With a move approaching soon, the city of Dunkirk is nearly tripling its rent for the Office for the Aging while they’re still there.

Currently the Dunkirk Office for the Aging outreach staff work out of the Dunkirk Senior Center building, 45 Cliffstar Drive. They are in the process of moving to 51 E. Third St., across from The Chautauqua Center’s main building.

TCC owns the new location while the city of Dunkirk owns the building on Cliffstar Drive.

Last summer the Chautauqua County Legislature agreed to relocate the Office for the Aging, however the new location needed some remodeling before it could move.

On Wednesday, the county legislature will vote on a resolution for a short-term lease at its current location.

According to Dana Corwin, interim director of the county Office for the Aging, the county currently pays $875 a quarter, but its lease is up. The new lease charges the county $850 a month.

“We just need some more time at the (current) location and this resolution will let us do that,” Corwin said at the legislature’s Audit and Control Committee meeting.

Corwin said she expects to relocate the Office for the Aging in the next four to six months.

Legislator Bob Scudder, R-Fredonia, asked why the big increase.

“The $875 expired some time ago and the city of Dunkirk reached out to us with a new contract proposal. It’s a short-term lease. We shouldn’t be there very long, but it is an increase,” Corwin replied.

Legislator Dan Pavlock, R-Ellington, called the new lease a “good faith” agreement, noting that to rent a space of that size is probably what the market calls for now.

Legislator Frederick Johnson, R-Westfield, expressed his disappointment with city leaders. “We have the city of Dunkirk coming to us, asking for help on this, that and the other thing. Just perhaps a word, that if you want us to play ball with you, do you really want to play ball with us this way?” he said.

In the end, the Audit and Control Committee still unanimously voted in favor of the resolution. The full legislature will vote for final approval at its meeting on Wednesday.