Not one dollar.
Not one dime.
With that made clear, supervisors Friday agreed to sign a letter of intent with developers CSD Housing—a first step in studying what it would take to turn the old jail into affordable and supportive housing.
Only Fulton Supervisor Phil Skowfoe voted against the measure, concerned “when all is said and done, the county won’t get a dime. We’re just giving it away.”
Better than continuing to throw good money after bad--$100,000 a year just to keep the old jail—vacant since Hurricane Irene—from collapsing in on itself, other supervisors said—plus it needs a new roof.
They could sign the LOI, said an angry Earlin Rosa, chair of the Homeless Committee, “or we could lose a developer over a building that’s derelict, not on the tax rolls, and continues to cost us money.”
Supervisors held off on signing the LOI in March, concerned over exactly what it means, but Mr. Rosa said Friday he’s been assured by County Attorney Mike West that “it’s not a binding contract, but a hurdle for CSD to get over to start getting together their funding.”
Mr. Rosa said Mr. West also assured him that there’s on problem adding a “bullet” to the LOI that the possible project “will never cost the county a penny.”
CSD is the developer behind Friendship Lodge in Johnstown and Holland Circle in Amsterdam, both similar projects to what is being discussed locally.
By her reading of the LOI, Gilboa Supervisor Alicia Terry said CSD’s “due diligence”—steps that include site plan approval, an appraisal and market study, and getting their funding in place—could take up to four years.
She’s concerned, she said, over a gentlemen’s agreement that has had the county paying the Village of Schoharie for water and sewer since Hurricane Irene under a long-outdated formula that’s costing “well over $100,000 a year,” calling for them to renegotiate that agreement and lower those costs.
Several supervisors—including Broome’s Steve Weinhofer, who chairs the Buildings & Grounds Committee, agreed—but said it’s a different topic.