Voter questions spending for Delaware Town barn

Posted 8/21/12

The Delaware Town Board is about to purchase 4.4 acres of property along Route 17B for a new town barn for the highway dept. The cost of this parcel will be $100,000, or $22,700 per acre, which to me …

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Voter questions spending for Delaware Town barn

Posted

The Delaware Town Board is about to purchase 4.4 acres of property along Route 17B for a new town barn for the highway dept. The cost of this parcel will be $100,000, or $22,700 per acre, which to me seems inordinately high in the current real estate market. A little research into recent vacant land sales in town has shown that non-riverfront property for the past five years has sold for an average of only $6,000 per acre. The town board apparently didn’t even have an independent appraisal done before agreeing to such a high price! Not only that, but the town paid about $80,000 recently to have a new salt shed built on the old property.

Added to these figures will be the cost of new buildings and other improvements at the new site, which incidentally is on a pretty sharp curve, making it a potentially dangerous location with loaded trucks going in and out.

It appears that the current town board is recklessly spending other people’s money—ours!

Jerry Smith

Callicoon, NY

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