Seventh, Eighth Ward officials to talk tonight
ONEONTA _ Elected officials for the city's Seventh Ward and Eighth Ward are hosting an informal discussion of city and county issues at City Hall tonight.
County Rep. Kay Stuligross, D-Oneonta, will be joined by Seventh Ward Alderman Liz Shannon and Eighth Ward Alderman Kevin Hodne between 7:30 and 9 p.m. in Common Council chambers at City Hall.
Stuligross represents District 14, which comprises those wards, on the Otsego County board.
Residents of the wards are invited to bring their concerns, ideas for change and overall assessment of the health of the city and county.
Auditing firm to speak at Council meeting
ONEONTA _ The Common Council is scheduled to hear from an auditing firm during a special meeting tonight.
The city's annual audit was performed by Bollam, Sheedy, Torani and Co. Officials from the firm are expected to give a presentation before aldermen and the mayor at 6:30 p.m. in Common Council chambers at City Hall. The meeting is open to the public.
The audit covers the city's 2007 fiscal year, which ran from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 of that year.
"There were no material findings," Mayor John Nader said Sunday.
One of the purposes of the meeting is to introduce the five freshmen aldermen on the Common Council to the auditors and explain what is involved in the auditing process, Nader said.
"The city is in very good financial shape and the audit will clearly show that," Nader said. "It's a very clean audit."
Although the city shifted a larger amount of funds into public infrastructure in 2007 than in previous years, it has been able to afford the cost, Nader said.
The city is in the early stages of drafting a 2009 spending plan.
Increased costs for fuel, as well as new collective bargaining agreements with city unions, will be a factor as the city calculates its expenses for 2009, Nader said.
Court hears testimony in Wlasiuk trial today
Testimony in Peter Wlasiuk's murder retrial is slated to begin at 8:30 a.m. today in Chenango County Court in Norwich.
Wlasiuk, 39, formerly of Oxford, is charged with murdering his wife, Patricia Wlasiuk, in 2002, then driving her body into Guilford Lake.
He was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2003, but his conviction was overturned in 2006, leading to the current trial.
