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Town of Niagara: Residents air development concerns

Fri, Aug 21st 2015 10:50 am

By Mike Pidanick

The possibility of new neighbors in the Town of Niagara has some nearby residents concerns. Several Sweet Home Road residents spoke up at Tuesday's Town Board meeting about worries ranging from water to noise to taxes to traffic and even asbestos.

Although no official land sales have been submitted, rumors were rampant that vacant land behind Sweet Home Road could be filling soon. And, while residents are in favor of growth, there is some concern.

"We moved here for a reason," Sweet Home resident Bruce Kindle said during the privilege of the floor portion of Tuesday's meeting at Town Hall. "It's the lifestyle we want. It's a nice, quiet town. My hope is that the developments and the houses moving in don't cause problems with water and everything else."

Although the property has not been sold, town officials and residents expect a move to come in the near future involving a 31-acre strip that could soon host 60 new houses if speculation is accurate. Kindle was one of four residents to speak and the board stressed it takes the worries of neighboring residents very seriously.

"The only thing I can tell you is that we will make sure that whatever is done is done properly," town Supervisor Lee Wallace said. "We will do an environmental study ... but before we even get to that point, we have to have something come to us and say that this is going to happen."

Town Board members stressed to the community that the issue will be addressed at future meetings and encouraged concerned citizens to sign up to receive emails that will alert them when the topic is up for discussion.

In other business at Tuesday's meeting, the board voted unanimously to table an application of Covanta Environmental Solutions to operate a solid waste management facility at 8335-8337 Quarry Road. The board also unanimously decided to approve the establishment of Sewer Improvement 2015.

The board also OK'd the hiring of police officer Vanik Aloian, who previously served as an officer in Lewiston for four years, as well as the addition of April Jasper, James Villani, Keith Baker, Trevor Forget and Jacob Eschborn to the Niagara Active Fire Hose Co. They replace Cameron Miller, John Root, Shawn Jasper, Jr., Aaron Tirnado and Shawn Zimmerman.

Town Clerk Sylvia Virtuoso also took time to stress the importance of town residents returning dog registration cards. Since census cards went out, 136 new dogs have been licensed and town leaders are looking for more.

"The response has been great and there's a lot more out there," Virtuoso said. "If you know anyone with dog cards still out there, please do so. The main purpose of this is to ensure all the dogs in the town get their rabies vaccinations.

"It's very important. We had a lot of dog-bite incidents recently. A lot of the dogs weren't registered, so a lot of people are waiting in the emergency room with dog bites that don't know the rabies information."

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