APRIL
2 2021
Wellsville High students back 4 days a week BY KATHRYN ROSS
File Photo: The Empire Cheese plant is shown off Haskell Road in Cuba. Owner Great Lakes Cheese Co. Inc. is looking to build a $500 million plant in Belvidere, creating 200 new jobs and maintaining more than 200 existing jobs, but the firm is closing the longtime Cuba facility in the process.
Allegany County IDA steps closer to eminent domain for Belvidere cheese plant BY BOB CLARK BELVIDERE — Economic development officials moved a step closer to using eminent domain to help build a $500 million cheese plant if the landowner and developer cannot come to an agreement. The Allegany County Industrial Development Agency board, in a special meeting Monday, unanimously approved a resolution of determination and findings condemning 321 acres of farmland in the towns of Angelica and Amity for a new Great Lakes Cheese Inc. facility. The resolution is one of the steps on the road to using the legal process to take the property from its owner while providing market rate compensation. However,
officials hope that an agreement can be reached between GLC and Marshlands LLC, the property’s owner. Under the proposal, the site would be used to construct a cheese manufacturing facility with an expected workforce of more than 400 to replace the current facility in the town of Cuba, which employs around 225. Those workers would be offered jobs at the new facility. Officials hope to break ground in the third quarter of this year and be fully operational by Jan. 1, 2025. IDA board chairman Richard Ewell said that the nation was founded on the “freedom to be left alone, but in this case, over 200 of our friends and neighbors face being left without a job through no fault of their own. We do not want that
to happen, the IDA doesn’t want that to happen and I don’t want it to happen.” OFFICIALS LAMENTED considering eminent domain, preferring a settlement without going to court. “Despite certain comments at the public hearing, both the IDA and the company have gone to absolutely every extent they can to try to get a deal with these landowners that fairly compensate them and would avoid considering eminent domain,” said Dan Spitzer, an attorney for the IDA. “I’m hopeful the company and the landowners will come to a deal.” The amount to be paid appears to be a major point of contention in the negotiations, with IDA officials
concerned that the disagreement could torpedo the largest single-site economic development project in county history. Spitzer said that a deal is possible unless “the landowner refuses to negotiate or simply makes a demand that is impossible.” While IDA officials did not disclose the amount of the offer, they indicated it was roughly eight times what the property was valued at by an independent appraisal. The properties are assessed at $189,500, according to county records. That figure cannot be used to generate a price for the eminent domain proceedings, instead it is the value used
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WELLSVILLE — Members of the Board of Education were pleased when they met the evening of the day secondary students went back to school for four days a week. Since the beginning of the school year, secondary students have been divided into two groups — Wellsville and Lions — and each group attended classes in school only two days a week, with the rest of the week spent on remote learning. On Monday, the Wellsville Lions all sat in classrooms together for the first time in seven months — wearing masks and social distancing by 6 feet. Superintendent David Foster said the planning for the return to school started after Christmas break. “We’re very proud of these people,” he said, telling the board it was the guidance department and administration that put the plan together. Guidance instructors Michelle Alvord, Michelle Robinson and Lindsey Marcus and administrators Mary Ellen O’Connell, Jason Mank and Aaron Brubaker all got a round of applause for their efforts. “Aaron (Brubaker) did a heck of a job. He counted everything,” Foster said. Foster went on to say that the board and administration are hoping that after April 19 the students will be back in school five days a week for the last quarter of the school year. The return for secondary students, following COVID-19 protocols was made possible by rearranging rooms and finding ad- Wellsville continued on ............. page 2
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ditional space for overflow where students can Zoom into their classrooms. Foster explained that different students are in the overflow room each day. Each day the teacher decides which kids, “usually the ones who do the best with remote learning” go to the overflow room. “We don’t know what other schools are doing. This is what works best for Wellsville,” Foster said. However, many questions remain as the end of the school year approaches. School principal O’Connell said that the class officers are working on events such as the high school prom and the senior class trip. “They’re being extremely mature about the need for planning these things,” she said, adding that instead of a single senior trip to a metropolitan area, that they are looking at day trips that seniors will enjoy. As for the prom, she said, the classes are looking at what can be done in an outside venue. Foster noted that other events such as sports will probably still be limited to no more than two supporters per athlete for indoor sports or possibly no more than 200 for outdoor sports. The big question concerning the school year, however, is testing, specifically Regent’s testing. In February, waivers not to test were submitted to the state. At the end of the last school year, students who were passing in their Regents courses received exemptions. At a March 15 Zoom meeting with the state education
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