Tioga County Land Bank announces election of 2024 officers

OWEGO — The Tioga County Property Development Corporation (TCPDC) recently announced that at its January 2024 annual meeting, its board of directors made the following appointments to its executive committee: • Ralph Kelsey — Chair. He is a board member for Tioga State Bank. Kelsey also currently serves on the following boards: Tioga County Senior Citizens Foundation, Tioga County Farm Bureau, and the Broome Cooperative Insurance Agency. • Hannah Murray — Vice Chair. She is a senior landscape architect with Rodgers Consulting, Inc. Murray also serves on the Candor Central School Board of Education. • Michael Baratta — Treasurer. He is a mechanical designer with Lockheed Martin in Owego. Baratta also serves as mayor of the Village of Owego. • Lesley Pelotte — Secretary. She is retired from Region 9 of the New York State Department of Transportation, where she was a transportation health and safety representative. Pelotte is also the current mayor of the Village of Nichols. The TCPDC says it is a New York State Land Bank that fosters economic and community development by acquiring, holding, managing, developing and marketing distressed, vacant, abandoned, tax foreclosed and under-utilized residential, and commercial properties in its region. The organization accomplishes that largely through the efforts of its board members — all volunteers who give their time and expertise to plan, develop, and execute land-bank initiatives to improve local communities. “I look forward to serving another year as Chairman of the Tioga County Property Development Corporation Board of Directors. It is my pleasure to serve alongside dedicated volunteers and Brittany Woodburn, Land Bank Director, as we work toward improving our communities for all residents,” Kelsey said in a statement.