Paul Szmal: It is now 8.39, cloudy skies, still 60 here on FLX Morning on Finger Lakes Newsradio. And we're joined with Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason on the line with us now. Good morning, Chuck. How are you, sir?
Chuck Mason: Hey. Good morning, Paul. I'm good. How are you doing today?
Paul Szmal: Doing well, doing well. And, well, it's the last official weekend of summer, and there are some activities that are happening this weekend in the City of Auburn.
Chuck Mason: That's right. And I just wanted to make people aware so that we can capture this last, what looks like it's going to be a beautiful weekend weather-wise, but the annual Art in the Park event is happening up at Hoops Park on Saturday, September 20th, 10 a.m. It starts, goes throughout the afternoon until 4 p.m. There will be close to 100 artists and vendors, some food trucks, music up at Hoops Park. And it's always a well-attended event. It's established itself real well up there. And beautiful day to be at Hoops Park tomorrow. So come on out to Auburn for the Art in the Park event.
And then, secondly, in downtown Auburn, the Prison City Brewing Company will be holding its annual 5K race called the Mass Riot 5K. I love the name.
Paul Szmal: Yeah.
Chuck Mason: It's named after their flagship beer, and it brings about 500 runners to downtown Auburn. So tomorrow morning, the race time begins at 9 a.m., and we just want to let everybody know that there will be a road race going on. So there'll be between 8.30 a.m. and probably about 10.30 a.m., there will be some partial road closures in the downtown area with Dill Street, William Street, South Street, Metcalf Drive, Mary Street, Richardson, North Street, and Loop Road will have some partial lane closures. And we just ask that drivers in the downtown area be on the lookout and be aware and use caution. We will have several people downtown for that Mass Riot 5K race.
And then following the race, the block of State Street between Genesee Street and Dill Street is closed for the rest of the morning and afternoon for the after race party and festivities that will happen in the daytime tomorrow in downtown Auburn. So Mother Nature is cooperating in full force this September, and we've had a beautiful, beautiful weather, and it looks like it's going to continue this weekend and, you know, get out and enjoy it while we can and just be aware of these great events that are happening as we finish out the summer here in Auburn, New York.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, it should be great weather tomorrow, actually, maybe a little chilly early in the morning, but it's going to be comfortable and sunny tomorrow. So it's going to be a great day for both of the activities you've talked about.
Chuck Mason: Exactly. All right, let's get to the agenda here as we talk with Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason. We're going back to last night's Auburn City Council meeting. A little bit of a light agenda, but it started off with a financial resolution authorizing some budget transfers for the fiscal year. This sounds like a little bit of technical speak. Exactly what was this, Chuck?
Paul Szmal: Yeah, that's exactly what it is, Paul. So there was two budget resolutions on last night. One was from the previous fiscal year of 2024-25, and the second was from the current fiscal year of 2025-26. In regards to the previous fiscal year, this is kind of an annual resolution that comes our way. Once the Comptroller has closed out or is in the process of closing out the previous fiscal year's budget, she usually brings a budget resolution to tie up some loose ends of the previous budget, transfer some monies from certain accounts to other accounts to help keep the overall budget within the balanced amount. But sometimes for unforeseen circumstances, for example, if a utility bill for the particular year was a little bit higher, but then you had an operation supply line that was a little bit lower, you could transfer money between the accounts to help balance the overall budget for the year. But sometimes those transfers require the approval of the City Council. So that's what that budget resolution was last night from the previous budget year, and the Council put its unanimous stamp of approval.
For the current budget year, there's a couple of vehicles that are going to be purchased. The way that the Comptroller explained it was that she had asked our City staff to hold on these purchases from the previous fiscal year so that we could really get a better handle on where we ended our fiscal year. Since things went well, it appears with the previous fiscal year, she's allowing for these vehicles to be purchased now in this current fiscal year. So the Council made a budget transfer resolution last night to allow for a truck and a skid steer to be purchased for the Municipal Utilities Department. And the Comptroller was on hand last night to explain all of this to the Council, and both resolutions last night received the full support from the members of Council.
Chuck Mason: And this is just some of the typical procedural stuff that happens during the course of a City Council year.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, exactly. And, you know, we're always talking about the budget, you know, in the winter and spring, we talk a lot about the budget, but the budget's always there. Just usually every month there's some type of resolution or some type of discussion that has to do with the overall annual City budget. So that's what those were last night.
And there were a couple of staff vendor presentations that happened as part of the City Council meeting last night, one of them coming from our friends at the Seymour Public Library.
Chuck Mason: That's right. Lisa Carr, the Executive Director. And the Library's been up to some great work over the last few years, and they had wrapped up a strategic plan and they've been working hard to establish the partnerships in the community with the various organizations, as well as with the City of Auburn to execute its strategic plan. And she also overviewed a lot of the work that they've done at the facility itself, the library building is an older building in the City of Auburn, quite a historic structure, and it has received quite a bit of capital improvements over the last few years. And then she was there to, you know, spread the word about the upcoming library budget referendum and trustee election.
The library is its own taxing district over here in Auburn, and it's not only the City of Auburn, but it's parts of our surrounding towns. And it holds an annual budget vote each year. And that vote is being held this year on October 8th. You'll be able to vote throughout the daytime hours at the public library, any registered voter can vote in the public library election. And the trustee that's going to be elected is from the town of Fleming, part of the library district. Any voters from the town of Fleming would be able to vote for the trustee, but any voter throughout the entire library district can go and vote to approve or disapprove the library's annual budget. So all that information is on the library's website, as well as our City of Auburn website. And we encourage everybody to remember, coming up here on October 8th, the library will be holding its election. Stop by the library and cast your vote.
And a lot of great work that's happening at the library. We heard from Lisa Carr last night, and the council was very appreciative of the work of the library.
Paul Szmal: There was also a presentation from the CEO of the YMCA, Scott Sensorboe.
Chuck Mason: That's right. He's not new to Auburn. He grew up in Auburn, but he's new back to the area, and the job as CEO of the local YMCA has brought him back. So that was his first presentation in front of the council. And he outlined many of the different ways that the local YMCA works in partnership with the City of Auburn on various projects. And one of the latest things that the city is working with him on is the city is helping him and helping the organization with a Main Street New York grant to help them with some building improvements that they're going to need to make. He outlined many different programs and many different reasons why they're making these reinvestments in their facility. Number one, it's an older building that absolutely needs it. And number two, they're looking to expand some of the programming and provide better service to their members.
And one of the more recent things that the city did earlier this summer was we entered into an agreement with them to rent a portion of the Court Street parking lot here in the downtown area. And that's been going really well and has provided some extra parking for the YMCA membership. But they've got some plans for the expansion of the pre-K program that's in the facility and the other upgrades that they're making to improve the facility. And Scott last night went through with the council and kind of outlined all of that great work that they've got planned ahead. And it's a great organization and basically right across the couple of blocks away from City Hall and very important to the downtown area and to the overall community. And they also, for the last several years, have run our Casey Park pool in the summertime and we're very appreciative of their expertise and organization with helping us run the Casey Park pool for the summertime program. And so that was a great presentation from Scott Sintseva last night, the new CEO of the local YMCA. And we wish him much success as he gets started here back in Auburn.
Paul Szmal: And the next City Council meeting will be coming up a week from yesterday.
Chuck Mason: That's right. We're back to a fall schedule which puts us in there every the first four Thursdays of the month. And so we'll see everybody again next week Thursday night at 5 o'clock at Memorial City Hall.
Paul Szmal: As always, Chuck, we appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Have a great weekend.
Chuck Mason: Thanks, Paul. Yeah, you too. Have a great weekend, everybody. It is 8.50 on FLX Morning.
