We'll just get started in the spirit of just giving as much time for for conversation.

I do want to open by thanking all of you for taking the time on a really nice weather day to come and learn more about some of the work plan that the city has for districts one and two.

I want to make sure that we give a special like opening round of applause to all of our staff who's here today after hours to engage with you.

So I want to extend my gratitude to them for taking the time.

Every department is represented here this evening with um with various levels of of leadership within the teams, and so it's a really good opportunity to connect and ask questions around things that you are facing as residents here in New Michelle.

Um the format for tonight, I'm after myself, you'll hear from Martha Lopez representing district one and Al Tarantino representing district two.

Then we will hear from our city manager, Wilfredo Melendez about the work plan.

For me, when I hear work plan, what I hear it as is the budget in action, just the way that the budget will be impacting.

Some of what he shares will be citywide, but some of what he'll also share are from projects in districts one and two.

After that, then you'll have an opportunity to speak with all of the departments here.

This is our fourth event for this year, and the feedback from the last three is that it's been great to sort of ask a question about your tax bill, maybe check in about registering your dog, asking a question about I don't know, pothole, sorry, Commissioner, um, or connecting with PDE.

In other words, you can kind of really engage with a lot of different departments and get some good information.

And for our staff, I think it's great that they hear directly from residents um what their concerns are so that they can consider your feedback as they develop policy and continue their excellent service to our city.

So I'm gonna step aside and open the floor up to Martha Lopez.

Thank you so much, Madam Mayor.

Hi, good evening.

And uh as our mayor was saying, this is an opportunity for you to go to each table and really speak to them and ask them about your concerns about your needs.

It is very important because I do get many phone calls on a day daily basis, and actually I was just speaking to the Department of Economic Development about uh a problem that we were having at the Hageton building, and uh when I spoke to some of my constituents, they said we have already spoken to them.

And uh he said to me, we are taking care of that.

So it is extremely important that you let us know what your needs are so that we can attend to all of those needs.

And I'm gonna be here the whole evening, so please come and talk to me if you want to do it privately, if you want to do it you know, publicly, I would be more than happy to speak to you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Martha.

Thank you, Yudira.

Um I wanna first thank everybody for coming tonight.

Um we had a nice crowd here tonight.

So give yourselves a round of applause.

Thank you.

Um to add on to what Martha was saying, it's an a perfect opportunity to s to speak to people in all the different departments in in City Hall.

I mean, you can go and talk to people and ask them why your taxes are too high if you want.

Um I don't know if you'll like the answer, but you'll get an answer.

Uh you could also speak to people about uh different things that are being done in town that maybe you don't understand why, and you can ask them those questions also.

You can also at the end uh you know, with a question we're gonna do a question and answer or no question and answer.

We did last year.

We did the same format last year.

Same form okay.

Okay, okay.

Okay.

So uh, you know, if you need to meet with me privately afterwards, you wanna you have some questions that you want to answer, I'll be happy to stay and and speak to you.

But um we'll start with the uh program now.

Thank you.

Hello, thank you.

Thanks for coming out, thanks for the council, thanks for the mayor.

Uh I'm gonna say for the fourth time, definitely a uh great opportunity to take advantage tonight of every department that's here.

I want to thank our staff for the excellent work they do every day and um being available tonight um to answer any questions.

So um I'm gonna not take too much time through this because really the point is really to engage with our departments, but I'll give you just a brief uh view on the 2026 work plan.

Um like the mayor says, it's it's really starts uh we actually gotta start that process for 2027 in a in a couple weeks.

It starts in June, takes us through the budget cycle.

Um and uh it's an important exercise to really, you know, really look to see what our initiatives and what our concentrations are gonna be on for 2027 and you know make sure that we're budgeted properly for those.

Um so every year we do this exercise.

Um it's uh it ultimately serves as a roadmap.

It kind of guides us, right, as a department um to see what we plan and what our major initiatives are.

us through the budget cycle um and uh it's an important exercise to really you know really look to see what our initiatives and what our concentrations are going to be on for 2027 and you know make sure that we're budgeted properly for those um so every year we do this exercise um it's uh it ultimately serves as a roadmap it kind of guides us right as a department um to see what we plan and what our major initiatives are uh for 2025 into 2026 uh we made it a point to um really get feedback from our council so we we we at the beginning of the budget process we initiated uh kind of something new for for this year was to get really feedback from each of the different councils so what's important in your district you know what what what do you hear about what are the residents concerned about um and what do you feel as though immediate needs for 2026 and we what are the long-term needs so this year we did that exercise we got a lot of we got feedback from all of council and a lot of that work uh a lot of those things went into the 2026 plan so that was something that I think you know we were we were happy that we did and I think it it shows like you know transparency and collapse collaboration between council and and our different departments um just the you know so we said how we break up the plan previously the plan was broken up by departments and how like different you know what each department did we took another different look at it and we said okay um you know what are the major buckets that are important for you know a city to be really concerned about right so we developed these public safety a resilient infrastructure right um environmental sustainability and stewardship economic development and community building so we established these five buckets as kind of our guide right of what those initiatives are so every initiative we kind of characterized and put into one of these buckets uh for 2026 this kind of a lot on this slide but basically what this is saying so 2025 we had a lot of new things identified like a lot of new plans that were developed um you know a lot of planning exercises a lot of things were in motion in 2025 so we had a tight budget um and then we have limited resources so you know our idea my idea was like you know why don't we don't want to take too much on we already got a lot of things in the hopper um that are going to carry over to the next year um a lot of big things so um so that this year the main focus was to really accomplish things um we had obviously there's some new initiatives that we put forward there's always going to be new stuff but we had a lot of stuff that was still in the hopper that we needed to get done so that's that analogy on top we want to land the planes we've got a lot of planes up in the air that we identified last year and we want to get those projects done and those initiatives at least started for 2026 and that was kind of the underlying theme so on the first public uh safety emergency preparedness um so we had these public safety advisory meetings I'm just gonna highlight again not everything on the work plan is on this slide if you want to please go to the website the entire work plan is up there so one of the um initiatives that came out of the police department this year and spearheaded by our commissioner uh reynolds was to to develop um a public safety advisory meeting so to focus on emergency response because you know what's you know things are happening with everything now uh with emergencies you know prevention uh looking at our critical uh infrastructure so it's the police department um our public works department our fire department getting together having these meetings and really getting feedback and letting them know what's going on in their world and uh it offers you know build upon trust with the community enhance the transparency and it really forces some collaboration so it was a really nice initiative we had one meeting so far we're going to the goal is to have a couple more of uh before the end of the year public is welcome what's on your mind it gives you uh I think a little sense of uh comfort at least the city's thinking about emergency response and and how to deal with critical infrastructure issues also um and then again we have a list of things that we started in 25 that either we just completed or are going to continue for 2026.

So we have a CSO body cam program uh we expanded our public safety fleet we had vacant firefighter positions that we we did finish hiring we're always pursuing grant funding that is the one thing that we don't stop looking for is looking for grants that could help us fund different initiatives our police department is also working on an interactive data hub so if you go to our website right now all the stats are kind of static and they just tell you what's right there it's gonna be a whole brand new look where it's gonna be interactive you put your mouse over it you can see numbers change it'll be real time data and actually expand on that data so um a lot of things that are we started in 25 we're gonna finish in 26 resilient infrastructure um our local safety action plan this was an initiative that we started this year and completed it was a short time frame is really to identify some of the really high hazard traffic

It's gonna be a whole brand new look where it's gonna be interactive.

You put your mouse over it, you can see numbers change, it'll be real-time data and actually expand on that data.

So a lot of things that are we started in 25, gonna finish in 26.

Resilient infrastructure.

Um local safety action plan.

This was an initiative that we started this year and completed.

It was a short time frame, is really to identify some of the really high-hazard traffic corridors within the city.

Uh was a whole engagement process.

We got uh community input, we got staff input, police department input to the to really identify and hone in on where specific areas in the city that we had traffic concerns.

So that is important information.

You know, it might be obvious as you could probably everybody probably tell me in two seconds where there's a traffic issue, right?

But this is really drilling down and getting them in a plan that we could then use because this plan is actually a very important component of future grant requirements.

So when we go for a grant to improve an intersection or improve one of the corridors throughout the city, this is often they ask for this plan.

You know, so we we found that out.

We said, you know, they need this plan.

So we developed this uh this initiative this year.

We actually got the plan developed and we finalized it, so we have that document, a very important piece of document that now lets us you know apply for different grants.

Um the Webster Avenue Corridor, just real quick on that.

We're in by the end of this quarter, we will start the design on from all the way from Main Street to the Hutchison River Parkway on Webster Avenue for the replacement of all those existing traffic signals.

We're actually going to add one more signal at a particular location, but they'll be all replaced.

Uh all the pedestrian uh crossings will be replaced, all that hardware will be done.

Uh we also applied for and were approved for a pilot program uh with the state that will allow us to um introduce um speeding school zone cameras at three locations, three corridors within the city as a pilot program.

So we just got that approval at Webster Avenue is gonna be one of those locations.

Uh we have a TAP grant for additional uh calming measures, one of the many grants that we're always going for, uh, and then some minor issues, uh some minor locations there to uh review traffic safety issues.

So basically Webster Avenue is gonna be a good uh uh look at location for a design improvements with future construction, hopefully in 2027.

Uh stormwater mitigation program.

This is a continued program.

We started this around two or two years ago uh allocating the city city council actually allocated 10 million dollars per year for the next 10 years to to mitigate flood mitigation issues throughout the city.

Uh we're happy to there's many other projects besides these that are listed here, but in this just district two, we have Whitewood Avenue and Pelham Pelham Road, where we've gotten hit with some major flooding there at that uh different corridor.

So our public works department just finished up uh uh the uh really good design there.

Uh we're just working through some last-minute permitting issues and um and also still applying for some grant funding that we saw recently.

We just identified some opportunities to help us uh you know uh bridge that gap with funding, even though we there is no gap.

We are actually committed to this project through our stormwater mitigation program, but we we identified some funding that could actually you know uh help us out with that.

So that's a project that should be uh finalized and designed and hopefully go into construction in either end of this year or 20, most likely 2027.

Uh, we got Emerson Avenue with some drainage improvements, and then we have a mini localized drainage improvement at Walnut and Crescent that's scheduled for this year.

Uh parks and requisite recreation facility improvements uh over at Five Islands, the pavilion.

We're kind of redoing that.

We had a structural assessment done.

We're currently in the process of replacing some of the decking on the on the outside.

Uh we've actually going to embark on a partnership with a uh non-for-profit to uh do some improvements within the interior of the building with a grant that they were awarded over $600,000 to uh improve the space inside for ecological center that we could share as a common space with that program and with our existing program that we run out of there uh yearly.

Uh the No Frio Park.

Um we just um completed renovations of the pavilion there, and we are scheduled to receive some brand new play play equipment by the end of this month that was graciously donated by a resident here in New Rochelle.

Uh Hudson Park Banchell, uh again is uh it's on our radar.

We are going to immediately take care of any you know safety issues that we have identified for this year, keep the operation running for this this season, and then we'll follow up probably in the fall with a more extensive uh RFP request for proposal for actual repairs uh for that facility and hopefully construct those and embark on those in 2027.

Uh just a little note there about Propel.

Um there's a lot of information about Propel, but we're working very close with the Propel team.

We've um finalized the route through Nourishell.

Uh they are certain agreements that we are working out with them.

We've imposing certain requirements on them as far as restoration goes, as far as our executed and recent escrow agreement that allows all of their submissions to run through an engineering review, a federal engineering review to make sure the work is done right and according to our um standards here in No Rochelle.

Uh they would start right now tentative uh with the with the on land work in Hudson Park and the construction of the actual propel line running through uh Nourishell in 2027.

So working close with that team to making sure that uh our requirements for the city are met with the least impact to the to our neighborhoods.

Environmental sustainability and stewardship, uh just a couple of big uh projects that were on the work plan over at the ITC center.

Uh we are looking to install a solar array on the roof there.

We initiated a feasibility study to see if the actual roof could actually hold solar panels.

We turned out they can.

We'll now move into the next step of coming into a detailed design of the installation of those panels with hopefully uh that work would be done in 2027.

Uh last year, again, we embarked on a big sustainability effort of a community forest management plan.

So we actually did a whole survey of the entire city, north to south, where we inventoried every tree in the city in the right-of-way.

We tagged them, we numbered them, we gave it a condition assessment, um, we identified locations where new trees can be planted.

Um, and we did that whole exercise.

We did a lot of um, you know, a plan that takes us through um the next 10 years of how to manage our tree canopy, which is a very important uh especially in this climate change that we're in now of having a maintainer uh a really substantial uh tree canopy.

So we finalized or we're about to finalize that plan.

It's pretty much done.

Uh we are for I think probably the most trees that we've done.

Don't quote me on that, but I think we plan uh I remember since I've been here, I don't think we've got to plant that many trees, but we're scheduled to plant over 300 trees this year uh between this spring season and definitely by the end of the fall season.

Um and and what are the what are the advantages of the plan and enhances an equitable access to urban forest benefits, promotes biodiversity, and it you know helps with that heat island effect that we're seeing now uh nowadays.

So very important initiative, and like I said, over 300 trees are gonna be planted this year.

Economic development opportunity, prosperity, and growth.

Um this year in the spring, we finalize the acquisition of two properties.

So the Hagadorn Building over on uh Main Street and Pintard Um and the CVS uh 625 North Avenue.

We're happy to report we finalize that.

We actually got the keys to the place.

Uh we transferred over the utilities.

Um we have a great staff working on it that's tracking all the improvements.

We realize now these properties belong to us, so we have a you know responsibility to maintain them until we um actually uh convert those and develop those into what the what the initial concept was to provide a community um need and basic services for our community, especially at the Hagadorn.

We've applied for a national endowment for the arts grant that would hopefully if we get that grant, that grant will set, you know, give us the ability to kind of envision what this space is gonna look like in the future and you know, hire a consultant to give us those ideas and to plan that process out for us as a city owned facility.

Uh we just uh finalized um some we're doing doing some emergency procurements to clean the building up.

So right now you you come up Main Street, you didn't even know it's there.

It's like it's like behind trees and whatever.

So in a couple weeks or months, all those trees will be gone, it'll be cleaned up.

There was a tenant there that uh we finally got to leave already, remove some of the vehicles there.

Uh we know we have a rodent issue there.

We just installed some uh some road uh roaded bait traps there, so we're gonna monitor those.

We're gonna do some electrical work inside to make sure the facility inside at least has electric power and heat uh as we you know as we go about this process and just clean that up.

And so you'll see some hopefully light up the building a little bit, clean out the front a little bit and uh put uh uh uh uh a gate that'll keep honest people out.

So uh that that's for the Hagathon.

Over at the CVS building, we we uh finalize those proceedings also.

Uh and both of these we're gonna develop what they call an RFEI, which is a request for it uh expressions of interest.

Okay, so consultants to give us visions of what they think the best uh or what they would suggest uh based on community uh input on what these places could provide to the community based upon that original intent of a community-based uh facility.

Um the black box theater, so happy to report.

We went through some legal issues with the previous operator, that's a bit all cleared up.

We have a new operator that's on site right now.

He's actually performing as we speak interior improvements to set up the space so that it could be a center of arts and theater.

Um you know, I passionate to this because I think every city, every town needs a black box theater.

I think it's very important for the sustainability and for just the vibrancy of any uh emerging and economically developing city.

Um so that is on track.

Um hopefully the uh improvements would be completed by the end of the year, and in 2027, we should see our first uh programming, our first theatrical or whatever uh experience that we plan on seeing there, hopefully starts in 2027.

Uh on the community building.

So just to highlight some of the bigger initiatives that we have for 2026.

Um this year we developed a program called Thrive.

Uh realizing that listen, city can't do everything, right?

We don't have the resources to do every or impact every citizen resident in some of the ways that they should be impacted.

We rely a lot of our on our uh non-for-profit entities to be kind of an extension of the city or the arm to provide some of the services or fill some of the little gaps that we had.

Um I personally noticed that it was a you know there were great ideas that were coming in throughout the year.

A lot of people would come to City Hall with good initiatives, but the timing was wrong.

We already went through the budget process and you know they had great ideas, but we weren't budgeted for it.

So we said, okay, let's set something up in the beginning of the year, you know, take these proposals, evaluate them, see if we and see we if we could fund these things and at least get off to a good start.

We did that.

We ceded the program this year with around a hundred thousand dollars.

Uh we had 52 applications that came in.

We actually awarded 12, um, which was great to non-for-profits, and they're all in different, we made again different categories, um, and um it was a it's something that um you know we should see the benefits of throughout the year, especially at the end of the year to our residents.

Different types of initiatives, it's all on the website if you want to see it.

Um participatory budgeting, uh another kind of uh program that was implemented uh for 2026, basically allows the citizen, you know, anything that you know in the at the end of the game, um the process will be if you identify something in your area or concern in your neighborhood in your piece your area of New Rochelle, that you would have a say in saying, you know, and in nominating or um recommending a per certain project to be done.

There'll be a system where those um those um ideas would be uh vetted and and voted upon.

that you know in the at the end of the game um the process will be if you identify something in your area or concern in your neighborhood in your piece your area of new rochelle that you would have a say in saying you know and in in nominating or um recommending a per certain project to be done there'll be a a system where those um those um ideas would be uh vetted and and voted upon and then the actually as part of that system uh we'll include those projects into the budget so besides all the projects we that we identify as as needs our departmental needs the council needs it also gives the residents a chance to actually say something and put be a part of this budget process so this year um we seeded the program um to do a pilot we're going to choose the area around neurochell high school as a central location uh involve the students of the high school or the you know and um and and develop our steering committee develop the framework of how this process would work on a very small scale at the high school we'll run through that program we actually developed the committee the rules book and how it's gonna work we'll initiate starting that we've initiated our first meetings we'll do that process through the summer the the ideas will come in in the fall um we'll vet we'll vet those ideas and eventually um you know enact those ideas and build that so what we learned through this pilot program hopefully the idea is to now expand that citywide with this program uh this year we also expanded uh the boys and girls club access at Remington basically providing uh transportation Remington was there's certain areas of schools that because of the distancing they were not able to provide transportation to that facility and they there was an identified need of students that did go to that facility but were not able to get there because of transportation issues we provided some funding to address that we provided some scholarships for some students who couldn't afford the fees to become members of that of that facility provide some healthy snacks for them and really the main driver was to provide community access um uh easier community access for that facility it's a great building great facility but there were identified challenges there as far as far as providing community access to that facility so we um provided some funding to pro to do that community engagement you know we have a lot of events and um that are scheduled to commemorate the 250th anniversary of our country uh those are all coming out so that that was a big effort this year still an effort uh on on those planning activities we're partnering with the chamber of commerce our downtown bid on some world cup uh events that are coming up our first one is going to be over at Flower City Park on Fasina Field we're gonna have a watch party on June 12th which is the first uh United States game they play in Paraguay food trucks um we're gonna have activities out there and we're actually gonna show the game on the field so you know if you're not doing anything that night please come out there and then for the last finale on July 19th I think don't quote me it's a Sunday that's the final game we're gonna have two big screens over at uh Ruby D park in the middle downtown again um close the street off vendors activities and should be a nice some um food uh some um entertainment uh as part of that stage there so a lot of planning efforts into that workforce development always initi always trying to you know um increase our workforce development here in within uh for local residents here in New Rochelle we did some changes to that program uh we committed to amplify our city communications for 2026 so we've uh hired a new uh communications director increase that staff because we all know it's about communications nowadays social media is the way it is is is with us uh we really got to get the word out there it really get the you know not only communicate what the city's doing but also get the feedback right we want we want feedback and we think that you know that amplification of communication is very important and that was to that's something that we're concentrating on city council updates have you seen them I think the mayor does this every uh after every city council meeting um just you know kind of recapping what was talked about um it just provides that level of transparency that open communication um so really a big focus for 2026 and we'll carry that on to 2027 on on communicating right um some initiatives that we carried over that you know really working on we just finished the implementation of our C CRB they're actually as we speak right now they're training uh the board members are training with our police uh over in police headquarters right now to our citizen that's a citizens complaint review board uh doing uh blood drives uh we had an upgrade to our website um uh year of the committee so we just you know revamped a lot of our committee establish some new committees again to you know just shows the you know the commitment that we have to you know try to engage our residents here in New Rochelle to be part in any way they can of our government that

Uh the board members are training with our police uh over in police headquarters right now to our citizens that's a citizens complaint review board uh doing uh blood drives uh we had an upgrade to our website um uh year of the committee so we just you know revamped a lot of our committee established some new committees again to you know just shows the you know the commitment that we have to you know try to engage our residents here in the Rochelle to be part in any way they can of our government that's just a high level if you go to the website you go to the the work plan that's every job everything that's in there um and again we want to land the planes get a lot of things done this year um that we started and hopefully make a difference but please take advantage all the departments are here and um it's like I said it's a once in a year life uh opportunity to do that so appreciate