The city of Oneonta will spend more than $400,00 to repair the crumbling wall of the Westcott Lot on Main Street, Common Council members agreed on Tuesday night.
The wall and stairs have been deemed deteriorated and beyond repair, according to materials prepared in advance of the meeting. The $409,100 contract was awarded to Birdsall Excavation & Construction LLC of Clarksville as the winning bidder on the contract.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, city Administrator Greg Mattice said construction should be completed by October, with only a handful of parking spaces unavailable while work is going on. Access up to Main Street from the parking lot, which stands next to the county office building, will be maintained throughout the project.
In other business at the meeting, an event and street closure application for the proposed “Water Street Saturday Nights” series was approved by the Common Council. The series, which is scheduled to begin Saturday, July 19, and continue on consecutive Saturdays through Aug. 30, will feature the closure of Water Street to accommodate live music, food trucks and other vendors.
According to the city, the event series is part of the Oneonta downtown marketing plan, with $3,000 allocated from the 2025 Downtown Support budget to support the hiring of musical acts.
“This initiative builds on past success and reflects the city’s broader goals of downtown revitalization and public space activation,” the Finance and Human Resources Committee stated in its request to waive the usual fees for street closures.
Typically, organizations are charged a fee of $225 per closure. But because the program is a city-funded project, the Common Council agreed to waive all fees.
While Councilmember Scott Harrington explained that the committee had sought a nominal fee of $100 to promote accountability on the part of the applicants, the council ultimately agreed to waive it.
“We’ve driven the event, we gave money, why would we take money back?” Councilmember Shannon McHugh asked.
Speaking on behalf of the Water Street Merchants, who applied for the street closure, Jim Seymour explained that, while the events are not expected to generate any revenue for his business, he viewed the events as a way to draw people to the Water Street area and contribute to its vitality.
“I’m hoping that the attitude of bringing the improvement into that area is going to make it more viable for people to come there and increase business slowly overall by making it a more appealing place to be,” Seymour said.
The Common Council also considered a proposal to introduce a $500 deposit for the use of city parks facilities, based on reports from the Department of Public Works that many events have required substantial cleanup efforts. But council members sought clarification on what would be impacted by the fees, with some suggesting a tiered structure to ensure that park facilities remain accessible to all, so the matter was referred back to committee.
Also at the meeting, city attorney David Merzig reported that the city has received about $152,000 in civil penalties as the result of a code enforcement action against the former owners of the Oneonta Hotel building.
“We have the money, it’s in the till, and the check has cleared,” Merzig said.
Mayor Mark Drnek said the new owners of the building will hold a public meet-and-greet event at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 26, to share information about their plans for the building and introduce themselves to the Oneonta community. The event will be held in front of the building, which is at 195-205 Main St.
Drnek also consulted with the council about the matter of the consent agenda for meetings, which was the subject of heated discussion at the council’s last meeting. The mayor agreed that he would give council members the opportunity to pull any item from the consent agenda at any time prior to or during the meeting, but added that advance notice would give him and city staff a better opportunity to prepare supporting materials to facilitate more productive discussion.