http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/schenectady_1258484___article.html/armory_shut.html

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Schenectady Armory to shut down

November 7, 2008 - 10:03PM

The winter months will find the Schenectady Armory a cold, empty building.

The Armory will be shut down Nov. 10th to reduce heating costs, the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs said Friday. The facility will be prepared for dispoal by the state Office of General Services.

The armory had already been removed from active military service; its use as a community space for shows and events will be suspended in order to save money, estimated at around $50,000 to $70,000.

Located at 125 Washington Ave., the armonry was vacated by New York Army National Guard's 206th Military Police Company and 501st Explosive Ordinance Disposal Battalion this summer.

The MP Company moved into a new armory complex next to the New York National Guard headquarters in Latham, while the 501st EOD Battalion moved into the new Scotia Armed Forces Reserve Center at the Schenectady County Ariport.

The Military and Naval Affairs office said the building no longer meets the modern requirements of the Army National Guard for administrative space, storage space, vehicle maintenance and training facilities.

More Downtown Renaissance News!

     The Armory used to house the National Guard troops who ate Downtown and patronized Downtown businesses-now nothing. Metrograft Ray who sits on the SCCC Bored is so busy force marching music students and dreaming up dorms that he has done nothing for the SCCC Basketball team, that played in the Armory. Another fumble, another empty building Downtown.

The Schenectady 'tax and spend' bunch should take lessons from some businesses. They know how to shave their spending to next to nothing. They exist on the bare 'necessities'. And wait the storm out to start to build again.

Not our elected guys and girls...they just keep spending and taxing!! While the taxpayer shaves their spending down to next to nothing, just so they can pay for all of these government handouts.

What's the fuss the County jackasses shaved their increase to "only 9%"! Very prudent in a time of recession.

     Coming soon...From Metrograft Ray, the bozos on the Metrograft Bored and supported by the moronic People's Gazette "editors" a new all basketball arena for the SCCC basketball team. It will be bonded by the new authority and cost the County sheeple only a few million dollars!  

     The Armory was too old, drafty and did not help any developers. Besides a crowd of 10 might show up and must be treated to a state of the art facility. This will be an important start to the long delayed "improvements" of lower State Street that looks like a neutron bomb went off. Take another look at the Robinson Square retail hole in the wall....

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Schenectady Armory auction canceled
The Business Review (Albany)

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The Schenectady Armory will not be offered for public auction on Nov. 17 as originally planned, according to the state Office of General Services.

"We may revisit this in 30 to 90 days. Other opportunities have bee presented to us that I can't go much into," said Brad Maione, an OGS spokesman.

OGS announced last month the armory was to be auctioned with a minimum bid for the 65,000-square-foot armory set at $500,000. It is located on 1.9 acres at 125 Washington Ave. It was built in 1936 and declared surplus by the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs earlier this year.

The auction is being conducted by the state Office of General Services.

For more information about the Schenectady Armory, visit http://www.ogs.state.ny.us/realEstate/sales/Schenectady.html.

http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2009/11/09/daily47.html?surround=lfn

um, WTH?

Some much interest in "renaissance" Downtown? Couldn't they get anyone to bid a dollar? Where's the Chamber with a big dollar like on the Gillette House?

Benny--who would want that building?  Why not give it to Habitat for Humanity as a warehouse.

SCCC should buy it for classroom, parking and arena space. Of course they would rather build new with your money.

   Did you hear that educational "expert" Death Ray is now on the SCCC Bored? Now with no Joe Suhrada watching out for the County taxpayers nobody will say nuthin.

What arena?

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Canceling Schenectady Armory auction an encouraging sign

    Auctions are fine as long as you don’t care who you are selling your asset to or what it’s going to be used for. Late last week the state Office of General Services decided it didn’t want to go that route with the Schenectady Armory, the historic fortress on Washington Avenue, so it canceled the auction it had scheduled for tomorrow. We’re not sure what OGS officials are planning to do with the property, because they aren’t saying, but it looks like they want to do what’s best for Schenectady.
    We do know there was interest in the building, because about three dozen people attended a series of open houses. So it is likely that someone would have submitted a bid — unlike a recent auction for the Glens Falls Armory, which attracted no bids — although possibly not the $500,000 minimum OGS was seeking.
    What other options exist? Under state law, OGS can transfer surplus armories (due to changes in the military force structure, there are many of them) to a local government for such things as community recreation centers, which it has done with armories in Cortland, Oneonta and Ticonderoga, among other places. It can also sell them for economic development projects, as it did with the New Scotland Armory in 1999 and the Syracuse Armory in 2003. ....................>>>>..........................>>>>.............................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00902&AppName=1

"Encouraging sign"? ROTFLMAO! After $100 MILLION dumped downtown no one wanted to bid on the old armory?

  The Gazetto remains as clueless as ever on real estate and economic development. Independent voice?

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What other options exist? Under state law, OGS can transfer surplus armories (due to changes in the military force structure, there are many of them) to a local government for such things as community recreation centers,

This is the key to the entire article. OGS will transfer it to the city. Then the city (the plex) will turn around and sell it for a BUCK to some developer with hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax paid grants. It's happened before, huh?

Maybe they are going to invite General Honore in.....like in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina......ya know
to 'help out'.......

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Use old Schenectady Armory for new science museum

    Re Nov. 13 article, “State pulls Armory off the auction block”: Opportunity is knocking, but will Schenectady open the door?
    The recent decision by OGS not to sell the Schenectady Armory may be a windfall for the city. With parking available and a building made to last through the ages, the old armory could be put to use as a museum showcasing Schenectady’s history. There is space enough to exhibit some of the history of General Electric, ALCO, Schenectady Chemicals and other industries that made Schenectady a household name over the past several hundred years.
    General Electric, I believe, would help with displays of what it pioneered and built in the city and surrounding area. With a little imagination, this old building could be transformed into an educational realm as well. Displays of laboratories once used by the likes of Steinmetz and Edison, and of old locomotive engines with designs for turbines, could fill the floor space.
    From its ceiling could hang replicas of jet engines worked on by GE during WWII! The story of how GE designed reactors for powering our nuclear fleet and power plants could be seen by schoolchildren. Citizens such as Westinghouse, who invented the air brake that is still used today to stop trains and large trucks, could be brought to light. So many firsts were accomplished over the years, and their stories have been lost. There are places for all kinds of displays throughout the building — all the way down to the basement rifl e range where I once learned to shoot.
    There is a ready crop of volunteers who worked in the shops and laboratories that could do simple experiments as Don Herbert (Mr. Wizard) did for many years. The educational value alone would be worth any funds spent on operating costs. A child’s mind once exposed to science grows and expands. Children are the future, and being inquisitive they learn fast from seeing hands-on displays. All one has to do is travel to Disneyland and see how the children imitate the science they see.
    The present museum, hidden up in an area where few ever get to see it, was a mistake. Today Schenectady can right that mistake and at the same time make an attraction for visitors. Is it too much to ask area legislators to have a little imagination?

GARY P. GUIDO
Rotterdam

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00702&AppName=1