Oneida targets ‘nuisance’ properties

ONEIDA, N.Y. » The city of Oneida Common Council continues to go after problem properties in the city, making the decision to classify four more properties as public nuisances during Tuesday night’s meeting.

Properties located at 117 East Sands St., 522 Sconondoa St., and 216 East ElmSt. were all declared public nuisances following public hearings.

In addition to getting after nuisance properties, the council also agreed to adopt a vacant property fee schedule as part of the local law adopted earlier in the year that established a vacant building registry.

Councilors also heard a presentation a company named Wendel regarding the potential acquisition of the city’s roughly 800 street lights. If the city were to pursue the project, all street lights in the city would be purchased from National Grid and retrofitted with LED lights as an energy savings cost. In doing so, it would allow the city to reduce that portion of its energy bill by half and virtually eliminate maintenance costs as LED lights would come with a 10 year warranty and last for 100,000 hours, roughly 25 years. If the city pursues the retrofit-

ting of its street lights, ornamental lights and traditional street lights alike would be replaced with a uniform light similar to the style installed during the Canastota streetscape project, City Engineer Jon Rauscher said.

Currently the city pays roughly $80,000 a year to power its street lights and $85,000 in maintenance. If it retrofits its lights with Wendel as a leveraging partner against National Grid, there is a chance for a $787,000 over the useful life of the lights which Wednel estimates at 25 years.

Councilors elected to move forward with a capital project regarding the refurbishment of the Oneida Fire Department’s 100 foot Sutphen Tower Ladder truck for a 15-year $450,000. The 20 year- old ladder truck is in need of mechanical repairs to its boom, in addition to other worn items. The project engineer informed the OFD that by refurbishing the ladder truck instead of seeking a new one, the city would be able to extend the longevity of the truck by another 15 years at a third of the cost of a new truck.

Salt Springs Paving, based in Jamesville, was awarded the annual street paving project, submitting a low bid of $286,000 for the work.

In other council news, the councilors agreed to send damaged fire fighting gear from the bowling alley fire in 2006 be given to Mitch Dryer for use in speaking engagements to promote awareness of safety concerns.