The city of Dunkirk has agreed to purchase some land on Lucas Avenue from Chautauqua County for $20,691, intending to put a salt shed there.

The Dunkirk Common Council voted unanimously to make the purchase Tuesday. The council’s resolution to buy the land mentions that Councilwoman Nancy Nichols worked with county officials to get the parcel conveyed to the city.

The city’s takeover of the parcel is supposed to “support a grant application for a new salt shed being initiated by the Chautauqua County Department of Soil and Water Conservation — to move road salt operations away from its current location near a branch of (Crooked Brook), tributary to Lake Erie.”

The council resolution continues that assessors value the land at “more than $88,000” but “the county will sell the land to the city at the minimum price in this foreclosure process of $20,691.”

It’s mentioned that “the city has just received approximately $50,000 from the New York State Department of Transportation for six months of maintaining state routes in the city, including road salt de-icing.” That, and the item about the land transfer supporting the grant application, are the only hints in the resolution on how cash-strapped Dunkirk will pay for the transaction.

City resident Chris Pinkoski criticized that in remarks before Tuesday’s vote.

“The receipt of this (state DOT) aid would be in reimbursement of money already spent, so it’s not a new revenue source and not something that can be used for this purpose,” she said to the council. “A legitimate funding source for the land and construction of the shed should be included in the resolution before it’s presented to the council… Adopting resolutions without legitimate funding sources was another of the causes of the city’s deficits.”

Councilwoman Natalie Luczkowiak later defended the land purchase, stating it was directed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

She said the old siting of the salt barns at DPW’s facility further down Lucas Avenue “was one of the reasons the brush part of the DPW dropoff was closed. The salt was seeping into (the nearby creek), and killing fish, disturbing the natural flow of nature. So this is a step toward getting Lucas Avenue open again.”

The city resolution did not mention that Chautauqua County previously considered selling the land to Dunkirk for $1 – but the county Legislature’s Administrative Services Committee tabled a resolution in October to do so.

Dunkirk Director of Planning and Development Vince DeJoy told the OBSERVER recently the Lucas Avenue parcel is a “brownfield” site.

“There exists a NYS DEC report on the site that lists what the limitations for use of the site exist. Basically, we cannot dig into the ground to place a foundation on the site due to existing contamination,” he said in an email. “The property will be utilized for DPW operations, predominantly ground storage. The future potential use for the area that doesn’t have contamination proposed is a salt shed.”

He noted a salt shed can have concrete jersey barriers block with a vinyl cap, like a lightweight, prefabricated metal structure with a semicircular, arch-like shape.

When asked in a follow up email if the cost increasing from $1 to more than $20,000 would impact Dunkirk’s decision to buy the property, DeJoy did not respond.