by Kristina Gabalski
BROCKPORT – The Smith Street Bridge in the Village of Brockport will remain open this winter. Village Board members made the decision during their regular meeting November 27.
The village now owns the bridge and had closed it last winter in an effort to preserve its lifespan. But many residents on the village’s northwest side asked that it remain open year-round.
Mayor Connie Castaneda said she felt the bridge should remain open and Trustee Margaret Blackman agreed, “with the condition that the DPW wash down the bridge annually after the salting of roads is done,” she said.
The mayor said the DPW will be directed to do so.
Mayor Castaneda asked DPW Superintendent Harry Donahue for his opinion. “Honestly, I think we can leave it open,” he said.
In other business, board members unanimously rejected a proposed inter-municipal agreement with the Brockport Fire District that would have allowed the village police department use of a fire district van and the village use of meeting rooms at the Market Street Firehouse in exchange for the village providing snow removal at the district’s Market Street, West Avenue and Capen Hose properties.
Trustee Kent Blair was clearly not pleased with the proposal, “This is the most absurd thing I have ever read in my life,” he said.
He added that this is another example of how the fire district was formed without looking into all the costs of maintaining fire district properties.
Village Attorney Robert Leni noted the village DPW has the plowing of the Market Street lot already on its schedule because of municipal parking spots located there and because the village routinely plows excess snow behind the firehouse for removal.
“Plowing is the big issue here,” he told board members.
The proposed agreement stated that the village would need to give the fire district a 30-day notice of the need for the van or facilities and that the village would be responsible for costs should anything happen to the van while in the village’s possession.
“I can’t believe the district paid an attorney to write up a nine page contract,” Trustee Blair said.
Board members did pass a new local law to establish a real property tax exemption for non-residential property upon conversion to mixed-use property. The vote was unanimous and followed a public hearing during which no one spoke against the law.
The purpose of the law is to encourage the conversion of non-residential real property to mixed-use property in order to expand and promote downtown residential uses, improve the quality of such property, and to preserve and expand the tax base of the village.
Finally, during her report, Trustee Carol Hannan showed those in attendance an artifact from the “project house” on Fayette Street that she is currently renovating to sell as a single family home.
The long, narrow wooden tool was discovered in the cellar of the house and is marked “CF 1865.” A sailing ship is also carved on the tool.
Trustee Hannan said after researching the unusual item, she found it likely is a handmade vise used by saddlers and cobblers for stitching leather.
The tool belonged to Charles Farmer, she said, who was a cobbler and lived in the house.
“These are very rare,” Trustee Hannan noted. “They tended to break and get lost. It’s the most interesting thing to come out of that historic house.”
