OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen
Village Trustee Cathy Cruver, left, called for the Village Board to accept blame after a recent dispute with a local business owner revealed unauthorized spending by the Highway Department. Village Trustee Cindy Flaherty, right, voted against assuming the financial burden to remedy the dispute.
CASSADAGA — Earlier this year, a Village Board meeting devolved into an airing of grievances between the public and the Board regarding an ongoing dispute. At a recent meeting, the Board acknowledged mistakes were made that led to the conflict.
“The bottom line is, all of this would have been avoided with a discussion and with proper procedure,” Village Trustee Cathy Cruver said.
Earlier this year, Adam Diate, owner of Valley Outdoors, addressed the Board, along with resident Judith Garncarek, for more than 10 times the amount of time for public comments. Diate demanded a solution for cement blocks that were placed on his property to protect a fire hydrant from traffic.
Before Valley Outdoors opened in October 2022, the Village issued permits to the business without the hydrant being adequately protected. Rather than making Diate pay for a solution, the Village recognized the hazard after the fact and placed cement blocks around the hydrant.
“We had people onsite inspecting things. We issued permits. We did all of that stuff and then we went back after all that was done, and said we don’t like it, so we put these blocks up,” Cruver said.
Due to turnover on the Cassadaga Village Board in recent years, Cruver and fellow Trustee Danna DuBois have joined the Board since Valley Outdoors opened in the fall of 2022. The remaining members of the Board — Mayor Bill Dorman, Deputy Mayor Bill Astry, and Trustee Cindy Flaherty — were all on the Board during the processes leading up to Valley Outdoors opening.
Flaherty said, “There was wrongdoing on both sides of the fence, so I think there should be a compromise.”
Flaherty did not want to cover the cost to protect the fire hydrant in an alternative solution after already purchasing the blocks to protect the hydrant.
“To use taxpayer money for something that’s already been paid for, doing it again, I disagree with that,” Flaherty said.
Flaherty also expressed concerns with setting a precedent when dealing with issues in the Village right of way. She also took issue with Diate moving the blocks without permission, while Dorman noted Diate also did not satisfy the regulatory requirements for a permit to be issued, including a necessary drainage plan. However, the Village did not pull Diate’s permit.
But to Cruver and DuBois, all of that was beside the point. Cruver stated, “We shouldn’t have bought those cement blocks without having the proper process followed. … It was not approved. It was not the proper process.”
Once cement blocks were placed on the property to protect the fire hydrant, the Village and Diate had an ongoing dispute that reached a boiling point at the meeting earlier this year. At the meeting he attended, Diate said, “I want the nasty looking disgusting bricks moved out of in front of my business, and I want you to put up a decent looking (solution).”
The solution, as suggested by an engineer in attendance at the previous meeting, was to install bollards surrounding the hydrant. Diate was unwilling to accept any financial responsibility for addressing the hazard. At the most recent meeting of the Village Board, Cruver made the point that the Village’s time to make such a demand had passed.
“At the permit process, we had every right to say to the owner of the business that in order for him to get the permit, he needed to include protection for the fire hydrant. We did not do that,” Cruver said.
Instead, cement blocks were purchased by Highway Superintendent Sam Alaimo without proper approval by the Village Board. The Village allows for Alaimo to make purchases up to $1,500 per purchase without needing Board approval, but the cost of the blocks amounted to approximately $2,600.
“However that happened, that’s your problem. That’s a systemic problem that you guys are having,” Garncarek said. “… There is a bigger problem here that you’re suffering from, and that’s sad.”
The Village was unaware of the cost of the blocks until Diate and Garncarek pushed them to find an answer. Garncarek filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the Village following the meeting she and Diate attended earlier this year.
“It was not voted on. This Board did not approve taxpayer money to put those up there,” DuBois said.
“We screwed up at the permit, and then we screwed up more by putting money into something that we could now have $2,600 more to fix our screw up with the permit,” Cruver said. “… We need to learn from our mistakes, but it was our mistake.”
To remedy the matter, the Board voted 3-1 in favor of approving a payment of $4,326.92 to Fox Fence to install bollards surrounding the hydrant. The Village received two quotes for the work, with S. St. George Enterprises being the higher of the bids at $5,600.
Dorman was “on the fence” before agreeing to vote in favor of the payment. Cruver and DuBois both voted in favor, while Flaherty voted against it. Astry was absent from the meeting.
“I’m with Cathy. I just want to put it to bed,” DuBois said. “… If it’s all about fire hydrant protection, bollards should have been the way to go in the first place.”
Later in the meeting, Cruver urged the Board to seek more transparency from Alaimo regarding the purchases of the Highway Department. “I don’t think it would hurt to have it be discussed,” Cruver said.
DuBois added, “Every other department has to make a motion to spend money. … I agree that we shouldn’t just walk in here and see a purchase for something (like the cement blocks) and we never even talked about it.”