ANGOLA, N.Y. (WKBW) — Village of Angola residents expressed their concerns Monday night at a village meeting, frustrated over the recent $500 sale of drainage-prone land behind their homes.
Many said they were never given a chance to buy the property themselves and now fear new development could worsen the drainage issues in the area.
“This is nothing but swamp land all through here,” Raymond Murphy said, who has lived in the village since 1993 and whose house sits directly behind the property in question. “The creek is just the other side right here.”
Murphy said he and other residents were shocked to learn the town recently sold a stretch of land for just $500.
“There are a lot of questions that we have,” said Murphy. “How did you come up with the $500? How did this land that was drainage land become vacant land and available for sale without any of us knowing it?”
Murphy said he had tried to buy the land in the past but was told it was unobtainable due to its designation as drainage space.
“We were all told the same thing,” he said. “If you talk to the neighbors all the way around here, the one common denominator was that this land was unobtainable; we could not purchase this land. It was drainage.”
Village of Angola Mayor Thomas Whelan, however, said there is no record of any residents expressing interest in buying the property.
“The property has been there since I’ve been here, for over 30 years, and no one has approached the Village to buy the property,” Whelan said. “When someone did approach the Village, we said yes.”
As for the price of the property being sold for $500, Whelan said this isn't unusual for the village.
“We’ve sold other properties for a dollar, others for $3,000,” he said. “There is no set price. It’s whatever the person comes in and offers. We can counter, but most of the time we do what they ask.”
Murphy believes the sale should be terminated and the process restarted.
“Drainage is our biggest concern,” Murphy said. “We want to be involved in the sale and understand what’s going on. We’d also like the opportunity to buy our backyards that we have maintained and taken care of.”
Whelan said that all sales are final.
Still, Murphy said he and his neighbors are not giving up and will continue pressing for answers.
