By Holly Toal<br><a href="mailto:holly.toal@journal-register.com">E-mail Holly</a>
RIDGEWAY — Sigma International has received categorical exclusion approval for its expansion project from the Office of Community Renewal, according to Ridgeway Town Supervisor Brain Napoli at Tuesday’s town board meeting.
The town is sponsoring a grant agreement with OCR in the amount of $266,000, which will go to the Medina company to help keep local business and create new jobs, Napoli explained in October, when the grant was announced.
The exclusion means it has been determined that the actions will not involve significant environmental impacts. The supervisor said Tuesday that the exclusion will move the process along more quickly.
“It speeds things up a couple of months,” he said.
Empire State Development announced last year that Sigma International was awarded $350,000 in Upstate Regional Blueprint funding. The company plans to invest $1.76 million in new machinery and associated improvement costs to increase manufacturing production capacity.
The Board also voted to accept a proposal from the CGR Group in Rochester to begin looking into sharing services with the Town of Shelby and the Village of Medina. If the three municipalities were to begin sharing services, it would likely mean consolidating duties related to the highway department, town clerk, assessor and other positions.
“This is only approving the study,” Napoli stressed. “We’re not committed to anything.”
Robin Gardner was unanimously appointed to the town board Tuesday to fill the vacant position that was created last October when Douglas Maynard died.
According to Napoli, Gardner did not have to be elected to fill the position because it is only to finish the term. The new councilman will have to run for re-election in November.
The town has also received a copy of National Grid’s application to the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation to rebuild its Lockport-Mortimer line. The supervisor said the line is roughly 100 years old and runs through several Western New York municipalities — all of which received copies of the application.
Contact editor Holly Toal at 798-1400, ext. 8225.
