i'll ask the clerk to call the rol to move the agenda item number two off the clerk would read that it's a proud day for the city it's connected a proud day for the ferrari family yes great addition the city council john if you would raise your right hand and repeat after so help me god graduation to thank all of you in attendance you know it's because of you that i'm here that you're trusting your belief in me to guide this city in the direction that we need to go is such an honor for me so i promise that i will break that trust from you want to thank you all for being here and i i hope and pray that i can do a wonderful job and whatever it is that you need me to do please know that i am here for you my family has taught me a great value a great value of service service not only to my family but to my community and i want to uphold that tradition and again thank you very much and i hope you can join this you for we got downstairs i just wanted to recognize our new county court judge here congratulat i'm going to call the city council caucus meeting to order for november twenty fourth two thousand and fourteen we have three public hearings tonight if the clerk would read each of those public area number one regarding the downtown special assessment district twenty fifteen budget public area number two regarding the sale of tobacco products public here number three regarding convenience stores and secondhand cellphone stores all right and then item number two i don't number two a resolution appointing john j ferrari to fill a vacancy on the city council which we already did so that we can step pass over number three item number three a resolution authorizing the transfer properties to the community builders also discussed in committee without objection on consent item number four item number four resolution authorizing the sentiment of a claim brought by eric blanding discussed in claims without objection on consent eight a resolution authorizing the sale of sixteen zero two sixteen zero four four story avenue discussed in claims without objection on consent item number nine item number nine a resolution authorizing the sale of fifteen seventy one becker straight also discussed in claims without objection on consent i never can item number ten a resolution authorizing the sale of six fifty five lansing straight discussed in claims without objection on consent item number eleven item number eleven two eighteen to twenty do a have a no also discussed in claims without objection on consent i remember fifteen item number fifteen a resolution authorizing the sale of twenty seven brown straight they also discussed in claims without objection on three thirty four campbell avenue also discussed in claims without objection on consent item number eighteen item number eighteen a resolution recognizing the upcoming visit of actor director and producer  also discussed in committee without objection on consent this will be a special presentation mr move there and will be making later in the week ok i did number one thousand item number nineteen a resolution on arise honoring the hamilton hill neighborhood association this will be taken out of order mr regie will present that item number twenty item number twenty a resolution recognizing the month of november as epilepsy awareness month also taken out of order in this prize i will resent that number twenty two i did number twenty two or resolution proclaiming saturday nov twenty ninth two thousand and fourteen as small business saturday in the city of schenectady and recognizing small businesses throughout the city also taken out of twenty four item number twenty four resolution awarding a bid for two custom pumpers also discussed in committee without objection on consent item number twenty five item number twenty five a resolution authorizing the purchase of supplies and equipment for the two thousand and fourteen for the water department also discussed in committee without objection on consent item number twenty six item number twenty six a resolution awarding the bid in contractor area boulevard not st intersection improvements new york state d o t penn seventeen fifty eight point zero zero to richmond byrd construction inc in the amount of two million eight hundred eighty seven thousand five hundred fifty dollars this is also discussed in committee without objection on consent then we have one item for unanimous consent twenty six feel all in favor i write if there's nothing else to come before the city council caucus i'm going to declare this meeting closed and we will convene the city council meeting for november twenty fourth or reap convene the recess city council meeting for november twenty fourth twenty fourteen now ask you to rise to the invocation by reverend rick frank today that your presence will be felt in this place tonight in the power of god manifested here touching all of these council members and the citizens with wisdom with understanding that all that's accomplished in this place tonight be for the good of our community and for our city i'm also asking at this time of thanksgiving that we remember that it is hard to give thanks without directing that thanks to someone let us at this time turn our hearts back towards god and offer you thanks for your blessings and the benefits that you pour out upon us and as families and friends gather together this time of year with them also remember to give god thanks for his goodness and for those who are broken and lonely let us be reminded of the word of god declares that you are a man acquainted with grief and sorrow and let them also find comfort in you let your presence be dominant in this place tonight in all of this i ask in the wonderful name of the lord jesus christ and that i ask can you tell some and john ferrari to lead us in the pledge of allegiance all right we have a number of out of order resolutions the first one i guess would be to item number nineteen which is the hamilton hill neighborhood association his you madam president members of the hamilton hill neighborhood association come up please neighborhood associations are very important to the fabric of schenectady their what's connected is all about and i came from that from that same story i helped found the neighborhood association of bellevue so they are very important and they don't court work for the community and that along with partnering with the city should be able to make this a better place to live so i really congratulate all people that are involved with their neighborhood associations because it's really important aspect of  city life so i have permission to read this resolution for thank you a resolution honoring the hamilton hill neighborhood association whereas the city of schenectady has a strong tradition of vibrant neighborhoods celebrated for their diversity and whereas the neighborhood known as hamilton hill contains active citizens who are committed to providing a better life for themselves their families and their neighbors and where as the hamilton hill neighborhood association continues to take important action to improve their community and whereas it has sought to make the area more attractive to local small businesses by working to keep the albany street litter free as demonstrated by it's raising over two thousand dollars for garbage cans  and whereas working with the christian ministries the associates were able to organize and don't use of a neighborhood building to electric city bike rescue an all volunteer community where bicycle repairs and big net skills are shared with anyone who has a desire to learn and we have assets annual awards dinner acknowledges leading individuals and businesses that contribute to the improvement of the hamilton health neighborhood now therefore be a resolve that the mayor and city council to hear by paws and their one person that is missing here is scott olson who had us and i miss him dearly thank you thank you i would just like to say bethel ame church which is on the hill is host to the neighborhood association meetings and we're proud to be a part of it and we encourage as many people to come out and support the neighborhood association because it can be done one person at a time write the next out of order resolution focuses on epilepsy awareness mis madam president you have four ok i'll be reading a resolution recognizing the month of november as epilepsy awareness month and i do want to bring to light that mr sanders was pivotal in pursuing the recognition of this important time so give credit where credit's due whereas city county is home to over three thousand people who have been diagnosed with epilepsy a disease which causes unexpected seizures and sometimes death and whereas epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological condition in the united states with more than one hundred fifty thousand new diagnosis each year which makes the disease more prevalent than cerebral palsy multiple sclerosis parkinson's disease and autism combined and whereas even with the treatment options such as brain surgery nerve stimulation and prescription medication four out of ten epileptic still experience uncontrolled seizures and whereas the epilepsy foundation of north eastern new york has been at the forefront of epilepsy advocacy and treatment for the past thirty years in providing three programs and services to those diagnosed with epilepsy and their families including over three thousand people in schenectady county alone and where as the mission of organizations such as the epilepsy foundation of northeastern new york is to ultimately find a cure for epilepsy and to help diagnosed epileptics to overcome its challenges to community services education advocacy outreach and research there now therefore be it resolved that the mayor and the city council to hear by pas in their deliberations to recognize the month of november as epilepsy awareness month and in doing so encourage the citizens of this city to better understand this disorder and promote epilepsy research programs and seek new treatments and off i just would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart this is something that means a great deal to me and to everybody  that has a seizure disorder i would just you know i'm kind of lost for words because i never thought something like this would happen but let me just say i'm lost for words i thought this would never happen to me but everybody here just just think this body here it's the first body to ever give this kind of resolution i think in the whole capital district for epilepsy and it is the first app or cell now which is going on and on and i'm going to do that so really all i can say is thank you from the bottom my heart can mean so much to me i could almost cry thank you most the hardest thing about epilepsy i think is seizure control but a close second is dealing with the stigma and the mis misinformation that is out there still about what i believe epilepsy is and what it isn't and so that's our advocacy efforts are something that we're we're trying to to upgrade and having the city you know give this awareness to epilepsy is it is a great help in that in that regard so again we are the foundation thanks you and also this is kind of a historic moment because i don't think it's i think it's very rare that someone is a loss for words in this and this chamber so we are seeing a couple of a very unique cynics but i'll be happy to epilepsy community to the foundation we say thank you very much thank you this is a resolution recognizing dr laura schweitzer as a recent peon of schenectady business and professional women's club woman of the year award madam president you have a four thank you whereas the schenectady business and professional women's club is in it eighty seventh year as the leading voice of business and professional women and whereas each year it honors a member who has served women in the workplace and who has had a positive impact in her community as a whole in this year's recipient is schweitzer the current president of union graduate college and whereas dr schweitzer's celebrated career as a neurobiologist began when she graduated with a ph d from washington university in st louis and completed a post doctoral fellowship in neuroscience at duke university and where as her successful career is notable for her contributions to understanding of the relationship between structural and functional development in the auditor as well as the publication of more than fifty scholarly articles and whereas dr schweitzer is a role model to young women seeking leadership positions and exhorts them from to finish their education work hard challenge preconceived roles and behaviors and to be there to lend and help those behind them now for their four excuse me now therefore be it resolved that the mayor and city council do here by pas in their deliberations to porterfield all in favor congratulation union graduate college i had come here indirectly through syracuse swear nancy kantor was president of syracuse university and she was serious about the role of the university and transforming circulus as a city and when i came here for my job interview i saw the same potential for union graduate college and its role in the community of schenectady and i'm glad to see that in the last six years we have made significant contributions in fact we work with the mayor this year on a capstone project and the mayor hired one of our graduates as a result and we're thrilled about that but really i want to thank you for this honor i really appreciate it and i just want to say something about epilepsy so my husband is chair of neurology and he's an epileptologist and the one thing i will add to what the gentleman said just before is please have your children wear bike helmets because so many of those cases of epilepsy can be avoided if they do they come from head trauma so please have them use it as adults they have epilepsy because of bike injuries as children but as adults also so anyway thank you for this opportunity i madam president mr mayor and city council thank you so much for helping us honor this wonderful woman as our two thousand and fourteen woman of the year thank you and our last out of order resolution is for small business saturday mr ferrari if you want to clap and accept this on behalf of the small businesses in downtown or and the other small business owners want to come forward this is an honor for me to present this resolution being a small business owner in schenectady myself this is a resolution proclaiming saturday nov twenty ninth two thousand and fourteen as small business saturday in the city of schenectady and in recognition of small businesses throughout the i'm president you have the floor whereas in the united states small business has generated sixty three percent of net new jobs created between one nine hundred ninety three and two thousand and thirteen and whereas eighty nine percent of consumers agree that small businesses contribute positively to local communities by supplying jobs spurring the local economy and generating tax revenue and well as the city of schenectady desires to promote small businesses during one of the heaviest shopping periods of the year as demonstrated by findings from the national retail federation showing that an estimated one hundred forty one million shoppers spent fifty seven point four billion dollars on consumer purchases during thanksgiving weekend last year and where is one such small business as a ryan's boutique in schenectady business that celebrated its forty fifth anniversary this past october and now therefore be it resolved that the mayor and city council do hereby pause in their deliberations to proclaim that saturday november twenty ninth two thousand and fourteen is small business saturday in the city of schenectady well i just want to take a moment to say that earlier today we had a press conference with mayor mccarthy and the chamber and the upper union street bid to officially announce small business saturday in the city of schenectady and we formed a partnership between our three organizations this year to really bring greater awareness to all of the great small local businesses that are working hard to make this a great vibrant community so just outside the chambers is a big blowup poster telling you a lot of the specials and activities that are happening at some of the participating businesses but we just really encourage you to get out shop small and support all of the great local businesses that really do makes connected a fantastic place to live work in place of thank you it's just a reminder everyone shop local the saturday lot of our support our small businesses all right we're now going to move into probably hearings the first public hearing is the clerk would read that public hearing number one regarding the downtown special assessment district twenty fifteen budget i have two people signed up to speak guy mr slanged on mr and a call do you have a preference in which l in this current year of approximately ten thousand dollars broken down as you see here that's the whole tax bill there's been a lot of talk about how the assessment increase that we're requesting is outrageous it's too much it's going to break the bank etc which i think in a word is total nonsense next page my tax increase on my building is the grand sum of sixty three dollars that's the whole thing i spend more than that for my wife and i go out to eat sometimes not all the time but sometimes so it's sixty three dollars when you look at sixty three dollars it turns out to be six tenths of one percent of my tax bill it's a tiny little piece right there with those who would say it's a big increase they're thinking about downtown  fifteen twenty years ago we have a downtown it's a vibrant operating business altogether there are still a few places that need improvement but by and large you go downtown any evening the places hominum and this increase will enable us to market downtown in a in a coherent way as as it as an entire downtown i'm done i have three points that's one the second point is the support we have versus you know with anything you're going to get naysayers you know motherhood and apple pie are going to find naysayers someplace and we downtown have our naysayers to there are a tiny minority of the businesses and property owners that are in downtown every year we have a fundraiser we call it the building block party many of you have been there we have three hundred fifty people show up and pay money to help us with their fundraising so you've got this little tiny vocal minority of people who sometimes will be here to voice opposition to what we're doing we have hundreds literally hundreds of people downtown who are owners of property who are have owners of businesses who not just support what we're doing but come to our fundraiser and spend their money to show their support and i've said before that in this chamber people vote with their feet in the end you know they open a business they vote with their feet they show up at a fundraiser they vote with their feet third point third point has to do with parity with upper union street right now we're seeking i think two hundred and sixty thousand dollars worth of total assessment if we would have parity with what upper union street is doing it would be three hundred sixty seven dollars i believe in other words there's a cap there's a maximum amount we can tax this guy because i need to summarise i am i am right now that cap is three hundred sixty seven thousand dollars for downtown we're seeking two hundred  sixty upper union street brings in the full amount of their cap if we would do the same it would be a whole lot more money this is a bargain thank you very much thank you exist all around the state all around the country all around the world and they're created for one reason to provide additional services and programs to enhance the districts that they serve in because of the d s i see support from our property owners when patrons come downtown to each shop or be entertained this season they're going to see beautifully lit holiday decorations around downtown that are sponsored in part by the property owners and put up by the t s a see when a company brings important clients into town they'll be walking on clean sidewalks or getting access to snow free intersections and crosswalks because of the efforts of the d s i see when visitors stroll through the public areas of the district this fall they're not going to have to worry about slipping on a lot of leaves because we take care of a lot of that when people are travelling up from the new york city or staying in hotels or coming in from weddings you have access to visitor guides that talk all about the great businesses of the houses of worship and the services and the hotels that we have here in downtown schenectady thousands of visitors come downtown for restaurant week for the walk for small business saturday again this saturday november twenty ninth or upcoming city holiday event which is right here at city hall a lot great community event on december thirteenth it's not always glamorous it's not always the most hard high profile work but these are just examples of the things that kids do all around the world for their districts and these are the things that we do for downtown schenectady so in considering  the budget for twenty fifteen please keep in mind that the last time we had any more resources for our programming was the last time that was approved any more resources was in the fall of two thousand and six which is yours and if you think about the things that were not here in two thousand and six include everything from the hampton inn to the proctors expansion to bombers to square to center city to the downtown sloc to the movie theater paul mitchell school housing for the students down on lower union street there was no restaurant row as it is today on lower union street so many changes and by having the ability to have additional resources to give programs and give services to the property owners and two thousand and fifteen it would make our staff that much easier to really continue to be truly proud of what we do for downtown and bring changes and positive growth on pace what's happening throughout  downtown so if you very much thank you and i will say the decorations look very very nice all right i have no one else signed up to speak on this public hearing of the clear that closed it will move on to a public hearing number two kirkwood read that public airing number two regarding the sale of tobacco products i have four people signed up to speak the first is jim calvin madam president honorable members of the city council my name is jim calvin i'm the president of the new york association of convenience stores we are a private not for profit trade organization that represents the interests of eight thousand neighborhood across the state including retail establishments in schenectady that would be affected by this legislation our members share the city council's commitment to preventing youth access to dbcle ny x itself is a new york state department of health approved provider of certified tobacco sales training and is trained over six thousand retail clerks cashiers and managers in the proper procedures for verifying age and thwarting under age purchase attempts we respectfully oppose passage of this legislation because the advertising restrictions would infringe on commercial speech and because the arbitrary school zone provision is so ambiguous as to permit administrative interpretations that could jeopardize the grandfathering of stores that predate the ordinance under section one ninety two dash thirty one point one paragraph c no new store selling tobacco products  open within one thousand feet of a school but it does not explain how that distance was arrived at whether it is to be measured in road feet or as the crow flies or why a buffer zone is needed in the first place nor does it address what would happen if a new school were to open within a thousand feet of the store that sells tobacco now the second sentence of paragraph c appears at first glance to grandfather tobacco selling stores that predate this ordinance but in order to be grandfathered such stores must have a valid certificate of use this poses a circular dilemma a mini mart near a school may already possess a certificate of use as a food store under the existing code but it doesn't have one authorizing its operation as a convenience store as required in the proposed section one hundred three point five because the convenience store definition in proposed section two sixty four point two will not become law ordinance is an act so will the store be grandfathered on the basis of his existing certificate of use even though that certificate was issued for use that no longer exists or will the situation be exploited as justification for doing away with that store's right to continue selling tobacco if a grandfather store sells the business will the new owner inherit the right to continue selling tobacco at that location if not then the city council which will vote late r which already voted on a resolution declaring small business saturday you would be knowingly devaluing deflating the future value of these small retail businesses many of which are family run paragraph d prohibit stores from displaying signage relating to tobacco it is visible from outside the store raising immediate constitutional questions don't businesses have a fundamental right to communicate with their customers by but tobaccos shops are exempt from the school zone provision and the advertising display ban makes no sense to us unless the legislation is explicitly intended to confer a competitive advantage on those tobacco shops thank you judy here ok well i'm judy right meyer and i am the director of the capitol district tobacco free coalition and i wanted to share with you ken the rationale behind not selling tobacco within a thousand feet of schools this is what our young people see when they go into one of the convenience stores and this is you can see the tobacco products colorful attractive right by the candy same with the with the we know research has shown that this the more of the sale of tobacco near schools increases the likelihood that our young people are going to smoke we know that youth go into convenience stores teenagers go into convenience stores seventy percent of teenagers go into convenience stores at least one time a week they have twice the chance of smoking if they go and visit a convenience store twice a week so being able to not sell tobacco within a thousand feet of the schools will decrease the chance of our young people starting to smoke in two thousand and  nine family smoking prevention and tobacco control act was signed and that gave me a palette is like the city is connected ability to regulate the time place and manner of tobacco sales tobacco use is still the number one cause of preventable disease and death and we know that the more retailers that are near schools the more likely are students that students will smoke that there  are fifty one percent of tobacco retailers in new york state are located within one thousand feet of schools so either an elementary school or secondary at school i have some maps here they're small but i can leave these with you that show the smokers start before they're eighteen the dbcle industry knows they need to get people to smoke when they're young so that they'll have them addicted for life virtually everyone starts smoking before they're twenty six years old so it's no coincidence that tobacco sales have been near schools i wanted to leave with you because i don't have a lot of time another map that shows the density of retailers in communities with lower income i really believe that in many ways this is a social justice issue with the majority of people that are smoking are the the poor the less educated and those with behavioral mental health issues so whatever we can do to help that  prevent that from happening is really going to be a positive thing and i've got a hundred signed posts petitions asking to decrease the amount of marketing in the city is connected to these or by city is going to the residents so i will leave that for you guys a city resident minister united church of christ i wasn't playing and speaking on this issue i was here for the resolution when my friend marvin vise me to come i always try to come and glad to have the resolution before you but since the tobacco industry was here since another person was here speaking i figured i would be the only city resident with and spoke on this issue and i speak as a resident not really with all the other hats i wear but really as a minister in the u c and also it's quite personal because living on the north side for a number of years i grew up with two parents who smoked heavily i didn't catch up with my mom until she was eighty two and caught up my dad when i was forty nine and so those are the challenges of smoking in those days and so it's personal but also in college i studied the economics of the tobacco industry and it was a very interesting study that showed the high correlation between price and tobacco use which i think we well know no but being on the north side i just have a concern for our children and i think that you have you know i commend you for taking up a difficult issue these are emotional issues that you take a look at  you but you make difficult judgments all the time you have to make decisions for the public good and you always weigh one side against the other and so i hope that this legislation in the in the one to follow seem to be a well crafted i think there's much to commend them and especially in terms of looking at how the children in our community because always our communities are judged how are the least of the most vulnerable being treated and that's always our children and i think it's very important to keep children in mind as you consider this kind of thing thank you very much thank you i have no one else signed that song that it is this public hearing closed and we'll move on to our third public hearing public area number three regarding convenience stores and second hand cell phone stores the opportunity to speak on this proposed ordinance as well i find it deeply troubling that convenience stores are being singled out in this new version of chapter one eighty three the nuisance ordinance the terms bar drugstore food store and restaurant are all deleted meaning those businesses would be no longer subject to the law so you now arbitrarily excuse taverns eateries and pharmacies from the certificate of use requirement from the inspections from the fees from the penalties but convenience stores and second hand cell phone stores are still covered in fact under this legislation the only businesses in the city of schenectady still at risk of being declared nuisance establishment would be convenience stores and those phone stores why because this was drafted with a mindset that convenience stores regardless of their size location ownership or longevity are the root of all evil and therefore deserve degree of regulated more stringently and penalize more harshly than any other form of commerce in schenectady under the ordinance you want to force all of us to leave eighty percent of our window space free of signage or product displays in a store that's often smaller than two thousand square feet that's not just impractical it's darn near impossible you want future certificate of use to expire after one year so you can make a sweat the rino and charges more fees and you want to rub it in by refusing to honor the certificates of use that convenience stores have already obtained in good faith under the current law that were supposed to remain in effect for as long as the certificate holder ran the same business at the same location and then out of the blue you want to limit the hours of convenience stores in residential zones to five a m to eleven p m even if they are delayed licensed by the state liquor authority to sell beer to age verified customers for off premise consumption until midnight and even though they may rely on the overnight hours for a significant share of their overall sales you want to tack on four new ways to earn a three point mark on our nuisance or in this record at the same time you're relieving hundreds of other businesses from the worry of having any nuisance ordinance record i don't know many schenectady convenience store operators are law abiding retailers striving to serve their communities provide employment pay and collect state local taxes support their community and earn a living we encourage you to keep them in mind when you consider in address the issues good evening mr mayor council members my name is mohammed have is and i live in schenectady and i would like to make a few comments about this ordinance well first i share a lot of concerns with this gentleman here he apparently did a lot of study of what changes will be implemented in that ordinance but i do have a couple of comments here well first convenience store server a large community in schenectady but the latest wave of public outrage picture of them as all loeb law breakers and  fair to defend any bad elements out there but i want to bring to your attention that most of the store operators are good citizens they are trying to provide for their families and educate their kids some have limited knowledge of english and have done nothing nothing else but work in similar stores all their lives their kids go to school in schenectady and house some some and some even owned their business properties my concern here is that the city will start enforcing these new changes without properly enforcing the store operator over what's expected of them or properly informing them of the new laws terms and conditions i propose that there will be some legal safeguards put in the orders to protect that th i also propose that the city hold some training session to all store operators before enforcing the new changes otherwise the city will be creating unpleasant outcomes where it will shut down a store puts the operator out of business and force him and his family to go on public assistance furthermore shutting down a store for a year is also a hardship for the landlord if he's unable to rent a store for a year this may result in in the in his inability the landlords inability to pay the property and mortgage taxes be forced to abandon the property and in the process creating more blight in the city so i urge you to look again at this ordinance look at all these other negative aspects or the consequences because i have a feeling that this was put forth because you want to shut down a few convenience stores for no apparent reason except that you think that the creating new and nuisance thank you thank you  my and i'm still the director of the capital district bacary coalition and i just wanted to share that the city of schenectady isn't alone in the idea of limiting the amount of space commune store windows to twenty percent the city of kingston did this about four years ago in an effort to make a beautification of the city they limited the amount of advertising of any kind of product or any kind of signage to twenty percent on the windows they did it to beautify the city but they also did it as a safety issue so that there could be good visibility into the store and also good visibility out of the store by the owner of the store to what's happening on the streets outside so  smoking rate in the city is thirty seven percent the smoking rate in the county in schenectady county is seventeen point eight percent i think it is and in the state it's sixteen percent so the city of marketed and then just one last quick little story i wanted to share was my mother in law was fourteen when she started smoking you know she was a forty she was eighteen when she started smoking and my father was fourteen when he started smoking and he died when he was he was diagnosed with cancer fifty nine and he was dead at sixty four we really need to do whatever we can to stop our young people my mother in law started smoking when she was eighteen or nineteen and she also was dead by age sixty two from lung cancer and breast cancer so it's not an issue that goes without consequence is the sale of the use of tobacco thank you thank you i have no one else signed up but it clear public hearing number three closed we will move to approval of the minutes from november tenth mr cocksure is our second mr motive aaron all in favor i communications and communications presented to the city council for monday november twenty fourth two thousand and fourteen under official a letter dated november nineteenth two thousand and fourteen from paul of fine director of water and wastewater recommending the award of furnishing supplies and equipment twenty fourteen contract be awarded to ferguson waterworks h d supply and try sales inc a letter dated november twenty first twenty fourteen from christopher wall and city engineer recommending the award of very boulevard and street intersection improvements be awarded to rife in bird construction ache and a letter dated november twenty fourth two thousand and fourteen from fire chief santa call for the leasing of one aerial tower platform and t it certainly will cover everything that needs to be done but as of right now i've already heard from three different parks who'd like to be able to do some updates in the park so the mayor has to go to the parks advisory committee who will be working with the health and recreation committee to to help identify what needs to be done in the parks but more importantly the goal is to take the two hundred fifty thousand dollars and to be able to leverage that and to more money to do other things in parks similarly similar to start on it so we have been discussing it we will be meeting about it to be able to do as much as we can with the funding that is available and so that when the parks open be able to do those things which have been identified it will be something they'll be ongoing not just if every single part doesn't get done this year or every single thing and every single part doesn't get done we will still be able to continue that to do the maintenance or improvements or whatever is needed so we do recognize that  those answered those questions would be answered thank you thank you anyone else all right if not we will move on to privilege of the floor related to the legislative agenda i have five people signed up to speak the first is vicki her  point here is that i'd like to see this project done as a scabbard site development as opposed to the way it's being planned my issue is that the project as it's planned is going to concentrate continue to concentrate poverty in the hamilton hill neighborhood  the community builders is at the moment seeking fourteen point four million dollars in public money to develop six units of housing in hamilton hill part of that money is coming from low income housing tax credits everything else in that  is public and if you divide fourteen point four million by six you can see that each of these units is costing two hundred forty thousand dollars to build in two thousand and eight the daily quoted local architect saying that a four bedroom leed certified home that he designed and was built by better neighborhoods at one zero zero five glendale place cost one hundred ten dollars per square foot to build one thousand six hundred fifty square feet this is a cost of one hundred eighty one thousand five hundred dollars if you multiply one eighty one five by six you get ten point eight million if you subtract ten point eight million from fourteen point four million and divide by a hundred eighty one thousand you get twenty extra units that could be built in these units would be like the four bedroom leeds homes that are neighborhoods built throughout the city i personally think that hundred ten dollars per square foot is a little low but i'm urging the council to do this kind of arithmetic to see what would happen instead of building the project it is ed it is currently configured with most of the units into multi family dwellings community builders did scatter site development using the city's inventory of tax foreclosed properties scouted site development give potential residents more neighborhood choice and housing hud recently came out with revised requirements for its an impediments to fair housing one of the goals is to reduce segregation and build on the nation's increasing racial geographic and economic diversity low income housing tax credits require either twenty percent of units must be a cop occupied by households out of below fifty percent of area median income or that forty percent must be occupied by those out of below sixty percent of the median scattered site housing would give our low income citizens the opportunity to live in many parts of the city instead of just hamilton hill our local afford to have affordable housing agencies build scattered site housing in trouble neighborhood because i only saw those homes to low and moderate income homeowners the one of five glendale place home i mentioned sold for eighty five thousand less than half of what it cost to build this is a ninety six thousand dollars subsidy for that family i'm taking this opportunity to suggest that some subsidies also be offered to middle income families to encourage them to move into troubled neighborhoods as our elected officials you could approach heard about this and other creative ways to meet new requirements of the announces the pessimist a fair housing thank you council members name is more lane gilmore and i live at eight thirty six m e street in schenectady of course i stood to talk about community builders and the sector i'm a small business owner you talk to small business saturday the community builders offering for us small businesses small business every day so therefore i stand to say that community builders project will be in my neighborhood  on my corner i applaud the effort that they're making and i certainly applaud the fact that community builders are using the minority businesses and that's what i stood to say that since you talked about small businesses remember the small businesses when you go thank you janica half the president mr mayor honorable members of the city council my name is jennifer peach acuff i am the project manager for the community builders and i'm here tonight on behalf of t c b to thank you for your warm welcome and continued support of our work in both the veil and hilton hill neighborhoods in schenectady as you know as most of you may know we're a nonprofit organization whose mission is to build and sustain strong communities where people  incomes can achieve their full potential we have been working it's going to be for over ten years and look forward to continue to work with our neighbors in the state stakeholders to continue to provide quality housing that people can afford thank you thank you mary maclan resigned council immediately appointed mr kosher to fill her seat and he has been here for many months during his appointment candidate the candidate accessed the ballot whether out benefit up petitions which is a legally required process to run for office so tonight and an individual is present who did not collect petitions run for office won the election and now council wants to appoint him to a city council seat why is scant on so making an appointment if he already won should not the appointment have been made before the november election was the election not mallett and daws and i'm appointment impact the three years left in the tar none of this makes any sense to me can someone explain tonight's resolution and why the council vacancy was handled differently thank you thank you favor i ok well now move to privilege of the floor be guarding sit general city business i have twelve people signed up to speak the first is joe rodriguez my street but my mother in law who was in the hospital was struck by a stroke on october third we thought we try to comply with the show you got one particular inspector that law died last year as you record there snowstorm that you couldn't get the ambulance up on street so let's forget about that but we got a seventy five year old woman that lives on a thousand dollars a month piece of taxes ok he's a mortgage over from a thousand dollars a month to be threatening for a rest if she didn't appear in this particular chamber floor if face a judge on the porch that day threaten how much more can you really get done between now and december twenty second or just forget about the thirty days but we talk about a snowstorm coming wednesday possibly how can she do anything they break into those homes and there rob those people and i think if you could rob somebody you could go and i don't care how young you are you supposed to be answered for because you cannot you rob a nine to five year old woman she can do nothing for or say they went into our house stole her car stole her t v everything this is getting ridiculous we need some more protection fo older folks thank you thank you neighborhood this decline is especially problematic along crane street we need to improve the quality of life in our neighborhood the cranes tree business district must be developed rampant vandalism avoiding a litter or continuous problems business owners are afraid to confront the perpetrators because retribution such as broken windows or harassment inside and outside their businesses potential customers are fearful of shopping what once was a thriving area of mount pleasant we would like to see better newer camera systems more frequent monitoring of the cameras that are now in place as well as more cameras to teach a good place to monitor the problem areas we'd like to see better policeman enforcement of existing loitering and littering statutes and a quicker response from problems at a core over the past appliances have left crane street leading vacant storefronts we do appreciate the mayor's a decision to adjust the problem of vacant and boarded up buildings three of the properties to be demolished in its latest letter are in mount pleasant this is a star unfortunately vacant buildings attract squatters and criminals and once they move into the billings it becomes much harder to rehab and sell securing these buildings and maintaining a program overlooking the integrity of the structures is the necessary the schenectady county metroplex has done a good job downtown in other neighborhoods some projects have been huge successes and upper eunice treat an eastern ave all we do hope this trend continues and metroplex would consider the mount pleasant neighborhood the most populous neighborhood in the city for such a plan we understand the need to have a vibrant downtown for schenectady a progress but a vibrant downtown cannot exist within decaying neighborhoods we need your help in mt pleasant thank you thank you frog florist mount pleasant has plenty plenty of empty storefront a vacant buildings homeowners are underwater because their homes are worth i worth less than their mortgages the neighborhood is turning into a ghetto take a walk up union street you will see bank branches i counted at least five lawyers real estate insurance offices a huge number of doctors dentists and medical offices and a large number of restaurant eateries you don't see you don't see any of they can stores you don't see abandoned buildings on the union street it's a booming affluent neighborhood take a walk up crane street though you'll find one trust called bank a pleasant so it's a poor neighborhood versus versus the f one neighborhood that's economic inequality in other words it is discrimination however disturbing discrimination is by design because of the city failed economic effort to mount pleasant while systematically developing other neighborhood like you new street eastern everyone downtown furthermore the city is continuously granting permits for developer the build new apartment downtown and elsewhere while not making any efforts to push those developer workers cops firefighters and teachers to buy homes and lives in mount pleasant we want our fair share of federal state grant money spent on the development if the member of the neighborhood we want to thanks money spread the pleasant we want to see real economic development in mom pleasant and we want to thank you thank you good evening mr mayor and council members my name is betty murphy and i'm here to talk about loitering and littering in my pleasant the new york state penal law and chapter one ninety two of the city code both address loitering and litter and it is against the law in new york state it is not up to the store owners and residents to remove loiters loiters or the litterers this causes fear for the store owners as retribution among criminal criminals is what will happen police need to enforce the law it is unfair to property or business owners to have to live in fear chapter one ninety two defines loitering and explains littering and the penalties police should be enforcing this ordinance to prevent retribution for the store owner's property owners and other residents of mount pleasant the code is useless unless it is in forced getting these two topics under control by enforcing the city code as it is written would be a huge improvement for my pleasant when people are paying fines and paying facing jail times they should change their way of thinking when they are about to drop a soda can or a candy wrapper or any type of debris on our sidewalks and streets this should change the quality of life in mt pleasant and improve the process to spry spec for people to want to live in and do business in mt pleasant enforcing the code should be city wide and when the word gets out that the code is enforced think about the advantage for the entire city remember if you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem thank you and i would like to thank pat smith for all her efforts mohamed half as for the use of his office down a foley neck and lowly and walsh and all the wonderful people of my pleasant for wanting to make mount pleasant a better safer part of our great city of schenectady thank you thank you on some of the issues concerning my place first the cameras at the various locations are they being checked regularly for proper function do they all work at a twenty four seven basis we appreciate the cameras but they all must work as we depend on them there are areas of mount pleasant were lighting is almost nonexistent lighting detour is criminal action what can be done to remedy that situation we need police patrols this is a fact of life officers are limited in number and other areas need patrols i personally have seen patrol cars stationed at key locations on crane street at various times and days the police department does a good job as much as possible as to with the resources they have it may help if there were an officer walking the beat from eleven to about ten p m the city's efforts and some of the programs are appreciated but other programs can be started to cut down on crime and the unacceptable behaviors in mount pleasant for example tossing trash cans destroying flower beds and tearing up people's properties just to name a few store owners are reluctant to chase orders away as retribution in the form of broken windows and doors the main occurrence customers of those businesses are increasingly cautious about shopping in mt pleasant the streets appear to have the look of the aftermath of a small tornado with all the litter and broken our ideas for a solution we are here to stay this is our neighborhood our homes our little piece of the world we are not to be ignored and we are willing to work this city to make this a great neighborhood once again many of the buildings and crane street at this point would make a great  for a movie about the one nine hundred thirty s great depression it's not a compliment i mean i train street foreclosure has broken storefront windows and people are now using this to gain access to the building including the apartments upstairs this is a tragedy in the making we would like to see a program to help families who can afford a mortgage who are short on the down payment to obtain homeownership thus taking pride once again in the neighborhood we need a change in the face of mt pleasant neighborhood as well as the attitude there are still too many people living here owners want their home and need the city to actively help us please put the pleasant back in mount pleasant thank you thank you neighbors have spoken to today and these are my concerns could be my friends and maybe not so i want you to understand this is coming from me to the public out there i don't know if you know some of the area but mt pleasant has the largest growth of population including many single parent homes in which we deal with unsupervised children running around that's just from our own neighborhood and then we have also a growth of elderly who are finding it very difficult dealing with a lot of undersea and then we had the influx of students from other neighborhoods into mt pleasant middle school steinmetz pleasant valley elementary school i call it a little cul de sac have tremendous amount of students in that area and also we have the sports fields in that area the little league field tennis courts all in a very congested area and cars are parked on both sides and children running in and out so i would like to make a correction here i thought i read in the papers where mr fred leaf was planning to put another boy's club from another neighborhood into mount pleasant he said that he has nothing to do with it but it is in the plans and what makes anyone think that it's a good idea to promote more population in that area we already have a boys club and girls club what i could suggest to broadway the street is absolutely horrible and i've been told that it can't be paid due to the old trolley car tracks we've had college park car tracks all over the city so i'm not sure what that price if this is the case or cover the tracks but the cali try back and raise the buildings and put green spaces on the side with benches and everybody can get out the charlie karnad so it's a nice time more seriously i take an issue with the supervisor schools because i haven't ever heard him say anything about the trauma of abuse and assaults of the children who are going to school that want to be educated he needs to talk to my son robert  he went into a new school when i moved up in this area not schenectady and he was getting along with kid said friends he was doing good in school in sports one child the teenager actually was beating him up i get calls at work  pulled on him it question he had to hide in the hallways little by little this troubled child threaten the other kids to the whole school i had to drive my son to work so that's the main reason i moved disconnected because at the time troy and nobody was having problems and i had one day to find a place and i'm already finished wow ok so that's that's what can happen and he's still paying for that  a judge jonathan moore and ultimately police a patrick morris fabricated an offense violated my family they open the car door light in court and so you can talk about it people policeman less anonymous have them wear uniforms have nowhere numbers have a web page where any citizen can observe the behavior of a policeman and report on the web page the most  most of the policemen are a good people here they work hard and they actually discuss this some of them the ones i discussed with and they can see the merit in the wearing a uniform and know where numbers go they don't want to be anonymous they want to be people are the other thing is a police overtime is really excessive it's it's really was right in the resources from mount pleasant they obviously need pretty police protection but the police that basically you know kno smithsonian institution when the space program was cut back my family moved to virginia where my husband built and tested nuclear powered ships for had i want to see it on city council last year i would have been in a position to get a second opinion when the city was faced with an engineering issue such as the pump credentials knowledge or expertise to tell this community that it does need a new one the best interest of this community was not served when councils with councils affirmative yes vote was all about the twenty fifteen council race and pandering to special interest groups which brings me to the budget member the rookie officer puts his life on the line every day at work they say and you already system costs the taxpayers too much money and if challenge it would not hold up in court get rid of it the mayor said he was looking for equity in the budget for home where is the equity when the sanitation workers can go home after finishing their route even when there is still time on the clock and taxpayers pay them for eight hours work no equity for the taxpayer where is the equity when a citizen points a gun to a fellow american and gets to stay home for here with pay so much larger us from the tax payer friendly budget thank you thank you joy ha these drivers gone wrong way and the speeders it's got to stop because they're speeding everywhere my large street broadway erebor part you got has happened already so we gotta get at it i said the cops we've got a big job on our hands and i know what thank you thank you i have no one else signed up to speak on what things are going on and being involved and i do hear the concerns of a lot of our seniors that are speaking to most of the one that is their city music everybody's over forty anyway i'm saying that we have we do have a crisis that's in our city  therefore and i'm really talking pertaining to the the hamilton hill clergy therefore getting into the middle in problem program or mentoring in the schools we are losing and we're like throwing money to the wind when our children be incarcerated things because there's nothing that comes out of that but we know if they finish school therefore we can get some benefit from that even if they're able to take care of themselves nice and get out so i'm saying is th for that we're looking for mentors to to come into to help this situation has a really does take a village to raise a child the city council can do about it so the city can't i mean the school can't do by itself county legislator is going to do it we all have to do this and we're really dealing with the attitudes of our young people today and we're really paying a very high price for that we have a couple of generations that have we have lost somewhere and and we're reaping those benefits that harvest is coming in is and behavior the way they are was there was a sense of lack of instructions a lack of concern and things we have a community that there wasn't one parent it household a lot of young mothers out there trying to survive some have made mistakes and think but it's very hard it's hard to do it by yourself but the broke up that we're getting is the behavior of our children and you mine i said it's not my child but it really is your child never because he's the one this tearing up our properties he's the one that's bringing threat end to our community because of the lack of control but if we can just come together therefore unless we're trying in the clergy group to to come together and try to mentor these kids and trying to save as many as we can we're not being will be able to save   all or trying a middle east will slow it down and i think we have to do something in that manner because we know there's a lack of jobs the economy is down our young people have nothing to do there's a lot of people there are dwelling on the streets a lot of influx but we've got to find a way that we can to encourage them to turn from the ways that they're going their attitudes their fork of their attitudes of what really hurts us when they throw a piece of paper on the ground and if somebody says well maybe you ought not want to do that you know you live here but nobody's are later years apart it their core to that we're trying to you know relax now or do something but here we can't know we're really on alert because a lot of things that are happening so if we could just come together you know find a way that want to ask you know say look just taking these things to consideration what can we do it is not all that you but it's also for the community to take part and as a result we want every change anything thank you situations just so you know i know i had to bring a question that i had with an e mail to the police command department and about addressing some of these issues and i did have a meeting with them and they did agree to the record think the patrol officers took a paper for littering loud music and these quality of life issues up they were also going to be either a press release or better yet a press conference to go along with this and chief kilcullen did promise me that on two occasions but it's never happened we have to let people know that we are targeting these things and as reverend adams brought up the penalty for somebody throwing something down on the ground guess what the penalty is you get a ticket that's what the penalty is and you have to pay a fine that's what sends the message that's what the message has to be sent these people are trying to protect the neighborhood my pleasure of course we all know i'm old enough to know it was a vibrant neighborhood as my wife's neighborhood the street that she grow up on now is like a war zone it's very very sad we have to address these issues again to get people to want to move back to the city to build the tax base we have to address these quality of life issues i keep harping on this because it's been my contention for a long time that this is where it starts we have to address quality of life issues to make this city a better place to live i'm glad people are standing up and speaking about it because that's what's needed there's no question in my mind about that i can when that we talk about broken windows that's the broken window theory that's what works when there's one broken window you're going to have dozens of propane when those so we have to fix the broken window that's really where it's at and i'm willing to work with anybody to try to move this forward for a lady the police department will at least send out a press release that they are behind a campaign to address these quality of life issues datsun least two months ago and it hasn't happened yet and i hope that tickets are being written i'm not really quite sure about that but i think the message has to be sent out loud and clear that we're going to address these issues and it will certainly help our program in the mayor's homes program it's all going to help things together but we can't let the neighborhoods go to see that is the fabric of schenectady it isn't just certain areas of schenectady that's a fabric it's the neighborhoods that is the lifeblood of schenectady these are the people that are paying the taxes these are people that stay the course we don't want to push them out of the city that's for sure and asked them to move somewhere else we had our fiftieth hate to say it high school reunion about a month ago and the members of my class which is about three hundred fifty there was probably about one hundred that showed up there's only a small handful of people that still live in the city of schenectady it's kind of sad and it's heartbreaking to me to think that and some people didn't move that far away it isn't that they went all to different places book there's reasons that people choose to leave the city in a part of the high taxes is part of it but again part of the fix for high taxes is to build the tax base that's part of the fix get people to want to move back here and it's a good thing we sold the eleven houses today and that's a real good thing that's very good because those houses will be on the tax rolls so that's that's a real good thing but let's make those streets safe i mean we had i don't even know what to say about bad enough an eighty four year old person was assaulted for a pocketbook but an eighty four year old nun wearing her habit what does that tell you about what the problems that we have here i can't get that out of my mind that somebody would choose to do that to someone that's doing good and i gotta give sister credit she's going to pray for this and a virtue and that's the right thing to do and i think we may have need a lot of prayer for schenectady to get things on the right track so just switching gears talking about the ts i see budget i know one of the speakers said there's only a few naysayers well i've heard that all my life about just a few naysayers well those naysayers their voice counts also if it's only a handful if it's five six ten whatever it may be we know that's what it is i feel that a lot of phone calls that people are upset about this not that it's sixty dollars or one hundred dollars or whatever it is the total the tax bill what's the total increase on what they were paying for that special assessment that can go up to twenty eight or thirty percent and that i don't think it's acceptable if we propose that to our constituents on our property tax bill i think this would be fall in over fold down the corridor if they were facing a twenty eight percent increase it's something we have to look at most of the complaints i get is were not involved in the process they don't feel they're involved in the process and where their money is being spent that's one of the the the main concerns that i get so i think it's something i did sent some questions to mr schilling go and has some of the answers but i'm concerned about our churches which are being assessed and how much it's going to be because our churches are barely hold in their head above water right now so that supply and i'm waiting for an answer from him on what churches are assessed and how much their assessment is going to be  raised because i know st johns which is a big church i think they're probably face a pretty good race in their assessment so i went out i wish everybody here and my colleagues a blessed and happy thanksgiving it's good good time for family to together and enjoy and think about good things but let's work hard to try to make two thousand and fifteen a better year for all of us thank you thank you and i'd also like to thank everyone that came down tonight i know the mail person neighborhood association has worked a long time to do a lot of things in the neighborhood and they have made some success and so that i can say keep trying i know from personal experience living in  words challenging sometimes and i also think that working with the city we can certainly address some of the issues that they've brought today in addition to regard to the convenience stores there were some good points that were made by the speakers tonight in terms of people that run convenience stores or they're just trying to make a living for their family and that not all convenience stores are places that attract people that you would prefer not to have in your neighborhood so i think that we should definitely take into consideration the points that were made in two and i want to express that i personally do not feel that it's too it's really meant to target people and get them you know the target hardworking people who are really trying to make a living i just want to specifically talk about the twenty percent of window coverage and to say that's something that's done don because of something called september crime prevention through environmental design in the other speaker spoke moments spoke about it didn't specifically by the name but it's a safety issue so that people can see out and people can see in it something negative is going on in the store so it's not to so people can't display what they have to sell but to make sure that people are safe both the inside and  outside with regard to the project in hamilton hill through the community builders as a resident hamilton hill i want to say again that i support this project i've certainly had concerns about the building at six o two craig street that has stood there for quite some time although there have been efforts to sell the building it's never been sold and i think we can probably figure out why but now this is an opportunity to turn that into affordable housing where people could it live in the neighborhood currently can afford to live and one of the concerns often when there's there is a neighborhood that has some development in it is gentrification this project does not does not fire the neighborhood it allows affordable housing for people who live in the neighborhood to live and  on i support the project and again it doesn't leave vacant buildings on the street that would have three vacant buildings three very large vacant buildings or just broken windows and all the other things that can take away from the quality of life and neighborhood in addition to that we've really worked hard to try to bring different businesses to the neighborhood and my hope is that when you improve the neighborhood it will attract other businesses to come there as well so on looking forward to working with that and into making sure that people the neighborhood benefit from one of the speakers t talking about small business benefiting from that and part of when someone comes from a neighborhood to develop it's important that the neighborhood benefit from as a benefit from it as well and those have been our conversations with the community builders  just like to say happy thanksgiving to everyone enjoy your day thank you for anyone else this process i want to say congratulations to mr ferrari and express that it's very good to be seven again i think it's a healthy way for the council to operate and i'm happy that we're at full capacity and i also want to recognize the law department's hard work in the mayor's hard work  also the council's hard work at moving those properties through and it was nice to have a nice long list of properties and i just i guess i just want to make a comment on how i feel  about some of the council remarks tonight i think it's unfair to say we need to start to address the quality of life issues because i think there is a tremendous amount of people in the city that have already started to address those qualities of life issues i think when we look at active neighborhood associations like mount pleasant like bellevue like goose hill like you know the many neighborhood associations that we have and we look at community clean up days and we look at the people that are out in their neighborhood picking up litter and things of that nature we've already started we look at the mayor's initiatives to in all the hard work we did with getting the land bank in the in the  funding to get rid of blighted properties we are working hard and we continue to work hard and it's a slow process it was a slow process to get us here though the neighborhood i grew up in is is in very poor shape but it was not for a long time it was a slow process to where we are now and it's going to be a slow process and we have really moved forward a lot we have a lot more to do but i think to discount what's been done is is not fair and then  on the other side of things when it comes to the police and to getting into things of that nature i think that would be great but i also see where our police are doing more with less all of the time due to by terry constraints and how hard we all work on the budget and what those constraints look like and the fact that we're dealing with sometimes of them urgencies and don't have the personnel to write tickets but i will encourage all of my colleagues to go and work with dissociation to come up with a program work you know come up with a program to cover graffiti come up with a program to pick up litter come up with the program to you know rotate neighborhoods and in work once a month with a group of volunteers because just like our neighborhoods that it's up to all of us it's our job also to move those initiatives forward and to help the people of our city and very proud to be a member of this city and very proud with how far we've come and i continue to work hard going in a forward direction thank you offer our services maybe it perhaps as a speaker to come to me your january or february meeting mr molder know your chair perhaps we can attend with those meetings january february of course all the council members as well to address the some of the concerns and hear what is really happening my wife is a school nurse and hamilton elementary school and i drive by their down crane street every single morning and i see exactly what we're talking about the situations that's out there so i officials but again thanks to the chamber for going izing that event for i want to know what year this is lisa perhaps it's way out there i know that but again to chuck steiner and to gal for there and of course to the numerous businesses and organizations  participated in the event and we had an over nine hundred bet from any fire trucks or in the parade and it was actually twenty seven fire trucks that were there so it was quite a nice evening as well and i just want to express of the support to the community builders and thank you very much for what you folks are doing believe it or not i had the pleasure when i was on a city council back in two thousand and two to vote for the project the veil community project as well and that's when  jordan was involved and again they did it right from the start you had the community input you had several community meetings all of us participated in the again the community hamilton hill in mount pleasant we're all participating as well but i think it's a great project as well we talk about the broken windows  blight that we have here but that building has been vacant far too long and the hamilton hill community certainly needs and deserves a brand new project like this in the in the area and you know we talked about the downtown schenectady when i was all vacant and we're looking about putting apartment spaces in offices and downtown is connected and folks were even back then saying nobody would come to who would want to rent an apartment downtown schenectady and folks you can't even find a studio apartment in downtown right now so you build it they will come and again thank you for all you folks have done and are skimpily support on that and again as well thank you and our happy thanksgiving to everybody thanks to all those organizations the nonprofits and the students and the youth and the seniors and folks who have been handing out communion baskets and donating food goods it's just been wonderful i've been a couple of bands out there and it's very heartwarming to see especially our youth that have been out there participating so god blessed everybody in the families in the happy thanksgiving everybody thank you have talked to the police chief and the commissioner there have been some changes we we would like to see more happening there but you know what with the small amount the resources that we have in the police department  and it's on the an ongoing dialogue with the police department the mayor's office and we will see positive change among  pleasant holiday season coming up i want to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving to take some time to spend with your family and also please remember the unfortunate and sure thank you thank you anyone else ok mr mayor restructure things so that we were doing things that really produced long term results and i wanted a more coordinated response to our neighborhood problems in we've done that with our code suite where it goes through we try and do each of the neighborhoods we try and do it in a polite manner and then we serve them with notice we then some people who still disregard that we get them into court and we've had some very successful prosecutions on that i understand people are frustrated in it's we know you're out there we're trying to work with if you have specific complaints or things that need quicker response don't hesitate to call my office to call commissioner bennett door chief tell collin but i think that we are again producing results but they are slow and incremental where we're we've done things in trying doing all the neighborhood so we're not playing neighborhood off against each other mt pleasant and we did the tennis courts which is really a  significant resource not only for that neighborhood but for the whole city where it brings a lot of activity in the u s tennis associations junior division move their headquarters from syracuse they now do tournaments here in schenectady so in that benefits not only the activities in the facility mt pleasant but uses the facilities in central park are looking at how do we improve orchard street park with going to start our first round of  demolitions we're going to have those bids are coming in and wednesday six buildings will go down there the worst of the worst two of them and it's one in eleven fifty cutler street an eyesore for far too long  ten sixty five pleasant street is going to be one that's going to come down so that there are won't completely make people happy but we are trying to send the message out that we are addressing the issues we are taking it serious and we are trying to do it in a manner that produces long term results in greater value joined with four other local mayors two weeks ago part of white house challenge and veterans homelessness we're focusing on the veterans it's also looking at homelessness and housing opportunities for everyone in the community so you may have some people that are fairly affluent and can afford more expensive higher end apartments and houses we want them but we also want to make sure that we have housing that's affordable to middle class people to working families and we're bringing them into the neighborhood and so the things that we're undertaking again hopefully will all dovetail together and compliment each other over the long term and friday night i authorize the summer employees to the governor's office request to respond to buffalo where we've had four crews out there doing snow removal assisting them i'm not sure when their twelve hour shift ends when it ends tonight they're coming back to schenectady to they can rest up a little bit and then want everyone to have a happy and joyous thanksgiving but there's a good chance we're going to get a little bit of snow on thanksgiving so remind people not to shovel their snow into the sidewalk take one shovel on each side of a fire hydrant where it keeps it open in the unlikely event that it has to be utilized that makes it much easier for the fire department to respond  courage everyone to participate in small business saturday we're kind of focuses on our local businesses owner occupied businesses here in our community and while you're doing it on saturday really should remind people trying to do that every day of the year because local dollars really have a greater impact on our community in terms of the overall value that they generate and the jobs they create they begin to do is share in the commend everybody involved with the holiday parade i didn't march this year but i got to watch it from the comfort of the s e c c classrooms downtown which was a treat so that was good also we're getting into a lot of tree lighting ceremony as in the upper union street  tree lighting ceremony is set for tuesday december second at six p m it just go bank the events going to include carolyn by members of cavalry tab tabernacle church a visit with santa claus and hot chocolate and cookies so they're also going to have a lot of carolyn going on throughout the