X101 Meet’s with Cortland Mayor Scott Steve

Jack Eves: X101 Always Classic. Good morning, Jack in the studio for another edition of Meet Cortland County. And joining me this morning is Mayor of the City of Cortland, Scott Steve. Scott, thank you so much for coming in this morning. 
Scott Steve: Thank you, Jack. Good morning. Thank you for having me. 
Jack Eves: Of course. I, by the looks of your smile on your face, we gotta say it. Main Street is wrapping up construction and now is opened for two-way traffic. 
Scott Steve: Yeah, very excited. The gray hairs are gonna turn back. I think so for sure. 
Jack Eves: No, yeah, I was, I had to say I was there, um, Friday during the unofficial ribbon cutting with um, retired, uh, Police Chief Jim Nichols. I have to say, it looks great and I know there’s probably a little bit of tweaking left for Main Street for those curious, right?
Scott Steve: Yeah, for sure. I, I think just public education to start. 
Jack Eves: Right. 
Scott Steve: You know, that’s the one. But you know, as of now, we haven’t had an accident out there, which is great. Some people are taking bets on how long that would be. There was a coffee club out there rooting for it, I think. But, uh. 
Jack Eves: We’ll, we’ll see, uh, what that expiration date is for some of those bets ’cause it seems like it might take a while now. 
Scott Steve: Let, let’s hope so. But we’re. You know, we’re trying to educate people from deliveries to park in between the yellow lines [00:01:00] and people not to pull across. Some people don’t quite understand that, but you know, as I even came here and watched somebody back out into Homer, you know, that’s gonna be the future for Homer too, to back in.
So that’s gonna be Main Street America and everybody’s gonna. Have to get, they’re gonna get used to it. And I know, I know that’s frustrating for some people, but uh, they need to get a, get ahold of that and learn how to drive. 
Jack Eves: That’s right. Because you know that Reverse Parking in is a new policy adopted, I believe, by the state.
And we’ve had other cities like Binghamton, Auburn, uh, do it before Cortland. And um, I know the city also has convenient signage as well. You know, use your indicator. Put it in reverse and slowly back in it’s three simple steps, I think. Right? 
Scott Steve: Yeah. I, yeah, I’ve watched numerous of them do ’em, watching buses wait for people and you know, it really doesn’t take that long. It’s less than a parallel park. And some people even worse. And, you know, Skaneateles is one that’s, uh, pretty vibrant community out there, and that’s all parallel parking. But in case you do have that fear and have that concern, you could still park behind some of the buildings and, uh, you know, there’s parking lots and there’s parking spaces on the side streets.
That are parallel or pull in parking. So, uh, [00:02:00] again, we encourage everybody to come downtown. We’ve got some great restaurants there now and, uh, gaining some more, uh, some great vibrancy going on. I mean, it’s, it’s pretty buzzing down there. We’re excited. 
Jack Eves: It’s definitely great to see downtown, um, buzzing again ’cause, you know, the whole progress with, you know, looking at rebuilding Main Street and making it two-way started all the way back when the city was originally awarded the DRI, which was in 2017. And I know when you were finally starting to get underneath that road with all the utilities, service, water lines, there was some unexpected surprises and there was a lot of work underneath the street too.
Scott Steve: Yeah. You think about what it takes when you see overhead with power lines and just that on any side street. 
Jack Eves: Mm-hmm. 
Scott Steve: Uh, and then you have the storm water that has to be managed. The roof drains from the buildings, the sewer lines coming in from everybody, the main sewer lines. They could pass our water lines and we have redundancy, a water line on each side of the street so that if one side goes out, we don’t lose all of our businesses downtown.
We have a way to feed it backwards. Um, and, and, you know, there’s a lot to it. And over the years it’s been kind of piecemealed in, so they didn’t have the water services they had [00:03:00] now, so there’s been patches, they have the sewer, sewer lines, so it’ll be done. And then you do a total reclaim and you’re digging down 12, 15 feet.
You got some major things to deal with. And dropping the, the street a foot, it made a big difference too. I remember when it originally started from the original trees being taken out, people were losing their mind over it and being upset because why are you taking the trees out? 
Jack Eves: Yeah. 
Scott Steve: But I think they understand now to do the drainage and some of the bump outs, but the crosswalks have to be closer for anybody with ADA.
They can’t get across the street fast enough. Those crosswalks need to be a little bit closer. That’s why some of those are some of the other areas that are bumped out we took uh, advantage of those and we’re putting artwork in ’em. And, but they might be storage vault, those big transformers you see on poles or behind restaurants.
They have to fit somewhere and they’re under the street. So we had to rebuild on top of them which we didn’t anticipate. The foundations of some basements went out. So it, there was a lot to it, A lot you couldn’t see. Uh, those are always difficult and uh, you know, any kind of construction. Uh, but overall, you know, pretty pleased with what it came out.
Jack Eves: And it’s a [00:04:00] good point you made too. You know, a lot of unexpected finds. And especially going back to the trees, you know, I think those trees were first put in in the eighties. The rooting probably went all over the place underneath too. ’cause I don’t think they were in tree boxes. And you know, with the ADA, that’s always a wide range to, you know, you gotta think of everyone.
And you know, Main Street is 25 miles an hour. It’s not a 30 zone and it’s more of a area where you can. Like a destination street, I guess you’d call it, instead of just a quick bypass like uh church street could be. 
Scott Steve: Right. And again, I, our restaurants bar none are worth backing in for. 
Jack Eves: Yeah. 
Scott Steve: Uh, but the trees, yeah, they were wrapped around the, uh, electric lines and we had power shut off to one of the buildings for a couple days because of it.
Jack Eves: Oh wow. 
Scott Steve: Uh, and, you know, putting them in the right location. I was trying to explain to our landscape commission, I’m a big tree guy too, but when it causes infrastructure problems and gets to the point where they’re overgrown. So we gotta keep up with it now. That’s our big progress now, is to keep up with the weeds, keep up with trimming everything, not let ’em get overgrown and be and be ready, when they become 15, 18 feet [00:05:00] tall, we’re gonna have to replace ’em because they’re like, well, we can cut the grates that we should. When we’re cutting the grates, that means the roots have gone past. 
Jack Eves: Mm-hmm. 
Scott Steve: We put structural soil under ’em now, so the roots grow in that structural soil, so it’s easier for them to grow, get their structure from that, and they’re less apt to grow past that to get into the utilities.
But, you know, we still have the wifi component to plug in and get that running. We’re working on that now. Um, so there’s a lot of, uh, still some good improvements with the artwork that’s coming, being approved next week. I can’t wait to, there’s some great ideas there. Some great. Change ideas, great conceptual ideas to bring in Cortland exciting again. 
Jack Eves: There’s just more added features like the wifi too. That’s a great thing for downtown and two-way especially. It’s perfect for alumni weekend that’s now happening right now, I’m sure a lot of alumni are coming in and enjoying the new two-way main street, and I know the city also has that frequently asked questions page, right online, on the city website, Cortland.org.
Scott Steve: Yes, we do. And uh, yeah, I, I’m sure I’ll get a lot of emails. This weekend about the alumni that are coming in and either love it or don’t love it. But I, I remember when I first came in [00:06:00] again, uh, when a, a SUNY student mother had said, you know, the city is so depressing. And so, and that was when the trees were down.
So it was really a rough time. But, uh, and somewhat, uh, the Beirut construction, if you will. But, uh, but what it, it, uh, in the end, I, you know, I should have kept that number and, and sent her pictures because, you know, one. I was a little concerned too when the lines all went in. It really, it all came together to me, and we still have the brick side, uh, crosswalks to be put in. That’ll add a lot of color and add a lot of texture. There’s a couple crosswalk lights aren’t there. Of course, there’s a bunch of Dr. Seuss trees I call ’em. Anybody with written Dr. Seuss books knows what I’m talking about. They have to be replaced and cleaned up.
Uh, so there’s a lot of little details. We wanna work out pocket parks, and lights and, you know, trying to utilize them a little better, furniture. Uh, but. And getting all the businesses to be able to sit outside and enjoy it. Boy, I tell you, you can’t beat this weather and beat what we’re up against. 
Jack Eves: You, you really can’t beat the weather. And you know, it’s great getting over the hurdle with Main Street, but also making sure those little details are addressed and done. Even more with, um, the pocket [00:07:00] parks, as you said. And the murals too. I mean, it’s Cortland’s looking beautiful. 
Scott Steve: It is. You know, we just did Clinton Ave extension, uh, DOT got that paid. We’re working on Tompkins Street, to get something done before the end of the season. A bunch of other side streets. Uh, we’re continually making those improvements and we’re fixing long-term structural problems at the same time. So I feel good about what we’re getting accomplished and we have some facility improvements that we’re working on our own property, the city property too is getting pretty rough. 
Jack Eves: Well, you know, they always say Rome wasn’t built in a day and I think Cortland can be the same way, but in the end it’s gonna be great. Mayor Steve, thanks so much for coming in. We always appreciate it. 
Scott Steve: We appreciate you having us. We appreciate it. Thank you. 
Jack Eves: For X101. I’m Jack Eves.