A Fredonia resident wants to help the city of Dunkirk. Resident and student Jordan Abbott gave a presentation to the Citizens' Advisory Committee (CAC) at its January meeting regarding a GIS map.
A GIS, or geographic information system, is a mapping system that takes features of the real world and places them on a map.
"It's essentially a computer mapping program. It takes features in the real world and you can put them into a computer mapping program and put them into something that you can visualize a lot easier than walking around town," Abbott said.
Businesses, gas stations, hospitals and even potholes can be placed into this program. Abbott explained the program can be used to point out which areas have an excess of one service and what areas are lacking in a certain service such as restaurants or grocery stores.
GIS maps can also show problematic areas such as poor housing sections, sections of the city that are faced with crime or potholes.
"Instead of just driving around and saying "Oh, there's a pot hole here or there's a dilapidated house here,' you can put a point down on a map," Abbott said.
Once the GIS map is complete, the CAC could use the map to make recommendations to the city council. The city council and other community groups could use the map as well for whatever purpose they may need a city map of.
"It's pretty involved but it's pretty useful," Abbott said.
In an unrelated matter, the CAC has come one step closer to making a recommendation regarding the city charter. The CAC has been working on a resolution to be presented to the Common Council since summer on trying to revise the charter.
Councilman Mike Michalski has been working with the CAC to draw up a resolution that would be presented to the council. Michalski presented the resolution to the CAC which then in turn had its own recommendations. Other council members in attendance at the meeting had their opinions regarding the resolution.
In the resolution, the mayor would have final say regarding who serves on the charter review commission. Councilwoman Stacy Szukala, who was in attendance, believed the mayor should not be the final person to have this say, but instead the entire council should have input.
"I think having one mayor appoint all people to this position would be extremely biased. Whether it's this mayor, the next mayor or the one after that, I think that it needs to be a collaboration of council and mayor," she said.
CAC member Don Kaminski disagreed saying the mayor should have the responsibility and only one person should appoint members to the council.
The proposed recommendation suggests that all members of the charter review commission must be city registered voters for the past year, at least two members shall be from the business community, at least two members should be employed by the schools district, one member should be from the non-profit community, as well as one from the faith community and no more than two employees from the city or their immediate family can make up the commission which will consist of between 12 and 15 members. The resolution also says that members should represent a diverse cross section of residents from various backgrounds, expertise, wards, ethnicity and gender.
The recommendation passed with majority of the vote from CAC members. The CAC will now present their recommendation to the city council.
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