On Monday, the Jamestown City Council approved a $420,905 bond for the purchase of their new asphalt paver.

In June, city officials purchased the new CAT AP1000F asphalt paver after bad luck struck the Public Works Department at the wrong time of the year. During the height of paving season, the city’s 23-year-old asphalt paver bit the dust and no longer would run. With no paver and a short time frame to get asphalt laid during the heat of the summer, city officials went to work to assess all their options.

In June, Sam Teresi, Jamestown mayor, said Public Works Department administrators led by Jeff Lehman, approached him about the situation and their best option. With City Council’s approval, they purchased the new asphalt paver.

The asphalt paver costs $420,000 and should last the city between 10-20 years. In June, Lehman said the asphalt paver is the most expensive piece of equipment for the city.

Teresi also said the paver comes with a seven-year warrant. Also, that it was cheaper to purchase a new paver than it would have been to rent one.

In other business, the council approved the installation of two candlestick lighting poles at the trail heads, Eight Street and Clifton Avenue, for Phase V of the Greater Jamestown Riverwalk. Phase V of the Riverwalk project is the Chadakoin Park trail and bike path that goes from Clifton Avenue to near McCrea Point Park.

When completed, this section of the Riverwalk will be a blacktop bike and pedestrian path over the former J&W railroad bed that runs along the Chadakoin River from West Eight Street to Clifton Avenue. The cost of Phase V is $525,162. A state Environmental Protection Fund grant of $262,581 has been matched by the city with labor, materials and equipment.

Earlier this month, Lehman said they were aiming to have the path completed by the end of construction season in October. He said after the path is completed, they will be working on the next phase of the project, which will be to open up the path so users can get a view of the Chadakoin River. He also said the bike path will connect to Chadakoin Park. The path will be about a mile long.

Teresi said even though the path will be completed this year, it won’t be open for public use until next year.

Council also approved the local law to create the Local Property Tax Abatement Incentive Redevelopment of Vacant and Condemned Properties program. The tax abatement incentive program is something city officials had been working on creating for more than a year. The goal is to try and redevelop vacant houses that can still be saved from being demolished.

Earlier this month, Teresi thanked Marie Carrubba, Ward 4 councilwoman and Housing Committee chair, for her idea to create the program. He said Carrubba’s hometown of Batavia had created a similar program and she thought it would work in Jamestown as well.

The mayor said he doesn’t expect many residents or homeowners to use the program, but each house that is saved is one less demolished, which cost the city around $25,000 to perform when the property owner cannot be held accountable.

The program will include single or two-family residential properties that are vacant, legally condemned and have outstanding state and local code violations where the cost of remedying the violations exceeds the property value. Also, the program will include the construction of a new single or two-family residence of at last 1,200 square feet on a parcel where a previous house has been demolished.

An exemption will be granted through an application filled out by the owner of the property with the city assessor’s office before March 1 to qualify for that tax year. The application will include the scope of work, with cost estimates and quotes from contractors, plumbers and electricians who are licensed to do work in the city. The abatement period shall be for a period of 11 years. The abatement schedule will be zero percent for years one through three; 20 percent for years four and five; 40 percent for years six and seven; 60 percent for years eight and nine; 80 percent for years 10 and 11; and 100 percent starting year 12.

In January, Teresi said the property will still be taxed during the renovation process, with the abatement to start once the renovations are completed. He said the abatement will also go into effect when the property is code compliant, has been issued a certificate of occupancy and when it is owner occupied.

Teresi thanked both state Sen. Cathy Young, R-Olean, and Assemblyman Andy Goodell, R-Jamestown; who introduce it to the state Legislature. He said the tax exemption will only go toward city taxes.

The local law was automatically tabled once approved by the council for a second vote on the measure that will take place Monday, Sept. 25.