Jamestown City Council (June 27, 2022)

Jamestown City Council tabled a resolution on a shared services agreement with Jamestown Public Schools about plowing sidewalks, saying more discussion was needed.

Council President Tony Dolce said council members wanted to further discuss the positions that would be added, “This has nothing to do with the school system. We’re very appreciative of the fact that they’ve been willing to purchase the equipment and the maintenance agreements for those. But it’s a huge amount of money to commit for two full-time employees with benefits. So there was some concern and discussion as to whether we would want to look at possibly using seasonal or part-time employees versus full-time employees.”

Dolce said making the two part-time positions seasonal may need to be a union discussion, “Different than the summer help which is more scheduled. In the winter, we’d have to have some different parameters cause as the snow goes, the timing, the number of snowstorms that we actually have, and other things that they could be doing during that time. So, there’s just a lot of things to tie up and how that would look financially as well as how that would look structurally within the department.”

Dolce added the agreement would be discussed again at the July 18 work session with an anticipated vote in July.

Council did approve the two home improvement incentive programs for senior citizens and homeowners that would be administered through the Assessor’s Office. Each was funded with $500,000 of American Rescue Plan money.

A contract with the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy to remove the invasive Tree of Heaven from the banks of the Chadakoin River also passed. Council Member Brent Sheldon, who is the council representative on the Riverfront Management Council, said the RMC also supported the resolution and was in support of the river clean-up the CWC had done earlier this year.

Council also approved the Annual Action Plan for the 2022 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Program. The plan for use of $1,542,257 in federal monies will now be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Jamestown City Council

The Public Hearing will be held at 7:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers regarding the FY 2022 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Program. The annual action plan, once approved, will be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Jamestown received $1,144,750 in Community Development Block Grant funds and $397,507 in HOME program funds. The funding is for Community Planning and Development activities, ranging from the development of affordable housing to expanding economic opportunities for people with low and moderate incomes.

Council also will vote on two programs, totaling $1 million, that will grant funds to senior citizens and homeowners for improvements to houses in the city. The program would be funded through American Rescue Plan Act monies.

Council also will vote on a shared services agreement with Jamestown Public Schools to share services, purchase, exchange or lend materials or equipment which shall promote and assist the City of Jamestown in the plowing of sidewalk routes to schools. The agreement shall be from August 1, 2022 to December 31, 2026.

The contract with Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy to remove Tree of Heaven along the banks of the Chadakoin River for a cost of $17,760 will be considered.

And Council will vote to suspend hiring freeze to hire a new Comptroller to replace current Comptroller Ryan Thompson, who is leaving City Government for a job in the private sector.

Under new business, Council will vote on a resolution accepting the donation of a Jamestown welcome sign by the Jamestown Noon Rotary and Rotary Club of Jamestown Community Service Fund, Inc. The sign will be constructed at the corner of 1351 North Main Street. The approximate value of the sign is $65,000.

The work session begins at 6:30 p.m in the fourth floor Police Training Room with the voting session starting at 7:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers on the second floor of city hall. The meetings are open to the public with the public hearing and voting session livestreamed on jamestownny.gov

Jamestown City Council meets at Ring Elementary School for a work session (June 13, 2022)

Resolutions regarding sidewalk plowing, eradicating Tree of Heaven along the Chadakoin River, and an emergency alert program are moving forward for a vote by Jamestown City Council.

The shared services agreement between the City and Jamestown Public School District has the district paying $250,000 toward two sidewalk plows. The City would use American Rescue Plan funds to pay $56,000 toward the plows. The plows cost $306,000. The City also would pay for two Parks Laborers that are estimated to cost $689,672 over a four year period between August 2022 and the end of 2026. They also would be funded using American Rescue Plan monies.

Council Member at Large Jeff Russell questioned the legality of the school district providing monies to the city. Corporation Counsel Elliot Raimondo said it’s legal under a shared services agreement, similar to how the City is contracting with Jamestown Community College for the shared grant position. Council member at Large Kim Ecklund questioned if there were any issues with using American Rescue Plan funds toward the joint purchase of the sidewalk plow purchase. Raimondo said he’d have to research that further.

Finance and Public Safety Committees moved a resolution forward for a city-wide emergency alert program. The contract with AlertMedia would be in the amount of $4,902 a year for up to 400 subscribers with a 20-cent per subscriber fee after that. This year’s cost for the program would be $2,450.

Ecklund said some questions remaining to be answered include what type of alerts are included in the contract as well as who in city government will be responsible for sending out the alerts.

An agreement with Paramount Roofing to replace the roof on Fire Station Four moves to the voting session. The cost of the roof replacement went up $21,400 from when council initially approved using ARPA funds for the project. The total cost is now $121,400.

The Finance Committee also moved forward a resolution to use $17,760 in American Rescue Plan funds to contract with the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy to eradicate the invasive Tree of Heaven from the banks of the Chadakoin River.

And two companion resolutions to suspend the hiring freeze to replace Comptroller Ryan Thompson, who is resigning, as well as hire a Deputy Comptroller passed in committee.

The City Council voting session will take place Monday, June 27.

Council will hold its meeting in the Ring School Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. with committee meetings taking place at 6:30 p.m. for Housing in the Auditorium, and 7:00 p.m. for Public Safety in the Auditorium, Finance in the School Library, and Public Works in the Faculty Room.

On the agenda is a resolution to use $17,760 in American Rescue Plan funds to contract with the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy to eradicate the invasive Tree of Heaven from the banks of the Chadakoin River.

Council also will review resolutions to suspend the hiring freeze to replace Comptroller Ryan Thompson who is resigning as well as hire a Deputy Comptroller.

Also, the annual action plan to be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the city to receive $1,144,750 in Community Development Block Grant and $397,507 in HOME program funds will be reviewed.

A final public hearing on the city’s action plan will be held before the Monday, June 27 Voting Session.

A resolution to contract with AlertMedia in the amount of $4,902 for a city-wide emergency alert program will be considered. The alert system would allow residents to sign up for mobile alerts of their choosing and the system could be used to send mass alerts to all city employees in the event of an emergency at a City facility.

And the shared services agreement between the City and Jamestown Public Schools to plow sidewalks also will be formally discussed.

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

Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy’s Twan Leenders presents on Phase 1 Chadakoin River Restabilization Project to Jamestown City Council (June 6, 2022)

The Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy plans to submit another funding request to the City of Jamestown to combat the invasive species, Tree of Heaven, along the Chadakoin River.

CWC Ecological Restoration Manager Twan Leenders presented to City Council on the Phase 1 of the stabilization of the lower Chadakoin River from the Warner Dam to the City-Falconer line, “The guys removed over 100 dead standing Ash trees from the riverbank. And again, you’ll be driving around and see dead trees standing but they’re not in the river channel, they’re in someone’s backyard or away from the river far enough that they weren’t part of the scope of this project. And I couldn’t even give you an accurate number on how many hundreds of cubic yards of logs we removed from the river, debris dams that were there that were taken out, places that blocked the river and caused the current to go into someone’s backyard or into someone’s business that now just flows where it’s supposed to go again.”

City Council had approved $277,750 in American Rescue Plan funds at the end of 2021 for the first phase of the project.

Leenders said the next big concern is the invasive Tree of Heaven, which came into the area as an ornamental tree.

He said there are three core areas of the trees in Jamestown that have gotten out of control to the point that there’s almost a forest stand of the species, “These trees exude chemicals into the ground that make them out-compete everything else and once you have them established nothing else grows there anymore. They re-sprout from the roots and they have a system of stress hormones that even if you try to cut one of these trees down, even if you just ding it, especially when you cut one down, it sends these stress hormones into their root system, and it sends 20 to 40 new young shoots. So every tree you cut with the best intentions multiplies the problem exponentially where you get 20 to 40 more.”

He said the only way to get rid of the trees is a very specific set of chemical treatments to kill them and the root system before they’re then removed. He added this process has to be done at a very specific time, usually in the month of July.

Leenders said the other great concern is that the Tree of Heaven is a preferred host of emerging pest, Spotted Lanternfly, which is a bug that feeds on fruit trees and grape vines.

While he’s in the process of obtaining funding from other sources including state funding, Leenders said he hopes to present an ARP funding request to Council this month in order to try to have that in place along with permits in order to move forward with the eradication of the trees.

Leender’s presentation coincidentally coincided with the start of the state’s 9th Invasive Species Awareness Week.

The State Departments of Environmental Conservation and Agriculture and Markets are holding free daily webinars through Friday. The link to the calendar can be found at https://nyis.info/events/category/nyisaw/2022-06/.

Invasive species are plants, animals, insects, and pathogens that are not native to an area and cause harm to the environment, agriculture, economy, or public health. New York is particularly vulnerable to these pests due to its role as a center for international trade and travel.