Common Council - Regular Meeting

on with it later. They probably could have shown it to him and talked to him with it later as well.

Microphones are live. Wait until the appropriate time.

You know, the cheap seats back there, they get a video. You could do like Netflix back there.

You wouldn't want me to be a juror.

So we're, Steve has started, but we have a little under a minute before the public hearing officially starts. Do we have a quorum?

Not yet.

I think that there's a committee meeting downstairs.

Yeah, we saw Bob and Mary earlier.

But it's OK for the public hearing.

OK.

All right, good evening, everyone. It's 7.25. I will open the public hearing of the September 8th Common Council meeting. This is a public hearing on a resolution for a proposed local law to amend Chapter 220 zoning. You have some information in your packets about that, and Allison is here again tonight if anybody has questions about that. We just opened the public hearing.

You guys are fine.

Does anyone have any questions or comments about the proposed change that's up for the public hearing? This is about the farm stands.

I think I did hear the Planning Board voted no for it. Is that?

Do you want to come up and address that, Alison?

So the Planning Board, just to clarify, doesn't vote no or yes. They provide an advisory opinion. They provided a negative advisory opinion on the adoption of the law as it is currently written. I'll provide some background and some context for why you're seeing this, why you've seen this in front of you for the past couple weeks. The proposed law responds to residents' requests to allow farm stands in select city zones. We're seeing flower stands, bakeries, things like that pop up in the general area. Its intent is to set clear standards and allow farm stands by permit as a small-scale use in certain residential areas. Communities throughout the region have valued these small-scale neighborhood-oriented businesses as a way to provide local produce, plants, flowers, more directly to consumers. They also can enhance our city's sense of place in that hometown USA character that our residents do value. Multiple plans that the city has endorsed recognize that although we are a city, we are surrounded by agricultural uses and that connection is really important. We see a lot of support for the farmer's market. The DRI highlighted that connection as well as our comprehensive plan. So I want to point out that this proposed law does not create a new broad commercial use in residential neighborhoods. Instead, its intent is to narrowly define small-scale agricultural sales subject to standards including size, location, appearance, operation, and neighborhood compatibility. Through a well-defined permit system, I believe the city can allow modest neighborhood compatible farm stands and set objective standards to distinguish them from conventional retail businesses. So as we discussed, this was referred to the Planning Board for an advisory opinion. Generally, the Planning Board makes an advisory opinion based on potential land use implications. Their recommendations, although broader than that scope, offer some useful guidance for updating the legislation, like reducing the allowed square footage and limiting signage. But many many of the concerns raised by the Planning Board I believe can be addressed by it on the administrative end through a well-designed permit application and oversight by the appointed city staff, so I think you know as written it doesn't the law probably is not appropriate to adopt but I recommend incorporating some of these updates as the council sees fit and I can do this and review with the Planning and Development Committee at their next meeting as well as with the city's legal team to ensure that it complies and is compatible with the community feel. So if anyone has any questions on that.

Yeah, I mean, I don't have questions, just an overview that I feel like we do need to make some revisions to this so it's a little more palatable to the planning board.

Sure, and again, The planning board looked at it in more of a, I think, enforcing a legislative capacity rather than impacts on land use. So that would just, but certainly some of those recommendations should be incorporated into the local law. I don't agree with everything on this list, but there are a couple things. Yeah, absolutely, I agree too.

So are you going to incorporate these before we vote on this?

Yes, yep, I think that.

Okay, so we're not gonna vote on this because, yeah, I watched that and there were several concerns.

We're only opening up a public hearing right now. I'm sorry, I. We're only opening up a public hearing right now. We're not voting on the.

Okay, well, I just wanna make sure because I, yeah, I did watch that and their concerns were valid, so I just wanted to make sure that.

Yep, and so, yeah, I will make those updates and you'll see them at the Planning and Development Committee. Great.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Does anyone from the public wish to comment on this public hearing? Okay, seeing none, I will close the public hearing, and we will open the regular Common Council meeting for September 8, 2026. Our first item is the Pledge of Allegiance by Ward 5 Councilmember Sean Palladino. I think it's actually me.

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.

OK, so now we will go into our first public comment period. We do have a few guests here, so I'd like to invite Members from the Farmer's Market, come up and speak to us. If you could just introduce yourselves. Sure.

I am Megan Madison. This is Rebecca Brees. And this is Shannon Onstott. We are Harvest Circle Markets, LLC. And beginning November 7th, we will be running the Farmer's Market at the Ed in downtown. Thank you. We are super excited to have this opportunity, and we really look forward to collaborating with local nonprofits and even some of the local businesses downtown.

In Your Packets is a one, or I think Hand It Out 2 is a one-pager, a little bit about some of the things that we have upcoming. It's our goal to integrate with not just being there on Saturdays, but being a part of the community in a bigger way. So we have some events coming up, and we hope you'll join us for the ribbon-cutting on November 7th. We're going to have cake. It's going to be fun. November 7th? November 7th, yes. And the market time is going to be 9 to 1 year-round. So we presented that to the South Street businesses, and they seemed pretty excited about it. So our vendors are excited, too. A little longer to shop and maybe you can sleep in a little bit later today. But we just wanted to introduce ourselves and if anyone had any questions, but we're really excited. And if you have any nonprofits, please send them our way and any community organizations.

Okay. Mayor, if I could. One question. So the farmer's market that currently is there, they're gonna be at the Aviation Mall? Or what's going on with them versus you guys?

I can't really speak to that. It seems like they haven't quite made a final decision.

Okay.

I think you'll see many of the same vendors at the market. from what I understand. Yeah.

That's accurate. It's going to be a lot of familiar faces and some new ones. And of course, as summer season comes along, it's just such a great space. We're looking at, you know, filling in a little bit, offering workshops for community members, as well as more interactive kids education. Megan's a teacher. So we hope to kind of bring that aspect and really create, you know, come get your healthy food, but also come and spend some time with us.

Are you looking for new vendors?

Yes.

Card?

I know. I apologize. The application's open on Manage My Market. Okay. And we did send out a press release, and we do have a social media presence and a web presence already. So please feel free to share that with your friends and potential businesses. It is a producer-only market, which means that everything you see at the market, of course, is made and owned by those people.

Councilman Landry.

You know, if you were a new business coming to Glens Falls, I'd get up and kiss you on both cheeks. Welcome for what you're doing. You know, we don't have a shoulder season here in Glens Falls. It's winter, spring, summer, and fall. We got action going on all the time. You're a great addition to our downtown. You're a great addition to South Street. Sure, there's going to be some bumps along the way, and we'll have to work through those things, but good for you guys. Thanks an awful lot for what you do.

We've been welcomed by the community here. This is a great place to be in this building. I know it has its past, but it's an amazing place. And when you tell vendors that there's a flat floor and they can open up a door and empty out and walk away, it sounds silly, but it's exciting. And you don't have to get wet. So it's a great building, and we're really looking forward to it. And the South Street businesses can be more than welcoming to us, and we're very grateful. Very grateful.

I know Artie and Dan who are operating the Ed hosted a public meeting, well, a meeting with all the South Street businesses and I think you attended just to kind of bring together all of the South Street community and talk about everything that's going on. And I think that everyone was really excited from what I've heard about your presentation. So, yeah.

Yeah. That's great. Great.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Okay, so as you may know, this last week we conducted walkthroughs of our fire department, both firehouses and our police department. And we have our fire chief and our police chief here to tell you a little bit about that. So if you'd like to come up.

So both stations, ultimately have the end result with what's going on there, but they're two totally different issues. The Ridge Street Station was built early 1900 in those type construction materials and those type of construction layouts for that type of fire department at that time. So on top of two major infrastructure issues we have in Ridge Street. The electrical's been updated, but we have major plumbing issues. The concrete slabs in the building themselves are crumbling pretty badly. Other than that, a lot of it's that it's just outdated, very poor energy efficiencies. There is none, and that's the same in both stations, but Ridge Street particularly is, It's tough to manage the heat and it needs a lot of updating just to get it to where it would make sense financially to keep that running. Broad Street, on the other hand, is a total different situation in the fact that the station was built in 75, 76 after a fire of the that current Broad Street Station. The building was made as a temporary structure to get the city through to the point where they could build a permanent new Broad Street Station. At those times, several stations in a city this size were common. You had a couple pieces of apparatus. They were very small, you could get around. That's kind of unheard of in a city our size now. A city our size typically is a one station building because of our one station response because of the actual area and the response time and the financial aspect of running two buildings compared to one building. Heat, electric, all those expenses. But the Broad Street Station itself, like I said, was built as a temporary station. It's supposed to last within 10 years. They were talking about building a new structure with a life expectancy of 20, and now we're pushing up to 60 years, between 50 and 60 years is how far we're out with that building. We looked through that. building with Kerry Warner's representatives and Dan Stack's representative. They all were, it doesn't take a lot to see what's going on there. And again, construction materials of those times need to be updated as well. But the building itself is kind of like a steel, steel and glass skeleton. The steel is rotting through you, there's holes through it. The roof has been updated there, but the heating system needs to be completely redone. And the space itself, if anybody's gone through or by either station, you see all of the stuff we have outside. Those aren't empty trailers, they have a lot of rescue equipment in them that really should not be outside in the temperatures that they're outside in. We really don't have a choice. When the mayor took office, she come down to the station and asked the guys, you know, what's the issues here? The number one issue was staffing. We've addressed that. Very big part of everybody's concerns was the conditions of the facilities that they're working in, ultimately living in for 24 hours. I think that's huge in trying to gain the retention and the happiness of your employees, not that we want just nice things. It's things to do our job properly and efficiently and quickly and ultimately not waste the money that we're putting into our rescue equipment that's sitting outside in temperatures that it shouldn't be. Again, we're doing the best we can with what we have. The combined building certainly I believe is a financial, it's a smart decision to make financially. I think we all probably realize we can't build two new stations. Ultimately we would love that, that would be great, but it just doesn't make sense in today's day and age. Is there any questions in regards to the buildings or the process or where we're at?

Steve, I have a couple. Yep. Time frame on this. Five years, eight years?

If you asked me that before this started, I would say that. The way things are moving right now, I'm optimistic that I may see it before I retire. That's big. It's a huge project and it's going to take a long time to do. I think some of the misconception is people think that we're gonna use the right aid building. That's not a possibility. The property is ultimately what we're looking. We need that big footprint to be able to fit. You know, we're looking at eight bays compared to, I mean, we kind of have that now, but not... to the point where we can fit everything in, and that's what we're looking at, is eight days big enough to fit everything in.

What types of things do you think we're gonna be faced with to keep the existing structures so that they function properly till we get a new firehouse?

Well, we were very careful. Like, what do you wanna point out, you know what I mean? You're...

That's enough of an answer. Yeah, yeah. That's enough of an answer.

Yeah, yeah. I would just add, we believe the feasibility study should be done in the next couple months, and I'm targeting November for some public engagement sessions where we'll be able to show all of this stuff and talk about timeline and everything then.

And I can say along those lines, with everything that I had thought of prepping for these walkthroughs, This company's very professional. They've dealt with a lot of stations like this. I can honestly say probably he, if not doubled, tripled the things that I had thought about that we need to improve our service. And I'm not talking money-wise and purchasing things. I'm talking just layouts. The fact that they have new overhead doors for the, for the apparatus bays now that instead of rolling up, they go to the side very quickly and it cuts your response time by a third or two thirds, cuts it down to a third.

Putting the firefighters living quarters on the same floor as the bays where the vehicles are, it increases response times. There were a lot of things like that that we could do with a modern building.

My only question, my reason for that question, Mayor, was we're about to go into budget time, and is there anything, I'm just curious, anything immediate that in the walkthroughs came out?

Oh, well, we have put some, we've been working, Allison has been meeting with the fire chief and the police chief to talk about some things that we have to fix, some plumbing things and some water drainage issues, and we've put some community development money towards that. And so we're working on that now because we have to do that no matter what. But yeah.

And I think the city's goal is to sell that, at least the Ridge Street building, and keep that with somebody that's gonna keep the historic aspect of that. So you gotta fix these things anyway. But fixing them for that type of thing or fixing them for us to use is a total different thing.

Okay. Could I ask, so like when the feasibility's done, there'll be like potential designs of what it'll look like, I guess, in November for that public engagement?

I think we're gonna be focusing the initial feasibility study on comparing the cost of maintaining these buildings that we have outgrown Because even if we dumped a ton of money in, and it's really, it would be a lot of money, we would have to put in, Alison pointed out, you know, there's not grants for deferred maintenance. There's grants for new projects. So we would have to be dealing with paying all of the stuff. Even if we did that, we still have buildings that are too small for the departments that are in them. So we're gonna be comparing all of that to the costs of the new build, and I think there will be some preliminary design ideas, but I think we wouldn't move to the next full design phase until we decided that's the direction we wanted to go in. But I can tell you that it's not a want that we have to fix this, it's a need at this point. Yeah.

And for Moss, they pretty much took What is your equipment? How much space do you need? What do you have male to female employees? Every little detail like that they went through. So that's their, you know, their feasibility part of it is they didn't need to know how much space they need to be able to put all our stuff and how they're gonna arrange it to make it work the best for us.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you so much. You're welcome.

Hello.

I'd like to begin by thanking the Common Council for voting to approve the feasibility study to begin with in exploring replacing the existing police and fire stations facilities. I'd also like to thank the Council for approving the 124 Ridge Street option and access agreement at your last meeting. These decisions represent a significant step forward in addressing the needs of our department and improving recruitment and retention for our members, I believe. The police department currently operates out of a station that was constructed from what I've been able to research in 1902. Over the years, the facility has developed numerous operational challenges, including significant heating and cooling issues, as well as moisture issues. With the increase in severe storms throughout the region, we've also experienced major flooding problems within the police station. During heavy rainstorms, water can enter through the ceiling and it has to be collected in garbage cans throughout different parts of the station. The age and construction of the facility also severely limits our ability to modify or repurpose existing spaces because of the brick and masonry construction down there. We're unable to make many of the necessary changes to the downstairs area because of that construction. This creates challenges when it comes to protecting victims and witnesses who may be required to provide statements in close proximity to suspects. Currently, we only have one interview room downstairs. That room also serves as a patrol office. The former dispatch center has been converted over to a woman's locker room. Our evidence storage capabilities is becoming increasingly inadequate as we collect more evidence on a daily basis without any corresponding increase in available storage space from what we have downstairs. Our processing room presents another challenge. It serves multiple purposes. We don't only process people in that area. We also process evidence. It's also used for the department's body cameras, storage in that area. And there's a computer in that area. The squad room also requires several functions, including roll call. It's our kitchen area where the officers will eat. It's also a workstation for the officers to work at. And it will double as a secondary interview when we have bigger cases. The current Glens Falls Police Department facility has effectively reached its functional capacity. Department staff have already repurposed available rooms, using the spaces for multiple purposes because there's simply no additional unused space within the station. The department's adapted these limitations wherever possible. However, these adaptations increasingly create conflicts involving privacy, security, evidence integrity, employee working conditions, investigative requirements, and the day-to-day operations of the department. The current conditions clearly demonstrate the need for a comprehensive evaluation of the department's facility in consideration of additional space, renovations, expansion, or a new police facility capable of meeting the department's current and future operational needs. In closing, I'd just like to thank the Common Council for approving these motions, for taking the time to seriously examine these matters. This is an important step forward for the Glens Falls Peace Department, our members, and most importantly, the community we serve.

Thank you. Does anyone have questions for Chief Padone?

Chief, we no longer use a lockup.

We still use our... We no longer can use our holding cells that we had years ago. We do use our cell block hallway, and we do frequently use that. That gets used, I would say, multiple times a week when we don't have people in lockup or when we pick them up from lockup and we're holding them to come upstairs to city court. But for multiple hours a week, we do have people in our cell block. So we'll have a need, somewhat of a need in the future. some sort of holding cell area. Yes, I spoke to the mayor and the feasibility group when we specifically discussed some of those matters. Yep.

So what we have is benches with ankle handcuffs, shackles, and there's wires above and pipes, and it's not an ideal situation. And The day we were doing the walkthrough was a busy day for you guys. They were bringing in people, Washington County, I mean, Warren County Corrections were bringing people in, and you could see that people are trying to do their jobs while people are just sitting in the rooms all around. There's no space to walk. It's too small.

Our station's open for any of you that'd like a tour anytime. Contact me. I'm more than willing to open the place up to show you guys it.

And the evidence itself, like you have to hold it and retain it by law for a certain amount of time and it's only gonna become more and it's already spilling, there's not enough room for that even by itself. So you've outgrown the space. Yeah. Yeah.

I did wanna ask, doesn't Warren County Sheriff have like some shared services that the city can use to create that space or does it have to be at the,

Our evidence is technically our problem, so we're required to retain our evidence as property. So in regards to that, no. The shared service aspect, we do do a lockup agreement with them where they will hold our pre-arrayment detainees during certain periods of time. Specifically, they won't hold them while they're in meal or pop count and different things they have going on with inside their facility. But other than that, we have access to using their facility, bringing somebody up to lock up if they pass a screening. But if they fail a suicide screening, we then have to retain them and hold on to them. So in those scenarios, our block could be used for well over 12 hours at times.

Mm-hmm. and there's not a bathroom for a female detainee, so you have to take the female detainee to the public restroom, which creates a risk, really. There's a lot of things like that going on. All right, thank you. Okay, now we will open up the meeting to any regular public comment, if anybody else wants to say anything else. Okay. So seeing no public comment, we'll go to committee reports. Councilwoman at large, Gooden.

Yes, planning and development will be meeting September 17th at five o'clock in the mayor conference room.

Thank you. Councilman Donahue.

Thank you, Mayor. The Audit and Finance Committee met on Friday, September 4th at 4.30. Talked a wide range of, but took no action on anything. the committee members looked at approximately 70 invoices on this out of 195 on the warrant, we found them to be all in good standing and whatnot. So we'll give a thumbs up to that for the warrant. And you'll also notice in your packet and the agenda items 4.2 is the increase in EMS billing fees and whatnot, which we gave a positive recommendation to approximately a month ago. And I'd like to thank the Chief Bascue for getting this on the agenda. And I think it's well worth looking at. It's been over four years since we've adjusted the fees and looked at them. So we all gave that a positive recommendation, so.

Okay, thank you. Councilman Landry. Thank you.

Labor Management Personnel Committee met this evening at 6 p.m. We finalized our positions as we enter into negotiations with the Fire Department's union. We reviewed and agreed upon the rules of negotiations and we will be opening our first negotiated meeting this Thursday, September 10th at 5 p.m.

Thank you. Councilman Rice.

The policy committee met this evening and continued its work across several items. The committee is advancing positive recommendations on four policy drafts, the emergency meeting authorization and succession policy, the banner policy, the encroachment permits policy, and the tree commission powers and duties policy. Two policies, the ACH transfers and the online banking policy, excuse me, the ACH transfers and online banking policy is one thing, and the procurement policy being the other, were referred to the Audit and Finance Committee for further review. The Technology Committee is working on the cybersecurity breach notification policy, and the ethics policy revision was referred to the Ethics Board for review. The committee expects to start, to have a starting draft of an investment policy ready for its next meeting. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilman Lapham.

Thank you, Mayor. The Technology Committee met on September 3rd, and we discussed the technology infrastructure, asset management, and long-term planning that'll probably dovetail into our budget talks as they start coming up. Furthermore, we're building out a new inventory to better understand our assets and to build out replacement schedules for when systems become outdated and overall improve technology management. We're also Working through data privacy and security, one of the big things has been about cameras. People have been wrongly saying that the city owns or purchased flock cameras. We don't have flock cameras. We have cameras from a different company that doesn't share cameras. personal and private information or personally identifiable information. I'm working with Stored Tech right now to get a look at exactly what those settings are set right now on that. And also working with the policy committee on developing a policy regarding personal information, specifically PPI and PII. And looking ahead, Council Member Palladino has offered to go into looking at the city's cable franchise agreement and try to get that updated. It hasn't been updated in well over 10 years. And our next meeting will be in October.

Thank you. You know, I would add with the cameras, according to Chief Padone, those cameras are just re-recorded. The data is just erased and they re-record over it unless they have to keep something for evidence purposes. So we are not saving that data at all. Okay. Councilman Palladino.

All right. The next quality of life meeting is on September 21st at five. And I think I did notice that the audit and finance, I thought it was, there was a conflict, but apparently it's on the 14th. So thankfully there's no conflict between the audit and finance and quality of life. But Councilman Dan Rice did create a, very wonderful deliberation worksheets from the parking comments and the e-biking comments. So definitely look at that worksheet and we'll go through it on the 21st so we can make a positive or make our recommendations on how to adjust those. But on the 21st, September 21st. Thank you.

All right, next we will go to the consent agenda. Is there anything from the consent agenda you would like to pull for discussion?

I guess I wanna pull the, where is it? I think it's 3.5, the lifeguard retention bonuses. Okay.

Just wanna discuss it.

Sure. What did you wanna discuss?

Well, I guess this is, I guess this is only just for four potential bonuses, and do you think this will be an ongoing thing, or is this just like, we're only advising, or we're only allowing them to add four bonuses this year?

So this was a decision that was made in the previous year, and the lifeguards that returned this year were told last year that they would get these bonuses. And so that's what this is. Taylor, I don't know if you want to add to any of it. You worked with Yvonne on this.

No, generally that's correct. One minor clarification is that three of the four lifeguards who are returning were entitled to those bonuses, so it's three bonuses.

So not four, three. Okay. But again, this wasn't a new, this was something that was A commitment from the previous year that you're seeing now.

Oh, got it. So it's not like it's a new thing to try and keep more lifeguards to make sure Eastfield is staffed.

This is just from previous years. I think it was a previous attempt to try to keep people, and now the bill is due. Got it. Okay. Anything else you'd like to pull? Okay. Okay. Seeing none, would someone like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay, a consent agenda is approved. Now we will go to our regular agenda. The first item is a resolution to accept a letter of intent to develop solar between Glens Falls and NYRAD. Jeff told me that he presented this at the Planning and Development Committee. I don't know if you have any comments, anyone who's on that committee.

Yeah, we've not only at that, but this has been ongoing in the Sustainability Committee and before, you know, in previous councils. We reviewed it and we're fully looking to go forward. I think every committee had a chance to review it at one point because it came in front of finance.

From all of us, yeah. I don't think policy took over, but that's okay.

It came to our committee too. Okay. It was favored.

So this is just a letter of intent. It's not committing anything yet, but okay.

And I do want to point out, I think Jeff likes it, like this just basically all the work that was done from when they tried to do it previously just allows the city and this New York then to use the work that was previously done to try and get it, right? I think.

I think you're thinking of the dump.

Oh, this is not that same solar panel project where the dump is?

This is a different area? Maybe it is. I think it is. It is, never mind.

Yeah, so yes, as Councilman Lapham said, this has been being worked on for a long time, and this is just a letter summarizing that and moving it forward. Okay, the next item is a resolution to adjust EMS billing fees. We have members of our fire department here if anybody has questions. Does anyone have any questions?

This came in front of the audit and finance committee. It's about time.

Okay. Does anyone want to say anything or do you feel, it sounds like everybody's comfortable. Okay, all right.

I wanted to point out all of the, basically health insurance companies are paying this, right? Or like if someone's in a. I think you bill health insurance

Do you want to come up and speak to that question?

Yeah, you don't have to. The raise of rates will be on par with the average rate of return we see at the billing number. So as the claim is generated, as it gets processed through the insurance provider, the average rate of return is what that number is, is that we propose with the Finance Committee. So it would be strictly to the insurance companies. Mm hmm. The federal funding of the That's good. Thank you.

Okay, the next item is a resolution supporting the application to seek membership in the AARP network of age. AARP has different kinds of grants and supports for communities who pass a resolution like this and we do have an aging population among our community and we want to make sure that we have access to resources to support them. Does anyone have questions on that?

Okay. I kind of like that it's free. Like in the little thing it says free membership, which is nice. Yep.

And I thank Allison for putting this together. The next item is a resolution to set a hearing to amend chapters 20863, Schedule 16, and 20866, Schedule 19. This is basically... You know the one-way street that's in front of St. Mary's School? So there's currently the three-hour parking limit that exists in the rest of downtown, but that's not really part of the business district so much. That's really used by the school. So we don't necessarily think it's relevant to keep that there. And then the other thing is there was a section on Warren Street that was no parking. That's not necessary anymore. We think that that might have been in effect when they had buses, and now they don't need it. So that's all that is.

Did this go through the Board of Public Safety?

It did, and we had the principal from St. Mary's and also another member of the organization come and speak to the board, and the board gave a favorable recommendation. Yep. Okay, does anyone want to take, did I miss anything? Oh, sorry. Resolution to ratify an MOA between the City of Glens Falls and CSEA local. This was on your agenda last time and I think there were a couple questions and we discussed it. Does anyone have further questions or discussion on this? Nope, okay. Would you like to take any of these separately or can we vote on them all together?

All together.

Okay. Is there a motion to approve the regular agenda?

I'll make that motion, Mayor.

Okay, second. All in favor? Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay, those resolutions are also approved. Now we will go to old business. Councilwoman at-large Gooden.

The only thing, Councilman Landry, I have noticed a lot of is the New York, leaves and things not being bagged. That really weren't the leaves, but the trees and things. This time of year, it still is time to bag your leaves. I've really noticed a lot of that around the city, so please continue to bag your leaves. It's not time for the leaves to be not bagged, so please.

Yeah, open pick up hasn't started.

It has not started, so please bag your leaves. Thank you. Thank you.

Councilman Donahue.

Go ahead, Mrs. Mayor, thank you.

Councilman Landry.

Thank you, Mayor. Just wanted to highlight, we have a new business that came to town without a lot of fanfare. Christofoli Brothers, they've been around for a long time. They've opened an office down on Warren Street. And I thought that they should be recognized because I just found out, I just found this out, that just recently they handed out over 500 free backpacks at Eastfield to local kids. And I think that that's a wonderful contribution to our community. If I never said to them, and you know I do this a lot, welcome to Glens Falls. They're the kind of people that we want to have here because they've got our community in mind. So thank you to them. That's all.

Thank you for recognizing that. Councilman Rice.

I just want to take a moment to recognize people that had to work yesterday, people who had to work through Labor Day so the rest of us could enjoy our Labor Day. Specifically nurses, EMTs, aides, caregivers, My own wife was among them this year, along with her colleagues, and I know that plenty of families in the city could say the same. Caregiving doesn't take holidays. The need doesn't stop for a calendar, and the city's better for the people who show up anyway. Thank you to everyone who worked on Labor Day, and to caregivers everywhere who do this work every day of the year, holiday or not. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Lapham.

Thank you, Mayor. On Saturday, I attended the East End Action Committee meeting. Ordinarily, Councilman Donahue would be over at it, but he was getting a stove and very vague timing of when it may appear or may not appear. But I also wanted to just thank the mayor's office and the city and specifically Jeremy and the DPW about working with the Shirt Factory on trying to improve some of the pedestrian flow around the Shirt Factory as they're building out a mural garden and the statuary that they're looking to build in around the Shirt Factory.

Yeah, both Allison and Jeremy have met with Eric a few times on all of these projects. Yes, Councilman Palladino.

I just want to congratulate the amazing athletes this weekend up in Lake George for their triathlon. There's a few. residents in Glens Falls that competed, and it's amazing. I don't think, maybe one day I'll get the courage to do a triathlon, but it takes a lot of training and a lot of guts to do swimming, biking, and running all at once. But congrats to everyone.

They do one at a time.

They do one at a time, yes. But all in one day.

It would be hard to do all at once.

Especially the bicycle in the water. Seems like that would be problematic.

Okay, new business, Councilwoman at-large Gooden.

No new business, Mayor.

Councilman Donahue.

No new business, Mayor.

Okay, Councilman Landry.

Thank you, Mayor. And Chief Baskin, correct me if I'm wrong, so preparing for union negotiations, I had a few questions to ask, and I have a good friend who's a retired assistant chief with the fire department. who advised me that during Mickey Guy's family's stay in the Albany Medical Center, while she was recuperating, that the cost of that was absorbed by the Albany Fire Department's union. And I think... Yeah, for the hotels, picked up some of that. And I just... Right. But my point is this, and it really doesn't matter which union it is, you're a wonderful brotherhood. you really look out for one another. And I think that gesture is a wonderful thing that you did for that family. So I'd like to recognize you for that. And I also wanted to tell you that I'm pretty happy that they're opening Sandy's Clan Bar back up, which they're not. Liam O'Meara was gonna open up a place called Corner Pour, describes it as a neighborhood gathering spot on the site of where Sandy's was. I think that's wonderful. If he doesn't do business, something's wrong because of the years that Sandy Clan Bar is there. So I wish him well. And I understand that Mr. Bonaccio may have the old Sandy's Clan Bar sign. That would be real nice if that showed up somewhere in that project. So congratulations and thanks for coming to town. That's all.

Thank you. Councillor Schell. New business.

Councilman Rice. I want to make residents aware of the upcoming Walk to End Alzheimer's taking place on Saturday, October 17th at SUNY Adirondack in Queensbury. Check-in begins at 9 a.m., ceremony at 10 a.m. More information and registration are available at act.alz.org. Councillor Schell. Thank you.

Councilman Latham. No, no business.

There's also another walk happening tomorrow for World Suicide Prevention Day in the city park at 3.30. The sixth annual veteran and first responder suicide awareness walk organized by the Adirondack Chamber of Commerce begins at 3.30, goes till 5.30 with 30 organizations that have resources available for veterans. first responders and the public to ensure that no one feels alone when faced with the scary thoughts of suicide ideation, depression and anxiety, especially in those very tough lines of work. So if you're available tomorrow from 3.30 to 5.30, come and show your support. Thank you.

I have a few items I wanted to share. You may have seen that we are currently repaving the Warren Street parking lot that has needed some work for a long time. Tom Gerard had reached out to Warren County DPW and they're working together to do that. We are working very shortly in the next few weeks, we'll be repaving the alley that we had previously discussed that's shared by Radice and pharmacy and Mikado and all of that. grading issues, it wasn't draining well, various things like that. So I think we're trying to be responsive to the business community's concerns, and I think they're happy that we're doing that. We recently took out the bricks that were in City Park in front of the library, that kind of large semi-circle. They had kind of deteriorated, and like a lot of things in government, it's not as Easy as you think, because it's owned by the Crandall Library Trust, but then the bid bought the bricks, but then the city maintains it. So it was a little bit of a back and forth. But what we did was we took the bricks out. There's some cement there, and it'll be dyed red to kind of mimic the look, but it won't be a tripping hazard anymore. So that's good. We're very underway in the budget process. I really wanna give a lot of credit to Steve Thurston and to Wendy and Dylan and all of our department heads. We went through all the mid-year reviews with the department heads. We've gotten them all training on budgeting and on MUNIS and they're sending in all their budgets, their proposed budgets to Steve He's making sure that those budgets have appropriate detail. Wendy is, you know, we made a little bit of a change this year where the controller's office is really going to take responsibility for the whole budget rather than in the past, we just, they kind of worked on their department, but they are the financial staff that we employ. Steve's gathering all the information, making sure we're getting good information, putting it in to MUNIS. Wendy and Dylan and Steve will review it. Then I will start going through every department's budgets and potentially meeting with department heads if I need to make changes. As you're all aware, this is not an easy budget year. Unfortunately, on your next council agenda, you will see a resolution for approximately $600,000. that we will have to take from fund balance because of under-budgeted pensions in this year's budget. So every year around, at some point before budget time, we get a good estimation of what the cost for the following year's pensions are going to be. And in... last year during budget time, that was not appropriately put into the budget. So it's underfunded by $600,000 and we have to pay for that. So there are a lot of things like that coming up and so we're going to do our best to absorb those costs and put out the best budget we can. So my budget will be due to you on October 1st.

So your budget is due October 1st, so when do we start our budget?

So you. Yeah, you will start your budget reviews after that. And you and I should talk about getting some of that scheduled. Yep. Let's see. We had an event at the Ed last weekend. There were members of our police and fire departments there. It was Hacksaw Jim Duggan and I It was, my husband and I went by for a little bit. It was packed. There were families there. The businesses seemed happy. It seemed like it ran really smoothly and it was fun. It was just fun to see the building alive and full of people. So that was a successful event. As you know, in the beginning of the year, the ed was a liability for the city. We were paying bills. for it and not bringing in any revenue and through the private partnership that you all approved, we are now getting a check every month plus we will get a percentage of every event that occurs. So it has turned from a liability to a revenue source and I think we should be proud of that. I wanted to mention that on September 11th, this Thursday, there will be a ceremony at the Fire Department at 9.03 a.m. at the Ridge Street Firehouse. You're welcome to attend. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

I believe that the 11th is a Friday.

Is it a Friday? Okay, sorry. September 11th, Friday, yes. We talked a lot about the feasibility and the walkthrough, so I won't get into detail about that. Just to let you know that I was glad that Finney Design has said that they can complete that within the next couple months, and we will target November for some public engagement sessions to discuss this. Thank you to Councilwoman at Large Goodin for filling in for me last council meeting when I was taking my daughter to college. I appreciate that. I want to let you know that on Monday, Taylor and I and Bill Norton will be going to the Queensberry Town Board meeting. They should have a an item on their agenda about our tax agreement. As you know, that was something that had not been renewed in a timely manner, leading to a larger than normal bill, which was not paid, which led to late fees. So we have been working on that throughout this year and I'm hopeful that that will be settled next week. And the last thing is I just wanna wish all the teachers, coaches, administrators, and students a happy school year. Glens Falls goes back to school Thursday, I believe, and watch out for those kids walking to school, and I hope everyone has a good year. That's all I have. Oh, yes, come on up.

Actually, I just remembered something. Okay. Hopefully I can do this. Lieutenant Doug Hall passed away this week. So he lost his long battle, well short battle I guess with early onset Alzheimer's. He did reach his retirement date thanks to you guys last couple Saturdays ago. His Wake calling hours will be at Singleton's Funeral Home, four to seven Friday. And the funeral will be at the church here between Glen and Bay, Saturday at two o'clock. And then there's gonna be a follow up remembrance down to Common Roots after that. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. would the council like to have a moment of silence for please thank you with that we will open back up to any other public comment if there is any I do have to ask you for a very brief executive session.

I will keep it very short. Emily, you don't have to stay.

We're not taking any action. I just have to inform you about a couple things. And Taylor, will you let us know?

Those are going to be matters related to the employment issue. History of a particular person matters leading to employment promotion demotion discipline suspension or dismissal or removal of a particular person Can I have a motion to go into?