Lewiston Town Board opts to continue with Nolan as relicensing consultant

Town announces golf course informational meeting

by Larry Austin
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, June 18, 2005

Following a late-night executive session Monday, the Lewiston Town Board voted to continue its relationship with a consulting attorney in the Power Authority relicensing issue.

The vote passed 4-1 with Councilman John Ceretto voting against the relationship.

“I didn’t vote for it because I did not have any documentation on this matter involving spending taxpayers money,” said Ceretto, adding he didn’t care for the idea of giving Town Supervisor Fred Newlin a blank check on this matter.

Of the late night vote he added, “I never even knew that this measure on extra spending was going to take place. It wasn’t on the agenda.”

$3,000 OK’d in April

At its April 11 meeting, the Town Board had authorized the spending of $3,000 to hire Michael Nolan, an energy attorney, to help represent Lewiston in the New York Power Authority’s relicensing before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Hiring Nolan gave the town legal standing apart from its involvement with the Niagara Power Coalition.

Back in April, Lewiston Town Supervisor Fred Newlin said: “Because the town has so many individual issues that it has to focus on that are apart from the Power Coalition, I think it behooves us to maintain our rights as an individual entity within the FERC relicensing.”

Monday night, the board opted to continue Nolan’s work at additional expense.

“Finally, we talked about the need to get somebody who’s got some expertise,” Newlin said of the executive session, which also included discussion of labor negotiations and the proposed Old Creek Development golf course. “Our attorneys are very capable, but they’re not experts in the federal energy relicensing process.”

$4,000 Bill and Growing

Nolan has charged the town just over $4,000 so far, Newlin said, adding that the town board budgeted $100,000 in its legal contingency fund last year with the eye toward the costs associated with both Power Authority re-licensing and labor negotiations.

“Dollars expended there pay dividends down the road,” Newlin said of legal representation in NYPA matters. “Just like the town board can’t put in a road without the experts called engineers, I think it’s a good idea that we have some persons as capable as Mr. Nolan trying to give us the best information he can about what’s going on with the FERC process.”

“I wish this was money they had spent 40 years ago when they got the first deal here, because we sure as heck didn’t get anything then,” Newlin said.

Still Ceretto had his reservations, saying, “I’m concerned on how we spend taxpayers’ money,” adding he was uneasy on approving this measure which allows Newlin to spend as much as $200,000 in town monies to retain Nolan.

“There are other ways for Lewiston to get its fair share of this agreement without spending taxpayers dollars,” Ceretto closed.

Langlois Stepping Down

Also at the meeting, Town Councilman D. James Langlois announced that he would not seek another term on the council in the November elections. The Republican is in the middle of his eighth year on the council.

“I would like to thank the many folks who have urged me to run for a third term on the Lewiston Town Board. However I have decided to help my community in other ways as well as spend more time visiting my children and grandchildren,” Langlois said. “They, like many of yours, have moved to different states to find good jobs.”

“My view on part time elected officials as stated when I first ran for office eight years ago is that they should be good stewards of taxpayer money, receive only modest compensation, serve for a limited period, and receive no costly lifetime benefits when they leave office. I have tried to follow that agenda,” he added.

“It’s a loss,” Newlin said, noting Langlois’ involvement in labor negotiations and meetings with the Niagara Power Coalition. “He’s been a terrific asset to me on the board and I think everybody has appreciated his efforts, and we’re going to miss him professionally and socially. I consider him a friend.”

Golf Course Update

In other news, the board reported that the town golf course committee would hear from Michael Dowd of Old Creek Development on new developments in the golf course project. The committee will meet at town hall at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 20.

“We’d like to do this because there are a lot of questions going on in the community” on this latest issue -- the private golf course proposed by the Senecas, said Ceretto, who serves as liaison to the Town Board on the golf course issue.

Last month, the town board canceled a planned golf course referendum and two informational meetings at Dowd’s request, Newlin said, so Dowd could pursue negotiations with private parties.

“The town board does not know any of the particulars of that proposal at this point,” Newlin said.

Projects Approved

Still more news finds the board approved bonding three different capital projects for infrastructure improvements at a cost of $1.4 million. Approximately $600,000 will go toward a water line project in the Hewitt-North Hewitt-Brookside Drive area; $600,000 will pay for general paving work; and $200,000 will go toward drainage improvements.

Richard Haight, a design engineer with Northwest Development Group, presented a proposal to the board for a 68-lot subdivision in an area east of Fifth Street. The development, called Oak Run Estates, would include single facility residential homes valued at an estimated $250,000.

Town attorney David Boniello reported that the town has installed 48 new Badger water meters in homes that had not allowed town water department employees to install the devices in their homes. The town’s code enforcement officer sent certified letters to the 125 homeowners giving them 30 days to comply.

Boniello said at a March 28 meeting of the board that the 125 homes were receiving estimated water bills. The town’s recent action has brought many bills current, and no residents have had their water shut off, Boniello said.

“So we’re approximately half way there,” Boniello said of the meter installation process.