Categories for News

Jul 24

2024

A changing of the guard for STAMP

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Mark Masse, incoming president of the Genesee County Economic Development Center. Illustration by Garrett Looker. Effective August 1, Mark Masse will take over as president and CEO of the Genesee County Economic Development Center — the public agency building the STAMP industrial park. Hailing from Genesee County, Masse earned a public accounting degree from Nazareth University and has worked for the IDA since 2010 as its vice president of operations. He takes over for Steven Hyde, the longtime president and CEO who initiated STAMP’s development. He’ll earn a salary of $185,000 and manage an agency with a $10.5 million budget.[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jul 23

2024

STAMP struggling to fill rural industrial park

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Two companies are backing away from plans to move into the sprawling Science, Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park in Genesee County, Investigative Post has learned. Scannell Properties, a multinational builder, will no longer construct three large warehouse-like buildings at the industrial park, according to a June email from the Genesee County Economic Development Center, the industrial development agency building STAMP. In addition, an unnamed company — whose proposed development was called “Project Emporium” — will no longer construct a campus of buildings, including large data centers and office buildings. Scannell Properties had signed a “right of first refusal” contract for[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jul 18

2024

Mayor’s staff growing in numbers and cost

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When Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown prepared his first city budget, he allowed for eight employees in his office, including himself. He had a communications staff of one.  Those jobs were scheduled to cost taxpayers $571,806, not including healthcare and retirement benefits. The actual cost was less — just under $500,000 — because he didn’t fill all the positions. This budget year, which began July 1, the mayor’s budget allows for 19 staffers. The Office of Communications and Intergovernmental Affairs has grown to seven budgeted positions.  Combined, the salaries for those 26 jobs add up to $2,453,665. That’s nearly three times[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jul 16

2024

New York’s generous subsidies to Amazon

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The future site of an Amazon distribution center in Niagara County. Photo by Garrett Looker. New York in recent years has awarded so many tax breaks and subsidies to Amazon that it now ranks as one of the top states in the nation for doling out assistance to the $2 trillion company. The state’s more than $700 million in total subsidies to Amazon ranks it fourth in the country, according to a new data analysis by SwitchOnBusiness, a consulting firm. Only Oregon, Virginia and Illinois have given the e-commerce giant more. The consulting firm gathered its information from Good Jobs[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jul 12

2024

Harsh words for costly OTB buyouts

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State Sen. Sean Ryan, left,  Assemblywoman Monica Wallace and Erie County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker. “Egregious.”  “Self-dealing.”  “Corrupt.”  A trio of local Democratic officials used those terms and a few other choice words on Friday to describe contractual buyouts for three outgoing executives that will come at a combined cost to Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. of more than $500,000.  During a press conference outside the OTB branch on Clinton Street in Cheektowaga, State Assemblywoman Monica Wallace, D-Lancaster, assailed the six-figure buyouts as “sweetheart” deals that are “wholly unnecessary.” Joining her in criticizing the deals were[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jul 12

2024

What about a branch library at the Broadway Market?

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After years of inaction, progress is being made toward bringing library books to the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood – with a branch library in the Broadway Market suggested as one possibility. John Spears, director of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, and Chris Hawley, a community advocate, met last week to discuss ways to address the book desert that exists in a large swath of the city’s East side. As a short-term solution, they discussed the possibility of expanding the library’s bookmobile in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood. As a longer-term goal, they talked about establishing a “physical presence” in the community, Spears[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jul 11

2024

Buffalo sued over inner-city lead poisoning

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Andrea Ó Súilleabháin, head of the Partnership for the Public Good. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel.   This story was updated at 2:11 pm on July 11, 2024 to include comments from the City of Buffalo. Tenants and community organizations are taking the City of Buffalo to court, contending it is failing to enforce rental inspection laws aimed at reducing lead paint in the city’s aging housing stock. The inspection law, enacted in 2020, was in response to the large number of children testing with high levels of lead in their blood. City inspectors have conducted relatively few inspections since then,[...]

Posted 1 year ago

Jul 10

2024

More drama with jail advisory board

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Erie County Sheriff John Garcia. Photo by Garrett Looker. The Erie County Sheriff’s Department has pulled staff from meetings of a jail advisory board, citing the body’s inability to raise quorums and an adversarial tone from some members. The withdrawal came after Jerome Wright, a former inmate who’s been critical of the sheriff’s office, was elected chairman to the board that’s been tasked with reviewing jail deaths and operations. “This is a disingenuous attempt to go out like a punk instead of standing your ground,” said Wright, who has opposed the sheriff’s push for a new jail and says he[...]

Posted 1 year ago
Investigative Post