Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency board meeting (March 14, 2023)

The Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency board received a report on accomplishments for 2022.

Director of Development Crystal Surdyk presented to the JURA board on the list.

She said there were 1,125 code enforcement and zoning inspections done in 2022 and 327 permits issued. Total fees generated by the department were in the amount of $25,848.

Surdyk said there are three Code Enforcement Officers in the department, “That’s 375 inspections per person for the year. And so, that takes out weekends, although frankly they’re on call 24-7, so it used to be that there may be one, maybe two a week. It’s more like four, five (inspections).”

Surdyk said the total value in permitted improvements is $2,331,561, “That’s way up from the last three years, which is great. It’s a sign of development coming back. Things are moving. Things are happening again which is exactly what we want to see.”

Surdyk said, in 2022, $1.118 million in Community Development Block Grant monies assisted 25 projects with $214,538 of HOME funds assisting 5 properties.

She said $194,000  funding also was allocated toward two Code Blue emergency shelters.

Surdyk added that $3.3 million was received for ten separate awards, including funding for the Chadakoin River Basin Activation plan as well as funding for the Comprehensive Plan.

Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency Board Meeting (April 26, 2022)

The Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency board has approved a loan request to the company buying the former Welch’s Building in Westfield.

2 Portage LLC requested a $475,000 loan for the real estate acquisition. The Al Tech Revolving Loan fund loan has terms of 20 years at 4% interest. The project will be an adaptive reuse of the building with the total project cost of $11.5 million.

The IDA also approved a $90,000 loan to International Ordnance Technologies. The loan goes toward the repair a heat-treat furnace which had broken down. IOT manufactures machine gun links. The Jamestown Local Development Corporation approved a $90-thousand dollar loan for the same project at its meeting earlier this month.

A number of EDA (Economic Development Administration) CARES Act loan were approved by the IDA with the loans being used for working capital.

The businesses that had loan requests approved include:
– $41,000 for Merritt Estate Winery to buy juice to make wine for this season
– $125,000 for Artone Manufacturing LLC to assist with hiring and bringing on new employees
– $100,000 for Heritage Ministries to help with costs related to COVID test purchases and new equipment
– and $100,000 for Labyrinth Press Company to be used for hiring and training new employees.

IDA CEO Mark Geise informed the IDA board that in-person meetings will resume in May with meetings still being available over livestream on the IDA’s YouTube Page.

He also announced that in honor of the CCIDA’s 50th Anniversary that the IDA has bought out Diethrick Stadium for the June 30th Tarp Skunks‘ baseball game.

New York Homes and Community Renewal awarded the funds to help communities throughout the state to safely reopen and restart their local economies in the wake of COVID-19.

Three Jamestown organizations will receive the funding. As explained by Jamestown Director of Development Crystal Surdyk to City Council in December, The Chautauqua Center will receive $500,000 as part of a $729,000 project, “To expand their Jamestown facility, not the building itself, but to finish the build out of the facility and to expand their behavior health programming.”

The Chautauqua County Health Network will receive $100,000 out of a $223,000 project, “They are looking to do a public health campaign, so they would be working in collaboration with a number of agencies, including the County Health Department, to do some additional vaccination information and education, but then also a general public health campaign.”

And Strong Starts Jamestown will receive $322,300 dollars toward a $1,114,205 project, “And that is a program that is focused on assisting, really focusing on children and prepartum and postpartum health of babies who are born to mothers who may have substance abuse challenges and a number of other things.”

The funds will be awarded directly to the City which will then distribute and work with partner organizations on the awarded projects.

The IDA said in a release that they are continuing to accept applications for low-interest loans to both businesses and non-profit organizations. The agency had received a $10.5 million dollar grant through the CARES Act which has been used to establish a revolving loan fund.

The fund provides capital, in the form of low-interest loans. It has been made available to a wide-range of industry sectors, including professional services, non-profits, and other sectors that had previously been excluded from receiving CCIDA loan funds. As currently established, the loan fund will provide loans of no less than $25,000 and not to exceed $100,000, with an interest rate of 2.44%.

The CCIDA has been able to use the loan fund to assist more than 50 businesses and non-profit organizations in Chautauqua County, allowing them to remain in operation, thereby saving thousands of jobs and helping the local economy rebound.

Anyone interested in applying for the loans can contact the CCIDA office at 716-661-8900.

Those were highlights presented in the 2021 annual report for the IDA by IDA CEO and Deputy County Executive for Economic Development Mark Geise to the IDA Board Tuesday.

Geise said the CCIDA Board approved nearly 50 projects in 2021. These projects included incentives for the $13 million Love’s Travel Stop and Country Store in Ripley; $18 million for Webb’s Chautauqua Resort in Mayville; $41 million for Americold Freezer in Dunkirk; and $11.6 million for the redevelopment of the former Welch’s Headquarter Building in the Village of Westfield.

The IDA board also approved the securitization of $4.6 million dollars in loan and grant funding for Jamestown Container Corporation and Jamestown Advanced Products as well as the sale of CCIDA-owned land for the purpose of developing a new YMCA facility on Harrison Street in Jamestown.

The CCIDA also approved Cares Act Loan funding for 25 businesses throughout Chautauqua County in the amount of approximately $5 Million.

Looking ahead to this year, Geise said the IDA hopes to acquire parcels to turn into shovel-ready sites, activate key vacant buildings including the Furniture Mart Building on West Second and Washington Streets; and continuing working with the City of Dunkirk, state and NRG in getting the NRG facility back into productive use.

Jamestown City Council

The new contract includes hiring four additional firefighters, along with adding a second ambulance. It also includes wage increases of 2.5% for years 2021 through 2023, followed by a 2.75% increase in 2024. While there are percentage increases to the City’s health insurance plan, the contract ends lifetime health insurance for all newly hired firefighters.

Council also will vote to accept a contract with the JCAA union which represents employees in the Department of Public Works, Assessor’s Office, and Comptroller’s Office. That contract would run from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2025. The contract also represents employees who work for the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency, but the JURA Board still needs to approve that portion of the contract.

Several resolutions related to American Rescue Plan funds will be considered tonight.

One resolution would approve using lost revenue monies to purchase four new police cars for $160,000 while the other would use $277,750 from the Water, Sewer and Broadband funds category to fund phase one of the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy Chadakoin River Stabilization Project. That project would involve the CWC removing debris and clearing trees out of the lower Chadakoin River.

Council also will vote on a resolution that adopts the master plan for the use of American Rescue Plan funds.

A City Council work session will be held at 6:30pm tonight ahead of a public hearing at 7pm on three CDBG CARES Act funded projects before the voting session at 7:30pm.

Jamestown Director of Development Crystal Surdyk Address City Council Housing Committee

A public hearing has been set for three Jamestown projects that have applied for almost a million dollars in Community Development Block Grant funds due to COVID.

New York Homes and Community Renewal is awarding $60 million dollars in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) funds to help communities throughout the state to safely reopen and restart their local economies in the wake of COVID-19.

Jamestown Director of Development Crystal Surdyk said Homes and Community Renewal have vetted and approved the applications. She said The Chautauqua Center has applied for $500,000 as part of a $729,000 project, “To expand their Jamestown facility, not the building itself, but to finish the build out of the facility and to expand their behavior health programming.”

The Chautauqua County Health Network has applied for $100,000 out of a $223,000 project, “They are looking to do a public health campaign, so they would be working in collaboration with a number of agencies, including the County Health Department, to do some additional vaccination information and education, but then also a general public health campaign.”

Surdyk said the third applicant is Strong Starts Jamestown who has applied for $322,300 dollars toward a $1,114,205 project, “And that is a program that is focused on assisting, really focusing on children and prepartum and postpartum health of babies who are born to mothers who may have substance abuse challenges and a number of other things.”

The public hearing will be held at 7 p.m., Monday, December 27 in Council Chambers on the second floor of City Hall. The public may review the project documents on the city’s website on the Department of Development’s page.

The Board approved the final round of loans on Tuesday for a total of 50 businesses and non-profit entities being supported by the new revolving loan fund.

While the original allocation of over $10 million has been fully committed, the loan fund will continue to be replenished as loan payments are made, thereby allowing the CCIDA to continue to loan this funding out into perpetuity.

A group of local, state and federal officials gathered in September 2020 to announce the County IDA had received $10.5 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to provide funding for low interest loans to assist businesses and organizations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. From left to right: Assemblyman Andrew Goodell; Joel Frushone, EDA Director – Office of External Affairs; Anthony Foti, Intergovernmental Affairs Director – U.S. Department of Commerce; Richard Dixon, CFO – County of Chautauqua Industrial Development Agency; Congressman Tom Reed; Senator George Borrello; County Executive Paul Wendel; Mayor Wilfred Rosas; Crystal Surdyk, Interim Director of Development for the City of Jamestown; Michael Metzger, Chairman of the Board for the CCIDA and VP for Finance and Administration at SUNY Fredonia.

JAMESTOWN – The Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency (CCIDA) has released another round of low-interest loans for local businesses impacted by COVID-19. Funding for the loans comes from the federal CARES Act and is administered by the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA).  In September 2020, the CCIDA was awarded a $10.5 million grant from EDA to establish a new Revolving Loan Fund (RLF). The intent of the RLF is to provide capital, in the form of low-interest loans, to both businesses and non-profit organizations as a means to respond to economic injury resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The IDA board awarded the first round of loans – totaling $5.7 million – in October 2020. The second round of loans totaling $2.6 million was awarded on Tuesday. Pursuant to the guidelines of the program, loans have been approved in the following sectors: manufacturing/warehousing; not-for-profits; retail/commercial/agriculture; small business; and tourism/hospitality. Approximately 110 new jobs are to be created as a result of the funding allocated to date.

Loan recipients for the second round include:

• The Service Manufacturing Group, Inc.;
• Monofrax, LLC;
• Dahlstrom Roll Form;
• the National Comedy Center;
• Southern Tier Environments for Living, Inc.;
• Kosciuszko Polish Home Association, Inc.;
• Reg Lenna Theater;
• Cleaners of Chautauqua, Inc.;
• Falconer Power Sports, Inc. dba Harley Davidson of Jamestown;
• Lynn Development, Inc.;
• Ready About Sailing, Inc.;
• Rocky’s Karate;
• MKJM, LLC dba The Landmark;
• Scott’s Peek n’ Peak, LLC;
• Maple Springs Inn;
• and Lidos Crescent Inn, Inc.

“We are thrilled that, as of this date, we have been able to allocate more than 80% of the funding provided by the EDA in less than five months, and in the process help more than 40 businesses to not only endure, but create jobs,” said Mark Geise, CCIDA Chief Executive Officer. “Our incredible team at the CCIDA has worked diligently to get this money out working in the community as quickly as possible, while ensuring that we are responsible, impartial, and address the EDA’s guidelines.”

As part of EDA’s CARES Act Recovery Assistance, the EDA invited select current recipients of existing EDA-funded Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) awards, including the CCIDA, to apply for a supplemental RLF award to help respond to the unusual and compelling urgency of the coronavirus pandemic. EDA had determined that CCIDA, by virtue of its longstanding and substantial investment in making credit available to small businesses, possessed unique abilities to support the CARES Act Recovery Assistance initiative and that it was therefore in the public’s best interest to make this award available on a non-competitive basis.

A third round of loan funding is scheduled to take place later this year. The CCIDA Board will make a decision on Round 3 funding requests on April 27, 2021, with the application deadline being March 1, 2021.

Geise stated that the application and program details are available upon request, and urges anyone interested in applying to contact the CCIDA office at 716-661-8900.

Earlier this year, the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded the city nearly $704,881 through a special allocation of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to be used to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus (COVID-19). The allocation came out of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).  The Jamestown Department of Development established two programs to distribute the funding: one program focused on offering rental assistance to local residents and the other was a Small Business Assistance Program, offering up to $20,000 in grant money for local businesses struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also in early September, the city was awarded another round of funding of $302,569 through the CARES act, to be administered once again through the CDBG program. The city plans to continue the Small Business Assistance program and has earmarked $157,184 toward that fund. The city will also set up a Response Utility Assistance Program that will involve allocating $100,000 toward that program. That plan was approved by the Jamestown City Council earlier this week. Now the city must wait for HUD to sign off on the plan before the money can be released.

Since the launch of the Small Business Assistance program in late June, a total of 27 grants were awarded to businesses operating in the city of Jamestown.

According to city development director Crystal Surdyk, those businesses that received the maximum amount of $20,000 included:

• Allen Street Diner
• The Cherry Lounge
• The Chop House
• Dorians
• Elite Creations
• Escape Rooms Jamestown
• Fitness Factory
• Forte
• Fringe
• Gialy’s
• Haggy’s 4 Below Bar & Grill
• Hot Spot
• Jamestown Bowling Company
• Labyrinth Press Company
• The Landmark
• Lisciandro’s
• Lotus
• Nouveau Salon and Day Spa
• Panache
• The Pub
• Sandee’s Bakery
• Sauce
• Shawbucks
• Tarp Skunks
• Thurston Development

Two other businesses also received grants lower than $20,000:

• Landers ($18,700)
• Nouveau Home Boutique ($10,000)