April District 4 Newsletter by Aaron Vera

ITEMS TO NOTE

April Office Hours

District 4 Office Hours will be held at Mallo’s Eatery (156 Fourth St) Thursday, April 24 from 5 to 7 pm. Stop by with your concerns, your ideas, and your love of responsibly sourced deli meats!

You can always reach me via email at aaron.vera@troyny.gov.

Five-year Consolidated Plan - Action Needed

Troy is defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as an entitlement community, qualifying our city for funding to create housing and economic opportunity. To achieve these goals, HUD has created three programs:

• HOME (Home Investment Partnership Program) supports first-time home buyers and assists in the creation of new housing and the rehabilitation of existing stock;

• ESG (Emergency Solutions Grant) provides assistance to the homeless population and the organizations that serve them, and;

• CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) funds support infrastructure needs and rehabilitation efforts in low-to moderate income areas.

As part of the preparation for the City’s 2025-2026 Annual One Year Action Plan and the 2025-2029 Five-year Consolidated Action Plan the City Council is soliciting public comments in advance of their May 1, 2025 regular meeting.

The plan can be viewed here, and comments may be provided in person or in writing to the Council. Community input is essential in making sure the City has the tools it needs to best allocate these funds.

BID Board Election Information

The Downtown Troy Business Improvement District has multiple open board positions available as part of its annual election cycle. There are two types of board seat available: Class A - Property Owner (this includes multifamily residential properties with three or more units) and Class B - Commercial Tenant.

Any individual must collect petition signatures from 20 members of the relevant class and turn the petitions into the BID offices no later than 5 pm April 11. For more information, please email BID Executive Director Olivia Clemente.

CONGRESS-FERRY UPDATE

The Congress-Ferry corridor serves as one of two transportation links across the river to downtown Troy. It’s enormously important as a gateway to our business district, an artery connecting us to our neighbors in Watervliet, and a vital link to the Empire State Trail.

The Congress-Ferry project is a roadway reconstruction project between River St. and 8th Street and includes repaving, sidewalk reconstruction, and the reconfiguration of River and Ferry as a four-way intersection.

As an update to the Congress-Ferry Street Project, Mayor Mantello has recently announced her preferred alternative for the corridor.  As a result, advocates, businesses, and residents have been speaking up regarding their disappointment in the selection. I attended both public meetings and it was clear this alternative had the least public and business support.

The project includes over $12 million dollars in funding, yet makes very few improvements to the corridor. As a representative of Downtown, and an engineer, I'm disappointed that the mayor is proposing an alternative that won't dramatically improve the conditions Downtown.

While the proposal reduces traffic from two lanes to one on both Congress and Ferry, the City's design does not improve conditions for people walking or increase parking. Rather, this space is being reallocated to increase the width of the existing parking lane (increasing hazardous and annoying double parking), preserve wide travel lanes (likely to increase vehicle speeds through downtown) and provide unprotected bike lanes (which will not feel safe enough to increase ridership or visitors to downtown with the other conditions).

Perhaps most importantly, the project ignores the Congress Street Bridge. Funding for the linear park proposed in the Congress Street Bridge Study was allocated by Congressman Tonko.  In addition, Mayor Patricelli of Watervliet has confirmed they have funding available for the intersection of 19th Street and 2nd Avenue.  Watervliet has been attempting to coordinate this work and is hopeful to see this portion of the project move forward.

Capital Streets has organized a letter-writing campaign to encourage a review by the administration to better incorporate existing stakeholder input.  For more information, or to co-sign the letter, click here.  Additionally, you can leave comments on the project website.

The next steps in the project will be the release of a draft design report and environmental review, followed by NYSDOT approval to move forward with final design. I encourage everyone to review and comment on the design report once released.

City Council Meeting Recaps

March 6: Special Finance Committee and Regular Meeting

• RES 23 approving the City’s 2023 financial statement audit.  This annual audit is typically delivered to the Council in September however, due to turnover in the Comptroller’s office, was delayed six months.  No additional financial information - including any quarterly reports for 2024 - have been presented to the Council.

• RES 25 authorizing a contract for a temporary facility (tent) to house Park Pub for the 2025 golf season.  The project is expected to cost $650,000 in addition to in-kind labor provided by the City’s workforce.  The project is being funded by the $2.1M in ARPA funds which were obligated for the rehabilitation of Park Pub - leaving $1.3M for that project.  The resolution passed 4-3 with all minority members in opposition.

March 12: Public Safety Committee Meeting

• A long-awaited staffing study of Troy’s Fire Department was presented to the Council.  The study details numerous issues with the department including the lack of staff for proper manning of vehicles, a reliance on one-time ARPA funds to pay for overtime, an increasing call volume, and low morale within the department.  The administration will be organizing a seven-member 90-day task force to prepare recommendations to address these issues.

March 20: Finance Committee and Special Meeting

• RES 29 authorizing a consultant services contract with the City’s former purchasing agent.  The contract will remain in place until the end of 2025 or until the position can be filled and a replacement properly trained.

• RES 30 authorizing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Village of Green Island and the City of Troy for shared services.  Agreements like these can be a cost-saving measure for municipalities at they limit redundancies in staffing and equipment.

• City Council President Sue Steele and the minority caucus requested City Comptroller Jack Krokos be present to answer questions regarding the status of financial reports, pursuant to the City Code.  Per the Mayor, the Comptroller was unable to attend and reports would not be provided until after the 2024 Annual Financial Report (AFR) is filed on April 30. The Council President has requested the comptroller appear at the Special Finance Meeting this Thursday, April 3rd at 6pm.