Now is the time and place for a public hearing with the clerk.

Please read the short title.

Yes.

This public hearing is relative to the naming of the Messested Community Center Basketball Court to the Dennis Barnett Law Court.

Is there anyone here to speak in favor of the proposal?

Please state your name and address when you come to the mic.

First, we have Mark Bardnett.

Hello, I'm uh Mark Bardinet, 317 Rugby Road.

Uh Bardnett is my father, so obviously I'm a little bit biased in this one.

But uh my father has been running programs through the Michesney Rec Center since today the doors open there.

Um when it was initially opened, it was supposed to just be a senior center, and he was able to convince them to open it up for the youth.

And he started a Saturday morning basketball program there where he had hundreds of kids each winter, and we're donated its time, refed every single game, brought in the volunteers, and that was in the early 90s.

He has been coaching for around 50 years now in different aspects of the sports.

He's run the actions program, which is a high school uh basketball program for the commun uh Syracuse since I think 1987 or 88.

So coming up on 40 years of doing that.

Um that started with about 10 teams, it has now grown to about 27 teams.

He is there four nights a week, six hours a night, and he's don't donated his time to numerous amounts of youth and kids that are a lot of them are here in this room with us today.

If I would have made it public, a lot more would have been here.

Um one of the greatest honors I have is running into a kid that I grew up with that says, Hey, your dad was like a father to me, and that he has changed my life.

It was there for me when I needed him more than anyone else in this community.

Uh so I just wanted to thank Rashida and I wanted to thank Pat Driscoll for nominating him for this because it is such an honor.

I know it is something that he will be embarrassed by because he does not like accolades, he does not like getting acknowledged for doing stuff that he thinks is from his heart, and it is from his heart.

And everything he does is just to help people, and he doesn't want any of this praise.

But it's an honor for me as his son and all these people here that his name will be on that court, hopefully.

And uh as the kids grow up that they will remember my dad is the person he was.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, uh, my name is Dale Johnson.

I run uh an organization called Tilly's Touch.

And um, I'm here on uh to speak on behalf of uh Coach B, Dennis Bardnett.

So I uh I have I have a few heroes in the in this community and and Dennis Dennis is absolutely one of my one of my heroes in this community.

Um, you know, he's I know I I've only known him a short time, probably about 10 years, but I know he's he's coached bit uh basketball, baseball, and and soccer probably for the past 40 years.

Uh I mean if you if you add up the amount of kids that he's coached, uh it's it's probably pushing towards 10,000 kids, honestly, in the Syracuse community.

If you if you get the chance to walk down the hallways at Hannegar High School or one of the high schools, walking down walking down the hallway with Dennis Bardnett, you feel like you're walking down a down hallway with a celebrity.

Everybody, every kid knows this guy.

Like it is, it is it is ridiculous.

Like he's he what is he?

He's got he's got a kid that's a that's a Syracuse firefighter.

He's got a kid that's a that's a that's a uh teacher.

He's got a kid that that's uh works for the parks and rec.

He's got another kid that works for for transportation, his wife, what spent 40 years as an educator.

This guy he worked 30 years at CPS.

Um, and then I know the last almost 10 years he's working for a company called Access, and that's where I've I uh I got the honor to work with him and and spend some time with him.

And it goes beyond coaching.

I mean, just like uh just like his son was saying, how much of a mentor he is.

He he uh you know he he he and I we we have the same values when it comes to kids and the kids you know attending school because because that is so important.

You know, he's in in Syracuse, getting your kid to school.

I mean, potentially that is probably the safest for for some for a lot of kids.

That's the safest place they could be.

And he believes that you know getting kids to school on time is is probably the the best opportunity for these kids to to make a difference in their lives.

He he he but before eight o'clock in the morning, this guy picks up probably tens, dozens of kids and gets in the school every day, every single day.

And um, I I mean I I I mean it I I don't I know a lot of educators.

He he does probably more before eight o'clock in the morning before for be than most people do all day um to help kids.

That that's that's how important this guy is.

I I can't imagine when he retires, when he retires, the Syracuse City School District is gonna look at their stats and say, what the heck happened this day?

Our attendance rate just dropped through the through the route through through the ground.

And hopefully somebody will recognize that yeah, that was the day Dennis Barnett retired, which isn't isn't any time soon.

I would I I I would highly recommend that you you rename McChesney um uh the basketball court after after Dennis Barnett.

I mean, to be honest with you, it's not it's it wouldn't be in his honor, it would be in Syracuse City's honor to name name something uh a basketball court after this guy.

Thank you.

You got it.

Dan Romeo.

Good evening, everyone.

Uh so I want to talk about Dennis a little bit and the dedication that he's given to Syracuse, and uh encourage you to move forward with this because of Dennis's dedication and people like him is what makes Syracuse great.

The North Side Image League Park are both one and the same when you think about Dennis and the things that he's done for the community there.

But we need people like Dennis, and we need to recognize people like Dennis in doing this.

So I'm very grateful that you're all proposing this.

I really hope that it does move forward.

We can't do enough to thank uh Dennis for the work that he's done.

And this is one step that we can appreciate him.

Like it was said, he's never gonna do something like this on his own or want anything like this done, but he deserves the recognition and the impact that he's had on the community around us.

So I just want to encourage you to move forward with this and thank you for bringing it up.

And state your name and address for the camera.

Dan Romeo, 146 Hampton Road.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else here to speak in favor of the proposal?

Anyone else here to speak in favor of the proposal?

Is there anyone here to speak in opposition of the proposal?

Oh, no, go ahead.

I'm sorry, I missed you.

We'll go back.

Go ahead.

So sorry, guys.

But my name is Quante Elijah.

I live at 2215 James Street, Syracuse New York 13206.

But um, I just wanted to say, I honestly don't really know much to say, but as far as Mr.

Barnett himself, I just felt like um since a kid, I've been around Mr.

Barnett.

I'm 36 years old since I've been around Mr.

Barnett probably about 20, 25 years in the Barnett family.

And I felt like if it wasn't for them, uh probably be and be in a whole, you know, I probably went down a whole different path if it wasn't for them.

Um there would they used to do like someone mentioned earlier, like action and everything like that.

Uh those type of programs, I feel like Mr.

Barnett was always good at like holding for us when I was 13 years old, they used to hold actions on the weekends, and a lot of my friends and myself didn't have anything to do on the weekends.

So think thank God to Mr.

Barnett and his family that on the weekends we were able to, you know, go have we play basketball on the weekends.

Uh I just feel like overall Mr.

Barnett helped change my life, save my life.

Um, I've done a I've done a lot in the in the community, and I felt like it was from, you know, just near and in the Mr.

Barnett family.

But um, and I don't uh I really I'm not good with words, y'all.

So I don't really know what to say, but I just feel like this this should be something done for Mr.

Mr.

B.

And if like Ms.

uh Mark said, if it was publicly known, I could have helped, you know, put it out there, and we could have had this this place filled to uh you know support Mr.

B.

But yeah, overall, I think Mr.

B should have this um court named after him and um at his name.

Is there anyone else here to speak in favor?

Anyone here to speak in opposition to the proposal?

Anyone here to speak in opposition to the proposal?

Is there anyone here to speak in opposition to the proposal?

Hearing none, I declare this public hearing closed, and the legislation will be considered during the regular order of business.

Thank you, everybody.