ITHACA, N.Y. (WENY) -- On Wednesday, January 3rd, the city of Ithaca swore in and inaugurated its 46th Mayor Robert Cantelmo. This was Cantelmo's first elected seat and he discussed his plans during the Inaugural State of the City Address.

"Today is both the organizational meeting of council {and} the swearing of the mayor, acting mayor, and the acting mayor," says newly elected Mayor Robert Cantelmo, City of Ithaca. 

In Mayor Cantelmo's City Address he shared that over the last year, the city has made large investments in important areas like wrapped-up labor negotiations for lapsed contracts, better wages filled vaccines, proactive recruitment, updated model to address labor negotiations, and demands to address the city's older infrastructure

"There have been some cases {of} deferred maintenance in the city, and so the bonding is designed to ensure that our facilities receive the restoration or attention, that they deserve and the city operations benefits, what is your our sidewalks are water and making sure that those things are operating of solid bones," says Cantelmo.

A key upgrade coming to Ithaca is a federally funded grant to design flood maps. 

"We are proud to share that we've just received a design grant in the order of $800,000 to Begin to lay out a plan that we will then be eligible for funding to mitigate some of that risk and that's hugely important because of the way that the city is laid out a large portion of our population are affected by these potential flood maps, and we need to make sure that that's addressed so people can continue to live in the other," shares Cantelmo. 

Cantelmo says everyone's insights and concerns are important. Residents of the City of Ithaca should feel free to reach out with a problem so that steps can be taken to find a resolution. 

The full Inaguaral State of the City Address can be found below along with the full common council meeting here.