Mayor Focuses On 2011

Jm Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA

Mayor Miller in his City Hall office on the penultimate day of 2010.  The right window looks out on Ford Avenue; the left one on Main Street.

2nd Council Retreat To Look At Facilities

By JIM KEVLIN


Oneonta has quite a year waiting for it, beginning immediately.
Saturday, Jan. 8, Mayor Dick Miller has scheduled a second annual retreat for Common Council to, among other things, begin discussing a multi-year infrastructure and facility plan that would include such issues as the future of the Oneonta Municipal Airport.
Tuesday, Jan. 18, the long-awaited revisions to the city zoning code will be made public.  The changes will focus on strengthening neighborhoods, providing housing opportunities and helping businesses start or expand.
On Saturday, Jan. 22, Miller is hosting a forum for the arts community aimed at coming up with a plan for full use of the Foothills Performing Arts & Civic Center, including – perhaps – studios and artist housing.
Then, by spring, the Charter Commission will reports its recommendations, which will include a rethinking of the role of mayor and perhaps the need for a city manager.  The revised charter will be on the November ballot.
Completion of the Bresee’s renovation, city/town consolidation, negotiating PILOT or similar agreements with the colleges:   These also remain on the agenda.
While looking ahead, the mayor, in an interview at the end of his first year, said he’s enjoyed the challenges to date, particularly in the “spirit of collaboration” he’s enjoyed with aldermen, city employees and the public at large.
His first area of focus – developing a computer-based five-year budget plan that allowed Common Council to adjust in advance of crises – has born fruit in this year’s 2 percent tax increase.
City revenues were greater and City Hall spent less than budgeted, meaning “we’re ahead of the game going into 2012,” Miller said, pushing back the day of reckoning a year.   (He had expected the budget surplus to be exhausted in 2012.)
A big reason was renegotiating benefit packages for city workers and retirees that kept costs level or below.
His attitude toward the mixed reaction to the “Oneonta, Life Enjoyed” brand might be characterized as acceptance.  However, he said it can and will be used to promote Oneonta outside the region.
“We have to run events here that cause people to come here,” he said.
Along those same lines, he will be asking Alderman Mike Lynch, new chair of the Facilities/Technology/Operations committee, to look at upgrading Lettis Highway and South Main entrances into the city.
He said the entrances into Saratoga Springs – manicured landscaping and fancy paving – could apply equally here.