ROCHESTER, NEW YORK NEWS BRIEFS http://rochesterdemocrat.ny.newsmemory.com/

Gantt attempting to get rid of property

Assemblyman David Gantt said he stopped paying taxes on a house he owned in northeast Rochester because he “wanted to get rid of it” and had previously of­fered it to the city for interested investors. The house at 489-493 Central Park went to tax foreclosure auction in April and, last week, the city became the new owner. The city says it offered the house for a minimum bid of just more than $2,000, which represented delinquent taxes, interest and charges for the delin­quent and current tax year. Gantt said he offered it for sale but found no takers. At the tax fore­closure auction, the city appeared to have a buyer with a winning bid of $4,500, but they didn’t follow through.

A city spokeswoman said the city is reviewing the group of properties it acquired at the fore­closure auction and will make a determination based on a variety of factors including struc­tural condition, location and proximity to other developments.

Area considered for DoD initiative

The first step to estab­lish an optics/photonics manufacturing institute in the Rochester region has been taken with the Department of Defense issuing a request for information this week from academia and in­dustry seeking to be the site for such an institute.

President Barack Obama is establishing various Institutes for Manufacturing Innova­tion. U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, recently sent two letters to Obama urging an op­tics and photonics manu­facturing institute in the Rochester area.

Locally, the Rochester Regional Photonics Clus­ter, which includes repre­sentation from industry as well as the University of Rochester and Roches­ter Institute of Technol­ogy, is expected to sub­mit a request for propos­al.