Staff Reports
There’s about a one-mile roadblock between Niagara County and Yahoo! and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer says he’s trying to knock it down.
Schumer announced Thursday that he’s encouraging negotiations between Yahoo! and Verizon to settle a disagreement about how much a “last mile” fiber optics connection is worth to both parties.
Yahoo! has requested site plan approval and a Payment-in-Lieu-of-Taxes agreement with the Town of Lockport to build an East Coast Regional Data Center in the town industrial park.
According to Schumer, one of the last major hurdles to Yahoo! settling in Lockport is agreement with Verizon about the last-mile connection between Verizon’s existing high-speed network infrastructure and the 30-acre site that Yahoo! is eyeing.
Yahoo! claimed the price Verizon would charge for the connection is too high. Verizon in turn said the high cost is necessary but could be knocked back if Yahoo! signs a longer-term deal.
Once informed of the conflict, Schumer said he made personal calls to executives of both companies, including Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, and urged them to make a deal. Negotiations have since been accelerated, he said.
“We have worked too hard and come too close in our efforts to bring Yahoo! — and the hundreds of construction and permanent jobs that it would provide — to Western New York to let the deal be derailed at the last minute,” Schumer said. “I am urging both parties, privately and publicly, to work it out for their mutual benefit and the benefit of Niagara County. ... I’m optimistic they can agree on a (contract) length and rate that serves them both.”
Yahoo! projects creation of 75 full-time jobs at a regional data center, with average annual pay of about $65,000. The company is site- and incentive shopping in other states besides New York, whose Power Authority would give it up to 15 megawatts of low-cost power for locating here. The Yahoo! board of directors is expected to vote on a Lockport siting next month.
Corporate spokesmen for Yahoo! and Verizon could not be reached to comment on last-mile negotiations Thursday.
