MONTICELLO — A day before the deal to sell the old Apollo Plaza closed, legislators briefly debated - and then passed - a resolution erasing $1.2 million in past outstanding real estate taxes on the 25-acre property.

But, advised officials, those were never taxes the Apollo's buyer, Sullivan Properties Acquisitions I, would have had to pay.

“It's not ‘forgiving' the taxes, I want to be clear,” explained Assistant County Attorney Tom Cawley during Thursday's full Legislature meeting. “It's cleaning up the books, in my opinion.”

That was also County Treasurer Nancy Buck's assessment. Indeed, the vote by legislators was at her request.

“I wanted this done because you guys have an agreement to sell this property,” she explained, feeling the settlement of the disposition of the outstanding taxes needed a formal paper trail.

The $1.2 million figure was what the Apollo's former owner, ABC Pacific Realty LLC, would have had to pay if it had rescued the property from the county's foreclosure in 2006.

Instead, the county acquired the three parcels comprising 25 acres (including the defunct mall) after litigation ended in 2009, then in 2013 turned it over to the Sullivan County Funding Corporation (SCFC), an arm of county government.

Cawley said the county paid only the school taxes each year, while the conclusion of the litigation wiped out any future owner's responsibility to pay back taxes.

Buck felt that needed to be codified by a formal resolution, which passed unanimously on Thursday.

Then on Friday, the SCFC closed the deal with developer Butch Resnick of Sullivan Properties Acquisitions I for $600,000. He intends to resurrect the plaza as a retail destination, including a supermarket.

However, Legislator Cora Edwards said Thursday she “would have had more to say about the contract” with Resnick if she had been aware that these taxes were to be “written off.”

“The $600,000 doesn't even cover the taxes,” she remarked, believing the county's negotiation strategy might have been “slightly different” had legislators been aware of how much the county had lost in unpaid taxes on that property over the years.

Buck, however, lauded Resnick's plans, noting it should clean up the current eyesore of the dilapidated mall and bring in plenty of real estate and sales taxes when it gets going.

“I think it's another step in the right direction for Sullivan County in commerce and creating jobs,” agreed Legislator and SCFC Board Chairman Ira Steingart, who thanked his colleagues for their approval.

“We're excited to get started,” said Resnick's attorney, Steve Vegliante, yesterday. “We're grateful to the IDA [Industrial Development Agency, the SCFC's twin], Ira Steingart and Scott Samuelson for seeing it through to completion.”

Vegliante noted that Resnick also maintains an option with the county to buy acreage behind the Apollo, which is being considered for a truck stop, among other ideas.

In the meantime, Resnick and company are beginning what is anticipated to be an $11.1 million rehab and renovation of the dilapidated - but apparently structurally sound - Apollo.

Charter review begins

The newly-formed Charter Review Commission was introduced to legislators and each other on Thursday.

Populated with a range of county residents, the group will begin studying the county's core document on February 18 at 6 p.m. at the Government Center in Monticello. The meeting is open to the public.

Legislators, some of whom want to give specific guidance to members, will be invited to speak at future meetings.

Probation agreement hailed

Legislators on Thursday unanimously approved the raises for officers in the Sullivan County Probation Department.

Effective this month, officers will get a pay raise bump of eight percent or one salary grade (whichever is greater), move from a 35-hour workweek to a 37.5-hour one, see their peace officer stipends gradually increased to a total of $5,000 a year in 2017, and - for new hires - be required to reimburse the county for training costs should they leave within three years of being hired.

Probation Supervisor Lou Setren predicted this will slow, if not reverse, the exodus of officers from the department to more lucrative jobs in neighboring counties.

He thanked legislators “for hearing our cry.”

A plan to match tuition

SUNY Sullivan President Karin Hilgersom informed legislators Thursday that the college and local public schools are developing an “Early Admit Higher Education Achievement Matching Tuition” program.

Though still in the early conceptual stages, the program could one day offer local high school juniors and seniors the chance to take courses at SUNY Sullivan at no cost.

Early-admission high-schoolers could take up to 20 credit hours of college courses tuition-free, so long as they followed up with 20 more credit hours at their expense. While the tuition-free credit hours would have to be garnered at SUNY Sullivan, the other 20 hours could be at any four-year SUNY school (or at Sullivan).

The idea, said Hilgersom, is to boost enrollment and lower costs not just for the college but for the county, which must pay an expensive “chargeback” for local students who attend a community college in a county other than Sullivan.

“This seems like a win-win for the college, for us and for our students,” Legislature Chairman Scott Samuelson assessed.

A test run of the program may begin later this year, utilizing 40 students taking up to nine credit hours each.