City lawmakers on Tuesday approved more than $5 million in bonds to fund public safety, water infrastructure and recreation projects, as well as an additional $3.6 million for a new public works facility.
More than $2.4 million will be reimbursed through the state Downtown Revitalization Initiative and another $2.5 million will be paid off by the Gloversville-Johnstown Joint Wastewater Treatment Facilities, according to city officials.
“I’m very conservative and, let me tell you, I was gritting my teeth,” said Councilwoman Ellen Anadio, R-4th Ward. “It’s very hard to say ‘yes’ to that kind of money, but around half of it we’re going to get back and you can’t just let your assets fall apart.”
The bonding list on July 1 first passed the city finance committee, which is composed of councilors Anadio, Marcia Weiss, D-1st Ward, and Jessica McNamara, R-2nd Ward. Members had been discussing the measure since May 16.
Each item was born out of something of a departmental wish list, according to Mayor Vincent DeSantis.
“Certainly, it’s an accumulation of a lot of different things and it took us a long time to get all the numbers together,” said the Democratic mayor.
Outside of seven-digit items, the package includes $172,000 for police vehicles, $175,000 for law enforcement equipment and $164,000 in police facility upgrades. Another $60,000 will go toward fire equipment upgrades.
Most of the smaller items must be paid back at some point within a 10-year span. Payments for police station improvements and construction costs for the upcoming DPW garage near the former Wood & Hyde Leather Co. plant on 18 W. 9th Ave. are due in 25 years.
Gloversville has owned that facility since 2021, a year after the old company shuttered. Plans to get a new DPW facility have been on the docket since last decade.
Now closer to the finish line, DeSantis aims to open up the space for city operations by the end of 2024. He doesn’t want crews to spend another winter in the city’s tight, structurally-challenged facility on Lincoln Street.
“It costs a lot of money to heat it because it’s not insulated like a modern facility would be,” DeSantis said.
Anadio is hoping that cross-departmental infrastructure investments via bonding will bolster employee morale. In the future, she added, the city needs to ensure that its equipment doesn’t deteriorate in order to avoid high-dollar bonding.
“That should’ve been addressed by doing a little at a time a long time ago,” Anadio said. “That would have been much, much better, but now we have to catch up because it’s in ill-repair.”
Meanwhile, the adjacent city of Johnstown has been barred from financing projects since 2021. The predicament stems from a report by the state comptroller’s office slamming then-Treasurer Michael Gifford for failing to properly maintain annual update documents (AUDs).
Since then, the new administration under Mayor Amy Praught and Treasurer Thomas Herr has been attempting to file enough AUDs with the state in order to begin bonding again. City officials plan to borrow money in order to fund public works roofing upgrades, water infrastructure improvements, paving projects and equipment replacements.
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