OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Dunkirk Department of Public Works head Randy Woodbury commented on a wide range of subjects at Tuesday’s Common Council Finance Committee meeting.

Dunkirk Department of Public Works chief Randy Woodbury offered a wide-ranging update at a Common Council Finance Committee meeting Tuesday.

Woodbury said he has been meeting with Mayor Kate Wdowiasz and others “to make sure we maximize money.” He said, “In DPW administration, we spend money and we take it in, but we don’t track it. We’re doing a better job of tracking it now.”

DPW lost two workers in the 2025 city budget, Woodbury said. “I’m really going to miss those people, because they were good workers,” he said.

One of them was a cleaner at the senior center. “The officers at the senior center called and wanted to work with us,” Woodbury said.

He stated that Nancy Renckens, who recently expressed concerns to the OBSERVER about conditions at the center, is not an officer there.

Woodbury said the city’s contract with the senior center does not require it to clean the center. However, “we’re working with them to figure it out,” he said. “We want to help where we can but we don’t want to spend money that’s not properly appropriated.”

The DPW director also touched on water issues. He said that a rate increase under consideration would actually be enacted by the North County Water District. The city has a contract with the district to be its sole water supplier.

Woodbury offered the opinion that stakeholders in the 40-year contract should not work to change it, but work within it. “I don’t think we should touch it because it’s guaranteed income for the city and it’s fair,” he said.

The water district uses a formula from SUNY Fredonia economics professor Peter Reinelt to come up with the rate. “It’s a very intricate, involved formula. It takes up six pages of the contract,” said city Treasurer Mark Woods.

“It’s a formula that makes sense if you have a Ph.D in economics,” Woodbury said.

Reinelt is closely eyeing lines in the city’s water fund as he comes up with an updated formula, Woodbury added.

“We all know prices are getting higher. If the formula doesn’t spit out something higher, I’ll scratch my head and say, ‘What’s going on?’,” he said.

Two more tidbits from Woodbury:

— He wants to charge an 14% administrative fee every time DPW has to assist with vehicle accidents.

— The city still has $500,000 left over from last year’s Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement (CHIPS) grant by the state. That’s because last winter was relatively light and the roads didn’t need a great deal of spring repair, Woodbury said.

However, with a colder and wetter winter this year, he anticipates that the extra money will be needed this spring.