Clarence Town Board·August 19, 2026
A Rec Center Awarded · Sewer Capacity Is Amherst's to Give · A Recusal in the Family · Staring at a Wall
A meeting bumped off August 12, started late by a technical fault and broadcast for most of its length as a black screen with sound, still moved more money than any Clarence Town Board session this summer: four prime contracts totaling $4,382,610 were awarded to convert an old town highway building on the bike path at Goodrich Road into an indoor recreation facility, with another $286,500 committed on top for design and construction management; the board bought a $614,238 vacuum truck to clean the town's storm catch basins and the supervisor immediately said he wants a second look at the delivery charge; Councilman Paul Shear recused himself from a highway promotion that went to his son-in-law; two Transit Road public hearings — the LENCO Supplies retail building at 7631 Transit and outside dining for Flavors of India at 4401 Transit — were set for September 9; two Mattina Development plazas on James Ryan Parkway were referred to the Planning Board with a warning attached that Clarence's sewer capacity is not Clarence's to hand out; and a 25th-anniversary September 11 memorial service at Eastern Hills Wesleyan Church was added to the special-events docket from the floor.
Bids opened July 30 came back to the board Wednesday morning with a recommendation letter dated August 3 from the town's project engineer, and Deputy Supervisor Peter DiCostanzo — presiding while Supervisor Patrick Casilio took a conference call in another room — read four contract awards into the record in about ninety seconds. General construction to Building Innovation Group of East Rochester, $2,853,985. Plumbing to J.R. Swanson Plumbing Company of Niagara Falls, $286,775. HVAC and mechanical to Greater Niagara Mechanical, Inc. of North Tonawanda, $478,600. Electrical to Bilatera Electric, Inc.[*] of Rochester, $763,250. Total: $4,382,610, all of it drawn on capital project 159.
What the money buys is less glamorous than the number. “This is a project we're doing on an old highway building,” DiCostanzo explained on the question. “We're going to turn it into an indoor rec facility.” The interior has to be built out and square footage added, and the site, he noted, is “right on the bike path at Goodrich.”
The board came back twice more before moving on. It awarded $110,500 to Trautman Associates[*] of Buffalo for construction-phase services, on a fee proposal dated November 26, 2025; and $176,000 to Architecture Unlimited, LLC of Clarence for construction management, on a scope of work dated November 22, 2025. Both came off the same capital line. Counting design and management, Clarence committed $4,669,110 to a single project inside ten minutes of roll-call votes, with the supervisor authorized to sign each contract on the town attorney's review and approval.
All three motions carried 3–0. Councilman Robert Altieri was absent, and Casilio was still on his call. He arrived at the table some six minutes after the last rec-center vote, took the gavel back, and eventually got around to asking what he had missed. “Did you award the general construction contracts for the recreation?” he asked. They had.
Jonathan Bleuer, the town's Director of Community Development, put up a plan showing three Mattina Development projects strung along James Ryan Parkway: number one approved and under construction, numbers two and three newly submitted. Project two is a roughly three-and-a-third-acre sublot inside the industrial business park — two one-story multi-tenant buildings of about 8,000 and 10,900 square feet, plus a drive-through. Project three, on the east side of the parkway, is a 5,100-square-foot commercial plaza fronting two flex warehouse buildings to the rear. Both carry the same tax parcel, SBL 44.00-1-55, and both were referred to the Planning Board for conceptual review. A referral is not an approval; it starts the review rather than finishing it.
Attorney Ari Goldberg[*] of Barclay Damon appeared for the applicant with Joe Mattina[*] and design professional Clemente Tafoya[*] of Carmina Wood Morris Design[*]. Goldberg's pitch was efficiency: the same team went through “the town's rigorous and iterative review process” on project one, so “we have a lot of efficiencies of design” heading into two and three.
Casilio's answer was the most consequential thing said all morning, and it had nothing to do with the drawings. Sewer capacity, he warned the applicant, “might be there, might not be there” — and even a clean approval may buy nothing but a place in line. The parallel line going in now could take a year or two to finish, and after that comes the question of getting up to the Peanut Line[*] and Clarence Center. “We have several very large projects that are on hold right now that have all been approved,” he said, “and all sitting waiting for the capacity to be given from the Town of Amherst and their sewer department.”
Goldberg said he had seen those comments at an earlier work session and thought the proposed tenants might move faster than most, though “those devils are in the details.” Casilio put the arithmetic plainly: an open warehouse at one EDU probably works; a restaurant changes things around. Both referrals then carried on voice votes without dissent.
Sewer capacity is rationed in equivalent dwelling units, or EDUs — the amount of wastewater a single house is assumed to produce. A warehouse with one bathroom might be one EDU; a restaurant in a building the same size can be many. That is why the supervisor's caution turned on who the tenant is, not how big the building is.
And Clarence's wastewater does not stay in Clarence. It flows into the Town of Amherst's system, and Amherst's sewer department decides when capacity is released. A Clarence project can hold every approval Clarence can give it and still wait — which, the supervisor said, is exactly what several large approved projects are doing right now.
The board set a public hearing for September 9 at 10:15 a.m. on 7631 Transit Road, LLC's request for a special exception use permit — the permit a conceptually approved commercial retail building needs once it exceeds 10,000 square feet — for LENCO Supplies at 7631 Transit Road, in the Restricted Business zone. Anyone who followed the July 22 meeting will find that familiar, because the board set this same hearing once already, for August 12. Then the August 12 meeting was cancelled and folded into this one, and the noticed date went with it.
Bleuer handled it briskly, calling the re-setting “a ministerial item” and noting the applicant was not present and did not need to be. “They will be present for that public hearing if and when scheduled,” he said. The motion carried on a voice vote.
Five minutes later the board set a second Transit Road hearing for 10:20 a.m. the same morning. Flavors of India, in the Shops at Main/Transit at 4401 Transit Road, wants a temporary conditional permit for outside dining — a grouping of tables in front of the restaurant, in the strip of pavement between the building and the bollards. The parcel is 20 acres in the Major Arterial zone. The applicant came forward, was asked whether he had questions, said he did not, and was pointed toward the town's planning staff. “If you just catch up with Jonathan later, he can give you some marching orders,” Casilio told him — along with a hint that the calendar might yet improve: “I'll let you know of any change in schedule that might help you.”
A public hearing is not a calendar entry — it is a legal notice, published and mailed against a specific date. When the August 12 town board meeting was cancelled and rescheduled to August 19, the hearing noticed for August 12 could not simply slide along with it. The board had to vote again so a fresh notice could run against a real date.
Nothing about the project changed, no one re-argued its merits, and the applicant did not have to show up. The town's own word for the vote was ministerial — housekeeping the law requires. As the board was told in July, the LENCO Supplies proposal has already cleared a Zoning Board use variance, a SEQR negative declaration and Planning Board concept approval. The special exception use permit is the town board's piece of it; development plan approval from the Planning Board is the last.
Three motions came off the floor as added items, and the first carried the second-biggest number of the morning. The board accepted a quote for a 2025 Western Star vacuum truck at a price not to exceed $614,238.40, bought off a Sourcewell cooperative purchasing contract. About $100,000 comes from stormwater, the balance from the highway fund balance into an other-equipment line, paid out initially against the general fund and reimbursed by a grant the town has already won. The vendor's name did not survive transcription; the clerk's record has it.
Nobody from the Highway Department was in the room to explain the purchase, so Casilio did it for them. Clarence has to clean tens of thousands of storm catch basins every year under state Department of Environmental Conservation requirements — “it could be as many as like 13, 14,000,” he estimated — because the town's runoff eventually reaches Tonawanda Creek. Contractors will do the work, he acknowledged, but “most municipalities of our size or bigger have trucks.” The existing truck will be sold, he expects for a reasonably good price.
Then, having argued the town's case, he put a hold on his own enthusiasm. “It's a heck of a lot of money,” he said — and he wants to talk to Superintendent of Highways James Dussing about delivery first, because there is a substantial charge to get the truck to Clarence and the sales team is in Genesee County. “I do want to take a look at that before we move forward with this truck.” The motion carried anyway. The second look comes before the money moves.
The other two added motions were parks purchases: $14,212.88 for an electric line locator with a camera from Power Mole Trenchless[*], a sole-source provider, off the streetlight budget line; and $11,599 for a belt-drive portable hot-water pressure washer from Chaffee Ward Equipment[*], off the parks equipment line. The line locator is less obscure than it sounds. Clarence's parks department maintains the town's streetlights — thousands of them, by the board's account — and a dark light is the parks department's problem first, whoever turns out to own the wire underneath it.
When the board says receivers, it means storm catch basins — the grated inlets at the curb that swallow street runoff. Silt settles in them, and under the state DEC's municipal stormwater permit the town is responsible for cleaning every one it owns, because what it fails to catch travels downstream. In Clarence, downstream is Tonawanda Creek.
That is the arithmetic the board was doing out loud: somewhere between 13,000 and 14,000 basins, a fixed number a crew can do in a day, and a fixed number of working days in a year. Hire it out, or own the truck.
Councilman Paul Shear had two motions Wednesday morning and read one of them. The second, on the recommendation of Superintendent of Highways James Dussing, would promote Michael Miner[*] to working crew chief from heavy motor equipment operator. Shear got three words in — “Mike Miner is” — and stopped. “Don't want to do that one,” he said. “That's all I have.” The item sat until Casilio arrived a minute later, read it himself, and asked for a roll call instead of the voice vote the board had started toward: “I think we have to do a roll call vote on this one.” When his name came up, Shear said the reason out loud — “Recuses. It's my son-in-law” — and the promotion carried 3–0, effective August 13, at step one of the blue-collar unit contract and $40.31 an hour.
The special events docket went in with two items and came out with three. The Clarence Center Volunteer Fire Company Benevolent Association got its permit for the annual Labor Day Fair, Parade and Fireworks — Friday, September 4 through Monday, September 7, fireworks at 10 on the Friday night, parade at noon on the Monday, with every insurance certificate and operating permit condition attached. Brothers of Mercy got theirs for the Oktoberfest and 5K run/walk at 4520 Ransom Road on Friday, September 11, with road closures only while the race is crossing and event staff at every crossing. The endorsement from the dais was not about the running. “They go overboard on the food,” one councilman offered. “It's worth going just for the food.”
Then, from the floor: “Did we do the 9/11 yet?” The town's own request for a special event permit was not on the printed agenda. It is for a September 11 memorial service, roughly 6 to 9 p.m. that same Friday evening, at Eastern Hills Wesleyan Church, with Anfield Road[*] closed from Greiner Road[*] to the church entrance and insurance already in place. Local fire companies and first responders asked for it because of the anniversary, and the church can hold 3,600 people. The councilman who moved it made the case in about fifteen seconds, and did not sound like he was reading. “It's been 25 years. I can't believe it's been 25 years,” he said. “It seems like yesterday, and I think a lot of people are losing focus. Some people believe it didn't even happen.” It carried on a voice vote — one of two permits the town issued for the same Friday evening, the other for a beer tent.
The town board's work session runs the hour before the public meeting and is not livestreamed; the agenda says so in a footnote. Its docket, which is public, is the better preview of the fall. On it: 9740 Lapp Road, LLC, on a proposed four-lot Open Development Area and one-lot minor subdivision at 9740 Lapp Road in the Agricultural Rural Residential zone; STEM Automotive, on a building expansion at 10575 Main Street, an existing repair shop operating under a temporary conditional permit in the Hollow Traditional Neighborhood District; Zoé Restaurant at 5701 Transit Road, seeking a temporary conditional permit for outside dining; Local Hollow Brewing — formerly Shalooby Loofer Brewing, per the agenda — at 10737 Main Street, seeking to modify its own outside-dining permit; and Cimato Enterprises, Inc., asking final plat approval for phase three of the Woodland Hills major subdivision, 20 sublots and the dedication of roughly 1,360 linear feet of Kandefer's Trail. None of it reached a vote in the broadcast meeting. Attorney Goldberg's reference to “comments at the prior work session” on the Mattina projects points at a conversation that leaves no recording behind.
A museum grant. The board authorized Casilio to apply for and accept up to $15,000 from the East Hill Foundation for maintenance of the Clarence Historical Museum — a five-year term paid in five equal installments of $3,000.
Fogelsonger Park. Amendment No. 2 to the professional services contract with Wm. Schutt Associates for the Fogelsonger Park improvements project: an added $19,386 for an expanded scope described in an agreement amendment dated July 30, drawn on capital project 154.
Clarence Hollow lighting. A competitive bid opened July 28 bought 36 custom LED post-top street light heads for $87,120 — $2,420 apiece — from a Rochester distributor whose corporate name the audio garbled. Paid from general fund balance into the street-lighting maintenance line. Casilio's aside pointed at the next bill: the existing fixtures are outdated, and “in the future we have to make decisions on the gas lights that are really outdated.”
Court clerk to Albany. Court Clerk Mary Kelly[*] was approved to attend the New York State Association of Magistrates Court Clerks' 46th annual conference, September 27–30, with wages, mileage, parking and reasonable travel covered. Registration is $100; three nights and all meals at single occupancy, $946. Casilio volunteered a town pool car for the drive.
Assessor's office training. Two assessor's staff, Trina Bowler[*] and Alicia Baker[*], were approved to sit a one-day hybrid class on RPS Version 4 custom reports and letters — the state's real property assessment software — via Zoom on August 21, 9 to 4, at $120 each. Budgeted. Cameras stay on all day or the credit does not count.
A shaded sandbox. DiCostanzo's single announcement was a thank-you to the Parks Department. The sandbox at Sunset Park[*] needed replacing anyway, but when trees came down it ended up in full sun, “which was not making the parents and children happy over there.” The new one is shaded.
Summerfest. The Youth Bureau's Summerfest in the Park runs noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, August 23, open to all residents — the make-good for the event storms cancelled in July.
Rentals and bills. Legion Hall, Clubhouse and Nature Center applications approved as listed: three Legion Hall rentals this fall, two Girl Scout bookings, and Canisius University Army ROTC at the Nature Center on two autumn Saturdays. Two bill pays approved — $661,720.53 dated July 30 and $367,834.64 dated August 13, $1,029,555.17 together.
Executive session. With no one rising for “For the Good of the Town,” the board voted to go into executive session under Public Officers Law §105. The stated subject, in the supervisor's words, was “concerning our activities that we've had on our computers.” No subdivision of the statute was cited on the record. A budget meeting followed.
Motions carried on voice votes unless a roll call is noted. Councilman Robert Altieri was absent for the entire meeting. Supervisor Patrick Casilio joined roughly fourteen minutes in; the seven roll calls taken before he arrived are recorded 3–0. Deputy Supervisor Peter DiCostanzo presided until then. Councilman Paul Shear recused himself from M8. Where the audio did not capture every roll-call response, the row says so; the Town Clerk's minutes are the authoritative tally.
Moved and seconded with nothing on the question.
Contract 1, general construction: Building Innovation Group, East Rochester — $2,853,985. Contract 2, plumbing: J.R. Swanson Plumbing Company, Niagara Falls — $286,775. Contract 3, HVAC/mechanical: Greater Niagara Mechanical, Inc., North Tonawanda — $478,600. Contract 4, electrical: Bilatera Electric, Inc.[*], Rochester — $763,250. Based on the engineer's recommendation letter dated August 3, 2026. Supervisor authorized to sign on the town attorney's review and approval. Funds from capital project 159.
On the town engineer's recommendation, per fee proposal dated November 26, 2025. Supervisor authorized to sign on the town attorney's review and approval. Funds from capital project 159.
On the town engineer's recommendation, per scope of work proposal dated November 22, 2025. Funds from capital project 159.
Authorizes the supervisor to submit an application and execute an agreement for financial assistance not to exceed $15,000 for museum maintenance. A five-year term paid in five equal installments of $3,000.
Trina Bowler[*] and Alicia Baker[*] to attend a hybrid class on RPS Version 4 custom reports and letters presented by the New York State Assessors Association, Friday, August 21, 2026, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Budgeted at $120 per attendee; both log on during work hours, cameras on throughout to earn full continuing-education and recertification credit.
Added amount for the expanded scope of services described in the Wm. Schutt Associates agreement amendment dated July 30, 2026. Funds from capital project 154.
On the recommendation and request of Superintendent of Highways James Dussing, Michael Miner[*] promoted from heavy motor equipment operator to working crew chief, at step one of the blue-collar unit contract, $40.31 an hour, effective August 13, 2026. Councilman Paul Shear began reading the motion, stopped, and passed it; on the roll call he stated the reason: the appointee is his son-in-law.
Court Clerk Mary Kelly[*] to attend September 27–30, 2026. Request covers wage compensation, mileage, parking, reasonable travel expenses, conference registration and lodging. Registration $100; Albany lodging including a three-night stay and all meals, $946 single occupancy. The supervisor offered a town pool car.
Open competitive bid held July 28, 2026; award to a qualifying Rochester, N.Y. lighting distribution LLC whose corporate name is garbled in the audio, for a quantity of 36 LED custom post-top heads at $87,120 — $2,420 per head. Supervisor authorized to sign and issue a purchase order on the town attorney's review and approval. Funds from general fund balance to the budget line ending 4383, maintenance of street lights.
Applicant: Clarence Center Volunteer Fire Company Benevolent Association, Inc. Friday, September 4, 5–11 p.m. with fireworks at 10; Saturday, September 5 and Sunday, September 6, 11 a.m.–11 p.m.; Monday, September 7, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. with a parade at noon. Subject to all special event permit conditions, the special events memorandum of agreement, town operating permit requirements and the public display of fireworks permit, with insurance certificates filed. Requirements reported met.
Friday, September 11, 2026, 4–10 p.m. Route as per the submitted map. All appropriate agencies notified including the Clarence Highway Department; applicant to obtain any Erie County and New York State highway permits required. Street closure temporary, only while the race crosses the roadway, with event staff at all crossings. Certificate of insurance naming the Town of Clarence as additional insured required.
Not on the printed agenda; taken up from the floor. Applicant: Town of Clarence. Friday, September 11, 2026, approximately 6–9 p.m., with road closures per the submitted map: Anfield Road[*] closed from Greiner Road[*] to the church entrance, temporary and only during the service, with event staff at crossings if required. Insurance and policy coverages already in place. The 25th anniversary; the church can accommodate up to 3,600 people.
Quote accepted for a 2025 Western Star vacuum truck, price not to exceed $614,238.40, off a Sourcewell contract ending 221-GRD. Roughly $100,000 allocated from stormwater with the balance from highway fund balance to the account ending 279, other equipment; paid initially from general fund balance and reimbursed by grant. The vendor's name is garbled in the audio. The supervisor supported the purchase and then stated he wants to review the delivery charge with the Superintendent of Highways “before we move forward with this truck” — the motion carried notwithstanding.
Quote dated July 29, 2026 accepted; sole source provider; amount not to exceed $14,212.88. Expended from the streetlight budget line ending .4383. Used by the parks department, which is the first responder on a streetlight outage regardless of which division or developer ultimately owns the line.
Quote dated August 5, 2026 accepted; amount not to exceed $11,599. Charged to the parks equipment budget line ending .0279.
Hearing set to consider the request of 7631 Transit Road, LLC for a special exception use permit for a conceptually approved commercial retail building in excess of 10,000 square feet for LENCO Supplies at 7631 Transit Road, in the Restricted Business zone. Re-set because the prior meeting at which the hearing had been noticed was cancelled; the town deemed the re-setting a ministerial item and the applicant was not present.
Request of Mattina Development, LLC referred for conceptual review of a proposed commercial plaza at the southwest corner of County Road and James Ryan Parkway, SBL 44.00-1-55, in the Industrial Business Park zone. Approximately a three-and-a-third-acre sublot; two one-story multi-tenant buildings of roughly 8,000 and 10,900 square feet plus a drive-through facility. A referral opens the Planning Board's review; it is not an approval.
Request of Mattina Development, LLC referred for conceptual review of a proposed commercial and flex warehouse plaza on the east side of James Ryan Parkway, SBL 44.00-1-55, in the Industrial Business Park zone. A 5,100-square-foot commercial plaza to the front with two flex warehouse buildings to the rear.
Hearing set to consider the request of Flavors of India for a temporary conditional permit for outside dining at 4401 Transit Road, in front of the existing business at the Shops at Main/Transit, in the Major Arterial zone. Tables would sit between the building face and the existing bollards on a 20-acre parcel. The applicant attended and had no questions for the board.
Legion Hall: Sandra Pavlock, October 4; Kelli Grieco, November 13; Justine Irish, December 20. Clubhouse: Girl Scout Troop 33566, multiple dates; Girl Scouts, December 5. Nature Center: Canisius University Army ROTC, September 24 and October 1. The board noted no negative feedback from prior ROTC use.
General $243,846.47; highway $190,438.10; water $1,032.00; fire protection districts $41,138.58; drainage $95,647.85; sewer $724.42; capital $86,663.11; agency $2,230.00.
General $204,888.94; highway $84,230.99; drainage $10,805.78; lighting $778.16; capital $67,130.77.
Moved after “For the Good of the Town” drew no speakers. The stated subject was, in the supervisor's words, “concerning our activities that we've had on our computers.” No subdivision of §105 was cited on the record. The board recessed to the councilmen's room; a budget meeting was scheduled to follow.
This brief was built from the town's own audio of the August 19 meeting — rescheduled off August 12 — cross-checked line by line against the official agenda PDF, which governs over the audio on every proper noun, address, zone and docket number. The 8:30 a.m. work session is not livestreamed and no recording of it exists; the work-session docket described above is taken from the printed agenda, not from any account of what was said there. The town's video feed failed and the meeting was broadcast as a black screen with sound — a contingency the agenda reserves in writing.
Corrections applied from the agenda: “Matina”/“Martina Development” → Mattina Development, LLC; “focal signer park” → Fogelsonger Park; “William Smith Associates”/“William Shutt” → Wm. Schutt Associates; “Mitchnick” → Councilman Daniel Michnik; “DiCostanza” → Councilman Peter DiCostanzo; “Casillio” → Supervisor Patrick Casilio; “Al-tiri” → Councilman Robert Altieri; “Bloor” → Jonathan Bleuer; “SPL 44.00-1-55” → SBL 44.00-1-55; “the shops at main transit” → the Shops at Main/Transit; “Lenco” → LENCO Supplies. The zone at 7631 Transit Road is Restricted Business.
Street validation against the town's official street inventory produced one high-confidence fix, applied: “Griner Road” → Greiner Road. A second, heard as “infield road,” was corrected to Anfield Road — the only Clarence street it plausibly matches — and is flagged for verification. Three other strings the tool flagged (“Clarence Highway,” “Clarence Highway Department Street,” “Mary Kelly Court”) are a department name and a person's name misread as streets, not streets, and were left alone.
Names marked [*] come from audio alone and are confirmed by no official document: the engineering firm heard as “Trotman” and “Troutman” and rendered here as Trautman Associates; the Rochester electrical contractor heard as Bilatera Electric; Michael Miner; Mary Kelly; Trina Bowler and Alicia Baker; Ari Goldberg, Joe Mattina and Clemente Tafoya of Carmina Wood Morris Design; Power Mole Trenchless; Chaffee Ward Equipment; Sunset Park; and the sewer trunk the supervisor called the Peanut Line. Two vendor names — the Rochester lighting distributor awarded the Clarence Hollow bid, and the vacuum-truck dealer — were garbled past reliable rendering and are described rather than named. The Flavors of India applicant spoke but was never named on the audio.
The three special-events motions were moved by a councilman the transcript does not identify by name; those quotations are attributed by role rather than guessed at. The Town Clerk's official minutes are the authoritative record of every vote, name and figure here.