Newark, Arcadia plan to build centralized garage

The members of the Village of Newark and Arcadia Town boards met this morning to discuss inter-municipal cooperation.

About 40 people attended, including town and village clerks, Town Supervisor Joe DeSanto, Newark Mayor Fred Pirelli, town board members Tom Chappell, Mike Diamond, Gary Grant, Brenda Westcott, village trustees John Palermo, Kurt Werts, Norm VanDemortel, and Village managers Jim Sadler, Jim Bridgeman and Arcadia Highway Suoperintendent Dave Harder.

Former Arcadia Supervisors in the audience were Orville Martin, Tom Healy and Dom Bartucca.

The committee to formulate plans for where the Centralized Garage will be located includes Harder, Sadler, Grant, VanDemortel and Chappell. They will meet soon to prepare a report; the village and town boards will meet together on Monday, June 26 at 7 p.m.

Mayor Pirelli opened the meeting by explaining the 'pressure points' which are affecting the village: Taxes, State Aid (down 80% in recent years), lawsuits, rehab of the community center, aging fire equipment, tax-exempt properties, soaring electric rates.

Newark owns and maintains 50 miles of sewer lines, 35 miles of storm water sewer lines. The village includes 66 percent of the population of the town and 61 percent of the assessed property valuation.

Newark is recognized in the county as a center of medical facilities, banking, manufacturing and commerce. Pirelli reminded people that he and his board have worked hard to keep four important businesses, employing 1000 people, in the village. Companies are constantly being lured to other cities and to other states.

The village is committed to increasing water sales to residents in Arcadia and other areas of Wayne County. The village has pledged not to annex any property in exchange for services, unless the town board supports or requests an annexation.

Arcadia highway crews provide services each year to the Village. Harder says his work load increases each year within the village limits. In 1999, town crews rolled baseball fields and hauled in dirt, milled village streets, paved village streets, hauled filter sand (800 tons to water plant in Shortsville), did bulldozer work, hauled village equipment, worked along canal banks with excavator, mowed canal banks, picked up leaves and debris, plowed snow on sections of village streets (VanBuren, Westshore, O'Brien, Pardee Smith, Peirson, Woodlane, Patterson, Blue Cut, Stuart Ave.). The value of the services to the village for 1999 was $181,775, according to a report prepared by Harder. Town preparation in 1997 for the paving of Westshore Boulevard was more than $155,036.

The town and village have been doing shared services for years. Pirelli admits that the village is in dire need of financial help from the town. The miles of state highways (Routes 31 and 88) inside the village are owned and maintained by Newark, not the state. East Union Street improvements are planned and will cost Newark $166,000, which will have to be bonded. Lawsuits are costing the village $81,525 and rehab of the community center in 2001 will cost $66,000. Tree surgery is needed around the village, and new curbing (25 miles) will cost $2.5 million dollars.

Newark's current highway barn on Woodlane is deteriorating and would need $300,000-$400,000 worth of repair and improvements, said Pirelli.

Members of both boards hope that Newark and Arcadia can build the new facility with in-kind labor. Fairville residents themselves built the fire hall on Route 88 North.

Former Town Councilman Mike DeJohn urged the planning committee members to look for existing plans (architect drawings) for a garage. He mentioned recent projects for joint facilities in both Oswego and Lyons and said there's no need to pay for new drawings.

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