Saratoga Springs City Council members thanked their staff and each other for their work to keep the city running through the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, and they turned their sights toward projects each department has planned for next year. This came during the city’s first online-only State-of-the-City address last night, Tuesday Jan. 26.
“What a year it was,” said Mayor Meg Kelly. “2020 will not soon be forgotten.”
The year made the council pivot and rethink priorities, often looking toward better communication and how to prepare for the unexpected.
“The health of our residents and local economy are my primary focus for 2021, and more than ever before the factors that are critical to our success are not entirely in our control,” Kelly said.
The five council members spoke of the pivot to online work, from paper to online reports, from in-person meetings to zoom. They talked of their hope at the start of 2020 that they would move back into city hall after its repair from a lightning strike in 2018 only to have those hopes cut short when the building shut down again near Christmas.
Despite the pandemic’s effects on the average workday, Kelly highlighted some of the work the city accomplished, such as a COVID-19 small business grant program and the COVID-19 emergency housing assistance program that helped 13 families. $490,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds supported housing and workforce projects, Kelly said.
Commissioner of Accounts John Franck highlighted the work done to improve and expand outdoor dining to help keep restaurants open. As well, paperwork for purchasing and other records has been scanned and been moved on line, he said. The city developed many protocols for emergency responses.
He said the theme of the night was “electronic” and to that end, scanning of various records will continue especially to retain historical records and move routine daily processes online and avoid “the accumulation of paper.”
Finance commissioner Michele Madigan highlighted both the balanced budget the city produced despite the devastating effect the pandemic has had on the city’s bottom line, and on the work the finance department completed to refinance bonds owed by the city, saving $5 million for the city over time, she said.
The city's solar plant will be expanded this year, “further reducing our electrical costs,” fiber optic cable will be buried under the streets to improve online communications and her department plans to “prioritize efficiency” she said.
Anthony “Skip” Scirocco highlighted the paving work that has been completed on city streets, the repair work completed on a stairway in Congress Park and work inside the Canfield Casino which could not celebrate its 150 year anniversary in 2020 because of the pandemic.
Scirocco said he hopes to celebrate that and the official reopening of City Hall in 2021. The Broadway master design plan and an urban forestry plan are in the works for 2021. The vandalized Civil War Memorial in Congress Park will be repaired, and a reopening celebration is planned this spring. Construction on a new water intake system begins this year, he said.
Robin Dalton, the commissioner of public safety, said her department became the primary department to handle the direct response to the pandemic. It became their job to make sure first responders had enough personal protective equipment and to work with experts to understand potential community spread of the virus. Communications became key, and the department developed protocols. She announced that Longfellows, the hotel on Union Avenue, supplied quarantine rooms for first responders, “at a moment’s notice” so that they did not put the community or their families at risk.
The Longfellows staff "exemplified the best of what this community is all about,” she said.
She said the department will spend time in 2021 on an “extensive” inventory and review of policies and practices. The aim is to create best practices to grow with the community and respond to calls for social justice while also maintaining safety.