After settling longstanding issues during his first year in office, Rotterdam Town Supervisor Harry Buffardi says he is ready to delve into other looming concerns. The Rotterdam Town Board on Tuesday, Jan. 1, held its organizational meeting and unanimously approved more than 50 resolutions preparing the town for the year, including appointments and reappointments to various positions. Councilman Robert Godlewski was absent from the meeting. Before speedily adopting resolutions, Buffardi reflected on the administration’s accomplishments and goals for the coming year. Town officials for several years have discussed constructing a new Police Department and Justice Center, but a solution could be reached later this year, Buffardi said. “We need to pursue efforts to bring a new Police Department and Justice Center into the town to replace this very old, dilapidated building they are in now and bring them up to code and up to where they should be,” he said. The town is hoping to find a developer to construct the facility and then allow the town to lease it, so the town doesn’t have to finance the project itself and can spread out the cost, according to Buffardi. He said it would be similar to the long-term lease the county did for its Human Services Building on Broadway and Schenectady County Community College with Center City. “We are looking into those strategies right now,” Buffardi said. “We are looking at a couple different locations right now.” Buffardi declined to offer any further details on the project, because the town is still in negotiations. He said the town would determine if the cost will fit into its budget, but savings through implementation of the county’s Unified Central Dispatch in 2014 could be used to help finance the deal. The town was estimated to be saving around $160,000 annually through centralized dispatch. “Maybe we can apply those savings … without coming up with new money,” Buffardi said.
The town will also be negotiating a new contract with the police union this year.
Efforts to step up, or start, code enforcement will be another push this year.
“We have had a tremendous lack of code enforcement in the town,” Buffardi said. “We need to improve those efforts to bring our properties into compliance and make the town look better. It also could be a funding mechanism for code enforcement to bring in resources to the town.” Buffardi said the town has only done compliance enforcement seeking voluntary participation. The code enforcement officers haven’t written any citations because there aren’t any forms or appearance tickets, according to Buffardi. He said there has been “a degree” of voluntary compliance, but the properties that are “really bad” don’t comply. Buffardi said there are a few target areas for the town, but declined to offer specific details. “We didn’t have laws to cover many things,” Buffardi said. “It will help to clean up the town, but it will also bring revenue in through the enforcement effort.” To help spur economic development, Buffardi suggested rezoning several properties around I-88 and Exit 25A to suit commercial or office construction. “There are agriculturally-zoned properties there that are inefficient for housing, but would be efficient for economic development should we properly zone them,” Buffardi said, “so we are going to look into the process of proactively zoning them for economic development.” He said the area isn’t attractive for housing being located next to a highway, but business or office complexes could be developed. Another way to spur economic development, he said, is to focus on the Burdeck Street corridor, with the possibility of installing a sewer line through the area. Buffardi reflected on achievements from last year, such as settling the town’s legal battle with General Electric over its assessment. “It brought into an agreement 20 years, the past 10 and 10 going forward, a solid tax base with a specific rate that will bring budgeting efficiency to the County of Schenectady, the Town of Rotterdam and the Schalmont school district,” Buffardi said. “This consistency will allow us for planning and budgeting in the future. We also hope that this is a new era of a relationship with General Electric that will boost economic development.” Buffardi is also proposing that the town once again stay within the state mandated tax cap. The town’s adopted budget for this year increased the property tax levy by 1.4 percent while cutting back the use of savings.