Week Ahead: RCSD budget, College Town groundbreaking, active transportation summit, food truck in Henrietta?

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This is an updated version.

The Rochester school board will meet at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 2, for a final review of Superintendent Bolgen Vargas’s proposed budget for the 2013 to 2014 school year. This could be the last opportunity for board members to listen to parents, teachers, and students about the impact of the budget on programs and school operations.

The board will meet again at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 9, to vote on the budget. Both meetings will be held at the district’s central office, 131 West Broad Street. Tim Louis Macaluso

A groundbreaking is planned for the Mount Hope College Town project at 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 2. The $100 million project includes a hotel and conference center, offices, grocery store, Barnes & Noble bookstore, and street-level retail with apartments above. The project, initiated by the University of Rochester, will span 16 acres on the west side of Mount Hope between Elmwood Avenue and Crittenden Boulevard.

City officials talk up College Town as Rochester’s biggest project next to the revitalization of the Midtown area. But some people question the amount of public assistance given to the College Town project, including tax breaks through COMIDA and funding through the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council. Christine Carrie Fien


House Representative Earl Blumenauer, whose district includes Portland, Oregon, will a keynote speaker at Tuesday’s Genesee-Finger Lakes Active Transportation Summit. Jeff Olson, a former manager of the state Department of Transportation’s bicycle and pedestrian program and author of “The Third Mode: Towards a Green Society,” is the other speaker.

The summit starts at 8 a.m. and will be held at the Radisson Hotel Rochester Riverside, 120 East Main Street. Speakers and sessions will focus on human-powered transportation, including walking, bicycling, inline skating, skateboarding, and public transportation. Register here. It costs $50 to attend.

During his many years in government, including a stint as Portland’s commissioner of public works, Blumenauer has built a reputation as a cycling advocate. As a House representative, he founded the Congressional Bicycle Caucus, which includes Democratic and Republican members. The New York Times profiled Blumenauer in 2009.

A biography on Olson’s site says that he teaches the country’s first university course in bicycle and pedestrian planning. His career as a planner has included extensive work in bicycle and pedestrian planning, the bio says.


The Henrietta Town Board meets at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and could take up Brick-N-Motor’s application to operate a food truck at an office park in the town.

An agenda for the meeting is not yet posted on the town’s website. But on April 17, the board held a public hearing on a permit application. And Brick-N-Motor’s owners expect that the board will address the application in some way at the May 1 meeting.

The truck was operating at the Eagle’s Landing Business Park for two days a week for six months, prior to March 15. The town told owners Paul Vroman and Nathan Hurtt to stop operating until they get a permit.

Henrietta officials have opposed past applications for mobile food vendors, but this time may be different. Two board members, Bill Mulligan and Jack Moore, have indicated support for Brick-N-Motor’s application. Jeremy Moule