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Billboard Owner Sues County Over Road Realignment

Daily Gazette By Stephen Williams December 27, 2016

 
New York- A national outdoor advertising company is suing the county over its loss of a billboard as part of the county’s realignment of Maple Avenue in Glenville.

Lamar Central Outdoor LLC, which has its regional offices in Latham, accuses the county of conducting bad faith negotiations, and is seeking $50,000 in compensation for loss of the billboard located near Stratton Air National Guard Base.

In a lawsuit filed last week in state Supreme Court in Schenectady, Lamar is asking a judge to declare that the county took the billboard without following proper legal procedures, and should pay the company $50,000 in compensation.

The two-sided billboard is on property the county is taking from Pan Am Railway as part of the road realignment.

County Attorney Chris Gardner said the county believes that the billboard lease was part of the land deal the county struck with Pan Am, so the county only had to notify Lamar that its lease was being terminated.

“When we bought the property from Pan Am, we were assigned the license agreement that they had with Pan Am, and that had a 30-day termination procedure for the railroad or its subsequent assignees, which is us,” Gardner said.

The billboard is in the area where a $1.1 million federally funded project is realigning a 1,900-foot section of Maple Avenue. Planning has been underway since at least 2013.
Work on the project began last spring, is currently halted for the winter, and is scheduled to wrap up in 2017.

The realignment is eliminating a sharp hilltop curve located at the entrance to the Air National Guard Base. County officials said the project will improve road safety by eliminating the curve.

The county initially expected to use eminent domain to get the Pan Am land, but then struck a voluntary deal to buy 6.2 acres, including the billboard location, for $38,600. Lamar said in court papers that it wasn’t a party to that deal, and received no notification about it.

Lamar has been leasing the land where the billboard is located since 2007. Between 11,000 and 12,500 vehicles per day pass the location, according to state Department of Transportation figures.

Lamar said that the county offered it $25,000 in November 2015 in compensation – an offer that it rejected.

Lamar instead sought $82,638 in compensation, and to have the county pay the costs of relocating the billboard in the same general area. The company said the county ignored those requests.

Subsequently, the county reached its agreement with Pan Am and acquired the land. Last Sept. 23, the county notified Lamar that its lease was being terminated without compensation.

Gardner said the county has been assured by the engineering firm that handled land acquisition that everything was done legally.

The case is tentatively slated for an initial hearing in February.