Paul Szmal: It is 8.40 on FLX Morning on Finger Lakes Newsradio, sunny skies right now, enjoy it while you can, temperature at 40. And it's time for our Friday morning recap of last night's Auburn City Council meeting and Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason joins us for that. Good morning Chuck, how are you sir?
Chuck Mason: Good morning Paul. It is Friday of course, and we are getting a little bit closer to the holiday season and some of the activities happening in Auburn, we'll get to those in a minute. But let's start with what happened last night, it was a light agenda, just a couple of things that the council took care of, one of which was a financial resolution that authorized the acceptance of some insurance proceeds.
Paul Szmal: That's right, so this resolution has to do with an accident that happened earlier in the fall, late summer with the Auburn Police Department where the driver of the other vehicle was at fault for the accident, there was a collision, it had received some media attention at the time, but basically the Auburn Police Department cruiser was totaled in the accident. So last night, Mayor Genitino began discussion with the council of, you know, if the city was to take a little bit more time, he's confident that the city would be able to get 100% reimbursement on the cost of that vehicle. The resolution as written last night was that the city would get all the $5,000. So at the request of Mayor Genitino, this resolution was tabled to a future meeting, the city manager and city comptroller will work with city staff and Auburn Police Department to gather all the information and make the case that the other insurance company should be recouping the city for 100% of the cost of this vehicle. So that motion was unanimously tabled by the council last night and will be back before us at a future meeting.
Chuck Mason: Right, so now we just wait for the insurance companies and the legalese to kind of play out, correct?
Paul Szmal: That's right. And we might, we'll probably know some more over the next couple of weeks. The resolution may not return in its exact form, it may return as a different, differently worded resolution, but more to come on this, on this situation. So the council last night tabling the resolution, so more work to be done.
Chuck Mason: Right. There was also a resolution to award a contract for city tax billing and collection software.
Paul Szmal: That's right. So the city has always used a one computer system for, ever since tax bills were computerized, and it's time to phase that old antiquated system out. So the city has been in the process this year, did an RFP for various proposals from companies that are in the tax collection software business. And after a thorough review of several different requests or proposals that were received, the company Edmunds will be the company that's awarded the bid, the council voting for that last night with all members of council voting in approval. City of Auburn still has some remaining American Rescue Plan Act funding available to be used. So $50,000 of the startup of this new system will be paid for with the American Rescue Plan Act funding. And then there's a three-year contract with Edmunds and $20,000 a year will be budgeted in the upcoming city budgets, the annual cost of using that software program.
Chuck Mason: And the Edmunds is used, I know we use it right now in the city clerk's department for dog licensing and some of the other things. So it's a well-known name in the municipal government service area and the council last night putting its stamp of approval, city controller was on hand last night to report out to the council all the work that was done these last six months to come to this decision. But the most important thing that was discussed by the mayor and council last night is it's a very big step away from the legacy computer systems that we've been using that are kind of old and antiquated. And as we phase that equipment out, this is a big step forward on how the city will conduct some of its business moving forward in the future. So the council putting its stamp of approval on that last night, Paul, and we'll look forward to the installation of that software and probably be in good shape for the next city budget year, which will start on July 1st of 2026.
Paul Szmal: Well, as we've documented in the past couple of weeks, Chuck, the Auburn Holiday Parade is back. I know the entry forms have gone out for the parade and I believe the deadline is the 21st?
Chuck Mason: That's right. The deadline will be the 24th of November, which is a Monday. The form is available. Paul, thank you for bringing this up. It's on the city's website. You can go right to the homepage and find it under news and information, or you can go to the city parks and rec page and find it there as well. And we've already received quite a few registration forms, but there's still probably several more to come. And we just would encourage everybody that plans on participating this year, Saturday, November 29th, 2025, the parade will start at 3.30 PM this year. Please get your registration forms in as soon as possible prior to November 24th at noontime. And we will issue the parade orders this year on Wednesday, the 26th for the parade, which will be on Saturday, the 29th.
So in addition to the parade this year, we are starting a new tradition. The downtown bid will be hosting a tree lighting ceremony with the city parks department on a new smaller tree that will be installed in the new state street event Plaza. So the tree lighting this year is going to take place down at the state street event Plaza at 5 PM. That'll be after the parade has gone through and more details to come on that, but there'll be some kids activities, some visits with Mr. And Mrs. Santa Claus. And we'll get to check out the new Christmas tree that'll be installed for the season on the state street event Plaza.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. So it's great to be able to keep that tradition going at just in a different location.
Chuck Mason: Exactly. In a different location. And, uh, you know, people that wonder what we will be doing with the tree that's here at city hall, the tree at city hall will still be lit for the, uh, for the holiday season. We'll light that the, uh, the day before Thanksgiving, and it'll be kept lit for the entire season as it has in the past. This is just a new event that's being created, uh, working with the Auburn downtown partnership, which is the bid, uh, to try to bring and keep people immediately in the downtown area during this holiday parade time.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, absolutely. And I'm sure some of the businesses will be, uh, open and ready to do business with people right after that holiday parade is done.
Chuck Mason: Exactly. Beautiful. Uh, anything else going on of note that you wanted to mention this morning, Chuck?
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I wanted to, uh, let everybody know that, uh, Casey park ice rink is open now for the season for open skate. Uh, this will be the first weekend of open skate. Uh, the calendars are loaded up to the city's website, Auburn NY.gov slash Casey. You go right to the Casey park page you'll find, uh, but open skate, uh, which is usually very well attended in the winter time, especially the first, uh, two thirds of winter till people get spring fever come, uh, late February, March. But, um, public skating this weekend, it'll be a Friday night, which is tonight, the 14th from six till eight, uh, Saturday, the 15th, which is tomorrow. Public skating, it'll be three till six. And then Sunday the 16th, it'll be three till six. Now, please check the website for the updated calendars. Uh, calendars will be posted Auburn NY.gov slash Casey. Uh, there is $5 admission charge and the admission includes skate rentals. If you need to rent skates and, uh, we look forward to another great season of open skate.
There's also plenty of, uh, hockey games for the Auburn high school, as well as some tournaments coming in this winter and everything, uh, all the information about all those types of things that are happening at the Casey park icebreaker on the same calendar. Uh, so if you're interested in going down and checking out some of the Auburn high school games or some of the games that will be played on the uh, tournaments that come to town this year, uh, check out this calendar as well. And, uh, like I said, we, we really look forward to another good, good year down at Casey park ice rink and wish everybody happy skating as they, uh, get started with the winter season here.
Chuck Mason: All right. Sounds good, Chuck. Thank you so much. We'll chat with you next week.
Paul Szmal: Oh, thanks a lot. Have a great weekend, everybody. It is eight 51 on FLX morning.
