The Jamestown Fire Department. P-J file photo by Dennis Phillips

The Jamestown City Council is slated to vote today on a three year agreement — 2018, 2019 and 2020 — with the Jamestown Professional Firefighters Association Local 137. Just last month, the city reached a similar deal with the Kendall Club Police Benevolent Association.

According to the resolution emailed to city officials and local media, the union membership has already ratified the tentative agreement. There were no details provides about possible retroactive raises or increase insurance premium payments.

The agreement in March for police department employees included a retroactive pay increase of 2% for all three years of the contract. The police contract also included an increase in health care premiums for police department employees that increased from 19% to 21%, but was not retroactive.

The last contract agreement between the fire union and the city expired at end of 2015.

In other business, the council will vote to purchase 63 body cameras for the police department at the annual cost of $70,120. The contract for the cameras, if approved, will be for five years.

Earlier this month, Mark Dean, city IT and communications director, said the current model — Safety Vision –body cameras the department uses have been in operation during the last three years. He said, about a year and a half ago, some of the cameras started failing. He added that some officers needed to share cameras, which has led to some problems.

Dean said the new company, Axon Enterprise, will replace any camera not working properly within a week. He said cloud computing storage would be used to store the videos. The city will also pay $12,669 annually for the cloud storage provider.

Dean said there will be two spare cameras if there is an issue with one. He said the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office uses Axon cameras and they’ve had no problems.

The cost for the new cameras this year will be prorated May to December at the cost of $46,747. The cloud storage will also be prorated this year at the cost of $8,446. If the purchase is approved by the council, contingency funding will be used this year. In the future years, the cost will be included in the city’s annual budget.

• Prior to the council meeting, a public hearing will be held on the sale of city property to Lawson Boat & Motor for $5,000 for the purpose of developing and operating a full-service marina and tourist destination at the location along Fluvanna Avenue. The sale will be contingent upon a successful execution of easements on the property for the public use of the “Riverwalk Trail” and utility egress. After the public hearing, the council is scheduled to vote on the proposal.

• The council will vote on entering into a shared services agreement with Jamestown Community College to hire a grant writer. Last week, Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist said the city currently doesn’t have a grant writer and employees in several different departments are spending time away from their primary duties to write grants. He said the city doesn’t necessarily need a full-time grant writer, which is also the same position JCC is in currently.

Last week Maria Kindberg, JCC Foundation executive director, said the college has a difficult time finding a quality grant writer. She said the college’s salary range has been below other agencies looking for grant writers.

Sundquist said the plan would be for the college and city to split the cost for the grant writer 50/50. Also, the position would have an office at both JCC and at the Jamestown Municipal Building. He said the new worker would be considered a city employee, but would be non-union. The shared services agreement would be for two years.

• The council will also vote on entering into an easement agreement with Lynn Development, located at 1351 N. Main St., for a 30-foot by 30-foot area of land that will be used for an entrance sign along the North Main Street corridor. Earlier this month, Jeff Lehman, city public works director, said city officials are still working on the design concept of the sign. He said the first step in the process is to finalize an easement agreement for the land with Lynn Development.

The council meeting can be viewed online starting at 7:30 p.m. at jamestownny.gov.