Travel agency, sheet metal fabrication, storage units, farm labor camps all OK’d

ALBION – Several business projects have the backing of the Orleans County Planning Board for wide-ranging initiatives throughout the county.

The following projects were approved Thursday at the Planning Board meeting:

Matthew Pask wants to operate a travel agency out of his home at 12236 Maple Ridge Rd., in Shelby. Pask said he will use about 400 square feet of his house for the business, Next Adventure Travel Agency. He plans to have office hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Charles Breuilly of Albion is working to build four rental storage buildings at the southwest corner of Allen Road and Route 98 in Albion. Planners recommended the village of Albion Zoning Board of Appeals approve variances for setbacks to allow the project.

Rick Stacey, owner of RS Automation on Route 98 in Albion, is working to expand the business at 4015 Oak Orchard Rd. He intends to build a 56-by-64-foot accessory/storage structure for raw materials that RS Automation will use for its custom metal projects.

The company also is planning a 50-by-75-foot addition to its existing building to increase its production capabilities.

Aaron Albone of 1273 Marshall Rd., Lyndonville, plans to sell steel from his home, which is in a rural/agricultural district.

Leonard Auker is planning a sheet metal fabrication business in Carlton at 12667 Roosevelt Highway. Shoreline Sheetmetal will operate on Tuesdays through Saturdays in a detached 24-by-32-foot barn.

Kast Farms wants to add four manufactured housing units, with a capacity of eight people in each building, at 2824 Densmore Rd. The housing in the town of Gaines will be used for farm workers.

Oded Kalir of Brockport also is working to add farmworker housing in Gaines at 13105  Eagle Harbor-Knowlesville Rd. Kalir wants to convert an existing single-family house into farmworker housing. The house currently isn’t in an agricultural district but Kalir has applied to have it added to County Agricultural District No. 3.

Photo by Tom Rivers – The most recent community-wide reassessment in the village of Albion cut almost $3 million in the village’s overall tax base, a 2 percent drop that was the biggest decline in the county.

It’s time to launch a “Save The Villages” campaign, and in this case I mean the real villages of Orleans County – Albion, Holley, Lyndonville and Medina.

The village neighborhoods in Orleans County are in trouble. The numbers paint a grim picture.

Every three years the towns in Orleans County reassess all properties. This generally results in a 5 to 8 percent growth in the tax base over three years, as prices are adjusted to reflect the market values, said Dawn Allen, the county’s real property tax service director.

I’ve been a reporter out here for 17 years now. The data came out last month and this is the first time I can recall a reassessment leading to a decline in the values for several of our communities. The villages, in particular, are suffering. Overall, the county grew about 1 percent.

All four had their housing values drop, with Albion showing a 1.9 percent drop or a decline of $2.65 million in overall property value. That shrinks the tax base for the property owners to pay for government services, likely pushing up the tax rate. The Village Board in April approved a budget that raised the tax rate 3.0 percent or 49 cents per $1,000 of assessed property. It increased from $16.37 to $16.86.

Lyndonville’s tax base is also down by 1.2 percent, a decline from $28.90 million to $28.55 million.

The other villages in Orleans – Holley and Medina – have witnessed shrinking values in recent years. Medina for example dropped $658,131 in an off reassessment year in 2012. Holley fell $653,185 for its most recent fiscal year.

The new reassessments, which go in effect for the villages’ budget for next year, actually show overall gains for Holley and Medina due to big properties coming on the tax rolls.

Medina Memorial Hospital sold Orchard Manor for $4.1 million, putting a tax exempt property back on the tax rolls. That helped Medina stave off a decline in latest reassment. It made up for a $2.15 million drop in the other values in Medina.

Holley also would have showed a negative number but the Holley Cold Storage was put back on the tax rolls at a $1,760,730 assessment. The company had been off the tax rolls and paying local governments in a payment in lieu of taxes plan.

Allen watches the real estate market in the villages with worry. She sees homes that used to sell for $60,000 to $80,000 sometimes go for $20,000.

She said denser populated areas, whether cities or villages, are struggling in other communities in upstate New York.

“All of the villages are in bad shape,” she said. “It’s not just Orleans County.”

She thinks the high taxes in the villages are a culprit in the assessment plunge. Medina Mayor Andrew Meier agrees. He has believes the tax structure unfairly punishes villages property owners, who are double and triple taxed for many services.

He advocates for consolidating the village of Medina into the towns of Ridgeway and Shelby, so there isn’t such a disparity in the tax rates between the village and residents who live in the country.

Village residents pay about $12 more per $1,000 in their combined tax rates, compared to residents outside the village in Shelby and Ridgeway. For an $85,000 house, that’s $1,000 more in taxes annually if you live in the village. It’s a similar phenomenon for village residents in Albion and Holley who pay far more in taxes than their country counterparts.

Meier has sought exemptions from the towns in highway plowing for village residents, who already pay for village taxes for plowing. The outside-village residents don’t pay towards Medina’s plowing, police, and other costs. Yet, the village residents pay in the village and then in the town.

Meier thinks the villages with police department should get a discount in their county taxes because they are sparing the county that expense.

He also said the county should change the way it shares sales tax and mortgage tax with the villages, in particular, so they have more money to offset property taxes. Otherwise, he fears the values will continue to fall in the villages, forcing the tax rate to go higher, which will only hasten the decline of those communities.

I’m solidly in Meier’s corner on this one, and I wish more village officials would sound the alarm. I’d like to see the town and county governments not be so stingy while the villages are drowning.

I live in the village of Albion. I think the DPW, police and other village government workers have done a fine job keeping this community together. But I don’t think it’s right the village bears nearly the full cost of Mount Albion Cemetery, the parks program and so many other services that are used by outside-village residents.

The county often complains about the state freezing reimbursements, but the county hasn’t increased the local sales tax share to the villages or towns in more than a decade. The county keeps more than 90 percent of the sales. Genesee County does a 50-50 split with its municipalities.

Orleans County has benefitted from a surge in sales tax in the past decade – mainly due to rising gas prices – and that has helped the county stay under the tax cap. But the villages don’t have the luxury of added sales tax. It can only raise taxes or cut services.

I’ll have more on this formula in another article, and I’ll try to make the case why it needs to be changed, why it’s imperative the county share a little more with the local municipalities.

The new reassessments show trouble signs in other communities as well. The lakefront communities, which people may perceive as being home to the most prosperous residents, are seeing declines in values. Kendall and Yates both dropped. Carlton froze its values after an uproar from the community over many properties with big increases. The town’s overall value did go up to reflect some building projects.

“The economy is affecting the lakefront towns,” Allen said. “There isn’t the demand for the second homes anymore.”

State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation – The Oak Orchard Marine State Park, a boat launch with bathrooms on the west side of the Oak Orchard River, has been run by the county since the state threatened to close it in 2010, citing a budget crunch in the parks department.

CARLTON Three years ago, then-Gov. David Paterson took the budget ax to 41 parks and 14 historic sites under state ownership, shutting them down.

The Oak Orchard Marine State Park, a boat launch and bathrooms on the west side of the Oak Orchard River was targeted to be closed by the state.

Orleans County officials wouldn’t let that happen. They worked out a deal to keep the site on Archibald Road open, paying to mow the lawn, clean the bathrooms and look after the property.

County officials estimated there are about 7,000 boat launches from the site each year. The county has continued as the site’s caretaker since then, spending about $10,000 to $20,000 a year to keep the boat launch open and the bathrooms clean.

The willingness to assume keep the state site open shows the county’s commitment to the fishing industry, its top tourism attraction, which generates about $12 million in spending a year. A chunk of that goes to the state in sales tax revenue and fishing license fees.

The state’s budget crisis has passed and I think it’s time for the state to resume operations of this site.

I’ve been told a deal is in the works. It may include an automated machine that would allow the state to collect money every time a boat is launched. The county has been letting people use it for free, not wanting to pay someone to man a booth to collect a boat launch fee.

I give the county lots of credit for stepping up in this situation. Now, the state should take care of its own property, or at least cover the county’s costs.