Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist, Council Members Jeff Russell, Tony Dolce, Brent Sheldon, Kim Ecklund, Parks Manager Dan Stone, City Council member Marie Carrubba, Acting DPW Director Mark Roetzer, City Council member Randy Daversa, and Jamestown Citizen at the Third Street Tree Planting (May 13, 2023)

Several dozen people showed up Saturday to help plant the 37 trees that now line the block of West Third Street where the former Cathedral Oak trees stood.

The “Re-Tree-Ing” event held by the Jamestown Parks Department was part of the annual Arbor Day celebration and designation of Jamestown as a Tree City USA for a 42nd year.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist said it was unfortunate to have to remove the 100 year old oak trees back at the end of 2020, “That due to various issues of disease in the root systems, we started seeing trees fall down on properties. It was a very tough decision for the city. Since that time, we’ve been working with the community to redesign West Third Street and make it more of a gateway into the downtown core. And so we’ve been doing just that.”

The redesign project involved the replacement of sidewalks, driveway aprons, new candlestick lighting, and the planting of new trees on West Third Street between Hall and Hallock Streets.

It was funded using $500,000 in American Rescue Plan monies.

Parks Manager and Arborist Dan Stone thanked the many people involved over the years in parks and with the forestry program. He gave special recognition to Chautauqua Art Gallery owner Leslie Calimeri for putting together the Third Street Oak Trees Art Show, “It involved a bunch of other local artists and photographers in the city and throughout the area. With her project, most of these donations, the work that they did and what they sold it for, most of those people did not take money for it. They donated 100% back, or at least a good portion back, of what they had done.”

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist and Parks Manager Dan Stone recognize Chautauqua Art Gallery owner Leslie Calimeri with the Joan P. Shevory Citizen Forester Award (May 13, 2023)

The art show raised $2,341 dollars for the Urban Forestry Fund. Calimeri was presented with the Joan P. Shevory Citizen Forester Award for her efforts.

The trees planted Saturday include a combination of ‘Columnar’ Sargent Cherry trees, ‘Columnar’ Oaks, ‘Frontier’ American Elms, and ‘Sun Valley’ Red Maple.

Jamestown Community College students and faculty celebrate Arbor Day, 14th Year as Tree Campus USA, and Certified Wildlife Habitat designation (May 4, 2023)

Jamestown Community College celebrated its 14th year as a Tree Campus USA by planting seven trees on its campus for Arbor Day.

Tree Campus USA is a national program that was created in 2008 to honor colleges and universities for effective campus forest management, and engaging staff and students in conservation goals. JCC received its first designation in 2009 and was the first community college in New York to achieve this designation from the National Arbor Day Foundation.

JCC Biology professor and Environmental Science Coordinator Janis Bowman was presented with the Joan P. Shevory Citizen Forester Award at the tree planting. Jamestown Parks Manager Dan Stone presented the award in recognition of Bowman’s work to get JCC designated as a Tree Campus and the work involved with keeping that designation.

Tree Campuses must plant at least one tree annually for Arbor Day; as well as create and update a tree management plan, maintain a tree committee, and a designated budget for trees and their maintenance. Student involvement through service learning projects or internships is also required.

JCC also has been designated by the National Wildlife Federation as a Certified Wildlife Habitat. Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy Board President Becky Nystrom said the CWC has been working over the last year and a half to encourage people to create more sustainable habitats for wildlife in Chautauqua County, “It requires a certain amount of fresh water, and cover and nesting sites; and not using a lot of pesticides; and doing things more sustainably, planting more native plants to encourage all of the wildlife that depends on them.”

JCC Biology professor and Environmental Science Coordinator Janis Bowman receives the Joan P. Shevory Citizen Forester Award (May 4, 2023)

Nystrom said Chautauqua County has met nearly half of the requirements needed in order for the entire county to be certified as a National Wildlife Habitat.

Parks Manager Dan Stone discussed proposed splash pad at Jackson-Taylor Park (April 11, 2023)

A handful of people attended a public meeting Tuesday night to learn more about the proposed splash pad for Jackson-Taylor Park.

Parks Manager Dan Stone led the meeting that was held on the former skate park pad, which is where the splash pad is proposed to be located.

Jamestown City Council required that further engineering studies be done at the park to determine if the soil condition can support the concrete pad and equipment.

Stone said the skate park pad is the most suitable location in Jackson-Taylor park, “Because this blacktop has been in place for over 20 years now and it’s really in good shape compared to everything else. It used to have big pieces of metal skate equipment on it. You can still see where it was. And honestly, that’s the only thing I can remember repairing in the last 18 years where it dug into (the pavement) on a hot summer or something like that.”

Stone said the splash area would be in the center of the pad with other amenities, like benches, on the edges. He said more trees would be planted on the outside of the existing fence around the pad to help provide shade.

At City Council’s work session Monday night, Council members raised questions about whether the equipment for the splash pads should be purchased before the engineering report is completed.

The equipment will cost $135,000 and would be purchased from Aquatix by Landscape Structures for both Allen and Jackson-Taylor Parks. The total amount approved for the project was $400,000, which is being funded with American Rescue Plan monies.

Mayor Eddie Sundquist said regardless of where the splash pad is located the city will still need the equipment. He said if the city didn’t order it now, they probably couldn’t do the project this year.

The city is working with engineering firm, GPI, who had previously done engineering and soil samples for Jackson-Taylor Park for a recent project.

Should the study determine that the soil structure cannot support the splash pad, the resolution passed by City Council in March would then move the splash pad to Roseland Park.

Stone said that if the equipment purchase is approved this month, it’ll take six to eight weeks for delivery with construction potentially being completed at both parks by the end of summer.

Easter Egg Hunt at Allen Park in 2017

The City of Jamestown Parks Department will hold its Annual Easter Egg Hunt this Saturday in Allen Park.

The free event is for children ages 12 and under and will take place at 11:00 a.m. in the upper level of the park where the playgrounds are located.

Parks Manager Dan Stone said the event will have three different areas for kids to look for eggs, “The younger kids, 2 through 4, will be over on the kitchen side of the park where our big pavilion is and the smaller playground. And then across the street from that is the big playground and baseball field area. We’ll have the 5 to 8 year old group and the 9 to 12 year old group.”

Stone said the various city unions sponsored the event, “Our rock and our pillar of the community, the Allen Park Women’s Club, also will be there for the festivities and donated some prizes and candy, along with the Frewsburg Soccer Club. And this year, Pro Hardware, that is down on Fluvanna Avenue, will provide us with bikes to give to the middle aged kids group this year.”

Stone said the Jamestown Fire Department will be bringing the Easter Bunny to the park for the event and they will be joined by Wiffy the Tarp Skunk.

If weather conditions do not allow the event to take place outside, the event be moved inside the Allen Park Rink.

No registration is necessary for the event.

Jamestown City Council voting session (March 27, 2023)

Jamestown City Council has approved moving forward with two splash pads in city parks with the requirement that more engineering work be completed on Jackson-Taylor Park.

Council member at Large Jeff Russell cited his concerns about Jackson-Taylor Park being the best place to locate a splash pad from a safety standpoint, “There’s a lot more traffic down there now with places like Tim Horton’s there. Obviously, we’re putting a new facility (DPW Central Garage) in down there with large trucks. My ultimate fear is that a child is going to be crossing that roadway, unsupervised possibly, and is going to be struck by a vehicle and killed. That is my ultimate concern with it being down there.”

Russell also expressed concern over the soil stability and that he had asked Parks Manager Dan Stone if other locations in the park could be used, “He said there’s really no other place to put it because of the instability of some of the soil down there and really the only logical place is the old skatepark is, where the blacktop is. And it’s even questionable whether it can be placed there. What I would hate to see is to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars putting the splash pad in that location and then have it fail a couple of years down the line and pretty much be a waste of money.”

Russell made a motion to drop the amount of the project funded with American Rescue Plan monies from $500,000 to $400,000, citing $100,000 in state funds that Mayor Eddie Sundquist said were supposed to be approved. The motion also included that the city hire a private engineering firm to look at the soil stability of Jackson-Taylor Park for the splash pad. If the study determined the site was not suitable, the motion further said that the splash pad should be moved to Roseland Park with the proposed pickleball court for that location being relocated to the Jackson-Taylor Park skate pad.

The motion passed unanimously, with the amended resolution passing 8 to 1. Council member Bill Reynolds was the only no vote, citing other priorities that should be funded.

Two community engagement meetings will be held on the splash pads with the first taking place this Thursday, March 30 at 6:00 p.m. at the Allen Park Rink. The second will be held at the Jackson-Taylor Park large pavilion at 6:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 11. Mayor Sundquist said that community meeting will also be combined with the HUD Action Plan community input meeting.

Parks Manager Dan Stone presents on proposed park improvements to City Council (March 6, 2023)

Several ARP-funded parks projects have been given the go-ahead in committee by Jamestown City Council.

Parks Manager Dan Stone presented to Council about projects that would utilize $221,000 of American Rescue Plan funds.

Stone said the playground at Roseland was built on top of the old tennis courts, which helped make it handicapped accessible. He said, however, with everything being blacktop and with few areas to plant trees, the playground gets hot very quickly in the summer, “So, we’d like to go in and remove all existing blacktop and then pour a new path that goes around completely. It’ll be handicapped accessible all throughout and a lot more green space in there along with a shade structure. And then in the front part parking lot area, we’ll create two new pickle ball courts, a small parking area with handicapped parking right up to the fence as well.”

The Roseland Park project is projected to cost $120,000.

Stone said long overdue upgrades are proposed for Willard Park, “We run into some difficulties with this park. This has been one that’s been talked about for a long time. You see in the picture on the left there’s a nice chunk of concrete right there. There’s a foundation from the old school house all throughout that upper park. Then it drops off quite severe, heading down the hill even as you see at the top part it goes all the way down. And it continues except for the nice flat area we have here, which the kids love to use that wide, flat open area for football, baseball, things like that.”

Stone said the Parks Department is requesting $72,000 to put in a new swing set and playground set. He said they also plan to install a volleyball court following many requests for one in the parks.

Stone said the City has also had talks with the Chautauqua County Soil and Water Conservation District about planting a fruit tree orchard on the steep slope of the park that’s not as conducive for play.

Two other proposals include allocating $15,000 toward resurfacing basketball courts at Jackson-Taylor, Allen, and Bergman Parks and $14,000 toward the purchase of 18 self-watering flower pots for the downtown area.

Jamestown City Council hears presentation on Splash Pads (March 6, 2023)

Jamestown City Council learned more about the two proposed Splash Pads for Jamestown Parks at their work session Monday night.

Both splash pads proposed for Jackson-Taylor and Allen Parks are estimated to cost $250,000 each which includes contingency funds.

Mayor Eddie Sundquist said the location for the pad at Jackson-Taylor Park would be on the current skate park pad, “We picked that spot, we looked at a couple different spots, in fact, at Jackson-Taylor Park. That one has probably the best surface that we could apply it to. As you know, Jackson-Taylor Park tends to sink when we install things. So we were really looking for surface quality, soil quality as part of it as well as location to bathrooms and other required amenities and obviously water lines.”

Sundquist said the water flow rate is 45-gallons per minute, with the play structures operating on a timed button system where users have to push a button for water to flow out. He said both splash pads would not have a circulating water system, “Circulating water system means we have a set amount of water that would be in there, that would continue to circulate back and forth. We would then require New York State testing. We’d have to have a bunch of additional staff in order to maintain it and manage it. In talking with the engineers for this, they actually recommended that we go with a fresh water system. So, it would be water that you would see from your tap coming through whenever you pressed the button.”

Sundquist said the water then drains out with no standing water. He added they’d work with the Board of Public Utilities to not get charged double for water use.

Council President Tony Dolce questioned if the push button system for the Splash Pad could be turned off, for example, at night or other times.

Parks Manager Dan Stone replied that everything is on a timer, “Everything runs on a timer and that would be based off of.. we haven’t gotten into big talks about that yet.. but it would be based on the season, obviously, but also maybe what’s going on the weekends, week day, activities in the park, those kind of things.”

Stone said the Splash Pad can be shut down on colder summer days to avoid water waste. He said the structures can be covered or even removed during the winter.

Sundquist said the Allen Park splash pad will be located at the corner of West Virginia Boulevard and Elizabeth Avenue due to availability of water lines, soil conditions, and its proximity to restrooms and parking.

He added that both splash pads would be ADA compliant. Sundquist said park staff will be trained by the company that installs to system on how to manage the pad.

Stone said trees will be able to provide shade for the pads. He said while the Jackson-Taylor location already has a fence, they haven’t discussed a fence for the Allen Park site yet.

Council Member at Large Kim Ecklund asked if maintenance was built into the cost and expressed concerns about vandalism.

Stone replied that they don’t have funds budgeted for maintenance once the pads are constructed, “I don’t think that’s stopped us on any project we’ve ever done since I’ve been in the Parks. That just means I keep coming at you for more Parks employees. Concrete is what it’s going to be. So it’s a concrete pad. Other than maybe getting dinged up by something, it shouldn’t really be an issue. It’s at least four inches thick, I think the specs call for. Vandalism, it doesn’t matter what we do, right? It doesn’t matter where it’s at. Stuff is going to get vandalized.”
While the total cost of the project would be $500,000, Sundquist said there is a $100,000 grant they’re waiting to hear on which would help offset the amount needed from American Rescue Plan funds.

Two community engagement meetings will be held to get input from the public on the two Splash Pads. The first will be held at the Allen Park Ice Rink at 6:00 p.m., Thursday, March 30. The second will be held at the Jackson-Taylor Park large pavilion at 6:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 11. Sundquist said that community meeting will also be combined with the HUD Action Plan community input meeting.

If Council signs off on funding the project this month, Sundquist said engineers have told him the splash pads could be constructed and in operation by sometime in July 2023.

Council Member at Large Kim Ecklund presents budget amendments at City Council voting session (November 28, 2022)

There will be no tax increase and no parking meter increase in the 2023 City Budget passed by Jamestown City Council.

There were 27 amendments voted on by Council.

Finance Chair and Council member at Large Kim Ecklund said some of those amendments were to deal with $400,000 in issues she found while analyzing the budget, “As many people know, I’m a numbers person and I asked for the nitty gritty, down to every line item in the budget. And going through each line item and each detailed item in that budget instead of just the book you have seen, I analyzed every line, every expense from expenses to salaries and found some things that were missed, some things that were doubled, and some whatever the case may be. And to that tune, it was roughly around $400,000.”

Ecklund said the amendment to cut $157,500 from the Bond Principal line is an example of an issue she found, saying that amount shouldn’t have been included in the budget.

Jamestown City Council amendments to 2023 City Budget

One of the amendments approved reduced parking meter revenue by $127,000. That amendment was directly correlated with cutting a proposed increase in downtown meter rates from 25-cents to 50-cents a half hour.

Council member at Large Jeff Russell said you often see higher parking fees in other larger cities, “You know, I don’t think we’re always like other major cities. We’re hopefully in the tail end of the Pandemic and we’re out of that. I don’t think it’s fair to be pumping this money into our businesses, through ARPA funding, and then turn around and raise meter rates and discourage people from coming downtown.”

Council also approved an amendment increasing the Jamestown Police Department‘s budget by $40,000 to allow them to purchase a new car. Council member Marie Carrubba, who introduced the amendment, said this was to help get the department on a rotation with replacing vehicles.

Other notable increases to department budgets through amendments included adding $46,926 to the Police Department’s salaries line to address concerns by the Police Chief that the SWAT Team, training and education, an K9 Handler lines were underfunded. Council also added a total of $54,000 to the Fire Department‘s equipment lines to aide them in purchasing new turn-out gear for 10 firefighters and to replace ropes for bail-out gear.

Council also added a total of $20,000 back into the Parks Department‘s Flags and Banners and Horticulture supplies lines. Both had been totally cut in Mayor Eddie Sundquist‘s proposed budget. Parks Manager Dan Stone had said in his budget presentation that without the horticulture funds, he couldn’t purchase flowers, shrubs, or mulch for flower beds or flower pots in the city.

Council approved raising the projected sales tax revenue line by $75,000.

Ecklund said increasing that line is a gamble, “I have concerns and I’ve made that clear to every council member in this process that although I’m willing to accept it and move forward that you don’t know what the economy to do next week, much less next month. I have concerns because inflation is still high, gas prices are high, the sales tax (holiday) is coming off at the end of the year, discretionary funds could change. Will gas prices, taxes go up? What’s that balancing act?”

Council did have to approve allocating $54,879.20 from the General Fund Balance in order to have a budget with no tax increase. With that allocation, that leaves the fund balance total at $5,828,590 dollars.

Council President Tony Dolce said while American Rescue Plan funds helped purchase a lot of equipment earlier this year, there were still items council wanted to include in this budget “So it just took some jockeying around a few different lines. And again, there were some mistakes that were found in the budget that had to be rectified, so it took time to rectify those mistakes and adjustments and different things, particularly in Public Safety, that we felt the turn-out gear for the Fire Department, the vehicles for the Police Department, those type of things that are important to the community.”

Mayor Sundquist now has five business days to submit any vetoes of those amendments. By City Charter, Council then has until December 15 to vote to override any of those vetoes.

Fleet Manager Pat Monaghan, DPW/Acting Parks Director Jeff Lehman, Parks Manager Dan Stone present budget to Jamestown City Council (October 17, 2022)

The Jamestown DPW and Acting Parks Director is expressing concerns over under-funding or lack of funding in the proposed 2023 executive budget.

Jeff Lehman presented the Public Works Department budget to Jamestown City Council Monday night along with Fleet Manager Pat Monaghan and Parks Manager Dan Stone.

Lehman said the cuts in Traffic Division equipment scare him the most with prices going up 25 to 30%, “We’re going to be over budget, I think, this year as far as some of the things we’re ordering. Just the basic things – lights, traffic control boxes, that type of thing. So that’s got me scared. And then the other thing is the laborer. There’s nothing here for summer labor, which you know, we cut that person out, well, you might not know. So, years ago, I don’t know, Kim (Ecklund), was it five, six years ago? We cut a person out of the Traffic Division. The summer laborer position is about the only way we get somebody help to get the lines all painted in the summer.”

Lehman said he didn’t see summer help funded in any of the Public Works divisions. He said his biggest items are capital items and includes the replacement of the Municipal Building roof for an estimated cost of $800,000, “We’re having some minor repairs done this year because the availability of materials precludes us from doing it this year. We’re hoping if we get approval of this, we can get it on order and have materials in place for next year, but we had pretty major leaking in the fifth floor this year.”

Lehman said with the Municipal Building being 50 years old, the infrastructure needs updating including $800,000 to fix wall facade on the outside of the building, $200,000 for air quality control in the building’s HVAC system, and $25,000 to replace plumbing in the jail. He added phase two of the Tracy Plaza deck replacement on the northern portion of the plaza is estimated to cost $1 million.

Fleet Manager Pat Monaghan presented on 20 different purchase requests from the $7.5 million in DPW and Parks equipment and replacement program requests. He said those 20 pieces of equipment were at the end of their life with three vehicles having to be taken out of services due issues that can no longer be repaired.

Parks Manager Dan Stone said his biggest concern that wasn’t reflected in the budget is having enough employees in the Parks Department to maintain the over 500 acres of park land along with everything that has been added to the parks system in the last 17 years, “This year alone, right, we put in what I consider not just a park but a destination place with the Skatepark that we just did the grand opening. But that’s a whole another huge area that we’re looking at having to maintain with the same workforce. We’ve added disc golf. Again, I think it’s going to be another destination place in one of our parks, but that’s another area to maintain as well.”

Stone said two new kayak launches have been installed this year, there are more properties and areas to mow, more garbage pick-up routes needed in the parks, and there’s more demand for parks workers to assist with events in the city, “‘Cause I don’t want to get us to the point where we’re sacrificing quality for quantity. That’s not a point we want to be at. Besides that, we plow more than what we had due to streets projects that have occurred in the alleyways and, again, more developed areas throughout the city. And we still maintain our urban forest and continue to grow and keep that as healthy as we can by trimming, removing trees, and planting new trees.”

Stone said the $10,000 budget line for flags and banners was cut entirely and he said the department was on target to spend $12,000 on that this year alone. He said the horticulture line also was cut entirely, which means the department won’t have a budget to purchase flowers, shrubs, or mulch for flower beds or flower pots in the city.

City Council will hear budget presentations from the City Clerk, Finance, Assessor’s Office, and Corporation Counsel Departments at 6:30 p.m. Monday, October 24 before the City Council’s Voting Session

City officials go over West Third Street redesign with residents

Over 25 people turned out Monday night to learn more about the West Third Street Redesign being proposed by the City of Jamestown.

The public input meeting held at Healing Word Ministries featured city officials giving an overview of the project that includes replacing sidewalks and driveway aprons on the section of West Third Street between Hall and Hallock Streets. New “candlestick” style street lighting also will be installed in addition to the planting of new trees that replace the “Cathedral Oaks” that were taken down at the end of 2020.

DPW Project Engineer Mark Roetzer said the city hopes to have a contractor in place by May and breaking ground by mid-May or early June. He said the project will be done one block at a time as homeowners will not have access to their driveways once digging begins.

Roetzer said doing the work to move electric lines from the backyards of the houses on the southside of West Third Street is a big part of the project, “So, the back lots, the actual moving of the electrical lines is in the future, but we’re getting the infrastructure in place this year. I don’t know when that’s scheduled for.”

Parks Manager and City Arborist Dan Stone said residents on West Third Street will have the option to select from a list of four to five trees which one they’d prefer to have in front of their house, “And with that said, I’d still like to have some kind of continuity on the street as well. For example, over at Lind Funeral Home, I was thinking of planting some American Elm trees. They have a real nice red color to them but a small leaf to them. If you’ve ever driven by, those guys were out there every day when we had the Oaks picking up acorns and leaves. Didn’t matter what time of the year or day of the week. So to make it a little easier on them and have a nice, bright canopy coming on through, but there is room for selection for sure.”

He said a root barrier that’s a combination of metal and plastic sleeves would be put down, which had never been done before, “Back in the mid ’80s, the curbs were all taken up and redone on Third Street. That was part of the issue with the stability of the trees 40 years later. So we’re looking to help avoid those kind of things and the trees be able to live in the situation we put them in. We’re going smaller trees, but they’re still going to be big trees.”

He said the trees should still eventually reach between 40 and 50 feet tall.

Residents requested the information be made available on the city’s website. DPW Director Jeff Lehman added that anyone with questions can call Public Works at 716-483-7545.