Common Council - Regular Meeting

THEY KIND OF DENIED IT.

JUST LITTLE THINGS, YEAH. I MEAN, IT WAS A MILLION DOLLAR PROJECT. ANYWAYS, JUST FRUSTRATING WHEN WE LOSE OUT ON OTHER MONIES. YOU READY? ALL RIGHT. WE CALL THE COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING TO ORDER. TODAY IS JULY 30, 2026. Please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States

This is where I have to change. Roll call. I'm here. Councilor Vaughn.

Yeah.

Councilor Evans is excused. Councilor Talon.

Yeah.

Councilor Minnette.

Yeah.

Councilor Culling. Minutes of the previous meeting resolved that the minutes of the regular meeting of the Common Council held July 1st, 2026 are approved and placed on file among the public records of the city clerk's office. Moved by Councilor Bon and Councillor Monette. Roll call. Councillor Bon.

Yes.

Councillor Talon.

Yes.

Councillor Monette.

Yes.

Councillor Colleen. Yes. Anyone here this evening to make public comment on tonight's agenda? With no public comment for tonight's agenda. Correspondence and recommendations from special committees. Councillor Talon, do you have anything?

um yeah so um okay so um the papsburg public library um the next time it's going to be on august 25th at 4 30. on the second floor there. And they've got some good things going on this summer. The summer reading program is going well. They are having a book swap tomorrow, the 31st, from 11 to 2. Is that correct? Saturday. Oh, Saturday. Sorry, sorry. This is the 31st, so August 1st. Okay, and then on Friday the 7th, they're going to be having a... dinosaur ice cream party theme fun thing. So that's from two to four. You must pre-register to go to it, because that way they'll make sure that they have the supplies for you and everything. And it looks like a fun thing. So, and also they have a donated new sculpture that you can check out there. The title of the sculpture is called Limitless and the artist is John Kokoska. And it was just installed today. Yes. Okay, very cool. So I'm looking forward to checking that out. I've only seen just like a picture of it so far. Um, all right, so that's the library and I'm kind of smart task force. Our next meeting is going to be August 19th. At 515 locations to be determined, but we're kind of liking the outdoor locations during this the summertime. So it might be at around that box or it might be on. Over on the 2nd floor of the health department, so.

Thank you.

And we are still waiting on the bins to come in for the. Yeah, it's turning out to be a longer process, but we got some news that, you know, it's looking like it's going to be a fall rollout, but you know what? We'll make it a fun fall roll.

Okay. All set, I think I'm supposed to go the report of payrolls of various departments. Council approve the payrolls of the various departments in the city of plastic for the weeks ending July 8th, 2026 in the amount of 682,711 dollars and 4 cents. July 22nd, 2026 in the amount of 607,848 dollars and 16 cents in July 29th, 2026 in the amount of 4208 dollars and 32 cents. The council also approved bills audited by the Common Council for the week ending July 10th, 2026 in the amount of $1,389,607.78. In July 17th, 2026 in the amount of $1,538,616.55. July 24th, 2026 in the amount of $1,275,000. $1,205.32 in July 31st, 2026 in the amount of $1,705,184.87. I think that's it for that. Number seven is 7.121, authorized street closure for the Grace Avenue block party, August 15th, 2026. Moved by Councilor Talon. Second, Councilor Minnette. Discussion.

This party, it means a lot to the residents of Grace Avenue. I was able to check it out last year. I'm hoping to check it out again this year.

Weekends have so many things going on right now. Roll call. Councilor Bond.

Yes.

Councillor Townsend. Yes. Councillor Manette. Yes. Councillor Coney.

Yes.

Approved. 7.122, authorized street closure for Montcalm Street Block Party, August 22nd, 2026. Moved by Councillor Townsend. Second. Councillor Manette. Discussion.

Emma, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I think there's been an update since the street block party. So that one has been initially popular in Minnesota. There's been a lot of block friend requests coming in, so we're kind of internally trying to figure out how the best way to support them.

Yeah.

And every time that a request comes in, I reach out to various departments to confirm safety. So I get approval from all those departments before I move forward with putting

I think this 1's a perfect example, because when they 1st put into this, we basically said, no. That was not chief chief lawless didn't like a couple of things. And when we 1st came through, we made recommendations, they resubmitted and they listened to exactly what we said, and then follow the chief lawless was really happy with the 2nd, and it goes through every department in the city. It's not just 1. we make sure it's not safe and we make sure it's safe for everybody. And again, some of them we do reject. I mean, Chief has to get the ambulance there. If we can't get the ambulance there, we have issues.

Is everything disposed to local traffic then?

No, it's closed. They actually block it up, but they have the barricades so that they can get through. They can get through and the 1st time they did it, it was, it was a little bit longer. I remember, right? It was too long. And really, it wasn't good. So they shortened it way up. They made it a really short block and I think it worked out. You know, it's good to see folks in the city get together and get to know each other. I mean, I mean, it's a, it's a low cost to us. We don't really pay for anything. We are looking at maybe coming up with a package where we can get, um. we can maybe rent out a couple of horses and a couple of cones and whatnot, and then put a deposit so that we get them back.

But what is the, what's the, Moncom's fairly long.

It's over by, it's actually after the first, the first street that comes on. I don't remember, Chief, you probably remember. What's the first street that comes on? Elm and it's in between Elm and it's a short run now.

Beaumont.

Beaumont, yeah. The really short, it's really short in between.

So we, yeah, we have access to always say no is because it's too long of a stretch usually or, or two cars on two sides.

So we need to access the other end of the block. I feel they know accessibility, please. Yeah. So it's just accessibility. As long as we have competent people who can reach out and help pay.

Is there a number that we're going to stop at?

Maybe something that we have to, um, you know, determine internally.

Um, maybe it's how many I'm not against you just so everybody knows it's just 2 of these 2 of these are yearly ones.

Um, this other 1, the 1 that says Pinewood is, uh, up in, uh, Brookfield. They do that 1 every year too. I think I mean, the 1 up in Brookfield has been really successful through the years too. Yeah.

That one's new this year.

Yeah, that one's new.

You know, if you figure out that the amount of organizers aren't responsible and that certain things happen, then we may bar them from, you know, putting in an application in the future.

Yeah, there are rules. We have rules for these, and they have to follow the rules. But we've been really fortunate so far. I mean, we really haven't had a lot of speed bumps.

I agree. These are great. You know, it's a great opportunity. way to meet people and, you know, enjoy yourself. As long as we're covered, safety.

Yeah, that's the biggest thing is keeping people safe.

Last year, the only problem with Grace was that it wasn't communicated to the full police department. So one cop came in there and fortunately I was there at the time. I'm like, no, no, no, we approved this. And I texted Chief Brownlee and I'm like, nope, they'll tell you.

Yeah. Yeah. So the PD isn't going to have to monitor?

They're aware of them. They get the emails. They know they're there. They will do drive-bys. I mean, we're not going to post somebody there in overtime. They're going to do their routine patrols through there. Okay. You know? um right now i mean today was you go down today to the marina there's uh there's hundreds of trucks down there today we have a fishing tournament we've got the jet skis out at the beach i mean there's a lot of stuff the beach has been packed it's i mean listen the city's been city looks good i'm happy so any other discussion on that roll call counselor bond yes counselor talon yes counselor minette yes counselor colleen yes Authorized street closure for Pinewood Avenue block party, September 19th, 2026. Moved by Councilor Talon. Second. Councilor Monette. Any discussion? Roll call. Councilor Bond.

Yes.

Councilor Talon. Yes. Councilor Monette. Yes. Councilor Culling. Yes. Approved. Authorized settlement of claim on 19 Lorain Street, tree damage to a porch roof. Move by now, so I'm going to think counselor Colleen. Discussion tree branch fell on a house on Lorraine street is the corner of Lorraine and. Sailing actually, I can, I know the house I know the. Anyways, it was our, it was 1 of our, it was our city tree to put a hole in her for true. Think. Not anyways, we have to fix it. We have to.

So absolutely.

Any other discussion. Roll call counselor Bob.

Yes.

Counselor town.

Yes.

Councilman. Yes. Counselor calling proved revised capital project. H eight three two 0.85 dash zero or two zero two three production. Well, number one, move by. Councillor Colleen, second, Councillor Minnette. Discussion.

Should we make him come up for his first time?

Well, he's here. We're waiting on this.

Absolutely. I don't even know what you're going to say or if anybody's going to ask you, but you've now been initiated.

This is part of being a well owner, I think, right?

Yes, it is.

No, what are we doing on this? Yeah, essentially. How's that?

So basically, this is a combination of phase one and phase two of our reoccurrence for the water treatment system that are upgrading to wells that we address for. This is a little combination of production well one, we have to finish up electrical contract, and we have to redevelop well number one. Every so often, you got to redevelop We've got to redevelop it and move it forward. And then I'm also including in here production well, too. It's been drilled. We're going to start on the screen in the next couple of weeks. And it's under design. It's estimated to be $1.5 million, and that will be going out probably later this year or early next year, thinking that. There is going to be more work on this resolution going forward. Richard and I haven't discussed. And there's a couple of more phases of phase 2 that's going to go on. So you guys will see this again and then we'll create another tackle project for phase 3 and phase 4. If those continue to move forward.

We actually went for right to the wells today. We actually went up there and we looked around this morning and. Look, I never realized how complex the water line system coming to the city of Plattsburgh is. They happen to be painting on the road in West Plattsburgh. You had to see these things. I mean, then they had to, I mean, it's so complex. I didn't realize we had all these shut-ups all the way down. I've never noticed the little tags that say city water main. They're little, they're metal sticks in the ground with the little city water main tags. It's actually pretty cool. Yeah. So, but we are in the process of putting a new line down through two.

Thank you, sir. You're welcome. You've been initiated. Your first time. You did very well. You did very well.

No other discussion? Roll call. Councillor Bond. Yes. Councillor Tallent. Yes. Councillor Minnette. Yes. Councillor Cullinan.

Yes.

Approved. Plotsford reappointment, my appointment to the reappointment to the Plotsford Public Library Board of Trustees. Moved by Councillor Townsend. Second. Councillor Minnette. Any discussion? Oh, no discussion. Roll call. Councillor Bond.

Yes.

Councillor Townsend. Yes. Councillor Minnette. Yes. Councillor Colleen. Approved. Authorize travel requests, Municipal Lighting Department. Move by Councilor Cowan. Second, Councilor Colleen. Any discussion? Roll call. Councilor Bond.

Yes.

Councilor Evans. Oops, I'm sorry. Councilor Chow.

Yes.

Councilor Minnette. Yes. Councilor Colleen.

Yes.

Approved. 7.128, authorizing MLD write-off on paid final bills as required by New York State Department of Public Service regulations. Move by Councilor Colleen, second. Councillor Monette. Discussion. Roll call. Councillor Bond.

Yes.

Councillor Tallent. Yes. Councillor Monette.

Yes. Councillor Colleen. Yes.

Approved. 7.129, travel request fire department. Moved by Councillor Bond, second. Councillor Monette. Discussion. Roll call counselor bond. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Approved 7.130 authorized acquisition of duty handguns and related equipment for the police department. Moved by. Counselor bond 2nd, counselor minute discussion. How much is this what we talked about before this is we are using I believe this is where we're using the asset forfeiture Richard to buy the new guns. So this is, we're switching from a 40 caliber to a 9mm. Right, right. Essentially. It's going to be, right now it costs, I think it's twice, it's twice the cost to shoot than 40s. Right. We haven't had a new, and we're using asset forfeiture money to pay for this.

How many are we getting?

I want to say 50 ish. And we are taking a bunch of, we have taken a bunch of stuff that had been sitting in the back room for a long time, and we are getting rid of them. And we're going to apply some of those funds to this too.

Does that include ammunition? It's 45,000.

I believe, I think that's everything, right?

Yeah. To the extent that asset seizure funding allows regular supplies to be purchased, the ammunition might not be as good as operating costs. Right.

Right pretty sure I think we're paying for this is the holsters. I think this is everything you would need in order because everything's different size clips. This is the clips. This is everything. Yeah, yeah. What's it's it's it's going back to the old. Actually, yeah, we had clock nines and we went back and now we're going to forties now we're going back. So.

So they won't need additional training because they are, this is just a different caliber of the same.

That's the same weaponry.

And even with the specs, the optics or whatever.

Right. And number one, it is a huge savings in the end. It'll pay for itself in just, I mean, every year we go twice a year and they qualify. So it's a, it's a large expense for the ammunition itself. And it's, listen, it's something, you know, the, the, We have some of the hardest working police officers in the state. I mean, these guys are out there. You watch calls they're going to every day. I mean, they have a lot of different calls in this city and, you know, something that they want. And I think this is small, very small ask. So if it makes them safer and better, I'm good. Any other discussion? Roll call. Councillor Bond.

Yes.

Councillor Talon. Yes. Councillor Minnette.

Yes.

Councillor Colleen.

Yes.

Approved. Approved. Approval of beer garden for fourth Friday event, August 28th, 2026. Move by. Councilor Bond second, Councilor Monette. Discussion. Roll call. Councilor Bond.

Yes.

Councilor Talon. Yes. Councilor Monette. Yes. Councilor Colleen. Yes. Approved. I have 7.132 is mayoral appointment. Councilor Ward three. That I have a motion. Councillor Vaughan. Second. Councillor Minnette. Roll call. Councillor, I keep on waiting for Beth to do it.

Do we do that for this?

What? Yes, we have to go. We have to go roll call on this. Councillor Vaughan.

Yes.

Councillor Townsend.

Yes.

Councillor Minnette.

Yes.

Councillor Colleen.

Yes.

Approved. Congratulations. Any new business to come before this council? I'm going to go out of order for a second because I know Kim has a statement and then I'd like to do a really brief executive session after, but I'm going to let Kim go into if your public comment for any other topic.

Thank you. I have two items. As a member, I'm the vice president of the Labor Council Northview Central. They were one of our members and mentioned that he was at Champlain Park. And we have a labor pot among the memorial bricks at the Champlain Memorial environment there. And a lot, the bricks are not in good condition. And we went down and see if we could do anything about it. And as we're there, we're noticing that there are many, many memorials, thousands, maybe hundreds, throughout the monument and the parks that people apparently have paid somebody, I guess the city, to buy a brick and put bricks in. The last one seems to be from 2017, and so I imagine that was one of the things that fell off when COVID. I don't know, apparently there used to be a committee. I don't know how the bricks were purchased. I don't know how the bricks for the labor products were purchased, but they need help. And we went down thinking that, you know, that the labor council has some money. And we were thinking at first that we were responsible for getting them fixed. not realizing that there were lots of bricks from people who have put bricks for loved ones or throughout the park. So I don't really know what's happening with the memorial bricks at the Monument and who's responsible for them. And from our point of view, from the Labor Council, what we should do about the bricks in our labor fund.

Would the labor council be amenable to working with us and maybe do something new, some sort of new commission that we can look at? Yes. Okay. We will definitely reach out.

Then the second half is I'm on the board of the field as an alternate member. And you need that to the new code pass. It's been sitting for months. Developers are are often looking at projects under the assumption that the new code is going to be passed. In the last meeting we actually had, we had an appeal that we would not have had to look at if the new code was passed for a housing factor in what will be the central business district, but it's currently not. There are lots of things in the new code that really, promote housing, especially. One of the things that's really interesting is the accessory structure provisions, which allow for what people sometimes call granite pods, and that people can construct on their own property for additional housing. There's many other things in the code. I'm not sure why, if there's problems with it, deal with the problems. There are going to be problems going to pass. So it'll help us and the zoning board. It'll help the people who are trying to develop properties in the city. And, you know, I looked at

We'll wait. Honestly, just it's still sitting there waiting. It hasn't been presented. We have one more public hearing. We have a whole and then we can get those through. We want it as much as you do.

When is the public?

We don't have a schedule yet. We're waiting on LaBella. LaBella.

Can we push?

Well, I mean, they're doing the legalities right now. As soon as those are done. I agree with you 100%. We want these. We want them done ourselves. So, Emily, Emily's been dealing with it more than anybody. So.

And you have people investing money. Actually, the one that we dealt with was, um, it was a grant from the city to develop this program that they couldn't develop under the current vote.

So, um, it should be given to council in September.

September. Okay. All right.

You know, Kim, it's not a lack of us. I mean, it's, it's been, you know, we got to get the legals done too. Okay. I think it's, I think everything's set. We got one more public hearing from.

We'll have to hold up.

We have one more, but it's not scheduled yet. Okay. All right. I'm going to take, I'm going to take a minute to just request a brief, very brief discussion. Um, an executive session to discuss, um, what do I want to do? Say purpose or purchase of property purchase of, uh, real property. Council bond second. That's your columns. We're done.

Oh, possibly.

I would have done them in the morning. So, um, take a motion to come out of executive session where no action was taken. Councilor Vonn. Councilor Manette.

Roll call.

Councilor Vonn.

Yes.

Councillor Arsch, yes. Councillor Talon, yes. Councillor Monette, yes. Councillor Colleen, approve. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Councillor Bond, Councillor Monette, roll call. Councillor Bond, yes. Councillor Arsch, yes. Councillor Talon, yes. Councillor Monette, yes. Councillor Colleen, yes. Meeting adjourned, thank you. 5.56, yeah, 5.56, huh? Yeah, we got it. I got the paper. I just got to do it. We'll do it real quick. Yeah, it was practice.

It works.

What's that?

Whatever you want. Whatever you want. You might want to make the next meeting.

Yeah, we can do it in front of the whole family. It's my son's 16th birthday. Go. Go.

We'll take care of it.