LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - MARCH 4, 2018 Having An UPCOMING EVENT? Need A Place TO HAVE IT? American Legion Post 576 53 West Main St., Le Roy, NY 585-768-2090 CLIP & SAVE CLIP & SAVE Inside - 2 Rooms Available Outside - Large Pavilion eow SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ADVERTISERS! They help sponsor the local news section of the Le Roy Pennysaver. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! Around Town Providing full funeral and cremation services. 111 Wolcott Street, LeRoy, NY 14482 (585) 768-6800 www.leroyfuneralhome.com cameronfuneralhome@yahoo.com Jeff Deragon Funeral Director/Owner Save the Date! Le Roy Rotary Interact Presents Le Roy Knights Alumni Basketball Game March 16 at the Le Roy Junior/Senior High School Women’s Game Starts at 6:00 pm Men’s Game Starts at 7:00 pm Open to the Public, tickets $2 at the door Be sure to check next weeks edition of the Le Roy Pennysaver for the full roster. by Stephen Barbeau Supervisor, Town of LeRoy (585) 768-6190 x 231 At our last board meeting of February, the Town Board passed, in concert with the Vil- lage Board, what I believe will be the single most important lo- cal law to assist our community in the last several decades- Va- cant Building Registry of Le- Roy, NY. It is our belief that vacant buildings are unsightly, unsafe, and have a negative effect on the community. In fact, state and federal leaders from both sides of the aisle have made public statements to that effect. At a re- cent conference I attended, Sen- ator Schumer stated, “one junky house on the street ruins the en- tire street.” Congressman Chris Collins and I have discussed similar issues. Further, many buildings, once vacant, remain that way for many years, putting a strain on code enforcement to continuously inspect for safety and security and trying to con- tact the owner to “clean things up.” The purpose for this law is to establish a program for iden- tifying and registering vacant buildings locally, to set forth the responsibilities of owners of va- cant buildings, and to speed the rehabilitation (or demolition) of vacant buildings. It is important to understand that NOTHING in this registry is intended to require registra- tion for an unoccupied property which both meets code and is determined to be temporarily or seasonally vacant. It does NOT impact someone who is a “snow-bird” or the estate of someone who has recently passed away. Further, the goal is to have these continuously va- cant buildings sold, rehabbed, or demolished prior to actually in- curring fees. As to the fees, they are established to reimburse our code enforcement office for the additional duties placed on them for inspections to minimize the negative impact on the neigh- borhood. After an initial $50 fee to register a vacant building, the Code Enforcement Officer will work with the owner to submit a vacant building plan going forward to determine the future of the property. Failure to work with the Code Enforcement Of- ficer on such a plan, or the build- ing remaining vacant, will result in an annual vacant building fee based on a schedule adopted by the town and village. Currently, such fees begin at $1,000 per year (depending on the size of the building) and increase an- nually. If the owner fails to pay such fees, they will be levied on their tax bill, including a $250 penalty for failure to pay. Once the local law is reg- istered with the NYS Dept. of State (usually a couple of weeks), it will become effec- tive. Notices will then be sent to owners of such properties. Of course, there are many more details to this than I have been able to outline above. Howev- er, the town and village are re- ally serious about trying to do something about these negative properties that we have walked/ driven by for many years. We trust that both residents of the village and town outside will view this as a positive at- tempt to improve conditions in their neighborhoods/roads and I look forward to seeing you Around Town.