Wayne County Life

   Warnick said the county puts about 40 properties on the block each year for failure to pay taxes, and they were “significant” properties, which brought a good return in those auctions. This year, he didn’t know. “The enforcement process has just begun,” he said.

   The Finance Committee is the final sieve resolutions pass through before they are presented for a vote by the whole board of supervisors. That will happen on Tuesday, Sep. 21, at 7 p.m.

   One item that has generated a lot of discussion at the committee level is the disposal of the old lever-actuated voting machines, which have been deemed obsolete by the state. The county has 58 machines and was prepared to store them indefinitely until supervisors pressed to sell them, either for municipal- and school-election purposes or for scrap.

   The county will seek to hire three-part-time CNAs (Certified Nursing Assistants) at the nursing home to ease pressure on the staff which is presently taking overtime hours to fill in for 12 CNAs who are on maternity leave, disabled, or on workers’ compensation.

   County Administrator Jim Marquette reported this was the most expensive month for change orders on the renovation project at the former nursing home. He said the architects had “missed” a garage door at the south side of the jail housing unit, and work scheduled would render the door unusable. The re-grading and paving to open the door back up again will cost $30,000. An elevator was found to be damaged and needed an upgrade -- $30,000. And a gas line leading away from the building was found to be “dangerously too shallow” and will have to be dug up and planted deeper in the ground -- $30,000.

   In other matters, the committee discussed:

   “We’re going to see a lot more of this,” said Plant, referring to neglect of horses, “because they have no value. The value of a horse is zero. You can go to the Finger Lakes Race Track right now and pick up a dozen horses for nothing.”

   The problem, Plant said, is that there are no slaughterhouses that handle horses remaining in the United States, so there’s nowhere for a horse to go. He cited a recent horse auction in Michigan where leftover horses that didn’t draw a bid were taken outside and shot on the spot.

   “Good-hearted people will take these horses in and won’t be able to take care of them,” said Plant. Supervisor Ken Lauderdale (Savannah) added, “If you don’t have $1,000 a year (for food and care), you shouldn’t be fooling around with horses.”

   County attorney Dan Wyner said the Wolcott property had a house on it that was razed by arson, and the village leveled the house, filling in the basement with debris and covering everything over. The village seeks $1,500 in costs; the county wants to give the property to Wolcott.

   In Lyons, across-the-street neighbors Robert and Denise Marr want to buy a tiny (tenth of an acre) parcel for $1 to prevent it from being used as a motocross track and a repository for junk cars. The land was acquired by the county in a foreclosure and offered to adjacent homeowners on that side of Rice Street – no takers. Wyner will ask the Marrs for an agreement and proceed with the $1 sale.