Village Board, mayor clash over playground grant
by ELIZABETH TAUFA Reporter

The Village of Williamsville has not received a grant that would purchase and pay for the installation of a new big toy in Garrison Park.

At the last regular meeting on Aug. 13, Trustee Brian Geary informed the board that a $40,000 grant from KaBOOM, a nonprofit organization that specializes in playgrounds and equipment for communities, had recently become available to the village for a new big toy due to another municipality dropping out of the running for the grant.

"They (KaBOOM) really wanted us to get the money," Geary said.

However, all guidelines needed to be met and the grant needed to be approved and signed in less than 24 hours.

"We met all of the guidelines by one o'clock the next day," Geary said, noting that the requirements included digital movies of Garrison Park, an assessment of the area by Department of Public Works crew chief Marc Shuttleworth and e-mailed letters from residents.

The grant was then given to Mayor Mary Lowther to sign. At the deadline, Lowther added a back-out clause to the grant.

"My only concern was to make certain the residents and community that uses the park were part of the process," Lowther said. "The clause added was standard issue language that would have allowed us to supplement the information or amend the information submitted, especially based on the very short time frame for completion."

Lowther's added clause drew criticism from members of the board and renewed discussions about the mayor's disclosure practices to other board members.

"You're never supposed to put a clause like that on what is basically a gift," Geary said. "It's frustrating because if she was confused she should have talked to the board at the meeting rather than made the decision and added it by herself. And it's unacceptable that it was added without the board's knowledge."

Geary, who feels that the grant was given to another municipality wholly because of the mayor's back-out clause, voiced his concerns at the board's work session Monday, with the echoed agreement of trustees Jeff Kingsley and Basil Piazza.

"I was uncomfortable not being able to add or delete conditions of the grant with such short notice," Lowther said at the work session.

"I understood that we were going to the front of the line for the grant if we were able to comply with the timeline, but we weren't the only community who received the offer to fill in for the one who dropped out," Lowther continued. "During the conference call late last week the Ka- BOOM representative indicated that there was another community in the running. I'm not sure that this information was discussed anytime prior to the conference call. It could very well be that the community who was awarded the grant was ... in more need."

Piazza noted that the board was unaware of the mayor's concerns about the grant as of the end of the Aug. 13 meeting.

"We acted as quickly as we could, and she undermined the whole process," he said, noting that if the grant had been accepted, then the big toy would have been installed by mid-September. "Now we have to wait until next year to do any work."

"The conditional acceptance clause needs to be removed immediately," Kingsley said of the grant, which is still on file with KaBOOM. "Essentially, it comes down to looking like we don't need it."

Kingsley went on to call Lowther's explanation of the additional clause "insufficient" and made a call for a procedure to be put in place so the village is not faced with the situation again.

The Parks Committee, as well as village residents, have decided to raise the $40,000 on their own by Feb. 1, according to Geary.

"A lot of people feel shorted by what happened, but we have faith that we'll do it," he said. "We're all still 110 percent behind it and it really reinstilled the commitment for everybody involved."

Piazza agreed.

"All we can do is keep looking forward."

In other matters:

• The board also unanimously accepted two state grants totaling $200,000 for the water mill.

"This is the first step of many for the mill," said Kingsley, who is the board's liaison to the Mill Restoration Committee.

The next regular meeting of the Village Board will be at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 10 at Village Hall, 5565 Main St., Williamsville. For information, visit http://village. williamsville. ny. us/.