Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues, it is 8.39, we're up to 64 under sunny skies, and we're joined by Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason. Chuck, good morning, how are you sir?
Chuck Mason: Hey, good morning Paul, I'm good, how are you today?
Paul Szmal: Doing great, doing great. I looked at the agenda for last night's city council meeting and I've got to say this has probably got to be one of the lightest agendas I think I've seen in the time that you and I have been having conversations.
Chuck Mason: That's right, and sometimes that's how it works out, if there just doesn't happen to be a lot in the pipeline that week for a council, sometimes the agenda will be on the lighter side, but then other times we'll have nights where there's maybe 12 or 15 resolutions on for, so in the eyes of the council they'll take a brief agenda every once in a while if it's dealt their way.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, nice little breather and a break.
Chuck Mason: There was one item on the agenda last night which was an update on the new Civil Service Commission's online job application portal. That's right, and this is big news for Auburn, you know it's the first time ever that we're putting our job applications online. Civil Service Commission's been working on this for the last few years, you know to bring us a little bit more up to the modern day ways in which people are applying for jobs. So great news, the portal seems to be working out very well for our Civil Service Commission and it really is a step forward for us to be able to reach out to more individuals, especially the younger generation that is so very used to just doing things right on their phones or right on their computers.
So, and this comes in line, last night Jeff Whiting, who's the Secretary for the Civil Service Commission was on hand with a couple of the Civil Service Commissioners, Jack Hardy and Christina Tommaso, two of our Civil Service Commission members and they made a presentation to the council, so far so good with this new online job portal and it comes in very handy for one of the major exam opportunities that we have out there at the moment, Paul, is for the police officer position. The next police exam is going to be given on September 20th of 2025 and the last filing date to submit the exam application to take the exam is just a week away, August 21st, 2025. So, we are trying to spread the word about that.
Auburn Police Department has been doing a lot on the recruiting efforts of their organization. There's an entire webpage on the Auburn Police Department's website which tells you all the information that you need to know and for younger people that have never applied through civil service before, you do need to have advanced time that you're applying for these things, you know, you have to first apply, put a job application in for the city and apply to take the examination and the examination is usually given a month later and then it does take a couple months to receive the exam results back, so it's not a job necessarily that you walk into in the afternoon and later or the next day you might find out that you got the job. For these police officer and firefighter positions in our city, having to go through the civil service process is a very time-consuming thing that you really have to plan for.
So, the next opportunity for Auburn police officer coming up, again, the exam date is September 20th and the application deadline is August 21st, so anybody interested go to the Civil Service Commission page, the job application and exam announcement page on our city's website, auburnny.gov and the Civil Service Commission office is here at Memorial City Hall and they're on the second floor and head over to the Auburn Police Department's web page as well, auburnny.gov police and they have an entire page there that's dedicated to the recruitment and it explains to you the entire process and what you need to be preparing for if you're going to attempt to have a career in policing with the Auburn Police Department.
Paul Szmal: Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason joining us here on FLX Morning and Chuck, the City Council received a little bit of good news courtesy of State Senator Rachel May.
Chuck Mason: That's right, Mayor Genentino last night making the announcement that our city staff, Christina Selvick, the Director of Grants and Capital Improvement Program, shared the news with the Mayor and Council yesterday that New York State Senator Rachel May has announced two different grant opportunities that the City had applied for have been awarded. One is a $150,000 grant for the Auburn Police Department which is going to help to purchase two police cruisers, so two new vehicles for the Auburn Police Department and then a $150,000 grant for the Auburn Fire Department for the purchase of Auburn Fire Department. It's two command vehicles for the Auburn Fire Department, so good news and we appreciate the work of State Senator Rachel May to work with the City and help us to obtain these grants.
In this current times of tight city budgets, it's great to have these grant programs that we can rely on to get our staff the equipment and supplies that they need and this will be a great step forward for the Auburn Police Department and the Auburn Fire Department as we're able to bring these new vehicles into the system.
Paul Szmal: And Chuck, what's the turnaround time usually once a grant is approved like that? Is it dependent on a case-by-case basis?
Chuck Mason: It does. Fortunately, when you're making the purchase of vehicles, we should be able to get these vehicles turned around within the year. It does, you know, the thing about grants sometimes is, you know, a lot of times even on this radio show here, Paul, we'll be talking about the same grant over a three or two or three or four year period because sometimes these grants just from the point in time that they're announced to being executed take quite a few years, but these ones should turn around a bit quicker being that they're just vehicle purchases and hopefully we'll have these vehicles in the system and up and running within the year.
Paul Szmal: And let's kind of take a look into the crystal ball, shall we? What's on the horizon for the City Council here as we head into the later period of August?
Chuck Mason: That's right, we have a Council meeting, final Council meeting for the month of August next week and one of the bigger things that's been discussed for the Mayor and the Council the last few weeks is how the City is going to finish up its road program for this year and get started on the planning of the road program for the 2026 construction season. And there's just, there's a long list of City streets that need attention and we've also been working with the New York State Department of Transportation on the reconstruction project of the arterial which will happen in next summer and 2027 construction season.
And the Mayor, Genettino, has been in communication with DOT over New York State Route 34 and so the Council is going to be presenting with a resolution next week which will advise the Council to spend some of the State Touring Route money that we've received for the paving of roads to get two roads done here in the City of Auburn. One is New York State Route 34 which is known as North Street, basically from the Seymour Street intersection out to the City line. It's about a 1.5 mile stretch of New York State Route 34 North Street and then Lake Avenue from the Lake Avenue bridge to the City line down to the South. That's about a 1.5 mile stretch of Lake Avenue as well. And the Council is going to be asked to consider a resolution next week which would do both those projects. One, North Street being done here in the 2025 construction season between now and October. And then the second, Lake Avenue, to get Lake Avenue done first thing in the construction season of 2026 using that State Touring Route money.
So some good news in the fact that we've got both those projects in the position that they're ready to move forward. And we've received great assistance from the State and Senator Rachel May has been involved with that one as well under the new State Touring Route program funding that's coming through State budgets. We will be able to tackle these two major city streets over the next two construction seasons, this current construction season and next spring using State Touring Route money. So that'll be before the Council next week and as soon as they get that passed we can get going on North Street.
Paul Szmal: All right and that City Council meeting will be coming up this coming Thursday night at Auburn City Hall. Paul, thank you very much. Have a great weekend.
Chuck Mason: Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Chuck. Appreciate it as always. Chuck Mason, Auburn City Clerk joining us on FLX Morning coming up on 8 50.
