Byron Town Board

Press Release:

The Byron Town Board will hold a meeting at the Byron Town Hall on September 25 at 6 p.m. 

A representative from Bene-Care, the Town of Byron's health insurance broker, will be presenting health insurance coverage information.

Immediately following the presentation the Town of Byron's Tentative Budget Meeting Workshop will take place. 

Rising health insurance, program and workers' compensation costs for Byron-Bergen Public Library have triggered a request for nearly $4,000 more in the Town of Byron’s 2025 budget, Board President Sally Capurso says.

Capurso requested $10,000 from the board, an increase of $3,800 from the $6,200 it allotted in the 2024 budget. 

She reminded everyone about last year’s vote for Municipal 414 to establish a tax for each of the towns of Bergen and Byron for the library. Bergen passed, but Byron did not, with a 42% vote.

“The trustees are committed to, once again, pursuing this municipal 414 proposition in 2025, however, now in 2024 we both recognize and appreciate that both the town of Byron and our Byron-Bergen Public Library are transitioning with some new board members and experiencing an increase in expenditures," Capurso said during this month's town board meeting. "We are adjusting to new costs that we did not have before. We have to pay for workers' compensation, and we don't even know the cost of that because it will not be out until October. Our library strives to continue to offer relevant programming. Digital materials such as ebooks and audiobooks have also gone up. Additionally, we want to increase compensation and benefits for our loyal employees."

She cited numbers, including performer costs of $250 to $500, and health insurance estimated to range from $5,724 to $13,000. 

"We are still dipping into our reserve funds, which have decreased about 15% from 2023 to 2024," she said. "Would the town board consider putting an amount of $10,000 in your budget to support the final version of the library for the 2024 budget year?”

Town Supervisor Candace Hensel said that budget talks will be coming up.

“And we’ll see where we stand,” Hensel said.

The town of Bergen residents supported Municipal 414, which now provides a tax of 55 cents per $1,000 assessed property value in Bergen that will go toward library expenses. 

As for the worker’s compensation insurance, the library board had approached Genesee County officials previously to find out if Byron-Bergen could be added to the plan, since at the time only Richmond Memorial Library was officially listed.

Byron-Bergen’s board then presented a resolution, per requirements of a local law, to be added by the deadline of July 15. That request prompted discussion during a recent Ways and Means meeting to revise the local law and set a public hearing.

The proposal is to amend a law dating back to 1962 that has since been amended several times related to the county’s mutual self insurance plan. 

The resolution states that any municipal entity eligible to become a member of the plan may become a member by filing a certified copy of the resolution of its governing body that indicates its intention to become a participant of the plan for the next calendar year of operation with the executive secretary of the plan on or before July 15 of any year.  

Genesee County Legislature approved the hearing for 5:30 p.m. Sept. 11 at the county Legislature Chambers in the Old Courthouse, 7 Main St., Batavia. Anyone interested in the topic that wants to speak may do so during this time.

A dilapidated wreck of a building that’s riddled with dangerous features, including broken windows, rodents and insects, and is in your neighborhood, would ordinarily be cause for nightmares except for one thing, Anthony Nicolucci says. 

He barely gets any sleep.

“This is not something that has just come up. This has been a safety issue for a long time. I sleep with one eye open, worried about this building being burned. It’s infested, there are massive beehives, there are broken windows, and there’s the abandonment of four years plus. It’s a real concern,” Nicolucci told Byron Town Board during its recent meeting. “I’m hoping that we get to a level of paying taxes again; it’s three years in arrears. It’s an eyesore; it’s a safety measure. I’m glad that they’re going to take it up (Thursday). Just take a drive by … we take pride in our property.”

He’s also concerned with how the nearby property, formerly known as the Grange at 6538 Byron Holley Road (Route 237), will affect his and others’ property values. 

Town Supervisor Candace Hensel said she understood his concerns, especially how the rickety structure, tucked into overflowing weeds and foliage, affects neighboring homes.

“My first listing as a real estate agent was the house across the street, and when we’d have open houses, I’d go and shut the curtain whenever they’d walk into the house,” she said.

Code Inspector Melissa Lerlan reviewed an inspection report on the property, which will be further discussed during a public hearing at 5 p.m. Thursday at Byron Town Hall, 7028 Byron Holley Road. The hearing concerns the repair or demolition and removal of the site, which is considered to be an “unsafe building.”

The property is owned by Christine Roberts and is assessed at $20,000, according to Genesee County online assessment records. At 2,080 square feet, it is listed as a two-floor family residence in “poor” condition.

This property has been discussed during previous town board meetings. Nicolucci also spoke on behalf of a couple of neighbors that he referred to during his comments.

Press Release:

Special meeting to discuss budget transfers and healthcare payments or in lieu of. This meeting will be held on Monday, May 20, at 7 p.m. at the Byron Town Hall

A special meeting is to conduct business regarding Budget Modifications, Announcement of CFA application round open, and discussion of the continuation of the scheduled 2nd monthly meetings/workshop" Byron Forward". This meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 22, at 7 p.m. at the Byron Town Hall.

Press Release:

The Town of Byron Sewer District and Waste Water Treatment proposed project informational meeting has been changed from the Town Hall to the South Byron Fire Hall, 7398 South Byron Rd. Byron on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m.

This change was made to accommodate the number of attendees. 

MRB Group, project Engineers will be explaining the reasons leading to the proposed project and the plans going forward.

Public questions are welcome.

The regularly scheduled Byron Town Board Meeting will immediately follow the informational meeting.

Press Release:

Public notice is hereby given that continuation of the organizational meeting held by the Byron Town Board will take place Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. at the Byron Town Hall, 7028 Route 237, Byrons, NY 14422.

Press Release:

Due to a recent resignation on the Byron Town Board, the Town of Byron Republican Committee is looking for candidates to recommend to fill the position. The Town Board would appoint the candidate to fill the term until an election could be held next year. The appointed term would be the remainder of 2023 and all of 2024. The elected term is for one year, 2025 to finish the full term. Anyone interested in the position please contact Steven Hohn @ 585-703-5528, or Jim Northup @ 585-409-4327 by August 30.

The Byron Town Board today unanimously approved an intermunicipal agreement with the Town of Elba to provide water from the Elba Water District to 12 properties on the east side of Transit Road and another on Bank Street Road in the Town of Byron.

The meeting took place via Zoom videoconferencing and lasted about 25 minutes.

A bit of confusion arose midway through over the number of residents actually affected by the agreement, with Byron Town Supervisor Peter Yasses initially thinking there were only three at end of the road.

Apparently, according to Yasses, more homes were added after his previous discussion with Elba Town Supervisor Donna Hynes, and he was not informed of the additions.

Town Attorney Paul Boylan said several revisions to the contract have been made “and all of them were agreeable to all of the parties.”

“The agreement as we have it now is acceptable to me. I think it accomplishes everything we want to do for those people on Transit Road,” he said.

Responding to a question from Councilman Eric Zuber, Boylan said the unit charge to the residents covered under this new pact has to be the same as what is charged to others in the Elba Water District, adding that he didn’t think that has been determined yet.

Boylan said the Transit Road residents, along with the Byron and Elba supervisors, must sign the user agreement.

“It has to be both Elba and Byron that need to act on every one of the user agreements. That’s because Byron has to agree with Elba to levy the user fee on the property – not the water use but the debt service,” he said.

“Byron has to agree that in the event that the user does not pay, they (Town of Byron) will pay Elba and then put the money that the user would have had to pay on the user’s tax bill the following January.”

Legal Notice

SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BYRON TOWN BOARD

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the Byron Town Board will hold a Special Meeting via ZOOM video conferencing, which link can be found on the Town of Byron website at http://www.byronny.com, on Friday, May 28, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. at the Byron Town Hall, 7028 Rte. 237, Byron, New York. The purpose of the Town Board meeting will be to consider the Intermunicipal Agreement with the Town of Elba to allow residents on Transit Road to receive water from the Elba Water District, and also an Executive Session to consider strategy for presentations before the Siting Board on the Excelsior Solar Project Application.   

Debra Buck-Leaton

Byron Town Clerk