Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 838, it's Guest-O-Rama Friday and Friday extravaganza with Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason. Good morning and welcome back.
Chuck Mason: Hey, good morning, Ted.
Paul Szmal: So, everyone just heard during the news, the mayor made the commemoration last night. September 11th has been designated by Congress as Patriot Day and the city has its own solemn remembrance of September 11th, 2001 and the people who died at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.
Chuck Mason: That's right. The memorial for the events of September 11th, 2001 here in Auburn is located right outside my window actually at City Hall where I work. Right outside my office window, I could see the 9-11 memorial and it was installed I think about 16 or 17 years ago now. There was a committee involved at the time that followed protocol and they had received a piece of iron from the World Trade Center and that's incorporated into the monument but we will be convening at 840 a.m. next Wednesday on September 11th, 2024 for a brief ceremony.
The ceremony will go from about 840 to about a little bit after 9 a.m. and then the old Wheeler Bell atop City Hall will ring at the time of each event that was significant on the morning of September 11th, 2001. So, Mayor Genitino, it's an open to the public ceremony, invites everybody out. We will have representation from Auburn Police, Fire and Ambulance on the south lawn of Memorial City Hall.
So, right now on the weather forecast, looking like it's going to be a nice week next week so come on out and we'll pay our remembrance to the events of September 11th.
Paul Szmal: There were three bidders for work on the city sidewalk replacement program. A Canastota company was the low bidder. So, remind us what work they're going to be doing.
Chuck Mason: Yes, so there's several different sidewalk programs that come before the Council for award. We just a few weeks ago did the CDBG contract. So, this is going to be the general City of Auburn sidewalk program and it's going to be lots of small projects all throughout the city where there's been sidewalks designated as in need of repair. The CDBG program, on the other hand, usually picks a street or two and they kind of focus their energy all on a certain street. This year we'll be up on Owasco Street with the CDBG program, but this regular city sidewalk program will be probably in dozens of locations replacing disrepaired sidewalks. Sometimes it's just like maybe two sections of sidewalk at a time. Sometimes it's these pieces of sidewalk that have kind of heaved up because of various reasons.
So, it'll be just a lot of scattered work all throughout the city and last night the Council unanimously awarding that contract to the lowest qualified bidder. There were three bids received, so the lowest qualified bidder gets the work for this fall. You'll probably see a lot of sidewalk work happening in the City of Auburn over these next six weeks as we still got about six to eight weeks of good construction weather to go.
Paul Szmal: We've talked about the City Court Expansion Project at the Historic Post Office Building on Genesee Street. There was a change order last night when they took a look at the building, they found it needed a lot more HVAC work than they first thought.
Chuck Mason: That's right, and this is a project that we've been working with Cougar County on, and obviously if you've been paying attention to the news, the building needs of Cougar County have certainly changed drastically over the last few months. So, we've been working on this particular building project with Cougar County for a couple of years now, but there was more work required than anticipated due to the historic nature of the building. So, the County and the City in agreement with how that's going to be funded, and the Council last night passing the Council resolution that'll allow that work to be completed and that work to be reimbursed by Cougar County to the City of Auburn.
The engineer that's done the design work will be paid, but it's going to be a project that's financed by the County as well as the efforts of the City.
Paul Szmal: The Cougar County Water and Sewer Authority has a deal with the City to provide some water. The City originally was going to let that deal expire. They've since decided they want to renegotiate it, so what they've done is extended it for a year, I guess while the talks go on, is that what it is?
Chuck Mason: That's correct, and the current agreement, which is a couple of decades old, would be expiring next week. However, the City and the Water and Sewer Authority have been in meetings for the last few months in which we've been talking about the future, and we feel as though an additional year on the existing contract will allow for those talks to continue and give them adequate enough time to come to completion, whether the contract is continued or not. But last night, the Council unanimously agreeing with the City Manager to extend that contract, the existing contract, for one more year, and that was approved last night by the City Council.
So we'll probably sometime, my guess is sometime in the spring, by the spring of next year, we'll probably have more of a long-term contract that might be taken into consideration. They just needed a few more months to make that whole process work.
Paul Szmal: So is this drinking water that the Authority provides the City beyond what it gets from Awasco Lake?
Chuck Mason: No, this is drinking water the City provides the Authority.
Paul Szmal: Oh, I'm sorry, the other way around.
Chuck Mason: And then, yeah, the other way around. And then the Authority sells to customers that are further out from the City and the Cuyahoga County. So it's, we've worked with them for many, many years, and the contract is up. You know, you enter into these contracts that are 20-year contracts, and you think that they'll never end. But sooner or later they come to their final point, and here we are.
But a lot has changed over that time as well, especially with the needs of water out in the County. So there's a lot more to be thought about as far as the service that is provided through these contracts. So a little bit more work and a little bit more detail needed to finish this contract up.
Paul Szmal: The Council got an in-depth recap of the summer rec program last night, but the thing that stands out, wow, last year 1,300 people, this year over 2,000. Exactly. Nearly doubling the attendance.
Chuck Mason: The amount of activity was definitely doubled, and just great participation, not only from the community, but from the sponsorships we receive from local businesses and foundations, to the volunteers that work the program, and the staff that work the program. It was just a great year. And last night, Meg Gremley, who is a teacher with the Auburn School District and helps us run the summer rec program with Brian Rhodes, who's the City of Auburn Director of Recreation and oversees things down at Falcon Park for us, they were on hand to go through the entire program for this summer and man, it was really a success.
We're already planning things out for next year. A lot of thoughts and ideas fresh in everybody's mind, as the program just ended a few weeks ago. But we're really looking forward to putting this together annually, and it was really well received.
Brian and Meg last night went through the results of a survey that they handed out to the parents and to the kids. An overwhelming response from people that they really loved the program, and collected some thoughts and ideas about what people want to see in the future.
Last night on hand with Meg and with Brian were some of the junior counselors that are students at the junior high school here in the City of Auburn, and these kids spent their summer volunteering down at the summer rec program. There was 11 of these students that volunteered all summer long as junior counselors, and they were some of them were on hand last night and the Mayor Genitino made a presentation to them as well, and thanked them for their service.
You know they dedicated part of their summer vacation to help other younger children in the community enjoy their summer vacation. So it was really just an overall success, and we want to give a special shout out and a special thanks to, you know, the over 30 sponsors that we had. Foundations and businesses in town that really stepped up and made some significant contributions to this program, so we were really able to do a lot out in our city parks this summer.
And we'll be planning away already for next summer. Brian and Meg already starting to talk about some of the ideas that they have for future summers, and some additional equipment needs that we have. One thing in particular, this sport of gaga ball, I don't know if you've ever seen this Ted, but it is incredibly popular with the kids. I can't figure out exactly what it is that they're doing with gaga ball, but the the kids definitely understand it, and so we might be investing in a second or even a third gaga ball court for the kids to use in future summers, because that sport is at the moment is incredibly popular, and was super popular all summer long, every day at summer rec.
So more to come on this, probably we'll be back with these guys in the spring when they come back around to council to start talking about next summer, but can't say enough about the great work that our staff and volunteers and sponsors put into this year's program, and we thank everybody for all that work.
Paul Szmal: Tonight is first Friday on the city website, auburnny.gov. You can get the full brochure, events or deals in 17 different locations, and the Infrared Radiation Orchestra.
Chuck Mason: That's right, and it's coordinated by the Auburn Downtown Bid and our historic and cultural sites. There's stuff going on every first Friday for 10 Fridays out of the year. We take the two winter months off, but there's always something to do on the first Friday in downtown Auburn and at our historic sites, and then we end the night, tomorrow night, downtown.
The final music on the mall for the summer season, and that is the Stephen Calley Band will be playing down on State Street from 7 till 10. I'm watching the weather forecasts closely as Mother Nature is threatening us with some rain at the 10 to 11 p.m. hour, but hopefully we'll get that concert in well before any rain comes. It looks like it's going to be a beautiful evening in downtown Auburn for the final music on the mall, so come on out. It'll be a little bit cool, but Stephen Calley Band will be a perfect band for tonight's weather.
Paul Szmal: I know tomorrow doesn't look great, but please support Tomato Fest that runs tomorrow. That's rain or shine, and there'll be plenty of fun things to do even if we do get a little rain. We got a preview from Jill Dubrower recently, and what a great event for the food pantries throughout the county.
Chuck Mason: That's right, and right now the forecast looks like the rain is coming the first half of the day, might clear out for the second half of the afternoon, but there's live music scheduled all throughout the day, and it is a rain or shine event. Things will be happening, and things will be moving forward rain or shine, so come on down to downtown Auburn tomorrow, Saturday, September 7th for the annual Tomato Fest.
Paul Szmal: All right, lots going on as always. Chuck, thanks.
Chuck Mason: Thank you, Ted. Have a great weekend, everybody.
