Filed Date: 4/14/1977
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
HON. MARVIN I. HONIG County Attorney, Rensselaer County
This is in response to your recent letter requesting an opinion of the Attorney General whether or not a county, having acquired property under Highway Law, §
The Highway Law provides procedures for the appropriation of lands by the State for highway purposes. The land necessary for construction or improvement of highways is generally obtained by purchase or condemnation. Highway Law, §
Section
"Whenever, pursuant to this act or under the provisions of any statute, any county road shall have been widened, straightened, extended, drained, paved and/or otherwise improved and in the process thereof a county shall have acquired from an adjacent owner certain lands necessary for said right-of-way by purchase, condemnation or as a gift and where under such circumstances either the grantor of said new right-of-way shall own the property on both sides thereof for the full length of the new taking or the consent in writing of any and all other owners within such area be given, and there shall be sections of the old road as it existed before said improvement which are of no further use for highway purposes to said county, the board of supervisors of said county in which said land is situated, upon the recommendation of the county superintendent of highways, may abandon to the abutting owner or owners such sections or parts of the old road as it existed before said improvement which are of no further use for highway purposes, providing the road after such abandonment shall not be less than three rods in width, and the chairman of the board of supervisors of said county is hereby authorized to execute and acknowledge in the name of the county and affix the seal of the county to a quit-claim deed or deeds of the land so abandoned and to deliver the same to the abutting owner or owners for such consideration and upon such terms and conditions as the board of supervisors of the county shall deem proper." (Emphasis supplied.)
This provision requires that the disposition by the county of such property be made only to the owners of property abutting the highway. This section is also applicable where the maintenance of the highway has been transferred to the county. Therefore whenever a county acquires property from the Department of Transportation pursuant to Highway Law, §
If the property to be disposed of pursuant to Highway Law, §
"Except as provided in section eight hundred two of this chapter, (1) no municipal officer or employee shall have an interest in any contract with the municipality of which he is an officer or employee, when such officer or employee, individually or as a member of a board, has the power or duty to (a) negotiate, prepare, authorize or approve the contract or authorize or approve payment thereunder (b) audit bills or claims under the contract, or (c) appoint an officer or employee who has any of the powers or duties set forth above * * *."
An exception from the prohibition of General Municipal Law, §
A county officer described in General Municipal Law, §
Based on all of the foregoing, it is our opinion that a county which has acquired property under Highway Law, §