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ASD begins work on HS track; sets December vote for EXCEL funds A report by a community committee that reviewed the condition of the Amityville School District facilities has recommended that $4.8 million in state and local funding already in place be spent primarily to upgrade the Amityville Memorial High School. Half of the money is from a surplus in last year's budget, which the voters approved setting it aside for capital improvements. The other $2.4 million is from a New York State EXCEL grant provided by the state to enable schools throughout New York to complete capital repairs. However, the public must vote to accept the funding, which school officials said will not increase school taxes beyond the current rate. A vote on the question is scheduled for sometime in January. "The board and committee felt that it would be best to get the report out to the public in November and then have the vote in January to allow time for the public to get all of the information and ask questions," said Dr. Brian DeSorbe, school superintendent. In the meantime, the district is moving forward with plans to complete work taxpayers already approved, including a new high school track. Architectural renderings are being drawn up and the district plans to send the information to the state for approval. "With so many school districts working on capital improvement projects, we anticipate that the state will have a lot of applications to consider, so we want to get ours out early," said DeSorbe. "This will enable us to start the track in the spring as we promised." In other local news, the Village of Amityville announced that it has settled a condominium lawsuit against the Village by the owners of the former Colonial Motel. The property, on the east side of Broadway, is now a parking lot and Memorial Park, but had been the source of serious concern within the community for years when the motel was there and being used to house the homeless. In total, the Village paid $560,000 for the site and while it was initially assessed for a significant amount lower than that, the site adjacent to it was purchased by Walgreens, pushing up the values in the midst of the dispute. The final payment of $310,000 to the former owners includes interest and other costs that the Village would have been liable for in the event the case proceeded to trial, something that Village attorney Bruce Kennedy said legal counsel advised the Village against. In addition, the Village was paid $37,250 for a small portion of the property which was taken over by Cameta Camera for parking.
"This was just the best way for us to go," Kennedy told the board. "And when you consider that we have had the use of this money for all these years, and that we don't know what the outcome would be if we continued with the lawsuit, the settlement makes sense."
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