Mayor Alio delivered the City of Olean’s State of the City address, outlining public-safety statistics, neighborhood revitalization efforts, and planned infrastructure projects, and the Common Council elected Alderman John Crawford as council president during the same meeting.

The address laid out crime and enforcement figures, new and continuing public-safety programs, and grant-funded parks and planning work that city officials say will support neighborhood rehabilitation. During the meeting a council member nominated Alderman John Crawford to serve as council president; the nomination was seconded and the council recorded the motion as passed.

Mayor Alio opened his remarks by saying, “In 2025, my goal is to pivot to solutions,” and reviewed the past year’s departmental activity and planned work for 2025. On public safety he said the police department handled almost 27,000 calls for service and described arrests and charges stemming from those responses. The mayor highlighted work by the street crime unit that led to arrests of 22 people on drug-related charges that produced about 101 felony charges and noted that 18 of those arrested were released under New York State bail reform. The mayor also cited the department’s drone program, saying officers deployed drones in 16 cases to assist where officer safety was a concern, and reported that the civilian review board had one referral for investigation in 2024.

School safety measures outlined in the address included adding a second school resource officer at Olean Intermediate Middle School; an SRO is also assigned to Olean High School, and special patrol officers work at Washington West Elementary School and Eastview Elementary School. The mayor described a homelessness task force that will continue into 2025 and called it a “hands‑on” group of professionals working on both community and individual needs.

On neighborhoods and parks, the mayor said the city secured more than $1.2 million in New York State grant funding for Marcus Park and that a partner organization will separately fund an inclusive playground. He also reported the city received multiple other grants, with community-development staff having secured a total of about $2,125,000 in grant awards for the city. The mayor said the city is a recipient of a Smart Growth Community Plan and Zoning Grant to update zoning and align it with the newly completed comprehensive development plan; the mayor did not specify the grant amount in the remarks.

Code enforcement and building activity were summarized: the code office demolished two buildings for safety reasons; it received roughly 520 complaints, closed about 480, issued roughly 505 orders, and referred six cases to court. The department also completed hundreds of inspections and issued permits for development projects with a reported project valuation of more than $11 million.

Public works work completed in 2024 included milling and replacing 14 streets covering approximately 3.44 miles, replacement of sections of sanitary and storm piping, refurbishment of two city wells and other routine systems work. The mayor said the city was awarded a $1,000,000 congressional grant to repair a wall at the water filtration plant and listed planned 2025 projects such as finishing the South Union Street portion of work, airport and water filtration upgrades, levee accreditation efforts, an underpass improvement at Buffalo Street, and lead service line replacement projects.

The mayor thanked community partners and staff by name, including City Clerk Frank Caputo and Gary Gerber in community development, and recognized local legislators and volunteers. He closed the address by urging cooperation on the city’s priorities in 2025 and wishing residents a happy new year.

Votes at a glance: A council member nominated Alderman John Crawford to serve as council president; another council member seconded the nomination. During the roll call the following aldermen recorded “yes” votes: Alderman Banning, Alderman Panis, Alderman Forney, Alderman McCall, Alderman Anastasia and Alderman Crawford. The council announced, “Resolution passes 6 ayes, 1 ayes.”