Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist delivers 2023 State of the City Address

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist toted the allocation of American Rescue Plan funds, and investments in public safety and infrastructure in his 2023 State of the City Address.

Sundquist, delivering his address online, called the receipt of over $28 million in ARP funds transformational to the city, “From these funds we’ve helped over 300 senior households with needed home improvements. We’ve replaced over 100 heavily damaged roofs across Jamestown cost-free to working class and middle class homeowners. We’ve given businesses affected by the Pandemic resources and investments to hire more people locally and a substantial amount of funds to demolish blighted buildings.”

Sundquist said other areas that benefited include the Jamestown Police Department which received funding for more police officers, the clean-up of the lower half of the Chadakoin River, as well as needed capital spending in city departments.

With the rise in gun violence nationally, Sundquist said Jamestown was not the exception last year. He said investment in public safety was necessary, “Working with our City Council, we approved new officers to help with the protection of citizens through a new program which brings our police department staffing up to full force. This includes the approval of a Gun Task Force officers which will continue the work of decreasing gun violence in our city as well as a Quality of Life officer to deal with nuisance complaints that continue to plague our residents.”

Sundquist also lauded the Citizen Police Academy starting back up this year for the first time in decades along with the increase in the number of firefighters on staff.

He cited a record year of infrastructure improvements in the city thanks to additional funding from the state and federal government. Sundquist also mentioned the beginning of work on the new Central Garage on Washington Street that is expected to be completed this year.

In terms of what’s in store for 2023, Sundquist said he’s working with the state and federal government on addressing the lack of Essential Air Service and rail service in the area. He said his administration also will be adding new bike lanes, fixing sidewalks, and hoping to install speed cameras in school zones.

The video and text of Sundquist’s address are available at: https://www.jamestownny.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2023-State-of-the-City.pdf

Jamestown City Council (April 25, 2022)

Jamestown City Council passed over $5 million in American Rescue Plan funded projects, with four resolutions for economic development related initiatives failing to pass.

Council members Marie Carrubba, Andrew Faulkner, Kim Ecklund, and Randy Daversa voted no on three resolutions related to giving funding to the Small Business Development Center for a business marketing program, a branding and marketing program for the city, and a program to provide marketing funding to businesses. Brent Sheldon was absent at Monday’s meeting, so the resolutions failed on a tie vote. The fourth program that failed was a resolution to contract with the Jamestown Local Development Corporation for $500,000 to administer the ARPA program.

Council member Faulkner said he voted no because he felt some of the proposed programs were duplicates. He also said other communities have used an average of 11.1% of ARPA funds toward economic development and workforce development, “If we were to allocate the full $7.5 million tonight, that would have been 27% of our entire ARPA funding. From the start, I thought we were pushing too much money toward the economic when we have other issues that need to be dealt with. So seeing those statistics of how we are almost three times higher than what everyone else is doing kind of reassured me of that.”

Faulkner said he wants to see funding more focused on public safety and housing initiatives.

Two programs for business building and infrastructure improvements and equipment and machinery upgrades had funding reduced from $1 million to $500-thousand each under an amendment proposed by Faulkner that council approved. Faulkner said if the programs run out of the money, then the Department of Development can always request additional funds be added.

Council President Tony Dolce said he was surprised that the four resolutions failed. He said one concern some council members had was having enough oversight of how the money was allocated under the proposal to contract to the JLDC for administration, “We have three members on the JLDC board – myself, Councilwoman Ecklund and Councilman Russell, as well as JURA, we have representation. So anything over the $100,000 threshold would have come back to the City Council anyways for a vote. So I’m not so sure.. I mean the whole purpose of having council representation on any board or commissions is to have some oversight and a direct link to the City Council.”

In other business, a request home rule legislation from the state to put speed zone cameras in school zones will move forward.

An ordinance to establish a Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, and Return (TNVR) program for feral cats in the city was approved in addition to a contract with the Chautauqua County Humane Society for $5,000 to run that program.

Council also approved a resolution to purchase 12 mobile data terminals for $40,000 for police vehicles and to purchase 75 service duty pistols for $9,643 using American Rescue Plan funds.

Jamestown City Council

The 17 resolutions fund a host of programs including business building and infrastructure improvements; marketing programs, an equipment and machinery upgrade program; workforce development programs, downtown programming fund, and a restaurant and retail program.

Council had previously discussed these programs at a special work session held in March at the Robert H. Jackson Center.

Council also will vote a second time to request home rule legislation from the state to put speed zone cameras in school zones.

Council’s previous request to the state in 2021 did not make it through committee in the State Legislature last year, so the city must make the request again during the new legislative session.

Council also will vote to enact an ordinance to establish a Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, and Return (TNVR) program for feral cats in the city in addition to voting to contract with the Chautauqua County Humane Society for $5,000 to run that program.

A resolution to purchase 12 mobile data terminals for $40,000 for police vehicles and to purchase 75 service duty pistols for $9,643 using American Rescue Plan funds will be considered as well.

A work session will be held at 7:00 p.m. in the Fourth Floor Police Training Room with the full voting session taking place at 7:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers on the second floor of City Hall. The meeting is open to the public and will be livestreamed as well.