City of Norwich

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The slow path to a better city

by: Jessica Lewis

After taking steps to keep the tax rate increase to a minimum, controlling costs at city departments and looking at the possibility of cutting costs through shared services, the City of Norwich is working to become a more appealing area for residents and businesses.

For the 2008 year, Norwich Mayor Joseph Maiurano said he has several goals, all of which relate back to the Mission Statement, established by the city in early 2007. “The mission of the City of Norwich is to serve its citizens in achieving and maintaining an optimum quality of life consistent with available resources (...) providing those services to the public that cannot be provided by the individual on a cost-effective basis,” the mission reads.

One of the big changes Maiurano would like to see is an increase in shared services between area municipalities. For several months in 2007, the City of Norwich and the towns of Norwich and North Norwich discussed the possibility of applying for a state grant to study shared services and areas for consolidation. Despite the fact that the state would have paid for 90 percent of the study, the Town of Norwich opted not to participate.

“The concept of sharing continues to be an important conversation between the City of Norwich and other municipalities as we explore ways to pool our resources and streamline government to make it more efficient,” Maiurano said at a recent meeting of the city council. Maiurano pointed out the town and village lines in the county. “There are 21 towns, one city and 8 villages. These boundaries were set hundreds of years ago with different needs, different times and different technology. With the new needs of today and the advancement of technology it is time to answer the question, ‘Is there a better way?’” Maiurano pointed out all of the possible duplication of services that exist in the county and ways that they could possibly be decreased. “As mayor of the City of Norwich, I welcome conversation between the city and our municipal neighbors to explore increase sharing of services.”

Another goal the mayor would like to see achieved in the coming year is to make the city government more efficient, by re-examining the city charter, which he said contains areas that he believes are outdated and require change.

Over the past few years, Maiurano explained that the Common Council has become a group that works well together and gets things done. Ward Four Alderman Walter Schermerhorn agreed, saying, “The council is more cohesive now than it used to be. Part of the reason is because there was a lot of finger pointing going on, and now we’re more interested in developing things that will be beneficial to the city in the long term.”

In November, two new members of the city council were elected: Ward One Alderman Robert Carey, and Ward Three Alderman John Deierlein. Schermerhorn has expressed a belief that their financial know-how and business insights will be an asset to the council. “The two new council members are both good men, and good businessmen. I think they’ll do a great job,” said Sixth Ward Alderman Paul Laughlin.

In order to be more open with the community, the city has instituted a new web site, www.norwichny.us, which Maiurano hopes will bolster community involvement by providing an array of information to the public. With changes in the 2008 meeting schedule, which include eliminating the City Council Work session and a possible change in committee meeting times from 6 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., Maiurano said he hopes the city web site will be able to reach residents who are unable to attend the meetings. The new schedule was instituted to cut down on the number of comp hours seen by department heads who have to attend these meetings and to ease the burden on the committee members, who are often rushing from work to attend the meetings.

“We ask the citizens to have an open mind to change. Our goal is to streamline the way we do business and we believe in the long run these changes will be beneficial to all citizens in the city,” Maiurano said.

The city council hopes to achieve some of their other goals by instituting new programs and making changes to help keep the city clean and orderly. In 2007, programs like the rental registry and the sidewalk replacement program helped improve the aesthetics of the city. With success in both programs, the city hopes to continue these efforts in 2008.

“We’ve taken little steps on big issues, and we’re building a foundation for the future with programs like the rental registry, which we will continue working on this year,” Schermerhorn said.

Laughlin explained that he feels codes will continue to be a big issue in 2008. “I’ve always thought Norwich would make a beautiful retirement community, but we need to do more to clean it up,” Laughlin said.

The sidewalk program will also begin another round in 2008. The program allows some city residents to replace their sidewalks, with the city absorbing half of the cost and city workers providing the labor. In addition to the sidewalk program, the mayor discussed adding a painting program for 2008. The program would encourage home owners to paint the exterior of their homes. The cost could be spread out over a period of time and added to the yearly tax bill for those who cannot come up with the sum of the money up front.

The city is also holding out hope for funding via part of the Restore New York Grant. A grant application was submitted in mid-2007. If Norwich is chosen, the grant would provide funds for the demolition of burned out and otherwise seriously damaged city-owned homes, and the construction of new residences.

In order to plan for the long-term growth of the city, two major projects are being undertaken to ensure the city is able to supply a substantial amount of water and deal with waste water disposal in an adequate fashion.

“We are actively working with state and federal officials to secure funding,” Maiurano said in regard to the two projects which will cost millions of dollars. The plans call for the implementation of a new, gravity-fed water filtration plant, to be placed on a plot of land located just below the Chenango Reservoir. The current water filter plant was built in 1903. The new plant would eliminate the need for several pumps, since it would be gravity fed and would help the city be a more responsible environmental user. The project could cost in excess of $5 million.

The second project calls for the replacement of critical components at the waste water treatment plant. The rotating biological contactors are components of the system that have become damaged due to years of use. The contactors sustained some damage during the 2006 flooding due to an increased amount of liquid being carried through the system. The cost of the project is estimated to be in excess of $3 million.

Maiurano said he hopes city residents will take an active role in recruiting support from state and federal government officials. “I ask all citizens to write to Senators and Congressmen, both state and federal, to help us fund these projects,” Maiurano said. A complete list of politicians and addresses will be available on the city’s web site.

While the city has many plans to continue building for success, Schermerhorn explained that revenue issues will continue to be a problem. “Providing services costs money, and increasing property taxes is not the answer. We need the environment to attract small entrepreneur type businesses to develop,” he said. “What we’ve gotten to did not happen over night, and it’s not going to be corrected overnight,” Schermerhorn said, but the alderman did say that currently several projects were being looked at, and that time and effort is being put into finding a solution.

With many projects and plans on the horizon for 2008, the mayor and city council hope to push Norwich toward the future while preserving the beauty of the past.

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