Setting the Record Straight
(Uploaded on February 17, 2007)
The Church At Shawnee Landing
P.O. Box 196
Wheatfield, NY 14120
FROM: Vic Baker, Moderator for Development
TO: News Media
RE: Supervisor Demler Comments of February 15, 2007
The Supervisor’s claim that the Church has not fulfilled promises at Shawnee Landing is misinformed, inconsistent and disingenuous.
He complains that the Church will not build a road to Shawnee, guaranteeing a second access to the Town Homes in accordance with recommendations from traffic studies and the Town’s own site plan approval.
Yet the Church has already undertaken the expense of constructing the roadbed from Shawnee to the Town Homes to allow access for construction. At the same time, the Town of Wheatfield has disregarded the traffic studies and its own legally approved site plan, by voting to permanently close the Demler/Klemer Road access.
The Supervisor can’t possibly expect any reasonable person to accept his confounded, twisted logic. His version of reality disregards the added traffic that a single egress from the site will pose for Shawnee Road. Church members and tenants alike will have only one way in and out. How does that relieve traffic congestion?
Traffic studies will clearly show far more traffic on Shawnee than Demler and Klemer Roads. The Supervisor has cast those findings aside, bowing to complaints from some neighbors without any foundation confirmed by expert analysis of the traffic flows.
We have heard further unfounded accusations that The Church intended to build the Town Homes and not a new church complex.
We changed our name from Payne Avenue Christian Church to The Church AT Shawnee Landing. Why would we assume the new name if we intended to move elsewhere? Furthermore, the church has invested considerable time, effort and money in the plans to develop our new facility at Shawnee Landing.
What should be clear, is that the successful completion of church construction at Shawnee Landing DOES depend on successful construction of The Town Homes at Shawnee Landing.
The Supervisor has said he has done nothing to obstruct, delay or prevent construction of The Town Homes. Let’s review recent events. In December, he attempted to impose a three-week moratorium on ALL construction projects in the Town of Wheatfield. After other contractors threatened lawsuits, he backed down.
He then ordered strict enforcement of a 10-ton weight limit on Demler/Klemer Roads, precluding heavier construction vehicles from delivering materials to the site. Presumably 50-ton garbage trucks are exempt from this selectively enforced limit.
He ordered the Town Highway Department to barricade the ONLY entrance to the Town Homes site. He sent a Sheriff’s Deputy on more than one occasion to enforce that closure. The contractor lost many rare good weather days in December and January as a result of the Supervisor’s actions.
The Town Attorney asked if the Church would build a roadbed from Shawnee Road to provide construction vehicles access to the Town Homes site. The Church complied, and the road was built at church expense. Then, in January, after the road was completed, the Town Board voted to PERMANENTLY close the Demler/Klemer Road access drive. The Supervisor falsely asserts that The Church put a time limit on the use of its gravel roadbed by Town Homes construction vehicles. That is patently false. We never placed any time limit on the use of the road by our development partners.
While construction vehicles have access from Shawnee, the site is still officially landlocked and illegal once complete because the Town has permanently denied access to the only adjacent dedicated road. The Town is now insisting that the Church turn 1.44 acres of its property over to the Town of Wheatfield comprising the road to Shawnee known as Captain’s Way, thus creating a dedicated public access to the Town Homes. Such an action will compromise the Church’s previously approved site plan and result in additional legal, design and construction expenses. Nonetheless, The Church has agreed to consider that option under certain conditions that would protect our interests.
While the Town may find this to be a practical idea, The Church has major concerns about this tact. It still forces all traffic onto Shawnee Road, causing an effect that has yet to be studied by qualified experts. It would potentially expose the Town, The Church and The Town Homes to unknown liabilities, since the action is not supported by proper traffic impact studies.
The Supervisor further asserts that he supports the Town Homes project. Yet he has publicly boasted about sending letters to federal and state authorities asking that funds be withdrawn from the project. Any withdrawal of funds from The Town Homes budget jeopardizes The Church’s project as well. So it is somewhat bizarre that the Supervisor worries about The Church project not going forward, when his actions have created a cloud of uncertainty that has placed The Church’s own plans and finances in jeopardy.
We place our faith in a higher authority, and pray for good faith efforts to allow both The Town Homes and Church projects to proceed to completion at Shawnee Landing.
