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The city council meets tonight. The agenda includes:
Liars, damn liars and statistics: Destination Niagara Executive Director John Percy will begin the meeting with a presentation that shows his agency is wonderful, and he can prove it with numbers and revenue.
The city may not get shit from New York State, which shares no parking or Cave of the Winds or Maid of the Mist revenue but hey, it has a tourism agency that is wonderful and brings crazy numbers of people here who spend millions on boat rides, food and everything else.
The blooms on the bouquet won’t wilt until after Percy leaves.
You can view Percy’s presentation in an attachment below.
Garbage Cans: A 3-year extension of the Casella’s Waste Management contract in exchange for 18,000 new, larger (96-gallon), blue garbage cans.
There is nothing in the mayor’s communication about the value of the garbage cans. Ace Hardware has them online retail for about $140 each. 18,000 would cost $2.52 million. Take a 25% discount for a wholesale bulk purchase and it comes out to $1.9 million or less. Previous reports were the cost would the $1.5 to $2 million without the logistics of collecting 18,000 old cans and replacing them with 18,000 new.
Pothole Killer: The return of the resolution to retain the services of the Pothole Killer. It failed two weeks ago by a deadlocked vote of 2-2 with Brian Archie and Donta Myles against.
The Pothole Killer. The estimated cost for Patch Management, the Pennsylvania vendor, would be $99,600. The machine has been criticized as inefficient since its use started in 2018.
There is still overtime attached, 4-hours per day for 21 days, $100,870.
If Traci Bax and David Zajac show up for the meeting, the resolution will pass 3-2.
Dante Myles spoke out on Monday on Facebook, inviting Public Works Superintendent Kenny Tompkins, who formerly served as a councilperson to attend the meeting and ask questions.
The city charter does not require the mayor or department heads to attend meeting and answer questions. Mayor Robert Restaino not only has not attended a meeting but has not required department heads to do so.
Councilpersons are also forbidden from speaking directly with city employees. Thus the likelihood Tompkins shows up tonight, unless Restaino has a change of heart, is slim to none, especially if the mayor knows there will be 3 council members from whom he can expect yes votes.
By the mayor’s way of reasoning, councilpersons are welcome to contact his office or his brother, the city administrator to ask questions and seek more information and that should be enough.
The Express believes Tompkins would attend if the Mayor allowed it.
