CATTARAUGUS COUNTY
Lawmakers OK hiring of intern to do mapping
LITTLE VALLEY—Cattaraugus County Legislators have agreed to move quickly on a proposal to pay $3,768 to a summer intern to help map infrastructure for municipalities and assist with other geographic information systems projects.
The request from GIS Coordinator Dan Martonis, an employee of the Real Property Services Department, came April 15 during a meeting of the County Operations Committee when he reported on his work training Village of Cattaraugus officials in mapping infrastructure there.
Martonis’ work on the county’s geographic information systems and mapping data has been recognized by real property offices and municipal governments across the state. He told lawmakers that he would like to get more of the county’s municipalities involved in cataloging infrastructure data and made the case for hiring another trained GIS staffer or an intern to help with the shared services effort. He said this could help the county and towns continue to work together to update and correct data accessible on the county’s parcel viewer on the Web site, www.cattco.org . Information on college interns was presented Wednesday in a special session of the Development and Agriculture Committee, attended by most of the legislators and held after the legislative session. Deputy County Administrator Jeff VanDeCar said six interns — three of them from Cattaraugus County — are interested in the position.
Also, a high school intern will receive some supervision from Martonis while working in the village of Portville and Portville Central School, with the wages to be paid by the Finger Lakes Institute. He presented a list of possible projects for the intern, such as updating Amish country signs and new GPS locations; and updating stream data, water and sewer lines to expand the county’s municipal infrastructure data.
The lawmakers agreed that just one intern should be hired so Martonis can keep up with his other work and to test the idea. With most of the lawmakers present in the meeting, all said they would consider voting on the legislation as soon as possible so the work can begin.
The committee members also agreed to new survey boundaries dividing into eight parcels the 437-acre former proposed landfill property on Route 98 in Farmersville. The county seized the lands in a tax-foreclosure action in January 2008 and intends to offer the property in a public auction, perhaps as early as September.
The committee members requested appraisal information in a future executive session, and will then consider setting a minimum bid on the property that had been farmland for many generations.
“We’ve assured people that we’re not looking to give it away. We want a fair value. Just because it is county property doesn’t mean it’s free,” said committee chairman Jerry E. Burrell, R-Franklinville.
They will also receive legal advice regarding what kinds of restrictions may be attached to the parcels.
“I have a concern that when we put it up for sale we need to put stipulations on it,” said John J. Padlo, D-Olean. “We wouldn’t want a landfill there or anything that will jeopardize the water that eventually comes to Olean or through the other communities along the way.”
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