Aug. 27—LOWVILLE — After being ordered into mandatory mediation by a federal judge, Lewis County and Genesee Valley Transportation Co. are discussing the county's potential purchase of three sections of railroad track for use as recreational trails.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew T. Baxter, Northern District of New York, recommended on July 6 that the county and railroad company discuss the 37 miles of track through a mediator before he would consider GVT's June lawsuit that would change the rules governing the county's eminent domain effort and prevent the surveyor contracted by the county from accessing the railways to assess their current condition and establish a value.
"The judge basically looked through all the lawsuit information and turned right to the railroads (GVT) and said, 'These guys have offered to buy this multiple times, in writing, and you haven't responded. So what's the deal? Do you not want to sell? If you do want to sell, what's the price?'" said County Manager Ryan M. Piche. "So, they're sending us into court-ordered mediation."
The date for the mandatory mediation was set for Sept. 14 with Syracuse-based Mitchel J. Katz acting as mediator.
Following the judge's order, GVT contacted the county to set up direct discussions using in-house attorneys instead of the eminent domain specialist lawyers they have each contracted in order to come to agreement before mediation is set to begin, Mr. Piche said, saving the additional attorney and mediator fees to be incurred in mediation.
"The entire goal of eminent domain was, obviously, to acquire the property, but more importantly, we wanted to bring folks to the table," Mr. Piche said. "Our attorneys told us right at the start that 85% of eminent domain cases result in settlement. Obviously, that's the preferred outcome in this case as well."
Speculation circulated this week around Lewis County held that the county's eminent domain bid was "shut down," and that the county has offered significantly over the market value — double according to some variations of the scuttlebutt — while other gossip streams had the offer at $2 million, all of which are either inaccurate or currently unprovable.
"The question is market value and who determines that, so I don't know," Mr. Piche said. "The first part of their (GVT's) lawsuit for eminent domain was to block our ability to go on (the railways) and get an appraisal survey done, so there's certainly questions about market value. That's (a survey to establish value) literally the first step of eminent domain."