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The City Council of Erie convened on February 4, 2026, beginning with a moment of silence for the late Dale Peelman, a former Public Works supervisor, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. The meeting featured a public comment period regarding pedestrian safety and snow clearance, the final passage of eleven ordinances covering building codes, bond authorizations, and budget appropriations, and the first reading of seven additional ordinances including historic designations and rule amendments. A significant public hearing was held to consider designating the Erie Cemetery as a historic site, followed by new business including a street name dedication, a conditional use variance for a waterfront hotel, and the approval of repository land sales.
Note: Councilmember Brzezinski was absent for the vote on the Tamika Thurston Craig Way resolution and the initial vote on the final passage of ordinances, though present for committee reports. The transcript lists 6 votes for final passage (Yay 6 Nay 0) and 6 votes for the resolution, implying a 6-member quorum was present for all key votes.
Councilmember Brzezinski is um absent. We'll be moving into our silent meditation pledge. Sorry, it's in two different I got myself confused. Yes, that's that that is what we were doing. So we'll go ahead and stand for a moment of silence and the pledge of allegiance. Dr. Titus, I would like to give my sympathies from our council and uh deepest sympathy on the passing of Dale Peelman who worked as a city employee in the maintenance supervising for 36 years in the Department of Public Works and Parks, and his beautiful wife, Sarah, is um his spouse. My deepest our sympathy to the Peelman family. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America for which stands one under God into the visible with a justice for all. We have a motion to approve the minutes from the 1212th City Council meeting and bills for payment on February 6th and 13th. Members Flores, Horton, Pole, Schaff, Troop, and Titus. We have uh we we do not have a presentation this morning, correct? Okay. So we have no presentation this morning. We are from this point, um we'll go into the request for repository sales. Before we get there, though, I just want to remind everybody that we do have a public hearing at 9 30. So wherever we are, even if we are in that public comment uh part, we will have to pause so that we can do the public hearing as advertised, and then we can resume back into the public comment. So at this point, uh is there anyone here to speak on a repository sale? Is there anyone here to speak on a repository sale? I didn't. Is there anyone here to speak on a repository sale? Seeing none, this will move us into public comment. I would ask that when you come up that you state your name clearly for the record. The municipality know that you will have five minutes. Um, and that this is an opportunity again for public to to share and for for council to listen. My name is Freda Teffer, and I live in Erie, and I'm glad you're having the caucus here, but please make sure that you speak into the mic so that we can actually hear what you're saying. Um during the winter time, I focus my concerns on pedestrian access outside of the residential areas. I'm I'm not there's too much to worry about to focus on what residences do. But I'm I'm always horrified by what I see when businesses pay somebody to clear their parking lot and then they leave a huge berm across the sidewalk. Um I got a message from public works through Moss that that one of the ones I reported that they're going to require them to move the pile. I hope that happens right away. These are repeat offenders. Maybe the fact that the plow person got involved with the discussion with public works means that they get the message not just in that one location, but if somebody can pay somebody to plow their parking lot, they've got no business leaving the sidewalk unclear. Blocked with a pile, often 10 feet high, but certainly they they should also get their sidewalk cleared. I was driving west on West 26th Street around 5 o'clock the other day when it was hard enough to see with the snow in my with the sun in my eyes, and there when I was along where the tops used to be, where the crunch fitness is on the north side of West 26th Street. I suddenly saw a woman walking in the street, and I'm really glad I didn't hit her. But she shouldn't have been walking in the street. That sidewalk should have been cleared. I saw yesterday there was a tiny path cleared. I don't know was actually cleared or trodden down. But there is some kind of a membership sidewalk clearing device for downtown businesses. We need something for the other commercial areas. Or there should be the other part I'm really upset about is that we put our money into a quality of life program to go out and inspect residences for whether their grass is over 10 inches or they might have peeling paint or something. But there's not enough money in public works to respond to the many complaints about snow issues and sidewalk issues. And I'd already moted, and I have a feeling it was some grudge that somebody called it in. But really, this is a bigger problem that our commercial areas are our school areas, our nonprofit areas or church areas, that people block the sidewalk after they clear their parking lots. These businesses don't have enough consideration of the people of this city to clear sidewalks, that corners are blocked, that access to pedestrian push buttons is blocked. There needs to be a serious attempt at making sidewalks usable in the city and not just say too much snow, we couldn't do it. They do it in other cities.