Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues, it is 8.39, cloudy skies right now, temperature holding at 40. It's Friday morning, so that means we're catching up with Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason. Chuck, good morning, how are you on this Friday?
Chuck Mason: Good morning, Paul, I'm good, how's things over in Geneva way?
Paul Szmal: Good, I'd say, I think everybody is casting a weary eye toward the end of the weekend there, Kevin Williams is talking about the possibility of the first snowflakes of the season flying late Sunday night, possibly into Monday morning.
Chuck Mason: Right, unfortunately, here it is. Yeah, you know it's coming, that's the big thing, as you know it's coming, it's going to get here eventually.
One thing that is coming that originally it was announced was not coming is the Auburn Holiday Parade. A recent announcement that the City of Auburn made is that the Holiday Parade is going to happen with some modifications this year.
Paul Szmal: That's right, safety concerns are at stake with the Holiday Parade decisions, and Police Chief Matt Androsco was at the City Council meeting last night to kind of walk the City Council and the public through those safety concerns, and had some pictures from previous parades to share with the Council.
Chuck Mason: In recent years, the parade has been very well attended, which is a good thing, but this parade functions a little differently than the Memorial Day Parade. The Memorial Day Parade stays pretty spread out along the entire parade route, and for some reason the Holiday Parade gets very congested down in the central downtown area, and we've actually had a lot of anecdotal stories back from float participants and marching bands and stuff that it's just been really challenging in the last couple of years to be able to get through the parade, and some people interested in not participating because of that.
So after the decision was made, there was a lot of feedback from the public, which we certainly appreciate, and so the City yesterday making a final decision to actually hold the parade with some modifications. So the parade will be November 29th, which is Saturday after Thanksgiving. It'll be at 3.30 in the afternoon, and it'll use a modified parade route for the Holiday Parade. It'll be more traditional with the Memorial Day Parade route.
Details will be posted to the City's website on Monday, November 10th with registration forms, so all the groups out there that are waiting to sign up for the parade, check the City's website, auburnny.gov, on Monday, November 10th, and the registration forms will be there for you with all the instructions on how to get your group float registered for the Holiday Parade.
We will also hold this year a new, working with the Downtown Partnership, which is the BID, we will hold a new tree lighting event on State Street at the State Street Event Plaza. More details to come on that as well, but the relocation of a new, smaller downtown tree, the City tree outside of City Hall will still be here and will still be lit all winter long. However, the Downtown District is going to install a new downtown tree at the State Street Event Plaza, and there will be a tree lighting ceremony for that immediately following the parade on the State Street Plaza.
So a lot more information that will come out here over the next couple weeks before we get closer to the Thanksgiving holiday, and we thank the public for their interest in the parade, and the Council, and the Mayor, and the City Manager, and all City officials appreciated all the feedback that was received yesterday. And the good news in the end is that there will still be a Holiday Parade in Downtown Auburn.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, good news indeed. I'm glad to see everybody able to come together and come to a solution for that, for that tradition to continue in the City of Auburn.
Let's talk about a couple of the things that happened, again a reasonably light agenda for the City Council meeting yesterday. One of the first things was the appointment of a member of the Auburn Human Rights Commission.
Chuck Mason: That's right. Reverend Wilson, Pastor Wilson, who is Chair of our Human Rights Commission, made a recommendation to the City Council for a vacancy that exists on the Human Rights Commission, and Danielle Hamilton is the new Human Rights Commission member. The Council will act unanimously appointing, and Danielle will serve for a three-year term on our City's Human Rights Commission, and we thank Reverend Wilson for his work on that commission and for the recommendation of this appointment.
And the next couple of items have to do with grant applications, grant funding. There was the approval of a grant application to New York State Homes and Community Renewal.
Paul Szmal: That's right. There's a new program the State of New York has rolled out. It's called the Move in New York program. And what this does is it will put pre-built housing on different sites, and the minimum requirement that a city municipality needs to apply is you need to make 10 building lots available for this program. And the city does have plenty of empty vacant lots in residential areas throughout the city.
Chuck Mason: So the City of Auburn is working with the Auburn Housing Authority Development Corporation to apply for this grant program. The city's partnership on this is it will identify 10 vacant lots in which these houses can be built. They are residential structures, which will fit nicely into the neighborhoods. And if the city is successful on this program, we'll move forward probably immediately next year. I know that this is an initiative that many cities, especially probably larger cities also, will be taking advantage of an initiative of the State of New York to try to bring more housing to New York State. So it's a great program. The city's going to take a chance at trying to get some of this grant funding and more to come.
So the council last night put in its stamp of approval, all members of council voting for this resolution. And this will now head up to the State of New York for review, and probably in the spring, by the spring, we'll probably hear the news as to whether or not we receive this grant. So the intent is to get more housing into the City of Auburn, and it sounds like it'll be a win for everybody.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, let's hope that grant is approved by the state come springtime. There was also a grant acceptance resolution last night, which authorized grant funding acceptance for the William G. Pomeroy Foundation.
Chuck Mason: That's right. We've had a great partnership at the City of Auburn with the William G. Pomeroy Foundation. They make grants available for the roadside historical markers throughout New York State. There's many communities that have worked with the Pomeroy Foundation on the installation of various historical markers out there. And we've had about six markers in Auburn that have been awarded by the Pomeroy Foundation over the last five to seven years.
So this new marker is for the residence of Charles C. Dwight. He was a New York State Supreme Court Justice in the early 1900s. He served in the Civil War as well. And the homestead there at 149 North Street where Charles Dwight resided is actually a local historical landmark. So the City of Auburn worked with the current owners of the house, Diane and Michael Long. They predominantly did all the research for this grant, working with the County Office of Historian, the Kew County Office of Historian. And so it was a relatively easy grant application to submit.
And the good news is the Pomeroy Foundation is awarding $2,050 for the purchase of a new historical marker to place outside in the city's right-of-way area in front of 149 North Street. This property is up by the Auburn Community Hospital. There's lots of activity up at the Auburn Community Hospital, but it'll be great to bring a little attention to the fact that this historical property is sitting up there on North Street and has been so well taken care of and restored by the current property owners. It's really a beautiful house here in the City of Auburn. And it'll be great to have this historical marker. And we'll probably, usually by the time these markers get ordered, it takes about four to six months for them to be delivered. So be on the lookout for this historical marker to be installed probably in the spring of 2026.
And the next City Council meeting will be coming up in just six days' time.
Paul Szmal: That's right. And real quick here, Paul, happy birthday to the Marine Corps. Mayor Genitino started the meeting out last night with a proclamation to our United States Marines. The Marine Corps birthday is 250 years old this year, and the birthday itself is November 10th. Cake cutting ceremony here in Auburn on Saturday, and Mayor Genitino had about eight Marines in house last night to accept this proclamation. And we say happy birthday to all the United States Marine Corps.
Chuck Mason: Awesome. All right. Thank you as always, Chuck.
Paul Szmal: Thank you, Paul. Have a great weekend.
Chuck Mason: All right.
