AUBURN - City court will be staying put through 2012.

Auburn City Council approved on Thursday, a new five-year lease with Cayuga County for Auburn City Court. The court will continue to be located on the first floor of the Historic Post Office at 157 Genesee St., Auburn.

The city will rent the 6,327 square foot space in the county-owned building at a rate of $13 per square foot, for a total annual fee of $82,252.30.

That price will rise by 25 cents a square foot every year through the end of the lease, according to the agreement.

Councilors passed the resolution and ratified the lease during a work session meeting.

The Cayuga County Legislature approved the lease May 27 during its last monthly meeting.

The lease was previously a point of contention between city officials and the county Public Works Committee.

The last lease required the city to pay $11.80 per square foot, while the committee was asking for $14.

Both parties were able to reach an agreement after some negotiating, Mayor Michael Quill said Thursday.

“The county is happy, and we're happy to have a working agreement,” Quill said.

In other news:

• The Owasco Watershed Lake Association will hold the first “Owasco Lake Day” on July 1 at Emerson Park. The event will serve as a kind of Earth Day for the lake, giving people an opportunity to discuss issues involving the watershed, OWLA Vice President Joe Wasileski told members of council during a presentation.

OWLA will also celebrate its 20th year during Owasco Lake Day, Wasileski said.

“It's our duty to help protect this lake and try to bring it back to the cleanliness that we had,” Wasileski said.

The event will run from 5 to 7 p.m.

• Councilors approved the 2008 tax rates for the Business Improvement District and the Seymour Library District. The BID tax rate will be set at $3.09 per $1,000, which creates a tax levy of $102,684.40. That is a 2.5 percent tax levy increase from last year, according to the resolution.

The Seymour Library District tax rate will be 41.2 cents per $1,000, which is slightly down from last year.

• The Downtown Auburn BID will be taking annual snapshots of downtown Auburn, BID Director Dan Schuster told councilors during a presentation. The information gathered by the surveys will help the organization track vacant spaces, residential spaces, employment numbers, economic data and other statistics in the downtown area, Schuster said.

• Next Thursday's council meeting will take place at 4 p.m., two hours earlier than normal. The 4 p.m. start time will continue through August.

The meetings will still take place at Memorial City Hall on South Street.

Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net.