LAST PAGE: Rob Santucci, 68
Cicero town supervisor talks about his new position, goals and the impact of Micron. His message: ‘Cicero is open for business. Come to us and talk to us’
By Mary Beth Roach
Q: What are your job responsibilities as town supervisor?
A: The town supervisor position is a very large job in that you are responsible for the actions and direction of the town of 31,000 people, with various departments, such as police, fire, parks and recreation department, highway, town clerk, tax collection, courts. All of these departments are autonomous. They operate under their own budgets. They operate under their own leaders, but the town supervisor is like the leader of the band. The instruments all play on their own, but they need someone up there waving the baton to make sure they’re all playing the same music. You’re responsible for every dime of taxpayer money.
Q: What are some of your goals?
A: One of the things I want to do is a senior development in Cicero that would be an active development for 55 plus seniors. We’d have townhouses. It would be run by a homeowner’s association. We’ve got Micron coming in right down the road and we need housing. There’s a lot of seniors in Cicero who don’t want to leave, but they have large houses; their children have grown. What if we gave them an opportunity to go somewhere in Cicero, sell their large homes that they no longer need and still stay in Cicero? We [also] need to look into a new town hall. We are way too small. And also, more mixed used areas, more apartments, more townhomes. With Micron, we’re going to have 50,000 jobs in the next number of years. We want them to come here. Lakefront development on Oneida Lake is lacking.
Q: With the new Micron plant under construction in the neighboring town of Clay, how do you see this impacting the town of Cicero, aside from the need for housing?
A: We need to develop more businesses, more retail, smart retail, retail that attracts people. We have a great town, but we’re competing against other towns as well.
Q: These projects sound wonderful. But there’s a lot of infrastructure and funding that would be needed. How does all that come about?
A: We’re going to have to work with the local developers, builders. Gov. Hochul just came out with a program that’s going to help local infrastructure building. She’s providing, I believe, $250 million to go to 13 different communities surrounding Micron. Cicero is one where she will give breaks on loans to developers. I like to tell people ‘Cicero is open for business. Come to us and talk to us.’ We’re going to look at everything carefully. You have to work with the government, too. We have a great relationship with Assemblyman Al Stirpe and Sen. Chris Ryan and Congressman John Mannion. They’re more than willing to help us throughout our journey. Anything they could do to help us, we’re very appreciative. There’s different trade groups and different people at CenterState CEO that have been very helpful to us.
Q: Do you anticipate any challenges or growing pains for the town with Micron coming in?
A: Yes, absolutely. When I was campaigning, one of the things I told people was that this development of Micron is the largest thing to hit our area since the building of the Plank Road in the 1800s. And Micron is going to bring us to the next level. Even though the property is not in Cicero, it’s adjacent to Cicero, and you know that’s going to mean wider roads, better interchanges, different ways to move traffic, possibly transportation challenges. Also, we have to build new schools.