Local Stimulus

We in the city have several issues to deal with; our problems are not unusual for a small city in upstate NY. We suffer from a decaying infrastructure and a shrinking population that puts stress on our ability to provide cost effective services to our residents.

The cities sidewalks, roads, water and sewer infrastructures have seen better days. A lot of our infrastructure is depression era work that was done in the 1920’s. Our recent financial problems have left us with very little money for these necessary repairs. Currently our water system has several points that are leaking water into the ground. Water that doesn’t make it to your tap is wasted and still must be paid for through an increase in the cost of water rates. There is also another problem with our aging water system; the old pipes we have are smaller 4’ pipes that do not have enough capacity for fire protection. 

Financially it has been a long hard road back to stability for our city. The numbers show that our tough choices in recent years have secured our footing on solid ground. The success of Batavia Downs has been a big help for our city. For the last several years the state government has given communities that host tracks money. This money is not something we believed would continue so, up to this point the city has only used this money for debt reduction. In the last two years close to a million dollars of this VLT money has helped pay down our debt. This year’s numbers will show our city back in the black and financially solvent. Our new budget is also more business like and was created with long term planning in mind. The use of contingency funds to put money aside for replacing equipment and future repairs will help us in the long run and keep your tax rate level. 

As you probably have heard by now, the federal government has passed a bill they believe will create jobs and help get our economy moving again. Our city staff and Council have been watching the events leading up to this bill very closely and taking proactive steps to assure that our community is not left behind. Myself as well as Marianne Clattenburg have just returned from a series of meetings in Albany . These meetings were designed to inform mayors from around the state about the grant money for infrastructure repairs available as part of this stimulus aid. We were able to secure several private meetings, chief among them were with representatives of the governors office.

The information we obtained has given us a clear understanding of what the city needs to do to compete for this very large pool of money. The federal government is interested in giving our economy an immediate boost and is looking for projects that are call “shovel ready”. A shovel ready project is one that is already planned, has a design, and is ready to start. It has been made very clear to us that any project that is to be considered must be able to have the first shovel in the ground within 180 days. This month council acted to invest this year’s state VLT aid money to create the designs necessary to make sure that our city and county benefit from the federal stimulus bill. We will actively pursue any avenue necessary to ensure our city speaks with a voice loud enough to be heard. This bill and securing our share of the stimulus aid is a prime concern of the City Council.