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Common Council Meeting with Committee of the Whole Meeting February 4th, 2026

8 matches · 4 unidentified

33:20

And Marques, I, I, we have a piece of legislation that's in committee that I submitted quite some time ago. I mean, previously when I was a council before I got reelected, is I think that that would be an easier streamline thing to do as far as vacant registries for buildings. And I, I just think that that would be less burden, a lesser burden on you So if you are to amend it, at least take into consideration that piece of legislation. Well, you— we talked about it together. I know, I know.

Unidentified speaker 39:48

As far as I know, it's always been in perpetuity. I've never— until this came up I've never known of any limits on billboards at all.

Unidentified speaker 50:44

I think you have to keep in mind that first of all, whether you believe it or not, my wife and I were skiers. We used to ski at Woods Valley all the time, and even then it was very expensive. Woods Valley, how they didn't go bankrupt for about 5 summers in a row, or winters. Now last year we had a 1970s winter. This year we have a 1967 winter. 70s winter. I haven't seen this in a long time. And these ski places, they are profit-making. When you set your rates for a municipal opportunity, you don't look to private enterprises who have to make a profit to stay in business. How Woods Valley survived those preceding 5 years, I don't know. So I think you have to keep in mind that your attractiveness of as a city is built upon your facilities. You show me another city that has a ski operation right in the middle of the city. It has swimming pools in the city. It has a golf course in the city that unlike the ski slope, our golf course can stand up with anybody. The ski slope has one hill, really. It used to have what they called the bunny hill for the beginning skier. That was discontinued. A lot of children go there with toboggans and tubes, and they usually go there free. They just come down the hill, that's all. But because it's secure from traffic, it's an attraction. Utica, in fact, just the other day, my wife and I were driving by there and I said, "See, here we are in the middle of January and that ski tow isn't working." And it didn't work last year, as far as I know. What Utica has to offer is so unique, uh, and the people who, uh, go there on that one hill— you got to be a pretty good skier to go down the main hill of Valley View, which is really—

53:48

I know nothing is not open yet. Tomorrow Tomorrow they are testing all of it. As far as the toboggan and what you're talking about, there's no charge for that.

Unidentified speaker 1:12:48

Again, just speaking off the cuff, Jack, as far as I know, I don't— I make an assumption that the unused sick time was already paid out, and this is, this is what remains.

1:22:02

I can, please, between Stephanie and I, we Certainly. There was a mor— the Council may remember that there was— this body passed a moratorium almost 6 months ago. That was a 6-month moratorium which is up within the next couple weeks. So this piece and the next piece which addresses better battery storage was in response to those two moratoriums. As far as billboards, this— the moratorium was requested because we had— our office had seen an uptick in the number of requests for zoning approvals and Planning Board approvals for additional billboards within the city, including one on the triangular site at the western gateway of Oriskany Boulevard into the city, which the Zoning Board actually granted approval for. But fortunately, DOT thought better of it and actually denied it, or we would have had a big billboard on that site. I'm suggesting that there be no more billboards allowed in the city, and that that would basically prevent any reviews by Planning Board, and that only existing billboards be permitted to remain.

Unidentified speaker 1:43:42

They've reviewed it. They know that there's regulations. The only thing we've been waiting to give me an answer on, which is why the legislation has got a blank in it, is the provision about how far from a residential from structure to structure what the distance should be.

2:53:19

Thank you, Mr. President. Um, just a couple, couple things as we, we approach, um, the month of February and March here. We received our audit, uh, copies our here recently as a council and members of the public listening. We of course have our budget meetings coming up later this month, and I think February and March are certainly our busiest as far as the finances of the, the city go. So I encourage members of the public to continue to attend, continue to stream YouTube, and continue to reach out to the council members with any questions you have as we make our way through the budget so we can incorporate that into our, into our questions. Other than that, thank you, Mr. President.