hello
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
thank you
[Music]
do whatever we can
i need
so
yes
um
thank you
i'd like to call city development plans
to order we have 1600 agenda
the first i'm on the agenda is approved
to extend youth agreement with marathon
craigslist for carbon communities
redevelopment india
agreement
street has a use agreement with the city
of schenectady that was executed on
december 19th of 2019 for the parcels
associated with the farmer community
redevelopment project in the hamilton
hill neighborhood
this current use agreement expires
december 19 of 2021 um to accommodate
the delays resulting from proven 19 and
the associated impacts um we're
requesting an extension of the use
agreement
with the new expiration date of december
30th 2022
so we're looking for approval from the
city council to amend this use agreement
and i know we have representation from
maryland creek street who can um i don't
know ray if you just want to come up and
speak a little bit about you know the
progress and where the project is
absolutely
from blue light development
it's like a little bit of weird energy
like we haven't seen each other in
person for a
see everyone uh
trayvon's stuck in traffic uh he's
supposed to speak to the capital project
but um we've been experiencing some uh
extreme delays
with uh hvac and funding doing hogan 19
and bidding but aside from that we've
been hosting the school of
community cleanups
in preparation for the renovations of
the center
which we have uh board members coming
with the individuals as well
but we've uh gutted the interior we've
got rid of both gym floors we've started
paint scraping
we've put a mural on the north side of
the building
we've done a school of landscaping
reclaimed our playground space
we also have
electricity on the panels are finally
not on that's about nine months
but we do have electricity on the
building and we're just waiting for
hvac ready and the plumbing
so
we are moving and making extended
product
let's look for the business so
i know there's been a delay with the
pandemic and supply chain issues do you
have any idea what that's going to cost
you i mean as far as additional
fundraising and whatnot
people out there know that you can still
use money absolutely yeah
um again trademark is his you know
speciality
it's not okay it's fine um
the the bidding numbers uh are all
different but it's anywhere from 50 to
100k
and that's a rough estimate this
nothing's concrete that's a rough
estimate
and part of the obstacles that we face
are
we do have funds but we can't use the
funds because we have to use other funds
which is something that has been
incredibly um
confusing right because i know we have
um you know ties with metroplex but then
there was
cdt grant that we were supposed to have
funds for and use those but when we
applied for another brand we got turned
down because they said we have to use
the 150k from the
uh previous grant that we
can't use so there's been additional
obstacles with that
um and it's not like we've been sitting
and not doing anything you know we've
been reaching out and we're supposed to
get support from todisco and sinabria
and once said that if the other two
uh you know matched us then they'll
match and then the other two didn't
agree so it's been a whirlwind bright
family foundation we had several
meetings with them to get support and
they turned us down it's like
someone's only waiting for someone else
to support us in order to support us you
know so
and if i'm being transparent the most
support that we have has been from
uh
people who have
are like the most like
unresourceful or
have lack of resources which is
faith-based community and hamilton hill
community so
the beautiful thing about our cleanups
is different people always show up and
those are the people who have been
consistent
um
so yeah it's been it's been tough
and i think it's important for us to
have the
conversation about
how
we can get more resources
so let me just
sorry i was just going to say also um
just because you know working on this
product for a bit now
so the cbg funding is 150 000 it is
reimbursement basis so
the 300 000 total was the number to
really do the hvac plumbing and
electrical work the electrical work has
been completed but it is they can't
really do everything at once because
again it's reimbursement basis so they
really just do one piece at a time
um so you know like ray mentioned they
finished the electrical portion of that
and now they're moving to try to get you
know hvac contractors in to just you
know to give a price um but that's been
really difficult in the current context
um so i think that's that's one cases of
the project right kristen just to be
clear haven't you spent any of the 150
from the cdbg at all not not have yet to
do
that was the first step because they
needed power to be able to then you know
do the rest of the stuff so the
challenging part is really having the
money to do is because it's reimbursed buffalo brand
right right okay yeah so all right
so you're asking for this extension and
as was asked so
i know we're waiting for um trayvon i'm
not sure
[Music]
in order to
move forward but not money that's tied
up in any way you need to feel
straightforward have that money is that
what you're testing yeah absolutely
that's been one of our biggest hurdles
is if we have money that's sitting but
we can't use it how can we move forward
with anything you know and you know if
we i know it's been a long time but our
feasibility study uh it's 1.5 million
dollars and that's what bells and
whistles have the doors open um and
the 150k and 350k it's like a raindrop
in a bucket you know i don't need to be
frank but i do need to be frank but it's
just you know just it's been like a slew
of astounding disparities on our part
you know i know you've been through
hurdle after girl after hurdle you know
we continue to show up and we continue
um
we've continued to show up you know we
continue to do what's being asked of us
and you know we're just looking for more
support and more support that makes
sense you know what i mean and this is
not to pull anybody or anything like
that i just you know i think it's
important to have honest conversations
and
one of the barriers you're feeling like
this is really important
absolutely 100 100 it's
and i don't know there's got to be ways
around where we can have these funds
where they're not tied up so that we can
use them or there's not rules against
the funds where we have to spend some to
get some especially since we're so early
on in the states that they're prepping
for renovations
um
you know we don't want to spend all of
our money then we still have to get the
hvac and plumbing that the bidding and
you know we don't have any money for
that stuff um
so it's just it's just tough it's tough
when the the funds are tied up
so it's not possible that's what's like
some sold questions did you say that yep
and is it the same kind of thing but
reversal yes um yeah i believe so but i
know there was a tension of we had to
spend the money that we do have in order
to get more first one
the first 150 yes exactly right
which i i still don't you know
before i speak for my board and the
board members you know and if you can
chime in when you want to um but
with a project of this magnitude we all
know it's going to cost quite a bit of
money so i just again i don't understand
um
you know why we have to have to be tied
down to
uh funds when when we need all we need
as many funds we can get you know so
it's just it's been tough it's been
tough and i know that
when the obstacles are alleviated we
move
you know um
granted coleman has slowed us down but
like i said i think it's really
important to note that um as a community
we continue to show up and we continue
to uh continue to go um george would you
want to pass individuals around i think
that visuals are super important just to
see the progress that we've done
um
even though we've had obstacles
we can talk about all the time without
seeing it it doesn't it doesn't make it
real to me
um just to see the inside of the
building and see all the work that's
being done
to prep for renovation that's one less
thing that we'll have to worry about but
the funds we need those you know money is
what we need
absolutely so i i recommend that we
accept the extension at this time and um
you know sometimes they'll be able to
help out it's kind of tough for the city
at this point
is the challenge itself for sure for
sure
that would be my recommendation yeah and
we have and i appreciate that
recommendation so much we've reached out
to
like i said uh
foundation um they turned this down if
you ask me i think that that was a
personal thing because you know rosa was
working there and then uh she decided to
take my marathon proxy full time it's
like i said from being quite frank i
think it's important for us to have
these transparent conversations if we
um
didn't want to get ahead you know we
want to see progress with this
you know we met with the county
uh and
we've i can send you a list of email
chains and just nothing you know what i
mean and we thought that
attaining ownership of the building
would give us a leg up and
um i don't know if for some reason uh
we're still not being believed in even
though we continue to show up we
continue to do with being asked of us
but we're just not getting the support
that we
anticipated like i said the most support
we've gotten was is from the community
and from big big communities and um
yeah we're looking for more for more
resources more for more help you know
not not a handout but a hand up
um
you know we we it and the crazy thing is
we're running programming we just don't
have a house for it you know the
community center we've got our google
programming going we still have the
community police basketball league going
um
just to give you a couple names of
partners that have come out to help us
ask an fbc school district multiple
principals have come out and supported
us
the c center has been incredible with
support um
dsa acronym dsa has been incredible with
coming out and supporting us
has been incredible so
i don't want you guys to think that we
haven't been reaching out and
uh
searching for partners in collaboration
but we've been doing nothing but that um
like i said especially through the
pandemic even with all the obstacles
with the stopping of the attacking thing
we still have been moving you know doing
what we can
just to show uh proof that we're going
to continue to move until the doors are
open
because the community needs it
i was just going to say that i know that
um the loan fund is a potential partner
in this and they
had committed to a bridge loan tax
testimony but i think that they're
waiting to see the full kind of
scope of work which is difficult to get
pricing right now for certain things
that are so far in the future is what's
you know been communicated to us so
i think at this at this time they're
asking for the extension
to just you know continue to to move
forward and
you know get more support so do you have
any um
i don't know about the board members
here so do you like before we move
forward to
or any other council members questions
you know we would actually
tonight we would act on you know the
extension and then we'd probably have
larger conversations about the funding
so yeah sorry i didn't mean to get in
the weeds
right about what's actually going to get
all the project done and the resources
that are going to be needed right
i think it's important that we know yes
for sure that makes sense
[Music]
thank you
[Music]
all right the next item on the agenda is
the transfer of city on
properties to the legacy
okay so um the city and the land bank
are partners on a lot of things mostly
to return vacant and abandoned
under utilized property to productive
use so the legacy city access program is
funded by the new york state budget
through hcr
to provide land banks with
renovation uh funding for distressed one
to three unit properties and this is to
create home home ownership opportunities
by partnering with local mwbe certified
and or minority-owned developers so we
have been working with the land bank to
identify properties um you know given
the the recent redevelopment in mount
pleasant over 40 demolitions the orchard
park expansion the wallingford park
splash pad the new boys and girls club
the libraries um the main street facade
program there's been a lot of
reinvestment in mount pleasant and we
think that one of the that's one of the
areas where this opportunity for
homeownership can really help out in
terms of just creating that
stabilization in the neighborhood and
dealing with some of the most difficult
properties that are there um to really
just try it and sort of infill and rehab
um
you know properties in that area so
david holding campus here if you're in
the land bank i don't know if you want
to add yeah if you have any questions
about about the program the
landing funding that we have in past has
been pretty discretionary we did a lot
of uh glide home removals in partnership
with uh kristin the team here
this is a
prescriptive program to uh try to create
homeownership out of uh some of the
player homes the land needs to have
control of those properties so we uh
appreciate your support uh we'll uh
the program is set up so you can have
three different uh
legacy cities projects going in time
which is five to ten uh properties so
we'll look for a development team that
needs the criteria they're looking for
over in mount pleasant right here where
we're proposing uh all the uh changes uh
for the positive on chrome street and
then uh hopefully uh we'll continue to
find more opportunities for
[Music]
so the request tonight is to for the
city of schenectady to enter agreements
with the land bank for the transfer of
the 10 properties that are existed
and this is basically for the
legacy
program
uh
for the is
snow pollen season as we all know winter
is going to come hopefully
tonight but in preparation of that
we'd like to um
approve the rates the hourly rates for
the equipment so that we can move
forward and
procure a documented wind law
to solicit services for the following
season
either not
until you approve the rates and then
advertise when the final document is you
know is approved by law
we'll put that out and then
hopefully we'll get
you know contractors coming like we've
done in the past years uh hopefully the
establishment
fuel prices
[Music]
um
[Applause]
[Music]
unless you meet your phone and see
[Music]
oregon contract for the construction of
the maintenance storage at the mini dell
course
mr wall
so first item
as it says in the backup materials we
had
three buildings two were original the
gulf court construction one i believe
was constructed in the 70s one of the
original buildings
we were forced to take down six years
ago with our larger storage building we
were hoping to uh close this drought and
build a new building however we had to
find a way that was within budget we
started with a typical building and we
moved uh terribly to one of the prefab
building
so we put out the bid for a pre-fat
building it's uh basically this is going
to be a factory slab with a metal bar
night building that you see kind of out
in the in the suburbs and we're going to
be doing a lot of work in house once the
shell is built so we're
doing electrical in-house bringing it on
our plumber's going to help out and then
we're going to build within the shell so
it'll take a little while but in the
meantime it'll give us a large clean
open area that's outside of the weather
to keep our equipment in a lot of our
equipment is being stored currently too
at the oregon ave parks garage the old
garage so this will also help keep all
the equipment in one area on the golf
course not across from it which is good
so we've been trying to do this for
what nine years i think before i got
here
this was a project so
we're hoping to move forward this
company's worked with the city in the
past they've worked with the state and
did our due diligence uh we've already
had some meetings before i came to you
with ron and aaron and we're comfortable
bringing it forward
[Music]
uh award come into contract for removal
uh
for a cdbg uh aiming presentation
so this is a second payment program
what we did is due to the requirements with all the different
monies that we have now tdd in section
three um we had quite a bit of money
left over for coving because we didn't
do a payment program
so we decided to put out an independent
navy program just focused on
the
football area which is handling the
middle in this case um kind of around
frank street where we're going to be
doing our work
it's a cdbg only contract so that we can
focus on all the requirements on one
contract we had a lot of bids that do
five bids below
newcastle who we've worked with in the
past on berkshire park we've had a
discussion with them ron's discussed
with them already you know the
requirements that i need we're going to
use the off season so to speak to you
motion
second
what was in favor
okay and then on the uh
so the amphitheater also known as music
has
a series of optical partitions that are
doors that
go like this and they rotate
um and they're used for a full sound and
access the stage the doors uh before we
put the security fixing up we're
vandalized they also have seals that are
broken so animals birds and squirrels
that they've seen going in and out of
music maybe making it a hard place to
clean so
we put out a bit uh and that huffport
was really the only supplier such a door
the same people that supply
high school gymnasiums those
opportunities just much smaller
so we're looking to get the doors
ordered and then once again installing
in time for music pavements uh next
season so we're gonna get that facility
you know back up it looks great though
the facilities
[Music]
is
almost in favor aye thank you mr wong
thank you
all right the next item is refunding of
the 2014 volunteers mr ferrari
mr president
council
uh one of the things that we do at the
finance department is review constantly
uh opportunities that help the city to
save money especially uh
what we're talking about is a
opportunity to renew and refund our 2014
bonds of 28 nine or twenty million or
fourteen thousand
now uh we're looking at this opportunity
with the rates uh
and we with uh roosevelt lacrosse and
our physical advisors that we have an
opportunity to save approximately uh
four million four point three million
dollars over the next 16 years the
average of of over 255 000 a year
and uh if you looked at the uh when i
had centuries look at angel one of
the refunding highlights you would see
what the total would be
what we're asking of this is uh
as you saw in my memos we're asking
for an ordinance to be a little bit
higher just in case the fluctuation
of the market but we're pretty much set
on that uh 4.3 million that's the best case
scenario our worst case scenario we're
thinking of 3.7 million dollar savings
which
is still a savings through the savings
so we're jumping on this opportunity and
i brought it in a rush only because
it's just like it's the perfect time
any questions
all right
okay
thank you
around
um
they
wrote a letter to us saying that there
was some
further information needed
that we need to pass this resolution
including
the last four of the council members
social security number and registration
numbers and
update on record activities and results
all right so in terms of the last four
of the social lines things only the last
four however
how to have that information i mean how
public is that information
so the copy of the resolution that i am
that i will need to post
can have that redacted but the
resolution that is sent to them need to
have it on there
bye
all right see you next time on the
agenda discussion renaming terrace
heights from museum drive it was a
public pairing um
on 10 25.
we actually only had one speaker and
then someone that spoke about it later
that was in favor of it so
are there any uh questions here
all right
all those in favor
okay um discussion osn broadcast city
council committee meetings mr solomon if
um
almost weekly i'm sure some of you also
get the same complaints
about the broadcast of the
committee and council meetings people
either can't hear him the video is not
running
there's some sort of issue
we gotta figure this out we either
record it and play it so it works or do
it live and make sure it works
so
i would like us to
see about getting information
from osm on
how to fix this problem what it it costs
what options we would have for the
broadcast
i think that might fall into your
purview mr colvin
and uh
just as a discussion tonight bringing it
forward
uh in the next weeks because it
continues to be a problem
all the time and uh quite frankly and
tired of hearing the complaints
then people are like why can't we get
this right
and if we can't get it right then we
need to look for a different vendor so
i just putting it out there i'll follow
up with the mayor in
osm to see what the issues are
as well as mr coleman to see what
options we have as far as the
broadcasting but i'm sure all of you
have gotten similar complaints
and
thought we should take it up
so um
maybe we need to set aside some funding
to accommodate them so this doesn't
continue to happen
uh get it out there see what everybody
else's feelings are assumed
likewise yeah every week
absolutely
because over time people are complaining
they're having difficulty
so you'll be moving forward by having
obsessions
to your point i mean it was just a few
years ago
we upgraded all the equipment that's
supposed to fix the issue
and uh
obviously
so i don't know why it was working now
it's not but um hopefully we'll get it
addressed all right so are you asking me
to have this on two weeks yep
okay
yes
well i just like to add that
you can't see any of the speakers
um
[Music]
okay
all right thank you for those comments
but yeah but the camera didn't like
watch before the camera does move
but even to the speakers
you'll see a person speaking and i'll
actually move and go right to that
person but it's not happening
broadcast
oh this is just us this is a website yes
that's why yes
that is the right this is the tv
it's a fixed camera yeah so that's not
the oh that's not what people see on osm
you're watching live
yes
okay all right so while mr uh mr coleman
is going to move forward on that and
talk to us thank you for uh creating
your butt
okay um
any more discussion on that
all right so our next item our
discussion is the statue of liberty ms
zalewski williams and um
miss patrick that's going to let you go
first because you're online
okay
[Music]
gateway um our country
and for me
you know as a child of movements in the
city that's just the city of immigrants
um i just feel like it's very very
appropriate that the statute of liberty
returned to
park
and welcome all of our visitors to
schenectady in a park that we've now
spent so much money renovating um i
think that
you know i hear the argument sometimes
that the park now is supposed to be a
place of public contemporary art
um but i do want to suggest that you
know we don't want to throw up in
history as we continue to move forward
with progress and i think that again
having the new liberty
there with for example the pride
sculpture which represents you know
freedom for a whole nother group of
individuals in our country that
worked hard to earn their rights
i just think it's a very very
appropriate setting for statute of
liberty and i really would like to see
the council support the move of the
statute back to
um gateway park so that's that's what i
want to say and i appreciate this
so um i'm in agreement um you know this
has been
a tough time for this poor little statue
um she needs to go back to the park and
i know that um you know if we could get
support here i'm in hopes that we can
hopefully get it back over there um so
i'm in full support of it so i'd like to
make a motion to
move it forward
i could
so um but we could move forward is
discussing with the mayor because um my
understanding is
he's the final decision maker i wish he
was still here so he had some input on
this
so mr colony
we could actually move a resolution
[Music]
support as a council whatever the mayor
does the mayor does
um
so
we could do that um
i think it's
you know the whole history of
the movement of the statue
and all that i don't want against that
because it's long and complicated and
quite translated
but um
i would be in favor of moving it back at
this point and maybe we put a statue
at that corner
with something to do with the airy canal
which would be more fitting here oh
where littering is now yeah i mean this
doesn't turn out anything but well it
could be nothing but you know it's
something we could move forward as a
council and whatever the mayor chooses
to do we choose to do it i think what we
need to do is go back to where we
originally um when it was originally
moved
my understanding was sitting there that
it would be moved back so we need to go
back and look at that legislation if
we're as moving this resolution over
and and bring that back say this was the
original plan and we'd like to be able
to um to do to the resolution that the
original plan is what we'll stick to
that's exactly what i was going to ask
for is that it was a resolution when
this was a move was the yes the
discussion was to move it back to the
over some location so we just go back to
there and we can do resolution and
support again i'm totally improving to
that as long as i'm in this council i
think the majority of us in this country
always was constantly supported he
relocated back to its original place and
i'm in full support of that
so um so we're asking for a motion to
draft the resolution to support the
original uh
idea of moving the laboratory i just
have a
is that resolution in 2013 climbing or
non-binary
[Music]
2013 city council class resolution
2013-206
approving and adopting the 2013 gateway
positive with a patient
you know over 100 page plan
i pulled out one quote from the plan
that i thought was applicable i was
asked to look into it just so that
everybody's on the same page with what i
saw
and i did a search so i may have missed
something but i did search just a
statue of liberty to see where it was in
the plan
and on page 19 of the plan
it's section 1.12 existing monuments and
historic markers it says quote
there are numerous monuments and
historic markers throughout the park the
number of monuments and signs coupled
with a proximity to one and one another
has the effect of cluttering the park
each should be evaluated as part of the
new design and careful consideration
should be given as to how they are
placed within the new plaza
that's what it said
i did not find anything in there saying
you know it should be removed
and not find anything in there that said
it should be
relocated i did not find anything in
there that said it shouldn't be removed
or it shouldn't be relocated
that's what i saw in looking at the plan
so i would say that it you know is it
binding
it's a plan that the council adopted
it's binding to the degree that is
fitted up by the council but again it's
a plan right plans sometimes don't
always reference that
so i think there is some uh
maneuverability within the plan because
as things were developing the plaza in
terms of what they were doing to the
park there had to be some flexibility
within that so it was the ideal of the
plan and then what actually happened
so then our resolution should just so we
get it right
so our resolution should be to
recommend the movement back to liberty
park
i don't have an opinion on that you know
that's not a legal question okay the
council can you
[Music]
okay
so the final five items on the agenda
are an executive session
probably will have to leave
okay