Morning News Brief
Written by Tom Tharp on October 21, 2021
Leroy will be getting a spray ground to replace the old leaky wading pool at Wildwood Park. This was decided in a town and village Board meeting earlier this month. The spray park will be installed with 2,000 square feet of misting stations, aqua arches, showers, spills, and water weaves of intertwining spouts from the base outward. Activities are geared for kids of all ages and sizes, and the park will be handicap accessible. A cooperative effort by both town and village boards, the project is estimated to cost $300,000 to be split by each municipality. The money is coming from the federal COVID-19 American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
With the cost of gas rising rapidly across New York State, Republicans in the State Senate are asking Governor Hochul to suspend the state’s tax on fuel. New York currently has the ninth-highest gas tax in the country at just over 46-cents per gallon. Right now, the average cost for a gallon of regular gas in the area is $3.45 which is up 10-cents in the last week and 17 cents in the last month. Republicans are also trying to stop a bill that would raise the gas tax by 55 cents and home heating gas by 25 percent in addition to the rise we are seeing.
The Buffalo Common Council is now calling for city, county and state officials to seriously consider building a new Bills stadium downtown. They said they feel that moving the Bills to Orchard Park was an “error” and that bringing the team back into the city limits would help Buffalo continue to grow. The resolution acknowledged the speculation that the cost to build the new stadium in Buffalo would cost much more than the proposed $1.4 billion price tag to build a new one in Orchard Park due to major infrastructure changes. But they said the changes would stimulate further economic growth. The Bills organization has said it does not want to leave Orchard Park.
State Police have announced the results of their Columbus Day weekend crackdown on dangerous drivers. Troopers say they issued almost 18-thousand tickets from October 7th through October 12th and arrested 207 people for impaired driving. Most of the traffic tickets were handed out for speeding, distracted driving and seatbelt violations
