Kore absent; Wink abstains, citing conflict of interest
BY JOHN CHICK
Special to the VOICE
Despite a recent municipal survey in which more than 85 percent of Pelham respondents told the Town to sell the old Haist Street arena lands, on Monday night Pelham Town Council defeated a motion to endorse the results and put the property back on the market.
The vote was 3-2, with councilors Mike Ciolfi, Lisa Haun and Marianne Stewart voting against the sale. Bob Hildebrandt and Mayor Marvin Junkin supported the sale.
Councilor Ron Kore was not in attendance. Councilor John Wink abstained from the vote, citing a potential conflict of interest as he resides six doors down from the arena property.
“I live close by, and whatever happens with that property could have a positive or negative impact on the value of my property,” Wink said afterward. “So I could be making a vote… knowing full well that my property value could go up.”
Haun and Ciolfi explained their vote by saying they both saw a late push from constituents in favor of holding onto the land for now.
“I went back and I reviewed all my emails that I’ve been getting,” Haun said. “And at first it was all sell, sell, sell. And then the past week has been uh-uh. It’s not a fire sale. We haven’t finished doing our budget yet.”
Ciolfi added that the land may yet have a use for the Town, possibly even one day as a new Town Hall.
“Let’s look at the overall plan, and maybe a 40-year plan to see what the Town needs are going to be,” he said. “[Things like] affordable housing, a new Town Hall, things like that, before we get rid of it.”
Hildebrandt didn’t understand the logic of his fellow councilors’ votes.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” the Ward 3 councilor said. “The residents told us to vote to sell it, I don’t know what went wrong.”
Town Clerk Nancy Bozzato said she will await council’s instruction about what to do next.
