Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order the City of Glens Falls Common Council meeting for May 26, 2026. Our first order of business will be the Pledge of Allegiance led by Councilman Blackwell.

I pledge allegiance 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.

Okay, next we'll go to public comment. Is there anyone from the public that wishes to address the council? Okay, seeing none, we will go to committee reports. Councilwoman at-large Gooden.

The next date for our meeting will be June 24th.

for the planning and development okay thank you committee report councilman andre thank you mayor um labor personnel committee met this evening at 6 30 p.m we discussed a request by police chief kyle diamond for an employment agreement for the one used by many cities statewide we reviewed and modified the one that's used by the city of Saratoga. We found that one to be one that we were interested in and we met this evening and basically discussed the integral parts of that agreement and will be forwarding them along to the city attorney for suggestion and legal review. When he takes on a new job as chief, he has to step out of the PBA union and he wanted something to protect his benefits upon retirement. This action is brought to other departments' heads to request the same. After the legal review, we will then discuss at a future meeting other requests. Thank you.

Thank you. Committee report, Councilman Rice.

The policy committee met on May 12th on the ethics policy revision and the city vehicle fleet life cycle policy. The committee voted to advance both of those into the next phase, which is research and concept development. That means we'll be gathering background information, researching comparable municipal policies, and developing a conceptual framework before any draft law, which goes to the city attorney. On the encroachment permit policy, I'm currently awaiting legal guidance from City Attorney Baxter, and I just received input from The central question is, beyond the permanent framework itself, is the legal disposition of the red brick on Glen Street as an accessibility feature, among other things. On the tree commission policy, we are awaiting a more detailed breakdown of the proposed requirements and duties from a committee member, so we can advance that. The proposal under discussion would expand the commission's scope to include tree lawn planting, such as palm and garden and rain gardens. as well as community gardens and the public, city-owned spaces. I'll note that a review of the charter confirms that the commission already has broad authority in that area. I will keep the council informed as that input comes in. Finally, with the assistance of Rebecca Reseda at NICOM, I compiled a comprehensive inventory of mandatory and recommended policies along with best practice examples from comparable municipalities, Our next meeting is on June 9th, and we will begin the process of assigning these to the appropriate departments and committees. And here's the thing, is that the scope of this work is substantial. There's no saying in project management, fast, good, or cheap, pick two. Which is to say, if we're doing this in-house, in a committee setting, I want to set the expectation clearly that this is going to take some time. The next meeting is June 9th. Thank you.

Thank you. I think it's okay that it takes some time as long as we triage the necessary things that we need to do first. Yeah, well, these policies haven't existed for many, many years, and I think we've made a lot of progress by just creating a policy committee and getting them on our agenda, so we'll do the best we can to knock them out. I mean, I think you offer your work on that. Next, we'll go to Councilman Lavo.

The technology committee will be meeting on Thursday, June 4th.

Thank you.

And committee report. Okay. The quality of life committee met last Monday. Yes. Make sure we're here. Monday the 18th. And the first 15 or 20 minutes was devoted to Casey Scoville talking about that parking. Her own limited to 20 minutes because there's a lot to talk about, but she told me she'd get pictures about issues she saw on Maple Street or how some businesses might need some accommodations for their employees. And we asked her if she can get more data from other businesses because she just put and potentially we could set up a task force and then working with the police enforcement to figure out what the best strategy is to make sure that people are following the laws but also advocating for available parking options. And then the rest of me then was talking about applications that Amy Collins and Steve Thurston provided to us. And Dan Rice had an amazing application of his AI tools to make a much more concise way of trying to deal with how to score everything.

But we're going to be on

and then split that calendar to sort of vote and make sure we're all aligned on how we should spend the money for 16 and now 17 applications and try to figure out the strategy. So our next meeting will be June 2nd at 5 a.m.

Thank you. Okay, we will go to our consent agenda. Is there anything that you would like to pool for discussion?

I'd like to pull the encroachment permit for Banagio, just to get clarification from Jeff Flagg, who's here today, in terms of the timelines. I think Jeff Flagg said it was only Monday through Friday, and weekends it'll be open.

I would like to pull 5.13 for discussion just to give you a little background. Is there anything else?

No?

I guess Emax as well, 5.14, because I think there was an issue with, from the liquor, the New York State Liquor Authority of having that non-barrier between, no?

And that's okay? The public authority changed the policy this year.

Okay. So I can say good stuff?

So you don't want to quote me. Okay. All right. So 5.13 is an encroachment permit for Gorman Cafe. I just wanted to draw your attention to our planning and zoning administrator gave an opinion on this. I don't know if you had a chance to read it. So I just wanted to make sure that you saw that there and to see if anyone had any concerns about that at this time.

I have no concerns. I went there and spoke with Francis. I think it's Tracy. I can't remember. It's Tracy. And I think it was very enlightening to also inspect the condition of the red brick in that area, that it does not pose a threat. It's firm, stable, slip-resistant. That is what's required. I think that this kind of helps us draw conclusions about the reward. So that would be something that you could say on a case-by-case basis. With that in mind, I would like to be in favor minimum clear path of four feet on a firm, stable, slip-resistant surface. That is my advice or input, recommendation, or whatever you want to call it. We could leave that as is, and have it approved, or we could change that to four foot nine inches.

So the minimum guidance from our planning zoning director until we adopted policy was four feet or half the distance. She gave you all that. I think their application was for three and a half feet. So I'm trying to understand if you want to change what they applied for.

No, if we're OK with accepting it at 3.6, that's fine. Or 3.6 inches, that's fine. I wouldn't need to only consider the sidewalk, in my opinion. Because as it goes, there's 15 more inches of red brick until you get this subsurface access cover.

I see. So you're saying that when you count the brick.

They also have an apron. That's the only thing that you have to consider, too. The apron you can't necessarily consider. So I think at some point, they have three feet, six inches.

Okay, so I just wanted to make sure that you saw Allison's opinion, and it sounds like you don't have concerns is what I'm hearing. Okay, so we can leave that in the regular consent agenda, and then the next item is 5.19, Councilman Palladino.

Is it possible for Jeff Flagg to come up so we can explain, or Bonagio to explain that? Sure. Yes, sure.

So yeah, this is an extension, a request for an extension for the Enclosure Permit for the Bonaccia Construction Project. I know you guys are all aware of it because it's been closed for quite some time. We went- Is this the parking lot on Elm Street? This is the parking closed street.

Yeah, so this is to maintain parking for trucks on Elm Street.

Among other things, yes. They're trying to keep this closed just for a little bit longer. When we first came up around the beginning of the year, the idea was that we were really thinking, do we want to have students all the way through the summer? Well, we thought there might be an opportunity that we could at least come summertime, if it was possible, which it looks like it is, where you at least get some opening up the street. So the proposal that you have, the application that you have, calls for the sidewalk to be open, I think the side sidewalk, the south sidewalk to be open permanently, we'll say. And then for the street itself to be open One of the complications, or several complications, is the fact that the city is going to begin working on the streetscaping on both sides of the street here sometime in the next month or two, right? So the idea was that there's a chance that we could, at least one of you, if we need to, close the street back up for the city to do our own work. We're also part of a very, well, the production folks are working to try and finish 36-0. I know the mayor's been very frustrated by the fact that we're paying rent on a property that we can't use because the bathrooms aren't finished. So in recognition of that among other things, we're really trying to get them. So they are parking this vehicle right out on the street because they can unload right into the building next door.

I see vehicles that are not being loaded or unloaded regularly parked in the street, and I get comments about it all the time. Sure. No, no, I'm not saying that they're... And people are very afraid.

I totally appreciate what you're saying. And they're trying to work as quickly as they can. And obviously, if they can work on segment, that's the negative process. So, anyway, this is what the application request is for. We have a question for Steve.

Can you explain to us why it's absolutely necessary to keep the stream closed? I think there's Steve Carrier, who I'm not sure what his office is here. One of which is the of 36 Inc. That took a bit of a design modification, iteration, right around the first year. The currently ongoing construction of South Street Apartments, the new construction, as well as the street seats, as Jeff mentioned. So I think those three combined, cohesively, meet the necessitate the request.

The engineer is saying we don't absolutely have to close the Fifth Street Skating Board. Do you need all the way until September?

I think the end of September is conservative. Obviously, everybody is working diligently to beat that September 30th.

Is there one factor that helps them

an 18-month construction duration for the new construction only. There was some overlapping phasing, so I think all told, we were probably 24 months consecutive between phase one and phase two. Our phase two, the new construction, we are on a trajectory for a certificate of occupancy and then completion, placed in service by the end of this year. And that's a, I'm going to say a mandated deadline by New York State HCR to be placed in service and then subsequently leased up in early 2017.

One quick clarification. When we met and we, I mean, Jeremy One of the issues was that as they're fitting out or bringing in all the things to fit at the Southgate apartments, the streets are going to be closed. The streets will be closed sort of randomly for perhaps hours at a time. I think Jeremy said the time to unload a truck is about three hours if they have a truck full of cabins and things like that. So it seems like more practical from a citizen's standpoint to have the consistency we've already had and actually have it improved rather than saying we're going to have random closures for the next several months while either the have worked on, or the financial parks would be closing at random times for extended periods. Is this the last time that we're going to see this?

Yes.

I would be more comfortable with this if we didn't have the optics of all of these contractor trucks parked out on the street.

Where else would you propose bus parking? Where anybody else has to park their vehicle.

So there aren't many people that are able to shut down the street in order to have a convenient parking.

Well, it's not so much a matter of convenience. It's a matter of finishing this project on that time limit.

I don't think that requires a lot of trucks to be parked in the, I mean, chain of offenses.

I should mention that there are two hour, three hour zone. I even had some comments from, I was just meeting with the folks at Iron Gate, the maintenance guy there, and he said there were some trucks that were parked in there, there were so many vehicles they had. So I mean, you know, you have construction through building a seven unit apartment building along with building that construction line.

I'm just saying for your office, you're bringing a resolution forward for approaching a permit that has been used broadly

The staff that's parked in that, I'll say containment area for lack of better terms, those are our supervisory staff, our project manager, on-site project managers, site supervisors, supervisor for your trades. Those are the people that need quick access to their vehicles. The other tradesmen, they are parking along Elm Street towards Pine.

We have people that own properties that are being pushed out into

Your objection is very well noted. Does anyone have any other objection or question?

I do have a question. So, are all of the parking lots off of Elm Street between Pine and South Street accessible? With the street closed? Yes. They actually, you can get into every parking lot in Elm Street.

Right. The kids parking lot and the banks parking lot are both right outside of that area.

So, Ben, are you saying that the problem with this is that pushed it out further than that, so in other words, I'm not sure who it is that's objecting to this.

When I walk in that area, which is in my ward, I have many people saying to me, why are people parking in the street? Is the only reason that that's over there because of some sort of deal that this city has struck? And this encroachment permit is like a vehicle of exactly that. So that's where my It's terrible optics from my point of view.

Right. And I'll be very honest with you, wonderful, wonderful things have terrible optics for people. So I'm just going to go back to experience. So I was involved in a $70 million construction project. I was involved in a $70 million construction project, which was done not in the city of West Falls, but in the city, but in the village of Hudson Falls. And we knew that in order for them to do HVACs on the roofs, in order to do private panels on the buildings, in order to do roofing that had to be done, we had to close St. Paul's Drive. But we were required to make sure that when we closed it that's been done here because you just did say to me, is that correct, Jeff? That you can access all of these parking lots. So to, are we just saying we want it open for the convenience of a couple people? Are you asking me?

I'm not sure who to answer. Well, I'll let somebody else answer.

I think, if it's okay, I think Ben's objection, or Councilwoman's objection a roll call vote on this item unless someone has heard of it.

I just have something else that's sort of a possible kind of thing.

So I appreciate that this will only be on a different end. We can still be open. I think this might be the first case in a while where it'll be a four-way stop kind of thing. So I'm excited to hear as the police enforce. Hopefully, the drivers are aware of how to deal with the four-way stop signs. So this will be a good test case, especially in Toronto, as well.

And will people be able to park all the sidewalks during the weekends as well? I don't know if they'll be parking there until we've done the streetscaping, but that'll sort of depend more on the cities finishing their work than it is us.

God, I'm not sure. But at least they'll be, now they have four-way stops outside. They've been there for a long time. First time ever, so I think it was closed by the time we had a four-way stop.

We constantly have to remember that this has been a done-going project, and it's near close, and we've just got to I understand both sides, but really, I mean, it still continues to be a big project. It still continues to need to be finished. So, I mean, you gotta be in advance sometimes. And it's almost at a close. So it's about being patient. Everyone in the city already knows that this is happening. If it's open during the weekend, I think that'd be great. money to cry they need to do their business i think that i think it's reasonable i'll call the question yeah the resolution is uh

motion from Councilman Landry and Councilman Largely.

We'll call those. Councilman Largely? Yes. Councilman Landry? Yes. Councilman Rice?

Yes.

Councilman Matto?

No.

And Councilman Vidal-Aldeano?

Yes. Okay. And now we'll move to our regular consensus agenda. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, the consent agenda is approved. Under our regular meeting items, I would like to read a proclamation on behalf of marking the 100th anniversary of the Queens Ferry Hotel. Whereas the Queens Ferry Hotel has been a landmark of hospitality and a monument to civic pride for the city of Plum's Falls, 100 years, and whereas the Cleansbury was founded in 1924 by 100 local business leaders who believed a vibrant and prosperous Glens Falls, and whereas the community and business leaders of Glens Falls took it upon themselves to raise $600,000 and open a hotel offering warm hospitality and conveniences, And whereas one small businessman had more purchased the Queensberry in 2016, and with his team has undertaken an unprecedented overhaul of the property with millions of dollars invested in renovations. And whereas the Moore family and Spruce Hospitality Group injected new vitality into Queensberry's historic halls and restored the Queensberry to its rightful place as the headquarters of holiday events, hometown celebrations, family gatherings, and a premier destination for travelers. And whereas the Queensberry is recognized today as a member of Historic Hotels of America, now therefore be it resolved that the Glens Falls Common Council salutes and commends the Queensberry Hotel its owners and employees on the occasion of the hotel's 100th anniversary with this proclamation that may 28th 2026 is the queensberry hotel day in glens falls can i have any motion to approve all in favor aye today is queensberry hotel day thank you okay

Thank you, Mayor. The following city personnel have recently been appointed or are retired.

We congratulate all of them and thank them for their work here at the City of Columbus.

Appointments have been made to Barbara Daly as a Planning and Zoning Coordinator as of May 11. And Deborah Goodhines was here this evening, if you could stand up for a second. She was appointed our Human Resource Director. Remember, that's the boss. Effective the 11th of May, so we welcome you on board. Kyle Diamond has been, effective the 30th of May, will be the police chief. Effective the 30th of May, Brian Madone will be the assistant police chief. And effective the 26th of May, Craig Boscu will be the fire chief. In retirements, Jared Smith, our police chief, retired. Effective 549, did a wonderful job. I was glad that he was with us. My very favorite HR person of all time, Judy Villa-White, was our human resource director. They called her this morning and said, I'm here in your office. You're supposed to be here for a meeting. What's going on? Judy did a great job for the city in many ways. She sat here on the council many years. She's a model citizen, so I congratulate her for that. Just for people to know, we do have a vacancy that we're trying to fill. We're looking for a wastewater treatment plan, plan a system. So anybody that might be interested, please have them apply. Thank you.

That could be a good summer job.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, over to this end. Councilman Rice.

Just a request for an update. What was the disposition of that 10-minute parking sign down the lane? I think it was brought up on the agenda for Board of Public Safety. Do you recall how that was left? We can get back to these.

Yeah, I'm trying to remember.

Yeah, I think the feeling was that the ones that are on Glen Street are not necessary at all. And we think they were a holdover from the COVID times when it was all takeout. So people didn't need, it was more convenient to have people in and out to pick up their stuff. The one that's in front of City Hall,

I don't mean that one. I mean the one that's in front of Gourmet Cafe.

So that's the first one I was just updating on. But we also talked about the one that's in front of City Hall. And I think the feeling was it shouldn't go away, but maybe 10 minutes is not actually long enough. So there was a discussion of moving it to 20 or 30 minutes, but it hasn't been finalized yet. So that was the discussion.

So the 10-minute sign, the removal of the 10-minute sign is not yet finalized.

The discussion was that they generally agreed, so I think we'll just have to... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Um...

That started, we were starting on that process, but the first thing I directed them to do was go around to all the signs and put stickers on them to change the two to three. So we're trying to work on that. And then we'll also remove those. And then Steve is working on some public notice with some mapping to help people understand all the new parking rules. But it's a good thing. We are getting feedback that people are appreciating that they can just go to a side street part long where people are really appreciating the three hours as opposed to two. So, so far so good. It's just that we had to wait for the Secretary of State to approve the law, but Tom had ordered the stickers and now DPW is out putting them.

I went to the NICOM convention up in Bolton. And, as Councilman Rice already said, discovered a number of policies that we need to have in place that are required for communities. We also went through a lot of different chains, covering a lot of different areas, regarding technology, regarding finance, regarding

the proper disposition of public funds.

And that is not on our treasurer. It's not on our mayor. That's on this board to make sure that each of those things is being done correctly, that we have the proper controls in place so that people feel confident that

Two things. I want to thank Tom Girard and DPW for installing the bike rack, Mr. Croswell, between them, Scott Coffey and Rick Peter, as well as Elizabeth Hoffman of the Hopkins Hospital, and Barbara of the Adelaide Psych Associates, as well as Biden. rec that's on a safe spot next to the crosswalk that's non-car parking zone to allow more visibility in the crosswalk. I'm very much appreciative of that. And the other thing for old business, I want to update about my planned celebration on June 28th between 1 to 5 at Heaven's Goat for the 100th celebration of the first band house. Vice President and President of the Saunchy Club, as well as the City Historian, Cindy Hess, as well as talking with Artie from the Peter Knau Alliance to help plan a numerical celebration. And I even got Kate from Advocate to make a very good poster, kind of thing, to help advertise it. I love how Queensbury Hotel celebrated 100 years on May 28th, and then just a month later, we had the first bathhouse in Woods Falls. So 100 years ago, the city was doing lots of good things.

Thank you. Now we'll go to new business. Councilman at-large, go ahead. New business. Councilman Landry.

Thank you, Mayor. For the first time in over its 100 year history, Men's Health Hospital now has a sign on the new emergency room that says, Albany Medical Center. I don't think Albany Medical Center's name was ever on the front of that hospital. Albany Medical Center is invested in a very large, small town hospital, bringing an array of services that help bring more state-of-the-art healthcare to our city and region. Remember, we have one of the state's most respected cancer centers in the Charles Arlington Cancer Center. Not bad for a small town of 14,000 people. Scratch Kitchen is now located and open at 31 Ridge Street. Chef Denver says she's so excited to be back in the mix of the fabulous dining experiences available in downtown Clemson Falls, and we're lucky as well when we welcome Denver back. The Revolutionary War internment procession through Clemson Falls last week was humbling. Those being carried through our town that day lived here over 250 years ago. They fought then for all of us, and we are deeply appreciative. Nice to see all the local school students that were there to see history before their eyes. Congratulations to the Glenslaw City School District for making that happen, tourism director Amy Collins, and for all they did to make this day historic for all involved. And lastly, I'd like to recognize Dennis Brower, who's right here in this front row. Dennis is the former town supervisor for the town of Queensborough. He now lives in the city of West Falls. It took him probably 25 years to realize that you belong here instead of in the town. He's very, so we welcome you.

Thank you. Thank you. Do you have a business, Councilor Rice?

No, I don't have a business.

Councilor Love? Thank you, Mayor.

I met with Paul DeAncona and another gentleman named William. the Glens Falls Co-op about 15 years ago, and what they're looking to do is to start with a buying club, and they were looking for different resources that we might have, so I kind of pointed them in the area of Sean's Quality of Life Committee, so I'll be reaching out to Sean with that. They'll be meeting again in It's a pretty exciting thing, too, because there's a lot of talking about food security and also about pooling together different people in order to get better rates on bulk goods. So it could be a good thing for the community.

As opposed to a storefront, like the co-op was, it wouldn't be a physical space?

There'd be a physical drop-off kind of location, but not like a storefront retail space. But there'd be more of either a list of ordering from the list, or maybe a web page with the different catalogs represented in there. purchase ahead of time aggregated with other people to get a lower rate, but also potentially allow people who have less funds the ability to purchase food.

OK. Thank you, sir. Councilman, how do you know? Well, I look forward to that. I think you said January 9th?

It occurred June 9th, June 9th at 4.30. Speaking of sight events, this coming weekend, the Columbus Hospital Aloha 5K is going to go down at Hamlet's Cove and go all along the Prime's Path. Definitely picture out there if you're able to at 9 a.m. on this coming Saturday. Also, this Friday and Saturday, the Crandall Public Library is having their spring book sale on May 29th and the 30th, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and I'll be there on Saturday helping the Friends of Crandall Library take videos with people's permission of the lovely book finds they have. The 7th of June, not January, but the 7th of June is the fourth annual Lower Adirondack Prize Festival created by Ken Cardinal as well

I have a few things. I wanted to just thank all of the people who are on the remembrance ceremony committee for the Memorial Day, particularly Supervisor John Stroud. He was the person who initially said, you know, Glens Falls and Queensborough should combine and have one parade, and that was over 20 years ago, and this was his last one as a supervisor, so I'd like to thank Supervisor Straub for all of his work, and I'd like to thank DPW, police, fire, council members and supervisors, and community members who participated. I was so glad that the rain held off for us. I have a good update on the RFPs that we put out related to the Ed and 36, So we have a very good proposal related to the ed that we are going to finalize. I just spoke with our city attorney today about kind of taking the proposal and charting it into an agreement. And so as soon as we have that information, I'll share it with you. But I think it's a very positive move forward. it's going to work so we'll get that in front of you as soon as we can we had a department head meeting last week and i updated all of you at our last council meeting about the findings of the auditors and things like that we continue to the city's finances continue to be a priority of All of us really, as Councilman Lapham, as you said, the council has a very active role to play, but so do department heads, so does the mayor's office, and so does the controller's office. So one thing that we are going to do is get every department head access to Munis, which is our financial software, and get them trained on that. So they haven't all had that access in the past, which isn't really the best thing because then they can't be live monitoring how they're doing on the budget and they haven't been offered training. So we're doing that, that's already scheduled. I've also been working with the state controller's office to bring a training to our local area and that would be for council members and department heads on structurally balanced budget and department head role, council role, all of that. I don't know if I want to say that's something fun to look forward to, but I think it'll be a positive thing for us all to get on the same page, and that should be sometime in July. I'm still waiting on a date. So that's all I have for you. Is there anyone from the public that would like to address the council?

Come on up.

Good evening, Dennis Brower. at the police station?

So it hadn't come to the Common Council. It was at the Board of Public Safety. And there was a discussion about that. And at the time, there wasn't a decision made. But there was the idea that we should reach out to CDTA and then bring it back up. So I've done that. And actually, just today, I spoke to them again. One option that we might move forward with is that CDTA has offered to install a lockbox. Not a lockbox, but like a padlock with a number code on the door. And that might be a nice temporary compromise so that we can make sure that people who really need it have access, but it won't just be open all the time for any number of behaviors that could be happening in there. So that's kind of where we left it. So I appreciated CDTA's willingness to compromise. And I spoke to the police chief today, and he seemed happy with that compromise. So I'll take that back to the Board of Public Safety and let them know.

I really felt that it was a good idea to have it open for the public, particularly with the fact the library has limited bathroom capabilities for people. And surprisingly, It hasn't been a big issue, but it surprises me that we don't have more facilities. You know, we don't want to push them to the Queens Ferry necessarily, and that's kind of the alternative for a lot of people. It's just my two cents anyway.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Okay. Can I make a note? I think there are bedrooms at the Merge Street Park.

down the road but there's more options there thank you anyone else from the public wish wish to address the council okay um i i will need to ask for a motion to go into executive session um attorney ambassador will tell us why discuss um this year's republic officers law article 7 7

and h matters regarding proposed litigation matters affecting the appointment or employment of particular persons and the proposed lease or sale of real property where public disclosure could substantially affect the value of the property so motion to go into executive session okay second okay all in favor any opposed okay we are in executive session