THE ECHO.
Rush, New York - Community News, Blog, Images, Artwork
" Multum in Parvo. "
(much in little)
Originally appeared in the "Upstate" Magazine
of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Sunday, June 10, 1979
A TOWN'S DILEMMA
Rush's residents are caught between high taxes and wanting to live in a rural town
By Vaughn Polmenteer
Photos by Jim Laragy
Betty Williams rose to speak at a meeting of the Rush Town Planning Board and voiced an all too familiar complaint. "When I first came to Rush 20 years ago, my total tax on a $10,800 assessment was $325," she said. "It now approaches $2,400. And I'm tearing down buildings, and I'm taking out rugs for the new assessors."
And she's leveling her house, she said sarcastically, to beat the taxman.
This drew a big, and sympathetic, laugh from the other 40 people gathered in the Rush Town Hall. Although Betty Williams may have been kidding, taxes in Rush are no laughing matter these days. The town has seen little growth in the past few years, which means the few people who live in Rush, must bear the sharply rising costs of maintaining schools, roads and other services.
Most other Monroe County towns, like Greece, Henrietta, and Irondequoit, experienced substantial development after World War II. Rush remained rural; it has more in common with towns like Geneseo, Mt. Morris and Dansville towns which also lie in the path of the new north-south Genesee Valley Expressway. Like its neighbors to the south, Rush is wondering if the expressway will move tax-paying industry, commerce and residential growth in, or simply move commuters out that much faster. Rush is a litmus here, an indicator of what might be in store for the rest of the Genesee Valley.
About 64 percent of those who work in Rush are employed at the State Agricultural and Industrial School for juvenile delinquents at Industry. Two years ago, some Rush residents were upset by problems at the school, but recent changes seem to have eased their concern.
'For some, taxes have tripled'
Rush Town Supervisor Lucy Parsons, her truck parked by a partly completed section of the expressway, shook her head. She wondered if the much needed commercial development might not just move farther south to Avon, outside Monroe County, where taxes tend to be lower. "I don't know," she said. "Is industry going to say, 'Five more minutes and we're in Avon,' or are they going to build here? I don't know. But we're going to talk optimistically. We're going to think optimistically."
Taxes, and a stagnating tax base, are on everyone's mind in Rush.
For some residents, property taxes have tripled in the past 10 years. The tax rate varies in different school districts, and some residents are in a water district while others are not. The tax rate in the northeast part of town in the Rush-Henrietta school district can be as high as $191 per $1,000 assessed value. That means a tax bill of $1,910 nearly $2,000 on a typical house assessment of $10,000. The tax bill on a similar house in Avon would be about $1,450. In Henrietta it would be about $1,350.
It is taxes such as these that have some long-time residents selling their homes and moving out of town.
The worst tax news, especially for Rush residents who own farmlands, may be yet to come. Rush still uses an old assessment formula, where a property is assessed at only a part of its actual market value as little as one-third. Thus, a $10,000 assessment on a house worth $30,000 or more is common practice in many towns.
But all municipalities in the state are being required by law to switch to "full value assessment," where taxes are levied on the actual value of property. This switch is intended to iron out unfairness in property taxes, to eliminate outdated and haphazard assessments, and it entails a full-scale reassessment of all property.
Town supervisor Lucy Parsons says she doesn't know if the Genesee Expressway will attract industry to Rush, or whether industries will pass Rush by in favor of towns outside Monroe County where taxes are lower.
Ralph Harding, chairman of the Rush Town Planning Board, foresees the possibility of some development in Rush, perhaps some industrial plants set back from the road and screened by trees and shrubs.
According to a report by the Center for Governmental Research in Rochester, reassessment in Rush is going to bring some surprises: "Rush is another rural town with general under-assessment of farms at the expense of over-assessed residential real estate property." The report says that 60 percent of all homes in Rush are over-assessed, 31.4 percent of them by more than one-fourth. Another 20 percent are underassessed, and only 20 percent are within acceptable limits, "the lowest such percentage of any municipality in the county," according to the report.
Rush is the process of switching to full-value assessment. When that happens some over-assessed homeowners may get tax relief while others, especially farmers and owners of farm property, may bear an even greater tax burden than at present.
But whatever the result of a reassessment, the tax situation in Rush seems unlikely to improve unless additional taxpayers be they homeowners or businesses settle there.
For several years, the town has had a "master plan" and a planning map, with acreage zoned for future residential, industrial and commercial development. But that growth has never really materialized; it has remained just lines on the map. Apart from a few isolated homebuilders, there hasn't been much interest.
Until recently, that is.
The issue before the Rush Town Planning Board the night Betty Williams was there was Cobblestone Farms -- a proposed development of 60 homes on 160 acres of farmland in northeast Rush. Cobblestone Farms would be the first large development in Rush and town residents are bitterly divided about it. Some such as tax-strapped Betty Williams welcome it."
". . . We haven't had any development, which is what the town needs to broaden the tax base," she told the board. "I don't see why we're quibbling. We need this sort of development. We've turned everybody down, whether it was a warehouse that was non-peopled, light industry, or houses."
"Now where are you-going to go?" she said, her voice rising. "At the rate you're going, you're going to have the expressway taking everybody into Livingston County . . . So I'm all for seeing some organized, planned, attractive development."
Others in town aren't so sure that development residential development will help. Michael and Carolyn Prendergast are typical of young couples who have moved to Rush, and its neighboring towns in the past few years. Both are interested in town politics, both are concerned about environmental issues (Prendergast has served on the town's Conservation Board) and both agree that some sort of development is needed, and inevitable.
The hamlet of Rush is a sleepy one, and many residents like it that way. But the lack of growth in the town is taking its toll on property owners, who have no new neighbors to share the ever-increasing costs of government services. Some long-time residents have moved away to avoid the high taxes.
'The Debate in Rush has been stormy'
Mrs. Prendergast wonders if the development will actually help the tax situation.
A cost-benefit study hasn't been made, she notes, and nobody knows whether increased education costs would cancel out additional tax revenues generated by the development.
"Some people," she says, "are trying to make the point that any growth is good. But I don't think there's any proof of this. Trying to make the point that the tax base must expand ... is foolish, or at least not well-considered. We've been accused of being anti-growth, but I think the problems have to be dealt with in a more sophisticated way. And there hasn't been a good public forum on any of this."
This barn, near the intersection of Routes 15 and 251, may someday be converted into a restaurant. When the Genesee Expressway is completed, it will be near an exit leading into the Town of Rush.
Privately, one town official conceded that the assertion that benefits would outweigh the costs of developing the Cobblestone Farms site is dubious one. "I think it's a wash," he said.
And there's another issue: Whether the Cobblestone Farms tract is a suitable site for development. "... I have the feeling," says Prendergast, "that they're in such a rush that they're overlooking some important things."
He's afraid the tract, which is bisected by a stream and lies in a potential flood plain, might have future problems with flooding and seepage. He questions whether the developers and the town are taking adequate precautions against this. He wonders if future homeowners could sue the town if flood damage occurs.
"Personally, I wouldn't call it a quality thing," he says of the development.
The debate in the Rush Town Hall has been a stormy one. Among the adamant "pro-growthers" is Jack Lubelle, a Rush landowner and the attorney for Marvin Neisner, who owns the Cobblestone Farms site. He feels that some townspeople are needlessly obstructing the development.
"I'm going to quote you from the Jefferson Memorial in the city of Washington," Lubelle said. " 'Woe betide those who do not recognize the need for change.'"
"You cannot stop it. You can sit here and protest as much as you like. You're going to have change, the town of Rush is going to have change, and you better take it in a lovely way."
If the town didn't take it in a lovely way Lubelle pointed out, he had some ways of his own.
"If there's delay here, it's costing additional money. You have inflation and every time you delay this a month, you add two, three, four, five percent to this cost. And somebody who objects to it (the development) is responsible. And it's my duty as Mr. Neisner's lawyer to find out who they are and go after them."
Some of those attending the meeting considered this a veiled threat against opponents of the development. But if Lubelle is rattling legal sabres, others in town (who wish to remain anonymous) are themselves grumbling about possible lawsuits. They say the town and the Cobblestone Farms developers may be ignoring state environmental regulations.
And there are the "peacemakers" people like dentist Fred Halik who says there must be some "middle ground somewhere." Halik says he feels that the controversy over Cobblestone Farms can be healthy for the town. "I don't think there's any doubt that this sort of development and what's happening here to make this thing either go or not go is a very significant situation for the town of Rush."
'The hills of Rush were favorite ranges for the deer'
What's happening, finally, is growth pains. Bounded by the county line on the south, the Genesee River on the west, Henrietta on the north, and by Mendon on the east, most of Rush's 20,000 acres are rolling hills and crop land.
The southern half of the town below Honeoye Creek is rocky terrain. Septic systems are difficult or impossible to build here, which means that this part of Rush is likely to retain its rustic, isolated character no matter what happens to the north of town.
The area was first settled in 1788, and in 1818 Rush was set apart from Avon and established as a separate township. Joseph Sibley, an early settler, described Rush as it looked in 1806:
"There were large patches of rushes both on flats and uplands, along the river, and the Honeoye Creek; the locality was called 'Rush Bottom, thence the name of the town. Cattle would winter well and thrive on the rushes. "Game was very plenty. The hills of Rush . . . valleys and uplands, were favorite ranges for the deer . . . They were in good condition and we could easily kill all we wanted. The Indians of Canawaugus (Avon) had fine sport, and laid in stores of venison. In all the early years those Indians were frequently upon the trails that went down to Irondequoit, the Falls (Rochester) and the mouth of the Genesee . . ."
In 1978, 172 years later, a statistical profile compiled by the Center for Governmental Research described Rush another way:
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Land Use: Only 4.2 percent of Rush's land is used for homes. One-half of one percent is used for trade or industry, and 80.9 percent is described as "vacant land." Another 14.4 percent is "unavailable," (parks, swamps etc.)
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Jobs: There are 612 jobs in the town. Of these 17.2 percent are in retail or services, .5 percent are in wholesale trade, 1.5 percent are in construction, and there are none in durable manufacturing, transportation, communication, utilities, or finance. Government jobs (many at the State Agricultural and Industrial School for juvenile delinquents at nearby Industry) make up 64 percent. The study listed 16.8 percent of Rush's jobs as "non-durable manufacturing." Many of these were at Al-Don Chemicals Inc., the town's sole "industry," which moved to Avon last year.
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Population: The population of Rush tends to be young: 38.5 percent are under 20 years of age; 26.7 percent are ages 20 to 39; 26.2 percent are ages 40 to 65 and 8.6 percent are over 65.
Less than 2 percent of the population is non-white.
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Education: Of the heads of households, 33.2 percent have less than a high school diploma; 28.4 percent have finished high school; and 38.4 percent have had some college-level education.
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Housing: Most Rush residents 82.1 percent own their home, while 17.9 percent are renters. Of all the housing stock, 64.9 percent is high value (more than $25,000); 16.9 percent is medium value ($12,500 to $24,999) and 18.2 percent is low value (less than $12,000)
'Cattle still graze on the river bottoms,
and deer still range in the abundant woods'
The profile that emerges from all the decimal points is that of a well-established, prosperous, fairly well-educated white community, living in a rural, sparsely settled and largely undeveloped town.
Not much has changed since Joseph Sibley's day.
The Seneca Indians are gone, but cattle still graze on the river bottoms, and deer still range in the abundant woods. Townspeople, though they may commute to the city, live in the old farmhouses tucked away in the rock-strewn hills. The hamlet of Rush (there is no incorporated village) is a sleepy one -- a restaurant, a church, a couple of gas stations, a few stores and houses clustered around the falls of Honeoye Creek.
It's a town, residents will tell you, where not much happens, and most of them like it that way. Two years ago, Rush was stunned by a murder, a rape, and chronic runaway problems at the school at Industry in the northwest corner of town. But a new administration at Industry, tighter security, a revised educational program and improved school-town cooperation have changed that, and Rush residents again feel comfortable with Industry in their midst.
Another problem has been a garbage landfill near the Genesee River. This summer, stinking brown water is still seeping from the raised fill and trickling across an access road toward the river. Some residents are concerned, but there's certainly no furor over the issue.
At the bar in the Rush Hotel, patrons sip cream ales and exchange the latest scuttlebutt who's seeing whom, the price of gasoline, the price of food.
Near the dam and falls in the center of town, an elderly man drops a fishline into the water. Another dozes under a tree.
A sign on the door of the antique store near the hamlet's "village green" says that the shop isn't open during the week. Guns go off at a rifle range in the south of town. Foursomes tee off at Thunder Ridge Country Club in the center of the town, and in the north a transportation museum and touring railroad line are nearing completion.
And the great furrow of the Genesee Valley Expressway buzzes with activity.
Ralph Harding, the chairman of the town's Planning Board parked his truck near the future site of that crucial Route 251 exit and pointed to an ornate, weatherbeaten Victorian barn. "They're going to put a restaurant in there," he said. "Like the Carriage Stop in Henrietta."
Harding also pointed out a strip of land nearby, where in his mind's eye he sees low-profile industrial plants, set well back from the road, screened by trees and shrubbery. Other sites might accommodate a small shopping center.
A small well-planned strip of commerce by the expressway.
Growth.
This time, he was saying hopefully, it won't just be lines on the planning map.
VAUGHN POLMENTEER is a Rochester freelance writer.