Published: August 20, 2008 01:04 am            

NORTH TONAWANDA: Wal-Mart debate persists at council meeting

There are agenda items, and then there are the issues that dominate North Tonawanda Common Council meetings — in other words, Wal-Mart.

North Tonawanda First member Frank Budwey, whose group is opposed to Wal-Mart, left in a huff at Tuesday’s Common Council meeting after President Brett Sommer recited speaking protocol and didn’t allow Budwey’s son, speaking on behalf of the group, to use the remainder of a previous five-minute allowance.

“We’ve supported you guys and you can’t let him ask a question,” Budwey said. “Thank you North Tonawanda.”

Budwey has repeatedly requested information he says has not been provided him on the potential traffic impact from the proposed store, considered by planners as less than ideal.

In the last couple of months, he has suggested a site outside North Tonawanda as a substitute, asked for an economic impact study — which has been embraced by a handful of pro-Wal-Mart city officials — and grilled council members on the pending sale of Bluebird Drive.

Others spoke out against the retailer’s planned presence, which also has its supporters.

Tammy Godyn, spokeswoman for a group working to ensure that the almost exclusively pro-Wal-Mart Common Council and Mayor Larry Soos don’t somehow nix the project, also quizzed two members of the council who remain open to an economic study at Budwey’s expense.

Alderman-at-Large Catherine Schwandt and Second Ward Alderman Kevin Brick had expressed a willingness to have the study done. Sommer said at the last regular meeting that Budwey, who has offered to pay for the study, can have it done. Budwey is leery such a report wouldn’t be taken seriously.

“I’m not going to spend (the money) if I’m not going to be taken seriously,” Budwey said.

Godyn has repeatedly stressed a view that North Tonawanda residents who must travel a long way to buy consumer goods are in favor of the project.

“Please don’t let Mr. Budwey decide for the entire city what goes back there,” Godyn said.

In the midst of Tuesday’s ardent testimony by the three or four individuals who make up almost all of the citizenry’s input for and against the project, another issue resurfaced.

Noting the council’s resolution Tuesday to install a 90-foot strip of car wash apparatus at the Department of Public Works garage, resident Gordon Fritz questioned the status of $48,000 in taxes owed by Dr. Huggs, the Erie Avenue car wash used by the city since 1975 to wash police cars and other vehicles.

City Attorney Shawn Nickerson said they’ve paid it all back in advance of their last court appearance July 30, and the city hasn’t foreclosed on the property, despite speculation that it could have. The business, according to City Clerk Tom Jaccarino, is still open.

On the request of Police Chief Randy Szukala, Jaccarino said, police cars ceased to be washed there less than a year ago, although the decision was the result of claims of damage to the cars themselves, not the tax spat.

Nickerson said he’s unsure of the exact amount that was ordered paid, but told Fritz the matter has been settled.

The car wash equipment is slated to be installed at the DPW sometime this fall, and the bid will continue under Robson Woese Inc., of Amherst, for $19,000.

Also at Tuesday night’s meeting:

• Proof of publication of two legal notices in the Tonawanda News was provided by the office of City Engineer Dale Marshall. Photocopies of the notices pertain to the opening of bids to demolish eight boathouses on the Weatherbest slip near Bond Street, even as appeals to this year’s City Court order to demolish proceed; and, the opening of bids to contractors to pave Payne Avenue following the conclusion of a dual water main replacement project.

• Permission was granted to schedule a public hearing on a request by developer Kissling Interests L.L.C. to rezone the Remington-Rand building on Sweeney Street. Developers seek a slightly less restrictive C-2 classification despite a recommendation by planners last week to make the building C-1. The new designation would be less restrictive on the planned “entertainment” aspect of the commercially zoned property.

Contact reporter Neale Gulleyat 693-1000, ext. 114.

        

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