March 26, 2026 - Blueprints & Bridges
The March 26 meeting was light on items but heavy on the future, with the board spending most of its money on planning and design for projects still to come. The biggest single action was a $457,900 contract to design a proposed new recreation and community complex, the Legacy Center, and began searching for an outside company to run it. The board also approved $304,300 for required inspection work on the South James Street bridge it had funded two weeks earlier. All five members were present, and the meeting lasted about five minutes.
What happened at the Meeting
This was a short meeting, but several of its decisions point toward big projects on Rome's horizon.
The headline was recreation. The board approved a $457,900 contract with VIP Architecture Associates to design a proposed Michael E. Jensen Recreation and Community Complex, otherwise known as The Legacy Center. It's worth understanding that this money pays only for the design and planning of the facility. The board is also searching for proposals from outside companies to handle the operations and management of the facility. No decision was made on March 26. The vote simply opens the door for interested operators to submit proposals by the end of April.
The South James Street bridge also returned to the agenda. Having awarded a $1.56 million construction contract on March 12, the board approved an additional $304,300 for LaBella Associates to provide construction inspection on the project. Inspection is a standard, required part of this kind of work, which is moving forward under a New York State bridge program. It does push the bridge's overall price tag higher, to roughly $1.9 million between building and oversight.
A few smaller matters rounded out the agenda. The board hired the engineering firm Barton & Loguidice for a $30,000 regulatory analysis at the city's wastewater treatment plant, and approved the final 2025 year-end budget cleanup that began earlier in the month. The city sold two more tax-foreclosed properties, on West Park Street ($1,000) and Kossuth Street ($5,000, with a requirement that the buyer fix it up). And the board gave final approval to a five-year extension of Rome's traffic ticket diversion program with Oneida County, after the Common Council signed off the night before.