ONEIDA Council discusses market and snowbanks

ONEIDA, N.Y. >> Members of the Oneida City Center Committee met with city council to discuss City Center Market’s success and future at Monday’s Common Council meeting.

OC3 approached councilors about this year’s event in February, but OC3 President Paul Marco said hewanted to get a jump start on the process for 2019 tomake sure his groupwas able to get any permits they needed ahead of time to avoid any rush.

By the numbers, Marco said the City Center Market was a gigantic success.

“I’ve gotten nothing but great feedback about the market,” Marco said.

The market ran for a total of 15 weeks starting in May with a total of 22 different vendors, five different non-profit organizations and 16 different bands participating. Marco said byOC3’s estimate,

3,750 people visited the market and they averaged about 250 people per week.

“I want to talk about 2019 and what we have planned,” Marco said. “There has been a couple of changes and we’re trying to build on the successes we’ve had.”

Marco said one of the first changes will be the time the market starts. Originally, the market’s opening day was Wednesday, May 23. Marco said OC3 wants to start on June 6 and run for 13 weeks, ending on Aug. 29.

“We’re also going to be pushing back the start time and minimizing our impact on Broad Street,” Marco said. “It’s a spectacular spot, but we found the market really started to pick up around 5 p.m., so that’s when we want to start, as opposed to 4 p.m.”

As part of City Center Market, the section of Broad Street from Farrier Avenue to Vanderbilt Avenue is closed to traffic as vendors set up along the road.

Marco said OC3 and the City Center Market will continue to partner with nonprofit organizations and community groups and will look to get more involved.

“There’s so many of them and we’d like to get all these groups involved and host a community event at the start of the market each week,” Marco said. “That’s another thing we’re really going to work on and strengthen our relationships.”

One of the bigger changes Marco said OC3 would like to see is a closed off portion of Higinbotham Park that would allow alcohol, but only alcohol purchased at the City Center Market from craft beer and wine vendors. Marco said this would give people a chance to enjoy the market, the band and their recent purchase.

“It’s going to be completely closed off and highly regulated,” Marco said. “The important key here is we don’t want people bringing their own coolers or cans in brown paper bags. It would have to be what they purchased from the market.”

Deputy Mayor Jim Chamberlain asked how these people would be policed and not just allowed to wander the park.

“Obviously we want to partner with the police department,” Marco said. “We want to make sure everyone understands what is and is not allowed outside the cordoned off area. If a volunteer sees anyone with a craft beer or wine drinking outside the area, we’d instruct them where to go and we’d instruct the vendors to tell the customers where they’re allowed to drink.”

Ward 2 Councilor Mike Bowe said the Oneida City Police could treat alcohol outside the designated area as an open container and that people should follow the rules if it’s posted well enough.

Dr. John Costello Jr., of OC3, said there has been discussion of a 60-by-60 foot area fenced off with picnic tables for people to enjoy their purchase. Costello Jr. said OC3 is open to suggestions from the city council.

Marco said OC3 is also interested in doing theme nights to draw in bigger crowds with bigger events.

“We could have a classic car show or motorcycle night the same time as the market to help draw a large crowd to the center of Oneida and see what we have to offer,” Marco said.

Ward 4 Councilor Helen Acker and Ward 3 Councilor James Coulthart both said they supported the idea of theme nights, but Coul- thart expressed concern with scheduling a car show.

“If it’s a Thursday, that’s a big cruise-in night for Sylvan Beach,” Coulthart said. “So just be sensitive to that.”

Bowe said with what would be needed for a car show in theway of parking, it might be prudent to get Wilbur-Duck involved and figure out if OC3 could possibly use the dealership’s lot.

“You could make it where Wilbur-Duck has skin in the game, as Jim likes to say,” Bowe said. “It’s just a suggestion.”

Bowe said what the city council definitely needs to do before anything is decided on is to speak with City Attorney Nadine Bell. City council asked Marco to present everything OC3 wishes to do in writing and give them time to review it.

In attendance with Costello Jr was John Costello Sr., who requested on Sept. 7 to enter an agreement with the city to remove snow banks in his business’ parking lot while allowing it tobe used for any city event.

The parking lot is turned over in the evening to anyone in the city who wants to use it, Costello Sr. said, but beforehand it’s used by patients. With a buildup of snow banks, the number of parking spots decreases and this negatively affects both parties.

Costello Sr. said he sent the council a picture of the parking lot during an Arc of Madison Cortland event in the evening in which all spots were utilized.

“We have no problem with the city using all 65 spots,” Costello Sr. said. “And they have been fully used. We’re offering that and we’re just saying, while your truck and bucket is at the Kallet, take the snow so we both have more spots when these events happen.”

Costello Sr. said now that the dialysis center is open, some patients are there all day long and there’s a possibility of limited space if there was an event at the Kallet Civic Center.

If the snow was taken away, Costello Sr. said his business would be fine with taking the chain down on their parking lot at 5 p.m. and opening up the parking lot to the Kallet Civic Center any evening, including Saturday and Sunday.

During the Jan. 16 meeting when the issue of snow removal was first broached, City Attorney Nadine Bell said there’s always a concern when a municipality does anything for a private entity andthat there are laws in place under the New York State Constitution that prohibit gifting.

Bell was not at Monday’s council meeting.

Ward 1 Councilor Al Cohen said he was not com- fortable doing anything until the city attorney was present, due to her prior concerns.

“When I was here last time, she did say she was concerned about liability,” Costello Sr. said. “We could have liability insurance to cover that. We do share spaces with our building on Route 5 with the Oneida High School. Each year, we get a certificate from our insurance covering liability and anything happening in our lot.”

Ward 6 Councilor Tom Simchik asked Costello Sr. if he has an agreement with the Oneida High School.

“We have an agreement and a certificate of approval fromthe school,” Costello Sr. said. “And we have to present proof of our insurance.”

Councilors agreed that they didn’t want to make any determination without the city attorney present. Bowe said he believes everyone on the council wants to do something since it is a mutually beneficial relationship, but they want to do it the right way.