Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 838, it's FLX Morning, the Friday Extravaganza and it's our weekly visit with Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason for all things City Council and City of Auburn. Good morning.
Chuck Mason: Hey, good morning, Ted.
Paul Szmal: One of the big things last night wasn't on the actual council agenda was a send-off for Chief Slate and I've had the privilege over the years of doing this show to have talked to most of the sheriffs from all around the area and a lot of the police people and we have been blessed here in the Finger Lakes with some pretty darn good law enforcement officers.
Chuck Mason: Oh, most definitely and as we have here in Auburn and a good show of support last night, pretty much a packed council chamber for what was Chief Slate's final City Council meeting as on-duty as chief and Mayor Genitino and members of council making a presentation of a key to the city to Chief Slate for his 27 years of service to the Auburn Police Department, the last four years of which he's been the police chief. He was a training officer prior to that for the Police Department, he was the city's first school resource officer many, many years ago when that program first started, so he's really had a important role in the Auburn Police Department and we wish him a happy and healthy retirement.
Paul Szmal: Now there was a number of people around hand last night to speak for the chief, former Mayor Mike Quill was here last night and spoke, former police chief who actually hired Chief Slate many years ago, Gary Giannata was here and he spoke, Kew County Sheriff Brian Skank was here and he spoke, we also had Kew County District Attorney Brittany Gromantinacci was here, County Legislature Representative was Brian Muldrow, just a great showing of support, lots of friends and family and other members of the Auburn Police Department here to wish the chief well in his retirement.
So I can't say enough about what Jim Slate and has done for the Auburn Police Department, Mayor Giannantino with his own remarks as well last night talking about the great service that the chief provided to us and we wish him well in his retirement and there was talk about golf and stuff like that last night so the chief will have to get to work on some other things now.
Monday is the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday and so last night we had the proclamation, remind us about the proclamation and the observance in the city.
Chuck Mason: That's right, Mayor Giannantino last night officially proclaiming for Monday to be Martin Luther King Day here in the city. As everybody knows it is now the national holiday and has been the national holiday for quite a while. Last night Mayor Giannantino had invited representatives of the Booker T. Washington Community Center to City Hall to accept the proclamation and their board members and Executive Director Denise Farrington were on hand. County Legislator Brian Muldrow who I also know serves on their board of directors was here with Denise and they accepted the proclamation. A lot of great work that's done at the Booker T. Washington Community Center and the city was glad last night to be able to make the presentation once again and Monday as everybody knows is Martin Luther King Day.
Paul Szmal: It's also Inauguration Day and City Hall will be closed this year in observance of Martin Luther King Day and that's coming up on Monday January 20th.
Last night at the council meeting was some beginning of the year tax and budgeting housekeeping, one of which was the Seymour Public Library and I know a little bit about this because my wife's a librarian. Each public library has a district. Seymour's includes the city of Auburn, town of Awasco and parts of the towns of Senate and Fleming. So explain this process and how the numbers arrived at for what the city's share of the library budget will be on the tax rolls.
Chuck Mason: That's correct. The library in Auburn, Seymour Public Library, operates under the district that you described, the geographic territory, and it holds its own board of trustees and there's elections each year for board of trustee members as well as there's an election each year for the library district to adopt its annual budget and that election is held usually in the fall of each year and as the budget is adopted by the public during that election it sets the tax rate for the following year and the library district tax is separate from the city property tax but it's listed on the property tax bill here in the city so the city of Auburn for its portion of the library tax collects that on behalf of the library and then makes the payment over to the Seymour library so what the resolution does every year is we we basically front half of the money at the beginning of the year and then the second half of the money is sent to the library the second half of the year so last night's council resolution is one that you see on the agenda every year in January had unanimous support last night from the council to front the first half of the 2025 allocation to the Seymour library now and then the second half will be paid later in August of this year a similar deal with Cougar Community College the county legislature notifies you what share of the county tax is going to go to the city and then what the city's responsibility is for the funding of CCC that's correct the county legislature each year there on a January through December budget and they adopt their budget usually in December and that sets the county tax rate and the city basically passes this resolution every year in January to put in place the county tax bills and the city is responsible for making the county tax hole the county hole on the tax and the county tax bills will go out now and people in the city of Auburn will pay their their county taxes but it's all kind of coordinated and facilitated by the city of Auburn in partnership with cute County but uh this is kind of one of those routine budget items that we see on every year in January and as you stated there as a separate line item on the county tax bill is the the city's responsibilities for the tax being paid for the community college the cute community college here in Auburn so each municipality takes care of their own portion of that as well through the county tax bill also at the council meeting last night were the routine beginning of the year budget transfers one department ends up a little more money than expected another one has an unexpected expense and you just make some adjustments anything of note their controller Mary Beth Lisa was on hand last night to explain last night's resolution has to do with some training that the fire department does and the fact that uh there there wasn't enough funding budgeted for the specific training but it was also impacted on the revenue side as well as the expense side so just some budget cleanup here to set things right for this grant-funded training that the fire department does and then the the redevelopment at 120 Genesee Street can move ahead now it's the former Auburn National Bank building the owners disputed their assessment and a settlements been reached that's correct and this is one of those settlements that is negotiated with all three taxing jurisdictions the city of Auburn the County of Cuyahoga and the Auburn and large city school district when it involves property in the city of Auburn and each one of those taxing entities has their own lawyer that's negotiating on their behalf so this these agreements are usually agreed upon by all three taxing jurisdictions as well as the property owner now this particular case is a little bit unique because we have been working with this property owner with for a restore New York grant it has received a million dollar restore New York grant and this property is going to be under a significant renovation over the next couple of years in downtown Auburn it's the old bank building that sets right in the middle of downtown it's going to be renovated to to have apartment units in the upper floors and retail in the ground floor level it's a significant upgrade that's going to be happening to this building so this particular tax settlement was kind of seen as fair under the circumstances of the building being vacant for so many years knowing that the property owner is about to make a major reinvestment in this and move the move the property back to useful life which will be much more significant and it's economic impact on the greater Auburn area once it's brought back to life with those 14 apartments and rehabilitated retail space on the ground floor so we look forward to this project but all three the city of Auburn Q County and the Auburn School District agreed to the settlement and the council last night at the City Council meeting putting its unanimous stamp of approval on this as well if I recall from our past conversations are they also going to restore the outside of the building to a period look yes they're gonna it will definitely maintain kind of the historical look of the building I really is a beautiful building the the ground floor level the retail level has very very high ceilings probably about 24 25 foot high ceilings in there it's really a gorgeous building and we're really excited about the fact that this is finally going to come to fruition this building is kind of sat there and it was at least half vacant for about 25 years and it's been kind of completely vacant now for the last probably six to eight years so it's just going to be great to have this property back into useful productivity for the downtown area and I can't wait to see the construction start to happen should all be completed within a couple years all right go to the website Auburn NY gov get the information on the upcoming a firefighter civil service exam also the public notice on the community development block grant comment period that's underway and the public hearing coming up as well Chuck thanks for the great information as always always appreciate it thank you Ted have a great weekend everybody
