Categories for DailyPost

Sep 19

2023

County libraries seek $150 million for renovations

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Public libraries in Erie County are asking for nearly $150 million in renovations — more than half of that for the downtown Central Library. A physical assessment conducted by the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library system identified a wide range of needs, including roof repairs, asbestos abatement and enhanced security involving 26 of the system’s 37 library locations. “A lot of it is just trying to get the buildings in good shape,” said John Spears, director of the library system. “It has been a long process to get all of the Buffalo libraries to where they are now.” Spears[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 19

2023

Council member requests audit of workers on paid leave

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A Buffalo legislator wants to know how and why a clerk in the city’s fire department was kept on paid administrative leave for seven and half years, collecting nearly $600,000 not to work. Fillmore District Council Member Mitch Nowakowski also wants the city’s comptroller to find out how many similar situations are hidden in the city’s payroll. Nowakowski, chair of the Council’s Civil Service Committee, filed a resolution Monday asking Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams to perform an audit to find out how many city employees are being paid to stay at home, why, and for how long — and what the[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 18

2023

Wastewater from industrial park could violate federal law

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Updated Oct. 4 at 3:02 p.m. Oak Orchard Creek is considered Orleans County’s “lifeblood.” Flowing south to north from Genesee County wetlands to Lake Ontario, it provides trophy salmon and trout a place to feed and spawn. The creek draws fishermen, $30 million in tourist spending and around $100,000 in county revenue each year. “Oak Orchard Creek is a huge — a huge — part of the fishery … it’s gigantic,” Lou Borrelli, captain of a fishing charter boat, told Investigative Post. “Generally speaking, most of the fish are going to be affected by the water quality, because if it does[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 18

2023

Good news for city trees

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After years of cutting down more trees than it planted, Buffalo is set to receive a federal grant with the potential to reverse years of deforestation and bring tree-lined streets back to the city’s East Side. “I see good things,” said Paul Maurer, chairman of Re-Tree WNY. “This is big, in terms of the impact … I hope we can make a really good dent, because as I drive or walk the streets, especially the city of Buffalo, we see a lot of need out there.”  Buffalo was awarded $8 million from the federal Inflation Reduction Act fund, based on[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 17

2023

Monday Morning Read

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Get WeeklyPost delivered to your inbox Sundays by subscribing here. Below is part of what you could have read yesterday. Did Terry Pegula really say Black players should go back to Africa if they don’t like things here? It depends who you ask. Related: I spotted a Tweet the other day that pictured a half-dozen Bills players taking a knee prior to a game a few seasons back. None of the players remain on the team. Hmmmmm. OK, the efforts by a former girlfriend to embarrass Mark Poloncarz look suspect. But it’s not a good look for the county attorney to discourage[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 15

2023

Judge throws out counts in fatal police shooting lawsuit

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A federal judge has dismissed several counts against the Buffalo Police Department and two officers involved in the 2017 fatal shooting of Jose Hernandez-Rossy.  Left intact in a lawsuit filed by Margarita Rossy, the dead man’s mother, are claims that police improperly used lethal force after violating Hernandez-Rossy’s rights against unreasonable search and seizure when they pulled him over on suspicion of smoking marijuana while driving.  Otherwise, U.S. District Court Judge William Skretny on Sept. 5 threw out claims that police targeted Hernandez-Rossy, 26, based on race and that the disciplinary history of Officer Justin Tedesco, who pulled the trigger,[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 14

2023

Lockport IDA subsidies likely despite AI fake

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In July, a plastics manufacturer gave the Lockport Industrial Development Agency a fake study generated by artificial intelligence to support its request for subsidies. Thursday, the IDA signaled that it’s prepared to give the company $312,000 in tax breaks anyway. Two months ago, SRI CV Plastics gave the IDA’s board of directors an abstract and citation for a study that purported to show the safety and benefits of PVC pipes, which the company wanted to manufacture. A group of 48 environmental groups are protesting the project, arguing that a public agency in New York should not be subsidizing a plastics[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 14

2023

City Hall clerk paid not to work

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In February 2016, the City of Buffalo accused a clerk in the fire department of tampering with the payroll in order to pad her checks. Since then the former Jill Parisi — now appearing on city payroll records under her maiden name, Jill Repman — has collected well over a half million dollars while on paid administrative leave, awaiting a resolution to the disciplinary charges against her. For six of those seven-and-a-half years, she has held a second job in the private sector, managing payroll for a local healthcare company. According to the city’s law department, there was never any[...]

Posted 2 years ago
Investigative Post