East Aurora Advertiser

Building Expansion at Outreach Center to Improve Services for Community



It’s been discussed for years, but based on the need around the community, an expansion is planned at the Rural Outreach Center facility. 

Located on Olean Road in the Town of Aurora, the Rural Outreach Center (ROC) works to combat rural poverty and help to empower people towards self-sufficiency. It began in 2006 and has slowly expanded its services and staff to reach a greater number of people across Western New York.

Several years ago, the ROC moved from South Wales to Aurora, near Masterson’s Garden Center. The organization was able to obtain a FEMA trailer and could use that as office space, a meeting area for people who needed social services or to act as a Code Blue center when temperatures are below freezing and there are people who are without heat. 

But, the need in the community is still there, and as more people are helped and learn of the ROC, there is less room in the trailer. 

Frank Cerny, the executive director of the ROC, said last year the organization served over 4,700 people. It also had 200 people work with the staff to obtain counseling and find ways to “break the cycle of rural poverty,” a mission statement for the ROC. They are able to put people in touch with other agencies to meet that goal. 

Cerny added that the facility worked with over 100 children in similar situations.

Rural Outreach Center Program Manager Kelly Shanahan receives a check for $1,000 from VFW Post #205 Commander Lee Crewson while accompanied by the center’s Executive Director Frank Cerny (right of Commander Crewson) and members of the VFW Post. The funds will be used to help implement community programs at the center. Photo by Marty Wangelin

“Every one of them has been traumatized in some way,” Cerny said. “We are overrun and we need new space.”

He talked to the Aurora Town Board at its Sept. 28 board meeting, discussing the history of the ROC and the need to expand building space on the land. 

Cerny has talked in the past about how the center would increase the building space on the property, but because there is such a need in the community and ROC is able to help meet that goal, the board of directors is looking at making the expansion sooner rather than later.

“We did not want to do this now in a pandemic, but we felt we had no choice,” Cerny said. 

They are already renting space in another section of town to continue the services. 

With the initial proposal, the ROC would have a 9,000 square foot office building constructed on-site. There are also ideas for expansions, including a 4,000 square foot multi-use building, but that would be several years out. 

The current FEMA trailer is nearing the end of its 20-year lifespan, so that would be taken out once the new facility is created. 

The current zoning is Rural Residential and would have to be changed for this new building. Code Enforcement Officer William Kramer said the area could be changed to a Business-2 zone or to a Residential-3 zone. He noted it is a commercial corridor – there are some private houses in that area but the town has targeted that region as a commercial center in its plans.

ROC board members and their architects have gone before the town planning board to present the plan and see what steps should be taken next. 

The town board would send it back to the planning board for further review, and the rezone would be decided upon by the town board. 

If the rezone is approved, the applicants would then have to create a detailed site plan to again share with the planning and town boards. This would include greater details as far as parking, lights, and landscaping are concerned. 

If funding is there and all approvals are given, a groundbreaking could start next spring and finish by early 2022. 

Town board members said they were impressed by the work conducted at the ROC and said they looked forward to working with the members to see how the project might develop. 

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