Common Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, good evening everybody. At this time, I'm going to open up our first public hearing, which is a public hearing on the draft plan of the Glenn's Falls Smart Growth Comprehensive Plan. And we have two representatives here from EDR, which is the um firm that we have contracted with to do this work. Laura, are you going to meet Laura and Sue? take it away.

Um, hi. Thank you. I'm Laura Baro. I'm with PDR. Thank you all for coming. Um, so we're just going to give a quick overview of the plan. It's posted. It's online as I'm sure most of you know because you're here at this public hearing. Um, it's 215 pages. We're just going to give you a quick overview of the planning process and some impressions from the plan and and then we'll have the hearing. Um, so uh what is a smart growth comprehensive plan? So in a nutshell, a comprehensive plan is taking a look at your existing conditions when you have today. What would you like it to be in the future? What would you like to look like, feel like, be? And how do we get there? Gives you the steps to get there. Um, this establishes the benefits of having this is it establishes this shared vision which you can be using to direct your development in a more orderly fashion based on this uh plan that was built with community input. So it's creating that blueprint for your local decision makers and providing also a legal foundation for zoning. That's one piece of this. We'll get to that in the presentation as well. Um, and it's informing those various needs, your housing, your service needs to support your future population and potential future development. This is a smart growth comprehensive plan. It was funded by the department of state. And smart growth is essentially these best practices you see on the screen. supporting walkability, supporting compact design. Um, housing choices, walkable neighborhoods, attractive communities with a strong sense of character, sense of place, a variety of transportation choices appropriate to the scale and type of community. Developing within your existing communities, doing making sure it's matching your existing character, considering your environment, your your surroundings, your your natural resources. Um, predictable cost effective development and collaboration with the community based on what the community needs are and community input.

So these were guiding principles for the development of the plan and what is in the plan. So it was uh came together with a lot of public input which I'll speak to in a second and the plan includes an overview of the input from the planning process a community profile which is sort of deep dive into your existing conditions. desktop analysis that we did on the various um your housing, infrastructure, economic needs, etc. The vision that was developed with the community and then we have policy areas that came out of that vision that informed a set of recommendations which we'll go through. There's many, but we'll flash them up on the screen so you can sort of get a sense of what the recommendations are and the future landings map which we'll speak to. And this is all summarized for your planners and your city in a nice implementation chart which gives you a step by step.

Here's the to implement the plan. So those are the various pieces of this plan. This was led by compre local comprehensive planning committee. They're here. This is information is also available on the project website. In terms of uh community engagement, this was a community driven process. We received thousands of comments from hundreds of participants throughout the planning process that included two community open houses, a communitywide survey. We also did some focus groups with particular stakeholders with particular interests uh such as your tourist tourism uh stakeholders, bike ped transit um stakeholders, film professionals, local employers, etc. to get some of their specific input. We had uh nine community comprehensive planning committee meetings. So they were guiding this process throughout from 2004 to today. Um and we also did some various pop-up events events to make sure we were getting the word out to the community and meeting people where they were.

Can I point out that it was in 2025 those open houses and public hearings but not 2026 the July 2025. Thank you. It's not the future. Oh yeah.

Uh so to give you a sense of what we've heard, um we've heard about in terms of assets, what we really like about Guns Falls. I mean, we heard a lot of assets. People are in general are very pleased with the development with the that's been going on in the city, the the downtown, how it's been revitalized. And in general, we heard a lot about let's keep doing this. Let's keep the momentum. Let's keep growing. Let's keep um building in the way that we're doing. We're really happy with a lot of the assets that you have. Those include a very walkable, compact um city. You can access your amenities quite easily. A vibrant downtown and dining scene. Historic character, unique architecture, that sense of place that the city has. Um great natural resources, diverse recreational resources that are easily accessible from different parts of the city. Um very strong community and quality of life, safe, affordable. So, lots of good things. hearing a lot of good things there. Also, those healthcare education amenities that you have in the city that not all cities have. So, appreciation for those strong arts and culture scene amendies, tourism both locally, regionally, and nationally. And that sense of civic identity and pride. Residents really admire the city's revival and the resources that you have here in the community. In terms of challenges, to give you a sense of some things we heard, housing affordability, diversion, uh diversity, not having enough options for some of the people that would like to to get in uh to the city, jobs and economic opportunities, so some limited availability, maybe better paying jobs or anchors, diverse diverse types of opportunities is what we were hearing. transportation infrastructure. We've heard about walkability, but interest to continue improving uh bike bicycle, pedestrian, and public transit uh res uh infrastructure for the city. We heard about some various parking challenges uh

that people would like to see addressed. Inclusion and community engagement. We heard about how improving economic and racial diversity could be innovation, opportunity potentially for some more innovation, continue sparking that. Um a lack of maybe visibility of the different ways to get involved, how you the current existing ways to get involved, making sure that's clear up to the residents and potentially expanding some of those opportunities as well for civic participation. And then in terms of planning and development, some general concerns about making sure the development is not unchecked, that we're doing it in a logical planned manner that's matching uh the interests and needs of and character of the community and the neighborhoods. So, we took uh so with the all the public input we heard with specific comments on the vision. There's a vision statement in here for what we'd like for what the community would like the city to look like now in the next 10 years or so. This is the vision that we're going towards. Not going to read it because it's here on the screen. And this was developed directly with the committee and with the public um to provide a guide and basis for your comprehensive plan. And now I'll pass it over to Sue who's going to take us through um the recommendations and high level speak at a high level to the many recommendations that we included in the

So we met together with the CPC. We listened to what the public told us. We came up with a vision statement as a group and then we said how do we make this happen and the first thing that we did is we created 10 policy areas. So that's how we organized our goals and our recommendation sort of by theme. And the first policy area was administration and government. And I know that this is very small text and it's hard to read. Um if you go online and find a copy of the plan, go to the implementation matrix and this has the policy areas, the goals, the recommendations and you can see that. So for administration and government, the big thing, the push, the reason behind doing this one, we want to ensure that the government serves the community's needs by supplying services that promote quality of life and economic growth. How do we make that happen? What are the action steps that the city should take? And the first is to establish a planning and development committee which has already happened. It is up and running. Uh the second increasing staff capacity and making sure that you have the folks on on hand that you need to advance economic development and planning in the city. You've got lots of boards. We want to make sure that they have proper training and some of it's required but sometimes it's nice a little extra. So make sure in terms of discretionary boards have the training they need. And finally, you want to continue to enjoy and foster a high level of civic engagement. And how do you do that? You make sure that things are accessible, they're online, they're available, that people know all the good things that are going on in the world. So, our second bucket area, policy area or bucket was the built environment. And this was a big um one thing we heard from everybody from the CPC from the community

um was we've got great historic character. Yes, we want to grow. Yes, we want to expand, but we want to make sure that we preserve what's important and what makes Lennis Falls unique. So, when we're developing, keep that in mind. So again, how do you make that happen? Well, you review and update the city code. You develop design guidelines and standards. and you continue to embrace the smart growth principles. Those are the things that Laura walked through that are really just the fundamentals of good planning. So that's uh supporting infill uh rehabilitation and development and encouraging development where residents can easily or safely walk and bike. uh economic development. Again, this was a big a key factor in the community. And so overall, we want to support existing businesses. So we want to attract new ones to the area. We want to make sure that we're catering to the needs of both the people that visit, but also the people that live here on a daily basis. So again, how do we do that? Well, you've got a great cluster of key industries in place. So let's build on those. You've got healthcare and social services. You have light manufacturing, advanced you've got a great tourism, retail. Um, so those are economic drivers. Lean into those, build on those. You also should create a business resource page. So, sort of a one-stop shop. So, if somebody's coming to town and wants to start a business, what a great place to start. Just visit the city website and it'll give you links to different folks that you should talk to organizations. You also have fantastic economic development partners in the area, in the region. continue to work with them, continue to leverage uh that talent. You also have uh revitalizing abandoned, vacant and brownfield sites to support growth and the city is already taking great strides in doing that. So continue

working with New York State. They have a program called Brownfield opportunity area or work with them, work with EPA, work with the TC and also come up with an actionoriented marketing plan, an annual budget that's going to to develop and transform those uh abandoned properties or underutilized properties and get it back on the textuals. Continuing with economic development, you have something that a lot of communities don't have. You've got the Hudson River right there on your boundary. Leverage it. Take advantage of it. Back in 2008, you were part of a regional uh it's called a local waterfront revitalization plan in LWRP. Implement those recommendations. We also recommend that the city uh prepare their own LWP. Then you can set your own specific uh boundaries and specific projects that would benefit the city. And uh back in 2013, we did a redevelopment and connection plan for Pride's Island. It's a little dated. Revisit it, update it, implement it. Uh doing wonderful things with Capital. Keep it up. Keep implementing those things. Again, we've got the Hudson River. Make sure people know how to get there. Get that directional way finding signage. Same with the Glenn Falls Peter Canal Trail. Make sure you have signage and people can easily access it and take advantage. I think you're already doing this. Establish the city of Glor Falls as a destination for arts and culture. Again, what great partners you have right here. Continue to work with them. And the same with your tourism development. Continue to partner with those folks. housing. I would say this is the number one issue we heard across the board. Uh so we need to increase the variety and affordability of housing choices for all ages and abilities. How do we do that? Again, make sure that you're redoing

your zoning and addressing that. We've got fantastic programs through HUD and other federal and state grants. Continue to market those and let people know they're available. really focus on the needs of seniors, young families, and the local workforce when you're looking at new housing options. Uh continue to maintain an up-to-date housing conditions report inventory and continue to provide housing programs that provide technical and financial assistance to your business infrastructure. You want to grow, you want to have that economic development, you need to have good infrastructure in place. How do you do that? Develop a capital improvement plan. develop a water and sewer infrastructure facil excuse me facilities plan uh continue to maintain and improve the city's pedestrian facilities geo database and develop and implement a master streetscape improvement plan so that it is uh easy to walk around consider alternative modes of transportation you've already got a complete streets policy in place to uh incorporate that into your projects implement all of the recommendations from the regional bike plan and support development of a multimmobility hub. Uh parking and transportation circulation. Every community thinks they've got a parking problem. Sometimes it's a signage problem. So develop a right size parking and signage. Uh you want to continue to enhance those bicycle and pedestrian connections between neighborhoods and downtown. We wanted to work with the feeder canal trail and the Warren County bikeway implemented recommendations that were done uh for Glenn's Falls Middle and High School circulation study improve safety and collaborate with not for

civic organizations um to implement any gateway enhancements parks and rep. Again, you guys have a great parks plan. Um, one of the things we would recommend is to do an overall assessment of that plan. Are some of the parks needing a little boost? Maybe east field. Um, so just do a big master plan, a checklist of of your wish list of things you'd like to see happen. I'll continue to prioritize funding for continued maintenance of those parks and recreation facilities. uh design and implement art facilities and streetscape enhancements that reflect the city's history and the culture. Uh leverage and promote your existing recreation assets and natural resources uh not only for your residents but also for sports tourism opportunities. Arts, culture, and history uh preserve and promote the city's artistic, historic, and cultural assets. again, you've got a lot of them. Continue to partner with all of your neighbors. Uh you want to collaborate with developers, business, and arts organizations to fund and support any public art initiatives. You want to manage growth and development in a manner that is preserving the history. You want to encourage initiate initiatives that elevate the visibility and accessibility of all these great cultural and historic assets. Uh if property owners are interested in getting their be nominated to the national and state register historic properties provide the support. Excuse me. One one second sir. We will take public comment afterwards.

I was asking for microphone. Oh okay. I don't know if I can see and I apologize.

Wow. You can tell I'm too quiet. Okay. Can you hear me? Is that better? There we go. Is that better? Yes. Okay. So, um I think uh sustainability. This is a smart. So, we want to make sure that we are um promoting a sustainable environment. energy efficiency and hazard mitigation. Now they have

okay now that I have a microphone. Okay, so you guys have prepared a climate action plan. Um so that's something that you want to maintain. You have a bronze status as the climate smart community. um take step through continue participating in the clean energy community programs that are administrative. uh as I just mentioned in the climate action plan that was prepared in 2025 um look to implement those recommendations. I explored how sustainability and green infrastructure techniques can become codified and standard practice for green infrastructure. That could be a rain garden or a bio swale and then work with the Glenn Falls tree commission to keep the tree inventory current and el continuing sustainability. Um this is not unique to Glenn Falls. Everybody is more vulnerable to flooding and other hazard events now. So continue to participate in timely all hazards mitigation plan and also promote any approaches that are going to improve your storm water, reduce her pavements and enhance the natural systems as part of your public and private development projects. And then we also uh you can reduce your dependence on fossil fuels and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Again, how can you do that? Uh think about purchasing installing electric vehicle charging stations. Uh possibly explore vehicles and infrastructure to use alternative uh fuels when you're replacing city vehicles and conduct a comprehensive municipal energy audit. Last policy area. So this is Tim. You guys have done so much over the last 10 years in downtown. How do you keep that going? You want to build new

opportunities to continue to redevelop the main thorough affairs within the downtown area. You want to consider adding safe pedestrian only areas and public spaces and then continue to explore as we talked about the redevelopment of your vacant abandoned and underutilized ground properties. Okay. Future map. All right. So, a future map was prepared with um with the CDC, with the committee. It was brought to the community at the second public open house for comment and feedback. And basically what this is, it's a community's visual guide to future planning. So all of these recommendations that we just discussed, what's the impact of that on the community? Where do you want houses and businesses to be built? Where should open spaces persist? Are there opportunities for new recreation facilities? If so, where should they go? Very important. A future land use map should not be confused with a zoning map. Say that again. A future land use map is not a zoning map. It guides a future zoning path, but they are two different things. What this map has is character areas and those define how an area should kind of look and feel and kind of what mix of uses would work well there. And again, these character areas should not be interpreted as zoning districts. So that's one takeaway today. Future news map is not equal zoning. So this is the future news map that we came up with. Um, we sometimes in the office call this a block because it does not bother personal boundaries. It's very loose and it just gives character areas.

So under the light yellow, that's residential. This hot pink here, that's a commercial corridor. The brown is downtown. Uh, we've got neighborhood mixed use, which is kind of this orangey color. We've got open spaces, which lime green. Um we've got residential and when we have a good excuse is sort of this deeper peach color. Yeah, this peachy color. So all right. So next steps the Cindy is going to continue to receive public comments will be another public hearing in two weeks. You can also get online and submit your comments by noon on May 1st um to the director of planning and zoning. The team is going to review all the public input that is gathered and we will be working with city staff and the New York State Department of State to incorporate those comments and then we will be preparing the final draft. A copy will be available at city hall. you'll be able to go to city of Flint's website to see the final draft or you can go to um gfp.com which is the project website. We'll have a final copy of that there. We'll leave you through all that. The city council hopefully will talk to the land.

Okay. Thank you,

Alison. I don't know if you want to say anything about gathering feedback and our plans to um integrate and um sorry I put you on the spot there but so the next big step for the city will be adopting this plan but we don't want to do that without um you know final comments from the public and ensuring that this is really reflecting you know what what we as a community want to see our city in the future. Right. this plan is supposed to be our it's our vision for the next 10 to 15 years. Um so that with that in mind we would love to hear you know comment today email comments we'll be gathering all that and making revisions up to the plan as appropriate. Um so as you throughout along the way we've gathered this public comment we want to really make sure it's it's solidified there. Um and then um when appropriate the the uh county council will adopt the plan. Um the next priority is to apply for funding from the same funding source as the Department of State Smart Growth um planning grant program to update our zoning code. Our zoning code works, but it could be better. There are some things that are outdated um and some things that are inhibiting development in the way that we would like to see in the city. um as someone who was on the zoning board for six years, we see a lot of kind of unnecessary approvals and some things that you know lack some particular guidance for our board. So that is something that we hope to improve upon based on the recommendations of the plan and um you know what we hear from the community. So that's our next our next goal. Um you know, we're looking maybe around June for adoption now, but we'll you know, somewhere in that time frame. So if you can and I will hear from you.

Thank you. Allison is our new director of planning and zoning and she will it will be her job to oversee that we are using our comprehensive plan as a guide to apply for grant funding and um move the city forward. And as she said our next step is to look at our zoning code. So we want all of your feedback. At this time, I don't know if the common council has any questions for um ed about anything and then after that, we'll open it up to public comment.

Um just a quick question. So, we talked about adoption and and I I think the last plan that we had which came into being I think right around the turn of the century said, but I don't believe the city ever adopted it. Yeah. And so if we adopt a plan, can we then change it if we find something?

Comprehensive plans are what we call the plan called a living document. So we always want to update it. Um oftent times we say you know a review annually but like update every 5 years or so just to make sure it does truly reflect what's happening in the city. Anyone else? Okay. Okay, we'll open up the floor to public comment. Um, if you come up, just state your name and your address and speak into the mic. Oh,

is there anyone from the public that would like to speak about plan at this point? And if if there's not again there's multiple methods for you to give us feedback after you've had time to think about it. So with nothing further I will close the public hearing on the compens. Thank you for being here. And now I will open the public hearing for a proposed amendment to the city code chapter 208 concerning vehicles and traffic specifically city code 2082520866 and repeal of city code 20875. This is related to our parking laws. Is there anybody from the public who would like to address us regarding this proposed change? Could you say what that change is? Does this have to do with overnight parking?

It's not about overnight parking. It's um it's about two things. I'll give you a quick overview and if uh Councilman Rice wants to chime in if he wants to or city attorney who um they worked on this in the policy committee. But the I what we're doing here is two things. One, we're changing the parking limit downtown from 2 to 3 hours. We feel that gives people time to come do their business in the city whether they have a meeting or uh shopping and maybe get some lunch without having to worry about getting a ticket. And then we are um removing the parking the time limit outside of the downtown area. So that is the change and this is applying to the daytime and you're welcome to come up if you have a public comment. Yes.

I guess I have a public question and just um if you could state your name and your address for the record. My name is William Damon. Um and I don't live in the city. That's okay. Where where do you live? I live in Solomon Falls. Okay. And I operate in city. Um my question is when will the parking policies be enforced? So we plan to enforce this as soon as this law is adopted. I mean, which days and times will department policy be enforced? Um, do you want to I'm not sure if I understand that. Until 6 p.m. Oh, what time will the access time? Oh, I see.

3 hour time from 9:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. And they'll be enforced by a parking official city. Yeah. And seven days a week comes back. Is it seven Monday? Monday. Yeah. Okay. My only comment is that I think that uh businesses that operate heavily at volume on the weekend are not protected uh or or considered to the same degree as businesses who are have a traditional Monday through Friday schedule uh in the city. Um are you saying you would like the um the two the three-hour time limit to apply on the weekends as well? Is that your comment?

No, not necessarily. I think if we're going to have a policy that's to be distributed to be effectively uh administered, it should be evenly applied. Uh so 70 7 days a week makes sense if that's the case. Um my concern is we're going to then pay somebody presumably to enforce that policy, right? And now certainly one person can't do it seven days a week. So we've added additional costs. the businesses who primarily operate Monday through Friday on a traditional daytime schedule have the protections now of parking policy folks who will be encouraged to move along in that period of time and essentially the plan is to benefit those those businesses. I find uh that that is not necessarily even uh application of our policy when some businesses particularly in the food and beverage industry do the primary the the the majority of the business on weekend Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Um that's just my perspective.

No, that's good. That's why we're here. We want the feedback. I just want to make sure I understand your feedback. You're hoping that we extend the timed parking to through the weekend. Is that what you're asking? Uh that's that's the only enforcement. No, I guess my my department's uh time frame to go away all together. Okay, that's my Okay. Uh if we're not going to apply the policy evenly, 7 days a week through the time frame, I think it is a biased policy that only protects again those businesses who do the majority of their business Monday. Okay. I I've noted your comment. Thank you.

Appreciate it. Melissa, I'm sure. And just to follow up on this gentleman's question, I came to the band film festival and I didn't know that the parking restrictions didn't qualify in the weekend. The signage should be the same. So, if you're going to revamp, you may want to consider having the signage be complmentary to the new rules. That's a good point and we are going to be updating all of our signage.

The other thing is um I am trying to you know patronize businesses and cockpit is a problem. going to the B film festival has been a problem and it wasn't just uh this year with the uh Thunder having you know games the same night but just out of curiosity how many people drove here tonight it's a lot and I'm hearing about you know improving pedestrian uh common areas in this this comprehensive plan and I think that's good. But we live in the north country and this year we had very cold weather, very snowy weather and as a pedestrian um this the streets aren't sidewalks aren't passable. Okay. And it's a problem there. People don't shovel. I I'm sorry to I don't want to cut you off, but the comments at this time are just about this parking lot, but you're welcome to come back up when this public hearing is over to talk about any other issue you want.

Parking is a problem when you try to patronize businesses downtown. Okay. Yes. All right. We agree.

Thank you. Hi, my name is Christy Alexander. I do live in Queensberry, but I own Works Smart Co-working and Meeting Space, which is located in the um First National Bank building on Glen Street. Um, and I will confirm what has been said. Parking is a problem. Um, but first I want to start with a question. Um, you were saying, and I'm sorry that I don't have, um, clarity on what's being discussed, um, but you were saying that outside of the downtown district, it will not be enforced as an hourly limit. Can you clarify where those parameters are just quickly?

Sure. I I don't know if one of you wants We're using the bid the bid map, but I don't know if someone wants to clarify further. There's a charter of streets where parking in the proposed law. I wouldn't be able to go through all the ground that I don't have in front of me. Um but there is a proposed law where parking would not apply.

Okay. So this doesn't really answer my question. Um I will just share from my perspective. um as a co-working space. Um for those of you who don't know, we are set up with um 19 private offices, a conference room, a meeting room, a boardroom, and a large open space. Um we've extensively renovated the inside of the historic building to be the business. Um we launched in 2018. We found great success on Warren Street. We relocated and um renovated the interior of the bank building. Um when the building was purchased by the building owner, they were required to secure parking, which they did through TD Bank. Um as many of you, I'm sure know that there was an exchange um with the TD Bank's drive-thru and parking space, which meant they did not renew the lease that the building had. We lost all of our parking. As a result, the business has suffered because typically what we would get is full day reservations. People coming in and working for the entire day in their office in the shared space, people coming for I mean a 2-hour meeting is nothing that barely covers ground for a meeting with their clients. So, as a result, our businesses suffered. Um we have built a uh we wrote a blog and we detailed um very detailed map to tell people where parking is um the time limits. Um and then there is that one street Washington street where there is no limit. Um in the beginning initially that street was pretty empty. We were all able to park there. That street is filling up. The word has gotten out. We do get a lot of hits on that blog. So that's good. Um, but the word is getting out and our parking is again very limited. So, um, I just

wanted to share that it's a problem. It's a problem for my business. Did you have a comment about this law specifically or just the parking in general? Was there something about this particular?

Thank you for asking. Well, I do see the need for retail and restaurants to have a limit on parking. I agree that overall it's hurting downtown business. It's not helping. It just isn't. People want to come down. We want them to come down. We want them to spend time, walk around. Um I'm a walker, so I have no problem parking a few blocks away and walking, but most people recognize that we've got a parking problem and it tracks them from coming down and bringing business downtown. Thank you.

Thank you. just uh the out outside everything else. It'll be even closer than than uh Washington. So it it'll be I think it's more like u um I can't the Verizon building out. Okay. So out away from the downtown. Okay. I can't remember the name of the street.

Yeah. Spring. Yeah. So, and then that'll go around and we'll be able to uh tell to have some signage that there's, you know, parking available outside the downtown area that isn't timed.

Yeah. And then we can have staff kind of go to that area and hopefully free up some space downtown and also having a little bit longer time frame that people who are parking downtown will be able to go and then hopefully that'll alleviate this. This is one of our steps that we're trying to take to address this. So this is like the first step. Um we'll see how it pans out. But we're also pursuing other availability as well. Yeah.

So, so coming beginning this this term, we definitely were all in agreement that we wanted to make progress on parking. We recognize all the things you're saying. This was our first action that we've been able to bring through committee, through the board of public safety, through the common council, and now we're coming to you for public comment. And it's just one of the steps we're going to be taking to address parking. But I think this will bring some relief for sure because the the outer streets will be open up for people to park and as you said 2 hours is not a lot of time. Now you'll have three in just the downtown area. So it's a it's a very good first step. Um is there any other public comment? Okay. Um our building uh Washington Street right here in Hunts Walls. I see park street it's open up so it's fine. But I wonder about all the comments you guys are getting from downtown about this 2-hour thing. And it's it's a problem I believe with a lot of bread with the owners of these businesses that when you see a logo business of one proprietor parked in front of another business all day long right in that commercial corridor. And if you guys don't drive around, it's pretty obvious that these owners are having their employees and their own vehicles in front of their own businesses and they're the ones getting the tickets when they do get them and complaining about this issue instead of them taking and parking somewhere on the outskirts and allowing customers to come down. I think the whole mindset has to change here.

And that's that's really the goal of this of this program is to allow for the people who work to park maybe a couple blocks away and leave those spots in front for people who are patrons of of the businesses.

Yeah. And to be clear, the the issue had been that we were given no place, no direction about where you could park if your staff um outside of the um the uh downtown area. So now we have said that we're not going to be um enforcing this time limit in the outskirts residential area. So that should allow some of this parking to free up. First,

I I do want to say one thing. Um, in regards to what was saying, I'm a business operator. I certainly understand the need for there to be movement, you know, in city in terms of people and customers coming in. But we have employees, right, who who are in my case entry level and I can't get them to tie their shoes, let alone park four blocks away, right? So, but maybe that's some of my problem and not the cities, right? But um also, uh in the middle of January, I can move my car one spot forward and I've now complied with the laws. Are we are we facilitating the needs of the city by the policy if I can simply do that? Right. Well, I would hope our goal is that we would hope businesses would want to be part of the solution and and park a couple blocks away and instructure employees to park a couple blocks away and walk if possible so that um those spots will be open for people who are turning turning over. That's the goal. So, that's what we're hoping for.

Formally, there's a 2hour limit throughout the city, right? So, that means so no employees could be here at the park by the street. They still do, right? and they leave my business every two hours to move their car costing. But now park outside of the downtown area legally on the street. No problem. I'll have to ask kind. Yes.

Thank you for your comment. Anyone else wish to address us regarding this? Okay. At this time, I will close the public hearing on the parking and we will move into our Brenda release scheduled council meeting. So, I will bring to order the common council meeting of April 14th. And our first order of business is the pledge of allegiance led by council 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.

And now we have a public uh comment section. But before we get into public comment, I asked um a member of our police department to join us. This is Detective Sergeant Nate Warington. If you wouldn't mind coming forward and I appreciate you being here. Um we've had a lot of um comments and questions about kids on bikes recently and so I've asked um Detective Warrington to be here to answer our questions and share some some data with us. Absolutely. Thank you very much for having me here. Um personally give the common council a couple.

So um my name is Detective Sergeant Martin. Um, I've been with Lens Falls Police Department for a couple years. Recently promoted to detective sergeant. So I, um, was working patrol last summer. Um, I'm also a member of our bike patrol unit. So that consisted of me going through 40-hour training. Um, basically honing in on bicycle safety, um, bicycle operation, um, how to safely control on a bicycle in a fashion control, but also about the laws pertaining to the citizens, um, so we can enforce those can't control a bike path with patrol car. So, they have to go into bicycle. Um a few things that we have been doing recently as a police department is um education. Um not only for the public but for our officers. Um coming up in about two weeks we are participating in a training about a third of our department. Um is participating in a training for with the New York Fight Coalition. Um we are being taught by a couple of people that go across the state going to different police agencies and sharing some updates. Um the biggest change recently is electric bicycles and electricers and technology has moved much faster than the laws could catch up with. So for many of our officers that have been officers for more than 5 years, there weren't many left twice without that time. So, uh, that's something that our department is trying to make sure all of our, um, officers are educated on and make sure that we're comfortable enforcing these newer laws that have come into place in the last couple years. Um, accident reporting and things like that.

Detectives, would you mind speaking to the microphone for people watching at home? Absolutely. Thank you.

Um, another thing that we're trying to do some more of is education for the public. Um, Well, I'm glad that Diana or sorry, M Palmer has um invited me here today to speak. Um we have partnered with the Grand Library on a couple of occasions to give um classes and we're planning a bike rodeo in May um to try to promote safe cycling and education on some of these updates to laws and laws that were not around 10 years ago. Um, so recently we have been seeing and hearing a lot of issues about large groups of juveniles on bicycles and um, frankly we have when we look at reports that the police department are receiving um, we are not seeing at this time and given some reports take a little bit of time before they're readily available. due to investigations, but we're not seeing very many reports, if any, about bicyclists attacking motorists or damaging property. Um, if this is occurring, the biggest thing that I encourage the public to do is to call the police, wait for an officer, and um cooperate with that officer to provide the scene. Um, if we want to pursue criminal charges, what's needed and what's necessary is a statement and someone willing to testify the victim in court if that judicial process goes that far. Um, we it is very difficult for us to try to hold some of these people accountable um for committing penal crimes. Um,

we also hear a lot of questions about um bicycle laws. Now, if in case you do not know, bicycles have to follow all of the laws of a regular um vehicle. Uh that means that they are not allowed on the sidewalk. They are supposed to ride on the right side of the road. They're supposed to stop at stop sign, stop at red lights, and if there's a pedestrian crossway, they're supposed to yield to that pedestrian. Um, bicycles also have to ride no more than two arrests in a road. Um, ebicycles have even more than less in classifications. Um, for example, no ebike in New York City can go over 25 miles hour, but that's a class class 3. So outside of the city, no ebike can go over 20 miles hour. must have operable pedals and they can't be operated by anyone that's under 16 years old. Um, some of the constraints that we have as the police department is that there are avenues to enforce these laws. However, some of these avenues including traffic tickets cannot be issued to someone that is under the age of 16. So, you must be 16 years old to um be issuing a ticket. So some things that we try to do as a police department is identify children, juveniles that are consistently following issues and operating bicycle recklessly. And um once we identify them, we contact parents and after a course of a few incidents, we are then able to hold parents accountable. Um the caveat to that is that the judicial process sometimes is very slow. So um it may take some time to put together that

investigation and then even if an arrest is made or one an arrest is made a parent lose family to exercise control of their child. It still takes a little while to play system. Answering questions that anyone has. Does anyone from the council have questions?

Just an observation really that I don't know if this is if the public is perceiving this as a bicycle problem or an problem. I think that the bicycles its distinction and they can be on walking. The problem is that they are aggressive. Um assuming that I would encourage the public to call it every time.

Absolutely. Um we do get many calls for juveniles riding in large groups. However, from what I have seen this year holding our reports, I have not seen any um incidents where someone has stuck around and provided a statement saying that they do not bleed or caused some damage. So if that is occurring, please call and wait for an officer to respond or come to the station to an officer and we will um conduct a thorough investigation and go through unions that we have available to us. Um one thing that I would also like to add is that we are not the only city um that's dealing with um similar issues. Um currently I'm down at the zone 5 training academy connecting um going through a train with many agencies um at least half a dozen different agencies and I had a chance today to speak to a couple of different members of different agencies and they're seeing this where they are as well. Um a lot of a lot of agencies are dealing with insurance of um effectively enforcing these laws and dealing with the juvenile justice system and um putting together investigations to hold parents accountable where we cannot hold a juvenile accountable. Um another thing that I'd like to point out is that not every child that's out riding a bicycle is um should be considered aggressive. Um there are many times that we see a select group people group of juveniles who we are working on identifying and working on investigation when we can um but it's not always the same ones and they're not always the ones causing issues and um operating the bicycle. So please keep that in mind as well. Um please do not um shout at every human on

the street. We are also getting reports of that. Um please if there's any issue contact the police department let the rest of our investigation and just know that it is a process but we will investigate thoroughly. Does anyone else have questions from the council? I did have a question and we answered a lot of them actually, but um seems like the big thing is just to make sure people get a sick of police if there is an actual like incident of aggressive behavior and to not be afraid of any kid that's on life.

Don't don't be afraid. every single child that you see um riding a bicycle. The weather is starting to get nicer. Um I am an avid bike rider myself. Um it's nice to get out and enjoy some of our bike pass. Um kids like it too. Um not every child is aggressive. Um and again just remember that an adult yelling at juvenile and costing a juvenile um will about what different

the other thing I would say is that um there are these known bike out activities where there's pre-planning and all the a group of kids plans to meet and they take over a road which they're not allowed to do and what I'm asking the parents of these children to do is work with the city and we will find a way to make it safe for your child to participate in such an event because we like kids to be outside exercising. We also like them to follow the traffic blocks. So, we are asking that if you want to arrange these kind of events, come. We have a process through the board of public safety for blocking off roads. We can arrange these kind of things um for you. If we see children who are consistently engaging in that kind of behavior and they don't come work with us, that is when we will have no choice but to pursue action against the parents. Absolutely. And I'll say that the um as I mentioned before, we are working with the Grand Library 16th. We are delivering agent 6 from 2:00 p.m. Um there's going to be bike rodeo which we are um work with the city to apply for proper permits and we will be using the entirety of city park to put on a rodeo for um any young children on tricycle all the way up to adults to come learn how to um fix do um basic maintenance on a bicycle. Um go through cones and um just have a good time. Um I will also be there to um help educate on bicycle laws and ebike laws for anyone that has any questions and other events coming up. Um there's a community forum on Wednesday, April 29th. Um, and this is for the Aderondex Cycling Advocates.

It's being held at the Queens Ballroom, Queens Hotel from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. And this is going to be a great um community forum where the same people that are educating the police officers on some of these updates to to these laws and um opening up conversations with other um organizations such as DA's office um who will be at the law enforcement side of this. um they're going to be trying to educate parents and families and community members on some of the laws of the updates. They'll also have um all three types of ebikes. If anyone's interested in purchasing an ebike, there are legal ones that are attainable online. So, if you're looking to purchase a legal one and be um make sure they follow the laws and come and ask me questions and see some

Thank you. I one question. Um, what do you recommend the public should do if they do see a bike that's coming at them on the sidewalk? I've seen it and could be scary, especially if it's a um elderly person or someone that has trouble walking with wheelchair or crutches. What should they do? Should they immediately call police or

if you're on a sidewalk and you um see someone recklessly recklessly operating a bicycle on a sidewalk, I recommend um calling the police, but also um stopping where you are. Um, it is most likely that that person operating that bicycle recklessly sees you and they will make a move around you. Um, if you make a quick movement, that may not be something that they were accounted for and that can cause. Um, you shouldn't have to, but if you do, I recommend stopping and notify the police so we can check the enforce. Thank you very much. Thank you for attention.

Okay, at this time we'll go to general public comment. There's anyone from the public who would like to address the council.

Hi Joy Miller Mula Cunningham Avenues. Um, I'm really happy to see that there are sidewalks going in all over and there are curb cuts going in on my plat corner. I'm wondering if that's getting coordinated with catch space and cleanout and other utilities so that a road isn't dug up twice. I also live where the sidewalk ends and I'm wondering why the sidewalk does not continue and connect with the street. Indeed.

Just to comment that some of the work that's being done now is a continuation of last year's sidewalk contract that they didn't get to finish because of inclement weather that started. And um so that work is being done now and then more work will continue when our new sidewalk and curb contract begins. So that is work that was planned last year that's continuing now.

But is it coordinating with other Yes. Yes. Okay. Anyone else have a comment? Okay. So, we will move on to our consent agenda. Is there any item from our very lengthy consent agenda? This was a meeting where we um a rare meeting where we had three weeks between council meetings. So, we have a lot on our agenda. Is there anything that anyone would like to pull for discussion? Yes. There's just a note on street. So that has to be chang

5.5 toain payment to um community action set up. So sure. Thank you. And could I um not not necessarily want to pull it but make it um comment or highlight 5.11 with the open healing. Sure. Do you want to pull up for discussion and then you can make your comment? Sure. Sure.

Okay. As well as 5.4 which is the parking violations. Um with all this parking changes. I'm wondering how that'll be affected. because I think last month was $9,000 generated from our regulations. I'm wondering how the next couple months after this new park regulation will affect that. Oh, okay. Um, anything else anyone would like to say for the question? All right. So, first we have 5.4 um the parking violations. So your question is

um I guess my big question is it's not supposed to be that just revenue right um park violations is just um just talking um so hopefully next month the hope is that will be less than uh what it is right it is I mean my hope would be that we have compliance all the time that would be the goal I I don't know that I can tell you exactly what the numbers would be at this point.

I think it's fair to assume that we'll see a decrease in that revenue. Um, you know, and but also like are we counting on that budget for advance? I don't think so. We're not looking last year we made this much money parking lot. Let's spend it this year. I hope. No, I think that's a reasonable hypothesis that it could go down untested at this point. Yes. Okay. Anything else on 5.4? Hopefully less people um are in violation.

Okay. 5.5. This is pulled for a roll call vote. We have a roll call vote. 5.5 which is to approve the community development payments. Councilman abstain. Councilman Landry. Yes. Councilman Rice. Yes. Councilman L. Yes. Council. Yes. Okay. 5.5. Motion carries. And then the next one is 5.16, which is to accept the Quackwell preserve grant site plan funding. There's also another error in there. Mayor, it says the city of ABC.

Um the second result. Can I speak to that? That's a Yes, that's a just a um a form that the funding agency provides. So, we'll fix that. Thanks. Okay. All right. Were you wanting a roll call on that one? Okay. Yes. Councilman State. Yes. Councilman, no. Yes.

Okay. So, so motion carries. Okay. And with nothing else and 5.4 going back in the consent agenda because you just had discussion. What are you talking about? 511. Yes.

Oh, sorry about that. 5 511. Yes. I just want to say like um I'm super happy that healing um is going to be part of the lead program because when they moved from Hudson Falls to Clint Falls last year, they've been such a beacon of the community to try and create a space for people that are going through addiction or mental health crisis. And I credit them for my own uh recovery in 2024. So now of my own mental health journey and I'm super happy to have been a part of the city.

Yeah. And just to give you a quick overview what this is is, you know, the city got a grant to to um begin the lead program in in Monol's law enforcement assisted diversion and we partnered with Catholic Charities case management. Hope and Healing is going to employ the project coordinator who will be doing the organizational work of making sure that this program runs. And so now we have two community partners to get this up and running. So that's what that is. Um anything further? Anything on this? Okay. So may I have a a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Second. Okay. Okay. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. The cons consent agenda is approved. And now we have three items uh for our regular meeting items. So for item 6.1, is the council um comfortable voting on this resolution tonight or does anyone wish to extend the public hearing? This is regarding the parking that we discussed earlier. I just need a motion. I would say a motion to accept. Motion to accept. Is there a second?

Second. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. So, we have approved the city's parking ordinance that we discussed earlier. The next item is a resolution to pursue and negotiate a potential sale of the recreational recreation center ice rink. Is there any discussion? Any questions? I have one question. So the there's no agreement in place yet. This is just saying that the attorney in the city will reach an agreement with the Lols Hockey Youth Association or at Youth Hockey Association. Do you want to answer? Sure.

No, there's no agreement in this yet. This is just for the council to res potentially pursue this course of action to stop recreation center.

Sure. So the as everybody knows the um DEC has been involved with our they have been since last year. Um the city had been required to do uh monitoring on a regular basis and there was a temporary fix that was put in place last year and that was to put kind of a sealant on the cooling system. Uh early this year we received indication from the DBC that the monitoring showed that there was an increase again. And so we have had to increase our uh remediation efforts which include more frequent monitoring uh pumping the ground water out of the ground, storing the water and um hauling we will be hauling the water away. So these costs are adding up significantly. At the same time, the cooling system needs to be replaced. And so, we have been very fervently uh working on a solution that will both allow hockey to resume next year and protect our environment. And we are very lucky that we have a partner in the community that uh would like to participate. And so we are moving to both an operations contract, not unlike the um civic center coalition's contract and also um uh option to sell. And so there are two resolutions for that today. One is to um that's the next resolution, notice of intent to serve as the secret lead agency for the proposed sale. That needs

to happen first. Um, and then we can move forward with the contract after the secret has occurred and with your permission that I'm asking for tonight. Yeah, I'm a little confused, mayor. So, are we investigating the sale of it or both? Both.

Yeah, both. Um, in order to actually be able to finalize the sale, we will need legislative approval because it's parkland. Um, and so we will have to seek that. Um, we think we have a a good case for that, but in the meantime, we will begin an operations agreement while we await that process. That's the intention. Yes. Yes. Is this a situation where we may need to do a swap of some kind of land city? Well, we've already taken in more parks land with the um Rockwell Preserve. So, I think we're we're okay there and the use isn't changing. It's staying exactly the same. Okay.

Yeah. So, what this does is, like I said, it it um it finds a private partner who is actually better equipped for running a facility like this and has the means to fund raise and afford to pay for the growing costs that the taxpayers cannot pay anymore. And we're very lucky that we have that partnership. Um so, we will be pursuing that and I will have further updates for you. Yep. I have a question about where that $570,000 number came from. Is that from DC or or how did that number come about?

That's an estimate from the cost of remediation over the next year plus the cost to replace the refrigeration system. I did appreciate the third uh third to last paragraph where it says that there will be a contingency that will still be used as a public ice rink. That's kind of it. Yes. If this agreement works out, they are committed to continuing um having open skate, having the high school teams that practice their practice there. They're also we're also very um committed to making this a yearround facility and with our partnership in place we think we can do that.

Yep. Any further questions or discussion? Okay. Would anyone like to make a motion uh for 6.2 a resolution to pursue and negotiate the potential sale of the recreation center ice rink? Okay. Second that motion. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay, motion carries. And then I would like a motion uh for resolution 6.3, notice of intent to serve as secretly agency for the proposed recreation center sale. Second. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. At this time, you know what? I forgot committee reports because we had so much going on. So, I'll do that now. We'll go to committee reports. Councilman Donnie, uh, audit finance met last meeting at 5:30. We reviewed the, um, the warrant. Councilman Lap and myself, and we had a visitor, Councilman Palino, showed up and had some questions. So it we we did a spot check out like for review and we found it to be sufficient and whatnot and it was a quick short meeting. Thank you.

Sure. The labor management and personnel committee will meet on the 28th of April 6:30 p.m. in the mayor's. Thank you. Council Rice.

Policy committee met today at 5:00 p.m. joined by Steve Thirstston. Um I met with city court's office prior to this meeting were able to attend. Uh the bulk of the meeting was spent on the encroachment permanent policy revision. Um we had a substantive deliberation. Uh the deliberation highlighted that effective implementation of any encroachment policy will depend on having adequate enforcement resources in place. Uh something that would best for the administration to focus on part of the city operational plan. Um the committee's direction at this point is focusing on insurance and all harmless requirements for all categories proag clearance standards and again practical realistic enforcement mechanisms which we can't really do a encroachment permit policy without that. So, we're going to be thinking hard about that for the next month or so to see what we can come up with. Current permits are available through Labor Day and we're considering having a 30-day extension to that and we'll take it from there. Uh, beyond that, other items, the treaty mission policies attorney for drafting batteries policies also active drafting vehicles and equipment. I take longer because of CDAS. Um the technology committee has a number of policies in pipeline that we're working on building out technology inventory over the next few months. Um on the investment policy uh the audit and finance committee waiting for the audit to be complete before they wait before I follow them back. Um and just in general we want to make sure that we have our mandatory policies covered. Um and just to make sure that

our policies that we do have that are mandatory are also accurate. Um so also we're expecting that the audit findings are likely to generate recommendations with implications for the policy committee. Our next meeting is May 12th.

Thank you. I know you have a list on that committee and we haven't had a policy committee before so there's quite a lot to do. Thank you Councilman L. Um the technology committee met on uh the the policy committee um technology sorry the technology committee met on I believe April 2nd. Yeah, Thursday, April 2nd. Um and uh we went over uh a number of things with our vendor orbital fire about cyber security and we're looking to um move forward a recommendation to uh to the administration about that and uh we're working with um short tech to develop inventories and then uh work on policies as council Bryce just mentioned uh and then uh instituting controls um for a variety of things including such as uh breach policy um bring your own device policy um and just general um technology policies for uh staffing and for maintaining inventory and for onboarding and offboarding. Um because were areas where we've uh run into uh sort of issues. Uh in addition to that, we'll be meeting on May 7th uh again and uh there's a number of things to follow up on uh with with that. And on April 23rd,

the planning development meeting, which is normally uh chaired by um council by Maren, who's not with us tonight, and um hopefully she's healing and getting ready for um coming in May. Um but uh I'll be leaving that meeting in her set on April 23rd at 5 p.m.

Thank you, Councilman. um to piggyback a little bit what uh the technology um community had. Um there was some special guests with some high schoolers that um I think it was their policy class or something where they had to go to public meetings and for anything that was the public. All of these meetings are open to the public and all of them are usually after 4:00 which is great for um uh work life balance of typical day jobs. Um but anyway, our quality of life committee the meeting is next Monday on the 20th and it's going to be jam-packed where we're going to look at the climate action plan from Jeff. Um, and we're also going to be looking at something exciting that um, Mayor Palmer, Amy Collins, and Steve Thirstston have been working on to make a better, smoother process for occas um, applications. And then I also have some fun things that I'm thinking the committee could do to share some recognition with this city.

Thank you. Okay, now we are going to old business. Alison,

old business. Um, I just want to, you know, my thoughts and prayers with Mickey Guy and the whole her whole family and the department difficult time. We just hope she has a whole and speedy recovery as quickly as possible. But, you know, she's terrible. Thank you. Um, quick question. So, our consent agenda 5.26 was a resolution to take legal action concerning.

I got a phone call from services today. Yes. Uh, so and attorney Gerard can jump in if if I mistake anything, but there was a fire on Marian Avenue. Uh, cleanup was required and services for the cleanup. The uh we were pursuing payment from the insurance that has come in and you can fill you can fill in why the legal actions. Yeah.

Yeah. So the insurance proceeds were paid to the property owner. So we need to recover the proceeds to cover the cost of demolition directly from the property owner. That's what the resolution is for so that we can pursue that process and recovery. Um is does that holding up?

No. No, it's not. I the the difficulty with that particular payment and many others as we've discussed is that um it was an approved expense from the previous administration that was not planned to be in the budget. So although we have this bill, nobody said where the budget was going to be paid from. It's a it's a bill from the 2025 budget. So I have asked our controller to identify a place from the fire department budget where this can be paid. She's doing that. We will make that payment. Luckily the payment has been made to the insurance of the homeowner. We will recoup that and replenish.

So in our budget process do we set aside money for contingencies like that? So say we had a 40in snowstorm and DPW couldn't plow the streets for contractors and where would that money? So I asked the same question to the fire chief and what I was told is there wasn't money set aside for a contingency like that but it's happened twice in the whole history that anyone in the fire department can remember um that we've had to pay someone to come in to do a cleanup like that. But I think at budget time this year when we look through the budget, we can definitely make sure that things like that are accounted for. Yeah.

The only reason I asked that is is that they don't want us to get a reputation and when we call in under emergencies contractors, especially local taxpaying contractors, and they submit their bills and they don't get paid because then we'll get a reputation. I don't want that to happen. That's the reason that will not happen going forward because we will plan for how to pay the bills that we incur. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um when are we on old business? Old business.

No business. My business was to thank um White Glove Janitorial Service for providing the trash bags and gloves and DPW for helping pick up all of the trash that we picked up on a community cleanup that I had on March 29th. It was amazing. There was like um more than a dozen residents um that came out on a slightly cold uh Sunday morning and we picked up a whole bunch of trash all along the Hudson as well as um a shopping cart from Walmart that was in your right now. So the at least a little cleaner.

Thank you. And now we have a new visit. How's it going? Um, there will be a a fundraiser for Mickey Guy at the Orange Tavern in the BFW from 2 to 5 this Sunday. Thank you, Council.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Um, downtown Kingdom Day is this Saturday, April 18th. Uh, anybody wishing to come down, push a room, take a rake, pick up some papers, whatever it is, we're going to do, meet in the parking lot, the city hall parking lot next door here at 9:00. We're going to work between 9 and 11:00 a.m. This is a very good thing that they're doing. It's a combination of the kids and collaborative doing this. I think it'll be good for our downtown. Um, on behalf of all the downtown businesses, mayor, I'd like to thank you for instituting a walking foot patrol in the downtown area Monday through Friday. I think that's a good thing to just create that atmosphere of safety for individuals that live in the city and come downtown for those individuals that visit. So, I'm glad to see that and thank you for that. Lastly, I noticed in the second one anyways that people still think you can rely less in the road and just leave and and that just raises havoc with build sewers. So, um, if you would, everything has to be bagged for it to be picked up. Um, please adhere to that.

Thank you. Um just uh piggybacking on what council member Landry said the uh I'm just looking and except for the cleanup that is to uh it's held in honor of late Michael His uh that is going to provide refreshments and that the first 50 people will get a t-shirt. Yeah, I'm telling you this like you can't and open pickup beginning on April 20th at 4:20 when he has his meeting.

That's it. Thank you. I guess um seems like we're all um excited for Earth Day. Um but there's another clean up also on the same exact day um with the Feder Canal Alliance um on they're going to meet at Merge Street Park and then clean up all along farms back in the theater canal. Um so there's many many opportunities to clean which is kind of exciting and I don't refresh. I don't think there will be any refreshments. I think that one would be better

probably. We want to keep our Hudson River as well and Finger Canal. But then also on that same day, there's going to be the Rotary 5K also at 9:00 at the Sunni at Rode. So lots of things going on all at once on on Saturday.

Thank you. Uh new business for me. I have um good news that we did receive a couple proposals that back from the um request for proposals we put out for operating the ED and the 36 ohm. We had a really good meeting today and I'll keep you posted as we move forward, but we do have some interest. Um, I also wanted to follow up on the alley um that is kind of in between all those businesses. Uh, we've had a meeting with stakeholders. I had asked um our city engineer Jeremy Schmeichel if we could fit that alley into our caving uh schedule and I know he worked with Bill Norton, our water and sewer superintendent. And we do plan to repave and hopefully regrade that alley. on this uh cycle and hopefully that will help with a lot of the problems and the the draining the engine and all of that. So that's good news. I also wanted to mention uh in terms of our uh firefighter Mickey Guy. I um I met the ambulance at Albany Med when they brought her in last Thursday and I stayed with her family um that evening and I went back to the hospital Friday. I can tell you that there is an outpouring of people who uh were trained by Nikki, who worked with Nikki, who knew her from her community, and so many people are pulling for her. I appreciate your comments. I want to also in addition to the benefit that people discussed, um the local 2230 uh firefighters union has arranged with

Arrow Bank to collect um money into an account that will go to Mickey's family. And um they say that anyone interested in donating can walk into any Arab bank location and make a donation. You can also make uh checks out to the Mickey Guide benefit account and that goes to Glenn Falls Firefighters Association PO Box 300 and that's Glenn Falls New York12801. All of that information um we shared uh the union's Facebook post on our Facebook post. You can find it there or you can walk into any arrow bank. For people who may have already donated to a different GoFundMe, that money is going to be transferred into the same account. That's all I have for new business at this time. Does anyone from the public wish to address us for public comment? How we doing? My name is Matt Young. I live on Carol Drive. I just want to take a moment for some time to one of these meetings. I'm real estate investor. Also have my business partner here at Trevor as well. We're really looking to help clean up these communities especially live falls sals falls community area. Um didn't know if there's anything that we can do to help you maybe help us by identifying some more distressed properties. Downtown was beautiful. However, majority of the residents aren't going to live in downtown. They live in the outskirts. Um and we've walked quite a few copies of some of these towns and they live very well. There's there's kids and families living in those. We really want to clean up the neighborhoods, families homes, and give affordable, clean housing for everybody. Uh I'm also would love to consider looking into uh sober living homes in this area and or even an extension to the way house for some um homeless youth. I know we do a great job with that. However, there are also a lot of students that transition from graduating from high school into the real world that really do struggle uh and sometimes

the way house can't provide those services to them as well. So, just want to take a moment to introduce ourselves. So, just know that we're out there to help. Also, I didn't know occasionally open door to door kind of knocking to see if anybody's interested in selling properties. Is there a soliciting law here in halls that we need to worry about or like you know handing out flyers to people as we walk by the properties? Yes. something a little bit more information. Awesome. Great. Awesome. She'll take a moment to introduce. Thank you.

I'll kind of just recap off that. So, my name is McCarthy. I was a jock for 12 years. I rode at Saratoga Racecourse for four years. I've been on the circuit for four years. I retired in August of 24 due to mental health. Uh now I'm an advocate for Japonis and and mental health for jockeyies. Um but is partnered up with Matt trying to clean up the area. I am in contract now with a property distress property on Mount Com Street. Um and we're going to be able to provide um affordable safe up the code housing um for two tenants. It's it's a beautiful wife. So this is just an example here. if you want to pass around of a property we did in Hunts Falls in August. So, if there's any way that um you know, we can kind of work with you guys on you know, finding these vacant properties or distressed properties or you know, getting taxes paid up and and people in tough situations and getting those houses before they go to foreclosure. I know I've talked to Mayor Gooden and um she wanted to invite me here tonight. So, um, yeah, we would love to work with you guys and see how we can find a solution. The Southwest Nest Falls, Hunts Falls, they've been really great to work with so far. Um, so I'm hoping that, you know, we can have some partnerships, too.

Good for you, man. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Any other public comment?

I also have one proclamation for tonight. Um, this was a request from Amy Tolstra. um meer and this is regarding national infertility awareness week and so I will read that proclamation. Whereas according to the CDC, one in seven women have trouble getting pregnant or sustaining a pregnancy. And whereas the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association define infertility as a disease. And whereas infertility affects women and men equally and does not discriminate based on race, religion, sexual orientation, marital status, or socioeconomic level. And whereas the LGBTQ community also faces challenges when building inner families. And whereas some people become infertile due to a medical treatment for another condition, most often chemotherapy or radiation for cancer. And whereas family building options include adoption and medical treatment such as in viro fertilization and third party reproduction. And whereas cost and lack of insurance coverage are barriers for many in Glance Falls, New York to access the family building option they need. And whereas raising awareness of infertility and the barriers faced by the family building community is the first step to removing these barrier barriers. And whereas Glenn Falls joins resolve the national infertility and family building association and dedicated volunteers, healthc care professionals and members of the infertility and family building community. By participating in this promotion, I do hereby proclaim April 20 to 26 National Infertility Awareness Week in Glenn Falls. Okay. And the last item is that I need to ask you, even though it's been a very long uh meeting, to go into executive session to discuss matters related to um promotion

and um um sorry, kind of help me out here. Officers law section 1051F uh to discuss that is related to the employment of a particular person and a medical history of a particular person. Okay, thank you. Would anyone make a motion to go into executive session? Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay, we are in executive session. Thank you all for being here tonight.