Monday, the mayor's advisory panel agreed to create a letter of approval to the Army Corps of Engineers' choice of Cucia Park as the site for building an Army Reserve Training Center.
The meeting began with a short debate about whether the Mayor's Advisory Panel should send a letter to the Common Council recommending that they adhere to a resolution to set aside sufficient funding to purchase open space land with revenue from the sale of Cucia Park.
In the debate over open space, panel member Stephen Devoto distributed a letter he drafted which would advise the Common Council that they should abide by a resolution they passed in October to purchase open space. Devoto's draft letter indicated that the Council vote to add Cucia revenue to the general revenue stream for next year's budget, violated the spirit of the original resolution.
Ron Klattenberg, chairman of the panel, indicated that the resolution simply indicated that sufficient funding be set aside for open space purchases. The members of the panel could not come up with a basis for what "sufficient" meant, with Devoto suggesting that in order to purchase 25 acres of open space, a million dollars might be suffient, but it might not be. Klattenberg countered that since no one was sure how much money the Cucia parcel would bring in (Councilman Tom Serra indicated the number was $2 million, but the mayor said Serra had not been in the executive session where the number was discussed by the Economic Development Committee), it was impossible to determine what was sufficient. In addition, Klattenberg said that the Council's $1.5 million contribution to the general fund would not hamper open space purchases.
Klattenberg argued that there would be sufficient surplus from the purchase price to make the open space purchase. Devoto countered that no one at the meeting, except the mayor, had a real idea about what the purchase price might be.
In the end, City Planner Bill Warner, seconded by Mayor Sebastian Giuliano, suggested that any letter to the Council recommending an open space reserve from Cucia revenue, should rightfully come from the Conservation Commission, and such a letter had already been forwarded to the Council.
Klattenburg suggested that the resolution made by the Council did not have the force of an ordinance. The mayor added that the Council had the right to repeal any resolution they make.
Klattenburg indicated he would draft a letter to the Army Corps which praised their choice of Cucia Park, and thanked the Corps for their cooperative spirit in the choice. The letter would remind the Corps of their obligation to hire local contractors in the building process and to be aware of water pressure issues. It would also encourage the Corps to work within local environmental and inland wetlands regulations.
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