PLATTSBURGH — The City Council approved a $60,000 increase to the library's general fund transfer and heard a new proposal to revitalize the Plattsburgh Boat Basin during Wednesday night's meeting.
The extra funding will be put toward the Library Board's cost reduction agreement with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees bargaining unit and will also reflect the rate increases for retirement.
"This marks the end of something that was three weeks in the making," City of Plattsburgh Councilor Tim Carpenter said, addressing the meeting. "It took 57 people working to make this thing happen."
The council also voted to consider the $240,000 loan made to the Lake City Development Corporation to be satisfied. The corporation only paid $5,000 of the loan before surrendering the lease to the city, but the improvements made to the property by the corporation raised the property's value by more than $200,000.
But if Arthur Spiegel has his way, the property won't be vacant for long. Spiegel, who co-owns the Plattsburgh Boat Basin Marina with James Carter, addressed the council by stating concerns about downtown.
According to Spiegel, one of the City of Plattsburgh's main problems is that it must start utilizing its docks as a means to draw people downtown.
"We would like to control those docks and expand the marina," Spiegel said. "We could either do a revenue share with you (the city), or you could sell us those brownfields and the right to put docks in. We're open to suggestions."
Spiegel said the large parking lot, put in place by the Lake City Development Corporation, and the area around it could be used for parking in the summer and boat storage in the winter, and that he would also work to protect the $1 million park recently constructed by the city.
Spiegel added that he can't imagine retail near the Basin Marina, and said it would detract from downtown. His plan, he said, would help increase people's interest in downtown.
"Downtown is going to have to be a city that thrives on entertainment, that thrives on services, that thrives on art," Spiegel said. "If we can put another 300 docks in, think of how many hundreds of people will come in, and they'll want more restaurants, more bars and a bookstore."
Spiegel said his idea can be a hand-in-hand operation that will help him and his business partner, as well as the city, make extra money while benefitting the community.
"The nucleus of what is going to make downtown happen is not to commercialize the brownfield, it's to expand upon what we have now," Spiegel said.
As the meeting came to a close, the City Council also approved the Recreation Department's request to host and co-sponsor the "Race the Base" Race for Hope to benefit the Mission of Hope and approved Marjorie Long and Derek Rosenbaum's request to close Lower Court Street and Trinity Park to hold the "Walk of 1,000 Umbrellas," a benefit for the ALS Walk of Hope Foundation, a group dedicated to battling Lou Gehrig's disease.
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