Former Colecraft building to be put on the market

LANCASTER- With the Lancaster Town Board approving to build a new police station and court facility on Pavement Road instead of using the former Colecraft building, located at 3949 Walden Ave., to house police and court operations, the building is no longer needed by the town.

Purchased in 2003 by the town for $1.7 million, the Colecraft building will now be put on the market.

At Monday night’s meeting, the board unanimously voted to have the Colecraft building appraised in order to obtain the proper valuation of the property. The board hired Emminger Newton Pigeon Magyar Inc. at a cost of $2,200.

“I made it vocal before that I wanted to see the [building] sold at some point,” remarked Town of Lancaster Supervisor Dino Fudoli. “We don’t need it anymore. It is not going to be something simple, where we just sell it.”

The appraisal will take about three to four weeks, according to town officials.

“I think they’re going to speed it up because there has been some expressed interest in it,” commented Fudoli. “Three to four weeks is the high end and on the low end two to three weeks and they started last week. I would imagine by the next meeting we would have it.”

One issue raised by the board at a previous meeting was that there is some usage in the building, besides housing the detective bureau, which will be relocated to the new facility. The town and other entities such as the village and fire departments are using the building to store items.

“There is some storage needs being met that we’re going to have to figure out a plan for,” commented Fudoli. “I hate to say it but some of the stuff in there doesn’t belong to us and it is just sitting there and nobody is paying us rent for it. If we are going to build space we need to build it for the needs of the town. We can’t just go building space for every entity in town to put their stuff in.”

Fudoli added the town board will sit down with the different town department heads to figure out what their storage needs are, which will then determine what they plan to do. Building a new, smaller structure for storage could be a more efficient option for the town.

In other town news:

• A public hearing was held for a special use permit for NOCO Energy Corp. to have fueling assets to support both automotive and tractor trailer usage at 4221 Walden Ave. No one spoke on the matter and after the hearing; it was approved by the board.

• In July of 2009, the board approved a site plan for a 10,600 square foot medical office building, located at 5007-5009 Transit Road. One condition placed on the approval was for the installation of a driveway access road south of the site as part of the Transit Road Access Management Ordinance. The property manager of 5007 Transit Road, Gentle Dentistry, has attempted to honor this condition including attempting to connect their driveway with the property owner to the south who has refused to cooperate. The owner has requested that the board rescind this condition. The board agreed to a temporary rescission of the stipulation with three conditions. The waiver expires July 1, 2014 and must be renewed in writing to the board 90 days prior to expiration, and if there is a change of use of the building that will terminate this agreement.

• In the coming months, a vacancy will exist in the supervisor’s office due to the impending retirement of Lois Palano, senior account clerk. After submitting a letter to the Erie County Department of Personnel a list of duties to be performed by Palano’s replacement, the board was informed that the appropriate Civil Service job title for the person performing such duties is payroll supervisor. The board voted to create the position.

The next Town of Lancaster Board meeting will be held at 8 p.m. Monday, July 16, at the town hall, 21 Central Ave., Lancaster.