In reading the comments over at the D&C articles, (and people wonder why I don't enable commenting on here.....the morphing alone is business as usual - it was expected that the "crew" would morph as "vote no" people with the most ridiculous comments to make the "no" people look bad......like I said, so transparent that scotch tape is jealous......but, I digress.) I noticed that people keep bringing up Greece's leasing of a senior/community center while they studied other options.
And, that's true. They did lease. From a company in NY, in the Rochester area, not out of state. What is different, is that Greece never owned a building specifically for community/senior activities until the new one was built on town campus. Their "senior center" was in the old Town Hall on Ridge Rd. and in the basement of Bethany Presbyterian Church on Dewey Ave.
That wasn't working too well considering the increase in needs for services.
So, they decided to lease 8,150 SF at the West Ridge Community Center, 300 Chesterton Rd. for about $145,000 per year. That was in 1990 (I think).
It wasn't located in the "geographic center of town" though, and they leased space for the whole community to use....not just seniors. In other areas of the building, it also provided space for St. Joseph's Villa, BOCES II and a Montessori school.
So, Greece leased this space until the PLAN to build the new center at Town Hall campus was completed - PLANNED accordingly to be done when the lease for the West Ridge facility was up.
An old article from Greece Post tells the "goings on" then.
Why spend all that money and raise the property taxes of the residents to build a new senior center?
Kathryn Firkins, director of constituent services for Greece at the time explains:
"The town now spends $145,000 a year to lease the current community center space from Christa Construction, so owning a building would save the town money in the long term, she said."
What? OWNING A BUILDING SAVES THE TOWN MONEY IN THE LONG TERM!?!?!?!
No way!
Way.
Since Irondequoit already owns a building (Pinegrove), doesn't it make sense to put some money into this until you come up with a better plan than leasing at King$ Pork?
Especially since you can't guarantee that there will be CDBG funds to pay that lease with? The way the economy is, that federal money could go to bail out another bank or something..... and the way the State is cutting budgets......you can't rely on that money for the future.
Owning is better than leasing.
Putting money into a building that you own.....10 years down the road, you still have a building you own.
Putting millions into a lease.......10 years down the road, you have nothing but leased space, and landlords from MA are laughing all the way to the bank.
Might as well put those millions in a pile and burn it
