Grants Manager Tim O’Dell said Southern Tier Builders will use the American Rescue Plan funds for a Pre-Apprenticeship Program through the National Center for Construction Education & Research (NCCR) for high school, college, and young adults, “So, if you take a look at the curriculum here you will notice that the program introduces training to a large variety of trades. And this is very advantageous because when they go through all of the courses, not all of them are listed here, they will have exposure and dip their feet in, if you will, into multiple trades. So, they can get a very good lay of the landscape of what it’s like to be in the trades and from there they can make more informed decisions of what trade they’d like to participate in for their career.”

O’Dell said the purpose of the program is to establish a pipleine for workforce development where students will have the opportunity to go into a union and start their apprenticeship or to go to trade school.

He added that Southern Tier Builders hopes to receive its accreditation from NCCR by July and start classes in the Fall.

The request will now go before Jamestown City Council for approval on Monday, May 22 as the amount approved is over $100,000.

Jamestown BPU General Manager Dave Leathers speaks with Jamestown City Council (May 15, 2023)

Jamestown Board of Public Utilities‘ General Manager doesn’t see a proposal to register Jamestown as a Climate Smart Community as negatively impacting the utility’s operations.

Dave Leathers met with Jamestown City Council Monday to give his thoughts on a resolution that would register the city as a Climate Smart Community in New York State.

Leathers said the BPU is very focused on clean energy standards and the Climate Leadership and Protection Act, “Those are state mandates, state laws that are focused on significant changes in the New York State economy related to greenhouse gas emissions and green energy as well as transportation, and buildings, and agriculture, and waste, and industry. So, that’s really where all of our efforts and all of of our focus are.”

Leathers said he sees the Climate pledge as a municipal effort and that it’s up to the City administration and Council to decide what they want to pursue, “Approving a resolution to take the pledge, I don’t see it as some huge, significant step. And I definitely don’t see it as anything that’s going to impact the BPU operations.”

Under the Climate Smart Community certification, local governments accumulate points for planning and implementation actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve community resilience to the worsening impacts of climate change.

Certified communities can take part in the Climate Smart Communities Grant Program, which is a competitive 50/50 matching grant program for municipalities to implement projects focused on climate change adaptation and greenhouse gas mitigation.

Leathers said the pledge doesn’t commit the city to anything hard, “If in a year from now, you’ve gone into this and you decide you want to rescind that resolution for some reason, you could do that. There are items in the list of potential tasks that the BPU staff would be involved in and would be supportive.”

He said if the city has been certified as a Climate Smart community it could gain the city extra points when applying for grants.

Climate Smart Guidelines include:

1)    Build a climate-smart community.
2)    Inventory emissions, set goals, and plan for climate action.
3)    Decrease energy use.
4)    Shift to clean, renewable energy.
5)    Use climate-smart materials management.
6)    Implement climate-smart land use.
7)    Enhance community resilience to climate change.
8)    Support a green innovation economy.
9)    Inform and inspire the public.
10)    Engage in an evolving process of climate action.

Director of Development Crystal Surdyk said if the pledge was adopted that she could see the city’s Principal Planner acting as the required Coordinator for the program with the Planning Commission serving as the Task Force.

Council member at large Kim Ecklund asked for information on any upfront costs that might be involved with the city taking the pledge.

Jamestown City Council holds special meeting with Federal Emergency Management Agency (May 16, 2023)

Jamestown City Council members were able to get more details about the SAFER grant received by the City during a meeting with FEMA Tuesday afternoon.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Project Manager Julia Barron answered questions council members had submitted about the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grants program.

The city of Jamestown has received $1.8 million under the SAFER grant to hire eight additional firefighters.

Barron said the grant agreement included funding eight new full-time positions, “On the last page of the notice of funding opportunity announcement, it indicates that when you accept the award you accept the requirement to maintain the number of full time operational firefighter positions that you have on the day of grant award, plus the additional positions that were awarded under the grant.”

Barron said the city had 54 firefighters on the roster in February 2023 when the grant was awarded to the city, so the city must add eight firefighters for a total number of 62 firefighters on the roster. Deputy Fire Chief Matt Coon confirmed that initial 54 does include the four firefighters hired in 2023 using American Rescue Plan funds. Barron said the city is required to maintain that staffing level of 62 over the three years of the grant with the understanding that the number may dip below that for short time periods due to resignations, retirements, or new firefighters going through the Academy.

Another question council members had was whether the city could reapply for the grant again and the likelihood of the city receiving funding again. Barron said it usually depends on local support for sustaining the new positions and that in order to get the same grant again, that means the city would be planning on hiring new firefighters, “If you currently have a grant and you’re required to be at 62, then, let’s say, next year you apply again or in three years you apply again, let’s say you’re exactly at 62 when you receive that new grant. Well, if you’re going to add another eight positions then the minimum required staffing level for that grant would be, and those previous firefighters had not left, then the new level for that grant would be 70.”

Barron said the city could apply for retention fund for the eight new firefighters in a case where they don’t have the funds to keep those new positions, “There’s a lot of tricky rules around retention positions. You have to have issued them a lay-off notice within a certain period of time and you can’t lay-off during the current grant. So, it starts to get a little bit tricky with retaining these exact same positions versus hiring new and sort of allowing attrition to happen and just adding on with new firefighters.”

Barron said that while other grantees had received additional years of funding, the grant process is very competitive. She said the city has until August when they should start billing to draw down grant monies for the new positions.

Council members requested from city administration that the roster of firefighters on staff when the grant was received by the city be shared with them as well as the financial information on fringe benefits costs.

Council President Tony Dolce said the resolution to lift the hiring freeze to approve the hiring of eight firefighters with the SAFER grant funds will be on City Council’s voting agenda for Monday, May 22.

Council member at large Kim Ecklund reads out finance committee resolutions (May 15, 2023)

Stop gap insurance costs are expected to rise 37% next year for the City of Jamestown.

City Council Finance Chair Kim Ecklund reported out that City Clerk Jennifer Williams and former City Comptroller Joe Bellitto have met with bid applicants to provide the city an Annual Stop Loss Program.

She said they both recommended staying with Highmark, who is the current administrator and insurance carrier, “Unfortunately, the increase is 37% for a budget increase of $160,521 for next year. So, all these times I keep saying we’ve got these increases, this was a pretty significant one. I was expecting to see an increase, I’m not going to lie, but I wasn’t expecting to see 37% for $160,000.”

Ecklund said there was a higher deductible offered by Highmark but Bellitto did not recommend that option.

She said the increase is due to cost of doing business and that there are five people on the plan whose medical costs have passed the stop loss amount of $175,000.

A resolution for accepting the bid by Highmark for a Stop Loss Program is expected to appear on the May 22 voting agenda.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist outlines bond proposal as Council President Tony Dolce listens (May 15, 2023)

The City of Jamestown is proposing to bond for $6.4 million in order to do a variety of building improvements and repairs.

Mayor Eddie Sundquist presented the initial bond proposal to City Council Monday, saying the projects were limited to just municipal facilities.

He said the list of projects is just a draft because he wants Council to discuss the proposal. Sundquist said $3.15 million would go toward improvements and repairs at City Hall, including a $1.8 million roof replacement and façade work, “We had hoped that the patching we did on the roof was going to hold. We are still seeing leaks within the building on that roof and so it’ll need to be replaced. As a reminder, the building opened up in 1971.”

Sundquist said security improvements and HVAC upgrades are also part of the project. He added that 17 windows need to be replaced for a cost of $350,000.

Council member Marie Carrubba suggested that the city should be considering replacing the current gold-filmed windows, which she says are not energy efficient, “When you talk about climate action, these (windows) are horrible. Go down to the second floor and half of the windows you can’t look out of. I don’t know if they’re on the list to be replaced, but I can’t even imagine. I haven’t counted all of the windows in this building. But, I almost feel like we’re throwing good money after bad to keep trying to get these windows, which are very hard to get, they’re very expensive, versus trying to begin a process of replacing these windows in a manageable fashion.”

Sundquist said it was something the city could look into.

The replacement of the Fenton Roof at a cost of $2 million is also included in the bond proposal. Sundquist said the historic mansion is owned by the City and needs a new rubber roof due to leaks that are impacting the Fenton History Center‘s collection. He added that the $2 million price tag may get reduced if the city is able to find grants for the project.

Other projects that would be funded under a proposed bond include $250,000 to fix the roof at 145 Steele Street and $500,000 for a new water line at Bergman Park.

Sundquist said $500,000 is also included as gap funding for the Fleet Maintenance Building on Washington Street. An information sheet said this funding is due to increased labor and material costs that could not be foreseen when the project was initially budgeted. Sundquist said the city has applied for a $1 million reimbursement from New York State.

He added that the city is able to “comfortably” borrow up to $12 million, “We’re very low on our actual debt right now as a city and so we wanted to confirm with them what we think we can borrow. The other thing I’ll point out is that we still have ARPA funds. I didn’t include it in here because I think it’s a discussion for everyone. There is still $1.7 million in ARPA funds that could be applied toward this should the council wish. That obviously for some further discussion which would lower that debt level.”

Council member at Large Kim Ecklund requested information on other bonds the city has in addition to how a $6.4 million bond would impact the city budget.

Jamestown City Council

Council President Tony Dolce said there were four basic questions that council members had for the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grants program.

These questions include whether fewer than eight firefighters could be hired with the $1.8 million grant, can the city reapply for the SAFER grant in three years and what is the likelihood of being approved again; does the city have to wait a specific period before applying for the grant for the second time; and have other SAFER grantees been approved for a second round of funding and how soon after the second application were they approved.

The meeting is set for 4:00 p.m. in the Mayor’s Conference Room on the fourth floor of City Hall. The meeting is open to the public and will be livestreamed on jamestownny.gov

Jamestown City Council

The agenda is rather light in comparison to recent months, even with the continued inclusion of the resolution to lift the hiring freeze to allow the city to hire eight new firefighters using a $1.8 million SAFER grant.

Council also will review a resolution to replace two dump trucks for $356,240. This will be paid from the New York State DOT CHIPS funding. The trucks being replaced were taken out of service two years ago due to a cracked frame that would no longer pass NYS inspection

The Public Safety committee will vote on several special event permit applications requests including hearing a presentation from Lunar Pyros who are proposing to bring fire dancing to a May 27 Earlybird event and the July 20 through 22 Whirlybird Festival.

A public hearing regarding an amendment to the 2018 Annual Action Plan will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers on the second floor of city hall.

Due to this public hearing, there will not be a meeting of the Housing Committee. All other committees will meet at 7:00 p.m. with the full work session taking place at 7:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend all meetings with the full work session being livestreamed on jamestownny.gov.

Jamestown City Council meeting (May 8, 2023)

Jamestown City Council will meet with FEMA representatives to ask questions about the SAFER grant at a special council work session on May 16.

Council President Tony Dolce said there were four basic questions that council members had including if eight firefighters had to be hired with the $1.8 million grant, “The second question was, can the city reapply for the SAFER grant in three years and what is the likelihood of being approved again? Three, would the city have to wait a specific period before applying for the grant for the second time? And the other question was, have other SAFER grantees been approved for a second round of funding and how soon after the second application were they approved?”

Deputy Fire Chief Matt Coon shared that the purchase of a second ambulance that was approved by Council was ready to go out to bid and that the vehicle could be received as soon as one to two months.

The meeting with FEMA will take place at 4:00 p.m., Tuesday, May 16 in the Mayor’s Conference Room on the fourth floor of City Hall. It is open to the public.

City Council Finance and Public Works committees also reviewed and approved a lease extension request for the owner of the Chautauqua Belle to dock at McCrea Point Park.

U.S. Steam Lines has been using the dock at the park since 2019 and is asking for a new 5-year term lease with the option to renew the lease for two additional 5-year terms. The resolution now goes onto the voting session on May 22 for formal approval.

Jamestown City Council

Council is expected to have the opportunity to ask the Federal Emergency Management Agency questions about the grant funding at a special work session that’s yet to be scheduled.

One of the questions Council is likely to ask is whether the number of firefighters to be hired under the SAFER grant can be reduced from the eight that were requested in the grant.

Council also will review a lease extension for the owner of the Chautauqua Belle to dock at McCrea Point Park.

U.S. Steam Lines has been using the dock at the park since 2019 and is asking for a 5-year term lease with the option to renew the lease for two additional 5-year terms.

Council also will hear an update from Grants Writer Paula Pichon on pending grants.

The Public Safety Committee will vote on five special event permits.

The Housing Committee meets at 6:45 p.m. with other committees meeting at 7:00 p.m. The full council work session will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Police Training Room located on the fourth floor of City Hall. The public is welcome to attend all meetings with the full work session being livestreamed on jamestownny.gov.

The hearing will be held at 4:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.

The local law changes the City Charter to raise Council members’ salaries from $5,000 to $7,000. The City Council President’s salary will rise from $6,000 to $8,000. The mayor’s salary will rise from $72,000 to $82,000.

The local laws can be viewed in its final form at the City Clerk’s office in City Hall and on the city’s website at www.jamestownny.gov.