City Council

Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday January 24, 2022 8:00pm  Call to order Mayor Kalaj called to order the Village Board Meeting at 8:17pm on January 24, 2022, via Zoom Webinar ID: 827 2570 8364 for the Village of South Blooming Grove located at 819 State Route 208, within the Village of South Blooming Grove, and having a mailing address of Monroe, New York.  Roll call The following persons were present: o Mayor’s George Kalaj – Mayor o Abraham Weiss – Deputy Mayor o Yitzchok Feldman– Trustee o Asher Guttman- Trustee o Zalmon Rosner – Trustee o Joel Stern- Confidential Assistant to the Mayor o Al Fusco, Village Engineer o Scott Ugell Esq.- Village Attorney  Mayor Comments o There was a watermain break on Sears Road late Saturday night, the crews were there working all night long. They did repair it and I thank them for it. We did have to truck water because we lost a lot of water, therefore you are a boil water notice until further notice, only Sears Road and Michael Court. He wants to congratulate Mr. Feldman and his wife on their new baby boy, congratulations Mr. Feldman to you and your family. Luck and happiness and wealth to the little boy. He had complaints about brown water at Rolling Hills, he spoke to a few people and was assured by the water department that it is safe to drink, therefore they expect by tomorrow morning it should be cleared out due to the trucking of the water we had done today. He is sorry you had discolored water, but we had to have the water. We could not get anybody to deliver water on Sunday.  Correspondence o January 19,2022 Memorandum from Village Treasurer notifying Transfer of Funds ($20,000) from general fund to water operating account.  Public Comment o Ann Marie Breheny she has sent numerous water messages to the water company and to the Mayor. The Mayor told her that Saturday that the water would be clear, it is brown like coffee, he white tub is stained, it had nothing to do with Sears Road watermain break, she was told by water department that there was a leak and had a specialist coming in on Monday. Apartment 3303 still had brown water with a strong odor. Mayor Kalaj advised that they finally had water delivered 1  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday January 24, 2022 8:00pm (unable to do so on Sunday) and the water department assured him that the water would clear out. There is not a leak in her area that would affect her. Trustee Feldman advised that they were looking for a leak on Sears Road. o Sue Anne Vogelsberg she is just wondering that there was a female that was running the meetings, her name is Melissa Foote, she noticed that she saw her name in the legal notices from Chester. She was at our meetings. If we hired a new employee, there was no resolution, the residents were not made aware of it and there is a Mr. Gardiner Barone, he is the new attorney for the Zoning Board, she is just wondering if somebody was fired, again there was no resolution with bringing him on board. She has had some difficulties with the web site and when she went to the building department it says that now we have to go to the Town for building department issues and that’s new, she doesn’t know where that change came from because it was never listed there before the village handled its own stuff and the agenda isn’t clear that there is going to be a public hearing before. Maybe we can clean up that website, we are paying good money for an IT firm to handle it so she hoping that it could be cleared up. 185 Prospect continues to operate as an Airbnb, as of tonight he is charging $386 a night for the room. When we talk about code enforcement for garbage cans and yet we have somebody in clear violation of running and Airbnb, we need to be consistent if we are going to have codes in place, we need to enforce all of them, not be selective. She is awaiting a FOIL request, the appeal for 206 Prospect operating as a school and hasn’t heard that yet. National School Choice week, she has no idea what the village is, you issued a proclamation back in November, she has no idea what the village has to do with that or what impact it has on the village and lastly, she has been getting a lot of phone calls from realtors asking her if they want to buy her house. She has a sign posted outside, “no soliciting” and on her phone what she does is block them after they call, but a friend of hers had a tragedy, a family member had passed away in Whorley Heights and there was a coroner’s vehicle in the driveway and 2 gentlemen came to the house while the coroner’s vehicle was there, knocked on the door and asked if the house was for sale. That is despicable and that is something that needs to be stopped and maybe Mr. Mayor you can speak to the local realtors, very unacceptable, the family was in a tragedy situation and somebody is there looking to make a buck. Hope you can address those issues. Trustee Feldman advised that they are working very hard on their website, lets hope we will get done very soon. o Dawn Salka is curious what the numbers are on Route 208 across from the deli, numbers 1 through 10. All along Route 208 on the fence. Trustee Feldman advised that he doesn’t think it is the Village’s fence and they don’t know anything about it and advise he would try to figure out who it is. Ms. Salka asked if it is okay if anybody can put up large 4-5 foot signs? They are not political signs. o Kristie Johnson she lives in the Town and she moved out here mostly because she loves astronomy and the stars used to be pretty clear at night. Unfortunately, since the installation of streetlights which she understands for city folk that is a blessing but for country folk it is a nuisance. The light pollution is significant at night which has interrupted her star gazing. Not that it is her own personal issue but is why we invested in this property. Now with this new property maintenance law, specifically referring to lighting parking areas that is a concern for her because so many residential properties have been allowed to convert to commercial so now this is even more light pollution. The 2  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday January 24, 2022 8:00pm constellation of Orion is mostly visible no matter where you are but if this continues, I may only see the belt of Orion and it is not why I moved to a rural area and she is very concerned about the building that is going on in South Blooming Grove and the lack of concern for the effect on traffic for one, my car was in a car accident because a residential property is being used as a school and the driveway is not a commercial driveway, so cars are stopping short and she know that her car is not the only one that has been damaged. She is really upset and is holding back on filing any kind of a lawsuit because she doesn’t in suing municipality, she thinks that it hurts the resident more than it does the government but she is at a loss and is out of a car because this is not being regulated the way that it should be. Trustee Feldman asked what address she sees a school in a residential area? Kristie is not sure of the number because it is two driveways that seem to be commercial but it is right off of Route 208 just past the water spring on left and if you look on the right there is another driveway and if you look on the side of the road there is vehicle debris and she has seen accidents there before as well. Maybe the village can look into a no left hand turn sign. When my car was involved in an accident, the car that it avoided hitting had an infant that was only months old in the back seat, so thank God we were able to hit the guard rail and not the car in front. o Patty Morrice she wanted to address the “for sale” signs in front of houses that have people living in them now. 4 Dallas and 9 Pine Hill Road, 7 Pine Hill Road the sign is down. The signs have been up and people are living in them. There are school buses parked all over the village, the house down by Sunoco, buses parked on Merriewold, shouldn’t there be a bus depot for all the buses? Trustee Feldman advised that she send an email on the signs to code@vosbg.com and code enforcement would be notified. Joel Stern advised that the buses are parked on property that are zoned commercial, especially the one that is right across from Sunoco, they have a lease agreement and whatever they are doing over there is 100% legal and legit. There is nothing the village can do to take the buses away from over there. Ms. Morrice asked if they could put up a fence or something to block the view? Mr. Stern advised that they plan to install landscaping once Spring arrives and that should remedy the situation. o Bonnie Rum you have a situation in your village right now where your code enforcer, your building inspector and your engineer are the same person. Two of those positions are certified, one of them is licensed and Mr. Fusco it has been told to me that you may want to get some real legal opinion on this, you have the potential to be in a conflict of interest situation if something occurs and the person who told me is somebody that has nothing to do with certification. He has everything to do with licensing. You may want to check that out for yourself, I know you are employed with 7 municipalities and you wouldn’t want to loose that engineering license, just to stay certified in the same location, that’s a heads up for you. Just a suggestion that the elections are coming up and Mr. Kalaj, I have a feeling that there is going to be a tremendous wright in vote and you name is not going to be on it. She is saying because other people seem to be more aware of what is going on. Maybe you don’t want to be mayor again, that’s her comment, have a good night.  Business o Resolution No. (002) – Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove adopting local law Chapter 102 Property Maintenance. Motion to accept by Mayor Kalaj, seconded 3  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday January 24, 2022 8:00pm by Trustee Rosner. 5 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Feldman, Trustee Guttman and Trustee Rosner. o Resolution No. (003) – Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove appointing election inspectors for the upcoming Village Election on March 15, 2022 adopting local law Chapter 102 Property Maintenance. Motion to accept by Trustee Rosner, seconded by Mayor Kalaj. 5 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Feldman, Trustee Guttman and Trustee Rosner  Abstract o Motion to adopt the abstract by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Trustee Guttman. 5 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Feldman, Trustee Guttman and Trustee Rosner.  Adjournment o Motion to close the meeting at 8:37 p.m. by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Deputy Trustee Rosner. 5 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Feldman, Trustee Guttman and Trustee Rosner. Minutes respectfully submitted by Kerry Dougherty, Village Clerk 4