Dunkirk Mayor Richard Frey had some good news and some bad news for the Common Council Tuesday in its workshop session.
The city will be receiving more money from New York state for brownfields remediation.
"I was notified by the governor's office (Tuesday) that we were granted another $303,750 for brownfield cleanup at the AL Tech site," Frey announced. "This should pretty well clean this up. What the limitations are, I don't know. I'll find out (today) what we have.
"I have to publicly thank the governor, knowing there's places west of Buffalo that need help. A month ago he came through with our RestoreNY grant for $2.5 million."
The bad news was about the vehicle the city electrician uses - it reached the end of the line last Wednesday.
"It died, the transmission, the motor. We could go ahead and probably do that for a couple thousand dollars but the deterioration of the vehicle itself, the rust, ... it would be throwing good money after bad," Frey said. "We had an opportunity to go out and purchase a vehicle for $8,800. ... Our mechanics today went over it thoroughly."
The current van is a 1995 model while the replacement van would be a 2005 model to be purchased from Jim White's dealership in Silver Creek.
Frey said since the electrician does work paid for in all three city funds, money could be transferred from the contingency accounts in all three. The general fund would give $5,000 while both the water and wastewater treatment funds would kick in $2,000 each.
"It's an emergency-type situation and that's what the contingencies are there for," Councilman-at-Large James Muscato noted.
Council agreed to pass a verbal resolution to approve the immediate fund transfer and purchase of the van under new business. The transfer was agreed to with Resolution 61-2009 by a unanimous vote, as were the other three resolutions.
Passed were 58-2009 proclaiming November as Veterans Remembrance Month; 59-2009 changing the date of council's next meeting due to the election to Nov. 2 at 6 p.m. and 60-2009, which transferred $35,000 from four different accounts within the Community Development Block Grant budget to CDBG's owner occupied housing rehabilitation account.
Council also referred a petition from APD Engineering & Architecture on behalf of Westlake Development requesting water and sewer connections for an Advance Auto store on Vineyard Drive in the town of Dunkirk to the Department of Public Works engineering department to be put into resolution form after studying the issue. The proposal calls for the parts store to be more than 6,000 square feet and located on the south side of Vineyard Drive in the town of Dunkirk, some 700 feet east of Main Street.
A late addition to the agenda was a communication from the mayor appointing members of the Greater Dunkirk Area Harbor Commission.
Two new members were appointed to terms expiring Aug. 31, 2011. Eugene Pauszek, 66 W. Doughty St. and Paul Cybart, 215 Middle Rd. will join four members who were reappointed.
Allan Zurawski, 629 Swan St. was appointed until Aug. 31, 2011. Jim Nichols, 212 Lincoln Ave. was appointed until June 6, 2011; Mike Rosing, 46 Wilson Ave. will serve until June 6, 2010 and current chairman Kurt Warmbrodt was reappointed to serve until Dec. 18, 2009.
Also added to the agenda was a petition seeking permission for a polar bear plunge on Nov. 14. Lauren Piche, vice president of SUNY Fredonia's Campus Climate Challenge, wrote to request the plunge to gain publicity for the group's efforts. Council approved the request and referred it to the Police, Fire and Public Works departments along with City Attorney Dan Gard.
Council also agreed to set Halloween trick-or-treat hours between 2 and 6 p.m. at its next meeting after learning the city plans to hold a Halloween festival-type event in the harbor area from approximately 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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