Salamanca hires new IDA head
SALAMANCA — An Erie County man has been hired as the new director of the Salamanca Industrial Development Agency.
David K. Sengbusch of West Seneca assumed his new duties this week at a salary of $57,500. He replaces Matthew Bull of Machias, who resigned recently to take a state job.
Sengbusch said he was impressed with the area and its potential and decided to apply for the job. Several dozen applications were considered by IDA directors.
“It’s a poor area,” Sengbusch said, “but once I looked at the area with Holiday Valley, Allegany State Park, the Seneca Allegany Casino and the city’s 200 acres ready for development, I got pretty excited.”
Sengbusch has been reviewing a list of developers who have expressed interest in the area, which he said “has both good and bad demographics.”
He looks forward to working on the recently announced water park project and to continue plans to get a Wal-Mart store in the city.
Sengbusch most recently worked as project director for the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. in Buffalo for two years. Prior to that, he was deputy executive director of the City of Buffalo’s Office of Strategic Planning and senior vice president of the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp.
He is currently commuting daily from West Seneca to his office in the Municipal Center on Wildwood Avenue.
In other business, IDA directors received word from office manager Patrick Welch that the state Department of State has not acted on purchase approval of the former Salvation Army building on Main Street. The IDA is seeking to purchase the building, adjacent to the Ray Evans Seneca Theater, for further economic development in the downtown area.
Welch said the city has received a $400,000 Small Cities Grant to rehabilitate 18 substandard houses on the city’s East Side in targeted areas. The grant will be administered by Cattaraugus Community Action.
Directors were notified that outside rehabilitation on a Main Street building owned by Scott Maybee and one on Central Avenue owned by Carmen Vecchiarella have been completed. Maybee received a $12,430 grant for building facade improvements and Vecchiarella received $25,000 to remodel a building into a store and deli.
