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April 27, 2019
suncommunitynews.com
• EDITION •
City finances see ‘big swing’
KIDS CLEAN UP CIGS IN CITY PARKS
Report shows $491K surplus for Plattsburgh general fund By Elizabeth Izzo STA FF W RITER
PLATTSBURGH | A recent report shows that work to right what Mayor Colin Read once characterized as the city’s fiscal ship is paying off. The report, outlined by City Chamberlain Richard Marks last week, shows that the city is looking at ending its 2018 fiscal year with a general fund surplus of $491,000 and a fund balance of $830,000. That would represent a “big swing,” Marks said, from 2017 — when the city ended the year $308,000 in the red. In 2010, the City of Plattsburgh had a fund balance of approximately $6 million. “It’s looking like a pretty positive year for 2018,” he told the Common Council’s Finance committee last Thursday. “We’re going to have the books closed and rolled forward by the end of this week, early next week.” The results surpass what the Common Council had budgeted for in 2019. Councilors planned for a surplus of $500,000 coming into the new fiscal year.
WORK NOT DONE
Though the latest numbers are promising, work to balance the budget isn’t done, according to Read. City managers continue to look at paring down their departments’ expenses each year as councilors aim for a general fund balance of at least 5 percent — or roughly $1.15 million.
Nine local kids, all members of anti-tobacco group Reality Check, spent a few hours picking up cigarette butts in downtown Plattsburgh last week. Photo by Elizabeth Izzo
Students call for end to littering By Elizabeth Izzo STA FF W RITER
PLATTSBURGH | For a few hours last week, a trail of small, bright orange flags stretched from City Hall Place to an outlook over the Saranac River. Under a cloudless sky nine kids, all members of anti-tobacco group
Reality Check, scoured the grass of Macdonough Park for tiny pieces of leftover cigarettes. They weren’t hard to find. Each time one of the kids found a cigarette butt, they planted a flag in its place. Over and over again the kids swooped down, taking the trash between their fingers — butts, vaping products, boxes, wrappings — and quickly deposited it into ziploc bags they carried with them. Within 15 minutes the kids, shadows falling beneath them,
» Finances Cont. on pg. 2
had dispersed roughly 409 fl ags throughout the park. When they ran out of flags to plant, they kept on going.
LITTERING
Amelia “Sketch” DeDominicas, 14, said that she thinks many city residents don’t consider discarding cigarette butts on the ground littering. “People don’t consider throwing cigarette butts or Juul pods out of their car as litter, so they just throw them on the ground,” she said. “It’s not great.” » Clean-up Cont. on pg. 3
D’town biz alloted outdoor dining spaces Parklets OK’d for seven restaurants, North Country Food Co-Op By Elizabeth Izzo STA FF W RITER
PLATTSBURGH | It’s that time again. The Plattsburgh Common Council has authorized this season’s allotment of outdoor dining spaces, or “parklets,” for downtown businesses. Th is year’s recipients are Aleka’s, the Pepper, Hobie’s Sports Den, Irises Cafe and Wine Bar, Olive Ridley’s, Sip and the North Country Food Co-Op. The council has the authority to authorize up to
15 parklets, which are typically on-street parking spaces blocked off to make room for seating in the summer months. Between the seven business, all of the 15 spaces were doled out this year. The only business that received a parklet last year but didn’t receive one this year was the Champlain Wine Company, which closed its City Hall Place storefront last year. The outdoor dining season in Plattsburgh stretches from May 1 to Sept. 30.
COUNCILOR SHARES CO-OP CONCERNS
The North Country Food Co-Op’s application was again contested by Councilor Peter Ensel (Ward 4), who has repeatedly questioned whether or not the co-op’s space is utilized and if its placement may pose some pedestrian safety issues by limiting drivers’ line of sight on Bridge Street. » Dining Cont. on pg. 2
City council races shake out Candidates announced for Plattsburgh Common Council seats
in the running to represent Ward 1 and Ward 4. The incumbents currently occupying the seats, councilors Rachelle Armstrong
(Ward 1) and Peter Ensel (Ward 4), have each said they are declining to run for re-election this year, both
By Elizabeth Izzo STA FF W RITER
PLATTSBURGH | Two seats on the Plattsburgh Common Council are up for election this year. Three candidates are currently
citing personal reasons. In Ward 1, which encompasses much of the south end of the city, Democrat Dr. Ira Barbell will face off against Republican William Ferris, Jr. Barbell, 73, is a Plattsburgh native. In the past, he worked as the director of South Carolina’s Child and Family Services. In 1992, he joined the private Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation as its associate director. He also served as a member of the Plattsburgh City School Board of Education for eight years, two years as president of the board. He’s now retired.
» Election Cont. on pg. 2
SHERMAN GOES FROM CHAZY TO FIRST-YEAR COLLEGE PROGRAM » pg. 10
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