OBSERVER Photo by Jo Ward Director of Planning and Development, Rebecca Yanus discusses grants at Tuesday’s city of Dunkirk Common Council Meeting.

The city of Dunkirk has a new Code Enforcement Officer, Glenn Christner. The council along with the city were able to meet Christner as he made his first appearance at the Dunkirk Common Council meeting held Tuesday evening.

He comes on board replacing Warren Kelly, who was brought on as interim in September 2018 when long-time Code Enforcement Officer Allan Zurawski was terminated.

The city also announced the acquisition of two state grants which will help with area projects that were proposed last year. One for $49,500 from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and one for $100,000 for the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

The first grant is being utilized for the city-wide tree inventory, which will provide funding for the city to conduct an assessment of public trees and to create a community forestry management plan. The grant funds for this come from the DEC’s Urban and Community Forestry Grant’s Program, a highly competitive source of funding.

The second will be used to purchase the building next to the future dog park on Main Street. This facility will not only be a vast improvement to the current one, but will also be able to hold more animals and possibly aid neighboring municipalities.

“For the Animal Shelter Acquisition Grant we did put in for the possibility of partnering with local municipalities if they would like to jump onboard to also utilize the shelter,” Director of Planning and Development Rebecca Yanus stated. “As far as costs, we’re going to be negotiating prices, the grant also includes upgrades. It’ll be a great improvement to what we have now.”

Mayor Wilfred Rosas along with the entire council congratulated Yanus on the quick turnaround she made on the grants and all her team’s hard work.

“I want to again publicly thank our governor and our officials at the state level for all the assistance that they provide to the city of Dunkirk,” said Rosas. “But I also want to commend our Director of Planning and her team for again being successful in addressing our needs.”