The federal deadline to obligate Troy’s $42 million in ARPA funds was December 31, 2024. On December 30, the Administration called a special meeting to redirect roughly $5 million. Because the legislation arrived so late, it required five affirmative votes rather than a simple majority, making bipartisan agreement a structural requirement, not a preference.
Council President Steele said it plainly: “I have to in good conscience chastise the administration for the handling of this. We’ve known about that deadline for years.”
What Moved and Where It Went
Deputy Mayor Donnelly walked the council through the reallocation. Money came from projects that no longer needed it: the Knickerbocker Pool, which had secured a $6 million New York Swims grant covering most of construction; the 1 Monument Square allocation, reduced to $2 million with a $19 million state appropriation filling the gap; city hall feasibility studies; the Lansingburg Firehouse, which had $448,000 left over; the Alamo site, which had roughly $100,000 remaining, too little for anything meaningful; and a community center placeholder that had never produced a contractor. Of the community center allocation, $350,000 had already been directed to Team Hero, which now has a building and programming.
The money went to: $3.62 million for Frear Park improvements including renovation of the Park Pub restaurant; $247,000 for hazardous structure demolitions formally obligated through General Services; $1 million for lead service line replacement through Public Utilities; $560,000 for the Knickerbocker Pool’s final city share; and additional funding to extend a 10-hour, seven-day peak ambulance shift through 2025.
Two residents spoke before the agenda. Jona Favreau had two items the package did not address: the Troy Public Library’s children’s room had flooded and still hadn’t been rebuilt, with an ARPA application for roughly $350,000 that was not in this package, and Kinlock Park’s playground equipment had been removed two years earlier with nothing to replace it.
Park Pub
The longest conversation of the night was about the Park Pub, a restaurant inside Frear Park whose current tenant pays $1,500 per month, a rate unchanged for roughly 17 years. An engineering condition report distributed at the meeting documented structural deficiencies, electrical hazards, sewer backups, a deck held up by cinder blocks, and ADA non-compliance throughout. Donnelly’s assessment: “If it was in City Zone it would probably be shut down by code.” He estimated renovation costs from $2 million to $7 million depending on scope.
Council Member McLaren asked how $3.6 million addresses a project that could cost twice as much. Donnelly said the parks were the priority: the North Lake Avenue playground is inaccessible to wheelchairs, strollers, and transport chairs; the lower playground near Martin Luther King is heavily used and outdated; the tennis courts are in poor shape. If Park Pub renovations come in under budget, more of the allocation could shift to the park itself. If the building cannot be saved, it could be demolished.
The Amendment
After a 10-minute recess, Council Member Vera moved to amend the ordinance: earmark a minimum of $1.5 million of the $3.62 million for park improvements, specifically playgrounds, ADA accessibility, and related infrastructure, with the remaining balance available for the broader revitalization including but not limited to the Park Pub. Corporation Counsel Morrissey adjusted the language slightly to clarify the floor. The amendment passed 7-0. So did the amended ordinance.
Council Member Casey described where the negotiation started (“worlds apart”) and where it landed. “We thought it was best to come up with a plan that we could all vote for, so we could do something in a bipartisan fashion.”
1 Monument Square
The project had been in discussion for roughly 14 years. Six prior RFPs had failed, largely because of on-site housing requirements that could not attract viable proposals. The new approach dropped the housing component and shifted toward primarily public uses: a permanent farmers market home, waterfront amenities connecting to the Riverfront Trail, and possibly a small private restaurant. No formal design or engineering plan existed yet.
Lead Pipes and the Ambulance
The $1 million for lead service line replacement serves a specific cash-flow purpose. Grants from the federal bipartisan infrastructure law are reimbursement-based: the city does the work, submits documentation, and waits 90 to 120 days for payment. ARPA funds are already in the city’s account. With an RFP scheduled to go out within three to four weeks, the $1 million allows the city to pay contractors immediately while waiting for federal reimbursements.
The ambulance funding illustrated the pressure the service was under. Council Member Casey said the night before the meeting, one ambulance was held at a hospital for four and a half hours. A second was held for three and a half. “If we didn’t have this extra ambulance service there would be no ambulances available to transport somebody that had to desperately get to the hospital.”
Donnelly also flagged a water infrastructure problem not in this package: Eddy’s Pump Lane, a facility that had already consumed roughly $300,000 in repairs, with a single-point failure that could affect 110,000 residents.
All items passed 7-0 in both the Finance Committee and the Special Meeting. The deadline was met. The Administration had known about it for years.
Sources: Spectrum News, WAMC, Troy City Council Finance and Special Meeting, December 30, 2024 (transcript)