A search of more than four years is about to come to an end for Iroquois Trail Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
The local Boy Scouts organization has been looking for consolidated, easily accessible, visible office space since at least 2015 and now has a pending purchase offer for a commercial building at 102 S. Main St., Oakfield.
The purchase agreement is contingent, among other things, on the council receiving approval on a site plan to convert the retail space into office space.
The location was most recently the site of a secondhand store, All About Yous.
"The advantage is mainly to our customer base, which is access," said Director Jim McMullen. "And it gives us an opportunity to house each of our staff in a workable space. We're pretty crowded right now."
Currently, the council has a small space in Downtown Batavia and an office in Lockport.
The new location will combine those, giving staff more room, and giving the scouts space for leaders and parents to pick up materials. It will also provide the council with a place to hold meetings.
A couple of years ago the council thought it had found a new office on West Main Street Road in Batavia but that deal didn't come together.
"It's been tough to find, space that is appropriate to our needs and is also on an easily accessible route," McMullen said following a meeting of the Genesee County Planning Board, which recommended approval of the site plan.
Don Ames said the scouts have owned their own office space for decades.
The purchase is also contingent on the building passing an engineering inspection and the property getting confirmation for tax-exempt status for nonprofit ownership.
The property is a little more than a half acre. The building on the property was built in 1998 and is 2,400 square feet. It's assessed value is $117,000.
Also on Thursday, the planning board recommended approval of a special use permit for a five-megawatt solar farm at 5103 Ellicott Street Road, which is currently farmland owned by Donald Partridge. The location is 20 acres and the facility will be built and run by Trousdale Solar LLC and will provide sufficient solar power for 750 to 1,000 homes.
Under the Community Distributed Generation Program, the solar energy would be distributed to customers through National Grid and the customers would receive solar credits against National Grid bills and pay Cypress Creek (the company administering the program) separately for the solar power. The overall cost to customers who sign up for the program will be lower than what they're currently paying, according to documentation from Trousdale Solar.
