Business View Civil and Municipal | September 2022

147 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 9 LANCASTER ,NEW YORK COVID Relief Fund. “We felt that was where we would best use the funds,” Ruffino says. “We have a pretty long list of water line projects that need to be taken care of and this helps reduce that list. It should make a lot of people happy.” Ruffino has been working hard over the past few years to set the Town of Lancaster up for glory and keep those residents happy. He helped land the new 270,000 square-foot warehouse opened by Derek Corporation after they debated locating to Texas, and he convinced the Tops grocery store chain to keep its’ warehouse in town after they were purchased by Price Chopper. Keeping Tops here helped save at least 750 jobs in the community. “Losing the Tops warehouse would have been a tough thing to recover from in our community,” Ruffino reflects. “People don’t realize how much of a ripple effect that would have on us. Down the street from Tops is a pallet company that produces specialty pallets for them and that would have wiped out that whole production Phase two of the three-phase project is scheduled to begin soon, and Ruffino cannot wait to see the continued impact it will have on the community. “It’s mixed use and that allows people to move in, but it also means that the hard-earned dollars that are made in our community are being spent right back locally with the opportunity that they have created here with this multi-purpose structure,” he explains. “This is going to continue on with the next phases and I’m sure phase two, which is the next portion, will be every bit as successful. From our standpoint, it’s very important to keep our local dollars spent locally so that we get credit for our tax base.” As the Lancaster community grows, so has the town’s demand for water. Complaints have begun to come in about water pressure due to old piping, so the town has been focused on replacing old lines to bring better service to its residents. Lancaster is investing $2.6 million into waterline infrastructure using money from the