NORTH SYRACUSE — Now that the dust — well, snow — of 2021 has settled, the Star-Review caught up with local elected officials to find out their New Year’s resolutions for 2022.
Here’s what they hope to accomplish in their municipalities.
Town of Cicero
Town Supervisor Mike Aregano
We have a great team in the Town of Cicero, and are ready to hit the ground running to tackle the hard problems. I look forward to working together with our great Cicero Town Councilors Jonathan Karp, Mike Becallo, Nancy White, and Michael Mirizio, and our other dedicated elected officials and town employees.
As we do the people’s business, we will recognize the hard work of our town employees, maintain high town employee morale, and ensure a friendly environment in Town Hall. We will seek to create consensus, and build positive relationships with other local, county, and state elected officials and government departments.
Our Cicero 2022 top priorities are:
- Work to reduce traffic congestion problems throughout Cicero, including Route 11, Route 31 and South Bay Road. I strongly oppose the NYS Department of Transportation’s current proposal to install a roundabout at the corner of Thompson Road and Route 31.
- Repair our deteriorating roads.
- Work to decrease town spending, taxes, and borrowing, including a top-to-bottom review and cost/benefit analysis of all departments, budgets, town buildings, and equipment purchasing.
- Continue to maintain the highest level of police service in our community. Because of the hard work by our Cicero Police Department, Cicero was recently named one of the “100 Safest Cities in America” by Safewise.com.
- Beautify Cicero by involving our local civic and other volunteer organizations.
- Create a drainage crew to work on our drainage issues.
- Create sidewalk districts to pay to maintain and also plow sidewalks in the winter. Far too many people are walking on the actual road of Route 11 because the sidewalks have snow on them and are impassable.
- Evaluate whether it makes financial and functional sense for our highway department to now take over brush pick-up, which is currently contracted out to a private business.
Town of Salina
Town Supervisor Nick Paro
As we finish 2021 and get ready to start 2022, let me wish all residents of Salina a happy and prosperous New Year! May 2022 bring you joy, health and happiness. I am very excited to start my term as the new supervisor for the town of Salina, but even more excited to get to work on specific initiatives for the town.
We plan to tackle infrastructure projects throughout the town in 2022. This includes many drainage improvements as well as roadway enhancements. Another promise I made on the campaign trail was to improve constituent services from Town Hall. Our current staff works very hard to serve our constituents, but we can never remain complacent on this front. Constituent service remains my top priority.
New parks projects will begin in 2022 and we will continue projects that started in 2021. I am excited about the $170,000 investment into Duerr Park to add a new inclusive playground, a new pavilion by the concession stand, and new walkways allowing easier access to the baseball fields. We will see the completion of the Sehr Park project and hopefully start new projects at Burnham Park paving the parking lot and at Schaffer Park installing new fencing and a pavilion.
Additionally, we plan on moving quickly to implement a low-interest loan program for homeowners throughout the town of Salina. This program will be aimed at improving our neighborhoods and revitalizing our community, making Salina a desirable place for people to live and start their families.
As we move into 2022, we plan on utilizing the American Rescue Plan funds to help accelerate the town of Salina’s growth and improve the prospects of our community’s future.
Village of North Syracuse
Mayor Gary Butterfield
Well, we made it through 2021.
Looking forward, we have funding in place for needed renovations to our Community Center building and our Village Hall. Plans are being developed and hopefully construction can be completed this coming year.
Our Village Festival, which takes place the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, will be in a new location, if all goes well.
We were awarded a Main Street Grant by Onondaga County but next year will be preparatory work.
A new roof will be installed at our DPW building and some interior renovations will be completed.
We are hoping for an increase in our AIM (Aid and Incentives for Municipalities) funding from the State of New York which will allow us to pave our streets in a more timely fashion.
We are looking at ways to improve our parks programs and facilities.
Overall, we are excited for next year in the village of North Syracuse.
Editor’s note: The village of Liverpool and the town of Clay did not respond to the Star-Review’s invitation to share their New Year’s resolutions.
