HOUSING AUTHORITY WORK STEADY

The men behind the scenes answered questions and educated the housing authority on what they do during its monthly meeting Monday night.

Nick Rohrer, Tim Schoener, Mark Tubbs and Wally Cornish, the maintenance staff, explained just what they do that keeps them so busy.

The four have 144 housing units to maintain, repair and refurbish along with grounds keeping duties at the six locations.

"These fellows have done a great job of keeping up," Executive Director John Wright said. "We get very few complaints."

Rohrer, maintenance supervisor, explained that the group is currently working on remodeling Honeoye Haven in Shinglehouse, a process that is almost 40 percent complete. Of all the jobs in a renovation only tile, carpet and painting are contracted out, he said.

The staff seldom gets a reprieve from the work, as they bounce from one location to the next making various repairs. As if they weren't busy enough from those, they also deal with the emergency situations that happen at all hours.

Rohrer said the "biggest headache" was that the four only had two vehicles to get them around the county.

One of the other concerns is having a shop to work in and store equipment, he added. Funds were set aside for the shop in previous years' budgets, but the free time to build it couldn't be found.

Cornish was the newest addition to the group, with his hiring as a part-time employee coming later in the meeting.

Patching the front parking area of the Seventh Street office was another concern, but permanent repairs were put on hold until after the bridge project.

Joe Pagano, director of redevelopment, explained that the subdivision work was coming along on the donation of the former Adelphia Tennis Center building. The process is down to minor language changes.

The building, which was gifted to the redevelopment authority from Time Warner, sits on the same lot as the Time Warner Data Center. Empereon cannot own the building until the land is subdivided.

The Housing and Redevelopment authorities will next meet at 7 p.m. May 18 in their Seventh Street office.