[0:02] [Music]
[1:58] so
[2:02] [Music]
[2:49] meeting for monday december 6. the first
[2:52] item on the agenda is a presentation
[2:54] about the central park pool was the man
[2:58] thank you mr palamini
[3:01] said
[3:03] you know we have a facility in central
[3:05] park that's been there for a long time
[3:07] and
[3:09] been
[3:13] putting money in it that requires some
[3:15] maintenance each year painting the
[3:18] surface
[3:19] unfortunately it
[3:22] doesn't meet the standards today
[3:25] the department of health
[3:27] and just some of the upkeep so it went
[3:30] out and uh
[3:32] brought in a consultant uh
[3:35] just this excitement the council's
[3:37] inclined to name the facility tonight we
[3:40] could call it gary's pool
[3:42] but it's not because of me but it's
[3:44] because of gary schultz
[3:47] consultant but if you wanted to take
[3:49] that game
[3:52] probably
[3:59] we have to do something with the central
[4:01] park facility because it just doesn't
[4:03] meet standards today
[4:05] uh it also
[4:07] somewhat of an attractive nuisance for
[4:10] the ducks and geese that are in the area
[4:12] that get in there and that becomes more
[4:14] of a challenge to just maintain the
[4:17] quality of the water
[4:19] but
[4:20] again
[4:21] brought in
[4:22] aquatica which has done some work for
[4:24] the city before in terms
[4:26] of the evaluation
[4:29] not only this facility but other
[4:30] facilities
[4:32] in the city so
[4:34] gary had some general background
[4:36] knowledge and also saratoga associates
[4:39] and so we have a presentation tonight
[4:43] uh
[4:44] submitting
[4:46] to you for consideration as we start a
[4:49] process of
[4:51] relocating the pool within central park
[4:53] and build a facility that will serve the
[4:56] needs of the community for decades going
[4:59] forward with that i'll turn it over to
[5:01] dan
[5:02] and he'll also talk about why you should
[5:04] call it gary's pool
[5:07] i didn't have a vote now just so you
[5:09] folks know uh we're just trying to
[5:11] gary's pool um
[5:13] hi everyone my name is dan sharon with
[5:14] saratoga associates um we are
[5:17] landscape architects we've been working
[5:18] in the capitol district we do a lot of
[5:21] parks work on the municipal side and
[5:24] also on the state side we've been doing
[5:26] that for 50 years so we really
[5:28] appreciated the opportunity to come and
[5:30] provide our insight into the central
[5:32] park pool we're joined on this project
[5:34] by my friends kevin schaefer and gary
[5:36] schultz gary will be the one you know he
[5:39] may want to plaque put in his honor
[5:42] we'll see we'll see how the budget goes
[5:44] but aquatica brought us in
[5:47] um to help kind of direct this but the
[5:49] real experts with respect to the
[5:51] evaluation of the pool
[5:54] and the needs for a new pool would be
[5:56] acquired so gary i don't know if you
[5:59] want to speak for just a moment in terms
[6:00] of aquatic's experience in the pool
[6:02] industry i'd be glad to again i'm gary
[6:05] shells my company is quadruples and
[6:07] water parks
[6:08] and we have pool consultants kevin is an
[6:11] mvp engineer with our firm he's a senior
[6:14] engineer
[6:15] and all we do is renovation and a lot of
[6:18] renovation and build new public and
[6:21] municipal pools
[6:23] all over the uh
[6:25] the northeast and
[6:27] southeast
[6:28] as well
[6:31] we've done a lot of renovations like
[6:32] this we're working on several right now
[6:35] and our expertise is to understand
[6:39] the codes the code requirements
[6:42] the
[6:43] swimming
[6:44] habits and
[6:46] procedures that we've seen take place in
[6:49] other communities and and uh
[6:52] that we are just experts in the swimming
[6:54] pool itself
[6:56] okay
[6:57] thank you very much i don't care if you
[6:58] want to say anything or do we speak for
[7:00] you today
[7:02] all right very good so we understand
[7:04] there's existing pool facilities as gary
[7:07] has a background in um we looked at
[7:09] obviously the central park pool but we
[7:11] understand there's hillhurst front
[7:13] street and quacking bush
[7:17] so when you evaluate the central park
[7:20] pool there's there's some real
[7:21] challenges specific to it it's right in
[7:23] the flight path
[7:25] of the east uh and the docks we were
[7:27] there two weeks ago the day before the
[7:30] day before thanksgiving it was about 20
[7:32] degrees out and it wasn't stopped in the
[7:34] east because they were literally
[7:35] breaking through the water on the
[7:37] iroquois lake and in the swimming area
[7:39] and just continuing their their patterns
[7:41] they don't look like they're going
[7:42] anywhere they look like they look at us
[7:44] like what are we doing
[7:46] a challenge specific to this swimming area is it's it's almost
[7:52] an acre and a quarter that's a very big
[7:54] area that's a very big health and safety
[7:57] concern when you're looking specifically
[7:59] at lifeguards those sorts of things
[8:01] getting too
[8:03] specific areas because it's it's so
[8:06] such a large mass
[8:08] gary touched on something that was
[8:09] specific to code compliance and
[8:11] maintenance i'm sure you folks all know
[8:14] better than we do the issues with
[8:16] skinning filtration circulation this
[8:19] generates it takes a lot of water we met
[8:22] with
[8:23] polython out there on the site a couple
[8:25] weeks ago we were talking about the
[8:27] needs in terms of flow rates of water
[8:29] and how it was handled and the amount of like
[8:35] chlorine or other materials that needs
[8:37] to try to
[8:39] address kind of the bacteria levels and
[8:42] stuff that's a huge challenge everywhere
[8:45] because temperatures are getting higher
[8:47] and when you have higher temperatures
[8:49] you need more chlorine
[8:51] we looked at the maintenance costs with
[8:52] mr lafon
[8:55] and in this area
[8:57] you know you're pretty
[8:58] isolated specifically from like
[9:00] restrooms changing facilities those
[9:02] sorts of things and also we discussed
[9:05] the
[9:07] water quality issues with waterfowl i
[9:09] know i know we discussed it out there
[9:11] specifically a couple weeks ago
[9:14] how one of the big jobs for the
[9:16] lifeguards was going out every morning
[9:18] and cleaning up all the goose waste
[9:20] before people get out there and the
[9:22] problem is is cleaning up that waste
[9:24] isn't all that easy
[9:25] um just because of the type of what it
[9:28] is so it's it's a health and safety
[9:30] hazard frankly
[9:33] well before we before you pass up let's
[9:35] just say one thing
[9:36] in general
[9:38] there is no it's not a cool spot
[9:41] there's no filtration we're just popping
[9:43] chlorine in there
[9:45] and there's no filtration there's no
[9:47] chemical control
[9:49] and it doesn't mean any uh code
[9:51] requirement in the state of department
[9:53] health that i'm aware of
[9:55] so i mean it's been a beautiful facility
[9:58] for a long time for people swimming i
[10:00] understand that but it's not cool
[10:02] it is
[10:06] on this slide just uh sort of
[10:08] delineating the code requirements and
[10:10] how that would apply to this body of
[10:12] water
[10:14] you know public pool would require that
[10:15] water to be turned over every six hours
[10:17] for filtration and
[10:20] biological contamination control
[10:23] right now that facility doesn't come
[10:24] anywhere close to that there's no
[10:26] filtration
[10:28] and we would need
[10:29] 3 500 gallons of flow in there and i
[10:31] think we're probably getting about 400
[10:34] gallons of flow
[10:35] in that facility right now
[10:38] so we would need to add proper treatment
[10:40] and also one of the requirements is
[10:41] surface skin
[10:42] and in a public pool there is no surface
[10:44] skimming there's one drain at a low
[10:47] point and we're not quite sure if that meets
[10:51] safety requirements for entrapment
[10:55] so
[10:56] you know we
[10:58] look at the cost to bring this up to
[10:59] code it would just be uh it would just
[11:01] be a monstrous cause
[11:05] one thing i wanted to touch on kevin is
[11:08] here's some of our friends
[11:11] with their pre-thanksgiving activities
[11:12] right here they were breaking through
[11:14] the ice to get the law and no matter
[11:15] what we do we can't fix the flight path
[11:18] and
[11:19] right now the deck
[11:21] slopes right into the pool it's a low
[11:22] point in that area so everything it's
[11:24] really a watershed for the whole area
[11:26] and that's that's a really that's a
[11:28] really big challenge in terms of how
[11:30] it's set up
[11:31] everything drains into it so there's
[11:33] going to be all the nutrient loading
[11:34] there's always going to be a challenge
[11:36] there with water quality
[11:40] so we looked at the proposed new site
[11:42] which is in this area here
[11:44] um
[11:45] kind of taking the footprint of the
[11:47] existing tennis stadium we looked at the
[11:50] infrastructure and the amount of earth
[11:52] moving that would be required and it
[11:53] would be minimal because we have more
[11:56] than an acre here and you'll see
[11:58] superimposed kind of where the pool
[12:00] would fit on top of it you can see how
[12:02] this is kind of a neat central location
[12:06] with respect to the tennis courts here
[12:08] the a ball diamond here music haven in
[12:12] the fair park
[12:16] so the proposed new site as i just
[12:19] touched on before
[12:21] we're looking to at this area and one
[12:23] thing that would be an advantage for
[12:25] this over
[12:26] the existing
[12:27] site
[12:28] is just the topography of it having some
[12:31] real foliage around it it inhibits geese
[12:34] it's not a normal flight pattern nothing
[12:37] stops them but this helps inhibit it
[12:39] because they would have to come in and
[12:40] go down and they're very gradual in
[12:42] terms of waterfalls
[12:52] yeah so part of that uh part of the
[12:54] scope is to add a bath house and one of
[12:56] the key features of this location is
[12:59] that there are other needs in the park
[13:01] and locating the tool here enables us to
[13:04] have a bath house that could be shared
[13:06] by multiple users the tennis courts
[13:09] are one major user
[13:11] right now they have to walk into a bat
[13:13] to get to facilities so this would give
[13:16] located so so both
[13:19] users have easy access to the facility
[13:22] and
[13:23] like to build in
[13:24] shade and some seating
[13:26] uh it's important that the new
[13:28] facilities want to encourage inclusive
[13:31] play so we want to provide
[13:34] ada access and
[13:36] so that everyone in the community can
[13:38] take advantage of that
[13:40] yeah if you look at some of the some of
[13:42] the things that are the
[13:44] greatest interests for people right now
[13:45] it's splash parks
[13:47] people love them
[13:49] when aquatica and saratoga started
[13:52] discussing this opportunity we were
[13:54] looking at potentially having a pool
[13:56] with a splash apartment alongside it
[13:58] it's splash parks are very popular kayak
[14:01] launches are very popular
[14:03] things access the water is really
[14:05] important and that is from space yeah
[14:08] and and our plan actually does have some
[14:10] space set aside for us
[14:14] go ahead okay so so here's actually
[14:18] where we went with the concept
[14:20] and it's developing a lapse a lat pool
[14:23] here as as kevin indicated a future
[14:26] location for a splash pad this is on the
[14:28] footprint of the
[14:31] state
[14:32] for the the tennis courts and so what
[14:35] you would have is access coming off from
[14:38] the north through a bathhouse where you
[14:40] have to access this and this would all
[14:42] be defense
[14:45] there's there's things you can do with
[14:46] respect to programming
[14:48] you know you want to keep a good chunk
[14:50] of foliage around but maybe you can put
[14:52] in some more uh activities on the
[14:55] playground
[14:57] um you know some pavilions
[15:00] folks for people who have you know lunch
[15:03] picnics those sorts of things when the
[15:05] kids have a play game at the pool
[15:09] and it's tying in with the existing site
[15:11] it's just there's a there's a there's a
[15:13] lot of potential here and and don't
[15:15] think this is gospel this is this is a
[15:17] concept that was pulled together for
[15:20] discussion purposes because we wanted to
[15:23] kind of see what this what you could put
[15:26] here and get a cost estimate in terms of
[15:28] so if we can wrap your head around
[15:29] what's the bill going to be
[15:31] i might also point out as i slide to the
[15:34] fifth house
[15:35] the new bath house
[15:37] is orientated in that fashion so that it
[15:39] was somewhat near the tennis courts and
[15:42] became the
[15:43] toilet facilities became available for
[15:45] the tech stores as well as the pool
[15:48] that's that's exactly right thank you
[15:49] for bringing it up
[15:51] it is in this location so it is in that
[15:53] proximity so it could be get maximum use
[15:56] there
[15:58] and
[15:58] let's see
[16:01] you want to touch base on this
[16:02] sure these are these are this is again
[16:04] this is a concept so we really have to
[16:06] sit down and go through all the features
[16:08] we would include these are some of the
[16:10] things that municipalities are finding
[16:14] you know that are favorable right now
[16:15] they have the beach entry
[16:17] uh that it's
[16:19] made for
[16:20] ada accessibility next for
[16:23] all you know even elderly to access the
[16:25] facility
[16:26] there's also uh
[16:28] there's like a kid zone and you see in
[16:30] the upper left hand corner that there's
[16:31] a wall
[16:32] that slopes down gently to about an 18
[16:35] inch deep area
[16:37] the families find that you know really
[16:38] popular for the young tops
[16:41] and then there's a kind of a flatter
[16:43] area in the center that's really great
[16:46] for programming
[16:47] we do all kinds of things we include
[16:49] different kinds of
[16:50] like splash pad features toys
[16:54] and that's really the sky's the limit
[16:55] there
[16:56] a lot of creative solutions
[16:58] and then uh
[17:00] we have a little resistance walk there
[17:01] at the end that we can create a flow
[17:04] through there and that's popular
[17:08] elderly and you know they get some
[17:09] exercise
[17:12] and then we have the slide feature and
[17:14] then you know some so many spells like
[17:16] to include that and that's something
[17:18] that we
[17:19] can discuss during during design yeah i
[17:21] think i think the one thing i did want
[17:22] to say it's just that this is you know
[17:24] like i said this isn't this isn't in um
[17:30] stuff
[17:31] an iterative process getting feedback
[17:33] from the community
[17:34] the stakeholders that would be using it
[17:36] we want this to be something that the
[17:38] community will use and enjoy
[17:41] um and that's why you know it's great to
[17:44] have kevin and gary here so that we can
[17:46] help program something that is specific
[17:48] to the needs of the community we want to
[17:50] make sure it's going to be used
[17:51] absolutely
[17:52] and
[17:53] i'm sorry also
[17:54] remember to put things in direct
[17:57] perspective that lap pool area that
[18:00] you're looking at is
[18:01] right on top of the old pedestal
[18:04] just that's the
[18:07] thing put it in perspective that's all
[18:10] the toy features and the elements in
[18:12] there are the result of
[18:14] many tools that we've done that we found
[18:17] people like communities like communities
[18:20] use
[18:21] you're not limited no money is limited
[18:23] to any one of them or all of them the
[18:26] only prescription we have is creativity
[18:30] and
[18:31] money
[18:34] i mean at some point there's things we
[18:36] can't afford
[18:37] the community can't afford but
[18:41] the
[18:42] you know if one thing i would say if you
[18:44] could go back just for a second chris it
[18:45] was just the elements of the bathhouse
[18:47] there's the office check-in
[18:49] uh men's and women's room uh restrooms
[18:52] and change areas a break room first day
[18:55] and then a separate pump house which
[18:56] would all be as people access it and
[18:58] they can also access that quite readily
[19:00] from the tennis courts
[19:03] and if you look at the long range
[19:05] concept this was the this was the first
[19:08] image
[19:09] and this is kind of ties in other things
[19:11] and you look at what you improve here
[19:14] with respect to expanding parking let's
[19:16] say this is a big success you come
[19:18] around and you tie in
[19:20] off of fair avenue towards gulf
[19:23] and you look at the you're going to have
[19:25] the future improvements of the fair lot
[19:28] you have a lit walkway to music haven uh
[19:30] you also love to
[19:32] create a traffic circle so it's more easy in
[19:37] easy out specific to getting into the
[19:40] park access to the tennis courts
[19:43] you potentially could narrow down the
[19:46] current uh ashford or is that the name
[19:55] pedestrian walkway down towards the
[19:58] iroquois lake um and the restrooms but
[20:00] there's a lot of potential i think you
[20:02] look at
[20:03] what can happen here putting the pool
[20:07] here can help tie things together
[20:10] it help it can help with traffic it can
[20:13] create
[20:14] more
[20:15] connectivity specifically within central
[20:18] park and obviously
[20:20] if you get more connectivity you're
[20:21] going to have more traffic and you want
[20:23] these walkways lit and it makes it a
[20:25] little more coherent in terms of the
[20:27] wayfinding on central park
[20:30] anything to add guys
[20:32] no i like the circle creates sort of an
[20:35] entry
[20:36] into the part it it it kind of
[20:38] formalizes it a little bit
[20:42] and so as we discussed
[20:45] this the long-range concept would
[20:47] further increase parking which would be
[20:49] readily accessible
[20:51] for
[20:52] the
[20:52] a par a field
[20:56] the music haven the tennis courts it
[20:59] just enhances and creates easier access
[21:01] to parking down by the fair parking area
[21:06] potential for the splash pad
[21:09] i'll be right here
[21:11] right in this area
[21:11] [Music]
[21:15] all right does anyone have any questions
[21:20] we can talk we can talk about this stuff
[21:22] all night but we don't want to pour it
[21:23] in so we'll just ask you those to give
[21:25] us give us any uh
[21:27] questions that are relevant to the
[21:29] presentation
[21:30] feel free
[21:32] yes ma'am um so someone mentioned about
[21:34] money so
[21:35] are we talking do we based on your
[21:37] concept is there a dollar amount that
[21:39] you uh connected to this that's a fair
[21:41] question yeah what we were looking at
[21:42] before was the original step
[21:45] was and actually if you advanced it
[21:47] another couple more slides chris we have
[21:50] the cost in there it's about three
[21:51] million dollars for the new pool
[21:54] and the upgrade
[21:56] basically
[21:57] and doing retrofitting yeah we have
[21:59] three million dollars here
[22:01] for that as a cost estimate the other
[22:03] one to basically try to get it up to
[22:05] code was between eight and ten million
[22:08] dollars
[22:09] and that still doesn't solve a lot of
[22:11] problems you have infrastructure issues
[22:14] over there at the current swimming area
[22:17] this is you bring everything in new you
[22:19] have the infrastructure and you start
[22:22] thank you
[22:24] go ahead um does the three million
[22:26] dollars include the lighting and the you
[22:28] know all the all the things that we just
[22:30] talked about the parking
[22:33] it no it accounts for the stuff right
[22:36] here the
[22:40] other pieces are probably it wouldn't be
[22:43] more but we really haven't quantified
[22:45] that yet that was beyond the scope of
[22:47] what i asked him to look at
[22:50] we have to do the lighting
[22:52] coming along the a diamond going over to
[22:54] music haven
[22:56] uh what do you do with the parking lot
[22:57] on fair avenue
[22:59] uh is part of the
[23:02] uh ongoing
[23:04] review
[23:05] because we're getting rid of
[23:06] this tennis stadium which the city never
[23:09] put any money it was always otb that
[23:11] brought it there
[23:12] the money dried up it's gone into
[23:14] disrepair
[23:16] we have put money in the
[23:18] tennis courts
[23:20] and i think that we should probably look
[23:22] at putting some bleachers over those
[23:24] tennis courts
[23:25] uh there's nobody in the city today that
[23:27] wants to play tennis that's denied the
[23:29] opportunity
[23:31] to play tennis
[23:33] and
[23:34] it's how do you look at this relocation
[23:36] of the pool at the same time to
[23:39] deal with some of the other uh
[23:41] amenities that we need
[23:44] in the park to make sure people are
[23:46] using music haven using the pavilion
[23:49] uh using
[23:51] both the baseball courts basketball
[23:53] courts
[23:54] and other things and again
[23:57] the numbers actually surprised me i
[23:59] thought
[24:00] their estimate i believe is good for the
[24:02] basic
[24:04] uh site for the pool at roughly 3
[24:06] million dollars
[24:09] and then
[24:10] it's what do we spend on the additional
[24:12] modifications for
[24:14] lighting and standpoint enough
[24:16] connectivity with walkways and other
[24:18] things that
[24:19] just allow the other amenities to be
[24:22] used at the level we'd like
[24:24] to
[24:25] mayor to the presentation point chris
[24:28] and i've been working on this with the
[24:29] consultants and i've been working with
[24:32] the tennis group for
[24:34] almost my entirety here about 10 years
[24:36] and one of the things that they've asked
[24:38] for has never been more tennis courts
[24:40] necessarily but they have wanted a
[24:43] bathroom with a changing facility and
[24:46] the cost of that have always been well
[24:47] how do we do that so when we sat down we
[24:50] talked about okay this location which is
[24:52] great and centralized and a bath house
[24:54] with a changing facility the tennis
[24:56] season is longer than the pool season
[24:59] so by having it in a more central
[25:01] location we're really hoping to
[25:02] incorporate some things so that we'll
[25:05] you know meet two goals with one
[25:07] investment because we can we can
[25:09] restrict you from coming into the pool
[25:11] area we can allow you into the bath
[25:13] house which would have changing
[25:14] facilities to do and i think that i mean
[25:17] they have very large tournaments at the
[25:18] tennis facility so i think we'd have a
[25:20] lot of reciprocity with that and you
[25:22] know really show that we're making a
[25:24] smart investment and similarly uh
[25:27] christine and i are 100 aware
[25:29] that this investment will put a lot of
[25:31] bonus on ourselves to connect to it with paths and do intersection
[25:37] improvement project effective shows and
[25:38] make the park and make this location
[25:40] more accessible to everyone and we've
[25:42] already taken one step we've put in a
[25:44] tip-ass location to encourage biking
[25:47] from state street into this area so it's
[25:49] now it's at the forefront
[25:51] if you're not aware of saratoga
[25:53] associates they work on the golf course
[25:55] with us previously they also worked on
[25:57] our central park signage uh package that
[26:00] you've heard about so we have a plan
[26:02] together we're kind of waiting for
[26:03] certain things to happen to put signage
[26:05] throughout the parks people know where
[26:06] things are and that's where they've done
[26:09] some concepts with fair app in the
[26:10] parking lot because that's one of the
[26:12] parking lots we want we've been working
[26:13] with uh mona and music haven so this is
[26:15] a next step but i'll be it will never be
[26:18] the final step i mean this is just the
[26:20] next step
[26:22] with parks the the faces never really
[26:24] ends because the programming constantly
[26:27] evolves i think kind of the work we've
[26:29] been doing today with the city has kind
[26:31] of helped inform our opinion in terms of
[26:34] the location and how it ties into the
[26:36] other programming elements of central
[26:38] park
[26:41] john
[26:42] um what would be the timeline on this
[26:46] construction project yeah we we actually
[26:48] discussed that with i don't know mayor
[26:50] if you wanted to discuss that he won't
[26:51] be able to bring it up
[26:54] better grasp it you know
[26:57] probably over
[26:59] like two construction seasons yeah i i
[27:01] honestly think you know
[27:03] there are still a stakeholder
[27:07] process that needs to occur to finalize
[27:10] the design and we're in december where
[27:12] at the end of 2021 you really get to the
[27:14] point where the first
[27:16] three to four to five months are the
[27:18] design development process
[27:20] until you get to
[27:22] the architecture and
[27:24] the pool design so we're really looking
[27:26] at probably getting started in doing the
[27:29] design from like the second to the third
[27:33] quarters of 2022 and then starting the
[27:36] construction
[27:37] in probably the end of the third quarter
[27:40] into
[27:41] early 2023 with a target start date of
[27:44] say june 1st of 2023 i think that would
[27:47] be a good target
[27:50] thank you
[27:51] and of course you have
[27:52] to supply you know things that we may
[27:54] not be able to so that's
[27:57] it is difficult because we have run into
[27:58] that with a lot of projects yeah it's been a real challenge and and i
[28:02] think the more time we have the better
[28:04] so we can start putting things in the
[28:06] queue but we're hoping some of the
[28:08] supply the supply line issues get
[28:10] resolved hopefully
[28:14] there any other questions
[28:18] all right well thank you thank you very
[28:20] much folks have a good evening thank you
[28:22] thanks for your time thank you everybody
[28:25] next on the agenda is the government
[28:27] operations mrs porterfield call to order
[28:30] government operations there are five
[28:32] items on the agenda
[28:34] uh the first item for discussion is osm
[28:37] broadcast of city council and committee
[28:39] meetings thank you uh so we as you know
[28:42] we've been having difficulties with the
[28:45] transmission of uh council and committee
[28:47] meetings
[28:48] we
[28:49] asked that
[28:51] if
[28:52] here he is there is back there uh if he
[28:54] would bring a quote and some information
[28:56] so you all should have received the
[28:58] email with the quote and zeb if you
[29:00] could uh
[29:02] just present to us
[29:03] what the findings were
[29:09] we asked
[29:11] technologies who's a very
[29:14] good standing reputable uh company in
[29:17] the city to give us a quote on what they
[29:19] would do to upgrade all of the
[29:23] issues with the sound the video and
[29:26] everything like that with the not only
[29:28] this room but also the um the commercial
[29:31] chambers
[29:32] and what they came back with um
[29:36] i had some questions for tom who's the
[29:40] chief
[29:43] guy over there who
[29:45] looked at our space
[29:47] and explained to me each one of these
[29:49] because i wasn't even unsure about some
[29:51] of this stuff
[29:52] um
[29:54] and uh i come to the territory this is
[29:56] actually really good this would
[29:59] put us in a very good spot quality wise
[30:03] there's a lot of issues with um
[30:06] buzzing noises i mean you can hear it it
[30:07] just
[30:08] moves right into the mics
[30:11] and uh
[30:13] tommy's a real good expert and uh
[30:16] and these mics that he outlined in this
[30:18] system would um
[30:25] spot in terms of audio and video and
[30:28] broadcasting the meetings i mean things
[30:29] like um
[30:33] noise cancellation on mics
[30:36] uh having sam in the room
[30:39] with a slider so she can turn down the
[30:41] audio in the console chambers because it
[30:43] gets loud
[30:44] it's very tough for us as the production
[30:47] to know if it's too loud in the council
[30:49] chambers
[30:50] you would be able to just kind of tone
[30:52] the audio down in there
[30:55] and also
[30:56] you know mute likes when you need to
[31:00] and those sorts of things
[31:03] those
[31:04] cordless mics that we use
[31:07] those are those are on a signal that's
[31:09] not really used anymore so
[31:12] they're just they're on their way out
[31:14] so um
[31:18] some new ones that actually meet
[31:20] code
[31:23] yeah i don't know is there any questions
[31:26] so i have a few um
[31:31] let's say we went down this road uh how
[31:33] long
[31:34] do you think this technology would be
[31:37] i asked that exact question
[31:40] he said it would be at least 10 years
[31:42] because you know obviously
[31:44] technology changes and things evolved
[31:47] but i mean um
[31:49] you know
[31:51] uh he said at least ten years on uh
[31:55] on the audio video i'm sorry i think
[31:57] that the cameras are so i mean i want
[32:00] some of these things last longer than 10
[32:01] years i know that somebody's a really
[32:03] good company
[32:04] with video
[32:09] and if we didn't do live transmission
[32:12] with the cost being the same or
[32:16] yeah this does not this is this is just
[32:18] improving the audio and video quality
[32:21] overall
[32:22] uh
[32:23] on the video side so you're recording
[32:25] the actual transmission is a kind of a
[32:28] separate uh thing
[32:30] that um
[32:32] it just that depends on um
[32:34] you know the internet and he did
[32:37] actually
[32:38] uh include uh
[32:41] internet boosting signal to the
[32:43] amplifier to actually uh make sure that
[32:46] the the internet signal that's coming
[32:48] out is a little more secure
[32:51] so the stream will be a little more solid
[33:07] um
[33:23] i know that you've identified um a tech
[33:25] some a business so we would have to go
[33:27] out to bid for this just to find if we
[33:29] were their competing bids
[33:31] i need to defer that to you guys and uh
[33:34] you certainly could put it down
[33:36] we may have to uh a lot of
[33:39] this type of equipment is on state
[33:41] contract or consolidated supply of the
[33:43] federal
[33:44] vetting process so we would be able to
[33:47] purchase it directly okay
[33:50] thank you
[33:53] are there any other options that we
[33:55] might have to
[33:58] get the meetings out there i mean
[34:00] uh we just put
[34:03] i'm gonna say we i mean i think it was
[34:05] two or three years ago probably put 10
[34:08] or 15 000 in
[34:10] and
[34:12] i guess we thought it would take care of
[34:14] the problem
[34:15] are there other options of
[34:19] transmitting the meetings
[34:20] um i mean the the transmitting it and uh
[34:25] capturing good audio they're kind of two
[34:26] separate problems i mean the the
[34:28] transmission is just to determine what
[34:30] you're putting out there this would give
[34:32] us
[34:34] everyone's audible i mean these these
[34:36] bikes they just they just pick up a lot
[34:37] of the ambient sound the air
[34:39] conditioning a lot of things
[34:41] the um this would give us a solid ground
[34:44] to put out
[34:46] a really clean good-looking
[34:49] committee meeting council meeting
[34:51] um and then also uh help us with the
[34:54] streaming that this
[34:56] the internet stream would be a little
[34:58] more stable
[34:59] so it kind of really solved both of
[35:01] those problems but that interesting
[35:03] question
[35:09] i think it's something that we need to
[35:12] think about and obviously the
[35:14] transmission is a major problem we get
[35:17] complaints every single week
[35:20] and
[35:21] but
[35:22] 50 000 is a lot of money too
[35:25] but it should last 10 years hopefully
[35:28] but
[35:29] mayor uh
[35:31] do you have any other options or your
[35:34] staff have any other options of
[35:35] possibility of
[35:38] getting these meetings out there
[35:40] we haven't
[35:43] looked at it specifically other than
[35:47] uh it's
[35:48] packaging all the information that's
[35:50] available where
[35:53] uh it's likely has the long history
[35:55] we're the first to broadcast
[35:58] city council meetings live
[36:00] it's been
[36:02] probably 40 years
[36:04] maybe longer that
[36:05] they've done it
[36:07] but today it's just not the
[36:10] a
[36:11] simple visual of
[36:14] council members
[36:16] talking being at the meeting it's how do
[36:18] you get the additional information up
[36:19] it's you know where you have
[36:21] presentations like this to be able to
[36:23] merge it
[36:24] the more recent change in state
[36:27] legislation that requires
[36:30] information to be made available
[36:33] prior to the meetings
[36:36] and again
[36:38] you know that's all good but at the same
[36:39] time you don't want the public to be
[36:41] overwhelmed with kind of what i'll call
[36:43] white noise where you're putting out so
[36:45] much
[36:46] that they don't have time to sort
[36:48] through it
[36:49] and how do you manage that so
[36:52] i think the discussion has to be
[36:54] not only the streaming of the meetings
[36:57] but it's packaging all the information
[37:00] that goes out
[37:02] the data the photographs
[37:05] other information the council or city
[37:08] staff may be
[37:09] using to make decisions or come to a
[37:12] conclusion in terms of legislation or
[37:14] other actions that you're looking at
[37:16] do you think you could have your staff
[37:18] look at this and
[37:20] maybe make a proposal or presentation
[37:24] you know in the future
[37:28] most certainly we can work with zev and
[37:32] take what he's put together and look at
[37:34] other things that
[37:37] may be applicable and it's out at city
[37:39] council meetings you have other
[37:42] bodies you know it's a zoning board
[37:44] planning commission
[37:47] that
[37:49] have equally important roles i should
[37:52] say
[37:53] nothing's as important as the city
[37:54] council but
[37:56] that
[37:57] people want to know what's going on and
[38:00] how do we get that information out so
[38:02] that they can understand it and
[38:05] again understand what's going on at city
[38:07] hall
[38:10] i think that's a good place to leave it
[38:12] let the mayor's staff hopefully poor
[38:14] nate was that and
[38:16] when they have something and we'll bring
[38:18] it back to the table
[38:20] and open any questions at any time
[38:27] um thank you okay thank you mr feldman
[38:30] thank you
[38:31] okay the next item on the agenda is
[38:33] resolution to appoint carl williams and
[38:35] during tutorial to vacant council seats
[38:38] as we all know there was an election
[38:40] for two unexpired terms and the um
[38:44] you know we have the people who won the
[38:45] election car williamson during the toro
[38:48] who are at this point we can appoint
[38:50] them to the vacant council seats which
[38:52] will you know means they'll be able to
[38:54] govern for like two weeks of 2021 but um
[38:57] you know again you know that's what's
[38:59] before you today for us to make those um
[39:02] to make those appointments
[39:04] so i'm opening up for discussion
[39:08] did you measure
[39:11] are you raising your hand i am raising
[39:12] my hand okay um i would like to go move
[39:14] forward with appointing them even for
[39:16] those only for a few weeks i don't see a
[39:18] reason not to appoint them
[39:20] anyone else
[39:22] okay
[39:23] do you want to
[39:25] i'd like to make a motion
[39:26] a second okay all those in favor aye
[39:29] okay then just be on the agenda for next
[39:32] week
[39:33] um
[39:34] the next item of the agenda is the
[39:36] procurement policy for january uh 2022
[39:39] to december
[39:41] 23. mr colton thank you um in the packet
[39:45] tonight
[39:46] um
[39:47] is more i want to say it's a legislative
[39:49] request
[39:50] it was something that will eventually
[39:51] turn into a legislative request
[39:53] potentially
[39:55] every two years state law requires
[39:57] review of the procurement policies of
[39:59] the particular municipality here
[40:01] obviously the city of connecticut
[40:02] [Music]
[40:04] our two-year period is coming to an end
[40:06] i've included the resolution
[40:09] from the last period january 1 2020
[40:12] through december excuse me um should be
[40:17] through december 31 2021
[40:20] um
[40:21] that the council approved
[40:24] obviously it's open for
[40:25] discussion for
[40:27] the council members
[40:30] from my take on it from talking to city
[40:32] staff this procurement policy has worked
[40:34] pretty well
[40:35] i haven't heard any significant issues
[40:38] obviously i believe there's been a bit
[40:39] more accountability
[40:41] because certain things have to go to the
[40:42] council
[40:43] [Music]
[40:45] obviously happy to address any questions
[40:47] that the council may have
[40:50] in terms of you know uh passing a new
[40:52] policy
[40:56] so
[40:56] it seems like there's thank you it seems
[40:58] like there's not there's no change from
[41:01] what we passed last year or i'm not
[41:03] proposing any changes that's not up for
[41:04] me to propose obviously the council can
[41:07] do what the council would like to do
[41:09] all i can tell you is anecdotally from
[41:11] speaking to
[41:12] the departments they've been
[41:14] i think pretty happy with the current
[41:16] policy i think we did change it quite a
[41:18] bit from the last time
[41:21] in terms of
[41:23] purchases that are less than a certain
[41:24] amount we changed that threshold so it
[41:26] didn't have to
[41:27] come back to the council because i think
[41:29] it was
[41:31] a bit of an older policy and the costs
[41:33] have gone up for certain things
[41:35] making it
[41:36] i think less feasible when we had to
[41:38] make decisions
[41:40] i know that was something that came from
[41:42] i believe general services engineering
[41:44] and development
[41:46] but you know obviously it's up to the
[41:47] council in terms of what it wants to do
[41:49] but that time is coming where a new
[41:51] policy is in order okay
[41:55] so
[41:56] [Music]
[41:57] on on here we have individuals names i
[42:00] thought we changed that to
[42:02] do you have to have a um
[42:04] you're right it has to be an
[42:05] individual's name in there um that's
[42:08] what came to be obviously there are
[42:10] certain things that are going to have to
[42:11] change with regard to that commissioner
[42:13] edens is in there for example yes um
[42:17] and there may be other changes
[42:18] yeah they said no you hadn't put
[42:20] individuals
[42:21] so those people are specifically
[42:23] responsible for it so you can't do that
[42:26] i thought we
[42:27] right that's what we tried to do okay
[42:28] all right
[42:31] like purchasing supervisor obviously um
[42:33] aaron gallagher's now the purchase
[42:35] supervisor so things along those lines
[42:36] those are the obvious things i have to
[42:38] change
[42:39] um but in terms of you know the lack of
[42:41] a better phrase the main potatoes of the
[42:43] you know the bulk of the the purchasing
[42:45] policy that's obviously something that
[42:47] you know the council should discuss um
[42:50] as i said my perspective on it it's a good policy but you know things
[42:55] need to be fine-tuned or the council has
[42:58] no other considerations and wants to
[42:59] address
[43:00] and that's obviously within the preview
[43:02] of the council
[43:04] uh any other questions or
[43:07] so at this point i i am i'd like us to
[43:10] actually maybe have a presentation by
[43:12] those who
[43:13] you know do the procurements like to
[43:16] hear from from whom you mentioned
[43:18] and um
[43:20] to do that before we just go ahead and
[43:22] say let's just uniformly pass this then
[43:25] move forward so that's what i'd like to
[43:27] see okay
[43:28] you know i i can't that's not my
[43:32] one presentation tonight oh no no not at
[43:35] all no i would have asked for that number
[43:43] okay and again if you have
[43:45] specific areas that you'd like
[43:48] because some of the stuff they can talk
[43:50] all night i know
[44:00] [Music]
[44:05] if you look at this resolution that
[44:07] passed it wasn't passed until march we
[44:09] were working on the old policy for a
[44:10] while obviously it's one of those things
[44:12] i was waiting for after budget season to
[44:13] bring this forward but i wanted to
[44:15] obviously be on the council's radar
[44:17] um otherwise we would be operating
[44:19] within this purchasing policy okay
[44:22] fine yeah we need to review it
[44:25] okay
[44:26] all right any questions
[44:29] okay the next item on the agenda is just
[44:30] a reminder of the public hearing on next
[44:33] monday december 13th to amend chapter
[44:37] 87-11 uh for the city code to add
[44:39] juneteenth as a declared holiday
[44:42] just a placeholder
[44:44] and the final item on the agenda is
[44:46] discussion of the legislation
[44:48] legalization of marijuana and the op out
[44:50] option
[44:52] so as we all know that um and
[44:55] in order for us to opt out
[44:57] um we'd have to make a decision by
[44:59] december 31st or we would opt in in
[45:02] terms of having cannabis lounges and
[45:05] dispensaries in the city and um opting
[45:09] out means that you still have an
[45:10] opportunity to opt in
[45:12] uh however if you do nothing then you're
[45:14] automatically in
[45:15] and you there is no opportunity to opt
[45:18] out
[45:19] um so
[45:20] you know however it happened we just
[45:23] this didn't get on the agenda months ago
[45:24] when really it would have been a great
[45:26] opportunity to do it but it was i know
[45:28] that i'm not the only one we received
[45:29] emails i had an informal discussion with
[45:31] mr colton and i really thought that it
[45:33] was something that we need to discuss
[45:34] and
[45:35] um you know asked mr mutaveron if we
[45:37] could have it on the agenda so we're here to discuss that tonight
[45:41] um
[45:42] and i also have to say that since it's
[45:45] on the agenda there's been emails
[45:46] there's an op-ed piece there's i
[45:48] received phone calls and text messages
[45:51] so people have a lot that they want a
[45:54] lot of input and that's just in that
[45:55] small window of time so clearly there's
[45:58] a lot of public um feeling of one way or
[46:01] the other regarding um having uh
[46:04] dispensaries and lounges within the city
[46:06] of schenectady so you know we we as a
[46:09] council have to decide whether we would
[46:11] opt out and then give this further time
[46:13] to discuss it and really see if it makes
[46:15] sense or where it makes sense and if
[46:17] zoning is part of the issue
[46:18] which um i'm told that's that's another
[46:21] thing that you know we could we could
[46:22] discuss so um bringing you here tonight
[46:25] to get input um from the council so we
[46:27] can make that decision because again we
[46:29] um the opt-out deadline is december 31st
[46:33] so
[46:35] is there any comments or concerns or
[46:37] questions or
[46:39] what are your thoughts
[46:41] well i would like to opt out but i was
[46:43] allowing other people the opportunity to
[46:45] say that i would like to opt out i don't
[46:47] think that a decision such as this is
[46:49] something we should make in a very short
[46:51] time frame um because if we even wanted
[46:53] to have a public hearing it would mean
[46:55] that we'd have the public hearing and
[46:56] have to vote on the very same night
[46:58] which is not a true public hearing
[47:00] so
[47:00] um if we this is a decision that's it's
[47:03] it it includes revenue and it also
[47:05] includes other social issues that go
[47:07] along with it so rather than to
[47:09] hurriedly make the decision because we
[47:12] did not do this in a timely manner it
[47:15] makes sense to me to spend the time
[47:17] really discussing it to really get
[47:19] a lot more public input input from the
[47:22] police department input from there's
[47:23] people that
[47:25] have set information regarding business
[47:27] opportunities that they would like to
[47:28] pursue so there's a lot to be considered
[47:31] and in my opinion not all of that can be
[47:34] considered this very short time frame
[47:36] which is also a time frame when people
[47:37] are doing a lot of other things and
[47:38] distracted i won't call it distracted
[47:40] but giving their attention to the
[47:42] holidays so my opinion is that we should
[47:44] opt out take the real time to discuss it
[47:47] and make a decision based on
[47:49] a lot of information just not a short
[47:52] amount of information in a very short
[47:53] timeframe
[47:56] so um
[47:58] in regards to waiting for the
[48:01] meeting
[48:03] i'll speak for myself i was hoping and
[48:05] waiting for the state to come out with
[48:08] some regulations and
[48:10] some rules and there's been nothing
[48:14] and
[48:14] so i think at least for me that's why
[48:17] i haven't looked for it to be earlier
[48:21] and
[48:21] i think probably for many of us on on
[48:24] the council
[48:25] in regards to a public hearing i have a
[48:28] question from mr colbin
[48:30] it's my understanding we could have a
[48:32] public hearing on monday
[48:34] we just need to have like three days
[48:37] notice is that correct
[48:39] yes i mean
[48:42] there have to be a resolution to call
[48:44] for a public area
[48:45] which would take us to next monday
[48:48] because there'd have to be a resolution
[48:49] to call for the public hearing
[48:51] um so you can't there has to then there
[48:53] has to be notice
[48:55] i know i see city clerk shaking her head
[48:58] because
[48:59] even if the city council next monday
[49:00] were to pass a resolution to call for a
[49:02] public hearing there has to then be
[49:05] sufficient notice to provide
[49:07] the public an opportunity not just to
[49:09] have a public hearing but to review any
[49:11] materials
[49:13] that would be considered for that
[49:16] hearing
[49:18] because i
[49:20] wanted to clarify because my
[49:21] understanding was if we called for
[49:24] public hearing on monday we just needed
[49:25] three days so thank you for that
[49:27] clarification
[49:30] but what is patrick well so
[49:33] i didn't hear whether you were thinking
[49:35] um three days was enough if we had the
[49:37] resolution
[49:38] we the resolution wouldn't pass until
[49:40] next monday right but i mean then if
[49:45] you pass a resolution calling for a
[49:46] public hearing um and then notice has to
[49:49] go out but you know
[49:51] generally the mayor has to you know sign
[49:53] the resolution and there's a
[49:57] it'll have to sit problem cycle because
[49:58] you're calling for a public hearing
[50:00] then
[50:01] that's going to be the 13th then you're
[50:04] going to have to have the public hearing
[50:06] and then
[50:06] either pass it that night or the next
[50:08] you know meeting night
[50:14] so it's not just three days it's what
[50:16] you're saying okay
[50:22] so um
[50:26] i would uh recommend a compromise here
[50:31] um i think the dispensaries
[50:33] are
[50:34] you know there's some dispensaries that
[50:36] are already like
[50:37] in process throughout the city i think
[50:39] they're going to be coming before
[50:40] planning a development
[50:43] i would want a lot more information on
[50:46] what they would be wanting to do from a
[50:47] lounge standpoint so my recommendation
[50:50] would be that we opt out on any
[50:52] lounges but go forward with dispensers
[51:00] i i didn't know if we could if we could
[51:02] do that i would have to look really a
[51:03] little bit yes yes i believe we can from
[51:06] the reading that i've read i believe
[51:08] that we can opt out
[51:09] on the lounges and move forward with
[51:11] dispensaries
[51:14] well i would like to be able to be able
[51:16] to read that and see that and have that
[51:18] in detail without making that decision
[51:20] again for me it's about making sure we
[51:22] have as much information as possible and
[51:25] not um
[51:26] not just making it based on this quick
[51:28] decision tonight because i think this is
[51:29] a very quick turnaround
[51:31] and we should really take the time to do
[51:33] it and we've already heard from
[51:35] people that don't want dispensaries so i
[51:38] think that i think public input is an
[51:40] important part of this process
[51:42] before we make that decision
[51:45] yes ms patrick
[51:46] i'm sorry
[51:48] well i did have a chance today to
[51:50] go to the office of cannabis management
[51:53] website uh which i just found out today
[51:56] existed um and did some reading before i
[51:59] came here and you can actually make that
[52:01] choice of
[52:04] just dispensaries or dispensaries and
[52:06] lounges or just lounges
[52:10] i
[52:11] do feel that we need more time to really
[52:14] look at rules and regulations
[52:16] i have had a conversation
[52:18] with our police chief as well
[52:21] my feeling is that i
[52:23] would like to see us be able to have
[52:26] dispensaries
[52:27] i do think that that will help us to cut
[52:30] down on some of the illegal activity
[52:33] that's happening in the city in terms of
[52:35] um
[52:37] i think that we'd have more control over
[52:38] the quality of the product that was
[52:40] being sold if it was being sold in
[52:43] a
[52:44] in an environment that we get to decide
[52:46] you know who's doing that so i think
[52:48] rather than you know is it going to be
[52:50] laced with fentanyl are we going to have
[52:52] more overdoses et cetera that's one
[52:54] thing i think it also gives
[52:56] um us the opportunity for our police
[52:58] force to have less
[53:01] and i don't know that i'm completely
[53:02] accurate on this but less
[53:04] minor offenses that they would be having
[53:06] to
[53:07] review and
[53:09] go after um and so therefore there'd be
[53:12] more focus on the things that we know
[53:14] that they're focused on
[53:16] you know all the time in terms of more
[53:18] major crimes um so those are those are
[53:21] two aspects of it um i think for me the
[53:24] sales tax aspect which i actually found
[53:26] out some more information about that
[53:28] today as well um is part of the decision
[53:31] but it's to me not the uh focus of this
[53:34] discussion i'm more concerned about uh
[53:37] people and neighborhoods
[53:39] in that regard so i do feel
[53:42] luckily i know that we can opt back in i
[53:46] made sure of that because one of the
[53:47] calls i got today from a business person
[53:50] um i got several calls from businesses
[53:52] that do want us to be able to uh have
[53:55] the dispensaries um
[53:58] and like all of us we got obviously
[54:00] emails and calls from people that don't
[54:02] want us to do that as well
[54:03] um but one of the business people that
[54:06] called me today didn't feel that we
[54:08] could opt back in so i really did some
[54:10] research to make sure indeed that we can
[54:13] opt back in uh so i feel comfortable
[54:15] with that so
[54:17] those are my feelings mayor
[54:19] just uh asked chief clifford to be here
[54:21] tonight the council so desired
[54:25] would provide you some background
[54:26] briefing that it would involve sources
[54:28] methods and operations within the police
[54:30] department which you would have to move
[54:32] into executive session for
[54:38] so at this point in time um i mean we
[54:41] can hear that discussion so i what
[54:43] happened with this is right now we're
[54:44] the only two on uh right on this
[54:47] committee but it also sounds like we
[54:48] have to go into a session before we can
[54:51] hear from the chief right
[54:52] absolutely absolutely so i mean
[54:57] does anyone else want to weigh in on any
[54:59] other council member mr palamini um i
[55:02] think there's a number of considerations
[55:04] that
[55:05] we need to think about
[55:07] some have been articulated others not
[55:10] for instance
[55:11] what about all these tobacco shops that
[55:14] are setting up with the
[55:16] thoughts that they're going to be
[55:18] selling marijuana
[55:20] that's something that's in our
[55:22] neighborhoods
[55:23] yes there's stores that want to operate
[55:26] and there's business considerations
[55:28] but those are largely in commercial
[55:30] districts whereas these tobacco shops
[55:33] are in the neighborhoods we already have
[55:34] enough problems in the neighborhoods so
[55:37] what would be some
[55:39] solutions to that problem
[55:41] um
[55:42] you know there's i think a variety of
[55:44] considerations the
[55:46] i don't buy sorry miss patrick but i
[55:50] don't buy the argument that it will
[55:51] solve the
[55:53] illegal issues and it'll just create
[55:55] another market
[55:57] and that's typically how these things
[55:59] operate
[56:00] so i think there's a number of
[56:02] considerations for us to consider
[56:04] um
[56:05] you know the neighborhoods to me is the
[56:07] big one um
[56:09] you know
[56:12] we have many many issues in our
[56:14] neighborhoods already
[56:16] so
[56:17] i think
[56:18] we'll go into executive session i'm
[56:20] assuming that's what you're looking to
[56:21] do we'll hear from the chief but
[56:24] i just think that's some things that we
[56:27] need to consider
[56:28] as we move forward
[56:30] whether to opt in or opt out but
[56:35] i think
[56:36] we we have a number of issues also
[56:39] think about the pharmacies
[56:41] you know pharmacies popped up
[56:43] 20 years ago every corner
[56:46] and now they're going out of business
[56:47] and we're left with these empty things
[56:50] so there's i think things that we need
[56:53] to think through a little bit
[56:55] and
[56:56] maybe we'll get some answers
[56:58] uh in the discussions of some of the
[57:00] things that that will hear
[57:02] but i think it's uh
[57:04] not quite so simple
[57:08] well i just want to respond i don't i
[57:10] didn't think that it would solve our
[57:12] problems with drug killers or illegal
[57:14] drug activity um at all but and i want
[57:17] to hear more about that from from the
[57:20] chief
[57:21] but i also think that it seems to me
[57:23] that we would have
[57:25] uh well first of all there's also zoning
[57:27] and planning et cetera that that
[57:29] businesses would have to go through but
[57:31] i think in terms of what you're bringing
[57:33] up around the neighborhoods i think we
[57:35] also will be able to make some decisions
[57:37] about that as well in terms of where
[57:40] uh in the city we would you know and how
[57:43] many et cetera et cetera i mean we we
[57:45] can make those kinds of recommendations
[57:47] around the number of dispensaries and
[57:49] that kind of thing i think from what i'm reading so that's
[57:55] sorry mr paul ready but those are just
[57:57] to respond to that so with all of this
[57:59] discussion i think with this one thing
[58:00] that's pretty clear it needs more
[58:02] discussion and i also think it needs a
[58:04] lot more public input there are well
[58:06] philosophers currently who are you know
[58:08] talking about making a decision that's
[58:10] going to impact the entire city so
[58:13] um
[58:14] i i again think that public input is
[58:16] important we talked about neighborhoods
[58:18] and where would be and there's going to
[58:19] be a lot of limiting not my backyard i
[58:21] believe that so you know those are all
[58:23] things that we need to consider so i'm
[58:25] not i'm not
[58:27] from my perspective willing to rush into
[58:29] it and then have to then kind of back
[58:31] out of it and consider all those things
[58:33] i think we should have a have it really
[58:36] done well
[58:37] and once we roll it out so i know that
[58:38] we need to go into executive session to
[58:41] discuss to hear what the chief has to
[58:42] say so uh at this time i'll just
[58:44] entertain a motion to recess but we will
[58:46] then have to come out and make
[58:48] and vote
[58:49] okay all right oh i'll make that motion
[58:51] success okay we're going to reset uh
[58:54] government ops and discuss the rest of
[58:56] the an executive session
[59:00] [Music]
[59:02] so caught order finance committee first
[59:04] item on the agenda is a review of the
[59:06] downtown um schenectady assessment
[59:09] district there's a public hearing on the
[59:10] 22nd
[59:12] are there any questions or comments
[59:15] have a motion
[59:16] a second always in favor aye next is
[59:19] review of the 2022 upper union street
[59:22] business improvement district again uh
[59:25] public hearing on 22nd any questions or
[59:28] comments
[59:29] emotionally second all
[59:38] development and planning there are 13
[59:40] items on the agenda
[59:42] the first item on the agenda thermal
[59:44] imaging camera for the connecting fire
[59:45] department aaron gallagher
[59:51] no
[59:53] so
[59:55] are you gonna think that she's gonna
[59:56] take that are we gonna put that on for
[59:57] two weeks
[1:00:02] just the purchase of some equipment
[1:00:03] which i think is detailed
[1:00:07] it's on page 15.
[1:00:11] someone's thinking the same thing
[1:00:23] so the
[1:00:24] council
[1:00:27] has already approved
[1:00:31] we are going to propose a purchase of a
[1:00:34] thermal imaging cameras
[1:00:36] in the capital budget
[1:00:38] then there came an opportunity for a
[1:00:40] grant the general
[1:00:43] assistance of firefighters training
[1:00:45] which we applied and we were fortunate
[1:00:48] enough to get them so we're pulling that
[1:00:50] off of the capital budget
[1:00:52] and it's been approved to accept the
[1:00:54] grant the council has already approved
[1:00:56] that
[1:00:57] so what this is here is just to
[1:00:59] uh it went to bid there was
[1:01:02] one bitter garrison
[1:01:04] uh fire apparatus
[1:01:06] a company that we dealt with and now the
[1:01:08] proposal is for the council to
[1:01:11] accept that date okay
[1:01:13] and it's for
[1:01:15] the total
[1:01:18] that's for 60 000.
[1:01:21] yeah
[1:01:22] 62
[1:01:23] sorry sixty two thousand five five
[1:01:25] hundred and sixty dollars right
[1:01:27] um
[1:01:29] fifty six thousand and change is going
[1:01:31] to be from the grant okay and the city
[1:01:33] is
[1:01:34] uh
[1:01:36] over about fifty
[1:01:39] but i guess the question on the table is
[1:01:42] can we go with garrison
[1:01:46] are there any questions
[1:01:48] no i'll move it
[1:01:53] [Music]
[1:01:58] all right uh the next item on the agenda
[1:02:00] is into municipal water agreement with
[1:02:02] the town of rotterdam it's philippa
[1:02:10] the request you have for planning for
[1:02:12] approval tonight for consideration
[1:02:14] is the um
[1:02:15] updated and renewable lottery
[1:02:17] intermittent water agreement
[1:02:20] we do provide water and certain parts of
[1:02:22] rotterdam that are convenient to our
[1:02:23] water mains
[1:02:25] this agreement has been in place for a
[1:02:26] number of years but it was time to
[1:02:28] update the agreement
[1:02:30] and we entered into a five-year
[1:02:32] agreement with the counter-run and the
[1:02:33] five-year-old
[1:02:35] the rate is the current uh obviously
[1:02:37] rate and the
[1:02:39] budget
[1:02:41] so that would be the new rating
[1:02:44] any questions
[1:02:47] okay second all those in favor aye aye
[1:02:49] thank you mr obama good evening thank
[1:02:51] you it's insane
[1:02:53] next time on the agenda uh to authorize
[1:02:56] the mayor to enter into a supplemental
[1:02:58] agreement with new york state department
[1:02:59] of transportation for
[1:03:01] broadway mill and phil fourth street to
[1:03:04] each street
[1:03:09] uh so as you're aware we are in the
[1:03:11] process of pause right now
[1:03:14] of the preservation of broadway between
[1:03:16] 890
[1:03:18] and newport
[1:03:20] so what we're looking at doing is like
[1:03:22] we did a last session we have two
[1:03:24] agreements this one's the first one this
[1:03:26] allows us to
[1:03:27] enter an agreement with the dot where we
[1:03:29] can get reimbursed for up to 95 percent
[1:03:32] of the costs incurred for the project
[1:03:35] so
[1:03:36] looking forward this we've already
[1:03:38] increased some money but you can roll
[1:03:39] out the current now we can go back and
[1:03:41] get reimbursed for it
[1:03:48] thank you
[1:03:49] okay uh the next item on the agenda is
[1:03:52] the
[1:03:53] department of transportation for rich
[1:03:55] new york and it gives the bin number
[1:03:56] francis avenue over 80 90. mr wallace
[1:04:00] yep so this is the same thing different
[1:04:02] project we have not started the francis
[1:04:04] avenue bridge yet we haven't even
[1:04:06] see it here but doing it this way
[1:04:09] is what finance would actually prefer is
[1:04:12] that we do them at the same time so that
[1:04:14] we turn around the reimbursements as
[1:04:15] fast as we get the bills
[1:04:18] so
[1:04:19] due to my kind of capacity it's not
[1:04:21] possible to usually get everything there
[1:04:22] but we're going to try it with this one
[1:04:24] because it's a little slower in the
[1:04:25] winter so um
[1:04:27] it's a little out of order
[1:04:29] is francis avenue deck replacement
[1:04:32] between
[1:04:33] hamilton hill and mount pleasant we're
[1:04:34] going to be doing that project next year
[1:04:37] with this company tioga hopefully
[1:04:39] it's awarded and that project is going
[1:04:41] to start first thing in the spring go on
[1:04:43] for a number of months possibly three
[1:04:46] all new deck we have a lot of problems
[1:04:51] and
[1:04:52] all new deck lighting radio defense and
[1:04:55] then this will reimburse us
[1:04:59] any questions
[1:05:00] i'll move it second all those in favor
[1:05:06] okay and the next item on the agenda
[1:05:08] number five is to authorize the city
[1:05:09] engineer to take steps necessary for the
[1:05:11] right-of-way acquisition for kings road
[1:05:12] over amtrak
[1:05:15] if andrew was going to touch on this for
[1:05:17] me yeah this is actually something that
[1:05:18] came before the committee um at the last
[1:05:20] committee meeting um only it was a call
[1:05:22] for a public hearing um it shouldn't
[1:05:24] have been a call for a public hearing we
[1:05:25] didn't need it we don't need a public
[1:05:27] hearing for this
[1:05:29] there is that property so kings road we
[1:05:31] need access to certain properties in
[1:05:33] order to complete the bridge work there
[1:05:37] the issue is we had reached out to a
[1:05:40] number of the property owners there's
[1:05:41] one person if you recall had passed away
[1:05:44] another one we had trouble locating i
[1:05:47] think the owner
[1:05:48] another i think another one just was not
[1:05:50] interested but in order to get this work
[1:05:52] done we're not taking a large piece of
[1:05:54] the parcels it's a very small strip for
[1:05:57] the purpose of doing the work um it does
[1:06:01] technically de minimis uh based on
[1:06:04] how much property we're actually
[1:06:06] accessing
[1:06:07] therefore we don't need to have a public
[1:06:09] hearing so be the recommendation from
[1:06:12] the law department and obviously from mr
[1:06:14] wallen from the engineering department
[1:06:16] to move forward with this resolution so
[1:06:18] that we can um seek uh the properties um
[1:06:22] through eminent domain
[1:06:24] are there any questions
[1:06:27] second always in paper
[1:06:30] okay and uh fighting number six
[1:06:33] award-winning contract for the francis
[1:06:34] avalon bridge deck replacement we'll
[1:06:36] talk a little bit about that somebody's
[1:06:38] gonna talk a little bit about that i'll
[1:06:39] just get into the a little bit of the
[1:06:40] detail that we have in there is that we
[1:06:42] did uh design this for a better car
[1:06:44] this was a bridge new york project
[1:06:47] yesterday where bridge new york is a
[1:06:50] competitive statewide project
[1:06:52] solicitation where
[1:06:55] i had to make a
[1:06:56] application for the state it was
[1:06:58] reviewed by a group that is unaware they
[1:07:01] actually have different regions review
[1:07:03] um and it's based on merit and awarded
[1:07:05] it is a hundred percent uh
[1:07:08] it's 100 funded however the work was
[1:07:11] more than we wanted to but still we want
[1:07:14] to get this work done because 80 percent
[1:07:16] it would have been there but we need to
[1:07:17] get this bridge done we put it out we
[1:07:19] got as you see five bridges um for the
[1:07:22] most part the bridges bits were very
[1:07:24] close
[1:07:25] um and tioga we have not worked with
[1:07:28] taiwan we've been working with d.a
[1:07:29] collins and beth but we did call uh i
[1:07:31] did call some references they are
[1:07:33] rapidly confirmed reasons we don't do a
[1:07:35] lot of bridge work in the city um but we
[1:07:38] have no reservations moving forward with
[1:07:40] it and i really think this is going to
[1:07:42] be a great project to get the bridges
[1:07:45] done we're really
[1:07:46] making some improvements with all the
[1:07:47] bridges in the city which is great okay
[1:07:50] any questions or discussion
[1:07:52] i'll obtain a motion
[1:07:53] in a second all those in favor all right
[1:07:56] thank you mr wallace thank you
[1:07:58] welcome
[1:07:59] uh the next time on the agenda is
[1:08:00] award-winning contract for the
[1:08:02] demolition and
[1:08:04] select making properties in the city
[1:08:05] through jackson demolition services mr
[1:08:08] thank you good evening everyone so as
[1:08:10] part of our five year consolidated plan
[1:08:13] we always look we set aside funding to
[1:08:16] remove blight and to complement some of
[1:08:18] the investments and redevelopment that's
[1:08:20] happening within the neighborhoods um so
[1:08:22] this is basically the recommendation is
[1:08:26] that the
[1:08:27] city council authorized the mayor to
[1:08:28] enter an agreement with jackson
[1:08:29] demolition services for the demolition
[1:08:31] removal of debris of the
[1:08:34] vacant buildings that are listed in the
[1:08:36] amount of 422 700
[1:08:39] um jackson was the lowest bidder and
[1:08:42] these are some of our most troubled
[1:08:44] properties uh in the city
[1:08:49] any questions or discussion i'll move it
[1:08:52] second all those in favor all right
[1:08:55] thank you yeah
[1:08:57] okay
[1:08:58] um all the final items on the agenda are
[1:09:00] for executive session
[1:09:03] so this time i'd like to attend emotions
[1:09:04] to go into executive session so moved
[1:09:06] second
[1:09:08] all's in favor high
[1:09:09] okay the public
[1:09:13] [Music]