BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — The village board passed several resolutions at its regular meeting Monday, April 19 and heard a presentation from a local college student regarding a sidewalk survey planned this summer.

The board approved payment to the Development Authority of the North Country for $198 for professional services through March 2022 for the Crosstown Canal Project.

Payment of $1,950 to the legal firm Roemer, Wallens, Gold & Mineaux for labor relations services was also approved.

Trustees and the mayor voted to pay law firm Johnson & Laws LLC $264 for legal services through March 2022 for the JEDA Capital 56 LLC vs. Village of Potsdam case.

Jacob Rupert, a senior at Clarkson University, was appointed as a student intern in the village planning and development office for the spring 2022 semester. Rupert will benchmark and develop success metrics for the DRI-funded Rebuild Downtown Potsdam Fund.

The board approved taxi cab rates for inside the village limits for North Star Taxi, owned by Ghulam Sabir, for May 1, 2022-April 30, 2023. The inside the village rate is any stop costs $10 plus $1 per minute of waiting time Monday through Friday 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; weekends and after-hours are 50 percent more.

The cab service is also charging $10 plus $2.50 per mile in Canton and $20 plus $2.50 per mile from Potsdam or any other area more than seven miles away.

Those that make a booking don’t show up still have to pay the fare.

The board also heard a presentation from Clarkson student Ben Goodrich on the Village of Potsdam Sidewalk Reporter app which will be used by Clarkson physical therapy students this summer to catalog and record village sidewalk conditions and pedestrian issues in the village. The students will also be looking at inclusivity issues with the village pedestrian walkways and be testing stretches of sidewalk with wheelchairs and other assistive devices.

The app will use a GIS system to record the information. The village hopes to use the data to identify problem areas to address in the future.