ok good evening everyone i'm going to call to order the city council caucus for august thirteenth two thousand and twelve in will the clerk please read the resolutions resolution number one resolution accepting a grant from the right family foundation for personal escape and rescue system devices for firefighters ok this was discussed in committee without objection on consent number two i number two a resolution authorizing the city of schenectady to enter into an agreement with schenectady county concerning the rehabilitation upgrading and beautification of hill hurst park again discussed in committee without objection is to appear on the consent agenda northeast parent and child society hank for one dollar and this was also discussed in committee pending some concessions from ne parent child which it looks like we have gotten so i'd like to congratulate the department of development in peterson for working those negotiations out so without objection and consent number four number four resolution authorizing the transfer of title to nineteen brandywine avenue to northeast parent child society again discussed in committee without objection i'm consent number five item number five a resolution authorizing the city engineer to issue a revokable to bangkok based drove t resolution appointing joseph berlanti to the board of land util of realisation corporation of the capital region ok also discussed in committee without objection on consents number seven number seven a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with schenectady premier cricket league for management improvements and grout park are you asking for ok number seven will be a roll call number eight of the city of schenectady to grant exemption from taxation based on the two thousand and seven assessment role to carver community center and this this was not discussed in committee it came on the agenda  the outstanding issues some of the posturing that is going on with this by granting the retroactive tax exempt status in which has been authorized by the state legislature would nullify their ability to foreclose on this property it looks as though that the city of schenectady although they went through and got their state exemption they never got the exemption from the city so this would grant them that exams and it would stop the clock  o foreclosure for carver community center which i believe it was is scheduled to happen in september it's coming up very soon so i would ask for a motion for the floor now it's a good question mystery guest the same thing and as of right now  but it could it's part of the negotiation process or this you'd prefer not to do in public you'd like to work with global solution but  again that becomes the celt souls derogative but again each one of them has little quirks in it and so if they move through each one so that it resolves all the outstanding issues pay back the a t f the amount of money that they paid us to purchase this we initially while other property owners are not for profits who have gone to the state legislature and they have obtained resolutions of the state legislature been signed by the governor which comes back to the city  then finalize it and bray it retroactively that tax exempt status to these properties that exactly it until this time any other discussion on this that would have to be a discussion with carver that we would have to have with them and we certainly can at least begin that discussion and put it on for the agenda for committee on monday night present and i think it's important to find out whether or not there are any other nonprofits out there that may be missing out and not know about it so we will table this resolution and put it on the agenda for finance monday night ok anything else to come before congress saying no city council caucus is closed move to open up the city council meeting for august thirteenth well we are pleased to rise for the invocation cause all life back to yourself thank you for bringing us here this evening and to strengthen our wills in the statements discussions and deliberations there will take place here in these hell  walls of city hall where we always strive to do what is best for the common good of all the citizens of our beloved city of schenectady there we have a stride to protect and promote and defend the inher universe and especially of our hearts he will give you the yarn of the power in the glory now and forever more  to have nothing out of order the see the thing and we have one public hearing scheduled and we read that public hearing first public hearing proposed changes to chapter one eighty six of the code of the city of schenectady to ban smoking in city parks ok first person i have signed up is robert c enders president council members i thought about this long and hard about choosing my words thinking about smoking in a park trying to legislate morality and the things around the legislative agenda today it took from two thousand and eight to today to think about maybe going to a cricket field past and in no time were thinking about maybe being smoking in a park now smoking is legal ok i don't want smoking around a baseball field children or anything like that but if i was to maybe fish by myself or something like that since it is legal i don't see a problem with that since i do pay for the park  years just to come for this body to come in to have a yes or no answer i think we've got thing our priorities a little bit mixed up what we're doing here you know you know smoking ok we don't want to do that in front of our children on tiny tot land in front of our children but you could build a smoking area or by fishing by yourself or something like that to ban it in front of all our city parks or it would lawn built park it's go if they have a big gathering no more when the guy and he's when they have their big cultural fast you don't want that but you just outlaw ban something we've seen what bans federally have done when they tried things bans don't work when you're legal saw i'm totally against that thank you thank you nancy t or i'm i'm all for clinton cleaner air but urge you to vote against this change to chapter one it is sex to ban smoking in the parks you're just picking on smokers your bimbo leads all the talk about banning smoking in the name of clean air is this ingenuous if you really care about the air quality be looking at the source is a very pollution many communities that allow smoking have been things like charcoal moonlighter foods because they recognize the toxins being released central park for example kiddieland is surrounded by barbecue pits and all those toxins being released and you're worried about you know a few  s you do have the opportunity to make a real difference if you really care you might not be able to do anything about the pollution from g knowles and schenectady chemical but you can still make a difference or you to vote against this change and instead come back with something honest a room a karylle difference something that will improve the air quality of the perks may be on the motor vehicles certainly been the use of the charcoal and lighter fluids throughout the parks but if it makes you feel better you know ban tobacco use but come back with something honest and real something that will make a difference and stop just being bullies thank you  hearing council members she knew i must connect to be county resident and also project coordinator for the capitol just for tobacco free coalition and obviously i have a slightly different view on tobacco free parks i think you are aware that we conducted a community survey every other year through c n n research institute in two thousand and eleven it actually showed that and if you county residents by a large majority supported tobacco three parks eighty four percent about three playgrounds actually and then seventy percent of back of the pools and sixty one percent tobacco free parks that's curb to curb parks and included in this number are smokers a lot of smokers also support tobacco free parts and the reasons are good ones for one cigarette lighters the most literate item in the world it's toxic it doesn't degrade filters take about ten years to degrade it takes a really long time and they're the toxic to animals small children i've seen kids pick up cigarette butts and try to smoke them in the park and my kids when they were young tried to do the same so it is an issue and it is something to protect our children and our community another reason is that secondhand smoke actually  been shown that there is no safe level you can though you are outside if you are playing on the playground and someone is smoking near you that does waft over and unfortunately kids with asamoah it's a trigger for asthma and people who have heart conditions it's a trigger for heart attacks so it does protect community health and another good reason is that children model behavior that they see in adults and when they see an adult smoking in an area like a car it's a friendly place they see it as something that's acceptable and and so that's another reason and i know people also think forces you know is this going to go over but you know that there are a lot of legal activities that we say ok this is something that we don't want done in this area for the health of our community for considerate reasons like laws and things like that so we promote having signs and i think most people are very considerate if you see a sign that says there's no smoking people don't to it and  tobacco for coalition actually has been providing signs for you charge to municipalities that say young ones that play or tobacco free zone i know you do have a sign up in tiny tot land has that to protect the young kids who are in that area so anyway communications under official from the mayor a list of appointments dated august thirteenth two thousand and twelve under general communications there are none under petitions there are two first petition signed by twenty residents and visitors of the five hundred block of page street objecting to ambiguous illogical and unreasonable parking rules as indicated by posted signs second petition is a petition signed by thirty two residents of the woodlawn neighborhood requesting that two dangerous dogs not be returned to the residents of one six zero manchester road thank you mr clare committee reports are there any committee reports this evening ok seeing no committee reports we will move on to the privilege of the floor on the legislative agenda and three people signed up to speak on the legislative agenda first person is albert morris we have no facility available to us i we know that the city is making the harbor facility there a growth park and we'd like to be considered to be paying there also you know we are home owners are to like i said and we pay our taxes and everything and we should be considered to play there too i don't think a city should make a resolution like this when oddities are available and weren't even invited to be a part of it thank you thank you sir like to give you some background information as to how these specific items were included in the proposal about two years ago our account her own county legislator karen johnson came to bellevue preservation and told us that the county had some money earmarked for his part previous to karen's contact with bellevue preservation we had put together a list of improvements from the four hill of hers that had been suggested by residents of our community and we had submitted them to the county but when karen approached approached us we then to update the community thinking how the community meeting that was publicised as a neighborhood meeting specifically to discuss who has park wasn't a bellevue preservation meeting it was specifically a community meeting and we wanted to document document that input from bellevue residents from that meeting a list of the improvements was made and then discuss with karen johnson in those improvements that met the requirements that were set by the nature of the monies available it's confusing right were through to discuss and streamline and firm up the proposals bellevue preservation wants to make it clear that the bellevue community provided the ultimate ideas for the improvements we were happy to liaison between the county city in the residence ideas for the improvements the overall consensus from the residents of value is that hill her should remain a neighborhood park consent agenda seconded by council member ricky others in favor he sent agenda passes and we have one item that's a or i just want to say that a lot of work has gone into the efforts at groud park and in talking with both entities that are interested in doing the improvements on their time and their dollars there's also a very open and welcoming stance to any groups that want to join in with them and i think that's very very important for everyone to know the second part of this is that  not the only place to play cricket there are also wickets in central park so by allowing the skanks the premier cricket league and the guy nis american association to be to spearhead these efforts does not mean that other cricket associations are invited to join in and also does not close out anyone's ability to play cricket in the city of schenectady because there are other wickets available as well so are we just commenting you know you can vote so therefore i vote i has been moved to zero seconds seconded by mr erickson ok now we can move on to the roll call give your vote on the first point of clarification from corporation counsel and with regard to the entity who will be heading this and i just wanted to clarify that th of an entity enough for profit whatever and as we were attempting to put the resolution together we could not confirm any of that information and then the information was that  was nothing it was just a group of people that were working together and operating under that name and then later on the say afternoon in attempting to get further information it's my understanding that john moved to bear and provided us with the information that they are a group that is functioning within under the gaieties american association of schenectady inc so the formal contract that would be put in play would be with that entity ok thank you very much i'd like to speak a little bit further about this as part of the parts and recreation committee i was at a meeting on friday which is why there was so much activity heading up to this and i met with steve weiss who is from the tri city critic cricket softball and also who is the chairperson of mr singh was there there was some lengthy discussion about how this could all work out and one of the concerns was that all organizations would not be able to participate in this but  discussed it we left that table with the understanding that all organizations who wanted to be a part of that could be a part of that and those organizations included the tri city softball the and the schenectady softball cricket association as premier cricket league that three these three entities would be a part of this agreement be able to work in the park to help manage it and to also play cricket and that was the ultimate goal to make sure that all parties who wanted to play there would have the ability to play there so that's why we wanted to make sure that everything was clear and that the corporation counsel has confirmed for us that this is a new york state domestic not for profit corporation found that some of these are excluded or you know there wasn't some very play going on the agreement could be terminated is is that fair to say yes and if you were to look at the resolution is specifically says non exclusive right so as the contract is put into final form it will make arrangements that everything has to be corny that with the city and or other similar entities and also wish to use the park i think i think you know as long as we all understand that this is a an organization that is going to do what i like in the city and that's fixed things up and not cost us anything and so that's always a plus when we can get a facility in the city  for people to use it and it doesn't cost taxpayer dollars so for that i vote yes i was getting yes just quickly i feel the same way as mr erickson and i'm glad that marian that some homework on this because i was kind of confused myself about the excludes tippity of of the use of the park i talk with steve weiss at length today and he assured me that anyone can be involved and marry into some home work out so well that my only concern is that it's fair for everyone it's fair for everyone is fine and i agree that if we can get volunteer groups to take over and then to do that we really can't at this point it's a thing to do i i vote  vote yes as well and i can acco your comments not that when we have people step up in want to work on a park especially a park that's been derelict for that long and put their own time in their own money and their own sweat equity into it there's absolutely no way that this is not a win win situation for everyone i am thoroughly convinced and very confident that the groups will be able to work together  mr weiss when he came to speak to us last week was very adamant about wanting to work with everyone and i've known him for a long time found him to be very honorable i know that this is a sport that can bring in a lot to the city is schenectady and for all of you players out there and everyone who's been involved in this i thank you on behalf of the council and certainly on behalf of the city for all the work and everything that you've done to make  zero ok next we're going to move into privilege of the floor on city business and first person signed up is kevin sha suffering i read an article in the paper talking about nine point eight percent unemployment rate here in schenectady that's like above the average national average here in the local area  i understand you want to make the city look pretty and you want to fight people to come to your area to you know enjoy the area and everything but people are here they're an educated some on the educated they can they can't get the jobs that you require you know to go on an internet with a child look for jobs you guys need to be able to have programs for these people that don't have this hard skills to get into the employment field that you need to have you know nor make this a productive some some people really need or struggle with that on you say go to internet and it's a fine place i'm not against it i went to school i went to college i got my education i could go on and either get and look for a job but there are other people that you leave  now that don't have access to do that so i think you need to you know look at the the big picture here as far as gaining the employment area for these people so they can be better psalms forty one blessed is he that considerate of the poor the lord will deliver him in time of trouble as i was saying to the mayor the mayor stated that he would get back to me concerning my son's vehicle and when my son's bilk was impounded my son was unemployed he was trying to stay still struggling can't find a job just as lauri said it is very difficult to find a job nowadays and when the mayor disappointed me by not at least getting back to me i took him at his word and that didn't happen now and also the situation with my landlord i came in and i was talking about the garbage problem that was happening in my neighborhood where i complained about the house next door my landlord still didn't get any rest behind that nothing happened for him with that now you have these high rent mortgage taxes that's happening now the people in the landlords are not able to successfully take care of the buildings that they own because of the high taxes they are complaining and saying they can't fix this they can't fix that and if you continue with these high taxes people like myself will be outdoors i'm already paying more rent that i can afford to pay at this time and with the high taxes constantly going up and making it hard for us to live a lot of people into homeless a lot of people will lose their properties what are you doing about these high taxes you've got to change that and you know there needs to be a cap on these taxes instead of making them higher and higher and making it difficult for people to live i hope that you will consider what i've said here today and that you will try to work better with the people that you have to that are that you're serving because we are needing not to have to go into a soup kitchen in order for us to continue to survive thank you thank you ton him out of town or massachusetts he's in a city of schenectady they're going to send him to obedience school now this dog is walking around with a muzzle on until he goes obedience school now the human being did something like happened to that child in massachusetts that human being would be up for attempted murder now i don't know if it's federal state county city but god if it's a city law let's try and get something i mean we can't let this happen i mean if if that happened next door to me i would probably be using the second amendment rights that we have i mean i would not want these animals around i mean from what i understand that the dogs are on leashes and they couldn't even control me but this kid in massachusetts i mean we're trying to get the city to get people in and it's all over the news excuse me we're allowing pit bulls come i mean i know your hands are tied with god is there something we can do about it i mean these animals are dangerous we see it all the time when i first started working there i had asked the city for help to clean up the bathrooms the bathrooms are disgusting i have asked to help with the garbage cans there's garbage cans there's  i get there early in the morning to clean i mean to literally clean the grounds from garbage from i don't do drugs but from stuff that was done three or four o'clock in the morning but i'm told  the garbage cans the be deplorable i have to wear gloves i have to clean the site before i can even allow my food to come in yet the tables the tables my supervisor my boss ordered four more tables to come in while the city center tables the tables are discussed and nasty i have to have scrub brushes to scrub down the tables now i call whoever is in charge of cleaning up the up to keep up the parks the central park is like pavilion is where the tables are i have asked the men i have called and called and asked that they come over the weekend mondays monday morning it's like a garbage dump i have to get in there before my workers get in there and clean you have to put our gloves on and clean up the garbage the dirt the cigarettes stuff bugs whatever it is from the tables hose the grounds down that's not my job but you know what i don't want my people eating and garbage heaps and needed what you would you eat there i don't think you would now i have asked that the city do something about jerry burrell have someone come empty the garbage cans i called one morning the guy we were in argument at called my boss and she said pastel is right the garbage cans are running over i don't have to call a lie but the garbage cans they need to be emptied on a daily basis the bathrooms we have the why becomes your with your camp every day if children need to use the bathrooms i would not allow a dog to use those toilets in there that's  disgusting the bathrooms are they smell i have workers from g e come the man approached me and he said hostile we're not going to use those parents rules these are people workers from my volunteers from g e they don't want to use the bathrooms i don't blame them i don't want to use neither i'm asking that there is a police at least from one o'clock on in the morning because i'm told that there are people out there smoking and doing whatever and once they leave from four o'clock and five o'clock in the morning that's where all the garbage come from all the drugs and all of that comes from their nice to me more rebuilt built villages on that park and just because it's in the area that it's in the area that this isn't please i don't want to hear it feels people up there are just as important is the anybody else anywhere you can this city there are beautiful children beautiful people and i'm try of central park hill hearst park fifteen other good evening everyone my name is felicia around and i'm here this evening to ask the city council members to consider establishing an animal shelter here in schenectady county the shelters function would be to take in the dogs as well as cats that are strays abused owner surrenders and that have been victims of boarding he says the shelter should also have an adoption facility where adoptable cats and dogs can find a second chance at life here in  over pet population is continually growing so it's not realistic for me to ask for a no kill shelter however the shelter should have programs educating the public on the importance of spaying and neutering as well as basic  care for the past three years i have personally assisted in a number of hoarding and abuse cases i like many in this room have seen firsthand what these animals have been through and i find myself scrambling to other counties for help and when these things nobody can help us i have no choice but to leave them there in the same situation but i am that man there is a cover article today in the paper which states that up to six hundred homes will be foreclosed on in these homes i'm sure there are their owner occupied and their animals are we ready to deal with the pointing situations that are going to be funded or are we ready for the influx of stray cats and dogs that are going to be on the streets honestly asking to please this is our problem but it's make it our responsibility please me  and people like me who are willing to help establish a shelter you have the power to make a difference you have the power to help them and you have the power to help us please take my considering my request into consideration thank you thank you there's hundreds of dogs trained at large through the city through the county all over the country basically but most of the areas have shelters we just had the a p f which didn't work out too well and now we're going to m county montgomery county s p c i don't know if you've been there but make it your duty to go there he will be really disappointed there it's not nearly large enough to house connect the dogs or montgomery county so therefore the dogs are not being brought there they're left on the streets which brings up liability child bites a dog bites a child that's a liability we don't have a place to put them the shelter we use is constantly for like again i'm going to shadow what she just said skanky county needs a shelter we don't need a small montgomery county shelter we need our own shelter would be a win win situation for schenectady i know you know if it gets to that point but it could be a win win for us you've gotta think about it i know it's a financial burden but it could be a win win situation too when we have other news he's paying us to house their animals and at the same time our stray dogs and cats would have a place to go instead of just being left on the street i get calls constantly i'm moving i have no place to bring my dog maybe in a nonprofit dog rescue i don't know what to tell these people you need your help we need if you guys get together and decide what it would cost and you'd see that would be win win for us connectivity and that's what you really need to do it be a win win for you guys but more importantly it be win win for the animals and that's what i'm about a minute for the animals and i have been for a long time so let's think about this and get our act together and get something move and i'd love to talk to you about it some time thank you thank you  idea like you know other animal shelters are constantly getting calls i'm moving i can't take this cat with me we've taken cats out of apartments that bieber's noticed they moved a week ago and there's no cats in affected and we went in and took care of these seventy eighty remaining in there are many of them sick i just think if we had a shelter especially for the strays we could bring them there and stop the reproduction at that point before you know hey why have this cat my backyard and then in three weeks i have kittens too but the cat isn't belong to anybody in which case then if there's three female kittens they're going to reproduce and then you can just have this i'm going i'm going problem so i just really think that a shelter you can put the animals in their us s then decide what you need to do with them and i think a lot of these animals to specially when he gets into a boarding situation are abuse there's no way you can pay attention two hundred twenty cats in your house you know i have a cat and three dogs and they don't have enough hands to pet everybody so i just you know you've got people complaining and you see you know dead cats in the street because nobody owns the cat we've had many issues that people again just move out of the house they either leave their animals in the house or they let him out the door i just think that along with education educating people it is really important that your animal and people you know will if i have a batch of kittens are so cute i want to see what they look like with our rescue group we make sure that our animals are spayed or neutered before if they leave our  hands and make sure that they are appropriately vaccinated just as we would hope that if we had an animal shelter in schenectady county that they would do the same thing thank you ok thank you jacqueline and told me that the tree in front of his house was splitting down the middle and when it fell it would take out his in my electorate lines we went out after looking at it and i agreed with his assessment and we knew that with the progression of that's what the tree was going to fall within hours the weather forecast for that day was for storms some to be severe after some phone calls to insurance companies and a call to the emergency number of national grid we were to we were told that national grid would come but not until they restored power to those who had already lost power why not neighbor and i understood the priority but after another two to three hours of watching that split in the tray grow larger and the prospect of our houses losing power and sustaining significant damage not to mention the danger to pedestrians and cars going by on the street i called councilman rigby i explained the situation and i asked is there anything that the city can do councilman vince rigby said he would try and he was able to locate dan and i apologize for not remembering his last name then came in he was he was on weekend call for emergencies dan was on our street within a short period of time his assessment of the situation was that it certainly was an emergency he barricaded the street he replaced our rather small sidewalk barricades with larger ones and he called joe  came with some large equipment and he was able to cable him strap the tree to stabilize it we thankfully we made it to the next day when national grid did come and remove the upper part of the tree would be back to remove the rest of the tree so that the ugly tree trunk that still remains can be replaced with vegetation that is more attractive my neighbors and i are committed to keeping our street as attractive as possible so joe come back soon again i would like to thank you all for your response in the resolution of the problem that reared its ugly head on a hot humid summer sunday that four seconds left if i may say one more thing i'd like to thank the council for the resolution a couple weeks ago to these going to the green market value preservation for the creation of the bellevue market and i just want to do a little promo if you will building market is open every thursday afternoon corner of thompson and broadway from three to six hope to see everybody there thank you thank you robert sanders but just like many other issues you know i always compare things and how they are done like over dunkel cm's candy there and when morocco speech so when i was across the street i remember when there was a sidewalk that had to be put in and still over its uncle sam's candy there is no sidewalk ok so i see how there is going to be a sidewalk where i really don't know what's happening there but still to today why isn't there a sidewalk by uncle sam's i guess since when mr notaro was the president here when you you know build something no you've got to put a sidewalk at least that was the ordinance that mr no tar passed oh you know i do wonder about that now you know i'm just going to go back to the privilege of the floor now i guess you all realized the drama that played out with me over my petitions and things like that and i'm just going to cut right to the ch now we know where everyone stands with that and i guess everybody in the city of schenectady that's a democrat wants to know where i stand on an issue  and i think it would be you know worthy that the on the democrats at least get to hear some type of you know functional reason of where i stand and where the councilwoman stands so when they go to the ballot box they get a real choice so just or not i want to marry him now and when i leave here i'm going to go to a library and ask if i can write out images in the room and then i'll talk to marry him about the best time discussed earlier as far as the smoking ban is a solution proposal instead of banning smoking in public parts why don't we set it up where there is a directing telling people where the wind is blowing so that smokers can smoke downwind of other people and why don't we install at trays that have complete grind up the cigarette butts and the tobacco products into the parks i mean i'd seems like a better solution rather than taking and banning a freedom good evening everyone i'm friendly i'm president of schenectady neighborhood watch and i just want to talk a little bit about our national night out which we held last tuesday and steinmetz park i'd like to think councilman ricky for attending and also for the wonderful video if anyone would like to see it you can see it on you tube it's great thank you very much also refusing i also want to talk a little bit about our child in adult search capability that we have a neighborhood watch and that's a very very important search capability that we work with the schenectady police department on a regular basis in fact last night we had a lost twelve year old at ten thirty at night and you can imagine how horrifying that is for a parent to discover that their child is missing we have at least a hundred every year lost youth and about ten to fifteen lost adults so from a public information perspective i'd like to do a little education piece for group and since we work so closely with the police department one of our issues that we have to deal with on a regular basis is the lack of a photograph of the child or the adult and even if there is a photograph in it's current there's only one and the problem with this particular issue is when we respond to the scene to find the last child or the last of those we have to drive to the scene without the photographs often times we may even be passing that person for arriving at the scene with the police and then we have to get the photo copied and then disseminated to our members of our search team i would like to suggest all the caregivers in the city that they make is perhaps once a year on a regular basis on a birthday our current photograph of the child or the adult and have that ready for us just in the odd chance that their their child or their adult we go becomes missing we would still respond to the scene and then we would be able to disseminate that quickly we go to the corner stores we go to all the different places that you might think go parks looking for lost children and adults time is of the essence in an hour if the child is abducted even at the legal speed limit they can be sixty five miles away from here in two hours drive time they could be in syracuse so the problem with the typical amber alert is there already has to be a known abduction schenectady is very lucky in the second sense that this is going to the police department does not wait we start looking right off the bat and that's really important  if each cure giver could have their photograph those photographs available even if they want to any staples or any place like that and made a color copy would be very helpful to us we are now working on means which we have we hope to every day in the fall so that we can some send the photographs to the searchers before they arrive on the scene so for the next few months it would be very helpful if they did that thank pronounce your first name for me i'm ronald k ratchford i live at eleven zero five union street and i have resided there for over forty seven years but wanted to add a few comments you already had quite a bit about the issue of trash pickup and people who have been picking up the things that have been left out for poorer for the pick up as one who does a lot of walking in the city i do drive but i also do a lot of walking i have a chance to make some interesting observations yes i do see a pickup truck somebody will come in and and pick up things probably some things of some material metal value let's say i do see the the person who may be coming with the shopping cart picking up and bottles and then of course there are people like myself who walk and see things i don't have a big problem with with some of the picking picking up of things if they are otherwise not going to bring anything to the city chances are some of the cans and bottles unless there are less are going to be recycled it probably may benefit that person who who can who can recycle them as were things that do not otherwise get recycled and which simply become a burden to the city in a cost to the city i think we're we have to be careful that we not be too short sighted in this in the course of walking i have seen some curious things tossed i live not too far from union college and the college students move out and out go a whole lot of things good and bad does this mean they're all to be trashed i've had the experience of walking along seeing the book m not buried in the garbage but on the garbage and i picked it up and i looked at it it was about a forty dollars volume schenectady county public library i looked no it wasn't a discard i brought it to the library  returned it to the library if we had to if we had had a really hard and fast rule that book would not have gone back to the library so i think we have we'll be a little bit careful about how we how strictly we we draft any legislation if any legislation is even necessary and an issue was made that perhaps permission should be obtained under certain circumstances i agree if somebody is going to go on to one's property i had a case about a year ago somebody literally came up on my porch and i measured the distance was something like nineteen foot of of a lawn between the sidewalk and my house and somebody came up and oh well just help help myself and take us in that case i do see the the appropriateness of permission but i think that's probably already covered under under state statute of anything think of the alternative if we say that if you do see here's a brand new umbrella or here's a here's a piece of lumber that somebody isn't even going to use in the person just put it out to whoever wants to take it if you have to go to one's house at six thirty in the morning the pick up by the way starts out i think five six fifteen if you imagine what somebody will do would you go to the person's house and say  i have this umbrella i have this piece of lumber whatever do you mind if i take it the question might be why are you asking me oh our city council is mandated so i think we have to think very carefully  also in conclusion would like to bring up the issue of enforceability if we cannot enforce it i think we have a problem we're going to create scofflaws and i suggest follow get the impression get the ideas from our commissioner i think he's got a pretty good idea as to what can and can't be done is a cost effective and kenned be done and if it can't we're maybe going to be creating more scofflaws rather than solving an issue thank you very much appreciate a hello my name is treasurer clay in i'm here to address not only the council members bed also the community the public and that's why i'm here to talk about the violence that's going on in schenectady county i do have some posters from the sheriff's department i talked with dominick d'agostino today the sheriff who gave me these there is a gun buyback program going on in schenectady county i think it's important that everybody is aware of what's going on with a gun buyback program the next day it will be august eighteenth at eleven a m to three p m at the boys and girls club at four hundred craig street so if people don't know they can turn in their guns for money and i think it's important to try to reach people and that's why i'm here so i want to read something i stand before you today as a concerned citizen as a mother i own project hope and i spoke with one of my neighbors today who was an eleven year old young man who stated that a lot of his friends has guns and that's disturbing i've attended a lot of funerals last  summer there's been less homicides this summer i'm about solutions so this is a great solution to me and i wanted to make sure that our community was aware of it and i speak for you know a lot of people those can't speak for themselves that have been killed in gunfire needlessly parents that don't speak up even though their child is dead and gone and i'm reading this poem that i wrote  called stop gun violence we will not be silenced by gun violence we cannot afford to shrink to think by gun violence means just another statistic we have to be realistic our approach simplistic because to take a life is animalistic we have to remain optimistic we don't need ballistic roof to know that guns destroy our youth we need to teach the truth with no hesitation we have to come together in demonstration against this type of act of degradation based solely on retaliation causing so much humiliation we don't have to suffer in silence together we can create an alliance and stand against this defiance as we take our streets back block by block we join together as a flock that create a lock against violence refuse to suffer in silence and mark my words as will be heard as we create boundaries and barry is for those areas of illegal guns we can stop the killings of our sons turning these illegal guns let us protect our loved ones because the next bullet that flies has no name but we can put an end to our shame before a bullet claims another young brother wombs another mother we cannot allow fear to hold us hostage here we have to fight for what we hold dear the message is clear we already shut enough tears our streets should not become a war zone there is this is all well and we don't stand alone we have to save our own our die trying to stop the bodies because i refuse to suffer in silence i believe that the truth will set us free this time president responsibility this is my plea to my community a peaceful environment is what i see let's make the possibility a reality this is a public service announcement for me thank you jonathan  n good evening name is jonathan fennell of an e mail pleasant district and i just was listening to one of the constituents you mentioning about sidewalks and it made me think about it something has bothered before while and i thought i'd use this moment to bring it up and that is you know a few years ago my daughter first started working in mt in the city parks she rolled her bike to get to meets watch street there is right as you come off the bridge by super power there's a lot of the vegetation growth hanging over the fence there that blocks the entire sidewalk and on the sidewalk there's a great which the the cement casing is to has deteriorated in it and it's a big opening probably about a foot wide so i called around to city and they said that the bridges federal property and so then i caught the superpower and these that year when my daughter was riding her bike to work she drives now the owner at least cut the brush back for me of superpower but he also said that's not his property  and but now as i go to work every morning and i walk past that and i see that you have to literally get off the sidewalk and so you're coming around the bin where the traffic  division of the oncoming traffic is blocked by this vegetation that is hanging over the fence and there's a big gap in the sidewalk between the gate to great and the street and so like i said i did call the city about it when my daughter was working they devised me it was federal property i caught superpowered that year he did cut the vegetation back but every year this vegetation keeps coming back and that great is still has that big an opening there is for kids that ride their bike there if their will gets caught and there was an accident waiting to happen so i just wanted to bring it up thank you thank you m ok i have no one else signed up for pulled to the floor and now move on to miscellaneous comments from the council i can finish this it's very important because just reading it me h you people you don't inspect you don't go to a children's hospital find out what's going on look at me i have three children ten grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren and two great grandchildren you know around coming from when i read this page in a paper i couldn't believe it or you i experienced it eighteen months old or you're not x and he's still going for twelve years old he's still been gone for in the structure inside and repaired and he'd gone through hell opportunity for the city in the county to come to an agreement for a distribution of sales tax revenue the item on the agenda regarding the firehouse and bring to an avenue  e agreement that's between ne parent and child and the city i just want to make sure i think you pointed out as well but that the northeast upon completion of six months of ownership he agreed to pay one hundred percent of city property taxes in fees and so there was some discussion whether this facility would be sold to a not for profit organization or for profit organization and i mean there was discussion of a couple  different opportunities out there and what's one was the right one to pursue i'm not sure if we've gotten formal proposals from other organizations that was not clear but i am happy to say that  i'd like to commend the goose hill the neighborhood association for their work in their community garden the mayor and i were there last week for ripping cutting and the garden is amazing to really as they they did one heck of a job with that and i commend all of them for the hard work they put in what can be done and they were good when people get together and work for a common good that's that's really something to see and i commend the the neighborhood watch and the national night out that is if there is one thing that they really do to it's to find lost children and any of us that's had children you know what it feels like if your child is lost and you can't find your child that's something that you can only experience once and to find have them find your child this is amazing and i think we should i think what fred lee had to say about pictures i think that's a good thing a lot of us would think about that haven't current pictures but it's a good idea so i think that's something that should be done the thing about burrell park mayor i hope you could look into this and see what the problem is and why that parks in that shape i have had numerous complaints about the activities that go on there overnight from people that live in schenectady street and they do see destry at the park the street everything is a total mess after whatever activities are going on there overnight we can have this this is something we can't have again i even hate this tsunami thing say it's hamilton hill it's bellevue it's here it's schenectady is what it is this is schenectady where one city we're all in this together this is all one community and why i'm not saying that there's some communities treated better than others or worse all others but obviously there's a problem that's been brought to our attention a brawl park and a people are trying to put on a lunch program there and the the facilities are not usable i don't think that's something that's  acceptable and i'm sure mayor you'll be looking into this to do something about it because stuff just can't happen i had a friend of mine bring something to my attention and mayor hope maybe it's a good idea i think and it's this lady called it we should have a clean sweep sunday maybe once a month where we can get volunteers together and designate to clean up one area in the city and get volunteer group and i think through facebook this is a friend of mine on facebook i think it's a good idea it's a catchy name clean sweep sunday and not to do any landscaping or anything but the pick up the litter and debris that's left all over the city i too am a walker and when you walk you see a lot of things and there's a lot of stuff that's thrown out throughout the city we have people throwing trash out windows in backyards which i'm going to get an address for the commissioner for them to look into what's going on there with some activity on i believe in the area of grant avenue above i think this is a good idea mayor maybe we can organize something we can get some volunteers together to maybe put this together for once a month for two or three hours in the afternoon get a group of volunteers maybe in certain neighborhoods we'd get the neighbor reach out to the neighborhood associations get them involved also because i think that would have a positive aspect on  and the neighborhoods so i think that's a good idea and i'd i'm willing to follow through with it now willing to work with you with the mayor and this lady if she can she said she's willing toward deny so volunteers a good thing we're not going to turn that down that's for sure i like to think the city clerk for taking care of the minutes in amending the minutes that and i'm very happy with that take back our neighborhood this is this is a great certainly a great program i think that's what we have to do in all our neighborhoods there's some things that are going on you know that i brought to your attention before the lady in pleasant and the commissioner and the police department are working on that that home invasion and there's also another elderly couple called me up being threatened we have terrorists in our city i have to say that i call them terrorists because that's what they are they're threatening elderly people they're threatening people that want to live in peace and that's something that's just not acceptable so i like to take back our neighborhood turn the guns and that's great and i think we should take that literally take back our neighborhoods that's what people should do we have to stand up and be counted and i'll be right right where the a standing up because this is important with the whole aspect of your program mayor of getting the city back in shape so whatever we can do to help i'm here to help so thank you when i was making my comments earlier about the about the cricket i just want to add something about that i had the opportunity as i learned more about it this weekend to actually go to a cricket match in central park and it was for youth so not only does it bring you know groups together do things i saw a youth who were just enjoying themselves there was team unship going on they actually had a group from another city who came to play so there's positive things happening for young people and i think it's extremely important that as we do this we keep in mind the what we're really really trying to do is to make sure that we have recreation for everyone who wants to be involved but it's specifically for our youth because there's so many other things that they could be doing  in terms of jerry parole park i also got something from a from some from habitat for humanity that one of the homeowners on schenectady street would like to see lights at the basketball court i guess that night i don't guess i know that at night a lot of things go on so the homeowners are extremely concerned about that so as i said the habitat for humanity has building houses there is has a concern as well and like to see us to be able to do that today i had the opportunity to go to central park where it had catholic charities which have the event for seniors in central park and i got to hear quite a bit and one of the things that they were talking about was the foreclosures and they could service that they had a regarding that so i just really need to say that our residents are really concerned to what is going to be about the impact on our city and i spoke to bear about this that it's some point we would have some kind of public forum so people can get a real handle on exactly what's going on what's going to happen so that they have a better understanding and don't just make decisions based on you know what they may think so i hope we can do that and the women that we're speaking today you know felt that their voice wasn't being heard although i encouraged them to come down for themselves and to speak they felt that their voices were being heard and i assured them that i would when i was at the council meeting tonight that i would mention that so as we move forward to this through this process which i know is going to be you know a process is going to take a lot of work that we keep in mind the concerns of the residents that that are being voiced thank you thank you  annual steak and lobster fest benefit for the schenectady day nursery in central park at the picnic million from five to eight p m and they've added a new feature this year which is a drive through order and pick up service so for folks who don't want to just enjoy the park you can take it out menu of course is always great it's either a fourteen out steak or a one and a quarter pound lobster and other things that go with it there's a surf and turf and a special hot dog dinner for kids so tickets if you're interested are available the open door bookstore one twenty eight j street or firefly florestan gifts at sixteen eleven union street or by calling five one eight three seven thank you couple of things mr unknown commented on the pit bulls being placed here for massachusetts and i agree it's a very upsetting situation and you know i did contact corporation counsel his office to see if there was any way we could adapt our new legislation and of course because it didn't happen in schenectady we cannot but given the situation and i'm very pleased that we have this new legislation to at least allow us some measure within our own community to these in the you know this important issue because very upsetting i too had correspondence with ms roberts regarding clean sweep she has a really good s idea and i offered her my support as well so it will be an interesting thing to see may have the council can come together and along with the mayor come up with a comprehensive plan and i think week after week we see people who are stepping up in their community and really putting in a lot of effort into certain neighborhoods and i think for us to support that as a whole would be a great thing couple of just general announcements  holding a foster care and adoption informational session at stake he county community college it's on monday august twentieth at six p m and the lolli mohawk room so if anyone is interested  in exploring the possibility of being a foster parent it would be a great session again that's monday august twentieth six p m in the room it's going to be county community college another thing i want to call attention to the grey volunteer effort is the historic stockade now has a phone in audio tour so people coming into our area or people who are interested in learning more about this decade you can pick these up at the visitor's center at proctor's coll in a number on your smartphone and it will give you different audio highlights of the stockade you can also learn more about that at a historic stack a dot com thank you madam president would appreciate the council who we support for the efforts for the cricket teams it's not quite where we'd like it but everybody seems to be coming together in the will clearly get a higher utilization right of way but we'll see if we can work with them or get it cleared up so that that problem doesn't exist we'll check that gap in the pavement in cost per fairleigh not aware of any discussion of our closure we're not talking about closing any parks in for the dog legislation again it's solution a corporation council where those other offenses in other communities have to be equal or whether went to the violations in the city of schenectady and then our statute does apply and i thank commissioner bennett for following up on that personally when we were aware of the situation and we had discussions and he personally reviewed that saw that the dog owners were ticketed because again they came in here they know what the rules are and they are just not acting in a manner as responsible pet owners so that it's all the challenges