Repairs to Tonawanda Creek Road in Clarence may be near
Latest money talks bring hope for road, other mired repairs
Four years ago, Republicans on the Erie County Legislature staged a news conference beside the washed-out Tonawanda Creek Road in Clarence to complain that legislative dithering was blocking repairs.
Four years later: Another news conference sprang up Tuesday to announce that maybe, just maybe, repairs to the still-crumbled Tonawanda Creek Road will begin in time for it to reopen in late 2009.
Will that prediction come true?
“Every year they give us the same malarkey,” said Jerry Copperberg, one of the residents who have tired of driving an extra five miles to reach services on Transit Road.
The $3.2 million repair of Tonawanda Creek Road is trapped in the same bureaucratic mire that has snared other improvements.
There were signs Tuesday that a solution is unfolding. Until it does, however, the repairs to other buckled roads, rusty bridges, leaky roofs and parks are in limbo.
This is the situation, perhaps best described in question-and-answer form:
What’s the problem?
Erie County officials, and the state-appointed control board, have had a long-standing disagreement over how to borrow money for the government’s major repairs. The control board has been insisting it step in to become Erie County’s borrowing agent. The board has a far better credit rating and can save money when it comes to repaying a long-term loan.
What’s the problem with that?
Those construction loans are usually paid back over 20 or 30 years. So the control board must then exist for that long, and the cost of its operations — about $600,000 a year — outweighs the savings it can create by taking over as the government’s borrower. Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz, County Executive Chris Collins and most legislators say it’s not worth it.
They have been in this dispute for months. Can’t they compromise?
Two stabs have been made. “Mirror bonds” were later discarded as too problematic, after the 2007 construction season was lost. The second compromise would let the county or the control board borrow money for just one year by selling “bond-anticipation notes.” Then that loan, for tens of millions of dollars, would be repaid in a year by a new long-term loan secured by Collins, Poloncarz and the Legislature — assuming the control board has faith in them and the county’s financial health by then.
But that second compromise is wobbly, too.
Why? While pursuing that compromise, Collins, Poloncarz and the Legislature asked state lawmakers to strip the control board of its power to block Erie County’s borrowing plans. The control board wasn’t happy about their end around.
The State Legislature approved the bill, but Gov. David A. Paterson last week said he will veto it because he sees control boards as useful.
Advantage: control board.
Why does the county need to borrow the money anyway?
Despite its improving financial health, the county does not have enough money on hand to pay for major improvements and its normal operating expenses. Over the last two years, it has fronted money for long-term repairs on a case-by-case basis.
The Buffalo Bills, for example, received cash for the new scoreboard because a contract guarantees the county pays for stadium needs. The county also is fronting $10 million for simple road resurfacings. But the operating fund eventually must be reimbursed with loan proceeds.
What other projects are in limbo?
Reconstruction of the decaying Cemetery Road bridge in Lancaster, for example. Plans to widen some intersections are on hold. Repairs are long overdue at the correctional facility. Remember the roof that fugitive Ralph “Bucky” Phillips pried through? It was in disrepair then and has yet to be replaced.
What’s the solution?
Both Collins and the control board’s chairman, Anthony J. Baynes, said Tuesday that they are willing to return to their second compromise, the bond-anticipation notes, as soon as they can determine whether the control board or Poloncarz can handle that transaction more cheaply. Collins says that if the control board can save 50 cents, he’s OK with the control board handling a one-year deal.
And then?
The County Legislature must agree to let the control board sell the notes. But Legislature Chairwoman Lynn M. Marinelli, D-Town of Tonawanda, said Tuesday she’s not sure that a two-thirds majority of 10 lawmakers is willing to let the control board finally borrow money. She says she might need Collins to help win some votes.
So politics is at play here, too?
Always. In the case of Tonawanda Creek Road, politics has been a recent catalyst. The district is represented by Legislator Michael H. Ranzenhofer, RAmherst. Ranzenhofer was one of those Republicans who four years ago tried to get the project moving. Now he’s a candidate for the State Senate, backed by Collins.
A buckled road doesn’t look good for the campaign.
Both spoke at the creekside news conference Tuesday, when local residents held up signs saying “Don’t Nix the Fix” and “We Say No More Delay.”
