Paul Szmal: We welcome in Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason for a recap of last night's City Council meeting and other things related to the City of Auburn. Chuck, good morning. How are you, sir?
Chuck Mason: Hey, good morning, Paul. Good. How are you today?
Paul Szmal: Good, good.
Chuck Mason: The meeting opened up yesterday with a couple of proclamations. That is correct. We had a couple of proclamations last night, but first, for Women's History Month. Here in Auburn, we do quite a bit to celebrate Women's History Month. Last week, Paul, you and I discussed a lot of the Tubman Day events. Next week, Tuesday, March 10th, is Harriet Tubman Day here in Auburn. We kind of detailed all those events last week.
One of the big celebrations that's tied into Women's History Month here in Auburn is the Brave Brews Weekend, which is actually this weekend. This is an event that kind of started by the Prison City Brewing Company here in Auburn, New York. The owner, Dawn Schultz, she has a Women's Brew Day, which is today out at the brewery. Several years ago, a whole event for the city was created around Dawn's Pink Boots Society Brew Day. That's happening today.
Then tonight, first Friday in Auburn, has a Brave Brews theme. Brave Brews, the theme is to support women in the brewery industry. The highlight event is tomorrow afternoon, Prison City Brewery's big Fire and Ice Festival out on the North Street Campus. There's hundreds of people that'll be out there tomorrow afternoon for the Fire and Ice Festival. This is all the theme of Dawn Schultz's Women's Brew Day is tied into International Women's Day, which is this weekend as well.
It's amazing how in just a few short years here, I think it's been five or six years now, this thing has created a whole weekend's worth of events and activities here in Auburn, all designed to celebrate Women's History Month and women in the brewing industry. You can find more information at the website bravebrews.com. Actually, bravebrewsfest.com has all the ticketing and event information. Most events throughout the weekend are free. However, the Fire and Ice Festival out at Prison City is a ticketed event. We welcome everybody to Auburn that's in town to celebrate the brew fest and hope that everybody has a great weekend.
So the second proclamation last night, Paul, was tied in with Auburn High School. It was to celebrate, we had representatives on hand from the high school Tri-M Honor Society for Music. It's National Music in Our Schools Month. This is an initiative led nationally by the National Association for Music Education. The students were on hand last night to accept the proclamation as well as they got up to the podium and spoke about their program. The council taken some time last night to recognize all the students and underscore the importance of music and education here in Auburn. Those were the two proclamations that we started the meeting out with last night.
Paul Szmal: I'm trying to figure out if it's ironic or just typical Finger Lakes weather that you'd have a Fire and Ice Festival on a day when it might hit 70 degrees.
Chuck Mason: Well, you know, it happened because I know that in some of the early years that we were planning the event, we were always worried what would happen if there would be a snowstorm. Believe it or not, for this event, the last several years, five, six years now, it's always kind of been a mild weekend at the beginning of March. So you never know in the Finger Lakes. You're correct, Paul. But we'll take the warmer weather and hope that the ice doesn't melt too fast. But I think people will appreciate when you're out at the Fire and Ice Festival at Prison City North, you know, kind of half the setup is inside, half the setup is outside. Previous years has been on the cooler side, but we've avoided the snow. But it'll be nice to have some slightly warmer temperatures for people to be enjoying the outside weather as well.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason here on FLX Morning going over last night's City Council meeting. It was a light work agenda and the only resolution that was on the agenda last night was the next step in the Lake Avenue Bridge Rehab Project.
Chuck Mason: That's right, and this is probably the last time that we're going to see Lake Ave on the Council agenda for a while. The project is scheduled to start very late June of this year once the school year is over. But last night, the Council awarding the Construction Inspection Services for this Lake Ave Rehabilitation Project to CNS Engineers. They are the firm that has been with us through the entire design of this project. And so CNS Engineers will be with us through the entirety of this project to conduct the construction inspection.
And just to remind everybody, Paul, just because it's going to be such a significant project for us here in Auburn, the Lake Ave Bridge Rehabilitation Project, which is about a nine million dollar project total, which is being funded with about 50 percent grant funding from the federal and state government, basically through a Bridge New York grant. This is going to be a significant undertaking in which the bridge will be closed for the better part of a year here in Auburn.
So the bridge closure will begin later this year at the end of spring, very beginning of summer, and very late June. Then we will be closed for the entirety of the 2026-2027 school year. The bridge will reopen in the summer of 2027, shortly before the 2027-28 school year begins. So basically looking to be without this bridge for the entirety of one entire school year.
It is a bridge that is pretty heavily used, especially for people that are bringing students up to the Auburn High School. But the detour in place will detour either people out to the Owasco Lake area to take the White Bridge Road over to the high school, or down through downtown Auburn. So on the west end of Auburn, we have several, we have about four bridges that tie the west end of Auburn together. So when we've done the west end bridge projects such as State Street and North Division Street, it's been easy to detour people right over to the next bridge.
Up on the east end of town, Lake Avenue is really the only bridge that connects the east side of our city, is basically connected by that one significant bridge, Lake Avenue Bridge. It is the biggest bridge in the city of Auburn. The rehabilitation of the bridge deck will get us another 25-30 years worth of life out of this bridge. So it's going to be definitely one of Auburn's biggest construction projects, along with the arterial project, which is going to start here in June of 2026 as well. So we're slowly but surely gearing up for a lot of construction.
And the council's resolution last night, adopted unanimously, was kind of the last piece of the puzzle for moving this Lake Avenue Bridge project forward. And we will be fully communicating everything to the public as we get closer to the month of June to make sure everybody's well aware of the fact that that bridge is going to go out of commission for a year.
Paul Szmal: We mentioned this last week, Chuck, and worth mentioning again, the Spring Electronics Recycling Event is coming up on March 21st. The northern site is the Ira County Highway Garage. Southern site is the Venice County Highway Garage. But the central site is right on the doorstep of the City of Auburn at the Finger Lakes Mall.
Chuck Mason: That's right. And this is a program of Cougar Recycles, coordinated by the Cougar County Department of Planning and Economic Development. And it is a great opportunity. I know a lot of people look forward to this electronics recycling event each spring when it's held. And you do need to pre-register. So all the information, Paul, is loaded up on our City of Auburn's website. It's out there on the Cougar County website as well. But if you go to our auburnny.gov, right on the homepage, you'll find the Spring Electronics Recycling Event news and information. And the link to pre-register is right there for you.
Paul Szmal: It is 830 a.m. till noon on Saturday, March 21st. It's just coming up in a couple of weeks here. And the slots will usually be all taken. So the sooner you register, the better. And a great opportunity to do some proper recycling of electronic goods here in Cougar County. And we thank everybody over at the County Planning and Economic Development for organizing these events that are beneficial to not only people here in the City of Auburn, but all throughout Cougar County. And it's really helpful to have a proper way to recycle these electronic goods as they accumulate in your garages and in your attics. You know each year you've got a great way to properly recycle here in Auburn.
And we'll recap next Thursday's City Council meeting here one week from today. Same bad time, same bad channel here on FLX Morning. Chuck, thank you. As always, chat with you next week.
Chuck Mason: Thanks a lot. Have a great weekend, everybody.
