Tuesday night, 2/26/19, 7pm, the City Council COW will take up the matter of the soil contamination on the 1 N. Washington site (agenda item here). This is the last “off-ramp” for the City of Batavia to cut ties with Shodeen WITH NO PENALTY.  In the Redevelopment Agreement (RDA), if cost of soil remediation exceeds $350,000 (which it does), and if the City and Shodeen cannot reach an agreement on course of action, the contract is terminated.

The last time the project came before the City Council, it ended in a 7-7 tie vote, with Mayor Schielke casting the deciding vote in favor of going forward. Then the contamination was revealed. Here’s one last chance to end this project and open up the area to new ideas for development.

Call your Alderman, send emails, come to the meeting Tuesday night and let your voice be heard one more time.

Aldermen who voted last time in favor of the project (* denotes seat is in a contested election):  O’Brien, Wolff*, Chanzit, Stark*, Atac*, McFadden, Brown.

Aldermen who voted against: Salvati, Callahan, Meitzler, Malay*, Uher, Cerone, Russotto

Perhaps you might urge the City Council to postpone their vote until after the April 2 election, when the new aldermen are seated, to better reflect the will of the people.  Shodeen is, after all, only planning to begin demolition and excavation in April 2020.