Erie Community College's construction of a new $30-million academic building on it's north campus has brought up an old debate over whether the college should have three separate campuses or one central location downtown. It's a debate that's headed to court and could lead to project delays.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz is disappointed in a lawsuit filed by former Erie County Executive Joel Giambra over construction of the $30-million "STEM" building on ECC's North Campus.
The facility will focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
The suit apparently aims to halt plans for the project, at least until its environmental impact is fully explored. Poloncarz says he does not believe the suit has any legal means to stand on, but is concerned it could slow the plans down.
The "former county executive just can't give this up and I don't know why because that's all he's doing is hurting the community," says Poloncarz, adding "He is going to slow down our ability to build the STEM building. Many of those jobs that you're hearing about for Solar City and these other high-tech companies that are coming, they're going to be trained at that facility. The longer it takes to actually build that facility, the longer it takes to train individuals who are working at these 21st century jobs of tomorrow that are being created here in Buffalo."
Giambra has long been a strong advocate of one city campus, and had proposed merging the North, South and City campuses into one central downtown location during his term.
