SALAMANCA — The mayor of Salamanca and two Common Council members made the 350-mile journey to the nation’s capital early this month to make their case requesting additional federal support for the city.

Mayor Sandra Magiera and aldermen John “Jack” Hill and Kylee Johnson spent June 12 and 13 in Washington, D.C., meeting with staff from Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kristin Gillibrand’s offices after nearly four years of communication.

“They did say that we didn’t have to go there. That we could meet up here at their Buffalo offices,” the mayor said. “I’m just going to keep in touch with them.”

At Gillibrand’s office, Magiera said the staff was receptive to the information the city officials provided. She said they suggested some short-term funding options the city could pursue, many of which she said they already do.

“One was the SAFER grant, which is for firemen, and has been turned down a couple of times,” the mayor said. “They said they would do a letter of support for us to help get it back in.”

Another suggestion was for the COPS grant, which Magiera said the city also submits regularly and often is awarded.

“They said they would also do a letter of support for any other grant we would like to apply for,” she added. “One was the New York Forward, the other one was the Downtown Revitalization.”

The trio also mentioned some of the projects the city is working on as potential ways to increase the tax base, but Magiera said those are all a couple of years down the road.

“Jack was happy that everything that they asked us to do, we were already working on,” the mayor said. “We’re trying to help. We’re not just sitting back expecting people to give us money.”

From left, Salamanca Mayor Sandra Magiera, Council President Kylee Johnson and alderman John “Jack” Hill in Washington, D.C.

Although in-person meetings were set up with both senators’ offices, Magiera said the one with Schumer’s team had to change format after they had arrived due to security issues surrounding the military parade scheduled for June 14.

“Some of the buildings we were not allowed to get into and some of the roads were closed, so Schumer thought it would be easier for us to have a Zoom meeting with them,” the mayor explained. “And then we had the in-person meeting with Gillibrand’s office.”

One Schumer staffer the trio met with specializes in working with the education department, which handles the Impact Aid support that the Salamanca City Central School District receives toward its budget. Magiera said they were told Impact Aid is strictly for schools, making the city ineligible, but there are other possible funding streams to look into.

“We didn’t have as much time with (Schumer’s staff) as we did with Gillibrand’s team,” she added.

Two projects the Salamanca Board of Public Utilities is actively preparing for that Magiera mentioned are a new electric substation, a $7 million project, and a new water treatment plant.

“I said we have some big expenses coming up, and the city just doesn’t have the money to do it,” she said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen if we don’t get some kind of funding or some kind of help.”

Magiera said she also mentioned the issues with marijuana sales in the city due to its location on the Seneca Nation’s Allegany Territory. She said its legality nationwide would mean better regulations to help manage all the dispensaries in the city, but the senators said it’s likely not going to pass at this point.

“Sandy had a very professional presentation for them,” Johnson said. “They were very impressed with the packet she had, the information that was in there, and there was a lot of information for them to take back to their offices.”

Hill said the staffers were taking down a lot of notes during the meeting, something that wasn’t too common from past experience.

“I thought they were really interested in what we had to say,” he added.

Magiera said they also plan to set up a meeting with Congressman Nick Langworthy’s office to discuss the same issues. She said working with a Republican in Washington may have better results in getting aid for the city.

“If we had more time, we could have met with more people,” the mayor said. “If we had contacts, we probably could have set up some more meetings.”