County gives Cohocton a break on road work by Mary Perham

Legal costs associ­ated with lawsuits involving wind farms are making it dif­ficult for the town of Cohocton to pay what it owes Steuben County for road work.

To give the town a break, the Legislature's Public Works Committee agreed Tuesday to give the town more time to pay $98,000-worth of road work done at the intersection of county Route 39 and state routes 21 and 371.

"I know the perception is the town is floating in money," Cohocton Supervisor Jack Zigenfus told the com­mittee. "Actually, it's floating in lawsuits."

In an agreement with wind developer First Wind, then named UPC, Cohocton expects to receive nearly $11.5 million during the next 20 years. An initial pay­ment of $725,000 was made by UPC in January 2008.

Later payments will aver­age about $500,000 annually, according to the agreement.

But the town is still battling lawsuits brought by local resi­dents last year against two local laws approved by town and planning board mem­bers. In March, a third lawsuit was filed against the town and other agencies by the Naples Central School District with regard to pay­ments it expects.

Last month, First Wind was named in an investiga­tion into allegations of mis­conduct and collusion by state Attorney General An­drew Cuomo.

Zigenfus said the munici­pality felt it must defend its employees from what he termed "malicious charges." Those employees are not covered by the agreement with UPC/First Wind which calls for the developer to pay all legal charges associ­ated with the project, he said later.

"We don't know the out­come," Zigenfus told the committee. "We may have to go back to the drawing board. The distribution may change. We wish the judges would just make a decision so we know what the answer is."

Zigenfus said the town would float a bond if the county insisted on full pay­ment of the construction debt this year. But the next payment by First Wind is due Jan. 1, 2009, at which time the debt could be paid in full, he said.

Public Works Commissioner Vincent Spagnoletti said the county has already received $20,000 from the town.

Spagnoletti said roughly half the cost of the project was paid by the state Department of Transportation, with $400,000-paid by Steuben. The bulk of the remainder was paid by a member item from state Sen. George Winner, R-Elmira, and state Assemblyman James Bacalles, R-Corning, with the town paying $108,000.

County Attorney Frederick Ahrens warned the January deadline set by Zigenfus might be optimistic, since appeals will likely lengthen any decisions by the courts.

Zigenfus said if the next installment from First Wind was delayed or reduced significantly, the town would pledge to pay $20,000 for the next five years.

The county has never worked with a town on such a large-scale project, county Administrator Mark Alger said.

"To expect a town to come up with something of this magnitude is nearly impossible," Alger told the committee.