Wastewater sampling results for Jamestown and Dunkirk

The Chautauqua County Health Department reports that wastewater samples collected from Dunkirk and Jamestown Wastewater Treatment Plants detected low levels of COVID-19.

The samples were collected weekly since March 8, 2022.

The Health Department said people who are infected with COVID-19, whether or not they have symptoms, shed the virus in fecal matter. Wastewater testing is a non-intrusive and anonymous method to detect basic levels of COVID-19 in a community without relying on ill individuals to seek out testing.

Public Health Director Christine Schuyler said, “The wastewater surveillance program is an early warning system for managing COVID-19 as we transition to an endemic phase. Ongoing global surveillance gives us a better sense of how to respond to outbreaks of this disease because we can’t play catch up. We have to be prepared – not to isolate and quarantine people – but to mobilize staff and resources such as testing availability, PPE, the healthcare and long-term care systems, vaccination efforts, and first responders. A wastewater surveillance program is an important epidemiological tool in the communicable disease prevention toolbox.”

Raw (untreated) wastewater is collected weekly at the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities Wastewater Treatment Plant and the City of Dunkirk Wastewater Treatment Plant. Samples taken at the Jamestown plant represent waste from the entire City of Jamestown and the Village of Falconer. Samples taken at the Dunkirk plant represent waste from the entire City of Dunkirk. Samples are taken over a 24-hour period, then sent to the University at Buffalo Department of Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering (UB) for analysis using Digital PCR technology.

The PCR technology detects the number of SARS-CoV-2 RNA copies present in wastewater. During the three weeks of testing, levels were less than 800 copies per liter at both the Jamestown and Dunkirk wastewater treatment plants. According to researchers at UB, the number of copies per Liter is generally in the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands range when COVID-19 cases start to increase.

The COVID-19 Wastewater Monitoring program is being developed in partnership with the City of Dunkirk, City of Jamestown, UB, the New York State Department of Health, and the National Association of City and County Health Officials. Local data will be shared as a component of the Health Department’s weekly COVID-19 reports, and will also be included in the New York State Wastewater Surveillance Network Dashboard in the coming weeks.

Jamestown Wastewater Treatment Plant in the Town of Poland (image from of Google)

JAMESTOWN – A plan to use the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant to leverage money to help address infrastructure and capital equipment expenses, as well as help stabilize the local tax base, may no longer be necessary.

That’s according to Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi, who told WRFA earlier this month that circumstances have changed since he announced a year ago the possible plan of transferring ownership of the Wastewater Treatment plant in the Town of Poland from the Board of Public Utilities to the Jamestown Local Development Corporation.

Under the proposal, the BPU would sell the plant to the JLDC, which would take out a multi-million dollar bonds to pay for the plant and would pay off the bonds using wastewater fees collected by the BPU.

According to an information sheet from December 2017, the money the city would receive from the transfer proposal would be an estimated $16 million. That funding would then be used to:

• Address aging infrastructure in the BPU’s water and wastewater service system along with upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant itself ($3.5 million);
• Continued energy/structural improvements to city facilities ($2.5 million);
• Enhanced storm water management improvement program ($1 million);
• DPW/Parks Equipment Replacement Fund ($2 million);
• Debt service / Sewer Rate Stabilization Fund ($ million); and
• A Future projects reserve and additional property tax and rate relief ($6 million).

Despite concerns voiced by several individuals and groups in the community, both the City Council voted and the JLDC board voted in December 2017 to start the process of looking into the matter.

Since then, nothing new has been brought forward in public meetings of the city council, BPU, or JLDC.

But last week, WRFA asked Teresi about the status of the proposal and he told us the city now has other options to pursue to address some of the items on its list.

Sam Teresi

“Things have changed. That model may or may not be necessary any longer,” Teresi said, adding, “But it really never was a structure that we were going to be selling it to the ‘American Sewage Treatment Company’ and parting with control. Much like somebody goes out and takes a home equity line in their property that has equity built into it in order to raise funding to purchase a care, do upgrades, send their kids to college, the city was looking at one point in time to use the equity value in one of our assets to be able to go out and raise capitol to invest in things that would have a payback to the city.”

Teresi specifically noted Jamestown has a stronger bond rating since the wastewater treatment plant proposal was first considered, meaning the city can now borrow money at lower interest.

“The city had its credit rating reduced but it’s since gone up back into the ‘A-‘ category. Standard & Poor’s just bumped our credit rating up in recognition of the steps we’re taking, the progress being made, the state’s willingness to continue to work with us, and an economy that’s looking stronger and healthier. So our credit rating was bumped up for all those reasons,” Teresi noted.

Because of the city’s better bond rating and the fact that the city has less debt to pay off today compared to other recent years, it now has the option if it wants (and if the city council approves) to borrow money to address some equipment issues, including its aging vehicle fleet in both the city fire department and department of public works. Both those departments have lamented to the city council in recent years – including this year – about the pending crisis they could face due to some vehicles being unreliable because of age.

The city would be able to borrow some money if need be. Its debt limit is an estimated $45.3 million and according to city comptroller Joe Bellitto, the outstanding debt at the end of this year will be $13.2 million (29.12 percent of the debt limit).  Another $1.7 million of that debt would be paid off by the end of the year next year, under the current 2019 executive budget proposal.

At 5 p.m. the JLDC board will hold an organizational meeting to welcome new members to the board, as well as appoint the 2018 officers. According to JLDC bylaws, the mayor of Jamestown – Sam Teresi – is required to serve as president of the board, while the city council president – Marie Carrubba – is required to serve as vice president.

• VIEW MEETING NOTICE/AGENDA

In addition to organizational matters for the New Year, the board will also discuss how to allocate $600,000 in state funding for Downtown programming. The money comes from a portion of the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant that the city received in 2016, and can be applied toward downtown entertainment projects and the JLDC has been assigned the agency responsible for allocating that pool of funding.

The JLDC is also the agency that would assume ownership of the Jamestown Wastewater Treatment Plant, under the proposed Capital Infrastructure and Equipment Replacement Program by the mayor to sell the facility in order to raise much-needed capital for the city. Tuesday’s meeting agenda does not include any action items by the board involving that proposal.

The JLDC is a not-for-profit corporation created by the Jamestown City Council in April 1981 which serves as the lending agency of the City of Jamestown’s Department of Development. JLDC loan maximums range from $35,000 to $350,000 based upon various loan programs and varying percentage participation levels. In addition, loans over $100,000 must be ratified by the Jamestown City Council. No taxpayer dollars are used as loan money.

Tuesday’s JLDC meeting begins at 5 p.m. in the Mayor’s Conference Room of City hall and is open to the public.

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On Monday night the Jamestown City Council unanimously approved a resolution allowing the mayor to accept the final report on Fleet Management Practices, prepared by Mercury Associates.

• READ THE FINAL MERCURY REPORT

The firm was hired in 2016 to assist city officials with managing its vehicle and equipment fleet. The cost of the report was $58,000 – with money coming from funds given to the city by the State Financial Restructuring Board for Local Governments in an effort to help the city identify efficiencies to help reduce local costs.

The study provides a blueprint for a new fleet structure that would not only help to manage vehicles, but also eliminate underused/duplicate vehicles. It also calls for sharing more non-specialized vehicles and equipment, implementing a new vehicle and equipment turnover program, and increase leverage with original equipment manufacturers for after-sales service and support.

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi

Mayor Sam Teresi said there is little to no cost to pursue some of the initiatives in the plan, but a significant amount of funding would be needed to replace old vehicles, as well as prepare city facilities to house any newer vehicles that may come online in the coming years.

“To really get into the meat and potatoes of what is in that Mercury plan — that really can save significant dollars for the rate payer customers of the BPU and the taxpayer customers of the city council and me as mayor – it will require some serious investment of capitol to buy new equipment, to buy new maintenance operation equipment, to make renovations to building to make them large enough and tall enough to take new equipment in, and ultimately to secure that energy-efficient, productive equipment that can really help us lower costs,” Teresi said.

The mayor has said the funding to cover the related costs associated with vehicles and equipment could come from the proposed Capital Infrastructure and Equipment Replacement Program announced in November. Money for the fund would come from what the mayor calls a “paper sale” involving the city selling its $16 million Wastewater Treatment Plant, located in the town of Poland, to the Jamestown Local Development Corporation (JLDC). The JLDC would use bonding as a way to pay for the sale with BPU rate payers – both in and outside of the city – helping to pay off the debt for those bonds over a period of time.

The plan is not without controversy, as the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce / Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier, along with others, have come against the proposal.

JAMESTOWN (Jan. 26, 2018) – The mayor of Jamestown now has more power when it comes to making appointments to the Jamestown Local Development Corporation’s (JLDC) board of directors.

The JLDC was established in 1981 to serve as the not-for-profit lending agency of the city, in order to provide low interest loans to help spur economic development. The JLDC was originally set up to include a board of directors, that would authorize loans while also providing oversight of the organization. As part of its establishment, the JLDC was required to follow a set of bylaws to serve as a guide for governance and regulation of its affairs.

In 2016 and 2017 the Jamestown City Council approved three separate resolutions related to updating the JLDC bylaws. Action was taken during the June 2016 council voting session, the April 2017 council voting session, and the August 2017 council voting session. In all three instances the council voted unanimously in support of the resolutions.

• Original 1981 JLDC Bylaws [PDF]
• Updated 2017 JLDC Bylaws [PDF]

At the time of each vote, the action received little to no attention by the media or public in general. The proposed updates were also not discussed in any council committee meeting or work session prior to action. In fact, during each respective voting session the resolutions were introduced as “new business,” meaning there was no advanced public notice that they were going to come before the council. Also, when it finally came time for the council to vote on the updates, they were mainly described as a “procedural update” that involved “minor revisions” or “clean up language.”

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi did discuss the proposed changes during a 2016 JLDC meeting, saying that the proposed updates were the result of recommendations from legal counsel.

“Several months ago it was advised by Corporation Council and City Bond Council that the by-laws and certificate of incorporation be reviewed. Everything is in good order, but there was recommendation that some of the language be updated,” The minutes report the mayor saying during the JLDC’s October 2016 meeting. “City Council authorized submission of updates to the Department of State. When received back, the Board will be updated and provided with copies of updated by-laws and certificate of incorporation.”

However, earlier this month the revised JLDC bylaws were posted on the city website and they show the changes involved more than just minor revisions and clean up language.  Not only do the changes account for the possession of assets (likely in anticipation of a proposal to have the JLDC purchase the city Wastewater Treatment Plant), but some also involve transferring the power of appointment for three of the nine JLDC board seats.

MAST, Jamestown Chamber, JRC Presidents Can No Longer Appoint Their Own Representatives

Under both the original and revised JLDC bylaws, three JLDC board seats are to be filled by the presidents of the Jamestown Chamber of Commerce, Manufacturer’s Association of the Jamestown Area (today the Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier, or MAST), and Downtown Jamestown Business Association (today the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation, or JRC).

The original bylaws also stated that if the president for each of those respective organization was unable to serve on the board (because they are not a resident of the city, for example), he/she would then have to appoint a qualified member from his/her organization to serve. But under the recently revised bylaws, that appointment power was removed from each of the three respective presidents and given to the mayor:

(Editors Note: WORDS CROSSED OUT are removed text from the original 1981 by-laws. WORDS IN RED are added text from the revised 2017 by-laws)

“Every Each Director shall be a resident of the City of Jamestown. In the event a Director, to be seated by virtue of office or title, is not a resident of the City of Jamestown, he shall appoint a member from his organization to serve on the Board of Directors, said appointee shall reside in the city of Jamestown or chooses not to serve on said Board, the Mayor of the City of Jamestown shall appoint an official from said organization, who resides in the City of Jamestown to serve on the Board of Directors.”

Another change in appointment power deals with how vacancies will be filled, giving that power solely to the mayor.  The original bylaws stated:

“Any vacancy on the Board of Directors arising at any time and from any cause, including an increase in the number of Directors by amendment of the Certificate of Incorporation or the By-Laws, may be filled within ninety days at any meeting of the Board of Directors by a majority of remaining Directors or the Directors then in office, as the case may be, or thereafter, by members at a special meeting of members called for the purpose.”

The revised bylaws state:

“Any vacancy on the Board of Directors arising at any time and from any cause, including an increase in the number of Directors by amendment of the Certificate of Incorporation and the By-Laws, may be filled within ninety days by the Mayor of the City of Jamestown.”

Yet another change was the addition that tthe city council president would serve as Vice President of the JLDC board.

• REVIEW ALL REVISIONS TO JLDC BYLAWS [PDF]

MAST President Disappointed with Changes to the Bylaws

Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce and Manufacturers’ Association president Todd Tranum

Among those critical in the changes to the bylaws is Todd Tranum, president of MAST.

Tranum is precluded from serving on the JLDC Board because he is not a resident of Jamestown. Under the original JLDC bylaws, he would have the ability to select who serves in his place.

When the MAST seat on the JLDC board was vacated by Justin Hanft in mid 2017 because he moved out of the city, Tranum wanted to appoint former BPU chair John Zabrodsky to the seat and he tells WRFA he informed the Department of Development of his decision in May 2017.  However, that appointment wasn’t acted on when the JLDC held its next meeting in December 2017. Instead, according to the Post-Journal, the JLDC acted on accepting the new bylaws.

The revised JLDC bylaws were finally reviewed and authorized by the state at the end of 2017. As a result, Mayor Sam Teresi – using his new power of appointment for that seat – appointed JCC development director Tim Smeal to the board as part of his slate of 2018 appointments. Those appointments were all approved by the city council, 8 to 1, during its Inaugural Meeting on Jan. 8.

“This is a continuation of Mayor Teresi’s and (Department of Development) Director Vince DeJoy’s attempts to limit the voice and input of the business community,” Tranum said in an email to The Post-Journal in December following the JLDC meeting, and also reiterated to WRFA. “The mayor and the director of development’s methods are not business friendly, inspire distrust and undermine efforts to improve the local economy. The business community will not be silenced.”

When WRFA spoke with Mayor Teresi about the bylaw changes, he said they were done to reflect what had already been taking place in practice and pointed out they were the culmination of a year-and-a-half long process. While it’s evident the bylaw updates were approved by the council in three separate public votes, it’s also worth noting there appears to be no actual public discussion or detailed explanation of what specifically was being changed before voting actually took place.

EDITORS NOTE [Jan. 28, 2018]: A previous version of this story erroneously reported the original JLDC bylaws had no language in place regarding who would serve as president. This is incorrect. The language regarding the Mayor being elected as President of the JLDC board, was listed in another area of the 1981 bylaws (Article IV).

TIMELINE OF JLDC BYLAW CHANGES

As noted above, it appears that none of the changes in the bylaws were publicly reviewed and discussed by the city council prior to their action. A timeline of the related action, along with comments from city officials, is outlined as follows:

June 2016 – City Council Voting Session