Town of Amherst Town Board·August 10, 2026
A playground vanishes overnight · A bank loses its landmark bid · License-plate cameras stall · Auditors in the audience
Roughly a dozen residents filled an unusually short afternoon meeting to mourn the Kingsgate Park playground, torn out overnight without notice; Supervisor Shawn Lavin[*] apologized — “that responsibility is mine” — and promised a rebuild by spring while the board, minutes later, approved about $436,000 in new equipment for a different, still-contested park at Willowdale. The board denied historic-landmark status to the former Key Bank at 4467 Main Street 3–2 after the Chamber of Commerce objected, but designated 1 Cloister Court; a split board sank the state-highway permits needed to install its already-purchased license-plate cameras 2–3; and a row of credentialed residents pressed the town on two state Comptroller audits that flagged more than half a million dollars of payroll discrepancies in a single year. Two development items were adjourned to August 31.
The machines came for the Kingsgate Park playground on a Sunday, and by Monday afternoon a Snyder neighborhood had come to Town Hall to grieve it. Speaker after speaker — parents, grandparents, a Little League board member, and at least one child who stepped to the podium — described a small playground behind the ballfields that had quietly become the neighborhood's front porch. It was gone before anyone in the neighborhood was told.
Don Harvey[*], 34 years on his street, said his neighbor's three-year-old cried at the empty lot. Ben Little[*], a year removed from Ohio with no family nearby, said the playground was how his family met the neighbors his autistic daughter now counts as friends: “She's been crying for two days,” he told the board, noting the demolition landed on her seventh birthday. Caitlyn Perino[*], a Central Amherst Little League director, said the field's youngest siblings live at that playground every game night and asked only that the town “include central Amherst Little League's board of directors in those conversations.” A young girl put it most plainly: “Why did you take it down?”
Lavin[*] did not deflect. He said the equipment came out for safety — tree roots had heaved the ground — and that swings would return once the roots are addressed, with a full replacement designed with residents and built, he hoped, by “the spring of next year.” On the lack of warning, he took the blame outright: “The town could have communicated better… That responsibility is mine.”
Minutes after hearing the Kingsgate testimony, the board approved a purchase order to Landscape Structures Inc. for the playground at Willowdale (Westwood) Park — land tied up in an Article 78 lawsuit. Why now? The town attorney said a state DASNY grant funding the equipment is about to expire: “It is critical that the board move forward on this or we could lose that funding.” He said the town owns the land, has closed on the purchase, and that the court declined the petitioners' request to halt the sale. Installation costs were struck from the motion; only the equipment was ordered.
The Historic Preservation Commission had recommended landmarking the former bank building at 4467 Main Street, a prominent corner at Main and Harlem in Snyder. The Amherst Chamber of Commerce objected in writing (Communication 2026-75), and the board sided with the Chamber. Lavin[*] said he had “really wrestled with this vote,” framing it as the perennial tension between “the advancement of… the economics of our town” and “holding on to our heritage and history,” and praised the commission's work before voting against it. Reading from the draft denial, he said the property does not embody the distinctive characteristics of Georgian Revival architecture — citing a lack of symmetry, substantial alterations, an asphalt parking lot and a drive-through — and fails criteria 1, 2 and 5 of the town's historic-preservation law. The motion to deny carried 3–2, with Deputy Supervisor Angela Marinucci[*] and Councilmember Jack Kavanaugh[*] voting to preserve the designation. A separate designation, for 1 Cloister Court, drew no objection from the petitioner or the commission and passed without controversy.
The tally can mislead. The board did not vote “yes” on landmarking 4467 Main Street; it voted on a draft resolution of denial, so an “aye” was a vote against protecting the building. A town historic-landmark designation adds a layer of review over demolition and exterior changes — the reason preservationists wanted it and, the Chamber argued, the reason a working commercial corner did not. Result: 4467 Main Street is not a local landmark; 1 Cloister Court is.
The town has already signed a roughly $300,000 contract with Axon for Flock automated license-plate-reader (ALPR) cameras. What it did not have on Monday was the votes to put them up. Resolution 2026-629 — a routine-sounding authorization for New York State Department of Transportation permits to install “equipment… within state right-of-ways” — was, the police chief confirmed, exactly the permit needed to mount those cameras along state roads. A Williamsville resident named Matt[*] had urged the board to reconsider the program entirely, calling it “a mass surveillance network,” and said the clerk's office had blown a FOIL deadline for the contract, prompting him to file an administrative appeal. When the permit resolution came to a voice vote, it failed 2–3: only Lavin[*] and Councilmember Michael Szukala[*] voted yes, with Marinucci[*], Kavanaugh[*] and Councilmember John Davis[*] opposed.
An ALPR photographs every passing plate and time-stamps its location, building a searchable log of vehicle movements. The Axon/Flock contract itself was not on Monday's agenda — but the board's own majority declined the state-highway permits that let the cameras go up, an unusual mid-program brake. Nothing bars the item from returning; for now, the cameras have a contract but nowhere approved to stand.
Public expression turned into an impromptu accounting seminar. Four residents — among them a self-described compliance professional since 1982 and a retired CPA, auditor and finance vice president — pressed the board on two July 2026 New York State Comptroller audits, one on employee benefits and one on information technology. Bill Shickling[*] laid out the benefits findings: a sample of 116 leave records showed discrepancies in nearly all of them, most of 119 separation payments were inaccurate or inconsistent with contracts, and 22 of 47 stipends were not properly documented — discrepancies he said “exceeded half a million dollars” in one year. He noted the report says a 2022 internal review flagged the same control gaps and that “no corrective action was taken,” and asked simply why. Another resident put the questionable-payments figure at roughly $1.3 million and asked whether the town would try to recover it.
Lavin[*] thanked Comptroller DiNapoli, said the town received the draft in about April, responded, and that the reports went public roughly a month ago. He said the board has worked “diligently since January,” pointing to a newly adopted exempt-employee policy and a coming timekeeping system, and characterized much of the audit as “paperwork that was required to be there being missed” rather than funds lost — a work in progress, he said.
Two residents used their time to protest a procedural change: this year the board eliminated the mid-meeting public-comment period, leaving only the slot at the very end. Therese Barry[*] noted the last meeting “did not end until after 11 pm,” after eight public hearings, and said that when the only chance to speak comes that late, “the right to speak becomes dependent on how late someone can stay.” Jane Cox[*] said she has lobbied to restore the second comment period “at every meeting that I attend.” Monday's session, by contrast, ran a brisk 69 minutes — a point not lost on the speaker who noted it was “an exceedingly short meeting.”
Five-member board (Supervisor + four Councilmembers), all present. Most items passed on unanimous voice votes (“all those in favor / aye”); the contested items below went to roll-call voice votes and are recorded name-by-name. No recusals were noted. Outcomes are provisional pending official minutes.
Amended on the floor to authorize a purchase order for equipment only — about $436,000[*] — with installation costs removed from the motion, against a $620,000 budget line. Driven by an expiring DASNY grant. References prior Resolution 2026-247 (Mar. 9, 2026) standardizing the town on Landscape Structures equipment.
Motion was to adopt the draft denial. Aye (to deny): Lavin, Szukala, Davis. No: Marinucci, Kavanaugh. Result: landmark designation defeated. HPC had recommended designation; the Amherst Chamber of Commerce objected (Communication 2026-75).
Permits to install the already-contracted Axon/Flock ALPR cameras along state roads. Yes: Lavin, Szukala. No: Marinucci, Davis, Kavanaugh. Result: not authorized.
No objection from the petitioner or HPC; designated a local landmark on a voice vote.
The board voted to deny the waiver — i.e., to require the sidewalk. Lavin confirmed on the record that a “yes” would have waived it before moving to deny.
Negative declaration adopted, then the $100,000 bond resolution approved on a voice vote (all yes). Funds the town's comprehensive-plan work.
$2,049,761.64 low base bid (federal aid $1,146,400; Erie County $311,205; local share $592,156.64). Lavin: “I'm very happy about that resolution.”
2026-616: Mill Street traffic calming and pedestrian safety at Amherst State Park (Millennium Construction), ~$149,705. 2026-617: Cindy Dr., Ava Lane & Kim Circle waterline replacement, Phase I, $719,335.10.
Two community-benefit agreements tied to a Willowdale restroom, both approved as they appeared.
2026-548 (SEQR findings amendment, Muir Woods Site B, 770 John James Audubon Parkway) held for planning and legal work. 2026-637 (Harlem Road Community Center auditorium rental fee) held for legal language. Both moved to the August 31 agenda.
Passed on voice votes: amusement licenses (CHC Learning Center, Grezi Restaurant, Hertel Home Consignment, $50 fee each); Country Club of Buffalo fireworks; sludge-hauling hook truck ($239,575); parking-lot seal/striping; several personnel and utility items. Communications received and filed included notices of claim by Main-Transit Fire Department and by Austin & Yukiko Miller against the town.
Built from the live YouTube stream of the Aug. 10, 2026 regular meeting (a ~70-minute afternoon session) and cross-checked against the official Town Board agenda. Board-member surnames were corrected to their official spellings (Lavin, Marinucci, Szukala, Davis, Kavanaugh); the audio rendered several as homophones. Resident and speaker names come from audio only and carry [*] until confirmed against the Town Clerk's minutes — several (e.g. Tomczak, Dubois, Fetterchuk) are best-effort spellings. The amended Willowdale equipment figure was partly garbled in the audio and is given as read (~$436,000); verify against the resolution. Attendance and vote outcomes are provisional pending official minutes. The property at 4467 Main Street was cross-referenced against this publication's scanner entity record; it showed only routine commercial fire-alarm activity (the Key Bank branch), nothing bearing on the landmark question, and so was left out of the story. This meeting was streamed; the board's executive session (personnel, litigation, and a proposed real-property sale) was not public. The [*] convention is explained in Sources.