Rondequoter

Andrae Evans, Irondequoit Town Supervisor is here to update us on town happenings. 

There is a planned Economic Development Conference planned for June 13th.   Andrae's goal is to make Irondequoit very business friendly.  Increased business taxes raise the quality of living for all residents.  The conference is focused on How to Start a Business.  Those looking to start a business plus real estate owners looking to rent spaces are invited to attend.

Andrae Evans reviewed his administration's first 100 days in office:

• Applied for Federal Congressional Spending (the town never did this before) for grants in the area of: (1) Public Safety - the town currently only has 51 police officers for our 52,000 residents.  The grant would be to add 10-15 police officers and add equipment and facilities for increased public safety (2) Community Services - would like to create a Trades/Arts/Sciences building on the Town campus to offer  job training programs and apprenticeship programs (welding, plumbing, etc.) for those not going to college, and (3) More accessible park facilities.
• Applied for State funding for: more accessible playgrounds, a skate park and bathrooms at the Little League park.  The idea for the skate park was originally brought to Andrae from Liv Morgante's son.
• We are "almost out of the woods" on two lawsuits: I-Square and Titus Tavern.  More details coming soon.
• Made new hires to fill vacancies (Town Clerk, Tax Assessor) and created a new post as Director of Economic Development & Planning.  Added Ann Cunningham to the Board to replace Kimmie Romeo.
• In the process of updating Tax Assessment process to make them more fair - pictures of houses are outdated and needs updating along with all pertinent information to arrive at fair and equitable values.  Today most residences (~90%) are valued at "average" which means low value households pay more than their share and high value houses are paying less.  This needs to be fixed with real data.  Next assessment is in 2026.
• Updating the Town Code which has become "chopped up spaghetti" over the years as things have been added and subtracted.  18 months to do this,  It will include parking planning.
• Increasing focus on upgrading the technology used by the town to improve worker efficiency.  Town workers are at the lower end of salaries vs other towns in the county so need technology to help with training and capabilities.
• Redesigning the "back yard" of Town Hall:  New Amphitheater, a skate park, and a barrier-free playground.
• Camp Eastman cabins looking pretty tired so planning to re-build one new cabin each year to fix the situation in a cost effective method.  Plus adding new waterpark splashpad, rest rooms, and Pickleball/basketball courts.  Looked at Ice Rink but too costly.
• New businesses coming to Irondequoit:  5th Frame Brewery on St. Paul and Toast Factory in the old Keenan's space.
• 10 or 15 years ago, the town voted down Refuse Districts, but his office phone rings off the hook for refuse issues in the town so they are re-looking at solving this problem.
• Updating bathrooms in the Town Hall and the courts (providing Mother's with breast-feeding areas) and adding a dog park in a brownfield where no other development can occur,
• Working on correcting the racist deeds that still exist on town properties.  The Supervisor told an interesting story of the history of Sicilians settling in Louisiana which impacted race relations in the US.
• Forming a grant writing section of the Economic Development team which will provide a coordinator to help residents obtain home improvement and business improvement grants.
• The SkyView Apartments originally tapped into grants to help transition homeless into housing but the state never followed up with enough case workers to control the issues that arise with low/no income housing.  This is being remedied and evictions are occurring.  The Supervisor meets monthly with owners and have increased police presence in the area.  
• DPW has a matrix of what roads will be repaired & when but members have been waiting and not told when road will be done.  Send a request to the Supervisor and he will get back to you.
• The Community Center is doing well with increasing enrollment and activity.