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Plattsburgh mayor discusses city water problems, the civic center controversy and the upcoming budget

Plattsburgh Mayor Chris Rosenquest
Pat Bradley
/
WAMC
Plattsburgh Mayor Chris Rosenquest

Plattsburgh Mayor Chris Rosenquest is about 18 months into his first four-year term. In recent weeks, a number of challenges have arisen, from water problems to controversy over a shuttered civic center. The most pressing current issue is discolored water affecting the city’s distribution system. For nearly five weeks city engineers have worked to determine the cause including draining and cleaning the main water storage tanks. The Democrat tells WAMC North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley they are working with health officials to assure the water reaching homes is safe but determining the cause has been difficult.

There’s no question why people should be concerned.  Not everybody saw it. There are some people that have never have never seen it. There are some people who have seen it multiple days in a row.  

Even though we're not certain what the cause of the discoloration is, it's pointing to maybe tanks at the beginning of the waterline sequence. What are you finding when you drain it and actually go in there and look?

We did see sediment, increased sediment, in those tanks than normal. And it is normal to see sediment in a finished water tank, which is what it's called. But it was a little bit more than we normally see when we sent divers in. But in terms of why this happened. There are some assumptions as to why it happened. We did see a change in supplier in one of our chemicals. We sent that new chemical out for testing and processing. But we did track it back down to the potential of this chemical change that was creating additional sediment in the tank, not normal. So went back to our original supplier, started to make changes. We're starting to see some of that some of that change come to as to what's expected in the finished product. But we'll still track it down to make sure that that's actually what was the problem.

Some people have been curious as to whether the areas where residents are not using the water because they're worried about it, if there'll be any sort of reimbursement or adjustment on their bills.

Right. We’re tracking those conversations as well. But people are also paying for, you know, water to supply fire and other types of services in the city. So we don't know yet to be honest. We have really haven't spoke about that in earnest. But I think it's something we should talk about and make a decision on it. But I don't know. I don't have a really strong answer to that right now.

Mayor Rosenquest, one of the other big issues in the city, or kind of technically just outside the city, is the Crete Center, the Crete Memorial Civic Center, which recently you gave tours of and then at the recent city council meeting they approved a resolution to authorize a cost estimate for asbestos abatement and demolition of the building. And one of the things that I noted particularly is even with the counselors, they clarified that it does not mean imminent destruction of the building.

Yeah, the Crete. That's, it's challenging. And I, you know, I, it's one of those things where I know it's emotional. It's no longer just a straight business decision. Because if it were I could show you that since 2007 the city has spent two and a half million dollars just to keep the building open. The city's lost $800,000. We've operated that building in the negative since then. And that's just 2007. I didn’t even go back further. In the last five years we've spent $160,000 a year. We've lost $250,000 In total over the last five years just opening the building, just in keeping the building open. So as a business decision, and it's crystal clear, like close the building. Like enough is enough. I've heard it from both sides. I've heard tear it down. I've heard keep it. But I'll tell you that the majority of the people that I've spoken with said look, it's the right decision, tear it down. The people who are advocates for keeping it talk more about the emotional attachment that they have to it. And I understand that. That's not lost on me. As emotional as this is, I'm looking at spending $160,000 keeping a building open, losing $50,000 a year keeping this building open when I can take that $160,000 and put it in our park. And that's not to discount the 300 city residents that use that building or the 1,700 county residents that use that building. But I also have to measure what's the best benefit for the city taxpayer in this whole situation. There is a plan for the beach. It's not like we're out here just making this up. It was delivered to city council for adoption in 2016. One of the very key questions that the plan demanded to be answered was: what do we do with the Crete Center? The adopted plan of 2016 said tear it down. This is what people wanted then. This is what I hear people want now is to return the beach to open recreation. Is there a way to repurpose some of it? Maybe. Do we tear it all down? Maybe. Do we keep it the way it is? No.

The City Police Department. What is the status of the search for a permanent police chief?

Sure. In the police department we did a nationwide search and the applications we got back were approved by Civil Service. That system’s broke. I'll leave it at that. They approved those candidates that applied. We had candidates all the way from Alaska apply. And at the end of it two people were actually recommended. Both were external candidates. I went to appoint one. The council did not approve that candidate. Come to find out Civil Service came back to us and said none of those candidates were valid, because we approve those candidates and we should not have. And that also became quite problematic. So the test was administered in March. Only one name showed up on the test. We had already appointed a provisional chief at the time because we needed somebody in there. But that's where we're at. We got the test back, the list back. We said we're not going to take action. We'll reappoint this provisional chief until the next test comes out. And so that's where we're at. We've talked a number of times about going out for another search. I think that considering where we're at now, and that it's stable, we'll continue on this process with a provisional appointment until we come to the understanding of a more solid timeline for finding a permanent person.

You've started on the budget.

Oh, yeah, I'm neck deep in that, holy smokes.

When is it due to get to the council?

Yeah, before the eighth of October. So the public meeting is going to, for the delivery of the budget is on the sixth of October, and then I believe it needs 28 days for public hearings. So we'll wait 28 days for the public hearing. And then after the public hearing happens it gets handed over to the council and council has until the 15th of January to deliver their changes to the budget and then from there it gets adopted. We do have public meetings before my budget, the mayor's budget, is delivered. That's an opportunity for department heads to come before council and for council to make some recommendations on changes that they see fit or that they want to see in the budget. And there's also another mechanism that I've allowed for council to recommend changes that they want to see to the mayor's budget before the mayor's budget comes out. And these are not required. This is the mayor's budget. The mayor can just put out a budget without feedback or without involvement. I wanted to make this process a little bit smoother. When the budget comes out that it could be a little bit more acceptable to the council before many changes are made. Whether they choose that option or not it's up to them. But the doors open. You know we just settled three new contracts. We settled three contracts this year. We're working on our fourth. Two of those contracts were retroactively paid back to 2016 - 2017. So we're looking at a pretty big number to justify here and to rationalize against that general fund number. So initial numbers come in they look good. But there still is some work to be done.

Plattsburgh officials have issued a map and schedule of planned water system flushing through October to remove sediments from the system.

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