John Sellstrom takes oath of office as City of Jamestown’s new Comptroller (July 25, 2022)

Jamestown City Council has approved the city moving forward with a pedestrian and traffic safety strategy.

Mayor Eddie Sundquist said the city is applying for a federal grant to help create the Vision Zero Plan for the city, “It is essentially an added amount, added bonus, to Complete Streets which the City already has and says ‘How do we educate the public? How do we also redesign not only our streets but other components of the city to provide zero fatalities over the course of ten years?’ So there’s a lot of things that have come up over the past several years with City Council, including stop-arm cameras for school buses which we’re moving forward with as well as school speed zone cameras.”

Sundquist said the plan would also be used in designing streets and sidewalks. As part of the approved resolution by Council, the city also would develop an annual progress report on the Vision Zero goals and outcomes that would be presented to City Council.

Council has approved the shared services agreement with Jamestown Public Schools regarding sidewalk plowing.

Sundquist said the approval was needed so the school district could purchase the sidewalk plows, and that the city was continuing to work on how staffing would be done of those plows, “We’re still working with the union to determine how we’re going to handle the personnel power for that. Whether that’s going to be a seasonal position, part-time position, or full-time position, there’s a lot of factors and as you probably know in this job market right now, we’re not quite sure what we’re going to get as we start to get closer.”

The shared services agreement initially proposed hiring two Parks employees using American Rescue Plan funds at an estimated cost through 2026 of $689,672.

The Jamestown School Board passed the agreement at its meeting earlier this month.

Council has approved funding to do a Zoning Code update.

Sundquist said the city’s zoning code was originally created in the 1960s, “We wanted to provide this opportunity and the funding for the zoning so we could do both the Strategic Plan, the Comprehensive Plan, at the same time as Zoning. It is actually cheaper for the city to do that. So we’re looking at about $200,000 to do both. $100,000 comes directly from the State. The other $100,000 will come from federal ARPA funding, Rescue Plan funding.”

Sundquist said a request for proposals to do the updates will go out in August.

Council also approved four appointments to a new Broadband Ad-Hoc Committee.

Sundquist said the ad-hoc committee will determine if the city should move forward with municipal broadband or a municipal fiber network, “In the meantime, we are also working on working with our federal partners to determine what grants are out there. We know that in talking with the State Broadband Office, the City of Jamestown is probably the furthest ahead of any city or municipality. So they’re very excited about our work and are currently creating the grants that they received from the Federal funding for us to apply for.”

Brendan Fagan, Phillip Zimmerman, Dan Swackhammer, and Bill Johnston are the citizen appointments with Sundquist adding the committee will also feature representatives from local foundations, the Jamestown Public Schools District, Jamestown Board of Public Utilities, and City Council.

Council also approved appointing John LaMancuso as chair of the Jamestown Planning Commission. He replaces Greg Rabb, who resigned in June. His term expires on December 31, 2022.

Jamestown City Council

This is the second time Council will be voting on a contract this year after voting down the one presented to them in February that included hiring of four firefighters to man a second ambulance.

The proposed contract with Jamestown Professional Firefighters Association Local 137 would cover January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2024. It includes a 2.5% wage increase for the first three years of the contract with a 2.75% increase the fourth year. The health insurance contribution rate would raise from 21% for 2021 to 23% for 2022 through 2024.

City Council also will vote on resolutions totaling $4.5 million toward contracts for constructing the new Vehicle Maintenance Building.

The new facility will be located on Washington Street in the former Hartley Buick building.

Business Innovation Group of East Rochester would be contracted with for nearly $2.5 million for the general construction contract. Ciancio Mechanical of Jamestown would be contracted with for $369,504 to do the plumbing. JMI Heating and Air of Frewsburg would receive a contract of $889,000 for the mechanical contract. And Ahlstrom Schaeffer of Jamestown would receive the electrical contract for $744,000.

Three applications for Consolidated Funding grants from New York State will be considered under new business. One is for $361,473 to do phase 2 of the Chadakoin River West Brownfield Opportunity Area project. The required local match is 10% or $36,174.

The second Consolidated Funding grant application is for $301,332 toward activities identified in the Chadakoin River Strategic Business Plan. The local match has already been met by American Rescue Plan Funds.

The third grant application is for $20,000 so the City can enter into the New York Main Street Program. The 5% local match totals $1,053.

Also under new business,Council will vote on adopting the Vision Zero Strategy plan in an effort to reduce traffic deaths and injuries in Jamestown. The plan is a public health-based traffic safety strategy that uses a “data driven multi-disciplinary and safe systems approach that also increases safe healthy equitable mobility for all.” The city would use the strategy when designing streets and sidewalks and as well when performing street maintenance.The resolution also states that the city would develop at Road Action Plan and also would provide an annual report to City Council on the outcomes on meeting goals of the Vision Zero plan.

Council also will vote on the shared services agreement with the Jamestown Public Schools District for sidewalk plowing in the winter. The proposed cost to the city through 2026 is $689,672 and would be funded using ARP monies.

A resolution to spend $100,000 to update the City’s Zoning Code is also on the voting agenda.

The work session before the voting session takes place at 7:00 p.m. in the Police Training Room on the fourth floor of City Hall. The voting session takes place at 7:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers on the second floor. The meetings are open to the public with the voting session being streamed on jamestownny.gov.