Categories: News, Schenectady County

DUANESBURG — The Town Board has reaffirmed its interest in buying a former church on Route 20 to serve as a new town hall, following settlement of a court case in which two residents challenged the legality of an earlier purchase offer.

The board last Thursday voted to enter into a non-binding purchase agreement for the former Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall at 2240 Route 20, leaving open the possibility of a public referendum if it decides to go forward with the purchase.

“Most likely we’re perfectly fine with going to referendum on it,” Town Supervisor Roger Tidball. “People understand the constrains we’re under in the old building. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback already on looking to purchase the building.”

It was two critics, however — former town Supervisor William Park and resident Richard Hoffman — who took the town to court over an Oct. 20 vote to proceed with the purchase, at a price of $250,000.

Park and Hoffman argued that the vote was illegal because the Town Board violated the state Open Meetings Law by holding the vote on barely 24 hours’ notice, and also that the decision was “arbitrary and capricious.” The men had circulated a petition demanding a public referendum on the purchase, and the town was also in court arguing that that petition was submitted too late to meet a filing deadline.

In a settlement agreement reached last Monday before acting state Supreme Court Justice Vincent Versaci in Schenectady, the men agreed to suspend their lawsuit as premature if the Town Board brought the purchase vote up again at Thursday’s regularly scheduled Town Board meeting. It did, and the resolution was approved.

“They signed a non-binding purchase agreement, it isn’t subject to permissive referendum,” said Andrew J. Healey, a Schenectady attorney who represented Park and Hoffman. “If the town decides to move forward at the $250,000 price, that could be subject to permissive referendum. Until the town takes action, there’s nothing that could be before the court.”

Tidball said having attorneys defend the lawsuit will cost the town a couple thousand dollars, but he doesn’t see the settlement as undermining the purchase efforts.

“It’s a setback a little financially because we had to go to court, but it’s not really a setback for the purchase,” he said.

The town has hired engineering firm C.T. Male Associates of Latham to work up plans for what the town needs in terms of meeting, storage and court space in a new town hall building.

“It’s a very preliminary stage, that’s where we are now, and then we’ll move forward based on what that engineering study tells us,” Tidball said.

Tidball said he expects a decision within three to six months.

The former church comprises about 4,000 square feet of space, roughly twice the size of the current town hall, which is also located on Western Turnpike, about 4 miles west of the church.

The church building would require some renovations, but Tidball has estimated the cost would be in the $100,000 range — making the purchase and renovation far less expensive than building a new town hall.

Reach Gazette reporter Stephen Williams at 518-395-3086, [email protected] or@gazettesteve on Twitter.