[8:00] hello i want to thank you today for
[8:02] joining me for the 2022 state of the
[8:06] city
[8:07] dress for the city of schenectady i want
[8:09] to specifically thank jen paluccio alex
[8:12] sutherland jennifer clifford and amy
[8:14] hill
[8:15] provided technical and administrative
[8:17] support for today's address
[8:21] i want to thank council president
[8:23] porterfield majority leader
[8:26] members of our city council
[8:28] i
[8:29] appreciate the work that they do every
[8:31] day on behalf of the residents of the
[8:33] city
[8:34] i also
[8:36] appreciate people who are watching live
[8:38] via webex open stage media or may view
[8:41] this as a recorded meeting of the future
[8:45] i want to thank our department heads and
[8:47] the city staff for the work they do
[8:49] every day for the residents of our city
[8:52] it's really an impressive team that we
[8:54] have of dedicated individuals who try
[8:56] and make a difference in people's lives
[8:59] every day
[9:02] covent is still an issue in our
[9:04] day-to-day lives over the past year i
[9:07] have and still recommend people get
[9:09] vaccinated
[9:11] wear masks wash their hands and practice
[9:14] social distancing to minimize the spread
[9:16] of the virus
[9:17] something that we're dealing with and
[9:19] they're going to have to deal with into
[9:21] the future
[9:24] 2021 was a pretty good year for the city
[9:27] of schenectady
[9:28] thanks to the american rescue plan act
[9:30] just signed into law on march 11 2021 by
[9:34] president biden
[9:35] the fiscally proven work by city staff
[9:38] and resiliency in our local economy s p
[9:41] global ratings affirmed its a rating for
[9:45] a general obligation bond and raised the
[9:48] city of schenectady's outlook from
[9:50] stable to positive
[9:52] schenectady will end 2021 with a
[9:56] balanced budget
[9:58] our expenses will equal revenues
[10:03] prior to the covid 19
[10:05] pandemic we have cut taxes five years in
[10:09] a row
[10:10] and even with the pandemic driven
[10:12] adjustments over the past two years our
[10:14] property tax rate is more than six
[10:16] percent lower than it was seven years
[10:18] ago
[10:19] to get into very good fiscal story from
[10:22] the city
[10:24] schenectady
[10:26] the multi-year trend of property value
[10:28] increases continued last year
[10:31] there is and has been
[10:33] real value in real estate in the city of
[10:36] schenectady
[10:39] we've received half of our almost 53
[10:42] million
[10:43] dollars of arba allocation as part of
[10:46] that process i held several neighborhood
[10:49] discussions and we put in place an
[10:51] online application process to seek
[10:54] community input on using the arc of
[10:56] money
[10:57] we now are in the process of evaluating
[11:01] and implementing those projects which we
[11:03] have to do in a manner that will be
[11:05] compliant with federal guidelines
[11:09] the infrastructure
[11:11] and investment and
[11:13] commonly referred to as iija
[11:17] provides significant additional federal
[11:19] funding on top of the american rescue
[11:22] plan
[11:23] this is the largest long-term investment
[11:26] in our infrastructure in our nation's
[11:28] history
[11:29] this money will provide this will
[11:32] provide money to states and local
[11:34] governments through new and expanded
[11:37] programs in the area of transportation
[11:40] broadband energy resiliency and water
[11:44] projects
[11:47] we have now completed the conversion of
[11:50] all of our 4000 plus utility pole
[11:53] mounted street lights in this in the
[11:56] city to smart led fixtures
[11:59] as part of our
[12:00] rev demonstration project with national
[12:02] grid this also includes
[12:05] smart city features to improve public
[12:08] safety transportation
[12:10] mobility
[12:11] and environmental sustainability
[12:15] our public wi-fi deployment in the
[12:17] neighborhoods is also steadily increased
[12:21] which has been critical to many
[12:22] residents throughout pandemic
[12:25] i remind residents of the interactive
[12:27] wi-fi map we have on our website to keep
[12:30] everyone posted on where we currently
[12:32] have this expanding service
[12:35] networking of all city facilities with a
[12:39] fiber backbone
[12:40] is a foundational part of this project
[12:43] and we're approximately halfway through
[12:46] the installation of this backbone it's
[12:48] an ambitious plan
[12:50] and different from other communities is
[12:52] the goal is a city-wide and not just in
[12:56] the central business district they have
[12:58] the services available
[13:00] to show
[13:01] the importance of this network and how
[13:04] it has affected residents over the last
[13:06] year
[13:08] we have seen
[13:09] [Music]
[13:10] 770 million separate page views on that
[13:14] network and this was driven by 45 000
[13:17] unique visitors
[13:21] the schenectady police reform and
[13:23] reinvention collaborative was formed
[13:25] with accordance with the governor's
[13:27] executive order
[13:29] we have put in place a nationally
[13:31] recognized community review panel for
[13:33] police hiring
[13:35] school-based community engagement
[13:37] officers and established a recruitment
[13:40] and education partnership with suny
[13:43] schenectady is part of our ongoing
[13:45] efforts in this area
[13:49] this county police department cares
[13:51] program
[13:52] is guided by the principles of police
[13:55] assisted addiction and recovery
[13:57] initiative this allows individuals in
[14:00] need of assistance to simply walk into
[14:02] the police station and connect with
[14:04] services this program has helped over 78
[14:09] people
[14:10] in probably the last six months
[14:13] we're fortunate to have new choices
[14:15] recovery center catholic charities and
[14:18] schenectady county community services as
[14:21] partners in the delivery of this program
[14:25] our total police calls were down over 11
[14:28] last year's compared to the five year
[14:31] average
[14:32] this continues a trend that we started
[14:35] pre-pandemically
[14:38] uh we continue to develop the new
[14:40] telemedicine platform of ellis hospital
[14:43] mvp
[14:44] cd php healthcare and united concierge
[14:48] medicine and we're looking to expand our
[14:50] partnerships with other providers
[14:52] our paramedics can perform telehealth
[14:55] consultation with ucm physicians
[14:58] avoiding costly trips to the emergency
[15:01] room with 115
[15:03] certified paramedics the smokey fire
[15:05] department is the first and largest
[15:08] department in the region to offer this
[15:11] service
[15:13] we've updated our city website
[15:15] and have
[15:16] put in place secret fix is a new feature
[15:21] it's to make reporting and tracking of
[15:23] non-emergency problems or issues easier
[15:27] i thank the city clerk and city council
[15:30] members for adding the c-clec fixed qr
[15:33] code to their business cards to ease the
[15:35] access of this service for our residents
[15:40] garbage collection is one of the great
[15:42] services we provide to our residents
[15:44] unfortunately we're facing two issues
[15:48] one our recycled material which we used
[15:51] to have it taken away at little or no
[15:54] cost
[15:55] today our cost is just under 62. a ton
[16:00] and that compares to a little over 44.
[16:05] for our msw msw is municipal solid waste
[16:09] so it costs us 40
[16:12] more to dispose of recycled material
[16:15] than just regular garbage
[16:18] the other issue is we deal with
[16:21] individuals
[16:22] depicted in this photograph who put out
[16:24] extraordinary quantities of garbage
[16:27] and i look forward to working with the
[16:29] council as we look at these issues and
[16:32] how we can
[16:33] hopefully stimulate
[16:36] markets for recycled materials that are
[16:38] going to reduce our overall cost and
[16:41] also balance out and put some equity in
[16:43] the individuals who use the service and
[16:46] find a way to restrict those people that
[16:49] really take advantage of our garbage
[16:51] collection and drive up our overall
[16:54] costs
[16:56] we received the clean energy communities
[16:58] designation through nyserda last may and
[17:01] in june eec gave's connect to the abroad
[17:04] certification is a climate smart
[17:06] community
[17:07] these are given in recognition of local
[17:10] climate action and clean energy
[17:12] leadership
[17:13] we specifically had significant
[17:15] investment in electric vehicle fleets
[17:18] our led street lights and our municipal
[17:21] solar arrays
[17:23] we continue to look for ways to make
[17:26] schenectady more sustainable working
[17:28] with a local company livingston energy
[17:31] we added 10 new electric vehicle
[17:33] charging stations on liberty street
[17:37] this in addition to the 26 new ev
[17:40] charging stations and soon he's
[17:42] connected
[17:44] and we're still waiting for the delivery
[17:46] and the hybrid and electric vehicles we
[17:48] plan to add to the police department
[17:50] it's unfortunately some of the supply
[17:52] chain issues
[17:53] but we remain committed to reduce our
[17:56] carbon footprint and add electric
[17:58] vehicles the city fleet
[18:02] we worked for the national grid last
[18:04] year retreats connected the community
[18:06] fathers and sjta to plant 50 trees in
[18:10] environmental justice areas
[18:13] the climate vulnerability and adaptation
[18:16] report done by our staff identified the
[18:19] critical role urban trees
[18:21] play in combating air pollution reducing
[18:24] the heat island effect and improving
[18:27] overall mental health within the
[18:29] community
[18:30] dec has provided us funding to continue
[18:33] our city-wide free inventory and
[18:35] management plan
[18:38] we're almost done with the 1.3 million
[18:40] investment in orchard park
[18:44] crane street
[18:45] land bank under the leadership of county
[18:47] legislator richard bruzo executive
[18:50] director david hogan
[18:52] coordinated the demolition of six
[18:54] adjacent buildings to this site this
[18:56] added over 35 000 square feet of green
[19:00] space for the mount pleasant
[19:01] neighborhood
[19:02] and we've added a basketball court
[19:05] playground equipment and we'll finish
[19:07] this spring with the addition of an
[19:09] outdoor fitness court
[19:12] two additional park upgrades done last
[19:15] year as part of the thriving
[19:16] neighborhoods challenge
[19:18] were the new splash pad at the
[19:20] wallingford park and improvements to
[19:22] jalen park on land and terrace
[19:27] we look forward to starting construction
[19:29] for jerry morrell park
[19:31] this will include a new splash pad
[19:34] basketball cart seating area improved
[19:36] lighting and public art
[19:39] this is possible because of the support
[19:41] from new york state parks
[19:43] in schenectady county
[19:46] i appreciate the city council's early
[19:48] support for a new pool in central park
[19:51] this will allow us to deal with state
[19:53] department of health compliance issues
[19:55] with our current pool reduces our
[19:58] overall maintenance issues and
[20:00] compliment our past investments in music
[20:02] haven the a diamond and tennis courts
[20:05] central park again is really a great
[20:07] facility
[20:08] encourage people who haven't had the
[20:10] opportunity to go in and see the things
[20:12] that are there take the time
[20:15] stop by and really enjoy what we have
[20:19] we've reduced the number of properties
[20:21] on our vacant property registry last
[20:24] year from
[20:25] over 800 to
[20:27] 386
[20:29] cut it you know by half
[20:33] it's significant uh again distressed
[20:36] property still drives a lot of our
[20:38] expense for code enforcement for
[20:40] policing in the fire department and has
[20:43] a negative effect than general city
[20:45] revenue
[20:46] it's an area that we have to continue to
[20:48] collectively work on
[20:50] and again it's one that schenectady has
[20:53] a fairly good track record on but it's
[20:55] still significant when we continue to
[20:57] have to focus our efforts
[21:00] since 2014 we've demolished over 200
[21:03] blighted and vacant buildings in our
[21:05] neighborhoods we're scheduling the
[21:07] removal of another another 13 this year
[21:12] we've sold over 100 properties last
[21:14] through last year through our
[21:16] award-winning homes program
[21:18] home ownership made easy and schenectady
[21:21] our focus continues to be creating
[21:24] owner-occupied homes in our
[21:26] neighborhoods just under 750 properties
[21:29] have moved through this program in the
[21:31] last nine years
[21:33] the homes program also continues to be a
[21:36] good source of revenue this program not
[21:38] only puts properties back on the tax
[21:41] rolls for continued and stable tax
[21:44] stream
[21:45] revenue stream but last year generated
[21:48] over 3.7 million dollars in gross
[21:51] revenue through our sales
[21:54] work continues at the new northside
[21:57] village on van branden avenue both
[22:00] hillside crossing and albany street and
[22:02] renaissance square just off eastern
[22:04] avenue are open and fully occupied these
[22:08] developments represent over 150 million
[22:11] dollar
[22:13] worth of investments in our community
[22:16] the new depaul 60 unit housing
[22:20] unit the 60 unit housing for senior and
[22:23] veterans development on crane street is
[22:27] moving through the planning process and
[22:29] construction is scheduled to start later
[22:31] this year
[22:32] this will be a significant addition to
[22:35] the new boys and girls club in the
[22:37] county library in the bound pleasant
[22:40] neighborhood
[22:43] given
[22:44] the revitalization of our community the
[22:47] economic activity is significant we've
[22:50] got the major development we've seen
[22:53] the 440 000 square foot uh project in
[22:57] the mill artisan district on state
[22:59] street 67 000 square feet
[23:03] work in the form of trusco headquarters
[23:05] you know 66
[23:07] 500 square feet
[23:09] the new apartment building at 501 state
[23:11] street it's a 40 000 square foot
[23:14] building the ywca facility on washington
[23:17] avenue
[23:19] we've seen uh work and renovations at
[23:21] the old
[23:23] gazette press building
[23:24] renovation the former otb headquarters
[23:28] and also
[23:29] seeing the rehabilitation of the
[23:31] building just across from city hall here
[23:33] at jane franklin streets
[23:37] the final testing and site work will be
[23:39] completed this spring at the north ferry
[23:42] street pump station this is a major
[23:45] upgrade to this critical piece of
[23:47] infrastructure and stabilizes our system
[23:50] for high water events and positions our
[23:52] community for future growth and
[23:54] sustainability
[23:57] in uh
[23:58] rebuilding our infrastructure
[24:02] projects that we completed last year and
[24:04] some were still ongoing
[24:06] there was a million and a half dollars
[24:07] worth of work done in south church
[24:09] street
[24:10] the broadway
[24:12] pavement preservation project uh
[24:15] largely in bellevue was a million for
[24:18] the 750 thousand dollars we spent in the
[24:21] long awaited upgrades the stormline from
[24:24] lancaster wine opening renaissance
[24:27] it's done uh
[24:29] done a substantial amount of work for
[24:31] the intersection improvements at doc
[24:33] wendell and rosa road
[24:35] the intersection is done in forest and
[24:38] francis that's just under 300 000
[24:41] we have planned
[24:43] a hundred thousand dollar improvement
[24:46] for the intersection at that street
[24:48] in mcclellan for stabilization
[24:51] and modifications into the curbs there
[24:55] this year
[24:56] we have approximately 40 million dollars
[25:00] of pending
[25:01] projects
[25:03] these include
[25:05] uh seven
[25:07] five point seven million dollars in our
[25:09] general paving program
[25:11] we're finally gonna be able to undertake
[25:12] the million and a half dollar upgrades
[25:14] to brandywine avenue between state
[25:16] street in 890
[25:18] got a million
[25:20] one
[25:21] for downtown pedestrian safety
[25:23] improvements
[25:24] this five million dollar project for
[25:26] kings road bridge replacement
[25:29] say 3.1 million dollars for francis
[25:32] avenue bridge deck replacement
[25:35] the upgrades for the crane bain chrysler
[25:38] intersection 750 thousand dollars
[25:42] a significant portion of that was made
[25:44] available through assembly member angelo
[25:46] santa barbara
[25:48] the million dollar upgrades with bicycle
[25:51] track on franklin street
[25:54] uh 250 000
[25:56] for bicycle path improvements on
[25:58] washington avenue
[26:00] in phase two and three we're going to in
[26:03] veil park we're going to spend an
[26:04] approximately 350 000 to complete those
[26:09] the 3.1 million dollar francis avenue
[26:12] bridge deck replacement
[26:15] that was awarded through a competitive
[26:18] program bridge new york
[26:20] again it shows that we're able to put
[26:23] together projects that
[26:25] we compete with regionally and do it in
[26:28] a successful manner and i thank the city
[26:30] engineer chris wallin the team for
[26:32] making some of that possible
[26:35] uh this particular project will require
[26:38] the francis avenue bridge to be closed
[26:40] to both vehicles and pedestrians
[26:43] from march 14th through august 1st
[26:46] where we look to minimize that
[26:48] inconvenience we're doing that so that
[26:50] it speeds up the overall project and
[26:53] reduces the overall cost
[26:55] this project again
[26:57] includes the complete removal and
[26:59] replacement of the concrete bridge deck
[27:02] along with the sidewalks and will result
[27:04] in increased lighting
[27:07] for that structure
[27:10] we're
[27:11] similar to other national
[27:14] entities and other levels of government
[27:17] we're
[27:18] having difficulty filling some of the
[27:21] positions at city hall i encourage
[27:23] people to go
[27:25] to the city website look and see what
[27:28] positions are open consider joining a
[27:31] great team of people that we have
[27:33] working in the city is connected
[27:36] we ended 2021 with a bright light
[27:39] our first annual luminosity event
[27:42] brought building owners businesses and
[27:44] not-for-profits together to celebrate
[27:46] the holiday season
[27:48] i want to thank
[27:50] dsic and national grid for making that
[27:53] possible i also had the pleasure of
[27:56] walking with our governor kathy pocal
[27:58] while she did some christmas shopping on
[28:00] j street here in schenectady
[28:03] i'm proud of the record we have we have
[28:05] a bright future and it's an exciting
[28:07] time to be in schenectady again
[28:10] appreciate the work that our city
[28:12] council does our department heads and
[28:14] the city staff so i want to thank
[28:16] everyone for joining today
[28:18] stay safe enjoy the rest of your day
[30:34] you