Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Keep Spending Our Money . . .

The Sentinel reports that $8 million in borrowing was approved by the OC Legislature with nary a word. You guessed it . . . more will be going to that albatross, Griffiss "International" Airport, along with other projects. Interestingly, there was some hesitation on approving projects for sewer district compliance with the state consent order. . . . even though the County benefited from non-compliance with the law by expanding the tax base in Utica's suburbs . . . even though the County will foist all the costs against the innocent sewer users when it was the County that caused/allowed the violations to occur. (Shouldn't county tax taxpayers in Rome and Boonville chip in for this, too?  Their legislators oversaw sewer district operations and looked the other way while the law was broken.)

In a somewhat related Sentinel story, officials are being updated on the progress at the Marcy Nanocenter.
EDGE has been developing the vacant land to attract a high-tech company for more than a decade. The objective is to make the site "shovel ready" so that construction could begin in short order after a company picks the Marcy location things like zoning approvals and environmental clearances are being sought in advance.

The 300-acre Marcy NanoCenter meets industry needs with sewer, water, redundant electrical supply, gas and telecommunications in immediate proximity, says EDGE.

The OD reports that construction is about to begin.

It is odd that this site was advertised to the world as being "shovel ready" back when Patacki was governor, and now it is not.

Not discussed are State concerns that the water supply is inadequate for such a facility. There are questions whether an additional 3 million gallons of water per day can be withdrawn from the Hinckley Reservoir without adversely impacting West Canada Creek given the other demands on those water bodies (such as the Canal for which Hinckley was constructed).  I understand that now a sewer-consent order related problem is being raised with bringing sewer service to this site.

At this point, starting construction without first resolving the sewer and water issues is foolish . . . but typical for this county. The County motto seems to be, "Spend money now, ask questions later." 

Marcy Nano has become a career project for certain officials. They need to produce. . . and maybe get realistic on what might fit that site that won't impose burdens on the water and sewer systems. My understanding is that the Buffalo area just lost a huge Verizon data center due to a disgruntled neighbor. That's not manufacturing.  Did anyone go after that?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is interesting to read of the money pit at Griffiss and EDGE in Marcy in the same comment. It is way over due for someone to analyze the performance of EDGE in cost/benefit terms. My guess is that the per new job to cost ratio would make the federal stimulus look good.Yet we keep supporting and following the same approaches which have failed by any serious measure to replace jobs lost both in quantity and quality.

Anonymous said...

Griffis & the so called chip plant development is nothing more than a slush fund being used by local big wigs to fleece local taxpayers. There will never be a chip plant & Griffis will never be anything more than a dot on the radar, & everyone knows it. What a sham.

Anonymous said...

It is clearly time to rexamine the entire stucture of the EDGE in its strategies and performance. Taxpayer funding ought to be withheld until the matter undergoes scrutiny. This is the job of the county executive and county board. The big question is if they are interested or capable of carrying out their obligation of oversight of taxpayer money.

Silence Dogood said...

Anonymous 3/24... The county Exec and the board are part of the problem, they are not going to look into this.
Another thought does anyone know who is doing the infrastructure work? Lets follow the money on this and the 8 million at the base recently approved, right down to the For Profit Corps owned by the Not For Profit corporations. When you peel back the layers of the onions, it stinks more

Anonymous said...

One suspects Silence Dogood is correct. The answer is to replace the County Executive and get new blood on the Board of Legislators. New people may bring new approaches to the table. We sure do need them!