A plan to reopen the Maranatha Family Center in Warnerville stalled Tuesday morning.
Closed for two months for failing to pay and electric bill, Marantha is trying to bring in a new investor to battle mounting debt.
But the Richmondville Town Board wants to make sure its taxpayers are protected before the new deal moves ahead.
Maranatha owner Stella McKenna and the potential investor, Da-lai Wu, asked board members at Tuesday's meeting to seek a waiver from Empire State Development for Mr. Wu to come on board.
The waiver is necessary because of stipulations in a $2.3 million Restore New York grant Maranatha received. According to the terms, only Ms. McKenna can own the business for five years.
The waiver wasn't a hurdle at first on Tuesday, as Robin Alpaugh of Empire State Development said ESD would grant it.
But town attorney J.R.Parshall presented a list of nine "issues and concerns" he wanted Mr. Wu to resolve before the town requested the waiver.
Those concerns ranged from making sure other lenders agreed to the plan to paying long overdue bills and providing records necessary for documentation.
"It's quite a lengthy list," Mr. Parshall said.
Agreeing, Mr. Wu countered that the demands made the town area appear business-unfriendly.
Tuesday's special meeting could have been held six weeks ago, said Mr. Wu, adding he's been working on a plan for eight weeks.
"Debts have been piling up [over that time]," he said. "This cost us 90 grand."
"We didn't make you lose 90 grand," Mr. Parshall responded.
Ms. McKenna also added a plea for the town to act quickly, saying she could "only hang on for another week."
Although he said he'd work to resolve the nine concerns, Mr. Wu worried that future delays would hamper Maranatha's business.
"If I do business here, I need assurance that this isn't going to happen all the time," said Mr. Wu, who lives in New York City.
Supervisor Dick Lape said any developer would "have to go through the process"--planning and zoning--for a new project.
Addressing Mr. Wu, Councilman Bill Lancaster said the town was only protecting its interests with the list of concerns.
"You have done due diligence coming here," Mr. Lancaster said. "You wouldn't respect us if we didn't do due diligence."
Some in the audience criticized the Maranatha proposal, calling it another concession to a business that's already had many.
But Senator Jim Seward boiled the issue down to its simplest level:
"Everybody needs to take a deep breath," he said. "If nothing happens, this remains an empty building with unpaid bills.
"This [waiver] is simply a vehicle for another investor to come in and clean up these bills. It's almost irresponsible not to let this building reopen."