money is out there, we had no say. We and our children will be paying this back for decades, so if we can get some for Harvester, great. But no city money. No loans, no grants, none. This we can control and I vote no.
''As far as this entire thread goes, I'm with Charlie and Howard. Get up, do something, and quit bitching. Go buy and read "Starting a Business for Dummies" and knock yourself out.'' Is this an insult ,should it be removed..
Take a ride and see for yourself....
Remember how fast government works when you are relying on them for that heart transplant that you need for not following their prescribed diet.