[0:04] All right, I'm ready if you are. Yeah, great on us. All right, roll call, king. Present.

[0:11] Pue. Present. Liff. Here. Globally. Here. Burbauer. Here. Descan. Here. Bartleson. Here.

[0:18] Cardamon. Aye. We have a quorum. All right. Next, first on the agenda, we have a couple appointments coming up.

[0:26] Yes, thank you. Mayor, members of the council. Resolution 26107 is approving the appointment of Bob Morris as

[0:31] the architectural technical advisor to the City of Lockport Heritage and Architecture Commission.

[0:37] Bob did resign as a voting member as of September 9th.

[0:41] The council at the previous meeting just approved a new position, and

[0:46] we're looking to fill this role until April 30th of 2029.

[0:51] We have a couple other roles coming on some other items and we'll have people staggered.

[0:55] We try to keep the serving in two and three year positions.

[1:00] So we'll have someone else at 28, Bob at 29, and another member at 20, 2030.

[1:05] So unless there's any questions, we'll be looking to approve or put the resolution 26107 on the next council agenda for consent or action.

[1:15] Everybody good with consent on this?

[1:18] All right, consent it is.

[1:20] What else do you have?

[1:21] Yes, thank you, Mayor.

[1:22] Resolution 26108 is approving the appointments for the two vacancies we currently have on the H&A commission.

[1:29] Those are going to be filled by Jennifer Brockman and an Agnes Soto pursuant to Chapter 150 of the City Code.

[1:37] The mayor appoints the members, confirmed by the City Council.

[1:41] We received about four or five applicants and Jennifer and Agnes were selected and we're looking to fill those vacancies.

[1:50] If you guys have any questions about the appointments, you guys good over there?

[1:58] Jonathan, it's usually yeah.

[1:59] All right.

[2:00] Final consent?

[2:01] Great.

[2:02] All right.

[2:03] Thank you.

[2:04] And then, Lance, you're up next.

[2:09] Yes.

[2:10] This is related to our continued conversation about how we regulate painting and staining of

[2:16] I don't know what is wrong with my microphone tonight, but I apologize for the feedback.

[2:23] That new filling you got in.

[2:26] Yeah, right.

[2:26] It's the meadow in my head.

[2:28] All

[2:32] right, I'll just get closer.

[2:34] Hopefully, that's better.

[2:35] We last talked about this at the May 6th committee, the whole meeting.

[2:39] We presented an ordinance change that was recommended by the Heritage Architecture Commission.

[2:44] that identified a couple different conditions under which

[2:49] masonry could be painted as well as the materials with which you could paint.

[2:54] Masonry, those three items were if the building was not contributing.

[2:58] If it was necessary for preservation, or if it matched an existing masonry component that was being removed.

[3:05] So imagine if you had to remove a cracked brick out of a facade, but the rest of the facade was painted.

[3:10] You wouldn't want to leave that gap and you wouldn't want to leave an unpainted piece

[3:16] of brick scattered all over the building if you were replacing those units.

[3:20] So that was the third condition and then the fourth item that was in that code related

[3:25] to the types of materials that would be most appropriate for painting masonry, specifically

[3:31] related to the breathability of that material.

[3:34] So once we kind of step back from that conversation, I know that each of you gave me input and

[3:43] feedback on kind of your direction, we didn't come out of that meeting with a very clear

[3:49] direction.

[3:50] So the mayor asked if I could follow up with everybody and get your input on things.

[3:56] After that input process, we kind of developed what you see in your packet tonight, which

[4:02] which could probably be described as a middle ground of sorts between do whatever you want

[4:08] and follow what the HNA was recommending, specifically the way that this is written is irregardless

[4:17] of what you do using the right material is the most important part.

[4:23] Two alternatives though that is tied to the facade grant as kind of the fulcrum point

[4:28] for how you treat your building.

[4:31] Well, we don't want to have happened as we don't want somebody to go if we say, hey,

[4:38] if you go get a façade grant, you can't paint your building.

[4:41] Well, then they just go paint it a month before they apply for the façade grant and they

[4:46] say, hey, it wasn't part of the façade grant, why was the problem?

[4:50] Or they do the opposite.

[4:51] They get a façade grant and then they go paint it the month after they get the façade grant.

[4:55] We wanted to try and restrict some of that.

[4:57] So the way that the way that is

[5:00] Director, right now is if you are going to apply for a façade grant, you can't paint your building for five years, for a period of five years prior to that application, or after that application, or after you are reimbursed after getting a façade grant. That allows people to basically just give it a second thought to say, is this something that I really want to do? And if I do, am I willing to forego the grant funds?

[5:29] or the potential grant funds that the City Council could award me to do improvements to my building if I so wanted to do that.

[5:37] And so that's the way that this is structured.

[5:40] Again, if you want to go for a PSI grant, you can't have a painted your building for the five years prior.

[5:49] Now obviously, if you pass this in two weeks, we're not going to all the sudden count everybody that has painted their building within the last five years.

[5:58] It would start from from the day that you passed the ordinance.

[6:02] So if you're going to apply for a façade grant, you can't paint your building for five years up to that application day.

[6:09] And you couldn't paint it for five years after you received the reimbursement from your façade grant improvements.

[6:15] Does that make is that clear for everybody?

[6:18] And in the opposite side, if you don't want a façade grant, you could still paint your building.

[6:23] but it has to be used using the materials that are required under the code that's listed below.

[6:32] And of course, as everybody knows, there are weekend warriors all over the place.

[6:37] I'm sure everybody has seen people replacing windows on a Saturday or they've been doing whatever.

[6:43] The only way that we have a hook is if we have some sort of building permit that's required to do something.

[6:49] So, Windows is one of those things that's an easy weekend one, we get roofs all the time that are done over the weekend.

[6:56] So, we are proposing a building permit be created for painting masonry specific to the historic district, this is not city wide.

[7:07] So, if you wanted to paint your building, you would come and get a building permit from the building department.

[7:13] And it requires that you identify what type of paint or stain you are going to use.

[7:19] So that way we have that as a record so that when we go out and do an inspection we can

[7:25] look at the paint labels or they have to provide the paint labels to us to verify that they

[7:30] have actually used that product.

[7:32] If they don't the penalty obviously could be pretty steep because you would need to remove

[7:38] the paint off your building if you use the incorrect material or not the material that you checked on the

[7:45] building permit. It's kind of like a lot of things. We have a lot of check boxes on our building

[7:50] permits if we go out there afterwards and somebody said they were going to do something or didn't say

[7:55] they were going to do something and didn't do it or did it. We require that they either break that

[8:01] stuff back down and get a permit for it and do it the right way or not. So this would be the same

[8:07] function. So, if you're in the process of doing it, it's subject to a stop or

[8:11] recorder, just like anything else. And if you finish it, and you haven't used

[8:16] the right, right material, then we have the right to require that you remove all

[8:20] the pain and or stain.

[8:24] So, we're going to do a mailing campaign to all the

[8:27] building owners in the historic district. We're also going to walk door to door to

[8:32] hand out a fire that will create related to what the new requirements are

[8:36] are going to be assuming that something is approved in two weeks.

[8:41] And so we're going to do that campaign to try and make it clear for everybody.

[8:46] Not everybody opens an envelope, and so we'll do our best to try and educate

[8:51] everybody as much as we can.

[8:54] But that's the only way, that's the only middle ground that we can do.

[8:58] It obviously makes it harder from an enforcement standpoint for us

[9:02] because there's a lot of communication that needs to happen inevitably we will get somebody

[9:07] hard and know anything about that. Now you're going to make me pay $13,000 to remove all this

[9:12] paint and stain off my building. You know there's enforcement when you give away there's always

[9:18] enforcement that needs to follow with that and those become tough decisions that we deal with at

[9:22] a department level all the time so it's not something that's unexpected but those are the caveats with

[9:29] with opening it up a little bit more.

[9:32] All right.

[9:34] Quick question for you in this hypothetical.

[9:36] If I buy 1,000 South State Street,

[9:41] which is a beautiful limestone building,

[9:44] and I don't apply for a facade grant,

[9:48] can I paint that entire building

[9:50] lime green breathable material with no problem?

[9:57] Correct.

[9:57] and it's

[10:01] Is it possible to do like a secondary palette or something like that, just so that we don't end up with? We have to assess like a good forward, like, I don't know, we have two palettes that are recommended within the heritage architecture code, but there's just recommendations. Is it part of the, like, so when they when they apply for the permit to paint, which they

[10:29] would have to do. And you see, these are the paints, you know, the Sherwin-Liams, Masonary,

[10:36] whatever, whatever it is that you are recommended on there. Is that also the time when the color

[10:40] palette, the recommended color palette, is presented? We always recommend it to anybody

[10:46] that's going to do the work. But we can't force them, sure, to pick one. I get it.

[10:53] No, it's

[10:54] because we don't oversee colors of paint. It's something that you can't do. We've had

[11:00] this conversation for 15 years right it's like you can't it's the one thing you

[11:04] really can't you can't tell somebody what color they can paint their structures

[11:08] regardless of what where it's at so that's always been a thing yeah some people

[11:14] it was interesting when I was doing some of the some historical research you

[11:20] know I found pictures from the 70s everybody loved everybody in history loved

[11:24] the 70s because they just blew everything out of the out of the water the

[11:28] The corner building, Northwest corner of Ninth and State used to be light blue.

[11:34] So it's an all-in-stone building, very similar to what the opera houses today are, the

[11:39] Norton Building, and somebody painted it, light blue.

[11:43] That was, at some point, removed, I don't know if JRU or Robin, you may know when that, when

[11:49] that, or Darren, you may know when that occurred.

[11:51] But yeah, it used to be a light blue color, and I don't know who spent the money to remove

[11:56] it but it's a lot better in its current form than it was light blue. I remember when a rosemary's

[12:01] building was painted too so that was blasted off. Yeah so okay. Any other questions thoughts do

[12:10] we feel like this is a good middle ground? I have one question regarding the facade grant though

[12:15] if what if it's a wood building? Wood we don't regulate. So this is only related to masonry.

[12:23] Thank you.

[12:23] All right.

[12:23] Thank you.

[12:24] Yep.

[12:26] All right.

[12:26] Well, if everybody feels okay, you guys, okay, with a consent on this?

[12:30] All right.

[12:31] We'll put it on consent.

[12:32] Thank you.

[12:34] Thank you.

[12:34] And then CD2, what else you got, Lance?

[12:37] Yeah.

[12:37] This is just the corollary to this.

[12:40] You know, if we're going to have this, what I've called a curing period, we needed to update

[12:45] our application for the Psoc grant to also include that specific instructions so that everybody

[12:52] everybody, regardless of how they approach this, is fully aware of what you are subjecting

[12:59] yourself to if you want to apply for a peace out grant.

[13:03] Okay.

[13:03] So we get with consent then on that.

[13:05] Let's go together.

[13:06] All right.

[13:10] Next page.

[13:11] We've got PD public works.

[13:13] What do you get?

[13:14] Right.

[13:15] Yes.

[13:16] We've got the first one that I have tonight is what our recent acquisition of a few parcels.

[13:24] So if can you click the next slide, please.

[13:27] Thank you.

[13:27] So we just required a couple of parcels

[13:31] just north of Seven Street and west of State Street.

[13:35] The 108, the house that you'd see

[13:38] like the fire departments and having a lot of fun with lately,

[13:41] with a lot of holes and stuff in it,

[13:42] and the vacant lot with that.

[13:45] So with the development of the streetscape

[13:47] that we're looking at doing with the ITEP grant

[13:50] and moving in some of the further development of 7-11,

[13:53] We acquiring these prior sales gives us another parking lot that we can get for municipal parking allow more people to

[14:00] Be able to have a space to go to get to downtown and stop so with that what I did is reached out to Syltek

[14:07] Engineering to give us a proposal to design it survey design

[14:11] the site for the amount of $133,951

[14:16] dollars and basically currently this wasn't programmed at the time, but we do have enough surplus in our CIP program this year to cover the design cost of this.

[14:29] So I'm just looking for approval for their contract.

[14:33] All right, questions, thoughts, concerns?

[14:35] I do have one question.

[14:36] Does it have to, since we're dealing with Ida, can we have access into the parking lot off of State Street?

[14:43] We will not be going there. It'll I'll be looking to get the access kind of almost like a Hamilton

[14:48] Where it or across a street here where it's a one-in one out so it'll be off the seven streets

[14:53] So you'll turn on the seven street to get into it and then both that entrance and exit will be looped around on seven

[15:00] So all the traffic would be leaving seven street, not state itself. We also, um, you haven't seen it yet, but it's in the budget requests for next year to actually build it. So engineer at this year,

[15:31] The purchase of a 2026 Ford F-550 for rail drive dump truck for the street division from Rob Baker Ford.

[15:41] This vehicle will replace 134, which will surplus at the next gen to item.

[15:48] But the 2008, this one is, or the old one was about 18 years old.

[15:55] This one will be used for doing the plowing of our parking lot.

[15:58] So it's a little bit smaller dump and that allows us to get through the parking lot

[16:03] It's a little bit easier than our full-size vehicles and stuff and a little bit more happy than the plow truck or a pickup truck and stuff

[16:11] So we did budget for this for 150,000

[16:15] The total cost is $92,750 and 63 cents the difference is we will be going back and getting it with

[16:24] to a separate vendor to get a retrofit for the lights,

[16:28] snowplow, and a salt spreader.

[16:30] So the dealer doesn't install those things,

[16:32] so that cost will be a zorg with the other.

[16:36] Do you expect that to be about 58,000?

[16:39] It will be under that, yeah, I'll be under that.

[16:43] All right, groupie.

[16:44] We okay with consent on that.

[16:47] All right, and PWA B3, last one with us.

[16:50] Yeah, this one is just to surplus the vehicle

[16:53] call that the one that we're just the last agenda item.

[16:56] It is truck number 34, which has about 97,000 miles on it.

[17:02] It's about 18 years old.

[17:03] It's just been unreasonably unalliable lately.

[17:08] We've kind of converted it to the water truck

[17:11] and had the water tank in it, but it's still not

[17:14] something that we feel safe enough to drive anymore.

[17:17] So we're going to be surplus in that one.

[17:19] We've spent about 42, almost $43,000 on it since September of

[17:25] repairs, so I'm just looking to get this one surplus.

[17:31] Anybody good with consent on that?

[17:34] All right, very good.

[17:36] Thank you, Carl, appreciate it.

[17:38] There's nothing else.

[17:40] Then we'll do a motion to adjourn.

[17:43] Steve?

[17:44] Second.

[17:44] Thank you, Jonathan, all in favor?

[17:46] Hi.

Committee of the Whole - Sep 16th, 2026

Transcript