County Executive Joel Giambra and the Erie County Legislature have agreed to forgive the 2006 and 2007 County taxes on property located at 300 Manhattan Street. The property is being conveyed to the City of Buffalo as a result of a Federal Bankruptcy and will be used for the expansion of the area around Bennett High School, All-High Stadium, a City grammar school and McCarthy Park.

City officials plan on demolishing the former Nursing home with a grant from the New York State Dormitory Authority.

Click here to listen to Press Conference

Erie County Executive-Elect Chris Collins has announced five key appointments to his administration:

• Deputy County Executive – Mark Davis
• Director of Six Sigma – Alfred Hammonds, Jr
• Director of Budget & Management – Beth Kornbrekke
• Commissioner of Parks & Recreation – James Hornung, Sr.
• Commissioner of Health – Dr. Anthony Billittier

“I promised Erie County taxpayers I would hire only the best and brightest for jobs within my administration,” said Collins. “The appointments I am making today honor that promise and my goal to bring true professionalism and high quality to Erie County government. In filling these key roles, I have appointed five professionals with an incredible amount of skill, energy and talent to work on behalf of Erie County taxpayers.”

“This first round of appointments reflects my approach to hiring,” said Collins. “I am committed to bringing people with private sector experience into government. My administration will also continue to look to promote strong candidates from within, and retain commissioners and department heads with a strong record of success and accomplishment.”

CLICK THROUGH FOR BIOS OF EACH APPOINTEE AND VIDEO OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE

WNYmedia.net’s Alan Bedenko and Chris Smith recently sat down with County Executive elect Chris Collins to conduct a wide-ranging interview.

The more than 40 minute discussion covered a host of topics including his relationship with the legislature and control board, budget monitoring, the waterfront, six sigma, and union negotiations.

Over the weekend and into next week, we’ll be sharing the entire interview with you in segments.   Tell us what you think, Collins is reading and listening to your feedback.

I sort of glanced over this the other day, but Dick Kern pointed out that this could be very good news for Buffalo and trying to serve warrants out of Erie County.

This is very belated but very good news.

Serving the outstanding warrant on merely one of the 1000 or so deadbeats could possibly pay for the whole program. Jesse Isaacs of downstate Garnerville owes well over $100,000 in Housing Court fines.

Hopefully Isaacs, who has never chosen to appear for his dozens of court dates, will be among the first to get a ‘free ride’ to Bflo!

Isaacs is again scheduled on his three active cases in Housing Court on January 9 to be sentenced on his three convictions. Hopefully he will be just across the street from City Court by then. Part of his sentence might appropriately be a “GET OUT OF JAIL” card, but not free.

It should cost about $100,000. Then perhaps a few more of Bflo’s dozens of housing criminals could be more quickly arrested with his contribution.

How many times do stories like this have to happen before we can officially rid ourselves of our incompetent Erie County Sheriff?

Kevin Allen, the 27-year-old inmate released from the Erie County Holding Center last week by mistake, is now back in the custody of the Erie County Sheriff’s Department.

Allen turned himself in to authorities Thursday afternoon accompanied by the Reverand Darius Pridgen of True Bethel Baptist Church.

In our old archives which are unavailable at the moment, I had a list of 12 or 13 different stories similar to the ones below that show how inept this guy is at keeping this community safe.  An easy web search of the past two years brought up a plethora of ineptness from the Erie County Sheriff’s Department since this tool took office.

Since his election in 2005:

• Erie County jail overcrowded and unsafe, report says
• Remember Ralph “Bucky” Phillips?
• They almost screwed up the Joan Diver Case when they called off the search off prematurely
• 4 or 5 prisoners have either escaped or been set free due to “clerical errors”
• Politics as usual when it comes to excessive overtime practices
• Patronage runs deep as he got caught hiring his nephew before hiring laid off employees
• Gave DeLacy Ford ( who illegally hosted campaign fundraiser’s for him) a huge Crown vic contract even though the ECFSA mandated them to buy Chevrolet Impalas

The list goes on and on…