JAMESTOWN – Jamestown Mayor-elect Eddie Sundquist has put together a Transition Team and established a series of public input sessions as he prepares to launch his initial mayoral term on Jan. 1.

During a special announcement Friday morning at the National Comedy Center in downtown Jamestown, Sundquist was joined by several supporters and members of his transition team. According to Sundquist, his transition team is a voluntary committee designed to create a community conversation on his priorities, evaluate current city operations, and provide suggestions and recommendations for immediate and long term goals to help ensure a smooth transition from one administration to the next. He also said the team is non-partisan and includes representatives from a variety of community organizations and businesses will be broken down into four subcommittees.

Sundquist said the team will be focused on his top priorities for 2020:

• Creating a City for the Future;
• Strengthening Housing Initiatives and Supporting or Neighborhoods; and
• Tackling Financial Burdens.

“We are embracing openness as we focus on creating the Jamestown of the future,” Sundquist said. “To do that we will build on our strengths, work collaboratively with community partners, businesses, neighborhoods and employee groups. Community input is not only welcome, it is strongly encouraged. We hope to have a good turnout for these public meetings, and I am very pleased with the Transition Team that has been assembled.”

Economic and Business Development Subcommittee

• Rich Dixon, Chief Financial Officer with the County of Chautauqua Industrial Development Agency
• Greg Edwards, Chief Executive Officer of the Gebbie Foundation
• Tory Irgang, Executive Director of the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation
• Ricky Turner, President of Blackstone Advanced Technologies.

Housing and Public Safety Subcommittee

• Len Faulk, Professor Emeritus at SUNY Fredonia
• Rev. Luke Fodor, Rector at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
• Dr. Lillian Ney, former City Council Chair, and former Medical Director and VP of Medical Affairs and Cardiology at WCA Hospital
• Taylor Scott, real estate agent with ERA Team VP Realty.

Financial Stability Subcommittee

• Tom Benson, Managing Director of Vineyard Group, LLC
• Maria Kindberg, Dean of Arts Humanities, & Health Sciences at Jamestown Community College
• Todd Tranum, President and CEO of the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce and Executive Director of the Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier
• Kristy Zabrodsky, shareholder of Buffamante Whipple Buttafaro, P.C.

City Operations and Human Resources Subcommittee

• Andy Johnson, Senior HR Advisor at TitanX Engine Cooling
• Peggy Kaltenmeyer, owner of Forté the Restaurant
• George Panebianco, President of Lewis & Lewis
• Patrick Smeraldo, Teacher/Education Consultant at Jamestown Public Schools/Chautauqua Connections Inc.

Serving as Communications and Public Relations Liaison for the Transition Team is Sheila Webster, Director of Marketing, Communications, and Governmental Affairs for the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce.

Public meetings have been scheduled for December to get input and recommendations from the community. They will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. as follows:

• Economic and Business Development Subcommittee, Thursday, December 5, at Jefferson Middle School
• Housing and Public Safety Subcommittee, Tuesday , December 10, at Washington Middle School
• Financial Stability Subcommittee, Wednesday, December 11, at Persell Middle School
• City Operations and Human Resources Subcommittee, Tuesday, December 17, at Jamestown High School.

“The purpose of these sessions is to listen and to open a dialogue. Primarily, we are seeking input, recommendations, and comments relative to each subject area. This will provide the subcommittees with crucial information as they begin their evaluation process in early January,” Sundquist said. “The experience and diversity of backgrounds in this group is a great starting point. We not only welcome, but invite, all input from all residents of Jamestown.”

• MOBILE APP USERS: LISTEN HERE

Originally airing Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018.

WRFA Public Affairs Director Jason Sample talks with Mark Geise, CEO of the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency and Richard Dixon, CFO of the IDA, to share details on how the IDA functions and what it does to help with economic development in the county, as well as highlight some recent projects.

Mark Geise (left) and Richard Dixon from the Chautauqua County IDA

The Chautauqua County IDA board and staff during the February 27, 2018 board meeting in Jamestown.

JAMESTOWN – The County of Chautauqua Industrial Development Agency has approved tax break for a $16 million commercial development project in the north county.

On Tuesday morning the IDA board of directors unanimously approved a 20-year PILOT schedule with deviation for 320 Roberts Road Freezer, LLC.

The 80,000 sq. ft. project involves the construction of a cold storage warehouse for Fieldbrook Foods in Dunkirk for storage of its product before sending it out to market. Before building the new state-of-the-art freezer, another larger building on the site must be demolished with environmental abatement also necessary.

Specific details of the tax breaks include a PILOT agreement on property taxes over a 20 year period, which would entail total combined Payments in Lieu of Taxes of $2 million to the city of Dunkirk, Dunkirk School District and the county during that time period.  In addition, both the sales tax and mortgage taxes would be waived.

Because the project is being built on land that was previously owned by the county, IDA officials felt it was a no-brainer to move forward with the tax incentives in order to get the facility back on the tax rolls. During the deviation hearing, no municipalities appeared to speak on the matter, though IDA acting director Richard Dixon did tell the IDA board that the officials he spoke with were all in favor of the project and related PILOT agreement.

As for the economic impact, the project would bring in 150 short-term construction jobs and, once open, an additional 6 to 10 people would be employed to work inside the cold storage facility.

The Krog Group (Orchard Park, NY) is serving as the developer of the project, with the facility being turned over to Sonwil Distribution once completed. Sonwil will then lease the property to Fieldbrook Foods.

The entire project is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, the IDA board also met with officials from Memphis-based non profit Housing Preservation Inc. to learn more about its plan to purchase 200 housing units in Jamestown and Falconer from Lutheran.

The units are currently used to provide housing to low income seniors and according to officials with the organization, they would continue to serve those types of residents if they were to move forward with purchasing the property.

Lutheran is tax exempt but does make a payment to the city of Jamestown of about $13,000 to $15,000 a year and Housing Preservation said it would double that amount if it were to take control of the units. There was no indication if a similar arrangement would also be made for the units in Falconer.

Specifically, the locations are 8 and 9 Crane Street and 803 North Main Street in Jamestown and 430 East Avenue is in Falconer. Each location contains 12 to 46 units.

The group is seeking a Payment in Lieu of Tax (PILOT) agreement over a 29 year period.  The IDA board acted on a preliminary resolution involving the project to keep it moving forward. A deviation hearing on the agreement will take place next month prior to final authorization being acted on by the IDA board.

The Chautauqua County IDA board and staff during the Jan. 23, 2018 IDA board meeting. The county IDA, along with the county Department of Planning and Economic Development, has been without a director since Kevin Sanvidge’s retirement in December 2017. IDA CFO Richard Dixon has served as acting director since that time. 

MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello will be announcing the new economic development strategy for Chautauqua County today at 1 p.m. in Room 331 on the third floor of the Gerace Office Building in Mayville.

This announcement will include the appointment of new leadership for the Chautauqua County Department of Planning and Economic Development (CCDPED) and the County of Chautauqua Industrial Development Agency (CCIDA).

The county has been without an economic development director since Dec. 15 when former director Kevin Sanvidge retired from his post. Acting IDA Chief Financial Officer Richard Dixon was appointed as interim director and CEO for the county IDA since Dec. 21.

The Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency Board of Directors and staff during the monthly meeting on Feb. 28, 2017 in Jamestown.

NOTE: Updated March 2, 2017 to include a correction in the ninth graph on the scheduled PILOT agreement for NRG when the plant was mothballed, along with a quote from NRG Spokesman David Gaier, who provided WRFA with the correction.

JAMESTOWN – The Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency met on Tuesday and gave its approval to a renegotiated tax abatement agreement for the NRG power plant in Dunkirk.

Under the revised agreement, NRG – which was the largest tax payer in the county before the power plant was mothballed in 2015 – will make a total annual payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) of $420,000, which will be split between the county, the Dunkirk School District, and the city of Dunkirk. That payment will continue for the next two to three years, depending on when the power plant repowering project – which involves converting the facility from a coal burning one to natural gas – will be completed.

Chautauqua County IDA Finance Director Richard Dixon said the renegotiation was needed to accommodate for the time it will take for the power plant to resume operation, but once it’s running, they original PILOT schedule will resume.

“It’s going to be a great project, repowering and moving forward,” Dixon said. “As we discussed, it’s going from 530 megawatts to 450, but they’re still going to make their full PILOT payments that they promised to make once the facility is up and running, so it’s a win-win for everybody.”

NRG Power Plant in Dunkirk

A public hearing on the renegotiation took place last week in Dunkirk, with some residents voicing concern that the city was not invited to be part of the renegotiation process and also were disappointed that the NRG plant will not have as many employees working once the conversation is complete. As with most tax abatement deals, the number of employees a project will yield is one of the factors typically considered.

However, North County Legislator and IDA board member George Borrello (R-Irving) said that all parties were represented in the process.

“All the stakeholders, the taxing entities, were a part of this process,” Borrello said. “And when you think of where we were a year ago, when repowering wasn’t even on the table at that point, to where we are now with the lawsuit behind us and NRG ready to move forward, this is a huge step in the right direction and I think that is an important point. The bottom line is this PILOT agreement gets them to agree to pay at a higher rate, even though they are not going to be producing as much electricity, is a huge boon and a big win for Dunkirk, the North County, the School District, and everyone else involved.”

Once the power plant is back on line, NRG will again follow the original PILOT schedule that was agreed to in 2008, which goes up to over $10 million in the last year, despite a power capacity reduction from 530 megawatts to 450 megawatts.

The renegotiated PILOT payment is still about 85 percent less than what would have been paid had the NRG plant not been mothballed by the company. According to NRG spokesman David Gaier, the company actually had the option to not make any PILOT, but still opted to move forward with a payment.

“To provide some tax relief and certainty at this time, we’ve agreed to pay $420,000 annually until the first Dunkirk unit returns to service on natural gas. In addition, NRG paid $13.9 million more than we were required to – purely out of goodwill to the community rather than obligation – for tax years 2014 and 2015,” Gaier told WRFA, adding, “NRG continues to work on advancing the Dunkirk natural gas project, assuming that all other stakeholders continue to meet their previous commitments to the project.”

The loss in revenue due to the mothballing of the facility and also during the time it will take to convert the plant and get it back online will likely be offset by state mitigation aid, which Sen. Cathy Young and Assemblyman Andy Goodell have both said they are committed to bringing to Dunkirk in the upcoming state budget.

In other news, the IDA Board also approved an amendment to the subordination agreement with the Stannard Group, which involves changing financial positioning in regard to where the IDA falls in line when it comes to the group repaying on an Al Tech loan.

The IDA board also approved the creation of a Transactions Committee, which will allow the IDA to move forward with preliminary actions without the need to meet as a full board. The committee will be comprised of the board chair, the executive director, the finance director, and the project manager.

And the board approved a preliminary resolution to begin the process of negotiating a tax abatement deal with Great Lakes Cold Storage, as an incentive to get the company to build a 110,000 square-foot storage freezer warehouse at a location in Dunkirk to help assist the Fieldbrook Foods plant. Officials say if the warehouse is built, 27 new jobs would be created and there cold also be the potential for a 100,000 square-foot expansion. However, the company is also considering building a warehouse at a location in Pennsylvania, so officials want to move forward with drawing up a proposal and seeing if it will be enough to convince the company to build in Chautauqua County.

The board is expected to consider the proposed PILOT agreement for Great Lakes Storage during the March board meeting, which will also be when the full board reviews the 2016 audit.

• LISTEN TO MEDIA INTERVIEW WITH MAYOR TERESI AND DEJOY

Monday night was the culmination of nearly three weeks of preparation for DeJoy, who was announced as Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi’s selection to be the next development director. Speaking with reporters, DeJoy said Monday was his first day on the Job and he’s ready to hit the ground running.

“I spent the morning trying to get to know what [the staff] is working on and what they do. I’ve been thoroughly briefed in the past as to what projects they are working on, so I had my opportunities to ask some questions on it and what their priorities are and how they are tackling their many challenges to work through each day,” DeJoy said, adding, “I think the relationship has started off wonderfully between myself and the staff and I’m very excited to be working with some very talented and extremely experienced people.”

When DeJoy was announced as the mayor’s choice as the new city development director, he pledged to usher in a new era of collaboration in the city. Last night, DeJoy said he already has reached out to some of the local agencies and organizations in the area and will continue to do so in the coming weeks and months.

“I think some of our economic development partners, such as with the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation – Mr. Lombardi and his staff. Also as the mayor mentioned, I met today with the Empire State Development Corporation. I’ve had several meetings so far with [Chautauqua County] IDA members Mr. (Rich) Dixon and Mr. (Bill) Daly and I met with County Executive (Greg) Edwards. I am just so excited because they’ve been enthusiastic. They know me and I think they know that I am very sincere and passionate about Jamestown and Chautauqua County.”

The position of city development director is an unpaid position in Jamestown government. However, the director of development has also traditionally been the same individual who serves as Secretary of the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency – which is a paid position. DeJoy was already approved to be the next secretary of the agency during a meeting on Feb. 7.

DeJoy will replace former city Development Director Steve Centi, who announced his retirement at the beginning of the new year.

The Jamestown City Council voted 7 to 1 in favor of accepting the appointment of DeJoy as city Development Director, with councilwoman Kim Ecklund (R-At Large) voting against it.