The Buffalo News - Northtowns http://www.buffalonews.com Latest stories from The Buffalo News en-us Fri, 24 May 2013 07:17:33 -0400 Fri, 24 May 2013 07:17:33 -0400 <![CDATA[ Columbus McKinnon’s profits jump nearly fivefold ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130523/BUSINESS/130529678/1339
The Amherst manufacturer of material-handling equipment also said its operations became more profitable during the quarter because of the company’s continuing efforts to boost productivity and efficiency. That helped the company boost its profits from its operations, even though sales fell by 9 percent, mainly because of the sale of a crane business last summer and three fewer shipping days during the latest quarter.

Columbus McKinnon’s profits soared to $52 million, or $2.67 per share, from $9 million, or 47 cents per share, a year ago, with nearly all of the increase coming from a $40.2 million gain that the company booked because of a revaluation of its tax allowances. Without that gain, the company’s earnings grew to 37 cents per share, from 30 cents a year ago. That’s a penny less than analysts were forecasting.

The company’s sales dipped to $144.6 million during the quarter that ended in March, compared with $159.6 million a year earlier. Columbus McKinnon’s U.S. sales slipped by 6 percent, while its international revenues dropped by 14 percent.

Its stock closed down 7 cents, or 0.37 percent, to $18.94 Thursday.



email: drobinson@buffnews.com ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 06:30:07 -0400 David Robinson
]]> <![CDATA[ Democracy for clean air ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130523/CITYANDREGION/130529606/1339
Most of the people there were nearby neighbors of Tonawanda Coke, which in late March was found guilty of 14 counts involving violations of the Clean Air Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act over 11 years, including the excessive discharge of coke-oven gas that contains cancer-causing benzene.

A mostly working-class crowd gathered in the Boys & Girls Club of Town of Tonawanda, discussing issues around tables in small groups, jotting down ideas on Post-it notes sorted onto colored poster board with various headings, and sharing highlights with the larger group.

It was the first session in a several-stage process let local residents have their say in how resources could be put to use to reduce the adverse impact of air pollution and land contamination, and improve the public’s health. U.S. District Chief Judge William M. Skretny could fine Tonawanda Coke up to $200 million at sentencing July 15. Twenty-five percent of that could be used in the community to address environmental concerns.

“I’m from the City of Tonawanda, and getting people to come together like this – the ones being affected – and actually give their ideas was great,” said Lindsay Amico.

“Some of the ideas were good, and some somewhat unworkable, but it was a good starting point,” said Anne Matjeka, a Town of Tonawanda resident.

Matjeka praised the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York, which organized the participatory budgeting exercise in democracy in use in other countries and several municipalities in this country, and community organizer Rebecca Newberry.

“I can’t believe how organized they are,” Matjeka said. “Rebecca is changing our world.”

Newberry said she was pleased to see people engaged who often aren’t asked to participate significantly in political activity.

“The thing with this kind of meeting is that sometimes it can get a little messy, but I think sometimes the messier democracy gets, the better,” Newberry said. “By ‘messy,’ I mean there are lots of different ideas, and not everybody agrees, but the idea is to get them all on the table and have an honest conversation.”

Potential projects must reduce adverse effects to public health of air pollution or land contamination, without duplicating projects mandated or funded by the federal government, or legally required to be done by Tonawanda Coke.

As the two-hour session proceeded, numerous ideas emerged:

Identifying sources of air pollution. Testing open and closed landfills. Building new parks. Establishing an environmental health center. Creating a pollution museum with monitoring devices.

Also, offering educational forums on the dangers of pesticides. Conducting independent air-quality testing. Converting River Road into a parkway.

Some ideas, such as increasing mass transit, were put under a category of projects that the government would need to do.

Erie County Legislator Kevin R. Hardwick, R-City of Tonawanda, suggested that what was on display was a more pure form of democracy than what occurs within the Legislature. “This was a lot more meaningful, a lot more sincere,” Hardwick said. “When people spoke, it was coming from the heart.”



email: msommer@buffnews.com ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 06:25:51 -0400 Mark Sommer
]]> <![CDATA[ Former Amherst police detective found dead ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130523/CITYANDREGION/130529630/1339
After sheriff’s deputies pulled Hohensee’s former wife and daughter safely through a window, the 20-year Amherst policeman reportedly set fire to the house, destroying the structure which his wife had recently been awarded as their divorce was finalized, officials said. Neither woman was injured.

The couple’s divorce was finalized on May 10 and the house was reported a total loss, according to Lee County sheriff’s spokesmen. ]]> Thu, 23 May 2013 21:53:17 -0400 <![CDATA[ County to study crosswalk for Amherst road where girl was killed ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130522/CITYANDREGION/130529787/1339
County officials are making no promises but – at the passionate urging of the girl’s family and friends – have agreed to at least study the issue of a crosswalk on Maple Road near an elementary school playground.

County leaders had previously said they would look into the matter only if the town requested it, but Amherst officials were wary of the idea because the family of Erin Suszynski, the teen who was killed, has filed a wrongful-death suit against them.

The Amherst Town Board has since softened its stance, requesting a formal traffic study by the county earlier this week.

“We wanted to do everything we could to help make the crossing as safe as possible,” Amherst Supervisor Barry A. Weinstein said. Council Member Mark A. Manna at the last meeting said the town needed to hold the county’s “feet to the fire” on the crosswalk issue, and county leaders appear to have taken notice.

“We want to work with the town on this situation,” said Charles A. Sickler, director of engineering for the county.

The next steps include conducting pedestrian and traffic counts, and reviewing road distances, speed limits and accident history on Maple across from Maple East Elementary School, where Erin was struck.

The five-lane road in that area carries roughly 20,000 cars per day, according to Charles A. Sickler, director of engineering for the county, and is near the busy Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital and St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church and school.

Erin, an eighth-grader at Mill Middle School, was crossing Maple and had stopped at a center median with a friend when she was waved on by the driver of a car that had stopped to let the girls pass.

Another car, though, sped around the vehicle and struck the girls. Erin died a few weeks later; the other girl, Briana Francois, has recovered.

“It’s a shame that Erin had to die, that something like this had to happen, but if we can prevent other children from having this happen, it would be huge,” said Mary Suszynski, Erin’s mother.

A crosswalk or traffic signal is no guarantee, officials say, unless traffic counts and other factors match the recommended levels. “This is a really emotional, sad issue here,” said Sickler.“We don’t want to be disrespectful, but there are certain rules we need to follow” so as to not make the traffic situation worse.



email: cspecht@buffnews.com ]]> Thu, 23 May 2013 14:43:40 -0400 Charlie Specht
]]> <![CDATA[ Taxpayer fatigue blamed for defeats of six school budgets ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130522/CITYANDREGION/130529723/1339
The board president attributes it to taxpayer fatigue.

“New York State has made it very clear that a district like Clarence, which has a high wealth index, if they want the school system that they’ve been used to, that they were going to pay for it,” Lex said. “Yesterday’s vote was a message that they’re not going to.”

But it wasn’t just residents in Clarence who have had enough. Budgets were also defeated in Alden; Lewiston-Porter, Niagara Wheatfield and Wilson in Niagara County; and Bemus Point in Chautauqua County.

“I think people generally have hit the wall,” said Lynn Fusco, superintendent of the Alden Central School District, where voters rejected a proposal to increase tax revenue by 3 percent. The budget would have left programs intact.

“We thought we were providing something that the community wanted at a level that the community could support financially, and I think it’s just overwhelming,” Fusco said. “It’s absolutely overwhelming for our communities to be taxed at the level that they are.”

Budget rejections weren’t the norm Tuesday. Voters in 32 districts in Erie and Niagara counties approved school budgets, including three proposals that will increase taxes collected by 4.5 percent or more. But a vocal campaign to defeat the budget in Clarence that included mailers and signs has placed a focus on voters who have drawn the line at how much they are willing to pay.

It’s also sparked a discussion there about what steps the district should take as it moves forward.

“This was such an opportunity for everybody to come together and to say, ‘What can we do to make this school sustainable?’ ” said Lisa Thrun, a Clarence resident who actively campaigned against the budget proposal through a group known as Citizens for Sustainable Schools.

The group, along with another coalition known as Clarence Taxpayers, has advocated for three proposals that members believe would help curb district costs in the long term: renegotiate a higher health insurance contribution for employees, continue to reduce the size of the district as enrollment declines and offer an incentive to encourage teachers at the top of the pay scale to retire.

Thrun said she and others who campaigned against the budget in Clarence would support a new budget proposal that remained within the district’s 3.79 percent tax cap set by the state. “We feel that the community can give that much,” she said. “We just need the school and the district to find a way to meet that.”

The budget proposition in Clarence drew a record number of voters Tuesday as 8,232 of the town’s roughly 30,000 residents turned out.

Clarence School Board members plan to meet May 28 to begin crafting a new budget proposal within the tax cap, which will require trimming $2.44 million from the spending proposal.

Districts in which budgets failed have the option of presenting a second proposal to voters June 18 or asking residents to reconsider the failed budget. The five districts in Erie and Niagara counties whose budgets were rejected appear headed toward additional budget cuts.

“The turnout was quite remarkable, and the results speak for themselves,” Lex said. “It would be foolish to put the same item up again.”

Voter concern over the proposed tax increase in Clarence built up in the months before Tuesday’s vote as residents attended budget meetings and created websites to support their causes. But the voter turnout was also fueled by mailers urging residents to reject the tax hike. The mailers were paid for by unidentified members of Citizens for Sustainable Schools.

Thrun rejected speculation that her previous volunteer work for Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group founded by Charles and David Koch, was connected to her advocacy on the budget vote. All of the money raised by Citizens for Sustainable Schools to pay for fliers and signs came from local sources in the community, she said. “This was all money that was raised here in Clarence,” she said. “Not one cent of it was from a different organization or anything like that.”

The group, which did not endorse candidates in the election, doesn’t plan to disclose who paid for the mailers, Thrun said. People who contributed to the cause, she said, did not want to be identified because of concern over the tone the debate had taken. “We had an attorney look at it because we wanted to make sure that we were in complete compliance,” Thrun said.

Campaign reporting requirements for school board elections apply only to candidates, said Jonathan Burman, a spokesman for the state Department of Education.

Wilson, Alden and Niagara Wheatfield saw their budgets defeated despite the fact they were within each district’s tax cap. But across the state Tuesday, 98.3 percent of districts that proposed budgets within the tax cap saw them passed, according to the New York School Boards Association.DEPEW

• Candidates (Elect three): Patrick Law, 583; Nancy Fumerelle (i), 537; John Spencer (i), 498; Gabrielle Miller, 485; Nicole Simon, 237.

• Budget: Yes, 593; No, 340.

• Proposition 2: Use $460,851 from reserve fund to buy two large school buses, four 28-seat vans and a plow truck for the Buildings and Grounds Department: Yes, 689; No, 243.



FRONTIER

• Candidates: No board race this year.

• Budget: Yes, 975; No, 558.

• Proposition 2: Purchase a total of eight buses for $863,739: Yes, 935; No, 595.



IROQUOIS

• Candidates (Elect two): Sharon Szeglowski, Daniel T. Behlmaier

• Budget: Yes, 1,198; No, 624.

• Proposition 2: Purchase three (62-passenger) buses and two vans at a maximum cost of $400,000: Yes, 1,188; No, 623.

• Proposition 3: Expend $60,000 from the district’s Capital Reserve Fund known as the Technology Reserve Fund: Yes, 1,314; No, 493.



WEST SENECA

• Candidates (Elect three): Frank Calieri, 1,364; Kate Newton, 1,250; Carol Jarczyk (i), 1,180; Julie Goodwin; Timothy Elling; John C. Oshei; Karl Spencer; Christen Buchholtz.

• Budget: Yes, 1,941; No, 858.



email: djgee@buffnews.com ]]> Thu, 23 May 2013 00:22:25 -0400 Denise Jewell Gee
]]> <![CDATA[ Request for combination collision shop in Clarence hits a final road block ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130522/CITYANDREGION/130529722/1339 A collision shop operator’s request to build a combination collision shop, rental car facility and used-car sales operation in Clarence hit a final road block with the Town Board Wednesday night.

A special-exception-use permit required for the project proposed by Gabe’s Collision at 5871 Transit Road, north of Highland Farms, was rejected, 3-2, by board members during a meeting attended by at least a dozen residents of neighboring developments.

Councilman Robert Geiger and Supervisor David Hartzell Jr. voted to approve the request while Councilmen Bernard Kolber, Patrick Casilio and Peter DiConstanzo voted against it.

“I have a problem with introducing a project in that neighborhood where there could be deadly fumes going into that neighborhood,” said Casilio.

Casilio said he also has a problem voting against the recommendation of the Planning Board, which determined that a collision shop was not an allowed use at that location.

“I voted for a collision shop in my own backyard and it was upon the recommendation of the Planning Board, but it was thousands of feet away from my home,” said Casilio. “This one is hundreds of feet or less from existing homes. I voted for a car dealership at the end of my road. Who would ever do something like that? But it was the recommendation from the Planning Board. Those are dedicated people.”

Gabe’s request for concept plan approval and a recommendation under the State Environmental Quality Review Act was denied by the Planning Board at a meeting on May 1. The Town Board had previously voted, 3-2, on April 11 to send the project back to the Planning Board for more study.

“It was primarily based on community character and master plan issues,” said Planning Board Chairman Robert Sackett.

Nancy Robinson, a resident in the neighboring development of Laurel Park, also referred to the Planning Board’s recommendation in addressing the Town Board.

“I have to remind the board that the Planning Board, which is I guess the experts or a good part of the experts, studied this again and again and again have denied their recommendation and denied their request not once, not twice, but three times, emphasizing that it’s an inappropriate use of this particular parcel of land,” said Robinson.

Jeffery Palumbo, a lawyer representing Gabe’s, said that the Planning Board never made a recommendation on the project, but instead on whether or not a collision shop was a permitted use in the commercial district.

“Obviously we’re disappointed that the town has allowed this to go on for over 15 months and forced the petitioner to spend over $100,000 to make a determination that it’s not a permitted use when the vast majority of the collision shops in the town are all zoned in the same thing we are,” said Palumbo.

“I mean what they did was they bowed to a vocal minority. That’s what they did.”

Palumbo said they will now let a court decide.

Casilio warned residents that although Gabe’s request was denied, it does not stop other developers from coming in and building something else near their property.

“I do have to warn residents that something is going to go in there,” he said.

In other business Wednesday, a proclamation was presented to Clarence High School for its musical production of “Chicago” and May 30, 2013, was named Clarence High School Musical Day.



email: lmariacher@buffnews.com
]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 23:36:37 -0400 By Lauren Mariacher

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

]]> <![CDATA[ ECC graduates hear Herbeck’s keys to success ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130522/CITYANDREGION/130529743/1339
“I was one of you 39 years ago,” he told nearly 900 members of the Class of 2013. “I was not much of a deep thinker in those days. As I was sitting out there in my uncomfortable robe and hat, I was thinking about how long this was going to last and I was thinking about beer.”

Herbeck recounted how he was a terrible student at Sweet Home High School, flunking math and science. After a guidance counselor recognized his aptitude for writing, he knew that was what he wanted to do. For that, however, he needed a four-year degree.

He said he set his sights on a journalism degree from St. Bonaventure University, but his father, a Dunlop worker, and his mother, a bartender, couldn’t afford to send him there.

“I took a year off and worked three jobs,” he recalled. “I tended bar, I pumped gas and I ran the roller coaster at the ‘Fun Wow’ place, Fantasy Island.” He got his degree from St. Bonaventure, he added, “thanks to two years of credits at bargain rates at ECC and loans.”

“I was blessed when the Buffalo News gave me an internship in 1977,” he said, “and blessed again in 1978 when they hired me full-time and assigned me to cover police headquarters. I’ve covered horrible murders, great rock concerts and horrible Super Bowls featuring the Buffalo Bills.”

Herbeck estimated that he’s written more 11,000 stories and interviewed more than 25,000 people during his career.

Herbeck talked about his biggest interview, with Pendleton native Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people when he bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. McVeigh’s story turned into a best-selling book, “American Terrorist.”

Herbeck, who spoke with McVeigh on death row with his co-author, News reporter Lou Michel, noted that the convicted mass murderer “didn’t have the slightest bit of guilt over it. No remorse.”

He said he still gets calls about the McVeigh case from the national media and recently went to Hollywood for the filming of a television documentary about it.

He concluded by talking about “the most inspiring story I’ve ever worked on.”

“It began with an 11-year-old baseball player named Kevin Stephan,” he said. “In 1999, another player swung a bat and hit Kevin hard in the chest. He fell down and was having convulsions. His heart stopped. Luckily for Kevin, a nurse was watching the game. Her name was Penny Brown. She gave Kevin CPR and saved his life.”

Several years later, he continued, Brown was having lunch at a restaurant in Depew and began choking.

“Luckily, a young volunteer firefighter was working in the kitchen. He heard the screams, ran out into the dining room and found Penny on the floor. He gave her the Heimlich maneuver. This was the same young man Penny had saved six years earlier. He was able to return the favor and save her life. A few days later, they were on the Oprah Winfrey show.

“So good things do happen in this world,” he added. “Do good things for others and good things will happen to you.”



email: danderson@buffnews.com ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 22:18:43 -0400 Dale Anderson
]]> <![CDATA[ Cuomo proposes tax breaks for businesses linked to SUNY campuses ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130522/CITYANDREGION/130529792/1339
The proposal would eliminate sales taxes and property, business and corporate taxes – for 10 years – for companies that set up shop on or near State University of New York campuses.

Employees at those businesses wouldn’t pay income taxes for as much as 10 years.

The plan aims to keep new inventions and technology developed at New York colleges and universities from leaving the state, turning those innovations into businesses that grow and create jobs here.

“We birth the ideas in New York because we have the schools and the minds and the talent,” Cuomo said during a stop at the University at Buffalo’s North Campus in Amherst to outline his proposal at the Center for the Arts.

“We form the businesses and then they leave and go to a state with a lower tax environment,” he said. “We lose them in the first year.”

The proposal is Cuomo’s latest effort to jump-start struggling upstate economies, many of which have been declining for decades. The governor has previously pledged a billion dollars in economic-development funding for Buffalo.

The plan announced Wednesday, which Cuomo dubbed “Tax-Free NY,” centers on the 64 SUNY campuses, only eight of which are in New York City or on Long Island.

The proposal turns unused space on the state’s public universities, colleges and community college campuses, along with up to 200,000 square feet of designated adjoining space off-campus, into tax-free communities. Private colleges in upstate New York also would be able to compete for similar tax-free zones that could cover a total of 3 million square feet of space.

To be eligible for “Tax-Free NY,” companies must have a relationship with the university and be working in an area that is related to the school’s academic mission. The program is open to new businesses, out-of-state companies and existing concerns that are expanding their operations within the state to create new jobs.

“There is no state in the country that will have an advantage over these areas,” Cuomo said. “There’s no reason to leave. No one can offer you a better tax package than we can on that site.”

In a visit to the Editorial Board of The Buffalo News, the governor said: “I want a little shock and awe here.”

Cuomo’s proposal must pass the State Legislature, but the initiative, or some version close to it, seems likely to be approved. The governor and legislative leaders have been negotiating on the plan behind closed doors for several weeks as the 2013 legislative session approaches its conclusion June 20.

He announced the proposal in a three-city upstate tour Wednesday, something he would be unlikely to do unless the plan had political legs in Albany. It was noteworthy that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, and Senate co-leaders Dean G. Skelos, R-Rockville Centre, and Jeffrey D. Klein, D-Bronx., all appeared Wednesday morning with Cuomo at the University at Albany – where the governor stopped to first announce the idea before his events in Buffalo and later in Syracuse.

Silver, who for 20 years has pushed a successful high-technology partnership between major private companies and the University at Albany, was the most effusive among the legislative leaders in praising the plan.

But Skelos said that there is still work to do on the idea. Scott Reif, a Skelos spokesman, said the proposal “has the potential to increase economic-development opportunities, but has to be part of a comprehensive economic-development strategy that includes business tax cuts and getting rid of regulations.”

Upstate New York also faces challenges beyond its high taxes in becoming a hotbed for startup companies. Cuomo acknowledged that New York’s overall cost of living is higher than in many other parts of the country.

The Western New York Regional Economic Development Council, which has made turning Buffalo Niagara into a vibrant entrepreneurial center one of its top priorities, also has noted that the area suffers from a severe shortage of the venture capital that fledgling firms often rely on during the years it can take to turn an idea into a viable commercial product.

“I understand the synergy between academia and business creation,” said Howard A. Zemsky, the local council’s co-chairman. “We’re investing in projects that can spur spinoffs” such as the Buffalo Science Productivity and Research Catalyzer that will help turn innovative developments in life sciences to the market.

Cuomo’s “Buffalo Billion” initiative also is backing a $5 million competition that would provide extensive aid to a handful of companies selected in a nationwide business plan contest.

Satish K. Tripathi, president of UB and co-chairman of the local council, said the proposal “has tremendous promise for advancing the work of research universities, like UB, in generating ideas, discoveries and innovations that spur job creation and attract new businesses to our communities.”

But Jordan A. Levy, a local venture capitalist who built his own successful startup more than two decades ago and co-founded the Z80 Labs technology business incubator in Buffalo last year, said entrepreneurs often look beyond taxes in deciding where to locate their business. They look for locations with a vibrant core of fledgling businesses in their industry, an environment to support early-stage firms and a pool of talent they can draw upon – all factors that take longer and are much more difficult to develop.

“The real issue for startups,” he said, “is creating an environment that’s nurturing.”

Cuomo plan at a glance / Seeking to jump-start N.Y. economy

What: 10-year tax moratorium for startup companies and out-of-state firms that set up operations allied with SUNY. Designed to counteract state’s high tax profile.

Where: Areas surrounding 64 campuses of the SUNY system. Space on or near campuses would be available to companies.

When: Proposal being negotiated and could go to State Legislature soon. No timetable on when the program would start.

News Albany Bureau Chief Tom Precious contributed to this report. email: drobinson@buffnews.com ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 14:17:09 -0400 David Robinson
]]> <![CDATA[ Former Grand Island fire chief honored ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130522/CITYANDREGION/130529799/1339
The company has grown into 22 pieces of apparatus, with a new Marine Unit, a high-level paramedic program and a state-of-the-art dispatch center, board Chairman Ward Butcher said.



]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 09:27:55 -0400 <![CDATA[ Cook of the Month: Bert Gambini cooks up a storm ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130522/LIFE01/130529816/1339
Looking back now, that was where his love of cooking began, but they didn’t make it easy.

“They never wanted me too close,” said Gambini, The News’ May Cook of the Month. “My mother would say, ‘Don’t hover,’ and my grandmother would just run me over if I got too close.”

That did nothing to lessen his fascination. “It was kind of neat, because it was kind of like watching a ball game through a knothole in a fence,” said Gambini, the former WBFO Morning Edition host and music director, who now works for the University at Buffalo’s communications office. “You get to see some of the action, but not all of it. You have to fill in the gaps with your imagination.”

What he could not miss was the happiness that resulted from their efforts, which would eventually fuel his own desire to expand his culinary efforts, he said. “I don’t necessarily know if it was something that I saw them making specifically, as much as everyone enjoyed what was made, the pleasure and the spirit that came from food.”

That spirit was strong when the extended Gambini family gathered for Sunday dinner at his grandparents’ West Side home. They shared dishes like his grandmother’s stuffed artichokes and veal cutlets pan-fried in olive oil, “not loaded with cheese, either, not spaghetti house parm,” Gambini clarified.

At that early age, he recognized the connections between good food and great times. “The company, too – just sitting around the table passing the dishes,” he said. “Those are great memories.”

It wasn’t until after he graduated from UB in the late 1980s, and moved out of his parents’ house, that he really started cooking for himself.

“It was just out of necessity,” he said recently in his Cheektowaga home, as a batch of homemade pasta dried on the kitchen counter.

Peppers and onions was the beginning. “You’ve got peppers, you’ve got onions, fry them up and do something with them,” he said. It turned out that he enjoyed the adventure of not knowing exactly where a dish was headed. “Don’t be afraid to just grab something and combine the ingredients.”

Yes, he could have asked his mother, Janet Gambini, for detailed instructions. But he didn’t. “I don’t think I wanted to. I have cookbooks in the house, and I enjoy reading the narrative, but I don’t follow the recipes. I’d just rather feel my way through it.”

His feelings, when it comes to cooking, have become plenty acute. Today, Gambini serves as co-host of Nickel City Chef, Buffalo’s live cooking competition series, an experience that put him in close contact with top Buffalo chefs, arming him with the knowledge to fine-tune his kitchen chops.

While talking about other things, Gambini swirls together a batch of pasta dough, rolls it out with his pasta machine and feeds it through the cutter so it emerges in delicate strands.

He cooks the pasta, drains it and drops the steaming noodles onto a bed of fresh spinach, cooking the spinach just enough. “Otherwise the spinach gets lost, and leaves lose their color,” he said.

Tossed with lemon juice, lemon zest, and grated cheese, it’s a light, flavorful dish, he said. “It’s a great heading-into-summer dish.”

Bert Gambini

Residence: Cheektowaga • Mouths to feed: 1

Go–to quick dish: 30-minute roast chicken

Secret indulgence: King crab legs

Stuffed Artichokes

4 large artichokes

1 cup breadcrumbs

½ cup grated cheese

Basil, parsley and garlic powder

Salt and pepper

Trim tops and clip pointy leaves. Wash and pull any dark leaves from the base.

Mix crumbs, cheese and spices, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread the leaves of the artichokes and stuff with the breadcrumb mixture. Pour a dash of olive oil over each of the artichokes. Put the artichokes in a stockpot with 1½ inches water.

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for 30 minutes, longer for larger artichokes. (Or bake in a pan with a half-inch of water about 60 minutes at 375 degrees.) You know they’re done when outer leaves pull off easily. Serve with an empty bowl to collect discarded leaves.

Steamed Mussels

2 pounds mussels

1 tablespoon butter

1 small onion, chopped

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1 clove garlic, chopped

¾ cup dry white wine

Scrub mussels and pull off fibrous attachments. Discard any mussels that are open or have broken shells.

Saute onion in butter until soft, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and parsley, then wine.

Add cleaned mussels. Steam for about 5 minutes, or until the shells have opened. Discard unopened ones. Serve with crusty bread for dunking.

(You can transfer mussels to platter and thicken sauce in pot by adding 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat, sprinkling in 1 tablespoon flour, another splash of wine, and stirring to combine. Simmer to thicken. Pour over mussels.)

Lemon Garlic Pasta with Spinach

For pasta dough:

3½ cups of flour

4 eggs

For pasta:

1 bag washed baby spinach

Juice of one lemon

Zest of one lemon

2 cloves of finely chopped garlic

½ cup of grated Pecorino Romano cheese

¼ cup of olive oil

Mix dough first. Put the flour in a mound, make a hollow in the middle, and crack in the eggs. With a fork, start working the flour shore into the egg lake until it’s combined into a ball. Knead for about 4 minutes, wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.

Cut the dough into two or more pieces to make rolling easier. On a floured surface, roll out the pasta as thin as possible, and cut it into strips. (If you have a pasta rolling machine, follow its directions.)

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and stir. Fresh pasta cooks quickly, 1-3 minutes.

Put fresh spinach in a bowl. When pasta is ready, drain and immediately put the drained pasta in the bowl with the spinach. Do not mix. Add lemon juice and zest, garlic, cheese and olive oil. Cover the bowl and let it sit for 5 minutes. Uncover, mix and serve.



email: agalarneau@buffnews.com ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 07:23:57 -0400 Andrew Galarneau
]]> <![CDATA[ Residents mobilizing to get input into use of Tonawanda Coke fines ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130522/CITYANDREGION/130529825/1339
Now, the people who live around the plant are hoping to get a large portion of that fine used on local projects that will help safeguard their air, land and water.

U.S. District Chief Judge William M. Skretny is scheduled to sentence the company July 15, and community members are mobilizing in hopes that they will have input into how the fine will be spent.

“Basically, everybody who lives in this area has one kind of illness or another. The people have earned to right to make the decisions,” said Cheryl McNett, whose home faces a park and, farther in the distance, the three smokestacks that tower over the Tonawanda Coke plant, periodically sending up plumes of smoke that spew toxic chemicals into the air.

There isn’t much precedent for an environmental case of this kind, because Tonawanda Coke is only the second company to be indicted under Title V of the Clean Air Act since the 1970 law was amended in 1990.

The company faces up to $200 million in fines. Federal law requires that 75 percent of the money be returned to the U.S. Treasury. But that could still leave up to $50 million to address air toxins and land contamination, depending on what Skretny decides.

The final say in how the money will be spent rests with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice through the United States Attorney’s Office.

Residents from the Tonawandas, Grand Island and Riverside will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Boys and Girls Club in the Town of Tonawanda, near the General Motors plant, to discuss how the fine money could be used to reduce toxins and protect neighborhood health.

McNett is a member of the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York, which for the past five years has spearheaded the community effort for corporate accountability and adherence to state and federal environmental laws. The group’s efforts were a factor in the EPA’s raid of Tonawanda Coke in December 2009, which led to the March 28 verdict that also saw a company official face up to 75 years in prison.

“We’ve seen that when communities come together, real change can happen. Communities know their neighborhoods and their problems better than someone who doesn’t live there, and the communities need to decide for themselves what are the best solutions,” said Rebecca Newberry, community organizer for the Clean Air Coalition.

Newberry will lead the community meeting, and a leadership team is expected to emerge to flesh out project ideas and create budgets. A communitywide vote will be held the third week of June at satellite voting locations in Grand Island and Tonawanda, followed by a vote at a June 20 public meeting, also at the Boys and Girls Club, when the results will be revealed.

The community-based process comes from the concept of participatory budgeting developed in Brazil in 1989 and now used in some municipal districts, including parts of New York City and Chicago.

There’s already a growing list of ideas on what to do with any money that is dedicated for local use.

Ron Malec, of the City of Tonawanda, who worked in the chemical industry as a laboratory technician, wants to see a public health study and more monitors to add to the two that the state Department of Environmental Conservation maintains.

“The community should get more power over monitoring their environment. I would like to see grants for new testing equipment, and doing more local testing with the University at Buffalo’s environmental department,” Malec said.

Malec is part of the Clean Air Coalition’s technical team, which includes a nurse, a statistician, a chemical engineer and a University at Buffalo professor.

“I was personally responsible for a lot of garbage going into the air in South Buffalo. It was part of my job. The effects of chemical plants on the environment is the 800-pound gorilla I can’t ignore,” he said.

Durward Carter, who has lived in the Sheridan Parkside area for nearly a half-century, wants to see the anticipated funds used to set up a foundation that doles out grants and can gather interest.

Carlos Diaz said he wasn’t sure yet what should be done, but he said the community should decide.

“We should have something to say. We have put up with this for a long time,” Diaz said.

The group has a powerful ally in Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., who has written letters to the Department of Justice and the EPA, urging them to use results from the community-determined project priorities as a guide when deciding which projects Tonawanda Coke’s fine should go toward.

“I feel very strongly that the community should have input. It was the community that suffered, and they should have some say in determining restitution,” Schumer said. “The people in the community, certainly advised by experts, know best. They live there, and they’ve suffered with this.”

Tonawanda Coke, located at 3875 River Road, produces high-quality foundry coke for use in melting metal and removing impurities in steel manufacturing on a 188-acre site along the Niagara River.

The company and its owner, J.D. Crane, have for years refused to speak to The Buffalo News, and it declined to do so again Tuesday.

The company’s complex chemical process to make coke results in dangerous vapors, including benzene, as well as unpleasant odors and soot that coats homes, cars and a nearby playground.

Tuesday, Madison and Travis, 4-year-old cousins, were at the playground playing on the slide, swings and two small rocking horses.

“In this area, this is about the only spot Madison has to go to play,” said her father, Joseph Waschensky Jr., who has lived across the street for about 10 years. “It’s not the best thing in the world, because you have Tonawanda Coke over there, the power lines above, and it’s kind of industrial, but it’s somewhere down the street to go to.”

Waschensky blames the company and its owner for refusing to speak to the community and failing for years to install required pollution-control devices. He’s hoping the fine the company winds up paying will help those who have been victimized by addressing the environmental harm the company benefited from.

“I think keeping the money in the town is the number one importance. For the environment and the area, it would be great,” Washchesky said.



email: msommer@buffnews.com ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 00:01:01 -0400 Mark Sommer
]]> <![CDATA[ Greenway Commission rejects 2 proposals due to get money anyway ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130521/CITYANDREGION/130529838/1339
The commission overwhelmingly shot down a Town of Lewiston proposal to build an $8 million civic center next to the Lewiston-Porter Schools campus on Creek Road.

It also refused to endorse Lew-Port’s $7.8 million proposal to remodel its high school auditorium and build a new swimming pool.

But the power to fund projects is not held by the commission – it rests with a panel of municipalities and the New York Power Authority, including Lewiston and Lew-Port.

By 8-2 votes, both projects were deemed to be “inconsistent” with the commission’s formal plan for a parks and trails system that would link Lake Erie and Lake Ontario along the Niagara River. Commissioner Sean Edwards, a former Lewiston Town Board member, and the Power Authority deemed them “consistent” with the plan.

Both Lewiston and Lew-Port plan to “leverage” the annual payments they receive from 50-year settlements with the Power Authority for the relicensing of the Niagara Power Project to borrow money for the projects.

Greenway Commissioner and Niagara Falls Mayor Paul A. Dyster said he felt similarly about the merits of each of the projects. Dyster noted the conflict between the Greenway Commission’s task and the terms of the legal agreements that established the funding streams for Greenway projects.

“We seem to be taking stands against positive projects,” Dyster said before voting against the school district’s proposal.

Dyster, who also represents Niagara Falls on the panel that funds Greenway projects in Niagara County, known as the Host Community Standing Committee, indicated his vote on that committee might be different than the one he cast Tuesday.

The Town of Lewiston’s proposal, which will be up for a referendum July 15, calls for using funding previously allocated for improvements at Joseph Davis State Park. Those previously proposed improvements, originally pegged at roughly $5 million to $6 million and now down to roughly $1.5 million or $2 million, were previously endorsed by the Greenway Commission.

The plans for the park have been scaled back and no longer require funding at the level previously approved, Lewiston Supervisor Steve Reiter said.

The town would use the next 30 years’ worth of payments from the Power Authority to fund the civic center project, according to its application to the commission.

Lew-Port officials want to use $6.3 million in Greenway funding for what would be the second phase of its “recreation complex.”

The district would use the next 15 years of annual payments to support the project, officials said in their application.

The commission endorsed a proposal from the Research Foundation for SUNY Buffalo State for a habitat study of the Emerald Shiner, a fish fed on by sport fish in the Niagara River.

A recent report from the Partnership for Public Good in Buffalo found that of the $50 million in Greenway funds spent so far, about half has been used on projects far from the Niagara River.



email: abesecker@buffnews.com ]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 22:47:06 -0400 Aaron Besecker
]]> <![CDATA[ Ken-Ton teacher placed on leave in criminal investigation ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130521/CITYANDREGION/130529852/1339
Town of Tonawanda police have been working with the school district and the Erie County District Attorney’s Office to investigate allegations of “criminal acts” committed by a Ken-Ton teacher, according to a press release.

Police did not provide any further details on Tuesday because of concerns that it would be detrimental to any prosecution.

“Not much more I can say,” Lt. Nicholas A. Bado said late Tuesday. “The main message is we’re taking appropriate steps to investigate the allegations made against a school teacher to see if there’s any credibility to them that would lead to charges.

“The school district basically just wants everyone – parents in particular – to be confident that the safety of the students was looked after by immediately placing this teacher on administrative leave,” Bado said. ]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 18:16:28 -0400 <![CDATA[ Serial shoplifter gets 6 months in jail ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130521/CITYANDREGION/130529881/1339
Rickie Latham, of Comstock Avenue, was arrested for trying to steal four sets of bedsheets from the store. Court officials noted Latham has 70 similar convictions over the past 25 years. ]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 08:52:32 -0400 <![CDATA[ Food trucks will start rolling in Amherst again ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130520/CITYANDREGION/130529917/1339
The popular rolling kitchens will finally be allowed to operate in the region’s largest suburb, eight months after one operator nearly had his truck towed away by the town for serving lunch at an office park.

“It’s not perfect, but we got our foot in the door,” said Mitch Stenger, attorney for the Western New York Food Truck Association.

Town officials Monday unanimously passed new regulations for the growing food truck industry. The rules, which are similar to those in Buffalo, include:

• A $400 fee for each food truck, to be renewed each year for an additional $200.

• A ban on operating within 100 feet of the front door of any restaurant with an open kitchen.

• A three-hour time limit for operation in a public parking space or a commercial area.

• A curfew of 8 p.m. in residential areas and 11 p.m. in public rights-of-way and commercial districts.

The Amherst law restricts trucks from selling their food on residential streets for longer than 20 minutes at a time, as town officials said they did not believe residents wanted them operating there.

“We have a very defined belief that our residential areas are residential, and our commercial are commercial,” Deputy Supervisor Guy R. Marlette said.

Block parties and private functions will be an exception to that rule, provided the trucks stay within residents’ backyards or in the designated block-party areas.

The law reflects months of public debate and private wrangling from both the food trucks and their brick-and-mortar competitors.

Both sides acknowledged they were experiencing what Stenger called “food truck fatigue” after seven rounds of revisions recently left the board without a clear consensus.

But behind-the-scenes negotiations between town officials and the food trucks ramped up, producing a unanimous agreement on the new regulations that seemed unlikely just weeks ago.

“I think our patience has been rewarded,” said Supervisor Barry A. Weinstein.

Meanwhile, food truck operators are pleased that they will be able to sell their burritos, sandwiches and sliders on the bustling Main Street commercial strip – just as the summer restaurant season begins to heat up.

A win in the region’s largest suburb has the food truck owners believing they may make some headway in East Aurora, Hamburg and other pedestrian hot spots that have yet to regulate the trucks.

“I would consider it a win for us because it would set a precedent for other communities that are trying to keep food trucks out,” Stenger said. “Hopefully we won’t have to complete this tedious exercise in every community surrounding Buffalo.”

Marlette said the key to resolving the dispute was finding common ground on the major points and agreeing to work out any other problems later on.

“They didn’t get everything they wanted, and we didn’t get everything we wanted,” he said.



email: cspecht@buffnews.com ]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 16:32:10 -0400 Charlie Specht
]]> <![CDATA[ Alden’s workers’ comp rates won’t go up ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130520/CITYANDREGION/130529897/1339
But Alden fought back.

“The state just wanted to jack up our rates,” Milligan said. “They were giving us what we thought was false information on the population of each fire district.”

Milligan said his secretary spotted the problem with the state’s population numbers and resolved the town should not institute what she thought was an unfair and far-too-costly policy.

“My secretary lost sleep over that for quite a while,” Milligan said. “She said, ‘We shouldn’t be doing this,’ and we didn’t, and [the state] came back and said, ‘You were right.’”

In the end, Alden’s workers’ compensation rates will not be increasing.

It took just 15 minutes Monday for the Town Board to complete its 13-item agenda. The meeting’s most expensive resolution came in the approval of a $4,076 purchase for materials to construct a new shelter at the town park. Milligan said the last structure was knocked down four years ago, and because the park is used constantly, it’s a big deal to the town to have it replaced.

Also at the meeting:

• The board approved a four-week rental of one six-ton wheeled dumper for $3,500.

• The voting members – Milligan, Councilwoman Mary Riddoch and Councilman William Weber – approved the appointments of Angelo Daluisio to Alden’s Zoning Board of Appeals and Joy Insinna to become secretary of the town’s Board of Assessment Review.

• Milligan reported that last summer’s purchase of 55-gallon recycling bins for each residence has saved the town a lot of money on garbage disposal.

He also said the town is in the process of instituting a billboard on Walden Avenue near Genesee Street that poses and answers the question: ‘What’s happening in Alden?’ The sign will include a rundown of community events that will occur in the town in the coming weeks.

“We’ve got stuff going on, and a lot of times, nobody knows it,” Milligan said.

The next Alden Town Board meeting takes place June 3 at 7 p.m. inside Alden Town Hall. ]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 23:39:13 -0400 By Aaron Mansfield

News correspondent

]]> <![CDATA[ Grand Island board OKs $1.5 million in maintenance, improvement projects ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130520/CITYANDREGION/130529900/1339
The board approved $430,000 in improvements to the overflow retention facility at the sewage treatment plant, $200,000 towards changing water filters at the water treatment plant and $917,500 toward inspecting, cleaning and testing sewers.

Also Monday night, the board heard comments from residents and developers on rezoning of two land parcels.

A plan to develop the Gun Creek area of Whitehaven Road into various housing on 152 lots ran into opposition from residents concerned that connecting Ransom Road to Whitehaven Road would further congest traffic at Ransom and Stony Point Road.

Another project, which has been proposed and rejected several times, seeks to develop senior citizens’ housing on Baseline Road.

Grand Island residents who said they would like to take advantage of senior housing on the island spoke in favor of rezoning a portion of the land to a commercial designation. Several others who live near the property, however, said the change would harm their quality of life.



email: schristmann@buffnews.com ]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 23:37:47 -0400 Samantha Maziarz Christmann
]]> <![CDATA[ Tonawanda lawmakers OK funding for site development ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130520/CITYANDREGION/130529903/1339
The board voted unanimously to approve borrowing resolutions for water, sewer and road projects at the 92-acre North Youngmann Commerce Center. After a request for proposals, contracts will be awarded and the work to make the site further shovel-ready will likely be completed in the fall.

“After years of studying and planning, it’s a watershed moment that we’re now putting funding into place to start construction,” said Robert L. Dimmig, executive director of the Town of Tonawanda Development Corp. who updated the board on the plan.

An access road extending eastward through the site to a truck turnaround will connect East Park Drive and Two Mile Creek Road. That project will cost $2.8 million with $500,000 coming from funds the town received for helping to lure insurance giant GEICO to Amherst.

An existing 24-inch water line — which cuts diagonally through the site and runs along its northern border — will be relocated along the new road at a cost of $1 million to free up more land for development.

The site along the Youngmann highway, commonly known as the “Mudflats,” has been dormant for decades as the process to develop it dragged on.

But now Councilman John Bargnesi said he and other town officials are fielding inquiries from local developers representing companies interested in purchasing acres for their back-office or logistics operations.

“For developers to be calling us, they know the fish is on the hook,” he said.

In other business Monday, the Town Board:

• Awarded a $3.23 million contract to Mar-Wal Construction Co. of Depew for waterline improvements along Delaware Road. The board acknowledged the project may cause some inconvenience to residents.

• Voted to extend the town’s contract to supply water to the Village of Kenmore.

• Viewed upgrades to the assessor’s page on the town’s website. Residents can now complete exemption renewals, more easily access property information and use resources to determine whether their assessment is fair by going to www.tonawanda.oarsystem.com. Residents may contest their assessment on upcoming grievance day May 28.



email: jpopiolkowski@buffnews.com ]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 23:27:59 -0400 Joseph Popiolkowski
]]> <![CDATA[ Lancaster officials updated on memorial skate park ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130520/CITYANDREGION/130529906/1339
As of Monday night, project supporters told Lancaster town officials that $188,000 has been raised for the park planned to be located within Keysa Park, a town-owned neighborhood park in the northeast section of the village. That is just $12,000 shy of the $200,000 goal for the first phase of the skate and bike park to be built in Bryce’s honor. It’s a dream that organizers want to become reality by fall, when they want the park built and open for kids.

“I can’t believe we’ve come this far since July 4,” said Bill Buchholz, Bryce’s father, of community-wide fundraising efforts for the park, to be designed by a Southern California company. “To be where we are today is a testament to the community.”

Buchholz and friends David and Angela Watz, who are helping spearhead the skate and bike park, gave an update to town officials in their work session.

But they were somewhat disappointed afterward, having hoped the town Monday would approve the design for the 12,000-square-foot concrete park that would feature a series of stairs, walls and rails that is expected to lure skateboarders and stunt bike riders. A memorial garden also is planned for the bike park with a stone honoring Bryce.

Town officials, while supportive, weren’t ready Monday to sign off on it. There were still some issues to nail down before granting approval, they said. Among them was approving the final design, as well as an agreement allowing organizers to construct and pay for the skate park within a government-owned park before “gifting” it to the town, said Supervisor Dino J. Fudoli.

“We like what we see so far,” Fudoli said afterward. “They’re an ambitious bunch and have raised a lot of money.”

Other questions remain.

“What are the hours?” Police Chief Gerald J. Gill Jr. said after the meeting. Because Keysa Park is tucked in a neighborhood with Vandenberg Avenue as the only access street, he said he could foresee neighbor complaints surfacing if late-night skateboarders stay there past the typical town park hours of dawn to dusk. “Enforceability becomes a concern,” Gill said.

The only formal town action Monday related to the skate park came in the form of a four-point resolution asking the town’s grant consultant to apply for a $100,000 grant through the state Dormitory Authority – $16,625 of which would be earmarked toward construction of the skate and bike park, among other town initiatives.

Volunteers have reached out to local contractors and building suppliers to see if they would donate their services and materials to help construct the park and said the support has been overwhelming.

David and Angela Watz, whose 14-year-old son, Joseph Zarnikau, is one of the core BMX riders and was friends with Bryce, praised the California Skateparks company hired to design the park. “This isn’t some fly-by-night company,” David Watz said, noting it is world-renowned and that the park can be built in three initial phases, beginning with 12,000 square feet.

The town is setting aside 30,000 square feet, in all, in Keysa Park, for the area.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever be done. Our whole excitement is to get Phase One in, and get it in for Bryce’s friends, who are 15 years old now, so they have something to do and before they have an interest in driving,” Bill Buchholz said, adding that there will be future generations of teens interested in the park.

The most recent fundraising event, “Ride for Bryce,” resulted in a $25,000 donation from Joe Basil Chevrolet.



email: krobinson@buffnews.com ]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 23:16:34 -0400 Karen Robinson
]]> <![CDATA[ Cheektowaga delays rezoning request for hotel proposal ]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130520/CITYANDREGION/130529914/1339
The Cheektowaga Town Board held a public hearing Monday night on a request to rezone a portion of 61 Anderson Road from general manufacturing to general commercial. The Town Board reserved decision.

Two years ago, the Kabir Group of Blasdell was talking about building two hotels, as well as reusing an office building and warehouse on a section of 61 Anderson. Hotels in that area are popular with Canadians who visit Western New York to shop.

Lawmakers approved an identical rezoning request for 83 Anderson and part of 61 Anderson in 2011. Variances also had been approved related to building height and setback from the property line.

But because construction didn’t proceed in a timely manner, those variances expired.

Now, the structures at 61 Anderson are being demolished. In their place, a four-story, 13,469-square-foot hotel is proposed, with 99 parking spaces on the north, east and south sides.

A berm would be built at the east end of the property, which overlooks the Thruway.

The project would generate an estimated 25 jobs during construction, then 10 afterward, according to paperwork filed with the town. But plans for the parcel approved in 2011 are up in the air.

“We haven’t determined the exact use of that parcel,” said Andrew Terragnoli of Optima Design & Engineering, who is working with the developer. It could be another hotel, he added.

But the site will be cleaned up, including the removal of old asphalt and pavement.

“They really did a great job of reorganizing this,” said Supervisor Mary F. Holtz.

“It’s a sleepy old industrial area,” said Town Engineer William R. Pugh. “It’s a vast improvement over what’s there.”

In other business Monday, the Town Board unanimously approved the appointment of Brian F. Coons to lieutenant in the Police Department, effective Friday.



email: jhabuda@buffnews.com ]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 23:14:04 -0400 Janice Habuda
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