Quoted from bumblethru

Oh Salami..you know they do it for 'the kids'! Not to mention, where else could Kosiur get a job?

How many summer camps and youth job programs does he think we can support? We need to get the County out of the job creation business-starting with Lumpy's job and Metrograft. Senders is right instead of recreation City parks have become feeding centers/camps. What they did to Central Park they want to do to Hillhurst and Steinmetz. Someone on the City Council needs to send Lumpy packing. Let the County fund his expanding boondoggles.

Quoted from benny salami

How many summer camps and youth job programs does he think we can support? We need to get the County out of the job creation business-starting with Lumpy's job and Metrograft. Senders is right instead of recreation City parks have become feeding centers/camps. What they did to Central Park they want to do to Hillhurst and Steinmetz. Someone on the City Council needs to send Lumpy packing. Let the County fund his expanding boondoggles.

At one time the water was so clean- you could swim in the Steinmetz pond- there were not as many sidewalks back then.

Quoted Text

Council was given half-truth about
street paving plan

    An April 22 article, “Council: Sidewalk projects will wait,” amused me. In the article, it stated that the City Council was deliberating whether they should continue to fund Schenectady’s curb and sidewalk program.
    Unfortunately, it seems that some misinformation was provided to the council. They were told, “Since 1985, the city has paved 1.5 to two miles of streets a year, including sidewalks. Now Schenectady is facing the results of that choice.”
    In 1995, the late public works commissioner, Milt Mitchell, initiated the city’s curb program. His goal was to address resetting curbs on the streets where the curbing was the most deteriorated. In some cases, it was necessary and cost-effective to also replace the sidewalks at the same time the curbs were being reset.
    When I became mayor in 1996, I embraced the program as an effective way of addressing an important part of the city’s infrastructure. The annual goal was to reset one mile of curb per year and repave six to seven miles of paved streets. The city has approximately 120 miles of “paved” [asphalt] streets and approximately 50 miles of “dirt” [not asphalt but a gravel/tar mix] streets. The city adhered to the 20-year cycle of repaving the “paved” streets. Since leaving office at the end of 2003, I have noticed a dramatic increase in the city’s curb program.
    I have always wondered how the supposedly “cash-strapped” city could afford to so dramatically increase, from one mile to five to seven miles, the replacing curbs and sidewalks. Simultaneously, the roads have been allowed to deteriorate to the condition they are in today. I do not believe for one minute that the city has paved only 1.5 to two miles of streets per year, including sidewalks, since 1985. Perhaps that is the case since 2004, especially with regard to paving the streets.
    I was on the council from 1984 to 1995, and I know the street-paving program was in full swing.
    I would encourage the Gazette or a “good government watchdog group” to FOIL [Freedom of Information Law] the records from City Hall and analyze the data over the past 26 years to reveal the truth.

    ALBERT P. JURCZYNSKI
    Schenectady

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00903&AppName=1

Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY
Streets may trump parks, pools
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    Streets may take the priority over children’s summer programs this year.
    City Council members are considering funneling most of their federal Community Development Block Grant into street paving and sidewalk repair rather than enhancing the many summer programs offered by non-profi t groups.
    The council will vote next Monday after debating the issue one last time at the start of their 7 p.m. meeting at City Hall.
    Development Director Richard Purga had recommended that the city give more money to the groups running the city’s parks and pools, while also spending $516,000 of its $2.3 million grant on street paving. That would be an increase of $157,000 over last year — but city administrators asked for $1.2 million.
    And the $516,000 would pave sections of only four streets.
    “It’s just not enough,” said Councilman Thomas Della Sala. “I just want to see more in public works. That’s how we improve neighborhoods.”
    Councilman Carl Erikson quickly agreed. He proposed a sidewalk program in which the city would reimburse property owners for some of the costs of repairing their sidewalks.
    “A lot of neighborhoods have sidewalks you can’t roll a stroller on,” he said. “It’s expensive and a lot of people can’t afford to do it.”
    But if they were offered a partial reimbursement, possibly for their materials, he said many residents would likely rise to the task.
    “I think we’d see a lot of benefi t,” he said.
    The CDBG fund is closely regulated, with city officials limited in how much they can spend on each type of project. The nonprofits that run city pools and park programs cannot be given more than 15 percent of the total grant, for example.
    But public works projects are unlimited; the council could spend as much of the general CDBG grant as it wants.
    The question is whether the council is willing to funnel money to public works in the face of urgent pleas for money from other groups.
    Erikson said he’ll propose a series of cuts.
    “I will compile a list. I have no problem with pulling from other areas,” he said.
    Those groups had hoped for more, not less. In the proposed grant budget, most of them had been cut by 20 percent. The fi nal CDBG funds were higher than expected, giving the city about another $96,000 that could be spent on public works or divvied up among nonprofits and city departments.
    Other council members were not wedded to the idea of pouring most of CDBG into public works, but they, too, didn’t advocate for spreading the money out equally among the current recipients..............................>>>>......................................>>>>..................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00903&AppName=1

Bravo to Tom Della Sala! Finally one DEM is saying enough is enough to nonprofit giveaways. Every nickle of the CDBG money must go into road repair. What happened at the last council meeting was a new low. The condition of Brandywine, Union, McClellan, Crane, Nott and Union Avenue are all deplorable. BTW check out Nott where Grand Boulevard begins.

     Stop wasting money on curbs and sidewalks. Close the Stockade pool. Let the County support summer camps and Lumpy. The streets of the City were ignored for 8 years under Stratton while you looked the other way.  

thank goodness.....what's a 'fluffy' summer camp when your neighborhood and stomping grounds 9 out of 12 months of the year looks like a bombed out Iraq....

Quoted from benny salami

Bravo to Tom Della Sala! Finally one DEM is saying enough is enough to nonprofit giveaways. Every nickle of the CDBG money must go into road repair. What happened at the last council meeting was a new low. The condition of Brandywine, Union, McClellan, Crane, Nott and Union Avenue are all deplorable. BTW check out Nott where Grand Boulevard begins.

     Stop wasting money on curbs and sidewalks. Close the Stockade pool. Let the County support summer camps and Lumpy. The streets of the City were ignored for 8 years under Stratton while you looked the other way.  

Mr. Della Sala has nothing to lose by supporting the road repair agenda, he's on his way out.   More likely he is beating the election year mantra for the Dem. election year agenda.   This being the all of a sudden concern for the neighborhood neglect issue.    After all the critizism of lack of attention, which now has reached a boiling level, it is now pol. advantagous to begin the rhetoric in regard to this issue

Quoted from benny salami

Bravo to Tom Della Sala! Finally one DEM is saying enough is enough to nonprofit giveaways. Every nickle of the CDBG money must go into road repair.

how much you wanna bet the miracle 1/4 mile gets new sidewalks, cut outs and road patching?

Although the road repair is a welcomed idea, the city seems to be in damage control, chasing their tails and putting out fires that have been burning for years. While they were spending their time creating patronage jobs and giving away tax money to the 'friends and family club'.......ROME WAS BURNING!!!

Be aware....there is an election year coming up, so we will hear everything and anything just to win a vote. They should be told.....it's a little too late!

Quoted from Mr. Majestyk

Mr. Della Sala has nothing to lose by supporting the road repair agenda, he's on his way out.   More likely he is beating the election year mantra for the Dem. election year agenda.   This being the all of a sudden concern for the neighborhood neglect issue.    After all the criticism of lack of attention, which now has reached a boiling level, it is now pol. advantageous to begin the rhetoric in regard to this issue

Exactly right. What have the DEMS have done with the record property taxes? No one can even drive around the City without getting a wheel alignment or popping a cavity. The heat is on and finally there is some electable opposition. No cares about nonprofits, curbs or sidewalks. After sleeping on the job for 8 years the DEMS finally awake. Too little-too late.

    

And even if road repairs are done, this does not help the neighborhoods that greatly.   Due to the high taxes which allow for less $$$$ to be reinvested into ones home improvments, you still will see many unimproved properties.   Then when one does make the improvments the assessment goes up.    So with both of these points working against a homeowner, it is little wonder why the home owner is frustrated.   Add all that to a high tax structure as a discourgment to potential home buyers, when one does try to sell their home, and it is even more so discouraging

All true Mr. M but the roads are in obvious need of repair. Should we flush it down the toilet again on nonprofits as the DEMS have for years? Expand Lumpy Kosiur's summer camps-as if Central Park is not bad enough?

    At least with the highest taxes some major roads maybe passable. Patch over patch is no solution. The first order of business must be major property tax cuts. But this cannot happen with the current all DEM crew.

I had to go down cutler/10th ave and as I was dodging pot holes, I noticed they were putting in new sidewalks. But I agree with BS, roads are most important....they are a mess.

Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY
City roads’ condition critical Engineer lays plans for repairs; total fix to take years
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    On just one day this spring, four drivers hit potholes and ripped their tires apart on city roads.
    And that’s just the drivers who called AAA Northway.
    Mechanics report that they’re repairing more strut and shock damage, and the city engineer said the roads are so bad that they may be increasing residents’ cost of car ownership.
    “The user costs to your vehicle are going to go up on rougher roads. Even fuel costs are going to be higher,” City Engineer Paul Cassillo said.
    It has been a bruising spring in Schenectady. And finally, there are ratings to support the repeated complaints from residents who say more and more of the city’s roads are riddled with cracks, studded with potholes and eroding at the edges.
    Cassillo drove about a third of the city’s roads this spring, rating them and designing plans to fix them. What he found was that the city’s roads aren’t just in bad shape — they’re about to get much, much worse.
    In the next three to fi ve years, the number of roads in need of major work will double if nothing is done, he said.
    He’s developed a plan that will allow the city to repair those roads quickly, but the new roads won’t last as long as if they had been completely rebuilt. It’s a trade-off that he said must be made because of the severity of the problem.
    Of the 53 miles of road he inspected, “about 75 percent of them are in some level of distress,” he said. Twenty percent are in poor condition, meaning they need major work. Another 31 percent are in “fair-minus” condition.
    “Which is not good. They’re close to poor,” he said. “If we don’t do anything, we’re going to have another 20 to 30 percent in poor condition. I would estimate in three to five years, 40 percent of the city’s roads will be bad.”
    It didn’t happen overnight. Cassillo said a lack of extensive maintenance and repaving over the course of the past two decades brought the city to this point. ...........................>>>>..........................>>>>...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00102&AppName=1

The roads just didn't decide to fall apart this year, they have been falling apart for many years. Some of the roads were just patches on top of patches year after year so the city could pump millions into the two blocks of State St while the rest of the city fell apart. Come to Schenectady to see a show at Proctors and leave parts of your car here due to 53 miles of bad road.