Comptroller Stops Food Lab Move To Geneva

The proposed $40 MILLION dollar food lab project in Geneva has stalled. State Comptroller Alan Hevesi says the project will be put on hold until the new administration, led by Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer, can review it. Hevesi says the proposed food lab could be rejected. State Senator Michael Nozzolio says Hevesi is playing politics, and says Hevesi has rushed into making the decision to hold the funding up for the lab. Nozzolio adds it shows that Hevesi doesn’t care about the Finger Lakes Region.The project was approved and announced by Governor Pataki in September. It would bring the food lab to Geneva from it’s current location in Albany. The food lab, which was scheduled to be completed in 2009, would replace an outdated facility at the Harriman State Office Campus in Albany and would be another component in a cluster of high-tech facilities at the Cornell’s Agricultural and Food Technology Park . Employees at the state’s food lab were upset over the governor’s idea to move the lab out of Albany. A union spokesperson said the 42 workers aren’t willing to move with it.