Geneseo
Town Council race: Tenalio vs. Millard
Foundation
establishes Main Street Gallery
Town
hesitates on April Meadows tax break
Gang
assault on Main Street
Cedarwood
Estates finally starts construction
Gateway
construction nears completion
Joint
village and town office proposals slow to emerge
Town
Council race: Tenalio vs. Millard
One
of the few closely watched and hotly contested town council races
in the November election was in the Town of Geneseo, where two
newcomers, Republican Mike Tenalio and Democrat Mike Millard,
vied for the seat vacated by former councilman Bob Moses. In the
wake of Wes Kennison's 1999 election to the post of supervisor,
a Millard victory would have given Democrats a majority on the
Geneseo town board.
Millard works for Merrill Lynch and is a
GEVA director in Rochester. Tenalio works for Kodak and, having
recently located to Geneseo, is a former mayor of the Village
of Livonia.
Election day saw Tenalio victorious in a 1,239 to
1,026 vote. By a prearranged understanding of the town board,
Tenalio was immediately appointed to fill the Moses vacancy.
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Foundation
establishes Main Street Gallery
In
May the Geneseo Foundation proposed purchase of the three story
home at 26 Main Street for conversion to a public art gallery.
As envisioned by the foundation, the galley would house the ever
growing SUNY Geneseo art collection, most of which had not been
displayed for lack of space. The galley would also serve as a
public exhibition center for all types of art, as well as a resource
center for students.
The proposal was well received throughout
the Geneseo community—especially since the likely alternate fate
for the grand old home would be conversion to student rental apartments.
The house had a noteworthy history, having been built by President
John Tyler's son-in-law William Spencer, later occupied by Benjamin
Angel, an American consulate, then Angel's grandson James Gerard,
U.S. Ambassador to Germany in World War I. Subsequent owners were
Antonio D'Aprile, Dr. C.M. Fero, and Col. Robert McMillan. From
1950 until 1984 the house served as parish center for St. Mary's
Church. Recent owners were Marilyn Hanson and Robert Gallo.
Jim
Brunner, a well known opponent of college expansionism beyond
campus limits, did suggest that the home ought not to be removed
from the local property tax rolls, since, even though college-owned,
it had potential to produce commercial income.
Brunner's objections
were overruled by the Village of Geneseo Zoning Board of Appeals
in a June 6 decision, which granted special use status to the
structure.
The formal opening of the gallery took place in October
with an exhibit which featured the works of 25 members of the
Genesee Valley Council on the Arts.
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Town
hesitates on April Meadows tax break
In
April, Housing Opportunities commenced construction of a 24-unit
affordable income townhouse complex at 3 Megan Drive in the Village
of Geneseo. The project would mostly serve families with children
and low-to-moderate incomes.
The project had the general support
of village government, as well as endorsement from Livingston
County Catholic Charities.
Controversy arose, however, when,
as the project neared completion in August, the Geneseo Town Board
balked at granting a tax exemption. Housing Opportunities had
anticipated receiving the equivalent of exemptions provided over
the past three years to two other projects, the senior citizen
Fox Run apartments and the medium-to-high income Morgan Estates.
These abatements have a ten year diminishing exemption starting
at 50 percent and reaching zero at year eleven.
(As happened
with the Avon-on-the-Green project, the developer had made the
mistake of failing to secure an exemption agreement with the appropriate
town government entity before construction commenced.)
April
Meadows had a November dedication ceremony and is now fully occupied
by tenants. Over the past four months Housing Opportunities representative
Julie Everitt has been courting the Geneseo Town Board, which
remains undecided about the exemption. Everitt's strongest arguments
for getting the exemption appear to be the precedent set by the
Fox Run and Morgan exemptions, and the fact that 75 percent of
April Meadows tenants resided or worked in Geneseo before moving
into the project.
Town Supervisor Wes Kennison has promised that
the board will make its decision early in 2001.
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Gang
assault on Main Street
In
an unusual gang-related racial hate crime, seven Dansville men
faced charges of aggravated harassment, disorderly conduct and
felony gang assault in an attack against Aric Lee, age 24 of Geneseo.
The incident occurred at Club 41 on Main Street on the evening
of June 25. The defendants, all in their early twenties, were
Shawn Schledorn, Daniel Renwand, Justin McKinney, Joshua Penta,
Jacob Sharp and Jeremy and Adam Tuso. Lee testified he was confronted
by the boisterous group who were at the Club 41 bar while he was
leaving the restroom. A racial slur was used, words were said
and Lee suddenly found himself being beaten, he alleged, by at
least six of the gang. Two individuals, including Kevin Meyers,
intervened to stop the fighting and lead Lee out of the club.
Geneseo Police initially arrested the seven on only the harassment
and disorderly charges. The assualt charge was filed after police
learned that Lee had suffered a fractured arm during the attack.
In Septeber, defendant Jeremy Tuso died in a head-on vehicle collison.
The remaining defendants await trial.
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Cedarwood
Estates finally starts construction
Frustrated
with two years' lack of any construction activity at the Lima
Road site of the promised “Cedarwood Estates' subdivision, in
January the Geneseo Village Board issued an ultimatum to partners
Fred Holub and Matthew Geherin: get construction started or remove
your sales office trailer from the site!
With promises from the
partners, construction materials were soon delivered to an excavated
foundation site. But when construction still did not start and
a letter of credit failed to materialize, the board made good
its threat, ordering removal of the trailer.
The trailer was
removed in May, creating some hardship for the builders, but—to
the surprise of some of the village trustees who had been suspicious
of the partners' credentials—a $328,000 letter of credit was eventually
forthcoming. During the summer, actual construction of the home
commenced.
Currently, the project has received necessary DEC
approvals for street and sewer construction—and the house is externally
complete.
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Gateway
construction nears completion
When
the new administration of Geneseo Town Supervisor Wes Kennison
took office in January, among the inherited matters of business
was the Gateway Park: 220 acres of land between Route 20A and
Lima Road slated for planned residential, commercial and industrial
development, and to be served by new highway and utility infrastructure.
Complimenting a $60,000 investment in planning made by the former
Harold Stewart administration during the previous five years,
the Gateway construction was also to be subsidized by $1.5 million
in Livingston County sales tax industrial funding.
The Gateway
stood in contrast to its privately developed counterpart, Morgan
Way, on the opposite side of Route 20A. Morgan developers Bill
and Peter Bruckel had been vigorous advocates of Kennison's candidacy
in the November, 1999 election which saw Kennison victorious over
Stewart.
Kennison nevertheless promised that Stewart's pet Gateway
project would not be orphaned under his administration. On April
6 the Geneseo Town Board awarded bids for Gateway Construction,
with Ramsey being named as general contractor.
Supervisor Kennison
invited former supervisor Stewart to move the first shovel-full
of earth at the May 19 groundbreaking. Construction of the new
road proceeded steadily all summer and autumn.
By December, the
Gateway was virtually complete, but faced several unexpected construction
glitches connected with gas line relocation and DOT authorization,
so the planned December opening will be delayed until spring.
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Joint
village and town office proposals slow to emerge
The
ascension of Wes Kennison to the position of Geneseo Town supervisor
promised to usher in a new era of cooperation between village
and town—especially in matters pertaining to the proposed joint
office expansion in which former town supervisor Harold Stewart
and village Mayor Richard Hatheway often disagreed.
Under Kennison,
Stewart's planned purchase of the Hicks Funeral Home building
at a reported $450,000 was initially postponed and then entirely
abandoned. Town-village consultants Clark Patterson engineers
discouraged the Stewart plan, which was to simply move town government
into the Funeral Home.
Hatheway and Kennison encouraged the joint
Building Committee to pursue the concept of the Hicks building
purchase and demolition, and construction of a large village-town
annex to the Geneseo Building occupying the former funeral home
site. There was an attractive architect's rendering of the proposed
complex—and a $5.4 million estimated pricetag.
Although the price
was subsequently toned down to $4.6 million, the
resulting "sticker
shock" for this and other options would put the project on hold
for several months. In May the Building Committee was still examining
four building options and had expended $27,000 to date on consulting
and architectural fees.
Option One would put an addition on the
rear of the Geneseo Building and utilize all three levels for
government functions at $4.4 million. Option Two was the favored
one at $4.6 million, entailing the Hicks purchase and demolition.
Option Three would put police and courts in a new building at
Kelsey Field for $4.5 million. Option Four would build a completely
new, large facility on Wadsworth Homestead property for $5.1 million.
In September, Mayor Hatheway insisted that the office project
“be moved off dead center.” In a new round of frantic Building
Committee activity, yet another proposal emerged. The Geneseo
Building would be internally revamped and expanded with a three
story addition filling the narrow alley which is shared with the
funeral home. This latest, favored proposal was admittedly “a
compromise.”
It is likely that town and village voters will have
a referendum opportunity to accept or reject the Ôalley proposal'
in 2001.
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