The World According to Bob

Each week, Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino issues a sermon from his office educating the plebes on his version of what is going on in his city. The Express transcribes as some form of not-fully-understood penance. This week, he rambled for more than 19 minutes. Egads.

Trades training center is coming

We had another meeting with Niagara County Building Trades this week. We are getting closer to the transfer of the property at 56th and Niagara Falls Boulevard for the trades to develop a vocational trades training school.

For those who remember Trott Vocational, this won’t exactly be that because it is really concentrating on the trades but it is going to be focused on the trades but we have had great cooperation from the council who have come to train young people who are interested in the profession whether it is plastering, masonry, carpentry and other things for those interested. We know that they are in need so if you know someone, someone just out of high school that hasn’t chosen college and is really looking for something to do, they obviously would be a candidate for perhaps going over there if they would like to learn one of those trades.

Council's lack of action makes no sense

I thought it would be important just to review a couple of things. You may remember last month there was an item on the council agenda that pertained to work that was done on North Military where they were rebuilding that road. Typically when work is done that is that substantial, if there is work that needs to be done with regard to water or sewer lines, rather than have the water board assemble and engage in that project, often what will happen is that the contract the city has for that roadwork will also engage in that repair. To do that, obviously the city would be paying the contractor but the waterboard would reimburse the city for work that otherwise would have been the responsibility of the water board. It is more efficient. It allows the work to be done right at the time the road is being reconstructed. You remember last month there was an item on the agenda for about $92,000 that the council was asked to approve for the contractor who in fact did the work. Now this payment has been outstanding since 2024. And so we put it on the agenda along with an agreement called a “betterment agreement” I didn’t pick the name but that is the agreement between the city and water board that allows the waterboard to make that reimbursement I talked about a few moments ago.

Oddly enough, even though the money the city the money that was being asked of the council was money that the city would be getting back from the water board, the council chose not to go forward with that and yet they went forward with the betterment agreement which was on the agenda a couple items later was approved. Consequently, the city is now facing a potential lawsuit for the recovery. Having received a letter earlier this week, and quite frankly, this inaction, I don’t know, it’s incomprehensible that money that we would have been reimbursed by the Water Board pursuant to an agreement that the council had approved the very same evening, but chose not to go forward approving the change order, it is just kind of, to me, it doesn't make a lot of sense. We are hoping that we will be able to resolve this rather than have to city be sued as a result of this. We will see how that ends up resolving itself.

Rescue Plan funds aren't taxpayer dollars

You may recall over the last couple of years, the city has been working through over $57 million in federal money that was provided to cities all across the country under the American Rescue Plan Act. Now unlike some cities, we did not use our money for personnel or the establishment of new programs which could lead to massive budget gaps and incredible tax hikes as you hear about throughout our region. Rather, we used it on some specific acquisitions of either equipment or to take care of certain improvements like we did with the streetlighting program which has generated nearly a million dollars in saving annually. 

So this past meeting, in an effort to improve the quality at the Duke Center, we had proposed to put an air sterilization equipment into the Duke Center. You may remember we had been doing HVAC work there. Now under the American Rescue Plan, all of the contracts had to be completed and in place by the end of 2024, Dec. 31, 2024 and then all of the money had to be expended by the end of this year, Dec. 31, 2026. As happens in projects, sometimes even in projects at your home, there can be projects that come in under budget and projects that come in with cost overruns, things that weren’t known, cost of goods, materials could have increased overtime. 

Understanding how money shifts and what it can be spent on

So the good news is that the United States Treasury, in its regulations, has given to entities that received the American Rescue Plan money that flexibility so that if Project A came in under budget and Project B requires some additional funding, the money that was appropriated for Project A which came in under budget could then be diverted to project B because both were contracted before the end of 2024 and both are American Rescue Plan projects. The mistake that some people make is some people were making the same error that night is any projects that came in under budget can only be used for American Rescue Plan projects. 

It can’t be used toward sidewalk improvements or street improvements or any other project that is outside the list of projects that we have engaged in relative to the American Rescue plan. The only place you could take funds that were under budget in a particular project and divert them by treasury regulation to another project had to be another American Rescue Plan project. 

About the Duke Center

So again, we proposed to put this air sterilization technology at the Duke Center. The technology itself was developed here at the University at Buffalo. It is manufactured here and by they way, the city also contributed to the installation of this very equipment at the Schoellkopf Nursing Home with good success, great success as a matter of fact. So this technology, as I said, developed through a collaboration with the University at Buffalo and then extensively tested by the United States Department of Defense, we were going to install this technology over at the Duke Center. You know many of our seniors go there for the lunch program and for other activities. They have their own events, senior groups their own events. 

The idea was to take care of our senior population and make this investment on their behalf. The total project, including installation was $375,000. Not a penny of it is taxpayer money. All of it comes from projects that came under budget in the American Rescue Plan. So what happens if you don’t spend the money for those projects that may have come in under budget by putting them toward a project that may have needed additional funding? You have to send the money back.

So this is all money that is being given to us, kind of like a loan that, if we spend it all, that’s great. If we don’t, we have to send it back. So all of that was explained to the council by way of the agenda items they received. On top of it, we also sent the folks who created this technology brought them to the council for a presentation on the effectiveness of this equipment and how it would improve the air quality at the Duke Center for our senior citizens.

The bottom line

So a clear explanation on where funding was coming from, not taxpayer finding despite what some have misrepresented to the fact that using the money pursuant to the treasury regulations allows us to exhaust all of this funding for the betterment of our own community and we provided a presentation on just how effective this equipment could be and then laying all of this in front of the council so that they were fully familiar and again remarkably, they chose not to provide this improvement for our seniors at the Duke Center. 

They did not go forward with the item for our seniors. So I think what I want to impress upon all of you is that these items that we present, these things that we provide, we try to provide the council with as much information as they will need. We walked them through how the funding is done, with full transparency. We present to them when we can, actual demonstrations of how certain equipment will operate and we work toward trying to provide to the council as much information as possible and their decision making, relative to the water and sewer work that was done that may now result in litigation as well as the air sterilization equipment that we believe is in the best interest of our seniors over at the Duke Center, they are unwilling to, and I know that “well we don’t want to be puppets for the mayor” you are not being puppets, this is for the senior citizens over at the Duke Center. It is about having improved the sewer and water lines over on North Military and Cayuga and then actually getting paid for it, we are going to actually extend the money and then get the money back.

Why did they vote that way when they had all of the information

So I just, it becomes difficult for residents to understand why there seems to be such delay in the way in which the council views these things. I mean, let’s face it, we could not provide any more information in both of these instances so you wonder if there is something else operating. I will leave that speculation to other people. All I know is that the seniors certainly would have benefited from this air sterilization equipment. And that the change order funding for North Military and Cayuga water and sewer funding work was going to be reimbursed to the city so there was no real risk to the city and no risk in either of these projects and certainly no risk to taxpayers. One involved the use of federal money that we have to spend or we have to return it, and the other is funding that the water board was going to return to us. I don’t understand the logic of it. Perhaps it is just past me but I think when I look at these things, it just doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. But we hope that the council sees the incomprehensibility of what they are doing and works to get these things done. The residents who benefited from the improved sewer and water line work that was being done certainly the contractor deserved to be paid for that. The air sterilization equipment that we wanted to install at the Duke Center certainly will be helpful and beneficial to our senior population, nothing really tricky in any of this. We don’t operate in that way. But in any event, we will hope for better days ahead with them.

Job fair closed but we are still hiring

The job fair closed yesterday with some success. We had a number of applications put in so hopefully we will be able to generate some new hires through the people who came to the job fairs. Thank you to those who came out. You know you always can go to the Website and click on the tab that says employment and see the jobs that are there. Now that the job fair has concluded we will be updating the listings. We are always looking for energetic people who want to work hard for their city so please apply.

Fixing the potholes

So our weather has been all over the place. Our crews have been out in double shifts with some of the overtime the council approved trying to get our roads repaired.

I know that for them, the job appears overwhelming but they are going to work through it and do the best that they can.

Also, for some of the more minor issues, the other equipment will be in town to start doing some of their road repair so we will have a couple of things operating to try and see if we can tackle some of these road issues.

I know it is a topic for everyone. It is for me. I ride on the same roads that we all ride on and I know that we need to get on top of all of that and you see them working out there. It’s not as though they aren’t out there, working hard, trying to get that done. We appreciate your patience.