Published: May 14, 2008 12:42 am            

CITY OF TONAWANDA: Pilozzi pitches five-year plan

Mayor Ron Pilozzi’s five-year capital plan for the City of Tonawanda includes a myriad of projects from road repairs to replacing the Senior Center and expanding the Fire Department’s headquarters.

Some of the items in the $16 million plan, which was revealed during a public hearing last week, are nearing completion, such as the roadwork on Virginia and Benton streets. Others, however, are being proposed in the budgets over the next five years, provided there is funding available.

Identified in the program are $7.6 million in street work, $3 million in building improvements, $730,000 for parks and recreation. “If everything on this schedule happened, we’d run out of money real quick,” Pilozzi said Monday.

State and federal grants will be sought to finance the bulk of the projects, but there are some that could be placed on taxpayers’ backs if the mayor and the Common Council decide in the future that those projects are important enough to finance without grants.

“There’s a world of difference between a capital program and actually getting it into the budget,” Pilozzi said. “That’s where the rubber meets the road. The wish is no longer a wish; it’s a reality.”

The mayor worked with City Engineer Jason LaMonaco, City Administrator Don Witkowski and City Treasurer Joseph Hogenkamp to devise the plan. When it comes to road repairs, Tonawanda is lucky in that it is only three square miles, Pilozzi said. “We try to take advantage of our compactness, especially when it comes to streets,” he said.

A list of projects identified on the capital program includes a $400,000 repair job to the Two Mile Creek bridge, funding for which was secured by U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, but is being held up by the state, the mayor said.

Also included in the capital program are $450,000 to replace sewer lines on Maldiner and State streets; $130,000 in renovations to Ives Pond Park; $900,000 for a sewer line extension on Two Mile Creek Road; $500,000 to resurface Main Street; and more than $300,000 in various upgrades to City Hall.

The mayor’s “wish list” includes a $2 million expansion of the Tonawanda Fire Department headquarters on William Street and discussion of relocating the Senior Center. There is no money earmarked for either of those projects.

Pilozzi said he’s placing greater emphasis on improving the city’s infrastructure. Common Council President Carleton Zeisz said the proposal looks good. Ideally, he said he’d like to see more road and sidewalk repairs, “but we have to work with the money we have to that end.”

“The difficult thing with a capital plan is that there’s no money necessarily targeted for certain projects,” he said. “Oftentimes, the capital plan ends up becoming a wish list, just because of the city’s financial ability to pay for whatever might be in that plan.”

The Common Council is expected to adopt the mayor’s plan at its meeting next week.

Contact reporter David J. Hill at 693-1000, ext. 115.

        

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