|
|
|
Council Chambers Tonawanda, New York April 6, 2010
A Regular Meeting of the Common Council
Present: Council President Zeisz Present Councilmembers: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole Excused: Slisz
Pledge of Allegiance led by Council President Zeisz
Prayer led by Council President Zeisz
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE MAYOR
A letter from Jacob Crocker dated March 13, 2010, asking the Mayor to become a fan of “Tonawanda Dog Park.”
A letter to Jacob Crocker dated March 25, 2010, applauding him for his ambitious efforts in a venture that seems very important to him.
A letter to Rick Schroeder, 588 Broad Street, dated March 25, 2010, appointing him as the Fire Department liaison to the City of Tonawanda Traffic and Safety Advisory Board.
A letter from the Erie County Department of Environment and Planning dated March 25, 2010, regarding the Microenterprise Loan Fund Program.
A letter from Time Warner Cable dated March 15, 2010, regarding new services.
A letter from the Niagara River Greenway Commission dated March 16, 2010, regarding the fourteenth round of projects submitted to the Greenway Commission.
A letter from Time Warner Cable dated March 17, 2010, regarding the current franchise fee due to the City of Tonawanda.
A letter from Time Warner Cable dated March 30, 2010, apprising the Mayor of developments affecting Time Warner Cable subscribers in the Western New York Division.
A letter from Literacy Volunteers dated March 17, 2010, announcing their move to the Central Library in Downtown Buffalo.
A letter and petition dated April 1, 2010, from the Principal of St. Francis of Assisi School, regarding one-way traffic on Adam Street.
A letter from the New York State and Local Retirement System dated April 1, 2010, regarding the Uniformed Professional Firefighters Association.
A letter from Time Warner Cable dated April 2, 2010, regarding changes taking place to all Digital Cable customers.
A letter to the members of the Board for the Visual and Performing Arts dated April 5, 2010, calling a meeting to discuss future events and to determine whom the chairperson will be going forward.
A letter to Susan Gregg, 332 Adam Street, dated April 2, 2010, appointing her to the Board for the Visual and Perform Arts, term to expire December 31, 2012. Ordered filed
COMMUNICATION FROM CITY OFFICIALS AND CORRESPONDENCE
The following monthly reports were received by the City Clerk: February minutes of the Board of Appeals March monthly report of the City Clerk March minutes of the Civil Service Commission March minutes of the Traffic and Safety Advisory Board April minutes of the Civil Service Commission General Fund and Sewer Fund Revenues and Expenses for the City of Tonawanda as of March 31, 2010. Referred to the Committee of the Whole Ordered filed
A letter to the City of Tonawanda Traffic and Safety Advisory Board from the New York State Department of Transportation dated March 17, 2010, regarding the re-opening of the intersection of the western approach of Luksin Drive at the Twin Cities Memorial Highway. Referred to the Committee of the Whole
A letter to the residents of the City of Tonawanda Millstream area dated March 18, 2010, regarding flood zone designation for some areas of the City’s Millstream Village area. Referred to the Committee of the Whole
A flyer regarding the Great American Cleanup which will take place on Saturday, April 17, 2010, in the City of Tonawanda. Anyone interested in helping should contact the Recreation Office by April 9, 2010. Referred to the Committee of the Whole
A letter from Alliance Municipal Insurance dated March 25, 2010 recommending that the City implement a Sidewalk Ordinance.
A letter from Happy and Marilyn Klein, 43 Luksin Drive, regarding the opening of Luksin Drive to Ellicott Creek Road and Riparian Changes along Ellicott Creek.
A petition in favor of making Morgan Street two-way from residents of Morgan Street and the City of Tonawanda.
A petition opposing making Morgan Street two-way from residents of Morgan Street.
A Fiscal Improvement Plan – Narrative, for the City of Tonawanda, written by City Treasurer Joseph M. Hogenkamp. Ordered filed
COMMENTS BY THE PUBLIC ON RESOLUTIONS
Kelly Steinbrenner, 103 Morgan Street – I’m opposed to turning my one-way street into a two-way. I’m very annoyed I’ve gotten a letter, I’m very annoyed by a Councilmember. So I guess my question is, I’d like to start with this gentleman, just go down the line. Since none of you live on Morgan I’d like to know the day and the time of day that you went from Young Street to Morgan, the wrong way, whether you walked it, rode your bike, however so you know what our concerns are, I’d like to know how you did your homework. What day of the week, and what time of the day, did you go across Young Street, down Morgan, all the way down, the opposite way.
Councilmember Gilbert - I grew up here…
Kelly Steinbrenner - …no, I’m asking you a question. Since this started about a month ago, when did you go down Morgan Street, the opposite way to do your research for this proposal. Is the answer never?
Councilmember Gilbert – Never.
Kelly Steinbrenner – Never. So when you (inaudible) as you did not do your homework, you did not do any research.
Councilmember Gilbert – I relied on Traffic and Safety. They did their homework.
Councilmember Boyle – I ended up coming out of Delaware, I ended up hanging a right hand turn on Morgan, going the opposite way.
Kelly Steinbrenner - From Delaware?
Councilmbmer Boyle - Yes, from Delaware, hung a right…
Kelly Steinbrenner - …by Burger King, so you went….
Councilmember Boyle - …yes I did, just to see what the whole problem is, what the issue is, and truthfully, all I saw, I didn’t see anybody just looking one way, okay? And this has been brought up, two or three years ago…
Kelly Steinbrenner - …oh, we know…
Councilmember Boyle - …and what I want is, my mind is made up. I want you to tell me a very good reason why it should not be done. Morgan is a two-way Street from Bouck, all the way up. So what you are suggesting is keeping your section one-way. Why don’t we make all of Morgan Street one-way instead of being two-way and then one-way?
Kelly Steinbrenner – Sure.
Councilmember Boyle - Okay, why don’t we make every other street in the City of Tonawanda one-way?
Kelly Steinbrenner - First of all (inaudible) tone of voice, how you did your research for this. That was my question.
Councilmember Boyle - Okay, do you know why you’re being argumentative?
Kelly Steinbrenner – I’m not. I’m asking a question.
Council President Zeisz – Hang on, hang on. First of all, I allowed you leverage. The questions are supposed to come to me.
Kelly Steinibrenner – Okay, I’m sorry.
Council President Zeisz – No, that’s fine, but I control what happens in this room tonight. Let me ask you this question. What are the justifiable reasons for not making it two-way, reasons that make sense that make it different than any other street in the City?
Kelly Steinbrenner – Okay, can you just finish. Has anybody answered my question?
Council President Zeisz – First of all…
Kelly Steinbrenner - …did anybody go the wrong way up so they can know where our concerns are, so that you can see them in your minds.
Council President Zeisz - Well, first of all, the first section of Morgan, from Young to Delaware, we’re redoing the truck routes and to do that we have to give trucks an outlet, when they start coming down Young Street and they see signs that say you can’t go down Young Street, we have to give them a place to go. Morgan is plenty wide by Burger King to do that. And then, we need to get them to Seymour which is also a truck route, so that’s that section. The Chief requested from William…
Councilmember Boyle - ….William 60’ back.
Council President Zeisz – No, he requested No Parking but he also requested it go two-way for one block. So, in essence, we’re left with two blocks of the street that would be one-way and at that point a decision was made by everyone to just go two-way the whole way.
Kelly Steinbrenner – Well, why didn’t we receive letters since the last time four or five years ago, all the residents received letters the last time, we didn’t see that this time. We read it in the Tonawanda News.
Council President Zeisz - Yes, we did not send out letters but I did make the point three weeks ago of letting people know that it was coming, that it could possibly be up for a vote.
Kelly Steinbrenner – But if you don’t get the news…
Council President Zeisz – Right, but obviously, someone got the news because the one petition has 119 signatures on it for going to two-way and then the other one has…
Kelly Steinbrenner – …well that one is just residents of Morgan Street. We didn’t go through the whole community we just went up and down Morgan Street.
Council President Zeisz - And I counted I think it’s 28 homes against.
Audience Member (did not use microphone) - That was done on a Saturday, just a day before Easter because we didn’t know anything about it and that is was kinda like already set in stone of anything like that. It wasn’t like they came and told us things were going on and that other petition was sitting in the lobby over there, we did not have our petition in the lobby.
Council President Zeisz - If you want to say anything though, it would be better if you came to the mic only so we have it on record.
Kelly Steinbrenner - That’s all I wanted to know. I wanted to know how you Councilmembers are making the decision, did your research that was my question. When did you walk it, bike it, come door to door, when did you see, especially my concern is that corner of Morgan, Grove, Main at that three-way section there.
Council President Zeisz - Well, in this particular instance, I can’t say that I walked it, but I’ve walked it a number of times, I’ve lived in the City for, and I’m not saying how old I am so I’m not going to tell you, but I’ve walked up the street quite a few times, I’ve gone door to door, I’ve collected petitions, I’ve been up the street quite a few times.
Kelly Steinbrenner - That’s all I wanted to know. At one point, you sir (inaudible)
Councilmember Poole – Yes, I have rode my bicycle many times.
William Szortyka, 97 Morgan Street – I have two concerns. Safety issues and money spent by the City of Tonawanda. Safety issues are the M&T Bank that lets out onto our street, it gets on Thursday and Friday nights an excess amount flows, in my opinion, right down my street it flows very nicely out and to the left and down toward the main drag. The citizen’s of that street have lived there for a very long time, not looking for it, we see people do the wrong way every now and then and it’s a concern of ours. The cost. What’s the cost to switching the street over, the signal, stripping, signage? Sounds like they will have a hard time paving already, so those are a couple of very large issues for me, if you have some answers for those.
Council President Zeisz – Well, the only thing we’re probably looking at is a little bit of signage and actually, in some cases, signs coming down.
William Szortyka – Oh, no signal at the end?
Councilmember Boyle – There’s already a signal there. William Szortyka - Not facing our way there isn’t. So what’s the cost to do traffic (inaudible) I know it’s pretty expensive.
Council President Zeisz - Hang on one second, Mr. Szortzka. Mr. Schultz do you want to make a comment on the signal.
Jeff Schultz - We’d have to add just one signal head right at that intersection and put a loop in the road right there.
William Szortyka – How about the timing throughout the other signals coming from the other four directions?
Jeff Schultz – The way they’re all set up in the City, they stay green on main roads until the car hits the loop on the side street which sets the signal off.
William Szortyka - Still a cost. Sounds like you have black top to do. I think it’s frivolous money being spent by the City to fix it, and I think it’s a very big safety issue.
Council President Zeisz – But why is it any different than any other street.
William Szortyka - Because we have a commercial outlet from a bank that’s three lanes wide, about 15’ to 20’ off the end of my driveway. If your traffic and safety people were there to notice, Thursday, Friday, the amount of traffic that comes through the bank, now they’ll be able to go in both directions. Creatures of habit that we talked about at the meeting before too. I think we have some very good issues here. Is there a Traffic & Safety report that was done, something for us to look at?
Council President Zeisz - We get a recommendation from the board, whether or not to go ahead with whatever the proposal is, and the recommendation from them was to move ahead to two-way.
William Szortyka - I just recently purchased my house, five years ago, the bank was taken into consideration when I bought the house but due to the fact that it was a one-way street it kind of helped me to make the decision to buy the home, so I’m concerned, next door neighbors have a lot of children and the neighbors on the other side of me have a lot of grandchildren and I’m looking to start a family very soon and I don’t think it’s all that great an idea.
Joe Bacon, 174 Morgan Street – I’m against the resolution and I’ll give you my reasons, if you’d like to hear them. Being a firefighter at the Fire Department, I go up and down all the streets, I don’t personally see a need to use that street in the other direction for the places that we’re talking about, the Chief basically (inaudible) we both have our own opinions on that. The way I look at it is there are concerns, the churches, right now there’s two churches on our street between those points and then you have St. Francis and First Presbyterian, they all use that for parking on Sundays, they park on both sides of the street. If you go both way, you’re going to have to remove parking on one side of the street. There’s no way the fire vehicles can fit with two-way parking, going that way down the street, it’s just gonna be, it’s too dangerous. In fact, just last Sunday when I was working, we came back from a call, just going through there, people getting out of their cars, you’d have to be very careful. That would use up a lot of parking, I don’t know if they realize this since it’s already (inaudible). Even St. Francis and First Presbyterian Church park on our street, use both sides. The other concern I have is the corner of Seymour and Morgan is a very dangerous corner. The last time we brought this to the Council, I provided a list of accidents, I didn’t do it this time, I didn’t realize the meeting was coming or I would have provided it, but in my career for twenty years at the Fire Department, I’ve gone to many calls at that intersection. In fact, I’ve gotten in an accident myself. Living on that corner, I know how dangerous it is, and I still got hit on that corner. It’s a blind spot, people do u-turns, they hit those mailboxes and then go back the other direction, they do u-turns to get to the post office. With the traffic coming both ways it would increase the danger of that corner. I think those are my biggest concerns. I don’t like the idea of traffic going both ways too because of the kids, but I realize that there’s other streets in the City that are two-way and they’re dangerous already, but people that live on there are used to one-way so it is gonna make it a lot more dangerous in that period, the 21 days that you need to form new habits, but I think kids are gonna take a lot longer to form their habits, so those are my concerns. I hope you vote against it. Thank you.
Robin Bacon, 174 Morgan Street – I just want to add to what my husband Joe said very briefly. Not that every other street should be one-way in the City. The reason there’s a difference is because of these four churches that are in this two to three block area and there’s the post office and the bank. That’s a lot of, it’s more I would think, traffic than occurs in other areas of the City and that’s why the street is one-way. Not withstanding all the other good reasons that people have to offer, I think that keeping the flow of traffic to one-way the way it has been is what makes it work and I think if you change that, it is gonna be a great safety issue for the City, so I just wanted to add that.
Councilmember Boyle – Mr. President, was that the reason why, because we were trying to figure out why it was made one-way. Was it made one-way because of the churches and the bank and the post office, that’s the reason it was marked one-way? Because we were all trying figure out why it was ever changed and made one-way.
Robin Bacon - Are you asking me?
Councilmember Boyle - Yes, because you said that’s the reason why it was one-way was because of the bank and the four churches.
Robin Bacon – I might have misspoken. I didn’t mean it that way but I think that may be the reason why our street is one-way. I would have like to have done more research and figured this out but we didn’t know this was happening until the 11th hour, but I think you need to do more research
Councilmember Boyle – It was 37 years ago?
William Szortyka – 37 years ago.
Councilmember Boyle – And why was it done?
William Szortyka - It was made to more like a City atmosphere like the City of Buffalo, but times have changed, people have acclimated, and things have changed on the streets with the post office.
Councilmember Boyle - You grew up on a two-way street, right?
William Szortyka - Yes I did.
Councilmember Boyle - Did you have any problem?
William Szortyka - Nope. I didn’t have a bank across the street with three tellers pointing out towards me on a Thursday and about 250 cars coming through…
Councilmember Boyle - But you had a church though, right?
William Szortyka - They had a parking lot. There was a parking lot at the end of the street. That’s where their parking was.
Eric Steinbrenner, 103 Morgan Street – The church you’re talking about, William Street’s 44’ across and our street is 31’ across so you can have parking on both sides and still have two cars pass each other. I’ll give you these pictures. These are from…
Councilmember Boyle - …no, I’m talking Scott Street...
Eric Steinbrenner - …yes, Scott Street and William Street…
Councilmember Boyle - …I’m talking where Scott Street is… Eric Steinbrenner - …and William Street is…
Councilmember Boyle - …no sir, I’m talking Scott Street which is a normal street where Mr. Szortyka grew up on.
Eric Steinbrenner - Is there parking on both sides?
Councilmember Boyle - Yes, there’s parking on both sides of the street and on Sunday, you don’t go down it.
William Szortyka – But there’s a whole parking lot on the corner. There is zero parking lot for the church on our corner.
Council President Zeisz - Here’s the thing. When you talk about the parking on both sides and getting down the street, there’s a lot of that in the City. It’s not just a case where Morgan would be different from a lot of other streets. I live off of a street that you cannot get two cars by each other.
William Szortyka - Is it a truck route?
Council President Zeisz – No.
William Szortyka - You’re trying to make this a truck route.
Council President Zeisz – Only to get them, it would be Morgan, not right down Morgan, up to Seymour.
William Szortyka - That’s through our stretch of the road. You’re not talking apples to apples.
Eric Steinbrenner – That intersection at Seymour Street, you can’t even get a car through there without, if there’s cars parked along the street, you can’t see long enough to get across it half the time. I lived on Seymour Street, used to live.
Council President Zeisz – Right, you lived kitty-corner to Morgan.
Eric Steinbrenner – Right, and I saw accidents all the time. I’ve seen people lose their shoes because of it. I’m against it because I went out and measured it.
Council President Zeisz - …it’s 30’.
Eric Steinbrenner – Okay, now you stick two cars next to each other and measure between the mirrors and you have under 15’. Now my van is over 8’ from mirror to mirror, and my car is 7’ and then you got people getting in and out of their cars. There’s not enough room for two cars to pass each other on that street and there’s church functions all the time, Wednesday night sometimes they have stuff. The other thing, my issue is liability insurance, because the first time somebody gets hurt, and somebody’s gonna get hurt, at that intersection or the other one, because of the change, is your insurance company gonna pay because they’re gonna be suing you for it for the changes that they weren’t ready for.
Council President Zeisz - Well, it’s no different than any other, if there was an accident on some other street in the City, it’s the same.
Eric Steinbrenner - You’ve got the bank letting out, okay now it can go the wrong way, you’ve got little kids going to day care at Salem Church and one of them gets hit by a car because they have to now drive close to the cars in order to leave room for somebody to pass. You’re just opening up a can of worms that doesn’t need to be opened. I don’t see the big reason for our street going the other way anyway. If you needed to open up that little turn around at Burger King, I don’t know if those people would be upset or not but you could turn around and have them go back up Broad Street or back up River Road, the way they came, or whatever road they came on. I mean, where do they come in to get onto that road. Usually when the trucks get pinched, it’s from the other.
Council President Zeisz - What happens is sometimes when they’re coming over the Delaware Street Bridge, they would go right down Young and that’s actually, we don’t even want them to go on Young, period. We were looking at ways to get them off of Young if they were on Young because we’ve had so many problems with that bridge getting hit.
Eric Steinbrenner – The most I’ve ever seen have come from the other way.
Council President Zeisz - Yes, it is.
Eric Steinbrenner – Well, I’m not for it.
Robin Bacon – I’d like to just say one additional thing. I don’t know what our rights are here tonight, I mean it seems that you may have your minds made up already on this issue, I don’t know, but I guess I would ask that maybe you would hold it because maybe we could have more time to do more research and answer your questions because you’re asking me questions that I didn’t have time to research and come up with an answer for, maybe give you a better reason, or maybe have Joe get all the accident information for you, etc.
Councilmember Boyle - The only reason I asked was because your statement, you might have…
Robin Bacon – …I was just trying to think of what to say off the cuff so I guess, there’s reasons, there’s always controversy and people that are gonna be for and against but I think in this situation, there’s a lot of good reasons that you shouldn’t do it as well and if you want to give us the opportunity to present that then we should have more time, or maybe you should think about it more or based on what we said today, I don’t know.
Council President Zeisz – First of all Ms. Bacon, don’t make assumptions on how people are gonna vote. It’s my job to sit here and make sure that everyone out there presents their case and everyone up here presents their case. I can’t, to tell you the truth, I think I have a pretty good idea how the vote would go but I can’t say for sure how it would go, but I do understand what you’re saying and you know that I was sitting here when this came up before and it’s one of those things, and I understand. It’s been like this for a long time, people’s lives have become accustomed to it being a certain way and there are things that impact that, you know, the churches, the bank, and I understand all that.
Robin Bacon – I also understand both sides. Some might say, “well, you just want to keep your one-way street because you like it” because it is nice to have a one-way street, no one’s gonna deny that, but I do think there are serious safety issues, I really do. I’m not here just because I like my street.
Council President Zeisz - There’s obviously a reason why Morgan was left one-way for all these years. We only have three left in the City, Adam, Morgan, and Virginia. They’re the only ones that are left. There’s a reason why some are left.
Charles Gillinger, Salem Church – I represent Salem Church, I’m the Council President. I spoke before you a number of years ago against this issue too. I remember the things I said. I know I talked to you, Mr. Boyle the other day. I did talk to Lt. Foels in the Traffic Division and it seems to me the way I was getting the readout from him, yes, they were involved in it last time but not so much this time. I know the last time when they had this issue, they sent a letter out to all the residents and all the churches and we had a chance to respond to the research or whatever. I have similar concerns that they have. One, you make it a two-way street, and I just found this out tonight, you’re talking about cutting 60’ back from William Street, to the bank. I lose parking on Sunday, a lot of elderly folks that rely on that on-street parking to get to that church. Granted, we use the bank, we use the fire hall at their convenience, we don’t use the fire hall all the time because they have functions going on. The church has been there since 1856, it’s not planning on moving tomorrow, it’s starting to see some growth, it needs every inch of parking it can get. Both sides of the street on Sunday are important to us, whether it’s two-way parking or one-way, including that 60’. I have concerns, also. We do run a nursery school, daily nursery school, Monday through Friday, and they do come in on the street and they park real close to the church to let their kids off. We start letting trucks come up and down that street, I mean I don’t personally see the reason we need to mess with Morgan Street in that particular section. That’s just me. I’m not a resident of this area, but my main concern is my church.
Councilmember Boyle – Mr. President. The reason that this was brought up was because Traffic & Safety presented it to us. They were the ones, they were the main involvement in this, correct?
Charles Gillinger - That wasn’t the readout I got from Lt. Foels.
Council President Zeisz – What happened, the essence of it is what I said before. Okay, we need to get trucks off of Young Street to Delaware, so that was the first jump. Then, well, we might as well do the rest because there’s only these couple blocks, and I think that’s kind of how it worked itself to this point is that, you know it didn’t seem logical to leave a couple of blocks one-way.
Charles Gillinger – If you didn’t allow parking on both sides of the street so it may sound like it’s been satisfied, but if we lose that 60’, I’m losing cars that can go there now. We don’t have a parking lot, maybe we should have bought the goodwill building a number of years ago, we didn’t have the money then, and that would have cost us an arm and a leg just for asbestos abatement, full nine yard for about 10-15 cars and it wasn’t worth it. But we do rely on the street and there is starting to see growth in the church and if you remember back in the 70’s, Salem was so full, it used to park all the way to Delaware Street and William Street, two sides and I use Roth’s lot, the bank lot and the firemen’s. My concern is I have a nursery school and I have those elderly folks that rely on the parking and they need it and my church needs it.
Paul Pinto, St. Francis of Assisi Principal – I wanted to speak to the Common Council this evening and thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak on behalf of this one-way situation with Adam Street.
Council President Zeisz – Actually, I hate to cut you off but right now, it’s just the resolutions. You’ll get an opportunity once we go through the resolutions. Adam Street is not on. That hasn’t even been looked at by Traffic & Safety yet. It won’t be that long and you can make your comments.
Jeffrey Schultz – 325 Morgan Street – I’ve lived on Morgan, two-way for 30 years. I’ve never understood why the rest of it is one-way. I think it’s a great idea to open it up two-way, I’ve done some measurements of Morgan Street. Morgan Street beyond is actually wider down by Grove, it’s not narrower than where I live and I’ve had two-way traffic forever. So I don’t understand where the problem would be of making that two-way, when I’ve lived on the same street for 30 years and just to go with that truck route, I thought I was under the impression that brings the trucks off of Young to divert them back onto Delaware, not divert back on to Seymour.
Council President Zeisz - Well, Delaware was….
Jeff Schultz - …Delaware, I’m sure there’s concern about trucks going beyond that and I didn’t know that that was even talked about.
Council President Zeisz - No, it’s basically to get them to Delaware.
Jeff Schultz, 325 Morgan Street – As far as costs goes for changing that over, that’s all done in-house with equipment that we already have and materials we already have so there’s really not an expense to the City for putting that one signal head up and putting a loop in there we already have a loop on the other side. I know that they’ve talked about the bank and traffic and I’m sure you’ve seen it many times, you see they go the wrong way up Morgan Street all the time going against traffic. Open it up for them, make them legal. Thank you very much.
Laurie Schultz, 325 Morgan Street – As my husband stated before me, we’ve lived there for over 30 years, we’ve raised three children with two-way traffic, we’ve never had any problems, I cannot remember a child even having a close call in that section, our section of Morgan is between Bouck and Kohler, we are the first two-way part after one-way part, the petition that Councilman Zeisz was referring to earlier was available at City Hall lobby to sign, also myself I went out last night talking to residents on Morgan Street in my block, there seems to be a lot of confusion and always has since we’ve even moved on Morgan Street. As my husband said, we don’t quite understand why it went one-way. I did talk to Lt. Foels who is part of the Traffic and Safety Board and I asked him, “Fred, why did it ever get changed to one-way” and he said, they don’t know, they have nothing in the books that says why it was changed to one-way. Now, this is coming from Fred Foels, one of the Traffic and Safety Board members. So my recommendation, I would like to see Morgan go two-way. I understand there’s gonna be some concerns about the churches, about the school, my granddaughter does go to the pre-school at Salem. My husband and myself on Sunday mornings when we go to our church, which is out of town, we go through Morgan Street by Salem Church and what I am seeing there too, it’s very busy on Sunday morning but I’m seeing the elderly getting out of the side of the car into the street and I’m thinking, wouldn’t it be better for the elderly to be getting out on the curb side as opposed to on the street side on the passenger side with the person bringing them to church. I realize too that that corner at Seymour and Morgan is a very dangerous corner and I have to confess, there’s times I don’t even want to cross there but then I do have an option. I can either go to the light at Fletcher, or I can go to the light at Broad Street. Again, safety, I love kids, I love my kids, I love your kids, but I really feel that kids need to know to look both ways when you cross the street and they’re gonna be fine. Would I want to give up my one-way? Probably not but I really see this as progress and again, I don’t quite understand why in the first place this was made one-way, so I just would recommend, if the Council would consider changing this to two-way and I appreciate your time. Thank you.
Council President Zeisz – Just so everybody is aware, on the petitions that I got, assuming I counted correctly, the one that had 130 some signatures, there were actually 14 homes on Morgan Street that were in favor of two-way. One the other petition which was against, it was all homes on Morgan and it was 28 that were against it.
Bill Kinmartin, 27 Grove Street – Resolutions about the Fire Department. Will that money be forthcoming?
Council President Zeisz – It will come right away.
Laurie Schultz – I just want to say that the petition was a City-wide petition. It was not just for the residents on Morgan. There were residents on Morgan as well as on Adam Street but we did make it available to all the City residents, so that 120 represents a whole body of City residents. Thank you.
Eric Steinbrenner – Just curious when she put her petition out, the one I wrote was on Saturday around 4:30, with Easter Sunday being the next day, we got 27 people because that’s what we saw out and to be honest, it should have been a for and against sitting out and the reasons for both. Why did you want a two-way, why do you think it’s not a good idea to have two-way but that wasn’t done here and it seems kind of let’s get this underneath the table quick and it just doesn’t sit right with me.
Councilmember Boyle - How long has this been going on, it’s been longer than a month, hasn’t it?
Council President Zeisz – No, it’s probably about a month. I brought it up in our Workshop Session. I think it’s like stop signs. Nobody in the City, everybody says, we have too many stop signs. Well, you know what there’s always too many stop signs until it’s your stop sign or it’s your street or it’s your intersection and I think a lot of Morgan and Adam is kind of the same thing. For other people, I don’t know that they could realistically speak to what it’s like on a one-way street because they don’t have to live with the churches everyday, they don’t have to live with Mississippi Mudds patrons trying to find parking, and Old Man River and the dentist office and the church, and then when the people go to the River and they park on Adam Street, there are a lot of things that impact people way beyond those that actually live on those streets.
Jeff Schultz – Resolution #7, truck route system. We’re getting rid of a lot of truck routes and then we’re adding this truck route system, tacking on to Fillmore to the City line to the Twin City Highway?
Council President Zeisz - Yes.
Jeff Schultz – To me, it just doesn’t make sense. I think by getting rid of all the other truck route systems and just implementing this one, I don’t understand it.
Councilmember Boyle – I think that’s in the Industrial Park area.
Jeff Schultz - But a lot of those are in industrial park, Wales, East Niagara that goes from Exolon, all the trucking out there, all those plants, you need to be consistent. You’re trying to cut down truck routes, maybe just go to Delaware, Main and Seymour.
MOTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS
71. By Councilmember Gilbert seconded by Council President Zeisz Resolved, that the following resolution be tabled for tonight until Mr. Slisz returns.
Council President Zeisz – I’ll second that motion for a couple reasons. One, given the climate with regard to this resolution I think it would be best if the entire Council was here to vote on it, and number two, I think it would obviously give those here on both sides an opportunity to come to the next meeting or to talk to Councilmembers before the next meeting and so for that reason, I’ll second that.
Councilmember Boyle - So really, the in-favors can get more signed petitions and the opposed can get that and then you could get the information for the accidents that are there on the one-way street and maybe is it because it’s a one-way street.
Councilmember Gilbert – My suggestion would be to target everybody on Morgan, the two-way and the one-way and get the people on Morgan’s feelings, all the way up and down so that it’s more of their concern than anybody elses.
Audience member – Shall we put out one of each then?
Councilmember Gilbert – I would, because right now, it’s almost a 4-1 in favor City-wide to do it and our recommendation was brought to us from Traffic & Safety so we were concerned that by just leaving two blocks one-way, it was going to be more of a hazard than doing the whole thing to it, so if you guys do your homework and go all the way through, then that makes our job easier.
Audience member – (inaudible did not use mic).
Councilmember Gilbert - Right, that’s what I’m saying. Focus it on Morgan and let them be the one.
Audience member – Will you send letters to the residents or not, like the last time?
Council President Zeisz – Yes, we can do that.
Councilmember Boyle – If we’re gonna do it, do residents of the whole City of Tonawanda then if you’re gonna do it. It’s gonna come down to, it’s Morgan Street but I mean, it’s, you got 139 or 119 signatures out of that 14 so you take it away, you’ve got 125 people in the City of Tonawanda that want a two-way street. Audience member – It affects Morgan more and I understand that people on Morgan Street are one-way. But there are a lot of people that travel down Morgan that are telling me too that it’s confusing, they’re confused, why is it one-way here, why is it two-way here. The people that have lived in the City for years, they still don’t understand, which way to go on Morgan Street.
Councilmember Boyle - When it was brought up from Traffic & Safety to turn around and just change it from one-way, from Young Street to Seymour, it’s like okay I’m gonna give you directions to my house, okay, you come down Young Street, you hang a left down Morgan, but you stop here because it’s a one-way street, then you make a left, then you make a right, then you make another right to come to my house. So I mean, it’s like, make the whole thing one-way and then I was the one that brought up and said there shouldn’t be a one-way street in the City of Tonawanda. Virginia you can’t touch because it’s too narrow of a street. You think there’s problems now, wait until we try to do Adam Street.
Audience member – Is there any way to find out by the next meeting what the cost would be, and maybe a copy of the Traffic & Safety report?
Council President Zeisz – There’s not gonna be any cost. It’s the City workers are gonna use parts that we already have.
Audience member – Any way you look at it, it’s a cost.
Councilmember Boyle – Yeah, we can get a cost. Jeff, we can get a cost right?
Audience member – The old signals that you have laying around might not work…(part inaudible).
Councilmember Boyle – There’s gotta be, so it might be a thousand, it might be six hundred, you know, how many hours.
Audience member – How many signs, how about all the no parking signs?
Councilmember Boyle – The no parking signs, what they would do is they would turn them.
Audience member - Well right now they say, no parking, alternate parking. Is that what it’s gonna be?
Councilmember Boyle – I’d like them to put a counter out to see how many cars come out of the bank and then make a left hand turn and don’t you just sit there and drive back and forth with your car either.
Council President Zeisz – If you need to make any other comments you have to come to the mic or I am going to just shut it down. The thing is, the financial cost if not gonna change this from happening or not happening, I can guarantee you that.
Audience member – Well I was just curious. I know there’s blacktop.
Council President Zeisz – Well, we blacktop every year and in the hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. Our biggest problem is not being able to as much as we’d like to do. This year we’re gonna spend a million dollars on blacktop.
Ayes: Gilbert, Poole, Zeisz Nays: Boyle Resolution declared adopted
72. By Councilmember Boyle seconded by Councilmember Resolved, that Section 62-154, Schedule IV: One-Way Streets from the Code of Ordinances of the City of Tonawanda be amended to read as follows: Resolved, that all ordinances for one-way traffic on Morgan Street, adopted March 17, 1992, are hereby rescinded.
Resolution TABLED
73. By the Council seconded by the Council Resolved, that the reading of the next six resolutions be waived.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
74. By the Council seconded by the Council Resolved, that Section 62-162. Schedule XII: Truck Route System. from the Code of Ordinances of the City of Tonawanda be amended to read as follows: Resolved, that the ordinance designating a truck route on Luksin Drive from Ellicott Creek Road to the Twin City Highway, adopted March 17, 1992, is hereby rescinded.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted 75. By the Council seconded by the Council Resolved, that Section 62-162. Schedule XII: Truck Route System from the Code of Ordinances of the City of Tonawanda be amended to read as follows: Resolved, that the ordinance designating a truck route on Wales Avenue from East Niagara Street to Fillmore Avenue, adopted March 17, 1992, is hereby rescinded.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
76. By the Council seconded by the Council Resolved, that Section 62-162. Schedule XII: Truck Route System from the Code of Ordinances of the City of Tonawanda be amended to read as follows: Resolved, that the ordinance designating a truck route on Ellicott Creek from east of the City line to Young Street, adopted March 17, 1992, is hereby rescinded.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
77. By the Council seconded by the Council Resolved, that Section 62-162. Schedule XII: Truck Route System from the Code of Ordinances of the City of Tonawanda be amended to read as follows: Resolved, that the ordinance designating a truck route on East Niagara Street from east of the City line to the Delaware ramp, adopted March 17, 1992, is hereby rescinded.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
78. By the Council seconded by the Council Resolved, that Section 62-162. Schedule XII: Truck Route System from the Code of Ordinances of the City of Tonawanda be amended to read as follows: Resolved, that the ordinance designating a truck route on Fillmore Avenue from east of the City line to East Niagara Street, adopted March 17, 1992, is hereby rescinded.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
79. By the Council seconded by the Council Resolved, that Section 62-162. Schedule XII: Truck Route System from the Code of Ordinances of the City of Tonawanda be amended to read as follows: Resolved, that in accordance with the provisions of Article 3. General Rules of Vehicle Operation. Section 62-82. Truck Route System, Fillmore Avenue from the east City line to the Twin City Highway be designated a truck route.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
80. By Council President Zeisz seconded by Councilmember Gilbert Resolved, that the following resolution be tabled.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
81. By Councilmember seconded by Councilmember Resolved, that Section 62-193, Schedule XV: No Standing from the Code of Ordinances of the City of Tonawanda be amended to read as follows: Resolved, that in accordance with the provisions of Article 4. Stopping, Standing and Parking. that the standing of vehicles be prohibited on the north side of Morgan Street from the west curb line of William Street to a point 60’ west.
Resolution TABLED
82. By Councilmember Poole seconded by Council President Zeisz Resolved, that permission be granted to the residents of Enterprise Avenue to hold a Block Party on Saturday, August 21, 2010, from Noon until Midnight and be it further Resolved, that ingress and egress be provided for local traffic and emergency vehicles.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
83. By the Council seconded by the Council Whereas, the City of Tonawanda recognizes the need to replace our antiquated radio technology with new digital broadcasting equipment and Whereas, the City of Tonawanda also recognizes the need to provide our officers with safe and reliable communications, now, therefore be it Resolved, that the City of Tonawanda Common Council authorizes Mayor Ronald Pilozzi to enter into a grant agreement with the New York State Department of State 2010-2011 Legislative Grant in the amount of $5,000.00 towards the replacement of a Police/Fire radio repeater.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
84. By the Council seconded by the Council Resolved, at the recommendation of the City Engineer, Jason J. LaMonaco, P.E., that Mayor Ronald J. Pilozzi is hereby authorized to enter into an agreement with Stearns & Wheler, LLC to determine the feasibility of sending excess wet weather flow to the North Tonawanda Waste Water Treatment Plant for treatment.
Funding/Fiscal Impact: $25,000 from the Local Government Efficiency Grant $15,000 from the City of North Tonawanda $15,000 from 5220.223 (Engineering Improvements)
Councilmember Gilbert – Mr. President, is this gonna, look at a prior development, is this gonna make it easier on us and save the City, hopefully save the taxpayers money?
Council President Zeisz - Well, it would go a long way to relieving the issue that we have with the sewer flow. As far as cost, that’s….
Mayor Pilozzi - …basically, it’s gonna help us in one section of our City for wet weather flow. If you read on the third line, it says, sending excess wet weather flow. Right now, during wet weather conditions, we sometimes meet and/or exceed our permanent level to the Town of Tonawanda. When we just got done this past year, re-doing the main pump plant, we put a key into one line so we can divert flow to North Tonawanda, if in fact somewhere down the line, we decide we can do that. Now the other condition that exists, in North Tonawanda, they have a water treatment plant that basically only works two-thirds of the day. They have excess capacity, so capacity is not an issue in North Tonawanda. The problem is getting it over there and that’s what we’re trying to do and this particular resolution is to provide the funds to make that study a reality and see if that can be done. That’s all we’re doing right here.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
85. By Council President Zeisz seconded by Councilmember Gilbert Resolved, that the reading of the next five resolutions be waived.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
86. By the Council seconded by the Council Resolved, that the Mayor be authorized and directed to sign the following agreement: THIS AGREEMENT, made the 1st day of April, 2010, by and between the CITY OF TONAWANDA, a municipal corporation, situate with the County of Erie and State of New York hereinafter called the "CITY" and the DELAWARE HOSE COMPANY #2, a volunteer fire company organized and existing within the City of Tonawanda, hereinafter called "COMPANY". WITNESSETH: WHEREAS, the said Company furnished fire protection to said City and maintains facilities and personnel to answer calls and fire alarms for the protection and preservation from fire of life and property. NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the covenants and agreements hereinafter set forth, the parties hereto agree as follows: 1. The Company agrees to maintain and furnish at all times, protection from fire of life and property in the City of Tonawanda and to maintain and furnish the services of the volunteer members of said companies in so protecting life and property. 2. The City agrees to make payments to said Company in the following manner: The sum of $5,350.00 payable on the first day of April, 2010.
Councilmember Boyle – As it was stated in the meeting in there, we need to get this money to the volunteers but I think as of next year, it really has to look at some accountability. Councilman Poole ended up bringing it up and also I think Councilman Slisz brought it up also. It’s only $5,000, but it’s still $5,000 of the City’s taxpaying money and I’d really like to know exactly where it’s going so I mean, next year if we can get that written in there, I’d appreciate it. Thank you.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
87. By the Council seconded by the Council Resolved, that the Mayor be authorized and directed to sign the following agreement: THIS AGREEMENT, made the 1st day of April, 2010, by and between the CITY OF TONAWANDA, a municipal corporation, situate with the County of Erie and State of New York hereinafter called the "CITY" and the NATIONAL HOSE COMPANY #1, a volunteer fire company organized and existing within the City of Tonawanda, hereinafter called "COMPANY". WITNESSETH: WHEREAS, the said Company furnished fire protection to said City and maintains facilities and personnel to answer calls and fire alarms for the protection and preservation from fire of life and property. NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the covenants and agreements hereinafter set forth, the parties hereto agree as follows: 1. The Company agrees to maintain and furnish at all times, protection from fire of life and property in the City of Tonawanda and to maintain and furnish the services of the volunteer members of said companies in so protecting life and property. 2. The City agrees to make payments to said Company in the following manner: The sum of $5,350.00 payable on the first day of April, 2010.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
88. By the Council seconded by the Council Resolved, that the Mayor be authorized and directed to sign the following agreement: THIS AGREEMENT, made the 1st day of April, 2010, by and between the CITY OF TONAWANDA, a municipal corporation, situate with the County of Erie and State of New York hereinafter called the "CITY" and the NIAGARA HOSE COMPANY #3, a volunteer fire company organized and existing within the City of Tonawanda, hereinafter called "COMPANY". WITNESSETH: WHEREAS, the said Company furnished fire protection to said City and maintains facilities and personnel to answer calls and fire alarms for the protection and preservation from fire of life and property. NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the covenants and agreements hereinafter set forth, the parties hereto agree as follows: 1. The Company agrees to maintain and furnish at all times, protection from fire of life and property in the City of Tonawanda and to maintain and furnish the services of the volunteer members of said companies in so protecting life and property. 2. The City agrees to make payments to said Company in the following manner: The sum of $5,350.00 payable on the first day of April, 2010.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
89. By the Council seconded by the Council Resolved, that the Mayor be authorized and directed to sign the following agreement: THIS AGREEMENT, made the 1st day of April, 2010, by and between the CITY OF TONAWANDA, a municipal corporation, situate with the County of Erie and State of New York hereinafter called the "CITY" and the UNION HOOK & LADDER COMPANY #1, a volunteer fire company organized and existing within the City of Tonawanda, hereinafter called "COMPANY". WITNESSETH: WHEREAS, the said Company furnished fire protection to said City and maintains facilities and personnel to answer calls and fire alarms for the protection and preservation from fire of life and property. NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the covenants and agreements hereinafter set forth, the parties hereto agree as follows: 1. The Company agrees to maintain and furnish at all times, protection from fire of life and property in the City of Tonawanda and to maintain and furnish the services of the volunteer members of said companies in so protecting life and property. 2. The City agrees to make payments to said Company in the following manner: The sum of $5,350.00 payable on the first day of April, 2010.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
90. By the Council seconded by the Council Whereas, the Erie County Department of Social Services Program Contract for Senior Van Services between the City of Tonawanda and the County of Erie provides transportation service to high risk elderly residents, and Whereas, the agreement requires among other things that the City of Tonawanda shall provide insurance coverage in the following amounts: $1,000,000 Comprehensive General Liability $1,000,000 Automotive Liability $1,000,000 Excess Umbrella Liability Workers Compensation and Employers Liability Disability Benefits And Whereas, the City of Tonawanda has primary insurance coverage with U S Specialty Insurance/ P&C Solutions LLC and Public Employee Risk Management Association (PERMA) in the following amounts: $1,000,000 Comprehensive General Liability $1,000,000 Automotive Liability $4,000,000 Excess Umbrella Liability Workers Compensation and Employers Liability Disability Benefits
Now, therefore be it resolved, that Mayor Ronald J. Pilozzi be authorized to sign the agreement between the City of Tonawanda and the County of Erie for Senior Van Service for 2010.
Fiscal Impact: $ 19,500 Budget Account 7621.100: $18,000 Budget Account 7020.442: $ 1,500
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
91. By the Council seconded by the Council Resolved, that Julianne M. Thompson, 2394 Bedell Road, Grand Island, New York, be appointed Commissioner of Deeds in the City of Tonawanda, term to expire December 31, 2010.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC AFTER RESOLUTIONS
Bill Kinmartin, 27 Grove – May I ask where Mr. Slisz is tonight?
Council President Zeisz – He’s out of town. One thing I did want to say for the people that are here, and you’ll have to forgive me, I don’t remember how many years ago when we went through this issue with Morgan, but I really wasn’t in favor of it then and I’m kind of wavering now. I’m not really inclined to go with it this time around either. I think a lot of it hinges on the fact that there is situations on Morgan that impact the people that live on that street and I don’t think that necessarily for the rest of us that don’t live on Morgan, I don’t know if we have a true understanding of what it’s like. What I can tell you is that I’m definitely not in favor of Adam Street. I think I just see way too many problems on Adam Street, between all the restaurants that are gonna impact it, between the church, between the dentist office, the people going down to the park, I just see way too many problems on Adam Street. I know there’s people in favor of it going to two-way but I just think there’s gonna be big problems and I just wanted to say my piece. And the thing is, just so that everybody’s clear on this, it’s my job to represent the people that live in the City but historically, I’ve gone with the people that live in the area. If that’s something that they want, then that’s usually how I’ve gone with this and I believe that this is an issue that really hasn’t changed a whole lot, that there’s still a lot of people on Morgan that feel like it should stay the way it is and I’m sure we’re gonna get a lot of the same feedback on Adam Street but Adam Street, it’s really never been brought up before.
Robert Derner, 286 Niagara Shore Drive – I have two questions. The first one is, on the contractor taking out the foundations at Spaulding and the same ones that’ll be taking the buildings down at Riveredge, is there provision in the contract that an independent person’s gonna be on the sight to make sure all those foundations are taken out.
Council President Zeisz - There will be someone on sight but it’s not the same contractor. We already passed a resolution for inspection. I forget what the amount was, but it’s a pretty hefty amount, there is inspection. It was over a hundred thousand for inspection.
Robert Derner – The other thing is, I’d like to ask the Mayor this if I could. He’s on the Greenway Commission and I know I came in here before and I was not in favor of this pavilion and to be honest with you, I find nothing wrong with it, getting money for the pavilion but there is one thing that bothers me, is the shoreline along the river; it’s not being addressed.
Council President Zeisz – Yes it is. We already passed a resolution last meeting to have Greenman-Petersen & Associates do the Niagara River stabilization assessment.
Robert Derner – Well, what I’m getting at is, the Mayor is on the Greenway Commision and I’d like to ask him, how does a proposal go to the commission and then have them address it? Who makes the proposal to them? Do you make it, or does the Council make it or does some outside?
Mayor Pilozzi – It can be anybody. You could make it if you want. That’s just the way it is. A proposal has to have some substance to, it number one, and you have to get their approval. Rob ??? is the executive director of the organization, you contact him, you say you have this project, and you bring it before the Greenway.
Council President Zeisz - They’re not the funding source though, if that’s where you’re going with this.
Robert Derner – Well, they’re giving out almost $43,000.
Council President Zeisz - Not them, not the Greenway Commision.
Mayor Pilozzi – Not the Commission, not a penny.
Council President Zeisz - They only authorize the projects.
Mayor Pilozzi - That’s correct.
Robert Derner – And the money comes from the Niagara Power project I understand, right?
Council President Zeisz – Correct, yes.
Mayor Pilozzi – Through a standing committee. What you have to do, basically, is get the stamp of approval from the Niagara River Greenway Commission, that it meets the goals and objectives of that Commission, all the way up and down the river, that’s number one. Once you get the stamp of approval, they say, you bless it, go forward and find money. So then, second step, you have to find grants or you have the money, the where-with-all within your organization, your community, your municipality to fund whatever project you’re talking about or you go to what they call a standing committee which currently is in our county, it’s made up of Erie County, NYPA, and I’m saying one representative from each one of these organizations, Erie County, NYPA, City of Buffalo, the Olmstead Park…
Robert Derner – Well, here’s the thing. I take a walk down there the other day and the River’s down about a foot or two foot, lower than normal, and if you a look at our shoreline, it looks worse than Berlin did after WWII. It’s terrible and we have one of the biggest shoreline along the river than any other community, maybe there’s other ones that might be a little bit bigger, but none of them have the shape that our shoreline is in and isn’t there someway that fixing that shoreline could get funding through this commission. I mean, we’re getting a pavilion, now I understand we’re getting a canoe and kayak launch over at Eastern Park, that was at the March 16th meeting. When does the shoreline get addressed?
Mayor Pilozzi - Basically, we already have, well there’s a couple areas. Number one, we just received $250,000 from Senator Thompson for an erosion situation. I’m trying to think of the word here, abatement, that’s a good word, thank you Bill. At any rate, shoreline erosion abatement is $250,000. Now according to our Engineer, that’s gonna take care of approximately 500’. Well, we have over a mile so there’s a lot more work to be done, there’s a study that Council President Zeisz just mentioned, when you’re involved with government, the first thing you have to do is come up with a study, and then you have to sell that to a lot of organizations, especially to the Corps of Engineers because it’s an international waterway, but the fact of the matter is, if I had my druthers, I’d probably do that first, but basically, the cost of that project, we would have never got it approved.
Robert Derner – Well, the one thing I can say is that in the City of Tonawanda, the Riverfront is our star, it’s what makes us unique from other communities and if there’s any way to get funding to fix that shoreline, I wish that you’d all go to get it.
Mayor Pilozzi - I’d love to see what’s next to the townhouses, all the way up that River. If anybody ever went to Pt. Colbourne, along the Welland Canal, they have a beautiful front. There’s a lot of concrete, a lot of work, a lot money. Unfortunately, what we do on our side of the border is, we pit one community against another community, against another community. Up in Canada, they do it on a regional basis and they do a much better job of getting money for things like that. We have to, we’re the ham in the sandwich here, we’re a community of about 15,000, 16,000 and everybody around us is much larger, so our “taste/piece of the pie” is actually a little bit more difficult. We’re doing our best, believe me.
Robert Derner – That’s why I made the suggestion one time, if we combined with the Town of Tonawanda, we’d be a lot stronger.
Mayor Pilozzi - Well, the New York State’s going, we might be closer to that someday.
Councilmember Gilbert – Mr. Mayor, weren’t you in discussion with NYPA about the front there being a problem with the shoreline?
Mayor Pilozzi – Absolutely. We’ve had many discussions with NYPA about different areas where they could come forward with… Councilmember Gilbert…and we’re trying to make them…
Mayor Pilozzi - …take a half billion dollars and send it back to Albany and take care of our problems.
Councilmember Gilbert - …more responsible, right?
Mayor Pilozzi - …pardon me?
Councilmember Gilbert – We’re trying to make them more responsible for this issue.
Mayor Pilozzi – Yes. Mr. Derner brings up a good point. I was looking at the River today, along with Sam Iraci and you say, “oh my God, how come I’m seeing so much shore?” Are they taking water through those turbines during the day, which usually they only do at night? So something’s happening here that I’m not sure what’s causing it but the River is really pretty low right now and that doesn’t help either.
Dan Johnson, 31 Frances Street – The skateboard park issue. Once again, we’re at this time of year, all the kids are showing up, garbage issue. Now that all the snow’s melted away, there’s garbage all over the place over there, I hope that City guys over there clean it up. I know if it was like that down at the River, it would be done the next day but over here, they came over today, four or five guys walked around, got in their trucks and left. Someone has to clean it up. I heard they were going to move the park, then I heard they’re not moving the park.
Council President Zeisz - We are looking at moving the park.
Dan Johnson - I know they’re thinking of having a benefit or something.
Council President Zeisz - We’re hoping to get it on the other side of Ives.
Dan Johnson - Please get the garbage cleaned up.
Dick Dutton, 49 Murray Terrace – I just have a question on resolution #10 there, on the radios that you’re buying for the Fire and Police Department. Are you changing the frequencies that they’ll be working on or are they going to stay the same?
Council President Zeisz – I can’t answer that.
Mayor Pilozzi – I’m not sure of that, but I’d be more than glad to find out and get back to you.
Dick Dutton - The only reason I’m saying that, the frequency that we’re on right now is working out pretty good with the County which they’re investing money also. If they change to that 800 frequency, it’s been proven already that it’s not working out throughout the State. The State dropped the 800 all together. That’s the only reason I’m asking.
Council President Zeisz – We can get you an answer Mr. Dutton. Joe Bacon – I’d like to comment on that a little bit. The repeater is just a transmitter that takes our present frequencies and amplifies it around the City. I haven’t heard anything about a change of frequency, that would be a huge cost and that would be more than $5,000 that’s involved in replacing every radio.
Council President Zeisz - Well we have a couple of firemen here and I figured somebody was gonna help us.
Dave McCormick, Niagara Street – I just wanted to let the Council know that they finally got the funding up the Housing Authority and a lot of people are going by asking probably, Bill was up there, I saw him on his bike, asking questions about the hazmat signs for asbestos removal. They started so it should be coming along pretty quick and clean up the eyesores up there. Just wanted to tell everybody. Just wanted to say I saw Bill up there doing his duty.
COMMENTS FROM THE COUNCILMEMBERS AFTER RESOLUTIONS
Councilmember Poole – I would like to commend the Council and the audience for what I am seeing is real open government here tonight and we had a lot of problems with people not getting involved and people are here tonight getting involved. I hope that will continue.
Councilmember Gilbert – I’d like to say that a couple weeks ago, I went to the Quality Student Dinner and it was a fantastic time and actually the young man that I sponsored is here tonight, he is a phenomenal student, he has a great career ahead of him. A couple things, one is the skate park issue. I just talked to the Council President before the meeting and said that if the kids don’t start policing themselves, I’m gonna personally look into closing the park down because every resident is fuming mad about the language, the garbage, everything. So the kids need to take care of themselves as well as the park. I am in favor of moving the park and the benefit that’s coming up, there’s a meeting tomorrow, everybody should come, talk to them about it, and have your input for it. And we have a Town Hall meeting here tomorrow night, we’re gonna talk about First Ward issues, Second Ward issues and anything that involves the City, it’s totally informal, the Mayor will be here and Council President Zeisz will be here, Councilman Boyle and myself will be here, Mr. Poole will be here, so we invite everybody to come in, it’s very informal, you can discuss anything you like. Thank you.
Councilmember Boyle – I was on the Council back when Morgan Street was brought up before and the reasoning that they said back then was totally mind-boggling. Somebody actually got up and said that “my daughter only knows how to look one-way”. But I gotta tell you from what I heard today, especially from Mr. Szortyka, I never even gave it a thought about the exiting in the parking lot of where the bank is. I mean, we’re gonna have a couple weeks to do this, I’m gonna try to talk to Cindy and see if I can put a counter out at the bank, just to see how many cars are coming out back that way. And also on the parking for the church, if it does go two-way, my recommendation would be to have parking for those two hours and you know, going down that thing, you know like when I come down William Street and I know it’s a Sunday, I don’t turn right down Scott. The reason I don’t turn right down Scott is because I know there’s parking on both sides and two cars cannot get down, so I don’t go down that way and you know, Roth’s gets permission, if there’s a funeral, to park on both sides. You, I hear come across on the scanner if there’s a funeral, you get permission to park on both sides. That’s not gonna change, it’s not gonna say, no you can never park on that side. With the saying that you never got a letter and stuff like that, we ended up switching parking only on one side of William Street. I was on the Council when that was done, we never sent a letter out to anybody and told them that we were gonna be doing that, we just switched it, there’s only parking on one side on William. It’s as Carl says, when it’s your neighborhood, when it’s your stop sign, everybody’s up in arms, don’t take my stop sign out at William and Broughton, I’ll never let that happen, everybody hates that stop sign, but I like that stop sign. Going back to the children and stuff like that, I probably pick up your kids, I drive for Rainbow. I know what it’s like in that area, I mean, it would be nice, just from talking to other bus drivers in Rainbow that do work the area, to be able to go down these streets that are one-way, instead of having to go all the way up, come back down again, just to pick somebody up. You have two weeks to get your information, you have two weeks to get your information together. I’m gonna look into a counter just to see how many cars come out of that, but I mean I want to commend you guys for actually giving me good reasons. I didn’t sit up here, my wife’s not here because if my wife were her, she’d be sitting where Mark is and she’d be saying, Blake don’t look angry. You guys gave me good reasons, I really appreciate your all coming out. As Mr. Poole says, this is government, I mean, it’s nice to see people out here instead of only having one or two faces because every once in a while you look down and say Ed I don’t want to look at you any more. Come on back in two weeks. Thank you very much Mr. President.
Mayor Pilozzi – Couple of things. Number one, if you have not been to City Hall in a long time, you would not have noticed it, but the entrance to City Hall was worked on this past weekend and they did what I think is a very excellent job. It’s the same company that did our Library and if you look at the front of our Library, again, they did a very, very nice job over there. And I have to give credit where credit is due and there’s a lady over at the Library, our Head Librarian, her name is Bev Fiderspiel and she has been very, very active with grants. I was on the Common Council for eight years before I became Mayor, and typically the prior librarians would come and say, hey this is a City owned facility and it’s your job to get things done. But this lady does not do that and I have to give credit where credit is due as I mentioned, and if you look at the front of that building, it’s beautiful, it’s a nice job, it’s a lot safer, all the asbestos was removed, and in addition to that, there’s another grant that was basically announced for some sidewalks around the Library and in addition to that, we’re now working on the HBAC grant, so again, many thanks go out to her. I already mentioned the wet weather flow. Sewage is a big problem in our City in terms of getting rid of it. Many, many years ago we got rid of our sewage treatment plant, as a matter of fact, probably in the next three or four weeks you’re going see it starting to be demolished. I’m talking about the old one, obviously. We have to rely on the Town of Tonawanda and as I mentioned, we had a certain amount that by permit, we’re allowed to send there and from time to time, we go over that permit. If we intend to do a 47 acre development at Spaulding Fibre and a development perhaps in Vet’s Park and elsewhere in the City, that presents a major problem. So I don’t know of any developer that’s gonna want to develop any property in our City that they know they can’t turn the water on, so that’s my concern as the Mayor. We’ve had many discussions with our City Engineer and I want everybody to know I’m gonna keep working on that particular issue the best we can. I’ve been trying to get Erie County, if you ever noticed, Erie County has sewer districts all over the southern part of the County, but not in the northern part of the County. We’re trying to ban together, have many discussions, even with the City of Buffalo, Town of Tonawanda, Kenmore, so we’ll keep you informed on that, but that’s my major concern that comes with development. One other thing, I have to agree with what’s been mentioned in this City by Councilmember Poole and other members of this Council, it’s good to see dialogue, it’s good to see people coming here to talk about the issues at hand, that’s what a democracy is all about. If there’s one thing I heard kind of loud and clear is the fact that we didn’t do a good job of advertising the fact that what we were gonna do, potentially do with these one-way streets. I also heard that in the past, letters were sent out so perhaps we can talk about that later on. I don’t think we’d want to go through the cost of doing the whole City, that is very costly, but at least around the streets that are in question and hopefully, give everybody fair warning that it is an issue, there are a lot safety issues, I understand that, I live on the corner of Morgan and Clinton, if you ask my wife, she’d say, keep it one-way. I asked her why, “I like it.” We live across the street from Central School, that’s an issue, you go down the street, that’s an issue. You go over to Mr. Szortyka’s property, that’s an issue. We’ll work it out but it’s good that everybody came tonight and I appreciate your being here and hopefully, you’ll see your way clear after this issue is taken care of that you will come here more often.
Council President Zeisz – The only comment that I would make is that, I don’t know exactly when it was said, that we were trying to push something through, as long as I have sat in this chair and as long as I sit in this chair that will not happen. Granted the notification wasn’t great but we dealt with it tonight when we had to and I certainly don’t want people to think we were trying to shove something down their throats. Trust me, if we wanted to do that it is not hard. It is very easily done and I have seen it done many times by other political entities. They basically don’t say anything they just do it. I am very appreciative of the people that did come tonight. Have a great night and we will make sure that we get notification out to the residents of the streets involved.
ADJOURNMENT
92. By Councilmember Gilbert seconded by Councilmember Boyle Resolved, that this Common Council adjourn until, April 20, 2010.
Ayes: Gilbert, Boyle, Poole, Zeisz Nays: None Resolution declared adopted
Return to CITY OF TONAWANDA web page
|