$50,000 from casino funds Niagara Falls projects
By Thomas J. Prohaska
- NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
Updated: 06/23/08 7:17 AM
LOCKPORT — The Niagara County Legislature rolled out the pork barrel last week, allocating $50,000 from the county’s share of Seneca Niagara Casino revenue to a variety of local projects and events.
That’s almost half of this year’s $103,000 county cut of slot machine profits, and it’s being split among eight events and groups scattered around the county.
The county will send $10,000 each to the Niagara Falls Veterans Memorial Commission, the Niagara Community Center and Twin Cities Community Outreach; $5,000 each to the Aquarium of Niagara and the Harley Owners Group rally in Niagara Falls next month; $4,000 each to two Olcott events, the Celtic Festival and the Pirates Festival; and $2,000 to the Barker Business Association.
The appropriations were added to Tuesday’s agenda as a late item after being dropped from a committee agenda the previous week.
Assistant County Attorney R. Thomas Burgasser said there was a concern that the spending might not be legal. He concluded that it was.
The terms of the agreement that brought the county a piece of the casino action call for it to use the money for economic development, “including but not limited to marketing and tourism,” Burgasser said.
“They weren’t sure if it had to create at least one job,” said Minority Leader Dennis F. Virtuoso, who included the Niagara Falls Veterans Memorial in the package.
He said the plan for a major monument to all Niagara Falls veterans would be a tourist attraction, as it will consist of a two-section wall bearing the names of all veterans, with room to add more.
“It’s a $1 million project,” Virtuoso said. “People will come and look at it.”
The Niagara Community Center has been a mainstay of the city’s North End for 80 years. Twin Cities Outreach operates a food pantry, clothes closet and a Meals on Wheels program in North Tonawanda.
The Aquarium intends to use its money for promotion, as does the Barker Business Association, which is launching a new Web site.
The festivals in Olcott — the Pirates during the summer and the Celtics in September — bring thousands of extra visitors to that hamlet. The Harley rally in Niagara Falls July 10-12 had sought a county contribution, pointing to 3,000 well-heeled bikers visiting the area.
Also last week, the Legislature passed a resolution requesting a state comptroller’s audit of the New York Power Authority’s sales of electricity from the Niagara Power Project.
A June 9 story in The Buffalo News detailed how the authority peddles the power to customers outside Western New York at a substantial profit because there aren’t enough local companies that meet its criteria to use it.
The Legislature also passed a resolution urging Gov. David A. Paterson to initiate reforms at the Power Authority to amend the power allocation process to make capital investment instead of job creation an acceptable criterion, and to make the authority’s use of its profits more accountable.
The resolutions about the authority were co-sponsored by Legislators Renae Kimble and Jason J. Murgia, D-Niagara Falls, and Kyle R. Andrews, D-Wilson.
