Batavia's City Council decided last night not to pitch in $2,750 toward a shared recreation study of park and play land in the city, according to the Daily News. Check out our post from a couple weeks ago for the details. Councilman Bob Boialkowski said he would rather the city sold the land to get it on the tax rolls, and he wasn't alone in that opinion. Reporter Joanne Beck wrote:
(City Council President Charlie) Mallow took the agreement as a directive to Molino He asked him to give the district a call and tell school officials the city isn't interested at this time.
In other news, Joanne Beck put together an excellent article on the city's decision to cut the position of plumbing inspector down from full- to part-time. Beck fleshes out that rather dry news by talking with the city's plumbing inspector, Barb Toal, and, in doing so, shows how a decision ostensibly made for the greater good impacts the livelihood of one individual. For example:
(Toal) will lose half of her salary ... and will now have to pay nearly $500 a month for health insurance. She will also have to work for a longer period of time to reach her full pension benefits since she's now being cut to part-time. She would have reached that goal by January.
Read this one if you have the time.
Beck also wrote an article on the discussion at last night's Council meeting about the city's ambulance service. That news was first featured here on The Batavian this morning when we picked it up from WBTA's coverage. If you're looking for more detail, you might want to check out the article in the paper.
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Good to see Councilman Frank
Good to see Councilman Frank Ferrando stating we should get out of this money loser. If the towns and villages want ambulance service, let them. There is no need for the City of Batavia to give it to them.
what does a plunbing
what does a plunbing inspector do never heard of it
I am glad to see city council
I am glad to see city council take these positive steps.The ambulance service can not be mostly supported by the city.Where is the county on this..I feel bad about the plumbing inspector but i would think the answer for her is to quit and get full time private sector job..She'll probably get a better wage..I'm sure there are alot of stories of job loses out there.But i thought she also covered the south side of the city for code enforcement besides plumbing inspector..What is the status of the code enforcement,is it just Mike Smith..He told me he only takes care of the north side of the city.
Mark, The Genesee County
Mark,
The Genesee County legislators are not interested in getting into the ambulance service. They know they will lose money just like the City has for years. You have to think they are smarter as a group than Council.
We go into the hole year after year and we still give our money away to bail out the Towns and Villages. I am happy to hear Councilman Frank Ferrando has come around finally on this. If does not cave in, there might be enough votes to end this bail out.
Lets hope so John....you know
Lets hope so John....you know the firemen will be lobbying hard to keep it..