Common Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. All right. We're live. All right. We're live. Sorry. Going to start the committee of the whole and the agenda.

Okay. We have a couple of We have four resolutions. Four resolutions. Three four consents. And we have one item that was tabled from the last meeting to going back onto the agenda. So then resol first resolution 2526-118 is adopting the minutes from the last common council meeting. [clears throat] [laughter] Resolution 2526-119. Kelly uh will sponsor this one. It's a resolution appointing deputy mayor.

Uh yes. Resolution 2526-120 [clears throat] resolution authorizing the 2026 fees for the recreation department events and activities. Okay. Um, you'll see this attached of the the proposed fee schedule and then the vendor form and also Rob is here. You like to come talk to us?

Yeah. If anybody has any questions, obviously I'm glad they answered them. And also just to let you know, um, we haven't had a rec commission meeting and the last few have been cancelled um, just because of scheduling conflicts with with members. And so this has not been run by the commission yet, but we just needed to get it in front of you. So you can we have a meeting Monday night of the rec commission. So however you would like to handle that, [clears throat] you know, is uh up to you. Like I said, we have not put this uh before the commission yet. So none of these fees have been increased, Rob. Correct. they are exactly the same as the

and your rationale for that is um well uh you know in the in the year end 25 report we ended up uh 96 93,000 uh in expenses and we took in about 96,000

you had like a $2,000 but over I mean surplus surplus so you know we did really well there I think we're off to uh with a lot of good commitments for next year or you know for 26 already so I think we're in good shape going forward and as I did mention to the mayor, you know, we're very fortunate with the vendors um that they keep coming back every year because you know, a lot of vendors make for a good event and um while we still fill our vendors and you know, every event is crowded and sold out, I think we have seen the interest Wayne a you know, just a tiny bit where we're we're not we don't have the overflow that we had a few years ago. So, just in my opinion, you know, I would keep everything the same moving forward.

Um, and we do charge, you know, we didn't charge nonprofits uh up until a couple years ago and now we charge nonprofits. Um, you know, we went up 25% in the in the regular vendor uh rental space. So, we did increase it over the, you know, past uh I think two out of the past three years. I only have one question. the single the camper. How are we doing with that summer camp? You know, there are a lot of people, less less people.

So, you know, ask me for an explanation why and I can't give it to you, but last year we were down significantly. Um, probably 30 kids a week. I don't have the number in front of me, but I know I know it was down. Um, maybe it was a one-time thing. You know, we didn't change the price. We didn't know of anything else that's going I know the school did have more activities um summer programming for kids. Uh well more programming for kids. We and we have more programming too. That's a good point. But I'm saying that the kids that that the enrollment in the camp was down like 30 kids.

I I'd say probably yes somewhere 20 25. Like I said I don't know the exact number off hand but it it was definitely down. Well, we did have park counselors. I know the school has more activities uh in the summer. Every single year they've been adding on to their [clears throat] summer programming where they're doing a I don't I think it was like related to STEM uh you know, education programming. So maybe that has to do it. Maybe it's done. We haven't had any issues, you know, no, our programming hasn't changed, so I I don't see any reason for it, but we'll see what happens this year. Last year was the first time.

Well, and one of the other things that we spoken about was um you know with the commission brainstorming things that could be done um to generate more income within the event itself and you had talked about some of the things you like getting more sponsors to do specific parts of the event. You started doing that a little bit more last year. We we started with what this year. So, we're trying to sell

whatever we can to come up with to add, you know, always trying to just bring in more revenue um to add specific things to the events. Um I think we're in a good place organizationally where, you know, Michelle and I have it down pretty good right now. So, I think we're we're good with that. So, we're trying to sell more sponsorships and I I you know the referencing the we never had a skate sponsor before for Winterfest. So, we just put it out on Facebook. We just said, "Hey, let's just put this out there. See if somebody wants to um you know, sponsor the skate rental program for that day." And uh you know, lo and behold, the uh AAA answered within a day and said, "Hey, we'll give you $1,000 for it." So, we're we're going to continue doing things like that.

One thing I think mayor, the summer camp, does that tie into remember how we send people to camp the parks and we have Could that be it? Well, that's one of the things he mentioned. It could possibly be, but um you know, it it I don't know. I think I think more so, Jim. You know how they did the we had the school coaches doing all those clinics? Yeah. I think a lot of kids who may have gone to those clinics didn't go to the summer camp because that was free as well. Because that was free. Okay. So like Tim Jones um got money from the county to do six week summer program right at Lynch. We got money from Senator Fe as well. Senator Feahhee as well. I'm sorry about that. Yeah.

So Mayor, are we going to go you and I talked do we want to go back to that again summer? I think I think it's beneficial. Um I do too. I agree with you. You know, and I think that we need to we need to discuss that. I talked to Rob about putting things in his budget. The summer program that we had at the individual parks, there were some parks that nobody showed up. Uh we talked about targeting him more. We definitely want to put somebody at Esparonza Verity this summer. We want to put somebody at um Vets. We want to put somebody at Shuttleworth possibly. What was the other one we talked about? Espanza. But also the security, not when I say security, the additional help we had

monitoring, we want to include some of that. So, those are things that we got granted for last year that we may have to uh you know, they were they were effective enough. But that's the other thing, Rob, is there I want to ask the council uh generating more revenue for the from the recreation events. You know, right now we're keeping all those fun [clears throat] all those things the same, but I think I want direction from the council. Do we want to make some more money uh to pay for these other things that we we are probably going to have to selfund? You know, so we got a $2,000 surplus over the whole course of the year. Um, you know, I I think if if we're gonna and and I I fully fully fully uh uh endorse and support the, you know, and hope the council agrees that we want to continue some of the things we started last summer, including those coaches clinics, which I thought went very very well. And if we do, we've got to figure out now, now the school district did say that next year they would

I think there's funding. I checked on that. I think the funding is all set for that without the council. um city budget. So we don't have to worry about that. It's the it's the additional parks park supervision, those types of things. Yes, the park supervision and the park attendance. But Jimmy, yeah, the long answer to your question is I do think those things did have an impact on the summer summer camp enrollment, but they were they're good things. They're not like it's bad. I'm I'm in agreement with you. I really I believe so, too. But the money the camp counselors at the parks were so wonderful. Yeah. Because people can let their kids go to the park knowing there's an adult there to take care of ourselves

or watch over them to make sure that it's not burning and keeping them busy. So I think that's a great idea. Okay. I think we started off broad with that last year and you know we did every single park that we could think of and like the mayor just mentioned you know because of attendance [clears throat] in some of them you know we already have all the supplies everything is stored um so supply I think we spent $4 or $5,000 on supplies last year and you know we have most of that stuff so it would just be staffing but we do want you to at the next recreation commission meeting to go over these uh rates with everybody body and go over some of the things we're talking about with them and get some inputs uh from them as well.

So, any questions? Yeah, just real quick. Uh back to the ice skating thing. Not to shift gears too harshly, but um 50,000 for the ice skates. Is that out of your budget? Is that a grant? Like, did I did I read that correctly? Wait, what? 5500. Oh, 5. Yeah. Yeah. I said 50,000. Sorry. I mean, this is what happened. Usually, we rent the skates every year.

Sure. um for around $2,000, maybe 2,200 or something like that. And [clears throat] the gentleman just called. He said, "I'm putting out to, you know, everybody who rents from us. Um I'm getting out of the business. First one that wants to take this offer," he said, "I'd like 5,500 and you get 200 pair of ice skates, the shelves that they come on, the blade sharpeners, and so on." Um, so you know, I went to the mayor. I said, "Hey, this is basically, you know, two years worth." Well, that's, you know, that's what the mayor was saying. We've already rented, you know, we've I wish he said it three years ago because I think we rented them what, three or four times, probably. Um, so, you know, talking about the mayor, it seemed like a no-brainer. Geez, why, you know, we're talking about expanding ice skating. Maybe he goes to the golf course or whatever. And now we've got, you know, we're not paying him for the rental this year. We're just paying for the the

Okay, now we can rent them out to other municipalities, right? That's or also Winterfest is always weather dependent. So in this case, like if we have them, we could open up on a Saturday, rent the skates and pay for the staffing that way because yeah, we need a staff to rent the skates out. Well, we could run them that way or something, you know, and then it would just be like, oh, we can open three days this month because it's actually But also, as Rob said, he just got a sponsor this year for a thousand bucks to pay for the rental skate, the skate rentals. Correct. So, we could do that and continue to do that. There's an opportunity for some revenue generation, renting, cost of buying the skates.

Yeah, because it is hard. Like, I'm not going to buy skates. They're going to grow. However it plays out next year, I know the golf foundation has mentioned, you know, doing winter activities up there. The mayor's, you know, mentioned winter activities. Um, so however that plays out, I think it's a good thing. We have 200 pair of skates. We're good on that front and uh, you know, it's a good starting point. Like you said, we would pay to rent them anyway. So now we have them. So who's going to like maintain them? You know, sanitize them, show the whole place. So, we didn't get that because this literally just happened last week. I think last week. Um,

so we'll do that for uh Winterfest and then, you know, it may be too late to put all these in place for this year to come up with a rental program or Right. No. Yeah, definitely next year. You know, I mean, this never in our when we met with the golf uh foundation uh a month, six weeks ago, you know, we [clears throat] had talked about all these things and we had made a couple phone calls and sent a couple text messages and emails about where can we get skates, where can we get um uh cross country skis, where can we get, you know, for next year. We weren't talking about this year and lo and behold, this basically just fell into our lap. Beautiful.

Okay. So, Kelly, do you want to table this so that go before the commission and then bring it back on the Yeah, that's that's my fault. I I I kind of put the cart before the horse here, but at least if we had discussion, I can go to the commission if you'd like. We meet on Monday and then I can come to council first to meet again. And that's probably a good idea. I mean, it is nice to have like this discussion and then Yeah, you can talk to the coun the commission on Monday and then there's no rush on this. Well, I mean, no will two vendors. Yeah, no vendors are signing up right now. You know what I mean? There's it's not urgent,

right? if it was two more weeks and then you could get going on the sponsorships and stuff and people are already they know if they're a lot of them are please that are returning anyway we reach out to them in November just to check okay so let's table this and by seeing any adjustments that we have the commission comes up with next the next meeting thank you very much

thanks the next resolution is 2526-2021 One is approving the audit. The audit is fine. Review the bills and it's fine. Okay. Our consents we have to bring back a table item. Do we do that now or we do it later? [clears throat] We can talk about now. Okay. Resolution 2526-112 resolution designating committee assignments any changes or updates. I don't have that with me this right because we didn't Yeah, we didn't have it.

Nobody [clears throat] asked to put it back on. So thank you. Is everyone fine with the uh with the item? Yes. Okay. Okay.

The last agenda. Yeah. especially going on. [laughter] Has there been any changes made to this committee assignments? I mean, I not have any. You don't have any? No change been made and it's already on there. It's Kelly is now okay. Recreation. Yeah. So, yeah, that's the only one. That's it. Okay. So, so we take I'll make a motion take it off the table. We can vote on it.

Okay. Okay. All right. Resolution 2526-122. [clears throat] Resolution appointing Commissioner of Deeds. Yep. Yep. That's simple as that. Just a appointment for Commissioner Deeds and it's a two-year appointment. [clears throat] Any concerns? No. Okay. 2526-123 waving resolution waving 30-day advanced notice application for liquor license pool prodigy LLC.

We voted on this before, but then they came back and they also they added this wonderful thing in here. They added adding first whereas clause. They're going to add a sidewalk cafe. Okay. That's what they're going to do. So that's why we are doing this again. They're gonna add a sidewalk cafe. Yeah. Basically, they're going to probably sell food outside. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm looking at I'm looking at the fee structure for the golf course. Okay. Where the hell they put that? All right. 123. This is resolution 123. Got you. And it's the it's the old it's the Elks Club, the old Marsal building.

One before, right? We had it before, but then they came back and they want to add a sidewalk cafe. So that's why we're doing it again. Okay. That's No, this is the pool hall. I mean the pool. I'm sorry. Okay. I'm sorry. Formerly known as Sharpshooters. Sharp. I'm sorry. Thank you. Formerly known as Sharpshooters. And now they want a outside little cafe out there. They they had that before, right? They they didn't have a cafe. They did. They had a porch where they can go outside and you can drink. But now I think because of the spring fest and things, they probably want to sell food outside and drinks outside. This will all have to go through codes and zoning. This must just speak for the state liquor license application that they need to make that notice on there and then have you guys approve it,

right? They're under Sidewalk Cafe. Yeah. Because like even like over at like Lorenzo's when they put a bar outside, that's another license. Well, it doesn't count because you have to go over the threshold. That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? No. 25 resolution 25-26124. Alman.

Okay. We had a meeting of the G commission was we had it here. G commission was in full force and we went over all the rates and um we had Andrew Robert Shaw and the pro and Chris Sherlock um made a changes to all the fees and they had suggestions. We've been talking about this for like three meetings. We've been going back and forth back and forth. So they decided they compared other golf courses what their rates were and then they come up with the conclusion where if you look at it's very minimal what they went up

like I think it's like 5% or less they went up for the fees some stayed the same as in the legacy and the legacy single and the juniors that they kept that the same what they did was reason for that being is they rewarded the people who have been very loyal to the golf course that was their Excuse me, Mayor Doyle. Okay. And uh this is what I came up with and this is their fee schedule and uh that's what we come up with and that's their that's proposed in this council. Any questions? I think it looks great. Okay. Thank you very much.

Ready to move on? Okay. Resolution 2526-125. uh all comments. This resolution is budget transfers on multiple accounts. Louise, do you want to speak on do you have any questions for Louise?

So, this is really uh just um a matter of addressing some of the budget shortfalls and some of the counselors who just didn't budget enough. uh some of the larger amounts were due to unexpected, you know, repairs. Uh [clears throat] any specific questions? Um I'm sure Mike can do a better job addressing them. Um but this is just you know, we're halfway through the year and these were just uh the accounts that uh you know where the accounts where we identified the funding shortfalls. We're attempting to correct those. That's the end of our consents. Any other questions?

Any more minutes? Six minutes.

Okay, we've got um 10 minutes to go. Um and I'm we we've got a presentation coming in a regular meeting. So, Mike Clark, why don't you do the engineers report if you would, please? Yep. Thank you, mayor. Uh, so this is a reash from the previous uh previous meeting uh with the bid opening on Thursday for uh Broadway improvement project. Uh it's an upsizing of uh an existing main to handle the the additional demand uh that is expected from new camp warehouse. Um it's no cost project to the city being funded by the developer by means of money that has they've asked for the city. uh since it is a public project uh bid opening is Thursday and there's a lot of interest in it. Uh upgrade of the the sewage pump station at the golf course uh soon as the weather warms whenever that may be. Uh we'll complete uh we'll complete that project with the installation of pumps and controls and about 1,800 ft of new force man. The idea being uh to provide additional capacity um at the all [clears throat] the new facilities that are there now. Uh right now we are pretty much near maximum in terms of what uh the the current pump station can handle uh and and it can't handle anymore. So we are uh a portion of the

work has already been done. It won't be intrusive at all to the new clubhouse because we had key disruptive items installed before uh the site work was finished up to include paving and top silent seating and all that. Um all the work essentially will take place all the remaining work will take place offsite um from the clubhouse uh or it's just installation of equipment in in the new in the new tankage. Um I mentioned before um just as a public service reminder keep uh your eyes open if you see wet roads this time of year not normal. Um just either did my office call EPW depending on the depending on the time of the day and the time of the week. [laughter] Um it could very well be water break. Not always but it could very well be. Um the CDBG funded demolition project is underway. Did a couple of working on the third house now I think out of 23. They're wrapping up the second point. They should be on the third house by now.

They got 35 and 37 which two were right next to each other and then they were down at uh the further one going to 84 there at the old Marcus Brier house um finish up. So what street? High street.

They're on high to growth. Anyway, their target is to to accomplish at least two a week for um until the project's completed. Their target date to be done is at this point is early April. Um street paving, we've mentioned that. I'll keep mentioning it. Uh I've gotten some suggested streets from a couple council members. Um, [clears throat] and I know it was also pointed out to me that it's pretty snowy and icy right now, so it's kind of hard to tell. I agree um whether or not uh one street is worse than the other. Um, but [laughter] keep it in mind. I would like to have that firmed up sooner than later this year if we can. Um if you get a break in the weather, if you get the opportunity, just please keep your eyes open at the board and you know and generate a a list. President bridge I mentioned that already. uh that work will resume it'll probably rather resume in March uh second half of March and hopefully hopefully the weather breaks and I will take as always any questions any questions for the engineer Mike just with regards to chips um the governor's budget might as well just quickly um recap cap some of the highlights that affect our city. The CHIPS funding is going to remain the same for next year. Uh we anticipate no changes, Mike. So hopefully that's going to good for us. The AIM additional funding has been

restored for another year, which means we would get that 310 or $315 million again. One of the things that they did in include in the budget for water and sewer systems is an additional $750 million for the extension of water and sewer services to new housing developments which could have a real impact on uh cury Mike if um if that's passed by the legislature. Uh what didn't get what did not get approved was the swap program which was going to give us money for water and sewer infrastructure projects that we could spend like chips on a priority basis using our own judgment based on you know what we needed to use that money for. Again, that did not make the governor's budget. I'm not sure why, but it's going to be offered as a separate piece of legislation as it was last year and it wasn't approved last year, so I'm not anticipating it will be approved this year. But the good news is that we are being held harmless quote uh on our CHIPS funding which is good news because we also have that $470,000 left over. So we should have a robust program next year and the AIM funding was good news as well. Everything else uh you know there a lot of money for housing and we've got a lot of housing things going on Dan right and uh you know that's really where the focus is going to be. Okay why don't we stand for the pledge of allegiance call. [clears throat and cough] I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Alderwoman here. Alderman Holiday here. Alderwoman Collins here. Alderman Carpenter here. Alderman Martisello here. Motion to adopt the agenda. Motion. motion to adopt the agenda with four consent resolutions with four consent resolutions. Alderwoman Collins, hi. Alderman Carpenter, hi. Alderman Martisella, hi. Alderwoman Quistmar. Hi. Alderman Holiday. Hi. [clears throat]

We do not have any proclamations this evening, but we do have a presentation tonight from our folks at CDTA. Uh, regarding our the work that they're proposing to do at the Five Corners intersection. So, uh, thank you for being here. Why don't you come up, introduce yourselves, and tell us what you're going to tell us. Does everyone have more copies of the presentation?

Season two, I have a copy of the a larger scale version of the plans. Cool. [clears throat] Thank you very much. [laughter]

Thank you. And thank you all for having us. My name is Emily Lock. I'm in the I'm a planner in the planning department at CBTA. I'm here with Kyle and Michael. I'll let you introduce yourselves. I'm Kyle Gendler, the lead engineer on the project with FLLA Associates. Hi, Mike Williams, director of planning CDA.

Um, so just a little background about CDA in Montgomery County. Uh, we started service here in August of 2022. So, it's been a little over three years now. Um, we have, uh, several roots in the area that connect, you know, the greater Amsterdam area and then the Amsterdam, Scotia, and downtown Albany. Um, and as of the end of November, one of our routes, Route 602, turned into Route 605. Um, and we had some stops at like the Vport Mall. Um, and now we operate that seven days a week. So the the Church Street project in particular, I'm sure you all are. Um, there's one of this intersection just up the road here. It's the Church Street and Black Corners at Forest A, Forest A, Three Street, and Kellock Street. Um, we have two bus stops for the 600 that go in each direction. um one on the um you know northbound side of the street um just up from the Kellogg J intersection and then one on this southboundish side. Um these stops are heavily used by school uh riders. Um I think might correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was um 25 boardings in the northbound direction and about the same number of lightings in the southbound direction um per day. Um, next couple pictures are are just, you know, pictures of project location that we're looking at. Um, our bus comes in from the Kellogg Street area, turns right onto Third Street and then vice versa in the opposite direction. Um, so as we service the staff, we um just noticed a little bit of um challenges turning left onto Kellogg and turning right off of Kellogg, the way Kellogg and Jay come together together at Church Street. Um so part of the project we wanted to look at ways to improve the street uh design um make it a little bit safer for pedestrians crossing um

shorten crossing distance. um we're looking at uh you know lighting impacts, things like that. We just want to take a holistic look at that intersection and what improve [laughter] possibly made. Um so the next page there is a project timeline. Um so we started service both at that intersection and then we applied for a transportation alternative program through [clears throat] New York State DOT. Um that was awarded in June of 2024. Um over the course of the 10 or so months after that, we worked here at Golla um for engineering services to take a look at that intersection with us, see what improvements could be made. Um last summer we kicked off the project. Um we're working right now um on the outreach piece, meeting with all of you, connecting with the land owners, especially the gas stations that are on that corner um and their access points for their customers. Um and we're working with those different pieces to finalize the design. um with the goal of starting construction probably next spring um conservatively um and then construction would be through that summer season. Um so that kind of gets to the the details of the design which I'll throw.

Yeah. So I passed out a plan sheet 11 by7 or just roughly what the plan is here. But I've been out there a couple times and it's just a pretty much a wide open expanse of asphalt. people, especially coming from J Street or Kellogg, aren't sure where to stop at the intersection and based on the sideline with the gas station, you're kind of inching out at the intersection, but you're not really sure when you can turn. You got people turning left. It's it's just kind of unsafe and people are kind of flying through it. So, our main focus on this project is to improve pedestrian access and safety through this route. So, what you can see is we have on the south corners two landscape pieces where we're trying to bring the new curve and sidewalk into the roadway to channelize traffic a little bit more as well as adding definitive stop bars and crosswalks on Kellogg and Jay um so that people actually know where they should be stopping and where they can see. Uh one thing to note is New York 67 uh Church Street is a truck access route. So, we do need to accommodate the large tractor trailers driving through that intersection. Um, and as Emily mentioned, the CDTA buses are going to be turning left as they turn onto Kellogg from that intersection as well. So, we did make sure that all the trucks and all the buses can make the turns through those curb lines. And then on the northeast corner of the project, uh we're considering a push button activated RFB to make the crossing there safer because it un is unsignalized. And that'll be more of a visual cue for anybody crossing there.

Did you tell us what an RF rectangular rapid flashing beacons? So you have the school crossing signs, but instead of just being a yellow sign with the arrow pointing down like in the presentation, it'll actually have lights under it that flash whenever someone's in the crosswalk. It's great. And then on the north corner too, we would pull in that corner. Right now it's really just open asphalt, but we would put a new sidewalk and curve line in front of the pit stop gas station to help again channelize pedestrians and traffic a little more clearly. The green area on these plans and the gray and the shaded on your larger one, is that a buildout? What What is that?

A buildout? Uh it's in between the sidewalk and the existing gas stations on the one side. That's just potential landscaping. So right now that's all asphalt. Um you can see on the southwest corner there that you can see their dot the dotted line through the green area. That's their existing driveway. So what we would do is consolidate their driveways to the two other entrances. They don't need all four entrances there. Um same thing on the north end. Right now it's really just open asphalt. There is no curving or anything there. So anyone could enter from any of those angles, but we'd be consolidating their driveway to uh just two access points, potentially making the road narrower or the intersection narrower. Is that that's basically the whole point of the project.

Make it narrower.

Yeah. So you can you can actually see that dotted line is the existing curb line and sidewalk um through that area on the corner and then on the other side on the southeast side on that sidewalk is the curb line. So, all that green expanse would be pulling the curb out into the road that's currently there. Um, doing that would mean we'd also have to put in a couple new drainage basins, which I I noted on the plans because obviously if you're pulling out the curb, you need to make sure water is going to flow to your new drainage. Um, the new original system is further back on the curb. We just have to make a connection to it. And then you can see there's um two utility poles that are on the southeast corner that ideally we would relocate, have National Grid coordinate with us to move into that landscape area. Right now it's technically not ADA at all. There's only two or three feet from the pole to the back of the sidewalk there. And ideally you need four feet. So same thing on the um the west side. There's another pole there where we have a little bump out for the sidewalk. That's another spot where technically you don't have that minimum clearance for a wheelchair to get around there. So, we would bump it out as far as we can to the right of way to get around that pole. So, we don't have to relocate it ideally.

Have you spoken to any of the business owners that are on these corners? We wanted to do this presentation first, make the city aware, um, and then reach out to the the property owners. Did you have any numbers for traffic accidents in that intersection from past years? We did look into that especially for the RFP and it did warrant like it makes it so that it's worth considering. Uh but the accident rate I believe was slightly higher than the statewide average for that intersection for this entire intersection. Yes.

Really interesting. I've never seen an accident pedestrian one that was a significant accident within the last 18 months. But uh I know it looks weird. I think we look for our perimeter. There's they did there's not a lot of accidents. That's what I was asking if you had actually concrete map. Thank you. Yes, we do. I do have a question. Sure. [clears throat] If you look at this map you have right in front of you. Okay. And you're coming down Fourth Avenue. Fourth Avenue. Yes. That's in the northwest. I notice you got a crosswalk here and you got a white line behind it. How does a person approach that intersection? He has to go lower that crosswalk and then he has to creep in.

That's typically how it goes. Uh we run into a lot of cases like this where you're not going to have the sight distance that you want, but we still need to put in an ADA crossing to the curb ramps that do exist. You're going to have a problem with that sidewalk in front of the pit stop because you're going [snorts] to come out. Look how far you got to come out to look. Take a look how far. You have to come out and look with that sidewalk in front of the pit stop. Are you talking about coming off a forest channel? Coming off Fourth Avenue. Fourth. Okay. Coming off Fourth Avenue and you're approaching going east. And there's a little white line there where you're going to stop. And then as people are going to cross and go on that sidewalk and then they're going to go up here and get the bus stop.

And then when you come out of here, you're going to creep. You're going to creep so far that you're in the lane Route 67 going north. because of that sidewalk where you have it, you can't see. Well, the sidewalk isn't going to visually obstruct anybody that's looking across the turn. The only vertical obstruction you have there is there's a little square but a dot in it. That is the pit stop sign. Um that technically is the only visual obstruction on that corner. The rest is completely open. I'm assuming also if I could jump in um that the drainage basin and the moving of the utility poles and all that other stuff is covered by the grant too. Yes.

Okay. Cool. Cool. And uh just out of curiosity as well, it's very busy especially in the summer especially it's a a lot of people travel this route to go to Saratoga for example through our city and other places. But regardless, what's your anticipated um like bottlenecking with traffic and how do you how do these projects how do they usually go about doing projects like this to kind of alleviate traffic obstructions? Well, the nature of this project should not really affect traffic overall. If anything, it's just helping people get through the intersection. But of course, no, I mean during construction. Oh, during construction. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, then we would plan work zones and everything for that as necessary. Well, of course. [clears throat] Yeah. Do you see it? Do you see an undertaking like this of this scale, maybe I'll word it differently. An undertaking of this scale, as you've seen in the past, create major traffic issues. That's my question. It it depends. Do they plan on doing like both at this both sides of the road at the same time? Are they going to You know what I'm saying? Like, yes, of course. What's it look like? Uh I mean, worst case, a job like this, you could do alternating. It's already terrible with traffic. Am I wrong? I would say there's over 10,000 cars that travel that road every day. I mean, if we have 17,000 on Market Street, there's there's got to be We should have, you know, that's that's a main road that's constantly busy.

That's definitely part of the final designing process is coming up with the work zone control plan. And you work with our city, right? Yes. Yeah. We can coordinate that. We can um you know, make sure we take that input in on how busy it is so we're not as disruptive. And there's always options for, you know, we can specify that night work is required instead of, you know, disrupting during business hours. There's there's plenty of solutions to help. There's been plenty of construction on Church Street the last five years, too. I mean, we used to that the repaving the

the property behind Pit Stop is going is for development. We the city owns that. We're working on some, you know, environmental issues on it, but it's going to we hope to market that the entrance and exit, the access and eress to that. Is is that impacted in any way by this? No, we would just pull our uh the plan for the roadway that we're impacting plan to mill and fill, but the really the only entrance that we'd be affecting is the pit stop where that new sidewalk is going in on the very north corner. Otherwise, we wouldn't be touching anything beyond that point. So, that would still be all open driveway.

Any other questions? I think it'll be great. [clears throat] See, my question to you is it wasn't the visual. It was a sidewalk. Yes. When you take a left, you have to get in that right lane. Look how far out you got to go. Yes. That's dangerous. Drive a bus. That's why I know that. Of course. Uh the easiest solution if you know we wanted to pursue that would be to pull that corner further up. Not uh we can absolutely pursue that. Yeah. But um that would be that would be the solution there. But in terms of sight visibility, you you do have what you need otherwise site. But when you're going to swing that turn out I know what you're doing for the bus to make a nice wide turn. Yes,

that's what you're doing. But then a car, think about a car coming up that church street and they don't they little bit touch more than 35 miles an hour, you see. And then you got to creep out into that intersection. It's just something you should look at. Absolutely. Thank you, Chief. How do you feel about this plan? I'd like to go back over my own numbers about accidents and tickets and speed in that zone and then I could give you a more accurate determination. Any other questions? Thank you very much. One, if people have um additional concerns or like how do we follow up with you the

ways, you know, if anybody comes up with something later? Yeah. Uh we can share Dan and Mike. Would you mind sharing to everyone and then you can reach out for comments and you will be talking to all of the businesses in the area? Absolutely. Yeah. Um and just the the last page there was just next steps and it was outside that property outreach national grid um and moving forward there. So yeah any any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for coming.

All right. Now we are now into the public participation section of our meeting. So anyone from the public who would like to speak please come to the [laughter] podium. Say your name and address and you have five minutes to tell us what you want to tell us. Commissioner, I want the mayor and council to make the technical information for the new and old street lights available to the public because light pollution is a problem. I want a meeting room made available in city hall so that city residents can meet with city council members during the day. I want to advocate for a green corridor across the city and protection for trees because we're losing too many trees from land owners cutting them. Two examples of this are number one in second a where the ador tree service cut a forested area and number two the sass of grass forest which was criminally given away by the Amsterdam school board to an LLC which is now chopping up the forest or frisbee throwing. [clears throat] I want to note that the dog barking ordinance does not work to stop barking dogs neither early mornings or for hours throughout the day barking dogs throughout the day. Doris does nothing and hinges on the absurd application and definition of the word continuous. I would bet that next zero tickets are issued for barking dogs. There are so many more inadequate city ordinances which are degrading quality of life which are not being addressed by the Democratic party which has for four years had a 4 to1 majority and the mayor seat. I want to demand that two train quiet zones be implemented at Guy Park in Quist Street. And I will ask the mayor and council again, does the city director of community econom economic development, Daniel Gray, even live in the city of Amsterdam? If he did, surely he would be working on

this issue, right? I demanded the council pass the quote protecting animals and reducing fireworks noise pollution unquote resolution which I have been pushing for years because animals and the environment deserve protection. I want city residents to join me in demanding these things. Now let me move on to equally important issues. I want to talk about the criminal attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of the democratically elected president of Venezuela, Nicholas Maduro, by war criminal Trump. Let me plainly say this is imperialism. US imperialism. I ask you, how do we stop US imperialism? The first step to deal with the problem is admitting is admitting that you have one. First, admit that US imperialism is a problem. Admit this openly. Declare it publicly that every democratic elected politician above you. Second, dispense with partisanship and stop pretending your own presidents are not imperialists. Third, recognize that the US Constitution gives criminal impunity to US and presidents and allows them to appoint and fire their own supposed overseer, the attorney general. Fourth, recognize that the US drug war is a tool of US imperialism creating to attack the foreign and domestic population. You're attacking our own population besides the rest of the globe with this plant war. To that end, I want a letter written by this council and mayor demanding immediate freedom of the democratically elected president of Venezuela. An immediate end to the blockade of Venezuela, the military and economic blockade of Venezuela because that's what imperialism is, military and economic and Cuba and all sanctions removed against Venezuela. included in

this letter must be a dis denouncement of US imperialism and demands for mechanism to criminally prosecute US presidents while in office and calling for legalization of the cocoa leaf which is a superfood. This plant has been here on this continent before Europeans even arrived. It is a gift. I want this letter sent to the governor. the governor, the state, federal politicians in all districts, and to the board criminal president of the United States, Donald Trump. Thank you.

Is there anyone else from the public who would like to speak this evening? Okay. Thank you very much. Um Stacy, clerk's report.

So, this meeting I have two different reports. I have the report from um what we did in our office in December of 2025. So birth certificates um we printed 88 of those which was five less than 2024. 140 death certificates which was 34 more than 2024. Dog licenses were 43. Marriage certificates we um printed 13 of those. There were 23 new births in December of 2025. There were 19 uh deaths. 22 of the 43 dog licenses were new and we had six marriages that came through our office in uh 20 December of 2025. There were 77 total foils process. 14 of those were accidents. 27 were police incidents. 22 were property inquiries. 14 were other miscellaneous items. Um and I notorized 54 documents in no um in December. Um, we're currently I'm working with Marvin currently into a foil database to streamline that process um, much better. And then I'm hoping by February of this year to roll out to each of you council members a portal where you can look at signed local laws, ordinances, and resolutions from 25 and 26. And you'll have access to a spreadsheet which has the local laws and ordinances from 2021 and present on it. So, if you're

at home on a Saturday and you're like, "Oh, I wish Stacey was at work so she could look this up for me." You can wait till Monday or you can look it up and then say, "Hey, can you send me a copy of this on Monday?" You'll know where where it's at. Um, so the other thing that I did for this meeting was I put together what we did in our office for the total of 2025 for the entire year. So, and I'm not going to read what we did 2024 because it's right there in front of you. But just to give you a overhaul, the birth certificates, we printed 1,779 birth certificates in our office in um 2025, 141 death certificates, um 604 dog licenses, and 302 marriage certificates were printed in our office. uh births. There were 380 new births in Amsterdam in December or not, sorry, not in December, in 2025. Uh 254 deaths. 219 of the 604 dog licenses were new and there were 119 marriage licenses that were issued out of our office. We processed 859 foils. Um 142 of those were accident requests to 396 were police incidents. 276 were property inquiries. There were 45 miscellaneous items. I notorized 322 documents. And then the handicap placards, I'm going to start adding that because that's a big thing what we do in our office. So there were 713 handicap placards that were issued. 632 of those were permanent and 81 of those were temporary. And just a side note on that, those are issued. They're every three years. So this is probably a third I would guess of what is we actually have for the city.

Thank you. Any questions for the clerk? Thank you very much. Good job, Stacy. Thank you. Any favor you on Saturday for that information? You can hang up. No, I won't hang up on you. You need to give me a minute. No, I will still be available. It's just given you guys the opport No, like on a Monday, but if you're at home or late at night and you're like, "Oh, I really want to, you know, figure this out." Yeah. Or sometimes we only need like one little piece of information, like we don't really need to like bother you for the whole thing. [laughter] So, it'll what I what I have available will be for you guys. Fantastic report. Appreciate it. Louise, you're next. Controllers report.

Okay. Be fairly brief. Um my controllers report that you have in front of you represents half year um we're the half year point um within our budget year. So this shows represents a half year of revenue and a half year of spending. Um everything um is you know on target as far as I'm concerned. Um nothing unusual. Uh we budgeted $1.5 million in um contingency lines and as you can see up until the resolution that I have before you, we haven't really um tapped into those u much. I do expect that to change now that we're entering the second half of our budget year. Um the two the two the resolution that you will be approving tonight um will be um uh moving about 260 270,000 out of this contingency line to offset the um bunch of accounts that I you know that are in the resolution that is being approved. So that's it. Any any questions?

Any questions for controller? Um we also did uh uh compile a complete list of capital projects. We have 25 capital projects on the on the plan. Um and we are in the process now of um going through them, prioritizing them, budgeting for them uh is estimating their cost. Um so it was a good achievement this past week. No other questions for our controller. We will move on to the uh we did the engineering report. We do have some old business, correct?

Yes. Okay. So at this time you're on your own business. I'm going to take off the table the resolution that we tabled last week concerning lison to uh the various departments. Motion made a motion to take it off the table. That is the motion. Yes. Alderman Martisella. Hi. Alderwoman Mars. Hi. Alderman Holidayiday. Hi. Alderwoman Collins. Hi. Alderman Carpenter. Hi. [clears throat] Thank you.

So, we will I will read it. Um, resolution 2526-112, resolution designating committee assignments by Alderman Martisello. You want us to read them or we Okay. No, we're fine. We're okay. Some move. Alderman Martisello. Hi. Alderwoman. Hi. Alderman Holiday. Hi. Alderwoman Collins. Hi. Alderman Carpenter. Hi. Okay. And

resolution number 2526-118. Resolution adopting minutes from last common council meeting by Alderwoman Collins. So, any questions? Alderwoman Collins. Hi. Alderman Carpenter. Hi. Alderman Martisella. Hi. Alderwoman Quam Mars. Um, I'm sorry. It's the wrong date on the resolved. Oh, make a motion. I'm sorry. I just noticed that. Change it. Can we just change that date? Yes, we can just change. Let's [clears throat] make a motion. I'll make a motion to amend this to January uh 6. So, Alderwoman, I Alderman Holidayiday.

Hi. Alderwoman Holland. Hi. Alderman Carpenter. Hi. Alderman Martisello. Hi. So, do I need to call the RO again? Okay. Alder with the change. So, Alderwoman Collins. Hi. Alderman Carpenter. Hi. Alderman Martisell. Hi. Alderwoman Quest Mars. I alderman Holidayiday. Hi.

Resolution 2526-119. Resolution appointing deputy mayor by alderwoman. Whereas at the 2026 organizational meeting for the city, Amsterdam, I'm sorry, Alderman Chris Carpenter having appointed as deputy mayor via resolution number 109. And whereas on January 9th, 2026, Alderman Carpenter having resigned as deputy mayor, thereby creating a vacancy in the appointed position. And whereas by way of instant resolution, the common council unanimously unanimously puts forward the nomination of Alderwoman Irene Collins to fill the vacancy of deputy mayor. It is hereby resolved that pursuant to the provision of article 3 section C24 of the Amsterdam city charter, Irene Collins is hereby designated as deputy mayor to serve as presiding officer of the common council in the event of the absence or incapacity of the mayor and to serve as acting mayor as provided for in the charter.

So moved. Any discussion? Call the role, please. Alderwoman Quest Mars. Hi. Alderman Holidayiday. Hi, Alderwoman Collins. I will include myself in voting. Alderman Carpenter. Hi, Alderman Martisella. Hi. Resolution number 2526-120. Resolution authorizing 2026 fees for recreation department events and activities. I'm going to make a motion to I'm going to remove it from if I table it any changes. Right. So I think I'll just withdraw it.

Withdraw it. Yes. Thank you. [laughter] So we don't have to call for withdrawal, right? Um we do. No, it's a motion to withdraw the resolution. Okay. Alderwoman customers. Hi. Alderman Holidayiday. Hi, Alderwoman Collins. Hi, Alderman Carpenter. Hi, Alderman Marisella. Hi. Resolution number 2526-121. Resolution approving audit by Alderwoman Collins. So moved. Any questions? Alder. Alderwoman Collins. Hi. Alderman Carpenter. Hi. Alderman Martellis. Hi. Alderwoman Mars. Hi. Alderman Holidayiday.

Hi. Resolution number 2526-122 consent resolution appointing commissioner of deeds by Alderman Holidayiday. Whereas commissioners of deeds by way of general background relate to the authentication of signatures for documents executed within the city of Amsterdam in the presence of the commissioner of deeds similar to the function of a notary public. And whereas upon the request of the subject individual, the common council being desirous to appoint the following individual as commissioner of deeds as authorized by executive law section 139, Kathy Bonfi 1250 Riverfront Center, Amsterdam, New York. Thereby therefore be it hereby resolved that commissioner of deeds appointment is hereby made for the above named individual for a period of two years from the date of their appointment.

So moved. Uh, any discussion? Call the roll, please. Alderman Holiday, I. Alderwoman Collins, hi. Alderman Carpenter. Hi. Alderman Martisello. Hi. Alderwoman Quamar. Hi. Resolution 2526-123 consent. Resolution waving 30-day advanced notice application for liquor licensed Pool Prodigy LLC by Alderman Martisello.

This please read the first whereas clause. Whereas Pool Prodigy LLC submitted an application for a liquor license to the state liquor authority to sell le liquor, wine, beer, and cider at the location of 35 East Main Street in the city of Amsterdam adding a sidewalk cafe. So move discussion call, please. Alderman Martisello. Hi. Alderwoman Crystal Mars. Hi. Alderman Holiday. Hi. Alderwoman Collins. Hi. Alderman Carpenter. Hi. Resolution number 2526-124 consent by Alderman Marticello. Resolution approving golf fees and rates for the Amsterdam Municipal Golf Course 2026 season.

Please read the resolve please. Resolve that the rates and fees for the 2026 season at the Amsterdam Municipal Golf Course as set forth as an attached copy of the 2026 rate proposal are hereby approved. December discussion. Call the roll, please. Alderman Martisello. Hi. Alderwoman Mars. Hi. Alderman Holiday. Hi. Alderwoman Collins. Hi. Alderman Carpenter. Hi. Okay. Um, one more. I'm sorry. We got one more consent. I hear I hear you.

Resolution number 2526-125. Consent by Alderwoman Collins. Resolution budget transfer multiple accounts whereas multiple budget accounts have incurred additional costs that were not budgeted for and additional funds need to be transferred to these accounts to cover these costs. So move alderwoman Collins. Hi. Alderman Carpenter. Hi. Alderman Martisello. [clears throat] Hi. Alderwoman Chris Demar. Hi. Alderman Holidayiday. Hi.

Um thank you. other woman uh Quista Mars had uh approached me regarding an idea she had for safe streets working group and I told her that I would discuss it with Chief Spencer and I have and what I'd like to do is at the next meeting put that on the cow so we can have a discussion about it and I do have your outline if you want to add anything more to that I think it's a good start um we'll discuss it at that point in time but Chief Spencer's uh been informed and uh he likes the idea so we'll go forward with it the next cow. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Other than that, I have nothing further. Anyone else like to say anything? Okay. Thank you very much. Motion to adjourn. Alderwoman Collins.

Hi. Alderman Carpenter. Hi. Alderman Martisello. Hi. Alderwoman Christo. Hi. Alderman Holidayiday. Hi. Thank you everyone. [laughter]