Published: October 31, 2009 12:36 am      

ELECTION: Political fire still burns for Ross

Niagara County Legislature Chairman Bill Ross, C-Wheatfield, said he’s got a few loose ends he’s looking forward to tying up.

That’s why, after 16 years of service as a county lawmaker, he wants voters to give him another chance to keep doing a job he enjoys.

Ross, who has served in the Legislature since 1987, said he believes his record shows that he’s got the experience and leadership qualities needed to help the county through what are expected to be some difficult financial times in the future.

“We’re going to have to be strong in order to work through some of the problems,” said Ross, who is facing a challenge in this year’s election from endorsed Democrat Robert Collins. “It’ll be a challenge and I like challenges.”

The two main items on his list of unfinished business are jobs and economic development. If re-elected, Ross said he plans to continue to work with the economic development officials to promote county assets in hopes of bringing more business to the area. He currently visits the county’s economic development office in Sanborn at least three times per week and said he intends to continue to push the department to investigate all leads in hopes of drawing as many investors in as possible.

“It’s not always going to be 1,500 jobs at a time,” he said. “It may only be 50 to 100 jobs, but that’s 50 to 100 people who are working and, hopefully, are going to be living in the county.”

Ross said he’s proud of his involvement in the county’s Empower Niagara program which allowed seven companies to obtain low-cost power through the county’s relicensing agreement with the New York Power Authority. Those allocations, he said, supported the creation of new jobs and the retention of existing ones.

As for the power authority itself, Ross promised that he will continue to make the power producing agency a focus if re-elected. He believes the county made the right decision in filing a lawsuit in an effort to rescind the transfer of more than $500 million in surplus authority funds to the state of New York.

“You are really taking it out of the pockets of the people here,” Ross said. “If it’s generated in Niagara County, why shouldn’t more of it stay here?”

He also promised to continue to push for the addition of a Niagara County resident to the authority’s board of trustees and said he believes the county’s actions are being noticed by the authority which was evidenced by CEO Richard Kessel’s visit to the Legislature earlier this year.

“I think we have to take a stand,” Ross said. “We certainly got NYPA’s attention.”

Collins did not return several telephone calls requesting an interview for this story.