The Recorder, Amsterdam, N.Y. LOCAL January 10, 2015 / 7 Trevor Junquera/Recorder staff Amsterdam’s skyline, as seen from Lynch Literacy Academy. Amsterdam’s year marked by AUDs, grant awards Staff report The Amsterdam Common Council and Mayor Ann Thane had a big year in 2014, and the city itself and all of its employees and residents had an interesting year as well. The year started off with a positive tone as newly elected controller Matthew Agresta vowed to dig the city out of its financial mess. The state comptroller issued an unofficial report in October 2013 which said the city inappropriately recorded its figures, leaving its financial picture cloudy for the past four years. The city’s Annual Update Document is a mandated document required by the state Governmental Accounting Standards Board. The AUD includes a complete list of financial records or that year. Every municipality in the state is required to file this report annually. After winning the November 2013 election, Agresta got right to work. He and had to correct the city’s AUDs dating back to the 2011-12 fiscal year. The 2011-12 AUD, which was due October 2012, was finally filed in August, after almost nine months of correcting and reconciling city assets. Immediately after that filing, Agresta started working on the 2012-13 AUD, which he said in a December meeting he planned to file at the beginning of the new year. The 2012-13 AUD was due Nov. 1, 2013. Agresta plans to have the city’s financial records up to date in 2015. • In 2014 the city started its land bank project with a home at 35 Julia St. In February, volunteers started working on the home to prepare it for work that would be funded by money allocated through the land bank. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman awarded the Land Revitalization Corp. of the Capital Region $3 million in October. The capital region’s land bank includes the city of Amsterdam, the city of Schenectady and Schenectady County. Amsterdam received $552,000 of the allocated $3 million, and the city and county of Schenectady received the rest. In 2013 the city was awarded roughly $250,000 in administrative fees. City officials are looking at demolitions on Division Street, finishing a rehabilitation project on Julia Street, rehabilitating 217-219 Brookside Ave., and rehabilitating 10 Ellsworth St. in the new year. • Shuttleworth Park celebrated its 100th anniversary and received a synthetic turf baseball field for $170,000 and the Stars and Stripes Deck, a veterans memorial deck. • In April, Gov. Andrew Cuomo awarded nearly $150,000 to the city and its Carpetland property, as it progressed to the next stage of federal action based on several Hazard Mitigation Grant Program proposals. Because of numerous floods including tropical storms Irene and Lee, the Carpetland building on West Main Street was damaged beyond repair. Amsterdam proposed to acquire and demolish the building, clear the site and restore the property as open space. The building was demolished a few months later. • Also in April, Mohawk Fabric Co. Inc. was awarded a $40,000 grant to purchase new machinery and updated equipment through help of the Amsterdam Industrial Development Agency. The funding approved ensured industries such as tourism, agricultural production, manufacturing, and biomedical engineering would continue to bring their business, and jobs to the state. The project retained 10 existing jobs and created five new ones. • In early May, Mayor Ann Thane was sworn in as the next president of the New York Conference of Mayors. She’s been a member of NYCOM since she took office seven years ago. She replaced former president Richard J. Donovan, mayor of the village of Minoa. She had been serving as the group’s first vice president. • The Public Safety Building was the first city building to install solar panels during the year, at no charge. Energy group Monolith Solar of Rensselaer contracted with the city in August 2013 to install solar panels at seven sites in the city including City Hall, the water treatment plant and the sewer plant. Monolith isn’t charging the city for installation or equipment, instead they’re selling the city the energy the system generates at a 25 percent discounted rate compared to National Grid. The agreement is a 20-year commitment, and the company estimates the city will save $310,000. • Two prominent first responders in the city retired in 2014: Police Sgt. Owen Fuhs and Fire Chief Richard Liberti. Fuhs worked in law enforcement for 34 years and Liberti worked for the city’s fire department for 34 years. • The city had its first farmers market in the summer, on Saturdays in the Walter Elwood Museum parking lot at 100 Church St. • In August city volunteers and officials gave Sassafras playground on Henrietta Boulevard a facelift. They fixed dangerous nails and screws, sanded the wooden playground back to its original, smooth surface and repainted the equipment. • Also in August, officials from Fiber Glass Industries announced the company would be closing both of its plants because the industry had too much competition in other parts of the world. • The Common Council passed a resolution in September to ban smoking in city parks. Project Action–Tobacco Free Coalition provided the city with free signs to place in the parks to notify people the area is smoke-free. • Also in September, the former America’s Best Value Inn on Market Street was vandalized with damage to windows, mirrors, fire extinguishers, lighting and water damage on all five floors. The culprits were never caught, but the company — American Hotel and Hospitality Management — hired to turn the hotel into a Hampton Inn & Suites, isn’t concerned with the damage since they plan to gut the building in the new year. • In December the city received a $400,000 grant award from the state’s Housing Trust Fund Corp. under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program. The $400,000 grant will assist rehabilitation of rental apartments in the city. It is anticipated that this program will enable the rehabilitation of 17 units of housing, with a com- bined total investment of $700,000 in upgrading for the city. • Also in December the city received the most funding in Montgomery County under the Mohawk Valley Regional Economic Development Council’s award of $59.6 million. Out of the $1.7 million awarded to Montgomery County, $224,625 went toward the restoration of City Hall, $325,000 went toward some of the artistic elements of the Mohawk Valley Gateway Overlook Bridge, and $600,000 was dedicated to Phase 5 of the city’s sewer improvement project. • At the very end of 2014, cofounders David DeFazio and James Burbank of Carmel’s Free Diner announced they were restoring the century-old eatery, Carmel’s Diner, on East Main Street within the next three years. The diner will be a non-profit restaurant where those who don’t have the money to pay for a meal will be able to work for it.