Chautauqua County officials have approved a property sale in the city of Dunkirk which will permit an existing city business to expand.

In 2018, Roberts Road Freezer, LLC purchased about 10 acres of land from the county to build a 100,000 foot freezer. The company, which was at time was doing business with Fieldbrook Foods, left an option open for them to purchase another three parcels of land for $1 in the next six years.

During the legislature meeting Wednesday, county lawmakers agreed to modify the resolution to allow the company to purchase an additional 7.5 acres.

Mark Geise, Deputy County Executive for Economic Development and Chief Executive Officer of the County of Chautauqua Industrial Development Agency, told county leaders in committee meetings last week that Wells, which now owns Fieldbrook, is doing an internal expansion, which is why Roberts Road Freezer, LLC wants the additional land. He declined to give specifics on any possible expansion.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Legislator Robert Bankowski, D-Dunkirk, noted this is the former site of Roblin Steel. “Roberts Road Freezer Company has consumed half this lot of land to build their new cold storage facility. The remainder piece of this property is somewhat of an odd-shaped parcel and it would only benefit the Roberts Road Freezer Company for a possible expansion down the road, so I’m 100% behind this resolution,” he said.

Legislator Kevin Muldowney, R-Dunkirk, agreed. He noted the site took more than a dozen years to develop.

“It’s really a nice situation where the federal government came in, New York State came in, Chautauqua County came in, and the city of Dunkirk came in to help this,” he said. “Each level of government helped to clean up this property.”

Muldowney credited a number of current and former officials for helping make the property viable. “From Mark Thomas (former county executive), to Willie Rosas (current mayor), to Amo Houghton (late Congressional representative), to Pat McGee (late state senator), and Cathy Young (former state senator) all played a big part in this project. How wonderful this is that a company has actually built on this property as a result of all those efforts and they actually want more,” he said. “It’s a real true example of governments working together.”

The resolution was unanimously approved.

In other business, current Democratic Election Commissioner Norman P. Green, appeared to say farewell, even though he remains in his current position.

Green said during Wednesday’s meeting that he was told last February by Legislator Chuck Nazzaro, D-Jamestown, that the Democrats on the legislature would not back his reappointment at the end of 2020. “I accepted that. I went to work every day, worked hard every day. I didn’t give up. … I did what I’m supposed to do,” he said.

Green noted that he has held the position for 22 years, and before that was a regional manager and had served in the U.S. Army. He also served on the Ellicott Town Board.

Green shared how he helped the county transition from using lever to electronic voting machines, something mandated by the state. He shared the challenges of running elections during the pandemic, including helping schools with their elections.

He also shared with pride that they have been able to keep their spending flat for more than a decade. “Our budget is approximately the same amount of money that it was in 2009,” he said. “No other department can say that.”

On Wednesday, the county legislature received a certification from the Democratic Executive Committee for the appointment of Green as election commissioner but did not act on it. By not voting on the recommendation, it appears the county legislature is forcing the full Democratic County Committee to come up with a different nomination.

In the fall Green endorsed Lus Torres, his deputy, to become the next election commissioner, but the legislature did not act on her appointment either and that recommendation has since expired.

By law, the county legislature cannot fire Green, and cannot choose its own candidate for the position but it can avoid appointing a person, as it has done for several months. Green will remain in the position as election commissioner until the legislature officially accepts a nomination from the county Democrats.