Jamestown City Council will vote on approving $1.3 million in American Rescue Plan funding to seven non-profit organizations.
The Jamestown Local Development Corporation has already approved funding from the Non-Profit Assistance Grant Program to the seven organizations and it comes before City Council now due to the requests crossing the $100,000 threshold.
Council will be presented under new business with resolutions for each organization. Appearing on the agenda are:
– Chautauqua Opportunities, Inc. – $181,393 for the development of an 18-bed homeless shelter for women
– Jamestown Center City Development Corporation – $200,000 for interior build-out of TheZone at the Northwest Arena
– Jamestown YMCA – $200,000 for the construction of a new YMCA
– National Comedy Center – $200,000 to replace lost revenue due to the Pandemic along with costs for implementing safer operating procedures
– Robert H. Jackson Center – $200,000 to renovate the Cappa Theatre, including audio/visual equipment
– St. Luke’s Episcopal Church – $200,000 to restore the bell tower and create a year round agricultural program
– YWCA Jamestown – $145,714 for a female youth leadership program
Council Member At Large Jeff Russell voted no funding the Jamestown YMCA and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church projects at the JLDC meeting while Council Member at Large Kim Ecklund voted in favor of all projects and Council President Tony Dolce voted for all projects except the Jamestown YMCA progect, which he abstained on.
Mayor Eddie Sundquist said that if Council votes down any of the projects, that money will not be disbursed to that organization and then the JLDC can decide whether to allocate what remains to current applicants or open up the grant program to others.
Council also will vote on whether to fund the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy with another $244,500 toward Chadakoin River work.
The funding would go toward Phase 2 of the river restoration project that includes tree mitigation and debris removal, a second round of herbicide treatment for surviving Tree-of-Heaven, removal of dead Tree-of-Heaven, ands protecting mature bank trees.
Another item under new business, is a resolution to allocate an additional $30,000 in American Rescue Plan funds to the Housing Repair Mini Grant program. That program had been initially funded with $500,000. According to the staff report, the additional funding is needed to fund 12 eligible applicants.
Council also will vote under new business on reallocating $103,429 in Community Development Block Grant funds from the 2018-2019 Greenlining Facade Improvement program to the 2018-2019 Downtown Handicapped Accessibility Improvement Program.
A public hearing on the resolution will be held at 6:45 p.m. on Monday, September 25 in the City Council Chambers in City Hall.
Council will hold a work session at 7:00 p.m. in the Police Training Room on the fourth floor of City Hall before the full voting session takes place at 7:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. All meetings are open to the public with the public hearing and voting session being livestreamed on jamestownny.gov.
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