Auto Showroom, Store OK'd by Board

By ANNE HOLLIDAY
WESB/WBRR News Director


The Bradford Zoning Hearing Board on Tuesday granted variances to two businesses, which could mean a pick-me-up for the local economy.

The first variance will allow Bradford Fairway Sales & Leasing to build an auto showroom for its Ford Lincoln Mercury and Chrysler Dodge Jeep business at 215 Euclid Avenue.

The current car lot there will remain, and the building will be added onto it.

Ben Shearman, general manager of Bradford Fairway Sales & Leasing, explained that the current building on East Main Street “can’t support the needs of two additional franchises.”

Board member Jeff Carson said he had concerns about traffic because that’s “a rotten intersection,” but Shearman said he doesn’t anticipate a huge or significant increase in traffic.

“The nerve center of the whole unit in its totality will still be operating” from the East Main Street location.

He said he anticipates at least another 40 vehicles being sold per month, and 35 percent of those sales will come from outside of the City of Bradford.

Until a Jeep dealership opened in Jamestown in November, Shearman said, “you couldn’t buy a new Jeep between here and Erie. A lot of people will be coming to our area, and they’ll be using our restaurants, shopping. I’m excited about the business as a whole.”

Limestone Street resident Debbie Bauer said she was concerned about what the expanded business will mean for her street, which is sometimes called “Limestone Lake” because of poor drainage.

“That sucks right now,” she said. “I’m afraid of what would happen.”

Tim Asinger, president of Kessel Construction, said those issues will probably improve because the new building will have proper drainage “that will send the rain water where it’s supposed to go.”

He said they will also add curbing between the dealership property and Limestone Street. The addition of curbing was a stipulation the board gave to granting the variance.

Sherman said he doesn’t know when construction on the new building will start.

The second variance went to Harry Esrich, who would like to open the former Uni-Mart at 195 East Main Street as a convenience store again.

The area isn’t zoned for a convenience store, but Uni-Mart got a variance to operate there. The variance expired two years ago.

City Clerk John Peterson said there is no proposal to do any modifications other than the whatever is necessary to get the building up and functioning again as a convenience store. He said the gas tanks are relatively new, and would not need work. The pumps, however, would need to be upgraded. He said the pumps have been vandalized since the Uni-Mart closed, and one didn’t even work before the store closed.

“I don’t see a problem,” said board member Joe Conklin about granting the variance. “It’s an eyesore just sitting there.”

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