Published: May 11, 2008 10:11 pm      

TOWN OF NIAGARA: Thanks but no thanks

Town of Niagara officials had a quick and pointed response Friday to the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority’s interest in taking a greater role in the redevelopment of the Army Reserve Center on Porter Road.

“They’re a transportation authority, not a development authority, they should stick to transportation in my opinion,” Supervisor Steven Richards said. “Their record of development is not very good.”

The Town of Niagara’s Local Redevelopment Authority has been formally assigned the task of finding the highest and best use for the 22-acre site which has been marked for closure by 2011 and declared as surplus property by the U.S. Department of Defense.

While a representative from the NFTA already sits on the redevelopment group, the authority would like to take a lead role in the process, Chairman Gregory Stamm said Thursday.

Stamm said the NFTA believes the parcel, which includes a 68,000-square-foot hangar and 13 other buildings, would fit in nicely with ongoing redevelopment efforts at Niagara Falls International Airport.

However, Richards said he has never been contacted by Stamm regarding the NFTA’s interest and said the authority has been attempting to wrestle control away from the town for the past two years.

“They would rather do that than have worked with us all this time,” Richards said, adding the NFTA’s representative to the redevelopment group has missed several key meetings in the past year.

NFTA Commissioner Henry Sloma had served on the board until he was replaced by Thomas Burton in February 2007, Richards said.

Town of Niagara Legislator Dan Sklarski tends to agree with Richards’ assessment.

Citing the NFTA’s long-term track record, he said a lot of issues need to be addressed with the site.

“It’s going to take time and we have to work with our federal partners,” Sklarski said. “We have to work with them before any one entity — even the Town of Niagara — takes action.”

Last August, the town hired professional consulting firm MRB Group of Rochester to establish a detailed study on the best ways to reuse the reserve center. That report is now being considered by Housing and Urban Development and Department of Defense and contained three scenarios, with the most prominent being a request for the land transferred to the town at no cost for future development possibilities.

Richards said he’s had conversations with a couple of “Fortune 500 companies” interested in developing at the site that had the potential of creating upwards of 300 jobs.

An $85,000 Department of Defense grant was awarded to the town as lead agency to conduct the redevelopment study, said former Niagara Falls City Administrator Daniel Bristol, who is serving as a consultant for the local redevelopment authority.

Like Richards, Bristol believes the NFTA is not equipped to take control of the process.

“They don’t know what the constituents of the town want,” Bristol said. “The town has five councilmen and a supervisor who are elected officials to serve the constituents.”

The NFTA would like to see an existing hangar on the site be used as an air cargo, Stamm said during his speech Thursday at the Niagara County Summit for Economic Success.

Richards said that use was considered, but deemed not appropriate.

“That facility isn’t set up for cargo,” he said, adding it also would only create a couple of jobs.

Though he doesn’t agree with the NFTA taking over the planning, Richards did say he would be willing to have further discussions with some of its board members, specifically Sloma, Carmen Granto and James Roscetti.

“I do believe those three individuals are paying a lot of attention to Niagara County’s interests,” Richards said.

Contact reporter Rick Forgioneat 282-2311, ext. 2257.