JAMESTOWN – The city of Jamestown is hoping to save money in the future by annexing a piece of city-owned property currently located in the town of Ellicott.
On Monday the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities approved a resolution asking Jamestown City Council to begin the process to annex the BPU’s Dow Street substation, which sits in the town of Ellicott but is adjacent to the city line.
According to the BPU, the Dow Street substation property is assessed at more than $7.8 million. Currently, the BPU electric division pays approximately $322,100 a year in real property taxes to the county, town of Ellicott, village of Falconer and Falconer Central School District. If the property was annexed and included in the city, then the BPU would save around $162,000 a year – because the BPU would make tax equivalency payments to both the city and Jamestown school district.
As part of the annexation effort, the BPU also signed off on a contract with attorney Kathleen Bennett of the law firm Bond, Schoeneck & King – based out of Syracuse. The agreement is expected to have a not-to-exceed spending limit of $40,000 and that amount would allow the BPU to adequately work through all initial phases of the annexation process, and to allow for 6 to 9 months of legal support dependent on any formal challenges to the annexation decision.
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