The Jamestown City Council discussed the hiring of two new firefighters Monday. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

The Jamestown City Council started the new year slowly with only one of four committees meeting Monday.

The only committee that met was the Finance Committee, which didn’t have much business to proceed through. One of the resolutions they did discuss was about suspending the hiring freeze for city government to hire two new firefighters for the Jamestown Fire Department. The new firefighters will be replacing retiring employees. The funding for the new firefighters was included in the 2019 budget.

In other business, the committee also discussed three resolutions for firefighter employees, including Deputy Chief Samuel Salemme, to attend professional training seminars in the state during the month of January.

The committee also approved an agreement with the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency for the 2019 fiscal year. Anthony Dolce, city councilman, said the city will be paying JURA an additional $34,543 in 2019, for a total of $972,200, compared to 2018.

JURA is an independent corporate governmental unit established on June 21, 1966, by the state Legislature. JURA’s responsibilities include housing, building and zoning code enforcement; housing rehabilitation and development; public infrastructure improvement; industrial and commercial site preparation; downtown development; landbanking activities; community and economic development planning activities; economic development loans and grant administration; fair housing activities; energy conservation/development of alternative energy sources; historic preservation; and annual administration of the city of Jamestown’s federal Community Development Block Grant and HOME Investment Partnerships Program funding.

JURA is a multi-faceted organization that performs a series of legally-mandated functions on behalf of the city of Jamestown through an annual contract for services.