A Visit from the County Executive

Ripley, the once forgotten child of New York State, on the outskirts of civilization, more a part of Pennsylvania than New York due to the proximity to shopping, lower taxes and job opportunity; left in the dust, literally, with its country roads; strangled by high New York State taxes and a $54 million state deficit, unwilling or unable to entice business to stay; collapse of the school merger and needed solutions to educate the children of the community; these were some of the issues Greg Edwards, Chautauqua County Executive, faced when engaging the Meeder’s Restaurant crowd on Tuesday morning this week.

With small groups of people around tables, drinking coffee, eating breakfast, Mr. Edwards addressed the concerns and sometimes anger of the Ripley community. “Why hasn’t anything been done to build up Shortman Road,” local resident Ray Williams asked. Mr. Edwards replied, “I’ve been pushing for a Welcome Center at the Shortman Road exit. Pennsylvania has one for less than 50 miles of their state along the I-90 corridor. New York State has almost 400 miles on Interstate 90. We should have a Welcome Center here.” When asked why people would stop at a welcome center with no restaurants, motels or businesses in the area, he talked about the business project that has been in the works for some time now. “One hundred fifty acres of land has been secured behind Regal Trucking on Shortman Road,” he said. “An enormous amount of effort has been invested in this project. The DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) and archeological studies have been completed, water and sewer is being put in. The land will be “shovel ready” by the end of summer, and that’s important to prospective businesses, to have the site ready for development.” Although a firm offer has not been made for the prime property, distribution and transportation businesses have expressed interest. Business like this will bring other businesses to the town, building up the Shortman Road interchange, and eventually the village itself, Edwards believes.

When questioned about property taxes in the area, Mr. Edwards pointed out that our property tax has decreased for the past several years. “How will the wind mill project impact me,” asked local businessman Bob Bentley. “It will create a direct cash influx to the property owners,” explained Edwards, “as well as substantially lower property taxes.” As to how much the wind mill project would lower taxes, he deferred to Town Supervisor, Peter Ryan, who stated, “We’re being very careful about the process, making sure it’s done right. If the project is approved, and we’re a ways from that, it could result in a significant tax reduction for property owners.” A lighter tax burden would not be the only benefit to the town. In order to bring the component parts of the wind mills into position, roads would need to be widened, strengthened, and in some cases rebuilt. “Cross road intersections will need to be built up in order for the trucks to make the turns,” Edwards stated. As for roads in general in Chautauqua County, he said some tough decisions need to be made on the delivery of services to the roads in the county. “Who should be in the business of highway construction, maintenance and plowing is one of the issues that is being analyzed,” he said.

The fate of Ripley’s school is still in the balance. “Only two school mergers have happened in New York State in the last 10 years,” commented Mr. Edwards. In discussion with Ripley School Superintendent John Hogan and Business Manager, John Frey, he learned that options are still being pursued for Ripley’s students, even though the Westfield/Ripley merger was voted down. “Mergers aren’t on the horizon and tuitioning out our students was not approved,” commented Mr. Hogan. “We’re exploring other opportunities for our high school students at this time.”

Greg Edwards briefly addressed the crowd by saying his folks regularly go to Meeder’s on Friday nights and that he has long enjoyed the village as a fisherman. “With the addition of the Wine Trail, Quincy Cellars has become one of the places I regularly suggest people go to have a unique winery-dinner experience,” he added. “The pride this town has taken in the Veterans’ Monument was almost overwhelming as evidenced by the emotions I expressed at the dedication ceremony.” He went on to say the Memorial Day parade this year was one of the most well attended and delivered he has seen to date. He concluded by saying, “The town has tremendous potential due to its location and I have been working hard to capitalize upon [that potential] for the residents and the county.”

It’s hard to solve a community’s problems in just over an hour, but Greg Edwards tried his best to assure the people of Ripley that progress is being made on a number of fronts. “It was one of the liveliest groups and most informative community conversations I have had to date.”