"It does seem like a lot but I just wonder because it's such an old building if there's a lot more red tape involved in putting an elevator here," Worth said while also wondering if the project could be completed for less money. “Because I'm a taxpayer also and I want to see our money go as far as it can."
*NOTE: Given current budget projections $600,000 would fund the Office of Tourism for about a year and a half. It would fund the County Historian for about six years.
Rollie DeMay, 65, has lived in Wayne County his entire life and has visited the DMV at 9 Pearl Street since he was 17 years-old.
"People lost their jobs and now they're putting in a $600,000 elevator that's hardly ever going to be used? It just doesn't make good sense,” DeMay said when we explained the project to him. We also asked if he thought this elevator project would create any jobs.
“No, I wouldn't think too many. You're going to have somebody come in, and we don't have nobody local that does anything with elevators so it's not going to be locally spent even if they do create a job, for whatever number of weeks it takes to put it in an elevator,’ DeMay said. "My reaction is that they might better have spent the money to retain some of the employees they just got rid of trying to save money down at the nursing home.”
13WHAM News contacted Brian McMahon the Executive Director of the NYS Economic Development Councils to find out what he thought about the project. McMahon stated that he couldn’t comment on the project’s merits but he assumed it would have received funding from the state one way or another.
"I'm sure it is needed but I don't think it should be funded through the Regional Economic Development Council," McMahon stated. "I wouldn't classify it as ‘Economic Development’ but it is typical of many of the projects that are funded.”
Wayne County Administrator James Marquette explained this Pearl Street building is the last in the county that needs to be brought into ADA compliance. He said the elevator needs to be constructed outside the existing building as an addition of sorts.
Marquette added that one group of people who will not question the project's cost are those with disabilities.
