August 27, 2026 - Fixing the Address
The board met for about two minutes on August 27 and approved five items with no discussion. The most notable corrected a mistake from two weeks earlier: the $150,000 property the city agreed to buy on Canal Street is at 107 Canal Street, not 709 Canal Street as the original resolution stated. The board also bought a small piece of land for $1,700 to make way for the Merrick Road bridge project, sold a West Fox Street lot for $4,000, and continued 12-hour shifts for city police officers. Mayor Jeffrey Lanigan and Corporation Counsel Gerard Feeney were not present when the roll was called.
What happened at the Meeting
This was the shortest meeting of the year so far, and its main piece of business was cleaning up a mistake.
On August 13, the board approved spending $150,000 to buy a portion of property listed as 709 Canal Street. At that meeting, a city official told members that a Common Council member had questioned whether the address was right, and said the board might have to come back with an amendment. It did. On August 27, the board formally amended the earlier resolution to show the correct address as 107 Canal Street. The price and the terms did not change. The purchase itself stands, but the record now points to the right property.
The board also approved buying a small parcel of land on Merrick Road for $1,700 from a private owner. The purchase is tied to the Merrick Road bridge project, and acquiring land near a bridge site is a normal step before that kind of work can move forward.
The city continued selling off property it holds through tax foreclosure, approving the sale of a lot at 118 West Fox Street for $4,000 to DeSalvo Properties, LLC. Sales like these have appeared on nearly every agenda this year and return city-held parcels to private owners and to the tax rolls.
In a decision that affects how the police department operates day to day, the board approved a memorandum of understanding with the Rome Philip S. McDonald PBA, the union representing city police officers, to continue 12-hour shifts. The agreement builds on the four-year police contract the board approved back in May. No financial terms were read aloud.
Finally, the board amended an earlier easement with National Grid covering a property on Swancott Mills Road, adding a second utility pole to support overhead wires. It is routine housekeeping, and it drew no discussion.