Town of Niagara Board hears from residents

By Senior Contributing Writer Benjamin Joe

Town of Niagara Supervisor Sylvia Virtuoso and the Town Board cleared the air Tuesday night, dismissing rumors of any town involvement in activity on the property behind Colonial Drive, and assuring a large crowd the drainage problems in town are being looked into.

Besides items on the meeting agenda, Virtuoso and the Town Board listened to several public commenters, including Suzanne Rizzo of Colonial Drive, who asked if the board knew anything about the digging behind her and her neighbors’ housing or the taking down of several trees.

“Did the town give them permission to use town property to access this field and cut down town trees?” Rizzo asked.

Virtuoso deferred to Corey Auerbach, attorney for the town in the development of Bri Estates, who explained, “the ball was in the developer’s court” and the town had not received any application from the developer since it had tried to sue the town in 2024.

Auerbach also said the original application made in 2017 was moot because the town code had changed since then and no longer allowed the smaller lot sizes the developer had applied to build.

As of yet, the developer reportedly has not sent in an application for any plan or asked for permission for any of its activities.

In other news

•The flooding in early August was also addressed by the Town Board.

Deputy Supervisor Marc Carpenter said, after the meeting, if the ditch behind Ishua Drive needed to be cleaned out, the New York Power Authority owned the property and the town could not clean it without its permission.

Highway Superintendent Rick Sirianni said he and Town Engineer Bob Lannon would be looking into the ditch north of Colonial Drive made by the developer. Sirianni said the changes to the area’s drainage made him “uncomfortable” but, between he and Lannon, as well as Building Inspector Charles Haseley, he hoped to have some kind of solution.

“They filled in the existing ditch and then made their own ditch,” he said, noting they may have needed a permit to do so.

•A public hearing on a new noise ordinance will be held at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 15 in Town Hall.

Carpenter said the ordinance would cut the permitted decimal level “almost by half.”

“We’ve been looking at it a while and we’re lowering the decimal level,” he said.