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News Release

Shared Services Forum 1/29/2011

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Joint City/County Meeting on Shared Services
10 a.m. January 29, 2011
Room 119 Olean Municipal Building

Mayor Linda Witte thanked Common Council President Frank Steffen and Cattaraugus County District 10 Legislator John Padlo for coming up with another forum idea. She said this has been done before but this is the first forum of 2011. She welcomed Linda Edstrom, Bill Aiello, Mr. Padlo, Jim Snyder, and Steve Teachman, Mr. Steffen, Jim Brady, Ann McLaughlin, Tina Kamery, Tom Windus; residents Maureen Sheahan and Hal “Jake”) Jacobi, Chris Michel of the Olean Times Herald and Kathy Kellogg of the Mayor’s Office.

The discussion that followed yielded the following suggestions from the group:

*Shared Services

*Issues:

Mayor Witte added that notes will be provided to all the participants so it will be possible to track progress of the discussion. She said it will be a nice forum in which to share ideas and invited Mr. Padlo to begin.

Mr. Padlo: We’re certainly facing challenging times. It’s good to sit down, come up with thoughts, resolve problems. The Governor is going to come up with budget proposals and it won’t be pretty, there will be a lot of cuts, challenges and changes. What can we do to make things better? We ought to continue to work on it for years and years. How can we interface the Public Works Department with the City and Town of Olean. As far as sharing services, equipment, those things are going on now. What are some things we can do to make it better? The other issue I have, what can we do to make it go further. Economic development; is there a better way we can interface to create a better environment and create jobs? We can go on about taxes. There is going to be a 2% property tax cap and as our county administrator pointed out there will be a lot of challenges.

Mr. Steffen: We are faced with tough times, there is going to be a new legislature, a different makeup. The 2% tax cap will be challenging. We need relief from retirement (costs). We need to put pressure on the state. We agree we need to keep costs down and Medicaid too, from the county, unless we see relief in these areas it will be difficult to meet challenges.

Mrs. McLaughlin: The focus is on the younger generation coming to county. With the (college) degrees you can get nowadays we just don’t have them here, need to look at options. Yahoo coming to buffalo is huge. We need to look at bringing this down here. It would create jobs for younger generations, what we need.

Mr. Snyder: This is about the sixth time we’ve met about what can be done, but if there are political challenges to getting things done. In the last five days, there is a lack of economic development. I am sick and tired about losing this (Luminite) factory down in Salamanca. It’s generations old. We are sleeping at the switch. We let some outfit from 20 miles across the border sneak in here and steal that from us. We let it happen. Everybody at this table has something to do with it. We’ve got to do a better job. The county is ill-prepared for development, we can’t execute. I suspect the city is in the same position. The Chamber - at least the efforts we used to put forth - isn’t there anymore. The structure isn’t right. If they can steal that out of here, if it’s that easy to get Luminite what else is on drawing board? What can we do at Little Valley, what can we do with the city? We all think we are doing the right thing, our hearts are in the right place. That was 60 people (employees). We aren’t structurally ready for that type of activity. I was hoping something would come out of here on the economic development front. Another example was The Connection which took two years to put together and now employs close to 350 people.

Mr. Padlo: We in Little Valley know there is a little pot of money, Casino revenue money, and we get to come up with a plan. I know we do advocate, can we advocate to get some of the Casino revenue money to grow the county? We’ve got the Brownfields site, but we need a plan, like you are saying, we need some money to help out.

Mayor Witte: We did meet with Crystal Abers (Cattaraugus County’s Economic Development, Planning and Tourism Department director), we met with Diego A. Sirianni, (Economic Development Project Specialist II, Western New York Region of Empire State Development), the state stepped in, they felt they (Pennsylvania incentives) went above and beyond (New York’s offer). The State person said no, we can’t do. (The NY State agencies) ended up giving a package offer but no it wasn’t enough. The employees will still work there (at Luminite) it‘s not that far from Foster Brook. (Mr. Sirianni) said we wait until we hear a rumor, by the time we get positioned to talk to people, they are already out the door. We have to change that thinking mentality. We have so many entities, we have silos. We don’t talk to each other. Mary received a call from someone at Luminite, she tried looking at something in Olean (but it was not workable). We are behind.

A positive example was heard at the Mayor’s Executive Forum. We had 22 industries and leaders and I was surprised at how well we’re doing. We had Colleen Taggerty (Olean City Schools superintendent), John Sayegh (dean Olean campus, Jamestown Community College). There are internships they are doing with companies, they are trying to do more, we all came to that conclusion, it was all positive.

Mayor Witte: We’ve invited Mrs. Abers and Mr. Sirianni. Chris Napoleon, the owner of NES Bearings, will host the next Mayor’s Executive Forum in March. There is no set date yet. We have this habit in the county, which I saw as a legislator, and as a councilman and now as mayor. We are just as bad, we have this group and don’t want (others) to get the credit. That hasn’t changed, one group tries to undermine the other. In the meantime we all lose.

Mrs. Kamery: Why did they (Luminite) choose to do that? We are one of highest taxed counties and cities in state. People are not going to look at us to move a business here when 20 miles down road the taxes are (lower). You don’t think with tax rates or water rates, these people are not going to consider us. Why do you think they are leaving? Until we change something along those lines, I don’t think companies are going to consider moving to Olean. It’s sad, I hate to see it, I think it’s a fact. When I was campaigning there was a couple in a (new) house they loved, and when they found out the taxes will be higher than mortgage they were out of there. We are way high and we have to change that.

Mr. Teachman: In the county the biggest thing we have for a stepping block are state mandates. state mandates are a big thing. We need to find out where they are at. Brownfields, (will be a) vital economic turnaround, The (Olean Center) mall… it’s not bad. There are more things we could do and get involved with the owner.

Mr. Brady: I thought this was one purpose. Water, wherever we can sell more water and employ more people. When I lived in Virginia and came back here, I am so glad my kids are raised here. a lot of people want to move. I know we need to reduce our taxes, we need to work together with everybody. I’d like to have one DPW for the county, whatever is best for the people. I’ve seen way too many people leave (the city).

Ms. Edstrom: I met with Joe Pelletier, the acting Department of Public Works director for the county. I mentioned buying in bulk, sand and salt, it would save a lot of money. Get it all in one place, pick it up from the Allegany shed. When we meet again, Tom (Windus), that will be one of things we want to talk about. The Urban Renewal Agency, Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce, that group should be meeting on a regular basis. The Brownfield is between all those agencies. Get those people talking together, something will happen.

Mayor Witte reminded the group that it is owned by a private entity. She suggested including the Economic Development Zone, Mary George (of city of Olean Community Development), the chambers from Ellicottville.

Ms. Edstrom: Another point is to make information and services more available other than 9 to 5 amd we can’t do that because of contracts. Tourist bureaus should be open late on weeknights and be open on weekends, you hear this can’t be done. We are to provide services to constituents, you can’t provide service for 9-5. It galls me that it’s called the Cattaraugus-Olean Airport, I don’t think officially the name has ever changed. If the county wanted to name the airport, the county ought to take it over; the stadium, the county ought to change that; Jim (Snyder) was in the paper with the farmer’s market. Gargoyle Park or the stadium ought to have the farmer’s market. There’s so much we can do, we get a lot of people to come here (to shop at the farmer’s market).

Mayor Witte: On Bradner Stadium, the Local Development Corporation (OLDC) met. There are a lot of things they can do with the city before the committee comes up with money. The Farmer’s market has to have a manager. It’s a great idea, but you have to have follow-through. Here is a great idea that none of the others know about. We have to talk to each other. In the past that hasn’t happened. With Brownfields, Exxon is in the midst of looking for a developer. It’s their land. You’ve got to work with people that own it. I can’t tell people what to do. There are two farmer markets, three now. Two get the bulk of people. People in the mall will tell you on Saturday mornings the place is busy.

Mr. Snyder: I got sick for a year and dropped farmer’s market. It’s still alive.

Mayor Witte: Any kind of project shouldn’t rely on one person. The project has to be shared. We are no different than in Albany with their little silos. Until we address that, we’re just spinning our wheels. When I go to Empire Zone meetings they are still doing all the things that were promised. You can’t just drop it. The Chamber meetings, I go to them periodically. Rally in Valley, Home Show, upcoming events and finances. There are things going on we need to open the door and get some fresh ideas and not be so territorial.

Mr. Aiello: We touched on good points, quality of life. What do we offer? You try to keep engineers. (Dresser) said they had a real problem with recruiting engineers. Today, they want to do things on weekends. What do we have?

Mr. Padlo: Just to jump on what you are saying Bill, I believe Olean and Cattaraugus County are a gem that people don’t know about. If you look at what is going on in summer months, the festivals, Gus Macker, Rally in the Valley. From a broader perspective, all that goes on in Ellicottville, Salamanca, Rt. 16, we need to accentuate the positive. We need to sell it.

Mr. Aiello: Instead of doom and gloom how can we put positive tune on this, we got to stop being so negative. You talk about Brownfields, out in Willawanna (?) is a massive warehouse, 300 yards long, that’s a CVS distribution site, what better, a Walmart, or (other distribution warehouse)?

Mr. Aiello: You talk about water rates, it’s too much. Look at the residents. They look at all that, people live cheaper in upscale communities than we do here.

Mayor Witte: Those water rates went up because it wasn’t managed properly. We’re looking to keep them both flat.

Mr. Aiello: Consolidation of services, in Virginia everything is countywide. One of the sacred cows is school superintendents. We have 12 component schools and 12 superintendents. It’s not so much consolidation, we need to look at how much is duplication of services, that’s where you can consolidate. We need to start listening to constituents. They get so frustrated that no one is listening they stop talking to you. The salt shed, for city of Olean, can be built at Allegany site. What about gas pumps? We can get with county on that. It’s a quarter-mile outside the city. It’s been offered, but it doesn’t seem to go anywhere.

Mr. Padlo: There are complaints as soon as somebody sees a Department of Public Works truck or vehicle outside city.

Ms. Edstrom: We need to advertise and educate the public that they will see trucks because we are sharing.

Mr. Aiello: Sales tax, we don’t get anything out of county sales. We talk about it and getting that through the legislature.

Mayor Witte: We need to talk about that. There is frustration over the additional 1% going for roads and bridges throughout the county but the two cities don’t share in that.

The Mayor then asked Tom Windus to expand on plans for Bradner Stadium, roads and bridges, etc.

Mr. Windus: We met with county and discussed water/sewer rates. I don’t disagree, a lot (of the budget) is debt service, almost one-third is debt service. The water side is (borrowing debt for the) treatment plant. There are a lot of communities that don’t have debt because they don’t have filtration. It’s expensive. That was when they set a course. We have no way around that. We need to look to consolidate, move in a direction where can all work together to bring rates down. Allegany is duplicating this and Portville is doing the same in providing services. I’d like to work with the county to share services. It comes down to politics. Allegany doesn’t want that coming down to Allegany. It’s difficult from my side, we try and do things but politics get involved. The best thing we can do is combine services there and make one facility. We have salt storage issues, service and fixes, if we built a joint facility, you have a mechanic, fuel. We are working with them. Maybe we can get some movement in that direction. Gets back to can we work together for the betterment of everybody. (Bradner) embarrasses me. We need to make it a showcase. We can focus on quality of life to keep younger families here. (Olean) has so much to offer, it’s a great place to raise a family. How do we make it (Bradner) great again? We want to make it better, take down the fence and put up chain link so people can see, build bathrooms for events. We talked to a local corporation. If we buy materials they will help build, and we can get some labor help, even if it’s in a temporary state.

Mrs. McLaughlin: Let’s try to partner with BOCES, they need experience, we would not have to pay them.

Mayor Witte: A local corporation volunteered to oversee (the project).

Mr. Windus: They have got people that want to do it. We can make it and promote the fact we’re doing these things. As the mayor said in the forum, it was amazing to hear those industries talk, they are looking to bring in doctorate-level chemical engineers.

Mayor Witte: Several local industries have employees who are getting to the age when they are going to retire. They will have a big vacuum, there are jobs for younger people. The jobs are here, we have to promote the city more. When I talk to other people about (Olean’s) education, people are blown away. Many seniors graduate with 20-30 college credits. We need to change the mentality. We need to promote industrial and educational partnerships more.

Mr. Steffen: Local partnerships, schools and industries, we have to get them to realize what is expected in the workplace, the work ethic, looking at possible careers in industries, when they get out of high school are they going to work in a factory? We’re talking about partnerships.

Mr. Windus: They (young people) don’t have to go away. They can stay here and make it.

Mayor Witte: A specialist physician flies in and out of Olean airport. We don’t have car out there, Mayor Carucci tried to work on this, we have to find a way to fix such a small little problem. That little thing is hampering us from having more people come into the airport.

Mr. Windus: Two things the city puts money into are Gargoyle and the airport. We could use help from the county to reduce those costs. The city operates Gargoyle and we pay taxes to the county and the town. By the time we pay taxes and maintain it we lose money. We also need help with the airport. It’s there, it’s going to be there for long time. It’s a huge asset for our area. They (pilots or plane owners) have big money to spend, you wouldn’t believe the money. They come to Ellicottville, and other communities within our county, that’s money coming into our county.

Mr. Padlo: Bradner can also bring money in. We’re all going to face harsh realities, we have top notch programs at BOCES, some of the blue collar courses are under strain. The building technology program is on the chopping block because kids in the area aren’t interested in that field. We have done a myriad of things, but that program may not be available.

Mayor Witte: Along this line, our summer help. We have one young man that helps electricians, our work force is aging, they’re trying to get them interested in taking over these jobs.

Mr. Padlo: There is an idea out there we should explore, it’s so big, “micro-opolis”. You take the largest municipality, build it up so people from the surrounding area will come there. It would be nice to have a movie theater. We have jobs but we need to do better. We have things in place, we have a great educational system, we have infrastructure. Other things need to fall in place. Look at all the restaurants in Olean. It would be nice to add more restaurants. We need more retail.

Mayor Witte: Our sales tax revenues are up too. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas the (Olean Center) Mall was packed. We haven’t touched on transportation, we have people from Portville coming here (to work), we need more transportation. St. Bonaventure, Allegany, the Rehab Center are on the bus system. As long as they have a bus schedule and can spend the day here, a person from the court in Allegany, for example. It cuts down on the parking problem. Portville, Salamanca, and Franklinville call Mary the most, low income or seniors. Gas is not going to get cheaper. It is going to keep going up. Several of us attended the new Governor’s talk in Jamestown. I told him good luck, the tax cap is good, but if you don’t fix the other side, fix Medicaid and pensions, it’s just shifting responsibility to us. The State is one of few that pays 25 percent and they force the county to pay 25 percent for Medicaid.

I’m also starting to get concerned calls about drilling. Cattaraugus County sits on an aquifer. We worked so hard together to fight a landfill, it would affect our water system. Until they figure out how to do it safely, there are people in Pennsylvania that can’t give away land now. I’m hoping the county will help and start the ball rolling and talk about this. One reason that Luminite left is nobody talked to them. If we don’t look at it now, Olean has a great water source, it could become compromised if we are not proactive. The Buffalo Common Council mentioned the Cattaraugus Creek Basin Aquifer and we who live here haven’t even started to talk about it.

Mr. Windus: All of the surrounding area has wells. If the aquifer gets screwed up, where would we get our water?

[The U.S.G.S. Water Resources Investigations Report 88-4076 was shown to the group. It depicts “Potential Yields of Wells in Unconsolidated Aquifers in Upstate New York – Niagara Sheet” by Todd S. Miller. For more information go to the Mayor Linda Witte’s page and click on the “Aquifer Preservation Project” button. Then follow the links to the map or the pdf file showing only Olean’s area of the aquifer system. The Mayor’s web page, press releases, reports, etc. are found at the city’s web site, www.cityofolean.org.]

Mayor Witte: We ask for suggestions. We were trying to get the two (city and county) strategic planning boards to meet a year ago. If there is something we need help with we can ask for help. We have to put aside politics, and silos. That’s a place to start.

Mr. Padlo: We need to schedule another meeting a couple months down road…

Everyone in the group expressed interest in the Mayor’s Executive Forum.

Mayor Witte: One industry outside the city wanted to decrease water rates. They switched over to our water lines, and found it cheaper and still remain with our service. That came out of the Mayor’s Executive Forum. We’re always trying to find ways to help industries. Our goal is to keep water and sewer flat this year. We tried to raise rates 10 years ago and it was deep-sixed and it got worse. You can’t fix infrastructure or pay off debt service without income. It had to be done due to the inaction for many years. A zero tax is not a reality, it would and has taken years to recover.

Mr. Brady: It can be a reality.

Mayor Witte: It’s different on the Council. Looking at the County Legislature, there are so many mandates that are unfunded it’s absurd. 78 cents on the dollar are mandated.

Mr. Aiello: We’re looking at all aspects, how can we become more efficient? We just had a reorganizational meeting. After Wednesday we will be coming up with ideas. We owe that to the taxpayers. Where can we become more efficient?

Mayor Witte: We’re part of it. We need to work together.

Mrs. Kamery: Wasn’t the idea of building a great structure to service other communities?

Mr. Windus: We have to find ways to get them to buy in.

Mrs. Kamery: What seems to be the problem, where are the people from Allegany?

Mayor Witte: It’s territory. We have to change that. We’re working on the date to make a presentation on a water and/or sewer district. We’re inviting all to attend and I’m hoping everyone will show up.

Mrs. Kamery: It seems there is a block with other municipalities.

Mr. Aiello: There is mistrust, all we will do is save Olean, that’s the perception.

Mr. Padlo: Years ago we came up with the idea to have a Water and Sewer Authority, and the goal of that, we have plants – the city being biggest municipality. In order for us to do that, outlying areas have to agree to it. There was a meeting a few years ago. We had a meeting at the Community Center, the intent was to get them to buy into the system. It didn’t go over.

Mr. Steffen: We had a grant.

Mayor Witte: We went to the Allegany Fire Hall, it all came back to, who’s going to run it, we have to have representatives from each district to help run it and be at the table.

Mr. Padlo: The town pays extra than city, we have to get something at table.

Mrs. Witte: you have to put everybody at the table to get a level playing field and get them to be partners.

Mrs. Kamery: We supply sewer to Allegany.

Mr. Windus: Allegany is a district. We have an agreement with the village, the village has agreements with Bonaventure and the town of Allegany. We have sewer and water districts in the town of Olean and Portville. But there are seven different districts with different rates.

Mrs. Kamery: with this facility we need to break the barrier, we can’t be charging different rates, it has to be all the same.

Mr. Windus: It’s not unusual, Jamestown has the same problem with different rates. Depending on the situation we need to sit down and hash it out

Mayor Witte: The state is going to push regionalizing, all towns are asking for grants, the state is going to take away, one of the gentlemen said, you know what guys, now it’s up to us, but if we don’t do anything the state will tell us how to consolidate.

Mr. Steffen: It’s same with school districts.

Mayor Witte: The worker bees are laid off, not the people on top. It’s not politically popular to do.

Mayor Witte asked for comments from the public.

Hal Jacobi, 295 Hamilton Ave.: I was known as “Jake” at Dresser-Clark, I retired after 30 years. I like it here. I’m old, but I live up there by the (Bartlett) Country Club. I’m not entirely local. I like it here because I’ve been elsewhere, Japan, Russia, Venezuela. This is pretty good here. I know I’m preaching to the choir.

I finally figured out if everybody did their job, and did it right, the whole place would straighten up, the garbage guy, the mechanic, good. If he doesn’t he might get fired, the representative of the garage goes down if not, and that takes long time. Just do your job. If the surgeon doesn’t do right, you are dead. That’s quick, but other things are slow. If everybody would do the job right…. I don’t know how you get that started.

I’m coming around to it, I wanted to talk about the Marcellus Shale. Whoof. We all want to stay warm, you burn coal, it’s smokey, coal for electricity, it’s smokey, not good. Gas is good, but now where do you get it? We pump it from Texas, Canada, we spread it around. We had boosters pushing gas all over country to make it comfortable for us here. There is a limit to all this. Now geologists found this Marcellus Shale, it’s hard to get out. You gotta break it up, we say punch holes, shoot, that was fractured.

Now we got high-tech stuff, high pressure. Talk about high pressure. Think about doing your job right. At BP those geologists found a spot in that Gulf that had unbelievable, they hit the jackpot. Only trouble was doing the job right. They thought they had it all done, the guy turning on the drill, with the clamp on, and that ruined the packing. Nobody paid attention. We tell the next people, a decision. Keep on going, boom. Are you doing your job right? Doggone it.

So Marcellus. We’ve got Pennsylvania kind of loose. We talked to the DEC. It’s kinda loose, it’s been going on, drilling, no problem, they say. Well, this is a little different now. They finally decided, let’s look into it deeper. Finally, thank God. Business-wise it seems bad, locally now that it was so slow. In the Spring the rules are going to come out from DEC about control for this Marcellus shale. In Pennsylvania my secretary moved to Towanda. Wow, there were dollars, people, leases, money, the place is going wild, the restaurants are loaded.

That’s POOF! short-term stuff. That crew, all those people, is a bubble. So don’t get excited. It makes you jealous. It’s too fast. Calm down, we’ll get it straightened out, now this Marcellus Shale, you’ve got to have it under control. How these people do it, to fracture this shale so gas can come out takes high pressure, hydrofracking. It’s done a mile down, high-tech stuff, you need directional drillng, run (pipe) along a mile, you don’t know where it’s going, you lease a hundred acres to them, lease 10 acres to them, they can go anywhere. It’s free to them.

So anyhow, as they do this, it takes a million gallons for one shot. A million gallons (of water), that’s a 50-foot cube of water. For one shot to fracture a well.

I found out that a million gallons is 2/3 of a days’ usage for Olean and everything else around here. For one shot that these guys would use. The scary part is, the water has been used, it’s been contaminated. You have got to do something with it. I’ve been down to Pittsburgh, the trucks go back and forth, water has been treated or not correctly, the EPA, that’s a federal control. They have control over all water quality.

My friend Dick Cheney from Haliburton knew about this early. He went to the (Federal Energy Resource) Commission and beat them. EPA is not able to check on water control (Clean Water Act) in this case, water injection in the ground. The last few weeks months, EPA has been able to get back to find out the ingredients (in the fracking fluid water).

I wanted to tell you that we want to be careful, as we were all talking about. We have good water, we don’t want to get messed up, so if we start having Marcellus shale drilling up here, we want to make sure we do it right. If you run the casings down through you’re supposed to cement them off so stuff won’t leak around it. Plug, drill, plug, drill. They’re supposed to be sealed. Do your job right. We got to get this organized to protect ourselves. We want to keep this water good here.

Ms. Maureen Sheahan, 213 Madison Ave.: I want to say what a pleasure it is to be here and hear all this uplifting exchange for economic development and shared services, a positive quality of life and what we have to offer. God bless us all. We have to communicate it that way and keep it together. I am here because I have a concern, I want to protect the water. I worked hard 20 years to protect it (from a landfill), and now we have fracturing. I use natural gas and am not a hypocrite, but I have a passion for water. We need good water, for drinking, fishing, and tourism is the biggest economic generator. I have been following Marcellus and hydrofracking for years. I wrote letters to the DEC. The moratorium (on horizontal deep drilling) in New York State is up in June.

You talked about being pro-active, not reactive. Let’s be proactive with our water. If we have time the EPA and DEC have a lot of concerns about NYC water. What about our water. It’s the same thing as Farmersville, the rural people are the ones that get used for big city and economic drivers. If we’re asleep at wheel, good bye to our water, if there is something we can do to protect the water, put the brakes on this. Have something in place to protect us until we can prove it is safe. Pennsylvania is a testament to it, there are pollutants in it. In addition to that there is 200-300 chemicals, many of them toxic that are included in the water used to drive down – and when it comes back up. It’s not just about the aquifer, what about the headwaters. Where are we going to go with this stuff? I hope to plant a seed to do something with the water.

Mr. Snyder: Maureen made a good point. The Farmersville thing, started 20 years ago, it was a wonderful garbage project, the largest landfill in the Northeast. The County and municipalities worked to fight that to protect the water. Before we leave, I’m just thinking about economic development. Look at what we have in place today, the starting lineup. Mary George does that and other things. Cattaraugus County has Crystal Abers. A small amount is spent on economic development. Nobody is there in the Chamber (of Commerce), the city and county IDA has nobody (on staff). Our structure, the front line looks not very good.

Mayor Witte: The team is on the field but there are no managers.

Mr. Snyder: Don’t look behind the curtain because there is nothing there. I blame myself, I wish I had the IDA, the CCA, all under one roof with one person running it. People called but we can’t tell you, don’t tell me, nothing is going to happen. How do we put it together, the county, city Salamanca, CCIDA in Little Valley. The only way we’re going to function properly is put it all together in one place with one person in charge that understands economic development, with all people who don’t know how or don’t have time.

Mayor Witte: As public servants we need to be the ones to shine a light and say we need a central entity that all can contact and dispense information.

Mr. Snyder: What scares me is the state takes over economic development for all the locals. If we could think of a way to restructure. The Empire Zone is uncertain. Would the Olean URA, and the city of Salamanca IDA combine? The timing may be right.

Mr. Steffen: As we begin that process, we need to cooperate and communicate. Let’s start somewhere.

Ms. Edstrom: Can we set up a meeting time to get all these people together, could you facilitate? We could get Mary and Crystal….

Mayor Witte: I brought that up with the Chamber one day. Why don’t we set this up with other people. Mary should be here, whether it’s politically correct, that’s Mary’s field.

Mayor Witte: We have to learn from our mistakes, how lackadaisical we are about economic development. In the meantime how about the two Strategic Planning Committees (for county and city) meet and try to prioritize things we want to do. We will invite you to the presentation on districts. The guy who is not there is the fly in the ointment when you want to slow things down. Now is the time to do it. You have to hit rock bottom before you get serious. Shifting responsibilities … We will get together after the next Mayor’s Forum, may be get Diego Sirianni and Crystal Abers, and Tom Windus and Mary George attend. The next Mayor’s Forum will be held in March and we will get back to you with a date. Thank you for attending. We had a great conversation. Let’s continue sharing ideas.