Hello, Collar City! This is Issue 21, dated Feb. 8, 2019.

Council Member Wanted

State of the City

Replaced two sewer pump stations,

Replaced a water line running under the Poestenkill Creek that serves most of the Eastside, Poestenkill and North Greenbush,

Completed the engineering for the replacement of our water transmission lines that transport all of our water from our Tomhannock Reservoir to our water treatment plant. We also secured a $10M grant to offset a portion of the cost of that project,

We completed the stabilization of the embankment on Brunswick Road damaged by Hurricane Irene,

Began construction on the Seawall Flood Mitigation Project,

Continued the sidewalk and curb replacement project completing over a mile of sidewalks, curbing, crosswalks and new street lighting,

Completed a storm water separation project on Burdett Avenue which will lead to a reduction of instances in which heavy storms cause overflows of sewage into the Hudson River,

Installed 4 sewer meeting pits to monitor infiltration of storm water from surrounding towns into our sewer system. The data generated will inform future steps we can take to reduce sewage overflows into the Hudson River, and

Continued our street paving program laying over 16,000 tons of payment in 2018 alone.

Complete the $24.3M Seawall Flood Mitigation project (weather permitting),

And following on the heels of that we will begin construction on the New Marina,

Begin Construction on the long awaited South Troy Industrial Roadway,

Complete the relining of the compromised Campbell Ave sewer line,

Complete the renovation of the South Troy Pool,

Begin the replacement of 5 miles of our water transmission lines from the Tomhannock Reservoir, this project will take 18 to 24 months to complete,

Begin the restoration of 3 of our 4 water tanks including the installation of aeration systems to improve water quality in the tanks,

Install another storm water separation system at 124th Street, further reducing sewage overflows into the Hudson,

Our CDBG funded sidewalk replacement program will move into South Troy this spring, and

Complete the demolition of the long vacant Leonard Hospital on New Turnpike Road.

The replacement of the Campbell Avenue bridge over the Wynantskill Creek, we secured a $3.6M Bridge NY grant for this project,

The replacement of the Knickerbacker Park Pool,

And the replacement of the Knick Ice Rink,

The replacement of the Tibbits Avenue water tank which is of insufficient size for today’s demands and has proven to be very expensive to maintain,

The renovation or replacement of the Lansingburgh Firehouse, and

The future of the Mount Ida Dam.

New, Big BAN

Links

In this issue: the aftermath of city councilman Mark McGrath's resignation, water chestnuts, the state of the city, and an interesting pronouncement in bonding documentation.Last night, at a regular meeting, Republican city council president Carmella Mantello withdrew an emergency resolution she'd put forward one day earlier to create a committee consisting of one council member from each party and five residents of District 2 that, in turn, would have made recommendations as to who the council should appoint to fill Mark McGrath's recently vacated position.McGrath resigned on Monday after a three-year-old voicemail in which he uses racial slurs was described in an article by the Times Union.Mantello had added the committee-creating resolution to the agenda on Wednesday by essentially invoking an emergency. Current city council rules require that legislative items must be "approved by committee or chairperson at least two (2) weeks before a regular meeting" in order to be placed on its agenda, but an exception can be made "in the event of an emergency," which is "determined by the appropriate committee chairperson or by the President of the Council."In an email to council members, Mantello had said the special committee would "open the door for residents of District 2 to express their ideas and recommendations" regarding the pending appointment.The city council, where Democrats now outnumber Republicans four to two, is empowered to appoint McGrath's replacement by a simple majority vote. The Democrats appeared disinclined to support Mantello's committee proposal. Council member David Bissember said that District 2 residents interested in serving out the remainder of McGrath's term should submit their resumes to the city clerk's office (Had McGrath not resigned, Democratic council member Colleen Paratore said later in the meeting, the council majority was prepared to "force him out." The majority wants to appoint a person of color to the empty seat, she added. Nearly a third of District 2 residents are African-American, council president Mantello said yesterday.)Mantello said her decision to withdraw the committee-creating resolution followed a conversation with Reverend Charles Burkes of the Troy African-American Pastoral Alliance and an email in which she learned "some other folks would like to vet the committee [idea] a little more."During the open public comment part of the meeting, which can be viewed here (albeit with the camera fixed only on the council, not the speakers), at least two members of Justice for Dahmeek, a group formed in the aftermath of the non-fatal police shooting of Dahmeek McDonald, who has since sued the city in federal court, addressed the council on a number of topics.Messiah Cooper, McDonald's uncle, expressed disappointment that the construction of various improvements planned for the Seventh & Ingalls Avenue park has not yet begun. "We need the park fixed, like, today," he said.Those planned improvements include a splash pad, a connection to the adjacent bike trail, a "redo" of the basketball courts, new walkways, new playground equipment, a pavilion, and bathrooms, deputy mayor Monica Kurzejeski said after being asked by council member Paratore to address Cooper's complaint. The city intends to seek public input on the project, then solicit bids this summer (the mayor had said "early this year" in his state of the city address) for construction, which would start in the fall and proceed in stages so that the entire park is never shuttered, Kurzejeski said."That sounds promising," said Cooper, who further called on the city to explore the creation of a community center in the North Central neighborhood. He said the former electronics supply building next to the Seventh & Ingalls Avenue park would be an ideal site. (Jerry Ford, a deacon at United Ordained Church, later echoed this sentiment.)Another speaker, Anastasia Robertson, a former District 2 council member, said she was not surprised by McGrath's comments. "It hurts to live somewhere where every time you walk into a meeting...the people that are representing me, none of them look like me," she said. "And none of them make an effort to reach across or outside of the area that they're in to say, 'We need to be more inclusive. We need to be more diverse. We need to reach out to other folks.'""Kayaks are fun," Robertson said, referring to the soon-to-be-completed Ingalls Avenue Boat Launch, "but they don't do anything to help the homeless, to help the elderly, to help my neighbor whose house is falling down and can't find two cents to fix it."Luz Marquez-Benbow, also a member of Justice for Dahmeek, renewed the group's call for the establishment of a civilian police review board with subpoena power. At his state of the city address this week (discussed further below), Mayor Patrick Madden said that, following meetings with police chief Brian Owens and the African-American Pastoral Alliance facilitated by the Department of Justice, the city now has "a six point plan that includes monthly meetings between the Alliance and the leadership of the Police Department as well as the formation of a Community Relations Board in which members of the community and police officers can meet to build trust and increase transparency.""I think we need to see that six-point plan," Marquez-Benbow said. "And I furthermore think that we need to understand what this community relations board is about. So where's the transparency and where's the accountability?"The mayor's spokesman did not immediately respond to an inquiry today as to whether the six-point plan is publicly available., the city council endorsed the city's grant application to the state Department of Environmental Conservation for funds to remove water chestnuts, an invasive species, from the Route 7 side of the Tomhannock Reservoir. Chris Wheland, the city's superintendent of public utilities, said the water chestnuts don't affect the water quality.If the city wins the grant, which could be as large as $100,000, it will be required to provide a 25 percent local match (for instance, a $50,000 grant would require the city to kick in another $12,500).Council member Anasha Cummings said he has experience removing water chestnuts. "It is not an easy task," he said. "They do come up easily, but they also have very sharp seeds."Mayor Patrick Madden, who is running for reelection this year, delivered his fourth State of the City this week . Though he has a dry wit, the mayor is not the most electrifying public speaker, as he'd probably acknowledge, and well-worn sentiments and turns of phrase ("fact-based budgeting"; "not out of the woods yet"; "The practice of kicking the can down the road has stopped"; "Healthy neighborhoods are essential building blocks for strong and vibrant communities") abounded.Still, much like the bonding-related official statement discussed below, the speech did provide a pretty comprehensive, if rose-colored, look at what our city government has been up to, and it broke at least a little bit of news (namely, the promotion of Assistant Chief Eric McMahon to Chief of the Troy Fire Department).There was this recap of infrastructure projects completed last year:An unequivocal commitment ("we will") to the following projects this year:And a softer commitment ("Planning will begin this year for") to these projects:The speech also included a section on zombie properties, vacant homes that are seemingly trapped in protracted foreclosure proceedings. I think this part—"We have commenced our first enforcement action against a lender with several zombie properties in the City and we are partnering with the City of Albany to go after another who has several properties in both Troy and Albany"—was news, but the mayor's spokesman didn't respond to a request for more details on these actions.Then there were stats: single-family home prices increased (9.3 percent, compared to 2017), days on market for those homes decreased (35 percent), violent and property crime decreased (21 and 17 percent, respectively), though the number of shots fired "remained level with 2017, a statistic which reflects the increasing number of illegal guns available throughout the region," the mayor said. More than two dozen businesses opened downtown, and the city wrote building permits on more than $90 million worth of construction, a 39 percent increase from 2017.Toward the end of the speech, the mayor thanked city workers for their continued service: "We have struggled through some difficult years. We’ve endured staffing reductions. The staff has worked without contracts sometimes for years on end. And too much of our equipment is old and failing. Yet the workforce continues to be there for us."Proponents of the sanctuary city resolution demonstrated outside the event's entrance before the speech. The mayor, who has said he does not support the resolution, later told WOOC that he was "delighted" that they attended.This week the mayor's office announced that Moody's Investors Service recently assigned a "MIG 1" rating—"the best quality rating available," per the press release—to the city's $35.5 million in bond anticipation notes slated for issuance this month.The borrowed funds will cover an array of city council-authorized projects, including the repair or replacement of both municipal pools, the Ingalls Avenue Boat Launch, body-worn cameras for police, and the renovation of the Knickerbacker Ice Rink.Skim or read the official statement related to the BAN sale here . I always find these documents interesting to peruse, since they offer a broad-but-detailed look at the city (though in this one I did spot a few minor errors—the statement lists Apprenda, which has shut down , as a major employer and speaks of the Tapestry on the Hudson project as if it has not been completed).One possibly news-y nugget in the statement: The city expects the long-awaited renovation of the American Theater to begin this year. It's hard to know how much stock to put in that, though. Nearly a year ago, as I reported for The Alt , Steve Strichman, the executive director of the city's industrial development and planning commissioner, said, rather cryptically, that he was "anticipating being approached again by Bonacio" Construction, which owns the historic downtown property through an affiliate, regarding the project.In a 2018 Regional Economic Development Council progress report , the project is marked red for "concerns" (projects are marked as either "complete," "on schedule," "in progress," "delayed," "terminated," or "concerns"), but no specifics are provided about the basis for that label. Empire State Development's press office referred questions about the project's timetable to the city and/or developer but said two state grants it oversees are still dedicated to the project.Sonny Bonacio, the president of Bonacio Construction, didn't return a request for comment on Thursday. Steve Strichman also did not return a request for comment.