City council meets tonight

There’s a Niagara Falls Council meeting tonight.

The neglected and ignored residents of the 4th District will be back again to protest the lack of funding for Beech Avenue Park, a long-promised but unfunded project upon which $200,000 has already been spent on planning.

Council members Donta Myles, Traci Bax and David Zajac were all on the council from the beginning of the allocation of American Rescue Plan funds. All allowed the administration to spend the vast majority of the $56 million on things like city hall infrastructure repair and equipment for police and fire.

No one raised the issue of Beech Avenue Park in the face of those allocations.

The supporting materials for tonight’s meeting are more than 100 pages long and include numerous letter of support from community members as well as a lengthy petition circulated by a Niagara Falls High School student with more than 1,000 signatures.

Recently elected Council Member Brian Archie and and Council Chair James Perry also have supported the park with Archie voting in favor, but neither was part of the council during the initial allocation of ARP funds.

Mayor Robert Restaino held 5 different public forums on allocation of the federal moneys before telling the council how he intended to spend the funds and passing the plan easily.

Meanwhile, Arlene Jackson Doss of Niagara United Vision has continued to voice her support for the project but tried polite channels through the funding allocation process, meeting with Mayor Restaino for naught.

For his part, the Mayor has said while he supports the park, maintaining other facilities like Hyde Park, Gluck and LaSalle waterfront is a more urgent priority than building a new park.