Pictured is Ellen Ditonto from the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities as she presents to the city council on the upcoming Developers Forum. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

Jamestown BPU officials are preparing to hold a developer’s forum at the end of the month.

Discussion of the forum and the June Retool Conference were among the items discussed by BPU officials when they spoke with Jamestown City Council members recently.

Ellen Ditonto began the BPU’s presentation during Monday’s meeting by speaking about the Developer’s Forum, planned for April 30.

“We’re looking forward to having 65 people, many of them from out of town, and they’re a mix of developers, commercial bankers, those who have an interest in housing,” Ditonto said. “We’re looking specifically at infill housing as one of the projects that we’d like to do here in Jamestown, and the other is to take some of our historic buildings, those specifically in the downtown area and make those into an active reuse.”

The main focus of that project, Ditonto said, would be to take some of the old buildings that are vacant or underutilized and put them back on the tax rolls, along with making them look better in the city. Part of the Developer’s Forum will be to have the people who come in go on walking or trolley tours to visit all of the areas that are being looked at for these infill housing and historic building reuse projects, including Fluvanna Avenue, Spring Street, Fulton Street, Vega Street, Eagle Street, Johnson Street and Cross Street. Ditonto noted that many of these streets are known to need help and that many have had multiple demolitions and will be looked at for housing.

The historic buildings that they will be looking at during these tours at the Developers Forum include the Willow Bay Building, the Bank Building, the Worsted Mill Building, Blackstone Ney, the Mayflower building and the Furniture Mart.

Ditonto also discussed the planned Retool Conference set for June 3, which will include speakers talking on sustainability, energy efficiency, and energy innovation.

Becky Robbins said the BPU’s Yard Waste Site opens on the Saturday after the council meeting and that anyone looking to use the site will need a yellow yard waste sticker on their vehicle to be able to enter. Operating hours are from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays from April 12 to Nov. 8, and on Wednesdays from May 7 to Sept. 24 the hours will be from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The site will be closed for holidays on May 31, July 5 and Sept. 6.

Robbins then briefly talked about planned water main flushings coming up, along with the fundraising campaign for St Susan’s Center, which includes a hot dog sale.

David Leathers, BPU general manager, updated the council on multiple BPU projects such as the microgrid project, District Heating system work, the Cassadaga Pump House Station, and a water system expansion study.

“Last year was an interesting time period where we had several towns come to us and ask about water, some with water agreements, some that don’t have water agreements yet,” Leathers said. “Busti was looking to expand, Kiantone and Caroll came to us. Frewsburg has their own system but that has been struggling so they asked about water outside of Jamestown. … The town of Ellicott was looking to expand west on Fluvanna Avenue towards the town of Ellery and North Harmony, town of Chautauqua, have also been asking about water expansion.”

Leathers said this led the BPU to pursue NYSERDA Flex Tech study money to do an analysis to see if they have enough water to do all of these expansions. This study is in the early stages but something that Leathers said it is a study that would be very important.

Leathers also discussed wastewater sewer shed number seven, the community fiber project, and some intermunicipal agreements, along with electric rate updates and a fuel adjustment change.