Lewis legislators set work sessions for rail, building discussions

LOWVILLE — Lewis County legislators plan to bookend this week with work sessions about two long-discussed, somewhat controversial projects.

Lawmakers plan to hold a committee meeting of the whole at 8:30 a.m. Monday to discuss the proposed purchase of a pair of rail lines connecting Lowville with West Carthage and Croghan. They will convene again at 9 a.m. Friday to discuss the possible construction of a new office building on outer Stowe Street.

Both meetings will be held in the second-floor chambers in the old county courthouse, North State Street.

“These things have lagged long enough,” said Legislature Chairman Jack T. Bush, R-Brantingham. “I want to bring them to the forefront. To let them sit there and do nothing is ridiculous, as far as I’m concerned.”

Legislators on Tuesday tabled until their March meeting three resolutions authorizing the purchase of the 10-mile Lowville and Beaver River Railroad line between Croghan and Lowville from the Mohawk, Adirondack and Northern Railroad Corp. for $425,000 and the 17-mile Lowville Industrial Track from Lowville to West Carthage for $1. The corporation, a subsidiary of Genesee Valley Transportation, Batavia, would remove tracks from the donated spur so it could be developed as a recreational trail, but the Lowville-to-Croghan spur would remain intact to allow the Railway Historical Society of Northern New York to possibly operate a scenic railroad from its depot in Croghan.

The intent of the delay, and Monday’s session, is to give legislators the chance to get questions answered and concerns about potential future costs addressed.

County officials would use a $450,000 state Environmental Protection Fund grant, awarded in 2010, to buy the rail lines and cover legal fees and other ancillary costs.

Acquisition of the lines would be contingent on county costs not exceeding $450,000 and federal Surface Transportation Board approval of “rail banking” the lines, making it easier to return them to use if the need for an operating railroad ever arose again.

As for the building project, county legislators in December 2010 authorized Bernier, Carr & Associates, Watertown, to design an $11 million, three-story office building — with an unfinished top floor dedicated solely to future needs — next to the Public Safety Building on outer Stowe Street.

Under that plan, most departments in leased offices, along with the Department of Social Services and dispatch center, would move into the new building. The mental health clinic would then move from leased space at the Lowville Commons on South State Street into the space vacated by DSS in the outer Stowe Street office building.

While most of the design work has been completed, lawmakers must still decide whether to move forward with the project and, if so, whether only a two-story building may be needed.

“Is this the right thing to do?” Mr. Bush said. “I don’t know, but we need to discuss it.”

By eliminating lease payments, projections suggest the new building would pay for itself in about 16 years, Mr. Bush said. The mental health clinic, which is being transferred to Transitional Living Services of Northern New York, may not need as much space as originally anticipated, meaning a third story on a new building might be excessive, he said.

The cost of renovations to the old outer Stowe Street office building has been estimated at $2.2 million, but the county was awarded a $928,038 state grant that would be applied toward those costs. That grant funding, earmarked to improve mental health facilities, will likely be lost if it is not used within the next year or two.

The county also has $833,266 in a capital reserve fund specified for a new building project, and the state would partially reimburse expenses for the DSS portion of the new building.