SALAMANCA — Voters of the Salamanca City Central School District Tuesday soundly approved a proposal to purchase and lease four properties.
Residents of the district voted 164-31 to permit the district to purchase three parcels of land near the 50 Iroquois Drive campus for about $200,000 and enter into a lease with the Seneca Nation for fourth property near Veterans Memorial Park.
“An 84 percent passing rate is really a strong statement that the community supports the kind of work we’re trying to accomplish,” said Robert Breidenstein, district superintendent. “A lot of hard work and communication goes into securing a vote with a high positive support rate.”
The three properties to purchase are located at 90 Fern Ave., 635 Front Ave. and the vacant parcel of land adjacent to 635 Front Ave., next to the bus garage. The lease agreement is for the property next to 413 Front Ave., adjacent to Vets Park.
With only about 200 voters casting ballots, Breidenstein said the ongoing pandemic and cold weather likely contributed to the lower turnout. However, he said voter turnout about a decade ago had historically been around 250 people for larger referendums like budget votes.
“We did receive 36 or so absentee ballots, and that’s a little higher than I would have expected,” he added.
The property purchases come with no tax increase to the district residents and will be funded from existing, budgeted district reserves. The respective costs for the purchases are $75,000 for 90 Fern Ave., $89,000 for 635 Front Ave., $35,000 for the lot next to 635 Front Ave. and an annual lease payment of $918 for the lot next to 413 Front Ave.
Closing on acquiring all the properties may take about eight months, Breidenstein said, due to the complexities of selling to a school district and working around COVID.
“I will say the leasing department at the Seneca Nation has been absolutely fantastic to work with over the last few property acquisitions and purchases that we’ve had voter approval on,” he said.
Breidenstein said the development of these sites may be included in the ongoing capital project, approved in the spring of 2018, and would be to further enhance the 50 Iroquois Drive campus fields, including adding parking and expanding bleacher capacity, concessions and restrooms.
In the meantime, Breidenstein said the district will continue to work with their architects on what a design for the main campus field will look like and talk about potential future votes for further upgrades and amenities to the sites.
“One of the things that we heard during the Vets Park conversations, vote and construction was concerns from the community about parking,” he explained. “One of those properties will help us, but those are future project votes and future referendums, and we will get back to the community and talk about a time table for when the community can weigh in on if that’s something they value.”
As a landlocked city district, Breidenstein said they are limited on space for future development and improvements on the main campus, so acquiring these properties gives them greater flexibility and an ability to respond to suggestions from the community to include more amenities for that community to use.
“Based on the positives we’ve received from the construction at Vets Park and the STEAM addition, we think this will drive student achievement — of course, that’s our primary objective — but also drive some economic development in the city, which is good for business and the community,” he added.
(Contact managing editor Kellen Quigley at kquigleysp@gmail.com)
