New Riga Town Hall plans unveiled

Riga officials unveiled plans last week for a new 14,000 square-foot, $1.5 to $2 million, town building to house Riga town offices and the Riga Town Court, which they hope to build on land west of the Harvey C. Noone American Legion Post, 6444 Buffalo Road beginning in spring of 2003.

About 40 residents crowded into the makeshift meeting room of the current Riga town offices February 25 to view plans, hear comments from board members, ask questions and offer input.

"We have worked and reworked this plan," Town Supervisor Tim Rowe told residents. "This is about our fiftieth shot ... and the way to get our biggest bang for the buck."

The planned V-shaped building is made up of two, 6,000 square-foot wings. The west wing will house town offices and the east the courts. The new court space has seating for 120 people, a secure holding area for prisoners, a jury room and office space for both the New York State Police and the Monroe County Sheriff's Department.

In addition to town offices, the east wing will include a new meeting room to hold 40 people and new storage vaults, being built to meet state and federal standards.

A masonry building is planned; colors have not yet been chosen. The grounds will be landscaped, with a treed buffer facing homes to the west, and the existing American Legion pavilion will be moved to the back of the property. The current parking lot will be enlarged to the south and the west, and the driveway will be aligned with Bromley Road.

Town officials said they have about $1 million in a capital reserve fund set aside for the project, and hope to set aside the other $1 million they will need this year - with projected increased revenue from the Mill Seat Landfill. "We will bond a small amount if necessary," said Town Councilman Peter Brundage.

Brundage said the first incarnation of the new town building was a plan for a joint municipal building with the Village of Churchville almost four years ago. He said that did not work because the site already owned by the village on Black Creek was too small to meet the town's needs. (The village has since completed its new, 4,700-square-foot, $600,000, Village Hall on East Buffalo Street.)

Town board members then looked at renovating their current office space on South Main Street or building at the site of their town garage, both of which proved too costly, Brundage said. They were considering building on land the town owns on Sanford Road when they discovered they may be able to acquire the legion's land.

In exchange for the land, the town will agree to maintain the grounds, on a short-term contract, and will bear the cost of moving the legion's pavilion, and of creating a sewer district.

The $1.5 million building estimate does not include site work, or the costs involved with having the property - which is now outside the village of Churchville - annexed to the village, and creating sewer and electric districts to serve it. "I think it is in the town's best interest and the village's best interest if the land is annexed and becomes part of the village," Brundage said.

It will cost about $140,000 to create the sewer district, Brundage said. Costs to the town of reimbursing Niagara Mohawk for "stranded costs" the power company would incur by allowing the village to provide electric to part of its service area could become prohibitive. However, Village Clerk Sue Davis, in the audience at last week's meeting, said the land could be annexed without electric service.

The village would annex all land from the current village limits through the American Legion Post.

Roberta Ames, of Parnell Drive, asked whether the new building is fully handicapped accessible, will have enough parking, and whether the site will be accessible from the village by sidewalk. "This should be on your to-do list," she told town board members when they said they had not yet considered the sidewalk issue.

Ames also wanted to know whether the town would use the village's colonial theme in its design. "If you're going to be annexed you want to make sure it looks like a continuous theme," she said.

Some residents said they still thought building two new municipal buildings - one for the village and one for the town - was not economical.

"How much more is this going to cost you than if you would've worked with the village and stayed in the village," asked Gerald Kohlman, of Robertson Road. "You could've bought the house next door (to the building site) and then had the room. ... Pretty soon you're going to have a village that looks like the city of Rochester."

Brundage said the $300,000 the village had already spent acquiring the East Buffalo Street property made the cost of building there too high.

Some residents questioned whether the planned building is big enough to allow for future town growth, while others asked whether it was too big. "We're looking for a building that meets our needs for at least 25 years," said Brundage.

Davis asked board members whether they would consider renting out the building that houses their current offices, while trying to sell it, to avoid having another downtown vacant storefront.

Rowe said the town hopes to put together detailed drawings and information packages, and put the project out to bid this fall. He said he hopes construction will begin next spring, and expects it to last about one year.