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Online Dialog Forum -> General Forum -> Save the N.T. Klydel Nature Center
Post Info TOPIC: Save the N.T. Klydel Nature Center
Jim Hufnagel


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Save the N.T. Klydel Nature Center
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Tomorrow (Tuesday) night the North Tonawanda Board of Education will decide whether to sell the Klydel Nature Center and expose it to development. This beautiful nature center is located in North Tonawanda and it would be a tragedy to lose it. The Board meeting is at 7 PM on Nov. 15 in North Tonawanda.


I have information that the North Tonawanda school district's Klydel Wetland property is connected to Senator Maziarz's "friends and family" club.  I can't prove the senator's connection as no one ever can, but I do know the following:

1) A property at 1141 Kinkead parcel is part of the Klydel Wetland as it was originally designated by DEC. On Nov. 30, 2005, a public hearing will be held to rezone this property to "commercial". Adjacent landowners have not been notified of this spot zoning (surrounded by residential to the east and wetland property to the west).

In October 2004, Mr. Sekera's company bought this triangular piece of property east of the Kinkead "paper" street and adjacent to the Preserve at 1141 Kinkead (see details for his company's three adjoining properties adjacent to the preserve at the bottom of this message).

2) Mr. Sekera is the father-in-law of Rick Winter. Rick is the former chief-of-staff of Senator
George Maziarz. Rick now serves as the chief lobbyist providing access for mega-business clients to Senator Maziarz.  Rick has been a long time business partner of George's.  This is the same cast of characters involved in the Nov. 1996 deal with Mayor McGinnis's son and Benderson Development for a Tops store in Klydel (which eventually Benderson withdrew after public outrage).

3) The North Tonawanda school board has owned its 9.2 acre Klydel Wetland nature preserve property for many decades.  All of a sudden they voted to sell it at last month's board meeting without telling the public that the 1014 Raymond Street parcel has a large "Klydel Wetland" sign at its entrance on Woodward Avenue. No school board member visited the property before deciding to sell it.

4) When city officials in North Tonawanda were trying to figure out wetland mitigation deals for the Briarwood subdivision, it was learned that city officials and others were talking about "preserving" Klydel as a form of mitigation to destroy other wetlands in North Tonawanda.  We do not know exactly who wants to own the Klydel parcel so they can use it for mitigation or worse.  We see it more as a form of blackmail.

5) If Sekera's Tonawandas Professional Bldg company wants to disturb the Klydel Wetland for their project on Kinkead, they could offer the school board property as part of their mitigation if they buy it.

6) The city's master plan is from 1953, pre-dating wetland laws with no provision for protection.

All 3 parcels owned by Sekera's company are located east and adjacent to the North Tonawanda Preserve in the Klydel Wetland.

Parcel Identifications- Newest property owned by Ray Sekera's company:

SBL 176.18-4-90
OWNER Tonawandas Professional Bldg CONDITION
ADDRESS 1141 Kinkead Ave NEIGHBORHOOD CODE 400
MUNICIPALITY (SWIS) North Tonawanda (291200) SCHOOL CODE 291200
FRONTAGE 261.15 SITE NBR 1
DEPTH 120 ZONE CODE R1-2
SFLA 0 SALES DATE 2004/10/08
ACRES 0.32 SALES PRICE $6,500
PROPERTY CLASS 311 DEED BOOK 3294
YEAR BUILT 0 DEED PAGE 436
LAND ASSESSMENT $2,000 X-COORDINATE 422820
TOTAL ASSESSMENT $2,000 Y-COORDINATE 1112860

Property #2 owned by Mr. Sekera's company, recently changed owners' company name on this medical building for $550,000 sale price:

Parcel Identification

SBL 176.18-4-38
OWNER Tonawanda Prof Bldg CONDITION
ADDRESS 1089 Kinkead Ave NEIGHBORHOOD CODE 2
MUNICIPALITY (SWIS) North Tonawanda (291200) SCHOOL CODE 291200
FRONTAGE 531.53 SITE NBR 1
DEPTH 0 ZONE CODE R-C
SFLA 0 SALES DATE
ACRES 1.6 SALES PRICE $0
PROPERTY CLASS 465 DEED BOOK
YEAR BUILT 0 DEED PAGE
LAND ASSESSMENT $93,000 X-COORDINATE 422830
TOTAL ASSESSMENT $397,500 Y-COORDINATE 1112560

Property #3, was voted DOWN for a C-1 rezoning a few years ago by the city council yet it shows on the internet mapper as rezoned to C-1:

Parcel Identification

SBL 176.18-4-37
OWNER Tona Prof Bldg Inc CONDITION
ADDRESS 404 Meadow Dr NEIGHBORHOOD CODE 350
MUNICIPALITY (SWIS) North Tonawanda (291200) SCHOOL CODE 291200
FRONTAGE 162.99 SITE NBR 1
DEPTH 160.17 ZONE CODE C-1
SFLA 0 SALES DATE
ACRES 0.61 SALES PRICE $0
PROPERTY CLASS 311 DEED BOOK
YEAR BUILT 0 DEED PAGE
LAND ASSESSMENT $18,500 X-COORDINATE 422830
TOTAL ASSESSMENT $18,500 Y-COORDINATE 1112310

For a map on the Internet, see this link:
http://erie-gis.co.erie.ny.us/website/niagarany/Viewer.htm

I'll be calling in to Scott Leffler's Dialog, 11 AM on WLVL, sometime during the next couple of days (and after tomorrow night's School Board meeting) to discuss this in more detail.





-- Edited by Jim Hufnagel at 13:23, 2005-11-14

-- Edited by Jim Hufnagel at 13:26, 2005-11-14

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Jim Hufnagel


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The meeting is 175 Humphrey St in North Tonawanda.




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"Activist to urge School Board to protect land"
By ANGELICA MORRISON
BUFFALO NEWS NIAGARA CORRESPONDENT
11/14/2005

NORTH TONAWANDA, NY - Environmental activist Liz Kaszubski plans to urge the School Board on Tuesday night not to sell the Klydel Wetland near Woodward and Linwood avenues.

The district owns about nine acres of the wetland - part of it known as the North Tonawanda Audubon Nature Preserve. Kaszubski, who manages the preserve, said last week the property is the home of a rare tree, the Shumard oak.

"In fact, that's the first one that's been discovered in New York. It's really considered endangered because it's so unknown," she said. "If a developer buys it, they'll cut it down. I don't know how many trees of that type might be on that property."

The board meets at 7 p.m. in the Board of Education Building, 175 Humphrey St.

Kaszubski said selling the property would have an impact on the neighborhood and the preserve.

"They can ruin the aesthetic value of the nature preserve if they were to sell that nine acres and wipe out all the trees. It would be a skinny little nature preserve," she said.

At its October meeting, the board directed the district's lawyer to start paperwork for a referendum on the sale of the property. Even though the board is split on whether or not to sell the property, the vote passed unanimously.

Board President Scott Schultz also opposes the sale.

"At that point, I felt that I would still have the ability to vote no if anybody was going to use the property for something I didn't like," said Schultz, who said this is an old issue that resurfaces every few years. "I fought for years not to sell it."

He fought because the property has been used as a learning tool for students in science classes. Students from the University at Buffalo and Buffalo State College use the property as a resource as well.

Board member Joseph Stringaro said he supports the sale of all property the district doesn't use, in part because such land could serve as a liability to the district if someone gets hurt. Stringaro also said selling the property could help lower school taxes.

"I guess I would reconsider, but I just can't see the School Board having property and not having use for it," he said.

URL Source: http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20051114/1043293.asp





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Anonymous

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Great post!  The school board in NT should be plenty aware that the property they own is already used by the district's students for science purposes and for learning an appreciation of nature.


It appears over the past year as if North Tonawanda's politicians feel the city should be immune to wetland laws. Perhaps it is because a certain state senator has a propensity of hauling NYSDEC officials into his office whenever he wants one of his inner circle and/or their associates to build homes in wetlands for some unsuspecting little old lady who avoids buying the swamp in Florida ... but gets conned into buying a wetland in North Tonawanda. 


The school board should allow a local conservation group to handle what they clearly feel they cannot.  Doesn't one of them take care of it already?  Selling it to a developer isn't right for whomever may get stuck living there in the future if DEC doesn't have the guts to stop the piecemeal destruction of wetlands filled with homes.



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Anonymous

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Liz K.? Why are you posting anonymously?

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niagaranow


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JIm,


 Thanks for the informative post. It is a sad day for the City of NT if all you wrote is true, which I'm sure it is. I wonder if that land would fall under the Farmland Protection Act if NT has no wetland regulations. I seriously think there is something wrong  if there has been no new masterplan in place since 1953. That would be my first question. 1953 was 52 years ago!!


 Everyone should insist on an updated plan before any land is allowed to be sold that belongs to the taxpayers. Maybe someone could force a public referendum so that people could have the opportunity to vote on whether to sell or not. Not everyone would be in favor of keeping it, nor do some people care. Urbanization does something to the mind sometimes and not always good things.


 I hope I catch your call on the show. I listen intermittently when I'm in the car so don't always get to hear everything.



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Jim Hufnagel


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The N. T. School Board decided tonight to preserve the Klydel Nature Center for future generations of children to learn and enjoy nature. Several of the Board members spoke eloquently about the need to educate the students of the district about the importance of wetlands, wildlife and the rare Shumard oak tree that exists there.

What a great community North Tonawanda is! They should be very proud of their school board.





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niagaranow


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Glad to hear the good news Jim. How many people cared and showed up at the meeting?

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Jim Hufnagel


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Many thanks to the packed house who attended the North Tonawanda Board of Education meeting tonight. In a show of hands, everyone in attendance was FOR the school district giving its land to Buffalo Audubon Society instead of selling it to developers. 
 
Liz Kaszubski of Buffalo Audubon and NTHS Earth Science teacher, Paul Swisher, presented the case for preservation to the board.
 
Later in the meeting, the school board unanimously reversed their unanimous vote of last month to sell their Klydel Wetland nature preserve property through Hunt Realty.  The school district attorney will now research selling the 9.2-acre district property located at 1014 Raymond St. to Audubon for $1.  Under state law, that sale to Audubon must be approved by North Tonawanda taxpayers.
 
Larry Beahan and Art Klein of Sierra Club were in attendance at the board meeting as well as many Adirondack Mtn. Club members.  There were students and a science teacher from North Tonawanda High School.  Some members of the City of North Tonawanda Environmental Committee were in attendance and also a Western New York Land Conservancy board member, Paul Lehman. There were quite a few residents there, including those living in the neighborhood adjacent to the nature preserve present.
 
It is a great victory and a credit to all who attended in support.  Thanks again !!  We couldn't have done it without you!

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Anonymous

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??? "We couldn't have done it without you.." ???

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Jim Hufnagel


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Yeah, the King and I.




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Anonymous

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Signed,  Shumard Patsy Doofus.



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