Update given on lease of Cazenovia College campus

by kAtE Hill Staff WritEr

During the Aug. 7 Village of Cazenovia Board of Trustees meeting, Mayor Kurt Wheeler provided a brief update on the short-term plan for the use of the Cazenovia College campus.

About two weeks prior to the meeting, the New York State Police officially entered into an agreement with Cazenovia College to lease a large portion of the campus for use as its new NYS Police Basic School Auxiliary Academy, which will run concurrently with the NYS Police Training Academy in Albany.

The two-year lease began Aug. 1 and includes the buildings that make up the main college campus, as well as the athletic center.

Wheeler reported that since Aug. 1, there has been a “skeleton crew” of people on campus doing a lot of information technology work and preparing for the arrival of the academy’s first class.

Most of the staff should be on campus on Oct. 1, and training is scheduled to begin on Oct. 16, according to Wheeler.

The leased space can accommodate up to 275 recruits.

“That’s about the number we’re looking at; they hope to have a full class of 275,” Wheeler said.

The trainees are required to stay on campus from Sunday evening through Friday evening each week during the program.

“There will be just a very minimal crew here on the weekends,” said Wheeler. “Cadets are allowed to go home on the weekends, and most of the instructors will probably go home on the weekends as well.”

Wheeler noted that he thinks it will be important to communicate to the community that the campus is no longer home to a small liberal arts college.

“It was fine if classes were going on at the college and you were wandering through with your dog, [but the state police] will be doing some pretty high-intensity law enforcement training,” he said. “. . . On the weekends if you are wandering through, no one is going to care, but Monday through Friday if they are in the middle of training, [they] are not going to want civilians wandering through.”

I was sure we would work well together.”

“Judith had a vision for the store. It was an opportunity to bring France to Cazenovia,” said Lowe.

The former director of financial development for the American Red Cross was willing to take the risk.

“It’s a willingness to be able to not be too sure of what’s ahead of you,” Lowe said.

Lowe’s husband, David, and Warburton’s husband, Peter, were happy to support their wives.

“[They] worked tirelessly with [us] in preparing the old barber’s shop (owned by Ford Lamb for 40 years) to be the space to transform our dining experience into a joy, and blast of colors from the South of France and particularly Provence,” said Warburton.

“We had people on the first weekend coming in and singing [the English nursery rhyme] Lavender Blue,” said Lowe.

At that time, they had one supplier, but that changed over the years.

“In our attempt to bring the very best items to Cazenovia we started our yearly visit to France to discover the perfect designers and distributors - then [we] expand[ed] our search to Spain for our ceramics. At times we felt like the adventurer Marco Polo bringing back treasures from Europe,” said Warburton.

Now they offer a treasure trove of products from dozens of suppliers to customers all over the world. People often stop in or call to talk about their travels. They ask for advice about places to go in France. To some, the store is a travel destination.

“[Lavender Blue is] a touch of class, and wanderlust,” said Alex Altamonte, owner of H. Gray Supply Co. “We get to travel going into the store. There’s nothing like it around here, or anywhere.”

Lowe and Warburton have sold their products at garden shows, lavender festivals in Clinton and Skaneateles, the French festival in Clayton, Walnut Hill Farms in Pittsford, Thousand Islands, to name a few. They also partnered with Mackenzie Childs and collaborated with students studying advertising and business at Cazenovia College.

After 20 years of success, they have some words of wisdom to share.

For those interested in owning their own business, Lowe

He added that as far as he was aware at the time, the athletic facility would not be accessible for public use due to liability reasons and training requirements.

“We will communicate any updates on that,” he said.

Wheeler also reported that with the lease finally signed and the short-term plans for the campus solidified, A&G Real Estate Partners has increased its marketing of the campus properties on behalf of the bondholders.

“I’ve heard secondhand through [Cazenovia College President] Dave Bergh that they’ve gotten a pretty good response [with] new inquiries and some old inquiries following back up,” he said. “We are kind of cultivating a couple of folks that have expressed interest that we think would be particularly good fits. I’m optimistic that there will be some movement in the next month or two on that.” in other news

The board reserved Memorial Park for Monday, Sept. 11 for the community’s annual 9/11 candlelight vigil, which is co-

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