Despite the rift between the “JAM” coalition and Republican councilors Bob Geraci and Roman Diamond, the Lysander town board is taking steps to sell the Lysander Radisson Community Arena.
The board voted Jan. 5 to sell the arena to Rochester-based developer DHD for $550,000. The vote was unanimous, but Diamond voiced his disapproval of the town’s lack of notice before the sale.
“I think that this board could have done a better job advertising,” Diamond said. “By creating a deadline and not specifying the deadline to the public, we put ourselves in a tricky situation.”
At the Dec. 29 meeting, the town board voted 3-2 to open the two sealed proposals in a later executive session, with Supervisor John Salisbury, Councilor Andy Reeves and Councilor Melinda Shimer voting in favor of the resolution. Geraci and Diamond dissented because they said the public had not been properly informed of the pending sale.
During the work session preceding the meeting, Diamond and Geraci also said they were not aware that Dec. 29 was the deadline for prospective buyers to turn in their proposals.
Reeves said the town had discussed the possibility of selling the rink for at least two months and that the board had announced at a meeting that the arena was “still on the sales block.”
Minutes from the Sept. 25 town board meeting show that Reeves did say the ice rink would remain on the market. The Oct. 20 meeting minutes show that Diamond said “he would like to see the ice arena sold to a private company or private institution as soon as possible.” Other than those two instances, there is no mention in public record of selling the ice rink or of Dec. 29 as a deadline for proposals.
Diamond and Geraci were not the only ones with reservations about the town board’s lack of advertising. At the Jan. 5 meeting, resident Jim Stirushnik questioned “why the deal wasn’t advertised earlier that this arena was for sale and advertised more widely, like three or four months ago.”
Salisbury said the information had been “out there for months.” Reeves said that the Messenger reported that the arena was for sale.
“There’s been no surprises here,” Reeves said.
Stirushnik suggested the town should have advertised the arena in trade publications and business magazines.
“Believe it or not, there are some of us who do not read the Messenger,” Stirushnik said.
“And you read the trade manuals?” Salisbury said.
“No, but I’m not in the market for an ice arena,” Stirushnik said.
Town Attorney Tony Rivizzigno said that people who are in the market had been in contact with the town about buying the arena.
At the Dec. 29 work session, Rivizzigno explained that the town was not required to bid out the ice arena, but the purchase will be subject to a permissive referendum. This means that any resident who is opposed to the sale may start a petition within 30 days of the vote. If more than 10 percent of the town’s residents sign the petition, the town must allow a vote on the sale.
Salisbury said that he and Reeves requested that potential buyers submit sealed proposals to Comptroller David Rahrle by Dec. 29.
Salisbury said this was the “fairest and the most expeditious way” to sell the ice arena. Reeves said the same protocol was followed when the Greater Baldwinsville Ice Arena (GBIA) submitted a purchase offer on the rink last year.
“You had time to let the board members know what’s going on,” Diamond said.
“When we set up the 29th for a possible brainstorming [session] at Bob’s request, this meeting was originally set up as a work session to brainstorm the ice rink,” Reeves said. “And I sat here in front of everybody — no executive session — and said, ‘With any luck we’re going to have one, possibly two quotes by the 29th,’ and that wasn’t the first time.”
“This is inappropriate,” Geraci said. “If you had said … ‘Look, by the 29th we may have some people that may be interested in submitting proposals. Do you want to set it up to open them on the 29th?’ Nothing like that was said.”
Geraci said more potential buyers could have come forward if the board had been more open about soliciting proposals.
“We didn’t tell the community at large that we were doing this,” Geraci said.
“If I had my druthers, I’d say let’s put it out to bid,” Rivizzigno said. “But my druthers is we’ve got to stop the bleeding. The sooner we stop the bleeding, the better off we are.”
Salisbury said a bidding process would take until February or March.
“You want to hold up the process,” he told Diamond.
“The ends never justify the means, especially in government,” Geraci said.
“The Monday morning quarterbacking has to stop,” Reeves said.
Details of DHD’s offer
The town received two purchase proposals Dec. 29 — one from Baldwinsville’s Peter Ramin, vice president of Syracuse Pro Sports, and another from DHD. Ramin and a DHD representative, Bob Amodie, presented their quotes to the board at its Jan. 2 work session.
DHD, which has offices in Rochester, N.Y., and Charlotte, N.C., has invested heavily in Western New York, including the Paul Louis Arena at the Skating Institute of Rochester. That arena is managed by former National Hockey League player Rory Fitzpatrick.
Amodie said Fitzpatrick is one of several former hockey players who work with DHD. He called the Lysander arena a “natural fit” for DHD.
DHD is offering $550,000 in cash with an initial deposit of $5,000. The company is shooting for a closing date in January. DHD plans to maintain both ice rinks in the arena and is scouting pro shops from Western New York and Canada.
“There will be a substantial amount of money invested in the rink to make it a premier rink at the end of the day,” Amodie said.
Ramin offered $325,000 with a target closing date of May 1. His plan would have converted the red rink to a multi-use turf field, which will be primarily used for field hockey and softball. Ramin said this field would have been the largest indoor field in the county besides the one at Syracuse University.
Minutes madness
At the Jan. 5 meeting, Salisbury proposed a resolution that “should end unnecessary discussion about the minutes,” as he wrote on the agenda.
Salisbury proposed that Town Clerk Lisa Dell’s minutes be posted directly on the town’s website without requiring board approval.
“The town board will not undertake the job of trying to correct the draft minutes. The minutes will stand as prepared by the town clerk and the town residents can compare the draft to the PAC-B TV recording,” the resolution read.
Diamond cast the only dissenting vote on the resolution, saying that by posting unreviewed minutes the town board was “delegating its responsibilities” of ensuring an accurate record of meetings.
During the preceding work session, Dell argued with Salisbury, Reeves and Shimer about the resolution and her preparation of the minutes.
“The law says I prepare the minutes. It doesn’t say I prepare the draft minutes,” Dell said.
Geraci said “draft” implied that there would be a later, final version of the minutes.
“I’m a grammatician and it just drives me crazy,” he said of the implication.
Dell said she was open to receiving and making corrections from town board members, but Salisbury replied that every time he, Reeves or Shimer suggested a correction Dell would reply with a “nasty email” accusing them of harassment. Reeves said he took issue with some quotations being “out of sequence” in Dell’s minutes.
“People need to see what we see, not what we fixed,” Reeves said. “The best thing that could happen [if we pass this resolution] is we get a good set of minutes out there.”
The board settled on “as prepared by the town clerk” as the language that will appear on the website.
