Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to our public hearing December 9th, 2025 concerning local laws to amend the various sections of vehicles in traffic. We're opening up our community public hearing on our vehicle traffic law 208. If someone would like to come up, say their name, address, express your thoughts or concerns regarding any of the various codes we are amending in the traffic law. Please come up and do so. Hi, Sean Helino. And I want to know what are the costs associated with the vault post? Um, is that an ongoing thing or is it um like how much does it cost?

The vault post um that's going to be installed on Elm Street, I think it is. How much does it cost? Oh. Oh my. Oh, so that they'll probably generate from people that use it. Yes.

Dr. B, I live at 94 Webster. Um, when I first originally sent the wood class to Diana Palmer about what the city was going to do for the balloon festival, because when cars do park on both sides of our street, there's no way an emergency vehicle can get down. Did not expect this ever to happen to go this far. Um, what they did after the balloon festival was wonderful. They temporarily put up no parking. Um, which is fine, but to do this permanently for us is terrible. We have access to our front um able to park and not everybody has big enough driveways. Uh we have company over. Where are they going to park? They're not going to park on day. They're not going to park on Fort Amherst and walk all the way around. Um so I think it's a disservice to us to change that at this point. Thank you.

Thank you. James, um just to piggy back on that quick, um when we were here in front of the county council uh some time back about the uh proposed changes to uh register, we we were pretty unanimous on the street um that we didn't want taken away. We understand currently that there there are some areas of our park or some of them won't. Uh we think a compromise would be we talk about this as a as a street um to uh in those places where it's narrower to have parking only on one side of the street preferably the side away from the cemetery that's um but you know we we were adamant that that's what we're hoping for and so it came quite a surprise when the street was narrow and parking was uh taken away. So Joe 68 just want to comment on this. Do not agree with this no parking on the north side from bay to I think it's a total just narrowing of the road was a total injustice. on the phone about that and I don't think we should have to suffer that single car driveway. So I'm hoping that we get some support from the people and that should allow parking on the north side cuz as it is right now

we had a rose now we have appreciate your votes. Thank you. Thank you. Any other games falls just to reiterate what they're saying. Uh I drove here this afternoon. Um uh between Sherman Pal or so uh that street is one side and one side west. So I think the same thing could be done west. Thank you.

So I wanted to address my council. this is my word. And so I received many letters from I I received many letters from my constituents who live on and so I ended up having a neighborhood meeting with the neighbors because all together and I listen to their concerns and their concerns are the way that this is the recommendation is written. to limit parking from the pump station to Bay Street. Nobody has a problem with that because that does not increase how special is to limit parking directly across the street from Edison to Bay Street is not necessary. And actually these residents several nights of their time to come and tell us how they felt about. And so it feels like we are kind of violating their trust. We we listen to them. The council chose to pass a resolution to not take and now we have this recommendation. It doesn't seem necessary in the interest of getting public safety vehicles and other things down the street. If the parking is limited in front of the cemetery, it doesn't need to be limited directly across the street from it. Um, so the area where that little compound is, that's why we put it right in front of that area, you know, all the way down across the country. I I strongly advocate for us to not have any questions.

I don't see I don't see an interest in public safety. Did I see

several of them did? Um, and I don't I don't know if any of you want to speak to that, but he he asked if they went to the board of public safety videos. Let us in a little closer. Then you can hear I actually went to 19 again. The question was just um and what they did was find lay down onto but otherwise Yeah. Okay. Um otherwise it worked fine just having it done at the big events um and not doing it year round. And if you do choose to have it both sides parking then every street in Glenn Falls needs to be looked at because there are majority of the streets smaller than ours and it's just not fair. Thank you.

So, if you can imagine Webster Avenue, you know, the cemetery is on the south side of the street. There's a lot a large area where there are no houses. If we if we have no parking there, that is still a pretty good size street. There's no reason why can't the street. There's no reason to limit it on the north side as well. So that's my request to not have that measure and that's because we get here. We're stilling over the other and it hasn't changed, but now we have one side. Could we get some guidance of how wide a street could be for people? This seems like a really easy

I don't know how he wants to have a standard in place where how wide or how narrow does this get before they have parking so that it's consistent everywhere instead of doing it one off. Right. I think I don't I want to see a process that makes sense duplicate and that I can explain to people this is why.

So what did the Satan say? They said agenda.

Yeah. So we have the ability as the council to change take the recommendation or make amendments or not yet that's that's anybody else here for any of the other streets on Great Avenue where limited street situations.

I just want to read this to you. This is what we said uh last year. This is from the city engineer. Suppose pavement width varies from 40 ft at blend to 26 ft at the base unit. The pavement width is 33 ft in front of my house. The resident puts a 7t shoulder on your side of the side of the road. No additional on street parking restrictions are being proposed. That's for the city of Are there any other comments on this local law? Not any open or close. So, we're going to close the public hearing on local law to amend the draft code 208 and go into our regular council meeting of December 9th, 2025 and ask our councilman Mary us 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. Public comment right now. Everyone has an opportunity to come as a whole. Any individual out. We have three minutes. Please state your name and your

address. If we have anything you would like to talk about then we'll go into our presentation from Elizabeth committee address.

Thank you. You might want to see it too. I can see that special Hello everyone. I'm Elizabeth Little Hogan. I'm president of the Grand Park Education Committee. We have another fellow member here. Um so we're presenting today our master plan. So way back in 2020, we started um master plan workshopping amongst we have a very talented committee with civil engineers, designers, um all biologists everywhere. Um and we worked together and we did um took a public survey, we gathered input, we had about four years of discussion and then we finally hired Lebell and Associates to guide us in our planning. So what you're seeing today is the result of our planning and we highlight on this diagram 13 points that we would like to address in the park. I've presented this to the recreation commission two times in draft form. I've gone to the um board of public safety as well, particularly with our suggestion that Crangel Place the road in becomes a one-way um death. But what I'm particularly wanted to talk to you about today is idea number one, which you can

see the um perforated white line that goes through the park from Fire Road all the way to Coron. And our plan is that that it would become an accessible path 6 foot wide in catam off the road or if it's near the road separated by a barrier. So that's what we would like to have in the park and we'd like to start fundraising to make that happen. We have interest from Warren County um some some groups in Warren County who are interested in donating some money. uh we have some money and we'll have to do some fundraising, but it seemed appropriate to get common council approval for the idea to install, you know, Labella Associates has advised us as a spine through the park to easily get everyone from one side of the park to the other and make it accessible, which I think would be really exciting and great improvement for the park. And it's nice that it goes from that really nice walkway that goes around Jerome and then Fire Road. It connects right to that and goes right by the playground which I think will be great for people um right into the park. So that's our big one. And then there's several other things here but I don't know what the council is interested in. Do you want details on all 13 ideas for this or

so what are your page? So is this for 2006? Is this one or are there other parts? Well, some of them like have already started. For instance, um item number seven, which is the memorial tree planting area, reserving that area. Um we already had started that and we had a memorial tree um for Dennis Phillips this year, which was a very nice ceremony, a nice way a sugar maple was planted. And then we've also got the highdensity buffer around the park. You know, Warren County Water and Soil Conservation District has been working very hard to help with the um runoff into the pond and to improve the pond. And that's so item number nine versus item number 10 is part of that. So many of these items go along with the path in general, but we need to raise money for it. But in order to raise money, it seems appropriate and council will approve it. So as far as

correct and the idea there um is what are they called Mike again piles

helical piles um which is a less invasive way to go through wetlands our civil engineer have recommended that um so I I have met with um I've walked the whole path with um Tom Gerard before you know he looked at it I've walked it with um Pat O' Conor from Conor Construction. He gave us an estimate to have the whole path including the bridge was around 180,000. Uh the bridge was 56,000 um for a 50ft bridge. We don't know how it 56 that I mean that was one estimate. We were just trying to get some ballpoint figures. Well, I appreciate all the work you did to collect data from people with this. It just fits in with what the city's been trying to do including students. So, in that in that sense, it's fits right into our as well

and hopefully that we align with some grant opportunities too. Yes. Will the spine? There's no plan for that. No.

Hand out flashlights next.

No, I I I there's no plans for lighting. I think Army Corps of Engineers has to be involved with uh you know we're not to that stage but Tom Jarrett has told us that it would not be that cumbersome a process and we already have um you know folks from War County soil and water conservation district on board as well. That's a really talk about a narrow road. You know that little when you go between the two ponds there, especially after the fireworks. I mean, this would very much improve the safety of Lun Falls. I had a virtually.

Are you building forest? So, you

What we talked to um Okconor Construction about was non we did not talk about chorus matter. What we talked about was adjusting the runoff. So for instance, if you look at item number six, yes, um Pat O'Connor was suggesting that we regrade part of that the hill to avoid the runoff and and that's really what uh Warren County Soil and Water has been working on for the pond is adjusting our grading. And I'm sure you've seen the improvements they've made. So we would continue that work in this. But apparently, you know, where's there's so much sand in Crannle Park. I think it would be filled up and hard to maintain if it was porous. You know, I spoke with him because he helped me get Harry Thirsten out to walk it with me um a few times to confirm the length, but the engineer, no, he's not. He was at the public safety meeting, I think, um I think he's seen some of the preliminary plans. Yeah, we've had plans going around for about a year now, but we did not consult him specifically on this stuff. Were you looking for the plan?

I guess in particular, I'm concerned about the the spine, the walkway. The committee would like to start fundraising for that. And I don't want to get money in from people and then find out the council says, "No, we don't want any more hard surfaces in the park. We want to keep it all sand. I think I think um I'd like to know that you're all on board for this plan, but we have nothing specific. You know, it's the chicken and the egg that she got first. Item number two calls for some of those white pines that are at the So item number two is when you come in you come in off Fire Road and you want to get as close as you can to the fieldhouse. So you take that little road up there and then you round the corner. There are three dead white pines right at that corner. And that's where, you know, we already have a um gravel walkway that we put in from Fire Road to that section when we did the initial improvements over at the courts. Um and that was interesting because that shows that that hard packed gravel is really not accessible after a few years. And it barely was in the beginning, but it'd be very hard to get anyone in a wheelchair over that surface. But in any event, that is a very narrow section where we put the in your packets. I think you guys got a picture of the guardrails, too. Um, we would have to put a guardrail there to separate driving from walking. And to make that better, it seemed we'd have to have some trees come down. I mean, they're going to come down anyways at some point as they go down.

No, I mean, not that we know of right now. And the nice thing is Grindle Park is 71% white pine. So taking down three white pine should not affect our diversity of species.

You're welcome.

All right. United States. Councilman and also here. We'll have a meeting. And then there's as we have

questionable exercise. district. Yeah. All right, next up is our consent agenda. We have five items on that agenda. Are there any questions, comments, or concerns? So the majority of that was the Peter Lucy brothers pay for sidewalk repairs and replacements along Naples Street of

$79,420. $20. This is in our packets. Uh it's also as well street for $50,000. Um lead testing assessment for $610 associates for projects. It was after it was after. So, and then there was one person. Okay, I'll make that Any other comments or questions or concerns? Hearing none resolution to approve the 112527 meeting regular house meeting approval payment cash payments approval 1335 and approval of October 20

and approval All in favor? All right. Now we come to the far right of our agenda. We have 16 resolutions for eight different departments. Is there anyone that would like to pull in for discussion? I number 11. We are not ready for that. Any others? This is uh authorized approval request of CG housing rehab assistant grant number 2024 302 estimated $9,600 second all in favor. Next is our police discussion or approval to for funds within the police department to purchase six body the amount uh 14,648 increasing expense line 282320 by 14,648 increase expense line 231204479 9 services by 14,64

motion second favor approval to accept funding in the amount of $12,862 for county stop BW increasing revenue 80999 995 89 at 12,000 showers increasing defense line 83 1 2 0 1 1 0 at 12,96 in favor approved approach permit number 905 national excavate over existing gas number 46 56 upgrade. All in favor? I retractally approve of permit from number 9125 East Washington Street to city water service. A second. Second. All in favor? Retroactively approved permit number 925 or perfect solution to extend a current in front of light street as proposed for November 23

second. Thank you. All in favor? All right. Resolution rental 205 parking space location 3 p.m. December 12th, 205 second. All in favor number 94 to 85 tax between number 335 our month December 1st December 15 as we have in the 206 second favor request to approve an agend assistant program. The city must fall services. All right.

Resolution to the health insurance. Not everybody else will participate in count any members will use different cards and restrict our medicare. So again on the face approval of the third installment for site years 25 years. Second favor. All right. Resolution to approve the creation of fulltime human resource special position subject service approval of job 94. So second all in favor next is approval to confirm two custom

service that's $11,000 increase a 490479 services 7,000 and increase 870 street other contract motion two second favor 228-50 28-62 to create a new traffic law76 location. All right. resolution.

I would like to resolution saying what recommended. So it I just I guess what I would like to do is the north side of Western Avenue from the west which is the south side remove the north side. Not one part. So I I don't know because it's on city streets

So if a regular car parks there can't So if I pull into charging spot, there's nothing to say. They can't police.

Yes. Exhale. Yes. So now we have to go amended local. So now we have

as All right. 11. We don't we don't have that. That's why it's uh so So he says it hasn't years Um well we table this and we ask for reason that

I did ask about this. She said she didn't review um what do but it's not we don't have that information. All in favor?

Yes. So, we had a different provider Michelle for the last time and she sent me my welcome back. Um, you know, please let me know your attention. And the response was we're going out to be reviewing the council reviewing the various options. And so in this packet, we have awarded it to, but I have no idea why the other options were. So just I I would like to see that.

Yes, please. I need a second. All in favor? Okay. Yeah. Then old business. left.

I just want to remind everybody to shop locally for Christmas this year. Thursday night collabor. So, you know, I just encourage people to go out and support support our our restaurant special and retail. All right. So we have some businesses to discuss uh our master plan. um approval or enforcement I would say because they still got motion trail. Okay. All in favor. All right. And business here. Um so the holiday season share hope and celebrate strength our community must so much recent thanks to all all of us together invite you to gather categ

Please come to celebrate our is Thursday 57 right here celebration. Uh the city would also build the stock uh stock foundation for their monetary cont at what short once again. We come to public comment. Sorry. Um clear people clearing their sidewalks. Um people clearing their sidewalks. Well, I'm sorry. Don Dalla, 94 Webster. Um, there's people who are not clearing their sidewalk and haven't for years. I did send in a report to the city on their website. I haven't heard anything back. Just didn't know what the process of having a home notifying the homeowner would do that. I mean I good so um I mean obviously we have regular trials in place as a warning violation but you know to enforce that go to court and next time that's all

accomplished from a long time. So a couple years ago, council approved a new local law that if there are situations that happen there or just leave it for a long time, the city can hire a contractor and they build um and if they don't pay it, it gets added to their tax bill. We just had a meeting a few weeks ago discussing the issue is that we put out a a bid to get the contractor and nobody so we have to reit that is okay but I have a question on what is the point of retroactively approving approach the permits if it already happened. the council for city properties which includes the sidewalks and streets.

So sometimes we project still have to do it if there's time usually public comments. All in favor? Thank you. Thank you for giving