Steven Sacco addresses the Common Council as a city employee with some of the ideas he and a few others came up with to save Port Jervis money in 2010. (Photo by Jerry Goldberg)

By Jerry Goldberg

PORT JERVIS — The Port Jervis Common Council met this past Monday for their regularly scheduled meeting. Eight of the nine council members plus Mayor Gary Lopriore were there. Council member George Belcher, who, according to Lopriore, was feeling a bit under the weather, was not in attendance.

Public Comment:

David Bavoso stepped up to the podium and announced the 3^rd Annual Port Jervis CROP Walk (Community Responding to Overcome Poverty) had 161 walkers this year and raised $14,132.79. It was held October 18 and sponsored by the 1^st Presbyterian Church of Port Jervis. The CROP walk had one, two and three mile walks beginning at Airport Park in Matamoras, Pa. The walkers headed in to Port Jervis and then back to Airport Park. “The money raised will help stock local food pantries,” said Bavoso.

Steven Sacco, a Port Jervis Street Department laborer, took to the podium next and told the council members that he and several other Department of Public Works (DPW) employees came up with a few ideas to help the city cut expenses and save money in 2010. He had handed out a nine item list to each of the council members and focused his talk on bulk purchasing of regularly used and purchased items which are bought from local stores and ought to be bought in bulk. He also suggested that purchases be made from businesses on the Port Jervis side of the Delaware River. Some of the suggestions on his list were:

1. Closing of the Port Jervis Burning Pit which would save the city from county dump fees and also save 260 overtime hours which are expended by city workers on Saturdays.
2. Do away with DPW uniforms which the city buys for workers, who don’t want to wear them anyway.
3. See to it that all city owned vehicles stay within the city limits. In this way, employees that don’t live in Port Jervis won’t have a city car to take home.
4. Offer a buyout to near retirement city employees.
5. Put parking meters back throughout the business district and city owned parking lots.
6. Let the DPW workers perform small construction projects instead of bidding them out.

After the Public Comment period committee reports followed.

Council member Richard Roberts gave his report on Finance and Insurance. Roberts said the bills for the last two weeks which will come from the General Fund amount to $313,712.90 and from the Water Fund the bills amount to $35,715.37 and from the Capital Fund the bills amount to $13,296.533 for a grand total of $362,723.79. Roberts made a motion to pay these bills. The motion was passed. He went on to say the Finance and Insurance Committee was still doing work on the 2010 budget. He then made a motion that a public hearing be set for December 14 at 7 p.m.

“I just don’t know if there will be sufficient time to get far enough along to have a public meeting regarding the budget on December 14,” said council member Damian Brady. “ I think it should wait till December 28. We still have a workshop on December 14 regarding salaries.” Roberts told him he felt the public needed to be brought in and be allowed to speak and not have to wait till the end of the month. He also said even after the 14^th there may be changes to the budget before it is finalized.

“Until the state makes their annual budget which involves several billion dollars which they have to knock out and if they wait till the end they may make cuts that will affect us,” stated Brady. Roberts then asked for a motion to approve the public hearing on December 14 which was passed.

In continuing his finance report Roberts went on to say there needs to be an increase in the fee charged for tax searches. “This fee hasn’t been raised in many, many years and it takes our office staff considerable time to do this.” He made a motion to raise the $25 fee to $75 which could bring in an additional $25,000 income to the city. He made a motion to raise the fees as of January 1, 2010. The motion was passed. “This is in line with what other municipalities charge,” said Brady. Roberts said it was far overdue.

Roberts also made a motion that hunting and fishing licenses, which take a lot of time for the office staff to issue and only net the city four percent of the fees charged, be terminated. He said there are private concerns in Port Jervis which do this and when they issue hunting and fishing licenses sales tax is also collected which, in the long run, will come back to the city. The motion was made and passed and will take effect January 1, 2010.

Council member Richard Roberts read his report on Fire and Emergency Management. He reported there were 40 total fire calls answered by the fire department during the month of October.

The report on the Code and Legislative Committee was read by Brady who asked that a public hearing be set for December 14 regarding Local Law 10 to allow a self storage warehouse with 10 on site parking spaces in the central business district. The motion was passed.

Council member Kevin Cunningham gave his commission report on Recreation and Tourism. He stated the Youth Center hours for Tuesday and Wednesday will be from noon till 4 p.m. and it will be closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Co-Ed Youth Basketball registration will take place at the Youth Center on Saturday December 5 from 9 a.m. to noon., Sunday December 6 from noon to 3 p.m. and Wednesday December 9 from 6 to 8 p.m.. Youth basketball is for school grades 3 to 6. The Elks-Brox Park is closed for the season and will re-open in April of 2010. He went on to say the Port Jervis Annual Tree Lighting will take place on Saturday December 5 at 6 p.m. Featured will be Al Gessner’s All Star Traveling Band as well as the Tri-Sate Community Chorus. Mayor Lopriore will be lighting the tree and there will be a special visit from Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus who will be arriving by fire truck. Hot chocolate and donuts will be served to all attending.

The 2009 Annual Holiday Decoration and Lighting Contest will be held on Sunday December 6. Judging will be from 6 to 9 p.m. You must pre-register by calling

858-4017 and state whether it is going to be a commercial or residential place which needs to be judged. The judging committee will only make one pass by so be sure to have your lights on by 6 p.m. There will also be an Annual City Lights Tour on Tuesday December 15, Thursday December 17, Monday December 21 and Wednesday December 23. Pick up for the tour will be between 5 and 5:30 p.m. and will return between 8:30 and 9 p.m. The last stop on the tour will be at Dunkin’ Donuts. You can call Dial-A-Bus 856-7999 for more information. There is limited seating and it is on a first come first seated basis.

Mayor Lopriore read some correspondence he had received. The first item was a carry over from the last meeting. A request had been received from a local resident wanting to collect fallen dead wood down at West End Beach. At the last meeting this request was approved. Lopriore said that in speaking with corporation counsel he didn’t want to open up a Pandora’s Box and have other city residents ask to do the same. There was a short discussion and the opinion was to notify the resident the council acted too quickly and has now changed their mind. Lopriore said he would call the resident and inform him of the reversal of decision.

Lopriore said he had the Hazard Mitigation Plan for the city which was approved by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and is waiting for approval by the council. “Has everyone read the four inch thick document? We’ll have a test on it next week,” Lopriore said jokingly. The document was approved by the council.

“Another item has come up which I have discussed with Mr. Lopez. He suggested we get a forester to look at the possibility of harvesting the water shed area. We could possibly get $50,000 for logging that area. This was done back in the early 90’s if I’m not mistaken,” said Lopriore.

Lopriore said there was $45,678 which is currently under Sewage Equipment and represents their part of an agreement with the city of Middletown for shared equipment. The equipment constitutes cameras and vac balls used for the sewage lines. He said. “If you place this under Capital Equipment it can be paid off in two years.”

“As hard as it is to talk about the Nutrition Program is a $90,000 cost to the city. We need to look at it as funding was cancelled at the county level,” stated Lopriore. Roberts said they would have to re-negotiate the yearly contract for this service and had been in touch with the Interim Director of the Office For The Aging to set up a meeting.

Lastly the Mayor spoke about his goal of not wanting to adversely impact services in 2010. Rather than lay off employees, he suggested there were other options to look at. There are some workers which can be reduced from full time employment to part time employment status. He said this would be a better alternative than to completely eliminate jobs.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:55 p.m.