Department of Development Director Crystal Surdyk presented on the project at the June 5 work session but a resolution was not brought forward at that time.

The resolution requests $150,000 in American Rescue Plan funds to add lighting, seating, landscaping and public art under the viaduct in order to improve public safety and better connect that part of downtown to the Riverwalk and Brooklyn Square. Surdyk said at the work session that final costs for lighting were still pending due to conduit needing to be installed.

Council also will vote on an emergency resolution under new business to contract for engineering drawings for the repair of Fire Station #5’s roof.

The staff reports said the roof structure at the station on Fairmount Avenue partially collapsed in early March. The cause is thought to be the result of excessive load bearing due to flooding on the roof deck. Jamestown Fire Department has been informed that specific repair drawings will be required before a general contractor may be selected to complete the repair project.

The resolution requests $4,000 to contract with GPI/GreenmanPedersen of Buffalo for those drawings.

Council also will vote on a number of requests by the administration to apply for several New York State Consolidated Funding Applications.

Requests include applying for a $2,850,524 Green Innovation Grant to complete phase three of Tracy Plaza renovations. This grant has a 10% local match.

There are two requests being submitted for the design and construction of a Pump Track at Jackson-Taylor Park. One is $3 million request from the Local Waterfront Revitalization Program that comes with a 15% match and a $500,000 request from Environmental Protection Fund that comes with a 25% local match.

The city is also requesting approval to apply for a Local Government Efficiency Grant Program grant in partnership with the Chautauqua County Health Department. The $400,000 Healthy Homes Inspection Capacity Building grant comes with a 10% local match.

And the city is also requesting approval to apply for $20,000 from the New York Main Street Program‘s building reuse and feasibility analysis program. There is a 5% local match.

Council also will vote on the Department of Development‘s Annual Action plan. The plan involves the use of $1,144,750 in Community Development Block Grant funds and $397,507 in HOME Program funds.

Two public hearings will precede Council’s voting session tonight. The first is at 6:15 p.m and is regarding the sale of a city parcel to JMI, or Jamestown Macadam, on Lafayette Street. The second hearing starts at 6:30 p.m. and is regarding the city’s Annual Action Plan. Both hearings will take place in the City Council Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.

A council work session will follow at 7:00 p.m. with the full voting session taking place at 7:30 p.m. All meetings are open to the public. The public hearings and voting session will be livestreamed on jamestownny.gov.

Jamestown City Council

The City Department of Development held six community input sessions on the action plan over the last two months. The next step is to have Council review the plan before going before the public a final time at a public hearing scheduled for Monday, June 26. The plan then gets submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The City of Jamestown has been allocated $1,144,750 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds as well as $397,507 in HOME program funds for a total of $1,542,257.

Council also will receive a report on the Chautauqua County Partnership for Economic Growth grant of $4,310 the city received to install a high-visibility creative crosswalk at West 6th and Cherry Streets connecting the James Prendergast Library to Dow Park.

And a resolution to lift the hiring freeze to hire an engineer appears on the agenda. According to the staff report, this resolution is to replace engineer Mark Roetzer who is now the Acting Director of Public Works and Parks Departments.

The Housing Committee meets at 6:45 p.m. with other committees meeting at 7:00 p.m. The full work session takes place at 7:30 p.m. in the Police Training Room on the fourth floor of City Hall.

All meetings are open to the public with the full work session being livestreamed on jamestownny.gov.

Jamestown Director of Development Crystal Surdyk presents at public hearing (May 15, 2023)

A public hearing has been held on reallocating $225,000 in previous years HOME program funds to a First Time Homebuyers Assistance Program.

Jamestown Director of Development Crystal Surdyk said funds allocated in the 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 Annual Action Plans had not been fully spent in those years and an amendment to those action plans would allow the department to combine those funds for another program, “This funding will go to one of our Community Housing Development organizations, CHRIC, for the First Time Homebuyers Program that they currently administer. This is a great way for us to be able to spend those funds that we certainly don’t want to see go to waste and there’s definitely a need. CHRIC is ready to go.”

Surdyk said Chautauqua Home Rehabilitation and Improvement Corporation has applicants in their program waiting for funding and that U.S. Housing and Urban Development has supported CHRIC’s program in the past. She said CHRIC would retain an additional $500 per recipient for administrative costs.

The $225,000 would provide $4,000 to an estimated 50 low-to moderate-income first time homebuyers between 2023 and 2026.

Surdyk said the homebuyers would use the funds as gap funding, “It helps with down payment and closing costs. It also requires its participants to participate in a program that lasts over, I believe, nine weeks. They learn all of the basics of being a homeowner, responsibilities that they have as a homeowner.”

Surdyk said homebuyers sign an anti-speculation agreement that they won’t sell their home for five years, or risk having to pay back funding they’ve received.

She said there is about $1 million total in unexpended HOME funds. City Deputy Director of Housing Policy and Development Kasie Foulk said the Department of Development just learned that Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME monies not expended in previous years could have the action plans amended to reallocate the funds for existing or new programs.

The Jamestown Department of Development will use the walks to gather community input for the Action Plan, which is the plan for how the city will use Community Development Block Grant and Home program funds it receives. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires the development of the action plan for CDBG and HOME funds.

The City of Jamestown has been awarded $1,144,628 in CDBG funds and $392,250 in HOME funds. This is $5,379 less than they were allocated in 2022.

The funding is used for Community Planning and Development activities, ranging from the development of affordable housing to expanding economic opportunities for people with low and moderate incomes.

DOD officials said while the walks are ward-based, all are welcome to attend. The walk will include a short presentation on the action plan followed by a public comment opportunity.

The workshops will be held as follows:
Ward 1 at 6pm, Tuesday, March 28 at Lillian Dickson Park
Ward 2 at 6pm, Thursday, April 6 at Washington Middle School
Ward 3 at 6pm, Tuesday, April 11 at Jackson-Taylor Park
Ward 4 at 6pm, Thursday, April 20 at Lincoln Elementary School
Ward 5 at 6pm, Tuesday, April 25 at Fletcher Elementary School
Ward 6 at 6pm, Tuesday, May 4 at Willard Park.

Locations may change due to inclement weather. Additional public input sessions that will take place at City Hall will be announced at a later date.

For more information, contact the Department of Development at 716-483-7541

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.

Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency Board meets (December 14, 2022)

The Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency Board has approved the agency’s 2023 budget which includes two additional personnel.

The $1.4 million budget includes the creation of a Compliance Manager position as well as the hiring of an additional Target Area Code Enforcement Officer.

Director of Development Crystal Surdyk said U.S. Housing and Urban Development recommended the creation of the position, “We’re calling it a Compliance Manager because it really is.. we don’t see it as just being HUD. We are looking at it as a position that would manage all of our HUD grants, our Federal grants, any state grants we get. For all of those different types of grants there’s always some level of administration that has to go with them, there’s reporting back. HUD is probably the big example.”

Surdyk said HUD has done several monitorings of the Department of Development over the last couple years as they hadn’t done one in 15 years, “They did a series of monitorings on our financial management, processes and procedures, HOME program, CDBG. They actually monitored us twice for HOME, which was an anomoly, and our CHDOs which is our Community Housing Development Organization program that is sort of a side project out of HOME.”

She added that the HUD monitoring is standard procedure and wasn’t punitive or disciplinary in nature.

Surdyk said the new Code Enforcement Officer will be funded through Community Development Block Grant funds from HUD. She said the current Code Enforcement Officers are over-burdened and struggling to keep up, “We do have some additional grants that we are partnering with other agencies on. And those grants are utilizing our Code Enforcement Officers and their experience and what they do on a daily basis. And in that partnership, one of them in particular is the Healthy Homes Production Grant that’s with the County.”

She said DOD will receive administrative funds from that partnership.

The addition of the position will bring the total number of Code Enforcement Officers in the Department of Development to four.

Surdyk said the over $300,000 increase in the 2023 budget from 2022 can be mainly attributed to increased staffing and staffing costs. Aside from the new positions approved in the budget, JURA also is now contributing to the cost of the shared Grant Writer position and the Associate Corporation Counsel position, the latter which had previously been funded through a

Governor Kathy Hochul announced over $33 million has been awarded to dozens of municipalities for local infrastructure improvement and housing rehabilitation projects. The grants are designed to help communities provide decent affordable housing and safe living environments primarily for low- and moderate-income residents.

The Village of Celoron will use $500,000 to provide housing rehabilitation assistance to low-income homeowners.The Town of Ellington will use $700,000 for a manufactured housing replacement program. And the Village of Silver Creek will use $500,000 to provide housing rehabilitation assistance to low-income homeowners.

The Community Development Block Grant program is a federally funded program administered by New York State Homes and Community Renewal that helps counties, cities, towns and villages with projects that improve communities and benefit residents across the state.

Officials cut ribbon for reopening of Potter’s Terrace (November 2, 2022)

Officials cut the ribbon to reopen a renovated Potters Terrace Park in downtown Jamestown Wednesday afternoon.

The park, owned by the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation, had been closed since 2019 due to issues with the wood structure that used to cover an 8-foot hole beneath the park. That structure was removed and the hole filled in back in 2021.

JRC Urban Core Director Frank Besse said the park features trees and shrubbery, “..limestone benches and tables, different large boulders that can be used as seating or as kind of an area to run and jump and play if you’re a younger frequenter of downtown. And it’s a place where you can take a break, maybe, from your job downtown. Or if you live downtown, to get some fresh air. But it’s that congregation place, ‘Oh, I’ll meet you down at Potter’s Terrace,’ to maybe go shopping downtown or before a show, or just catch up with somebody or perhaps read a book.”

Besse said Leaf and Stone Architecture designed the space with Sivak Stonemasonry performing the construction work. He said facade work will be done soon on the neighboring Chamber of Commerce Building as well as the facade of the building next to Potter’s Alley, “A long standing project of the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation has been what we call ‘Potter’s Gallery.’ This public art that we see on buildings neighboring on Potter’s Alley. So, the oldest of those pieces is about nine years old and is showing weather. So what we’ve done is work with Jamestown Public Schools to find more local student artwork, get that printed, and hung up here. So, hopefully we’ll see that here in the next few weeks to a month.”

Besse said the facade work will hopefully be completed on the Chamber Building by Spring.

The project was funded through a grant of $200,000 from the Gebbie Foundation with some support by Community Development Block Grant funds from the City of Jamestown.

Renderings for proposed new Salvation Army ANEW Center

The Jamestown Planning Commission has approved a site plan for the Salvation Army’s ANEW center while tabling site plans for Chautauqua Opportunities‘ Women’s Homeless Shelter.

The site plan approval for the Salvation Army facility is contingent on approval by City Department of Development staff.

The Salvation Army received $3.8 million to relocate and build a new homeless shelter for women and children. The new two-story building will have seven units and 19 beds. This $4.8 million project will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, create six additional beds and allows services staff to have offices in the same building.

The money is being administered by the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance through the Homeless Housing and Assistance Program.

The Planning Commission, under staff recommendation, tabled COI’s site plan for 303 Lafayette Street until September in order to further review building plans.

The facility will be able to shelter 18 women. It’s being funded through a $2.49 million grant from the State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

Chautauqua Opportunities Director of Housing Josiah Lamp, speaking at a City Council meeting in February, said the City of Jamestown also is providing a $110,000 match through Community Development Block Grant funds. He said operating funds will come from the Chautauqua County Department of Health and Human Services as well as from Chautauqua Opportunities.

Bergman Park Disc Golf Course Map

A new disc golf course is officially open at Bergman Park in the City of Jamestown.

The course currently has 12 holes, with an additional 6 to make a full 18-hole course expected to open in Spring of 2023.

City officials say the course utilizes many of the underused, open areas of the park, as well as some of the wooded areas around Bergman Park. City officials say use of the course is free of charge.

City Comptroller John Sellstrom said the $5,620 project was funded using Neighborhood Target Area Infrastructure monies as part of the Community Development Block Grant program. This funded the baskets for all 18-holes.

The City, in partnership with Twin Tiers Disc Golf, have applied for funding from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation to go toward purchasing discs and portable baskets for the Summer Playground program.

A free Disc Golf Youth Camp is also being planned for Tuesday, August 30 at Bergman Park. The camp will give kids ages 7 to 13 an introduction to the sport of disc golf. No experience is necessary. It will be taught using the Educational Disc Golf Experience (EDGE) curriculum.

The free program is being made possible by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr Legacy Funds administered by the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.

The link for more information about the camp can be found here: https://fb.me/e/5hv2miXDq

The map of the disc golf course can be found here: https://udisc.com/courses/bergman-park-x3mX.