The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Common Council honors Carol Madonia; other council votes
ONEIDA, N.Y. » The Oneida Common Council honored Carol Madonia, a well-liked and respected secretary at North Broad Street Elementary School, during its recent meeting. May 17, 2022, will now be known as Carol Madonia Day in the city.
“Carol had always been known as a person of tremendous kindness, compassion, and dedication to the students at North broad Street Elementary School,” Oneida Mayor Helen Acker said. “Carol was always able to make a difference in the lives of many.”
Madonia passed in March but left behind a legacy of service and caring for North Broad students and faculty. The Oneida Rotary presented Madonia with the Bill Fariel Award for Vocational Excellence in 2017.
Council votes
The council authorized City Engineer Jeffrey Rowe to proceed with the Higinbotham Brook design and allowed him to spend up to the $55,000 budgeted for the project.
“The project is a culvert that runs east beneath Broad and Main streets and under the library. We wanted to clean up the flow to maintain water quality,” Rowe said.
The project is slated to be completed by late 2022 or early 2023.
The council also voted to create a special committee to find the need for a city administrator/city manager position. Former Mayor Leo N. Matzke had recommended the position in 2017. The administrator would improve inter-department communication, oversee all city operations and dealings with outside organizations, and maintain financial integrity.
The council authorized Acker to sign a memorandum of understanding between the city and CSEA City of Oneida Unit 735100, Madison County Local 827. “This has been a long time coming, and I’m glad we’ve gotten it done,” Acker said.
Supervisor reports
Oneida City Supervisors Mary Cavanagh and Matt Roberts, Wards 1-3, spoke to updates regarding the city and Madison County.
Cavanagh said the city had approved five mental health counselors in schools in the county. The Chittenango and Hamilton school districts will each receive two counselors and the Oneida
district will receive one counselor.
Madison County Chairman John Becker organized a Mental Health Task Force to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the community in May 2021. The study expanded to address behavioral health crisis services, mobile integrated healthcare, the county’s Wellness Resource Network, low-income housing issues, and employee wellness resources
“Because of the survey results we are going to be creating five positions,” Cavanagh said. “They are similar to the school resource officer and one of these will be in Oneida. It’s phase one of the program, which will include Cazenovia, Oneida, Hamilton, and Chittenango.”
Phase Two will expand the counselors to other schools in the county.
“This will be a satellite mental health office right in the schools,” Cavanagh said. “They will be traveling between school buildings.”
Madison County is one of two counties in the state participating in the program.
Madison County has a 24-hour mental health hotline: (315) 366-2327, ext. 1. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1 (800) 273-8255 (TALK).
“This is so much needed, as evidenced by what happened (a mass shooting by a mentally disturbed individual that left 10 dead and three wounded) in Buffalo,” Acker said.
Roberts said the county will be expanding its broadband service through a partnership with Ecz Technologies in Plattsburgh. It will be 269 miles of fiber running throughout the county to expand broadband service.
“Madison County is going to own this fiber and it has a thirty-year lifespan,” Roberts said.
The cost will be $3.4 million and the county will pay for it at its onset. “We were going to bond for it, but we decided that we have the funds,” Roberts said. “We decided to pay for it upfront and save county taxpayers somewhere between half a million and a million dollars.”
Ecz will handle all maintenance and the county will receive $10 for each broadband customer. The broadband will run down Main Street. “Infrastructure is not just roads and bridges and electricity, it’s infrastructure for the technology we need to draw people to want to come and live in our community,” Roberts said.
Roberts said Oneida’s city sales tax continues to be strong. In 2020 the city generated $8.6 million, in 2021 it totaled $10.2 million and in 2022 it has made $12 million.
City Attorney Nadine Bell asked whether the nationwide high inflation rate had falsely compounded the tax dollar value generated during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Does this in part result from inflation, and increased prices and taxes? Is there any correlation between the two?” she asked.
“It’s probably in part due to inflation,” Roberts said. “But the overwhelming majority is due to people buying online.
“Prior to the Internet, if you live in Brookfield, you drive to Utica and buy, the sales tax goes to Utica. Today, if you live in Brookfield and buy on Amazon.com, the money goes to Madison County…we’re spreading out the tax revenue where it belongs.”
The increased sales tax has helped the county participate in different projects.
“We’re able to invest that back into projects that allow us to avoid bonding, which is a huge, huge win for all of us,” Roberts said. “It’s really exciting for the city and the county. It’s here to help the underserved rural customers (in southern Madison County).”
“Because of the survey results we are going to be creating five positions. They are similar to the school resource officer and one of these will be in Oneida. It’s phase one of the program, which will include Cazenovia, Oneida, Hamilton, and Chittenango.” — Madison County Chairman John Becker