Legislature's minority caucus fights for road, drainage funding
by CHRISTOPHER GORDON Orchard Park Editor

Flanked by representatives from the towns of Concord, Evans, Newstead and Tonawanda, Republican Erie County Legislators John J. Mills, R-13th District; Michael H. Ranzenhofer, R-4th District; and Dr. Barry A. Weinstein, R-15th District, are seeking to have a fund established for the sole purpose of fixing roads, bridges and drainage in Erie County.

"We hope we will move our own caucus forward on roads, bridges and drainage," said Mills, the Erie County minority leader.

Mills said that what the trio is proposing is a local law to establish a $5 million minimum fund to address those problems for Erie County. He believes it is important to establish the fund to maintain infrastructure throughout the county.

Ranzenhofer called it a serious problem and believes that the county roads have become worse in recent years.

"They've fallen into a great state of disrepair," said Ranzenhofer. "Erie County has more roads than any other county in the state of New York."

One of the major problems that the county legislators have to deal with is that currently, there is no fund established for the purpose of road, bridge and drainage repair.

They have to draw money at times from such places as the transfer tax or Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program. These are calculated annually according to a formula specified by State Highway law.

The legislators said they want to work with villages, towns and Democratic Erie County legislators to improve roads throughout the county.

Mills has stated that he believes the roads throughout his district are the worst in the county. One of the roads they talked about is Zoar Valley Road in the town of Concord.

"Zoar Valley Road is a dangerous road to travel from start to finish, and it's a shame, because it's probably the most scenic road in all of Erie County," said Mills.

Dr. Weinstein noted that while Amherst does not have the same problems as Mills' district, he believes it is only a matter of time unless something is done to avoid problems.

"Hopkins Road, in the town of Amherst, gets worse every year. The road is sliding into the drainage ditch, and safe travel is down to one lane in one area," he said.

Ranzenhofer feels that it is time to stop sharing the sales tax revenue with towns and villages and focus on other county problems.

"We've given $12.5 million away from our sales tax (this year)," said Ranzenhofer, adding that $25 million has been given to towns and villages in the last two years.

Mills was critical of Erie County Executive Joel Giambra for wanting to issue a $250,000 study to explore whether town and village police departments should be rolled into the Erie County Sheriff's Department.

"We don't need any more studies in Erie County when roads are falling apart," said Mills. "You can tell a village or town road (from a county road). It's like night and day."

He extended an invitation to other legislators to take a drive with him throughout his district to see the repairs needed.

The minority leader said that currently, the county has $1.6 million to try and fix the roads. He added that it becomes more expensive because at the same time, drainage needs to be fixed or else it is just a quick fix that will need to be addressed again.

Mills said that Erie County Director of Engineering Charles Sickler told him it would take $20 to $30 million to fix all of the roads in Erie County.

Weinstein said that under the proposed local law, a list of prioritized roads would be made to figure out how to disperse the funding.

Roads are graded from one to nine, so roads with lower grades would be higher on the priority list.

As of right now, Mills said he has a total of six or seven legislators who support the proposal. He added that he believes that legislators representing the City of Buffalo need to be more supportive because they are representing all county residents.

"I'm optimistic," added Mills.

e-mail:cgordon@beenews.com