Ready or not, development is coming to Richmondville

It is with some amusement that I read Cobleskill village trustee Mark Galasso’s letter to the Times-Journal defending his support for the proposed Maranatha fitness center in Richmondville. The issue that concerned Galasso was whether or not the village of Cobleskill should pursue a Restore NY grant for the Newberry Square building or whether it should back out and endorse the fitness center instead. Galasso criticizes the “us-versus-them” attitude in the village and argues th1at we all need to come together for what’s best for the region.

Believe it or not, I think Galasso makes a pretty good case for why Cobleskill village officials should support the Maranatha project. However, as a Richmondville resident who lives in the path of this recent surge of proposed development along Route 7, I’m not so sure Schoharie County ought to be using its limited Restore NY monies to encourage more sprawl.

It seems like with the Empire Zone in place, there is a rush to build up the area with very little concern for the consequences or the people in the way.

Here are some of the projects that have recently been proposed for the Route 7 corridor between Warnerville and the village of Richmondville

-$4.2 million Maranatha fitness complex next to the former Warnerville Roller Rink
-Expansion of Lancaster Development site on Podpadic Road
-Relocation of Mill Services wood finishing factory on former Sabata farm or on Podpadic Road
-New town/village highway garage on Podpadic Road
-Proposed truck stop near either Warnerville or Richmondville exit off I-88
-Car wash in Warnerville near high school (currently under construction)

It appears that the usual suspects, i.e. Makeley, Loder and Galasso have big plans for Podpadic Road. I know that the Town of Richmondville needs a new garage and that the area is starved for jobs, but is anyone asking what all this new development will mean for the existing land uses in the immediate area? This part of the town of Richmondville, which bleeds into the hamlet of Warnerville, is home to a small residential neighborhood, a few small businesses, a few remaining farms and of course the Cobleskill-Richmondville high school.

As all of this new industrial development brings increased truck traffic, how will that affect residents and high school students who walk to school? What effect will this truck traffic have on air quality? For that matter, what are the hazards associated with the processes used by Mill Services, Inc.? What will happen to the last few farms in this area? Are they just going to get squeezed out until Makeley, Loder and Galasso buy up everything and build more sprawl and industry?

Over the past year, many residents have loudly protested the building of a few wind turbines. But what’s shaping up in Richmondville’s east end and Warnerville promises to be a much more drastic change to the landscape. The scope of these changes requires a new comprehensive plan for the town conducted with maximum citizen participation.

This is necessary to ensure that Empire Zone-related development occurs in an orderly and sustainable fashion. This growth can occur in a manner that complements the area, or it can be left up to the greedy few to become a sprawling mess with unknown environmental consequences.

What this boils down to is a handful of powerful people making very big decisions about the future of this community without any consultation or participation from members of the community at large. The people deserve, and ought to demand, better.

Downtown deserves grant

Stella McKenna has been planning to build a new fitness and rehabilitation center in the town of Richmondville on Route 7. This facility would include a sports complex, a physical therapy facility, a strip of retail businesses and a restaurant featuring adaptive use of two historic barns. The complex would be a virtual one-stop shop for all your physical therapy and health & fitness needs.

But in order to make it happen she needs a little help. So far, she has been applying for a number of grants to get that help. This year, she is again applying to New York State’s Empire Development Corporation for a Restore NY grant.

McKenna however, has some competition for Restore NY grant funding. The village of Cobleskill is also planning on submitting a proposal for Restore NY money to rehabilitate the Newberry Square building in downtown Cobleskill. Here we have a project that comes with numerous obvious benefits to downtown Cobleskill. It is a large building with two large store-fronts on Main Streets (they’re the one’s currently covered in plywood). There is also additional commercial and potential residential space throughout the large arcade-style building. Newberry’s takes up a large part of Main Street, and with a new façade could make a real impact on downtown as a whole.

But here’s where things get a bit complicated. McKenna has asked the village of Cobleskill to withdraw their grant proposal for Newberry Square so that the state will be more likely to grant her the Restore NY monies. Making things even more complicated is the fact that McKenna’s project falls within Schoharie County’s empire zone, making it somewhat more likely to receive Restore NY funding. Yet at the same time, the Newberry Square building is an anchor building in a potentially resurgent downtown area, which makes it highly worthy of state grant money, perhaps more so than McKenna’s fitness complex. So we have two projects that are both deserving of state monies, but chances are, we’re only going to get one grant, if we get anything at all.

Setting aside McKenna's request for the village's exclusive support, the Cobleskill village board voted 3 to 2 to continue to pursue funding for the Newberry Square building. While McKenna's fitness center may be deserving of public monies, the Cobleskill village board made the right decision. Here’s why. The Restore NY program was created to bring back downtown areas. Rehabilitating an old building in a historic downtown is a much better fit for the Restore NY grant, both in spirit and in terms of the village's obligation to its own downtown business district. This doesn’t mean that communities can’t work together for the common good. In fact, rehabilitating Newberry Square does more for the common good of the region than McKenna’s project. But for the village board to abandon a grant proposal for a critical project in a struggling downtown would be a travesty.

We also have to ask if the proposed location for the fitness center is best for the region. Why use taxpayer money to build more sprawl? This is an especially critical question when there is a surplus of empty space in downtown Cobleskill that McKenna could expand into. In fact, wouldn’t McKenna’s relocation leave an existing building empty? Fact is, if McKenna tried, she could certainly find a suitable location in downtown Cobleskill. And if she did, I doubt she’d have much trouble getting the Cobleskill village board to endorse a grant proposal.

In the end, the Newberry Square grant doesn’t take away from McKenna’s chances of receiving a grant, except in the sense that the Newberry Square project seems to be more deserving. If in fact that is the case, Cobleskill village has every right and responsibility to pursue grant funding and no business whatsoever supporting another project in another town.

What to do with Newberry Square

All of us want to see the broken windows of the Newberry Square building replaced, and sooner rather than later. However, the building's owner Henry Ioannou claims that he just doesn't have the money. The windows were damaged by vandals last month and have remained boarded up ever since. Meanwhile Village codes enforcement officer Mike Piccolo has stayed on Mr. Ioannou's case, trying to get him to replace the $3,000 windows.

Ioannou maintains that the broken windows are a criminal matter and that for this reason he shouldn't have to pay to replace them until an investigation is completed. He does have a point; the person who is responsible for the damage is ultimately the one who should pay. However, this can happen whether or not Mr. Ioannou fixes the windows in the meantime. Naturally, this is what he should do.

Mr. Ioannou claims that he doesn't have money to fix the windows, that he barely has money for his utlity bills. More sympathetic, I could not be. However, instead of spending his scarce resources on an attorney fee, he ought to just pay to have his windows fixed. Something he's most likely going to have to do anyway.

Furthermore, why are all the commercial units vacant in this building? One has to wonder if maybe lowering the rent or maybe taking a more hands-on approach would attract and keep more commercial tenants in the old arcade-style building.

Clearly, allowing a community asset like this to sit vacant, with boarded up windows no less, is a travesty. Rather than a long, protracted legal battle between the Village and Mr. Ioannou, maybe something better can come out of this. Aren't there any civic-minded developers or groups that might step up and engage the community to find a better use for this historic building than to sit vacant covered in plywood for the forseeable future? If Ioannou is losing money operating the building, he should have no reason not to want to sell it, right?

There are a lot of opportunities for downtown redevelopment in an old arcade-style building such as this. I'd much rather see the discussion shift from how to get an absentee landlord to maintain the building to discussing various ideas for how the community should use this building. Henry Ioannou can do this as well, it doesn't matter who does it. Someone just have to be willing to put in the time and energy, and it may require a little something more than bottom-line thinking.