City Council

Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday February 14, 2022 8:00pm  Call to order Mayor Kalaj called to order the Village Board Meeting at 8:01pm on February 14, 2022, via Zoom Webinar ID: 848 3046 6780 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 Yitzchok Feldman– Trustee o Asher Guttman- Trustee o Zalmon Rosner – Trustee o Joel Stern- Confidential Assistant to the Mayor o Isaac Ekstein – Legislative Aide to Mayor o Scott Ugell Esq.- Village Attorney Absent o Abraham Weiss- Deputy Mayor o Al Fusco- Village Engineer  Discussion o Mayor Kalaj wished a Happy Valentine's Day to all. He wants to make one comment about the rags that people flush and he has been stressing this, please do not flush anything that is not flushable. It is causing problems, right now we have to replace a grinder, unfortunately and it is going to cost us a lot of money. Therefore, please refrain from un-flushable items. Even if it says it is flushable does not mean it is flushable. That is causing a lot of headaches, we just had to order another dumpster just for rags. Please let’s refrain from flushing any non-flushable items.  Correspondence o Water Well Application- PN General Contracting Inc.- 7 Test Wells- 201-1-1,2,3,7,8,9.  Public Comment o Sue Anne Vogelsberg on February 5, 2022 there was a car parked on the road by 185 Prospect Road where the Airbnb is and we are not supposed to have parking on village roads between November 15 and April 15. Then we had a weather event, the car was ticketed but it defeats the purpose because they were already on the road and how can the highway department clear the road with that. She sent the Mayor and Trustees on February 3, 2022 an email forwarding about a shoot out that took place at an Airbnb in Rockland which is another reason why we don’t want to have Airbnb because 1  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday February 14, 2022 8:00pm you cannot regulate who is coming in and with the school at 206 Prospect which is nearby if something like that happened at 185 and there were stray bullets a child could have been hurt and other people as well. She is just making you aware of it because she didn’t get a response from the email. 127 Seven Spring Road there is a seven acre parcel that is listed for a subdivision but it wasn’t put before the planning board. She is wondering what is up with that because she has some questions about what is taking place at the zoning board and the planning board there is a lot of construction and development going on and these parcels with the changes are not coming before those individual boards. On February 8, 2022 while she was driving for meals on wheels she came past in front of the new ambulance building and she noticed that there is a new banner for the second floor and it says that it is the headquarters of the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove and she was just wondering if with that being a religious entity, in a public building she is hoping there is not conflict there with it, she did notify Orange County Planning and she also contacted the County EMS about it and the County referred me to the Town because the Town is the agency that regulates all ambulances, ambulance response in the Town so she is waiting to hear back from Supervisor Jeroloman. At Thursday night’s zoning board of appeals, the new attorney that we hired, Mr. Barone, he said him and Mr. Fusco are going to be arranging to make online trainings, they are going to develop a program for the Trustees so that they could meet their State requirements, required for Zoning Board Members and she is thinking that it doesn’t sound right, Any time she has been on boards, the state provides the training and she is wondering why Mr. Barone and Mr. Fusco would have to do that. She jumped to thinking that it is billable hours for the village when it is unnecessary, when the State already provides that. She FOILed for Mrs. Foote, she is an employee of the Town of Chester, yet she has been coming and running a couple of the Zoning and Planning Board Meetings and she is not an employee of the Village and she is wondering why, we have village employees and if Ms. Foote is coming and she is an employee with Mr. Fusco’s company, something just doesn’t smell right. We had an issue with our budget that we didn’t have enough income coming in, so we are dipping into the reserves and now seems like there is a lot more money going out that the residents aren’t really having any, we are not being aware of and decision are being made, there is no transparency. o Isaac Ekstein replied, there is no school on Prospect as far as we are concerned. There is a House of Worship there that they are going to come before the village board to apply for that, they haven’t done that. A shooting is never good, in a residential area it is dangerous, and he hopes that doesn’t happen here in Blooming Grove and we actually have a law against Airbnb and I will make the code enforcement officer aware of the ongoing situation, he believe Mr. Ugell will be able to speak with Mr. Fusco about it to take it over from where Jeanne left it off. Mr. Ugell advised he will and that, that shooting took place 3 blocks from his house. Mr. Ekstein continued that 127 Seven Springs Road is not in the Village of South Blooming Grove so maybe it is a different address, you can email if that is incorrect. The United Jewish Community is not a religious organization, it is a community organization, it is here to advocate on behalf of the Jewish Community in Blooming Grove and they actually have a bay for an ambulance, they are not an ambulance company. They have a bay for an ambulance, where an ambulance is parked to respond because there is no ambulances in the area, so the United Jewish Community fund raised to have an ambulance bay locally here. The planning and zoning board he believes he can confidentially say that this Village is beyond transparent on all 2  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday February 14, 2022 8:00pm aspects, zoning, planning, village. The fact of the matter that we are talking right now when it is not required to talk, he believes we are transparent but there is always room for improvement. Melissa Foote is an employee of Al Fusco, Al Fusco Engineer is a contractor for the Village of South Blooming Grove. His employees work for the Village in extension of his company. She is running the meetings based on the contract that we have with his firm.  Business o Resolution No. (009) – Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove authorizing the Village Engineer to prepare plans and go bid for Merriewold sewer grinder. Motion to accept by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Trustee Rosner. 4 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Trustee Feldman, Trustee Guttman and Trustee Rosner. 1 Absent Deputy Mayor Weiss.  Abstract o Motion to adopt the abstract by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Trustee Feldman. 4 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Trustee Feldman, Trustee Guttman and Trustee Rosner. 1 Absent Deputy Mayor Weiss.  Trustee Comments o Trustee Rosner asked about the status of residents taking back in the garbage cans. Mayor Kalaj advised that code enforcement is going to work with Mr. Fusco to change some of that to modify it, because it doesn’t state specifically what to do with the garbage cans, a designated area. Therefore he is going to work on it and we are going to modify it. He also mentioned that on New Year's Eve at 10:30 PM he got a call that there were sewer backups on that street, 2 houses, he went there New Year’s Eve at 11pm and there was, this is only to remind you that it can happen at any time, please do not flush un-flushable items. o Isaac Ekstein asked about the seminar/training in Albany for the Treasurer. He though it is a good thing for the village. All the board agreed to approve.  Adjournment o Motion to close the meeting at 8:19 pm. by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Trustee Rosner. 4 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Trustee Feldman, Trustee Guttman and Trustee Rosner. 1 Absent Deputy Mayor Weiss Minutes respectfully submitted by Kerry Dougherty, Village Clerk 3