FULTON – The Fulton Common Council met last night, Tuesday December 7, when it listened to the public’s comments on roads and sidewalks during the winter.
To begin the meeting, residents David Phares and Frank Castiglia Jr. expressed their concerns with roadways and sidewalks during the winter respectively.
Phares said while he was driving at 8 a.m. that morning, the roads had not yet been plowed or sanded. He said he believes the Department of Public Works is important and should be prioritized in the budget for this upcoming year to make sure the roads are clear.
Castiglia said he is concerned with the state of dumpster permits and how one can easily work the system to keep a dumpster all year long. He also revisited his suggestion from a previous meeting of bringing electric car charging stations to the city. Lastly he addressed clearing snow off of sidewalks.
DPW Commissioner CJ Smith then spoke in response to the concerns expressed by Phares and Castiglia. He explained that it does not always snow at the same time and it takes about four hours to cover all the streets in the city when they have all of their equipment. He said Tuesday is a big garbage day and so only pickup trucks were available. Two salt trucks were out around 6 a.m.
In regards to sidewalks, Smith said there are about 80 miles of sidewalks in the city and are expensive to maintain or replace. He said the DPW is expecting to receive $740,000 in local touring funds, which is specifically for NYS Rt. 3 and 481.
He said even if an extra $100,000 were put in the DPW’s budget for sidewalk work, that would only cover about four blocks. He also said they bought a new, narrower piece of equipment using CHIPS funding that will help clear the sidewalks with obstacles in the winter.
Mayor Deana Michaels said the city is planning to seek grant funding and one of the items on their wish list is a sidewalk campaign. She also said the city is planning to work with Oswego Industries to get brush cleared, clean a park bathroom, or city hall, etc., which would free up time for the DPW and Parks and Rec.
She then said that she agrees with Castiglia regarding dumpster permits and asked the councilors to make note of it. She said dumpster permits are free and last too long, and so it can be taken advantage of. Responding to Castiglia’s comment on charging stations, she said the city is looking into it, but is waiting to be able to leverage Downtown Revitalization Initiative dollars and with a new infrastructure bill. She said the goal is to bring in seven stations.
“If we’re revitalizing our downtown, why put in charging stations just to rip them up and do the work again,” Michaels said.
Castiglia then added that he believes a restroom at Indian Point should be a priority.
Lastly during public comment, Smith spoke about residents criticizing DPW employees via social media. He said during his 21 years of working for the city, the staffing has decreased, and an influx of criticism on social media is impacting morale. He said while the public has a right to criticize employees, the perspective of the employees is missing.
“These are people that live in this community, they have been raised in this community, they have raised children in this community,” Smith said. “They are hardworking individuals that are expected to do more and more each day with little in return. A laborer starting at $14.90/hour is not a glorious job, but it’s something that needs to be done in a community.”
He said a DPW employee will get on the back of a garbage truck knowing that when they are done with their route they will be given another task, such as yard waste, plowing, shoveling, tree trimming, trafficking, paving, etc.
“These are not separate crews on separate shifts. This is the same group of individuals that are doing these jobs,” Smith said. “It’s not always perfect. We all have bad days from time to time. There are always ways to improve.”
He said the DPW workers care about the community and deserve to be treated fairly. He invited anyone to put in an application for a laborer and experience it firsthand to get that perspective.
An additional article on the remainder of last night’s meetings can be found here.
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