Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 837. It's FLX Morning, the Friday Extravaganza. It's our weekly visit with Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason. Good morning.
Chuck Mason: Hey, good morning, Ted.
Paul Szmal: So we've talked about how the city has had tremendous success getting various funds through state and federal programs and grants. The state now has a program called the Green Chips Community Investment Fund and Auburn's in the process of applying for some of those funds. It sounds like it's a pretty wide ranging program.
Chuck Mason: It is, and it's tied directly to the Micron project that's coming in. So it's a very Central New York focused initiative. It's going to open up quite a bit of money, not only for the City of Auburn, but it's really funding that'll be available for other not-for-profit organizations and community organizations to take a look at. So we had invited some various, you know, all of our usual not-for-profit agencies, human resource agencies, to attend last night's meeting to learn more.
And priority areas include K through 12 education, especially for math and engineering, math and science, things like that, workforce exposure and development, minority and women and veteran-owned small business development, housing and investments in housing developments, and community health and family support. So it's pretty wide-ranging and what the process is, is it's going to be $500 million over the next 20 years, $250 million coming directly from the company of Micron themselves, $100 million being put in from the New York State Empire State Development, and then $150 million that they're going to be raising from other private partners.
So, you know, this is just the beginning of this pretty massive initiative by Micron and the state of New York for the central, greater central New York area. And it'll be interesting to see what comes, but phase one is for people to send letters of intent on their projects, and then after the letter of intent is sent, a more full, detailed application would be required. So we will probably be considering different things to send in from the City of Auburn, but we really, the purpose of last night's council meeting was for the council to help spread the word in the community and to our partner agencies out there throughout Auburn and Cuyahoga County that this money is going to become available, and it is going to, it'll be kind of on an ongoing basis over the next several years that this funding source will be there.
So, a great initiative and some real evidence that Micron is a reality and is going to be bringing its resources and job creation to central New York when they build the facility up in North Syracuse area and the impact it'll have on the greater central New York region. So, it was very interesting to go through this last night with Jennifer Haynes, our Director of Planning and Economic Development, and we'll probably be talking about this more in the future as the City of Auburn itself may decide to apply for some projects in the future through this funding source.
Paul Szmal: I just looked it up, it's about 45 minutes from Auburn to the plant in Clay. That's a reasonable commute, a lot of people don't mind that, and of course Auburn has a lot to offer. So, do we think there'll be a significant number of Micron workers who might look to live in Auburn?
Chuck Mason: Not only in Auburn, but definitely in Cuyahoga County, because the Micron facility is basically on Route 31, and Route 31, which travels east to west in the northern part of Cuyahoga County, goes through Weedsport, goes through Cato, up north. It's a kind of a no-brainer that people would live over this way and shoot over to Micron, either on Route 31 or on the New York State Thruway to get to work. And, you know, over the years, plenty of people in Auburn worked at places like New Process Gear and Carrier in Syracuse, so the thought that Micron jobs will find, will find that some of the Micron employees will be attracted to live in the Auburn area is definitely a possibility.
And for the last couple years, Auburn has been working with Cuyahoga County on various Micron committees, and Mayor Genitino and Jennifer Haynes have been serving on the Housing Committee, and so we're really focusing our areas on putting a lot of attention on housing for Auburn, because if we are going to attract these new employees, we will need to be ready for the construction of some new housing. So, lots more to come. It's really exciting. I do believe it'll have an impact, and it's just great to see slowly, but surely the entire region preparing and mobilizing for this investment that's coming through in just a couple of years.
Paul Szmal: The recognition of community groups and the ceremonial presentations are always fun. At the Council meeting last night, the Mayor made a presentation to the Auburn Little League.
Chuck Mason: That's right, and these guys, these young men really had an amazing summer and really put Auburn on the map earlier this year. They were the New York State Little League Section 1 champions, which sent them to statewide tournaments, and in the statewide tournament they had a lot of success, ended up coming in third place. It was a lot of excitement.
I know that the team went down to Staten Island over the summer for the big statewide tournament, and then ended up coming in 49th place in the country, which is quite an accomplishment. So, Mayor Genitino last night had the coaches, as well as the full team of these Little Leaguers on hand at City Hall, and we congratulated them on their success and thanked them. This was a team that was pretty tightly together in age. They're all kind of aging out of the Little League at the moment, but I'm sure we'll see more from these guys as they continue their baseball endeavors over their high school and college careers. So, good luck to them in the future, but really last night was all about shining a little attention on them for all the great attention that they brought in representing the City of Auburn.
Paul Szmal: We're about three weeks or so into the State Street Repaving Project, and you couldn't ask for better construction weather. It's gonna be perfect, looks like, for another week at least. So, how's it going?
Chuck Mason: Very good, and we are just about completed. Final top coat of the asphalt went on this week. So, this is the area that's down in front of the Auburn Correctional Facility between the State Street Bridge, which was just reconstructed a couple of years ago, we completed that project, all the way down through Perrine Street. So, there's a great work. It did all get done over the last three weeks. We will be back down there again next week to put the final touch on, which will be the striping. So, just use some caution down there now. There's no stripes on the road, but we will be down there next week to properly stripe the area, and the project will be done.
So, you're right, Ted, when Mother Nature cooperates, you can really get a lot done in a short period of time, and this next week to 10 days looks like it's prime time. So, we'll be out there fast and furious trying to finish up all these road projects that we've got before the end of the month.
Paul Szmal: Coming up this weekend, we have the Italian Heritage Festival hosted by E.T. Wally. It'll be in the State Street Plaza tomorrow. Perfect weather all day long from 11 to 9. Are you signed up for the meatball eating contest?
Chuck Mason: I will not be participating in the meatball eating contest, but I'll probably be stopping down there earlier in the day. This is an event that was unfortunately washed out back in June. It ended up being one of those washout Saturdays that we had in June, but they were wise to reschedule it because they really picked a perfect weather day for September. With tomorrow's weather being absolutely perfect, come on out to downtown for another event. And then the following Saturday is the Prison City Brewing Company's Mass Riot 5k in downtown, and the extended forecast right now, knock on wood, whatever I got to do, the extended forecast even has that next weekend looking good too. So, still got a couple of summer events happening in Auburn over the next couple of weekends, and it looks like Mother Nature is going to cooperate, but that's the AT Wally. So, they will be set up on the State Street Event Plaza, and they'll be using that area as well as their own AT Wally bar facility, but they also, Ted, I don't know if you saw, they this summer built a beautiful new deck on the back.
Paul Szmal: I just heard that. Yeah, on the back of AT Wally, which overlooks the new State Street Event Plaza, and it's a great investment in downtown, and it'll really be fun to watch that deck being used tied in with the event space this weekend for this Italian Heritage Festival. So, AT Wally was smart. Instead of trying to deal with the rain back in June, they decided to reschedule it, and it turned out to be a very wise move with tomorrow's brilliant sunshine and 80-degree weather coming our way.
Chuck Mason: And an equally good day to attend Art in the Park at Hoops Park tomorrow, 10 to 4. That's right. Another very popular event that happens every year for the last several years up at Hoops Park. There will be a hundred different artist vendors and food vendors up at Hoops Park for the day. I believe the time slot is 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. It'll just be a beautiful day to come out to Hoops Park and enjoy the beautiful park as well as the artist vendors that'll be out there. So, two great opportunities to come to Auburn tomorrow and partake in some really great events that are happening downtown and out at Hoops Park.
Paul Szmal: If you search for Art in the Park Auburn on Facebook, you'll see the page, and I was just scrolling down looking at some of this art. Just some beautiful, beautiful work of all kinds. So, that's tomorrow as well.
And we'll put a couple of bugs in people's ears for upcoming events. One is the first fall cleanup day, October 19th.
Chuck Mason: That's right. City of Auburn, our transfer station, has scheduled the fall cleanup days. These are the days for city residents only to bring stuff to the city transfer station, the old landfill, for free. There is a complete set of rules and regulations that's listed on our city's website. It'll be Saturday, October 19th and Saturday, November 2nd. So, mark your calendars. You know, it's just about five, six, seven weeks away. And 7 a.m. to 11 3 a.m. on those two Saturdays. And please check the website for the complete listing of rules and regulations.
And then, Cuyahoga County Household Hazardous Waste Recycling Event has been scheduled for October 5th. That information is also on the county's Solid Waste Department website, and we have the information on our City of Auburn website. That is a pre-register event, but that's the event that you can get rid of things like pesticides and paints, pool chemicals, driveway sealers, all those things that kind of accumulate in your garage and you're not really sure what to do with. The Household Hazardous Waste Recycling Event that's held every year is the greatest and best way to recycle and take care of those materials out of your house. So, for more information on that, check our City's website and over at the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste Department website. That event, again, is October 5th, 9 a.m. till noon, and that does require pre-registering.
And also, the date's been set for a home run Halloween at Falcon Park. That's October 26th.
Paul Szmal: Did we have some weather issues last year?
Chuck Mason: We struggled with the weather on this, but, you know, we're hoping for the best this year. The only thing you can't control is what Mother Nature is going to do, but this year we've set Saturday, October 26th from 3 to 6. This is the Halloween event that we host down at Falcon Park with the Auburn Double Bays. There will be dozens of community groups that will come out with trick-or-treat tables for the kids, all kinds of kids activities on hand for those three hours down at Falcon Park under the lights at the stadium. And so, save that date as well. Saturday, October 6th. In the event of rain, we'll try to do this thing the same exact time the next day, Sunday, October 7th, but hopefully we'll get a good day on Saturday, October 26th.
And lots more details to come on this. The date is out there for people to plan. I know it's a busy time of year if you've got kids with all the Halloween excitement that'll be happening in the second half of October, but it's definitely a great community event. And we are looking for some sponsors. Anybody willing and wanting to step up and help with sponsorship of this event, all the sponsorship information is available on the City's website. And you've got another couple weeks to be able to get on your logo listed on the trick-or-treat bag if you want to sign up at one of those levels at the sponsorship level. So it's a great community event. We will see hundreds of kids turn out for this. And I just wanted to get the date out there early, although time flies by. It'll be here before you know it.
Paul Szmal: All right. Great weekend coming up in Auburn. Chuck Mason, Auburn City Clerk. We appreciate the update as always.
Chuck Mason: Thanks. Thank you, Ted.
