CAZENOVIA — On Oct. 21, Village of Cazenovia Mayor Kurt Wheeler announced that contrary to previous beliefs, the New York State Police (NYSP) is not extending its current two-year lease of the former Cazenovia College campus.

The NYSP has been leasing a large portion of the campus since August 2023 to serve as the site of its new basic school auxiliary academy.

The auxiliary academy welcomed its first class of cadets in October 2023 and has run concurrently with the NYS Police Training Academy in Albany.

“My understanding of the situation, based on conversations with multiple sources, is that the NYS Comptroller did not approve the extension based on the challenging recruiting environment at present,” said Wheeler. “It is not currently feasible to recruit enough cadets to justify running two academies concurrently as the state had originally hoped to do.”

According to Wheeler, the current lease, which will expire on Aug. 31, 2025, allowed for two one-month extensions, but it is assumed that they will not be exercised.

The mayor also reported that the bondholders and their brokers are evaluating other offers and potential uses for the campus.

“We hope to have more information to share on that front in the near future,” he said.

As of press time, neither the NYSP nor the brokers had released a statement.