Among the items tackled recently by the Fulton Common Council was a settlement of a tax dispute with the owners of the closed P&C supermarket.
Penn Traffic, the company that owned and then shut down P&C at the end of a long battle against bankruptcy, sued the city to lower the assessment on the company’s store at River Glen Plaza.
The store was assessed at $2 million; Penn Traffic wanted it lowered to $1 million.
Mayor Ron Woodward said the city settled at $1.25 million and Aldermen approved the settlement. “With no business, the value (of the empty store) is quite depreciated,” Woodward said. Most of the shopping center’s storefronts are vacant. A development company allegedly foiled plans by Cayuga Community College to buy the grocery store and turn it into an expanded campus for the growing school.
Woodward said the city will have to pay back about $13,000 in taxes paid by Penn Traffic in 2009 under the old assessment. He said the Fulton City School District will have to return money to Penn Traffic as well.
Also:
- Aldermen approved William Porter Real Estate’s plans to created expanded parking for the Michaud Nursing Home at 501-505 S. Second St. An unused grass lot will be paved to make 27 more parking spaces. “We see it as an improvement,” said Woodward. “Everybody in the neighborhood’s happy” about the plan, said the area’s Alderman, Daryl Hayden. “I haven’t heard any complaints;
- Aldermen approved the sale of the closed Valero gas station at 48 W. First St. S. to Eleanor Reynolds for $89,000. The city seized the property because of unpaid property taxes. Woodward said the city will fix a broken plate glass window before the sale closes;
- Aldermen okayed plans to add street lights to the area near the former Nestle chocolate plant along Fay St. and S. Sixth and S. Seventh streets. Nestle used to maintain lights in its large parking lot in that area. “It lit the area up good,” said Hayden, the Alderman for the area. Now, “it’s pitch black up there.” He said there have been incidents of vandalism and of people having gas stolen from their cars. He said better lighting would deter that kind of crime.
- Council member Kim Roy returned to her seat at the table after an absence of many months. City officials said Roy was not at meetings but remained active as an Alderman during that time. “I missed everyone and I appreciate everyone helping me out over the last six months,” she said. “You may not have seen me, but I was here. I want everyone to know I’m back.”
