Jamestown City Council

The five vetoes on the voting agenda include Mayor Eddie Sundquist‘s veto of Council’s $75,000 increase to sales tax revenues. The veto of the $6,500 cut to the Mayor’s Office travel and education line. A veto of the $5,600 cut to the Engineering supplies line. The veto of a $3,000 cut to the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency. And the fifth veto is of the Appropriated Fund balance, which is to allow Council to reappropriate additional funds to balance the 2023 budget should they not override some or all of the vetoes.

Sundquist has proposed a further budget amendment to eliminate a bond interest payment in the amount of $52,964 that was related to the bond payment cut by Council from the budget. He said that by passing the amendment, Council could avoid a full veto override of the three cuts. It would also reduce the sales tax revenue increase needed by $37,864.

Council President Tony Dolce along with Finance Chair and Council Member at Large Kim Ecklund put out a statement last week about the Mayor’s veto of the cut to JURA in response to a news item that ran on a Buffalo television station, WKBW.

Both said the $3,000 cut was to a $5,000 increase from the 2021 budget. In 2021, the JURA budget was increased by $12,000. Dolce and Ecklund said the amount cut by council was “never designated to fund anything specifically for the homeless nor communicated that was the intention.”

They added that “…every department had to be evaluated and cut in places to make up this difference considering we are close to our constitutional tax limit. While we completely understand no one wants a cut we don’t appreciate the false narrative being shared considering the recent story which aired. The City of Jamestown was recently awarded a grant of $194,000 from HUD to address homelessness in Jamestown so this council is not ignoring the issues.”

The special voting session will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers on the 2nd floor of City Hall. It is open to the public and will be livestreamed on jamestownny.gov.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist addresses Jamestown City Council (October 17, 2022)

The City of Jamestown has received a $194,000 HUD grant to help deal with homelessness issues.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist, in his Mayor’s report to City Council, said the city will have to develop a plan for use of the funds with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development encouraging that it be used for rapid response.

He said resource providers, local church organizations, and medical providers have met to discuss both long-term solutions and short term emergency shelter.

Sundquist said Chautauqua Opportunities, Inc. has taken the lead with the county on the issue and that one to two sites have been identified as potential emergency winter shelters, “So, it would be a nighttime, usually from around 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. Those sites would also then provide security at the locations, food, we’d have other churches and other groups provide resources there. We’d have social workers and other resource providers come to that location and we were also talking about potentially having once a week a medical provider come on site.”

Sundquist said they hope to get details finalized in the next week. He said with the weather turning cooler there is a need for emergency shelters, “On an average night across Chautauqua County when there is a ‘Code Blue,’ the weather is under 32 degrees, they have about seven people across the county that they have to shelter. That number is expected to double or triple this year with just Jamestown alone.”

Sundquist said resource providers are also discussing creating a shelter just for people with addiction needs or who are in recovery. He added that most of the current shelters in Jamestown are full.

Jamestown City Council

Jamestown City Council members promised “more is to come” after approving over $2 million in American Rescue Plan funded projects Monday night.

While Council members Regina Brackman and Andrew Faulkner voted no, all other council members approved $500,000 toward the redesign of West Third Street.

Council President Tony Dolce said the decision to remove the Cathedral Oaks over a year ago was difficult and emotional, “I know there was a lot of talk of, at that point, of doing some work. That it was a time to start that entrance to the city. To start over. Those sidewalks are in rough shape. It is a major thoroughfare for people to walk and drive, although the street is not going to be reconstructed.”

DPW Director Jeff Lehman said the project will go before the Jamestown Planning Commission in April, with work hopefully beginning in May. He said the new trees will be planted by the Parks Department in the Fall.

Council also approved using $750,000 ARP funds for a Roof, Private Sewer Lateral, Private Water Line Repair/Replacement grant program.

Council member at large Jeff Russell said he was happy to support the resolution as it will help homeowners, “I understand that there has to be equal money that goes toward our businesses and our downtown but I’m surely am not going to forget about the elderly people that might be struggling to make their mortgage payment with super high inflation going on and they can’t afford some of these repairs. And I will push for some of this money to continue to go back to the taxpayers.”

Council member Marie Carrubba said her office often receives calls from seniors, retirees, and veterans with limited funds who are looking for help with housing issues, “And try to get roofs repaired especially in some of the older homes that they occupy is extremely difficult along with replacing water and sewer lines. I’ve heard that excavators, I think, start around $6000 to have one in your front yard. Most of the people that, you know, if you look at the median income around $43,000 in the city, it’s not affordable for individuals to maintain their properties when these kind of emergencies occur.”

Council also approved using American Rescue Plan funds for replacing water mains, equipment for DPW, upgrades to the fire stations, and creating a Tree-Damaged Sidewalk Replacement Rebate program.

Dolce said when it comes to the ARP funds received by the city, the council has a fiduciary responsibility to see that it’s spent wisely and they do get a return on investment, “There are a lot of people who have a lot of needs. $28 million is just a drop in the bucket for what is needed in this community. We’ll do our due diligence and do the best we can to expend the money as we see fit. Again, a delicate balance in neighborhoods versus providing for our business downtown and our industries. There is a lot of need in different areas. We’re looking at all those different areas when we’re making these decisions.”

Council also approved allocating $1.227 million in additional American Rescue Plan funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development toward a Rental Rehabilitation Program. Director of Development Crystal Surdyk said she anticipates submitting the program for approval by HUD by the end of this week.

Director of Development Crystal Surdyk said the Annual Action Plan is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, for how the city plans to use the Community Development Block Grant and HOME funds it receives, “With the annual Action Planning process, there is a certain amount of public engagement that is required. This year, we decided to do things a little bit differently and do more public engagement. And instead of always asking folks to come meet us where we are, we’ve decided to meet them where they are.”

Surdyk said the workshops will be walking tours of neighborhoods in each City Ward. She said they hope community members will give input on issues and challenges they may be facing, “Through that process we educate them about what we can do with our funds and how can we meet their needs using those funds. So, it’ll help us make better decisions and really be able to evaluate programs that we have and think about ways that – do we need to change them a little bit so that they are having the biggest impact and are really more meaningful.”

Due to possible inclement weather, the Ward One workshop scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Saturday, March 26 will be held in the city hall lobby.

The other workshops will be held as follows:
Ward 2 at 10am, Saturday, April 9 at Washington Middle School
Ward 3 at 6pm, Tuesday, April 12 at Jackson-Taylor Park
Ward 4 at 6pm, Thursday, April 21 at Lincoln Elementary School
Ward 5 at 10am, Saturday, May 7 at Fletcher Elementary School
Ward 6 at 6pm, Tuesday, May 17 at Willard Park.

Surdyk said all are welcome to attend the workshops, even if they don’t live in that specific ward. Additional public input sessions that will take place at City Hall will be announced at a later date.

The Chautauqua County Health Department and City of Jamestown partnered on on the grant with the County administering the grant and the city being the project manager.

Director of Development Crystal Surdyk said the funding is through HUD‘s Healthy Homes Production Grant Program which will help grantees identify health and safety hazards in low-income families’ homes, “It’ll complement the County’s already existing lead program and funding that they have and we also have lead funding, so it’s meant to work with all of our different housing initiatives. So for Healthy Housing, it’ll address all of the different components that make a home healthy so, air quality, pests, it could address radon, and it could address a number of different things.”

80 units are proposed to be helped through the grant program in Chautauqua County.