Meetings, the final day of the sale, and more

The City Council meeting on Monday was Caitlin Siever's last; she is leaving the Rensselaer Republican. The Mayor and Council gave her a bouquet of flowers to show their appreciation of her coverage of the Council and City. She seemed quite surprised and said she looked forward to a job that required only 40 hours per week.

John Julien, the City's financial advisor, reported on a bond offering. S&P did not give the City a rating because State Board of Accounts had not done a report on it for while, but still the City was able to borrow $2.8 million for the new substation at a 2.8% rate and to refinance $4.2 million of old debt for the same interest rate. The refinancing will save the City $36,000 per year for the next eleven years.

The next bond offering will be to finance the new water well and the water main that brings the water to the treatment plant. Construction bids are due at the first November meeting of the Council and that will allow some fine tuning of the offering that will be bid late in November or early in December.

The Council approved seeking supply bids for gas, diesel, and tire services. The Cemetery was granted permission to seek quotes on a trade-in of a mower and to purchase a trailer for the mini-excavator that it recently purchased. 

The Council opened three bids for a new street sweeper. They ranged from $157,505 to $204,000. It also opened bids for the next phase of street resurfacing. There were three bids ranging from $1,018,750 to $861,883.15. A committee was appointed to examine the bids and make recommendations at the next Council meeting.

City employees were give a presentation for the Parks for People fundraising. American Legion donated a new flagpole for Flat Iron Park. 

The water main under the Washington Street Bridge has been reconnected and is back in service.

The County Council met in an uneventful meeting on Tuesday night and approved budgets for the Airport, Northwest Solid Waste District, Iroquois Conservancy, and Rensselaer Central School Corporation.

Tuesday was the final day of the SJC sale and it was busy in the late afternoon. Even then new items were being carted in and one former faculty member told me that there would be an auction in the near future. 

For some people the sale was an early Christmas. 

Earlier this week the west railing of the bridge was poured.

By the time you read this, the cover may be off. The concrete used is colored red and the effect will be to make the wall appear as if it is made from bricks.

Two days of non-stop drizzle have slowed or stopped harvest. The leaves are finally changing color. And we may get some frost in the next few days as temperatures at night dip into the low 30s.