The Plattsburgh Common Council considered several issues including whether to approve studies and grants during their latest meeting and work session.
City officials have for years been working on securing funds and determining whether to approve a study to upgrade a beach adjacent to the former Plattsburgh Air Force Base.
In 2023, the Common Council approved applications and in 2024 accepted from the state Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation grant funding up to $41,000 to help fund a Sailor’s Beach Rehabilitation Feasibility Study. At its latest work session, Director of Community Development Courtney Meisenheimer said the purpose of the current resolution is to decide whether to move forward with the study.
“The goal tonight is to make a final decision as to whether we move forward with this grant by awarding the contracts so that we can begin the study. Or if you decide that we would like to not award this study and not go after this grant and then I’m going to talk with the state in terms of returning the funds. At a baseline we do need certain studies. We need certain data points and information in order to actually do any type of work down there,” Meisenheimer explained.
First-term Ward 6 Democrat Amy Collin said she feels a study would help ascertain potential liabilities at the site.
“Anything that has to do with the waterfront, first of all I think it’s in line with what I’m assuming everybody was looking at back then in terms of recreation and so I can see why there is value in it. And I also think that anytime we’re going to look at doing things with the lake that these kinds of studies are probably really important, because I would assume it involves a lot of data on the ground and the structure,” Collin noted. “and I would think that would be something we would want if we’re going to move forward with doing any kind of work down there of any kind.”
Ward 3 Democrat Elizabeth Gibbs expressed concerns about a deteriorating cement pier jutting into the water.
“Is included in this feasibility study award recommendations for that broken down pier?”
“Yes,” replied Meisenheimer.
“That’s something that Council talked about in 2019,” Gibbs recalled. “We had decided it was prohibitively expensive and incredibly complicated because that pier is in the water and you can’t just remove it. We even talked about a possible Army Corps of Engineers having to get involved to see if we could do anything with it. So that part I’d be also very interested to know what could be done with it.”
Councilors voted unanimously to approve the study.
The Common Council also received details on a grant for the design and construction of a state DEC Safe Routes to School project. Gibbs quizzed Senior Planner Elisha Bartlett on the purpose of the grant.
“I know this is for construction oversight services. So when we get to that point where we’re ready to actually move on that, what is it actually going to do?” asked Gibbs.
“The application was to fold in our Complete Streets strategy under the Safe Routes to School program and for this corridor it would look at widening sidewalks, what kind of biking amenities we could fit in, updating the signage,” Bartlett explained.
Councilors unanimously approved the Safe Routes to School grant proposal.
