City Council

Village of South Blooming Grove Special JOINT Meeting VILLAGE BOARD AND PLANNING BOARD FRIDAY July 29, 2022 9:30 Am  Call to order Mayor Kalaj called to order the Village Board and Planning Board Special Meeting at 9:36 am on July 29, 2022, via Zoom Webinar ID: 82670586672 for the Village of South Blooming Grove located at 811 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 George Kalaj – Mayor o Abraham Weiss – Deputy Mayor o Yitzchok Feldman - Trustee o Zalmon Rosner – Trustee o Isaac Ekstein- Legislative Aide to Mayor o Al Fusco, Village Engineer o Scott Ugell Esq.- Village Attorney o Asher Guttman- Trustee o Joel Stern – Confidential Assistant to the Mayor o Amy Mele, Esq. – Special Counsel o Kerry Dougherty – Village Clerk o Melissa Foote – Planning Board Clerk o Solomon Weiss – Planning Board Chairman o Abraham Klepner – Planning Board Member o Yoel Ungar – Planning Board Member o Simon Schwartz – Planning Board Member Absent o Dov Frankel – Planning Board Member  Discussion : o Mayor Kalaj thanked everyone for showing up and announced this is a very huge step concerning our water and our water restrictions, lets hope we get water sooner than we anticipated. He asked Mr. Fusco to give a short brief on this FEIS. o Engineer Fusco advised that the FEIS for Final Environmental Impact Statement. We are required under state environmental quality review also known as SEQRA to perform environmental reviews for all of the projects that happen in the Village of South Blooming Grove. A draft environmental impact statement was prepared a long time ago and there were a lot of 1  Village of South Blooming Grove Special JOINT Meeting VILLAGE BOARD AND PLANNING BOARD FRIDAY July 29, 2022 9:30 Am back and forths that was finally accepted by this joint board previously and towards that end during the public hearings both from the consultants on behalf of the village and the general public a lot of questions were asked and issues raised. Based upon those the FEIS was developed which is a document that requires us to answer all of the questions brought forth by the consultants and/or the general public. The applicant’s goal was to help the joint board in developing the FEIS, the FEIS is a board document, in this case, a joint board document. Towards that end it was assisted by applicant for items, this was reviewed by counsel as well as myself and members of the joint board and at this point we had some back and forth, it was amended and most recently a new FEIS was submitted which he reviewed and he believes counsel has reviewed and at this point on his behalf he would recommend that we do approve same going forward we have another task at hand that we have to do before 10 and 30 days, which is a findings statement, which is based upon the DEIS and the FEIS, so basically a finding from the joint board what they think, there should be any conditions or issues that need to be raised going forward. o Isaac Ekstein basically on the discussions offline with Special Counsel Ira Emmanuel, Special Counsel Amy Mele, Scott Ugell, Al Fusco the applicant has submitted the FEIS, the village boards, the professionals went over everything and made sure, its been 2 years already that we have been going over the FEIS and now we have on the agenda accepting the FEIS.  Business o Resolution No. (102) – Resolution of the Village Board and the Planning Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove accepting the FEIS on the Clovewood Project, as revised, and determine that it is complete. Motion to accept by Village Board Deputy Mayor Weiss, seconded by Village Board Trustee Guttman. 5 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Rosner, Trustee Feldman and Trustee Guttman. Motion to accept by Planning Member Unger, seconded by Planning Board Member Schwartz. 4 Ayes, Chairman Weiss, Member Unger, Member Klepner, Member Schwartz – 1 Absent – Dov Frankel. o Resolution No. (103) - Resolution of the Village Board and the Planning Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove setting a special meeting for August 9, 2022 at 12:00 PM via zoom for a joint meeting to potentially adopt the findings statement if it will be ready for the Clovewood Project. Motion to accept by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Village Board Trustee Rosner. 5 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Rosner, Trustee Feldman and Trustee Guttman. Motion to accept by Planning Board Chairman Weiss, seconded by Planning Board Member Schwartz. 4 Ayes, Chairman Weiss, Member Unger, Member Klepner, Member Schwartz – 1 Absent – Dov Frankel.  Comment o Joel Stern stated that this is a historical and monumental for the Village of South Blooming Grove and all of its residents and we would like to thank Mayor Kalaj and the Chairman of the Planning 2  Village of South Blooming Grove Special JOINT Meeting VILLAGE BOARD AND PLANNING BOARD FRIDAY July 29, 2022 9:30 Am Board, especially Judge Ugell – Village Attorney and Al Fusco the Village Engineer, Special Counsel Emmanuel and Amy Mele for really bending over backwards. The people in the audience can hardly imagine the amount of work in villages that went into this process but hopefully in a short period of time, and with water flowing in the new lines, everybody is going to be able to appreciate what was done today. Thank you everybody - L’chaim and Mazel Tov!  Adjournment o Motion to close the meeting at 9:53 am by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Trustee Guttman. 5 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Rosner, Trustee Feldman and Trustee Guttman. Motion to close by Planning Board Chairman Weiss, seconded by Planning Board Member Unger. 4 Ayes, Chairman Weiss, Member Unger, Member Klepner, Member Schwartz – 1 Absent – Dov Frankel. Minutes respectfully submitted by Kerry Dougherty, Village Clerk 3