At last week’s Thursday, Sept. 11, Town Board meeting, Colonie Supervisor Paula Mahan announced the closing of the deal to sell the town’s portion of Heritage Park to Albany County for $2.7 million — a sale the administration has been anticipating for months.
While the sale of the park was in progress during the previous administration, Mahan has said that the proceeds will go toward paying off the town’s deficit, which was projected at $18 million by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
Thank you, everybody, for your hard work, the supervisor told a crowd of about 30 at the Town Board meeting, after asking if resident John `Jack` Tabner was present. Tabner was not at the meeting, but at the previous Town Board meeting, on Thursday, Aug. 28, and at several meetings prior, Tabner had asked the supervisor when the town would be receiving the check from Albany County. The supervisor had repeatedly told Tabner that the town was waiting on the money, amounting to $2.7 million.
Prior to the sale, half of Heritage Park was already owned by Albany County.
According to Kerri Battle, director of communications for County Executive Mike Breslin, the sale of Heritage Park is something Breslin has been committed to since former Supervisor Mary Brizzell was in office.
`When Supervisor Mahan took office, he continued to make arrangements with the town [for Heritage Park],` said Battle in May, when the town had initially announced its contract with the county for the sale.
At the time, Battle said, the half of Heritage Park the county had bought is only a portion of a larger section of land the county has plans to take over. Specifically, the county is planning to do a study of nearly 160 acres of land near the Albany International Airport, she said, and that the county does not yet know to what it will do with the land.
`The study is going to do an analysis and help us determine what the best use of the land would be,` she said.
The portion of Heritage Park that was sold only occupies 21 acres of the almost 160 being studied.
`At one point in time, there was consideration of it being the site for the county nursing home,` she said. `But the location of the nursing home really needed to be closer to transportation. That really is off the table now.`
Battle did not name any other specific considerations for the use of the land.
No residents voiced concern regarding the sale at a May 8 Town Board meeting when the contract was approved, and according to Battle, no major concerns have been raised in the past few years other than those against placing the nursing home in that location.
Town Attorney Michael Magguilli had originally set a goal to receive the $2.7 million from the county by June 30.
However, according to him, several steps needed to be taken before the sale was finalized.
First, he said, the contract needed to be approved. Then the supervisor needed to read the contract and sign it. Finally, the contract was forwarded to the county.
The town’s portion of the park is just one of many assets the supervisor said town officials are looking into selling off to earn money to help pay off the deficit. Other elements of the financial plan include a freeze on all non-essential spending and a one-time corrective tax, averaging at about $150 per household, which would be imposed once on all residents of the town.
At Thursday’s meeting, along with the announcement of the town’s receiving the money for the sale of the park, Mahan said the town has saved an additional $2 million since her administration took office in January.“