City Council

Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday March 27, 2023 8:00pm  Call to order Mayor Kalaj called to order the Village Board Meeting at 8:00pm on March 27, 2023, 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 Asher Guttman - Trustee o Zalmon Rosner – Trustee o Scott Ugell Esq. – Village Attorney o Al Fusco - Village Engineer o Kerry Dougherty – Village Clerk o Absent – Isaac Ekstein – Legislative Aide to Mayor o Absent – Joel Stern – Confidential Assistant to the Mayor o Absent – Yitzchok Feldman - Trustee  Correspondence  Mayor’s Comments • We had a fire in the village. The fire department did a great job saving the structure. All the surrounding fire people that came over to help out thank you all. • Trustee Rosner and Trustee Guttman were re-elected. Congratulations on your re-election for a second term.  Public Comment • Sue Anne Vogelsberg – Just as an aside Planner Shepstone is not providing enough documentation at the Planning Board meeting he only had a couple of copies. Speaking of that is the Planning Board Clerk Melissa Foote still working for the village because I haven’t seen her in months. • Sue Anne Vogelsberg - Back in February Isaac said that and I believe Attorney Ugell had concurred there is my months old FOIL requests that I haven’t received them and they assured me that I would be getting them. I haven’t received any of my FOIL requests. I can resubmit them if you like. • Sue Anne Vogelsberg – The website again you can’t use Facebook as a way to convey information. It’s got to be on the website and there is nothing on there regarding the bus schedule or any kind of pertinent information is not on the website. That needs to be worked on. Shepstone said he’s going to be doing that and it hasn’t happened yet. So that’s something that needs to be addressed. 1  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday March 27, 2023 8:00pm • Sue Anne Vogelsberg – In looking over prior meeting notes I see what looks to be a pattern and I certainly hope it’s not intentional on the Board’s part. A couple of comments is on the agenda before the Trustee comments section and at the end which is at the end of the meeting and that’s the same place appointees Stern and Ekstein routinely present a quickly crafted resolution that the Board votes on immediately without any input from the public. At the last Board meeting is a perfect example there was no correspondence on the agenda and yet Isaac had sent that he received the contract from Marangi. Well, if he received that contract why wasn’t it posted as part of the correspondence. I feel like and this is just my opinion I feel like this is being done intentionally to keep the public in the dark. That’s not acceptable and it’s certainly not transparent. • Sue Anne Vogelsberg – This is a follow-up to Isaac’s comment about what I had said. There was a big rush to get that South Blooming Grove Business Park in place and it just sat there and now it has changed hands which I’m sure will be going before the Planning Board again because if there are different people in charge of it and I think the Planning Board would vent the developer better which these projects and he said that’s not the villages responsibility. So I’m thinking if you’re a project engineer is coming forth and a project is being put forth before the village you would check to be sure that this developer can follow thru with it as opposed to just leaving it like what has happened. • Sue Anne Vogelsberg – This is another case in point on February 1, 2023, I emailed about the traffic devices on Prospect. The police didn’t know anything about it, the Board didn’t know anything about it and at the March 16th Board Meeting Prospect Gardens materialized. So you guys would have to known that was in place and you denied it. Thank you for the traffic device on Prospect Road. • Mayor Kalaj - Now your FOIL. You should have it. He will get her what she wants. • Chris Maderia – Something she just said concerning the contract Marangi. Last week Mr. Ekstein made a comment to the Board stating that the village had piggybacked the contract. The Board took his recommendation as to the resolution authorizing to sign the contract. My issue with the contract is you cannot piggyback the contract as the town attorney would tell you the first hurdle you have to achieve is permission from the Town of Blooming Grove. The Town of Blooming Grove has not given this Village permission to piggyback that contract. The Village has no authority to piggyback that contract. Should the village feel it does the village does have a way through the State of New York through the review the office of General Services. I bought that form this evening Mayor you are more than welcome to fill it out and see what the state has to say but you cannot piggyback a contract without prior notification and permission from the Town of Blooming Grove or the vendor. So I think this Board should have a resolution to rescind the last motion resolution to give you power to sign that contract until the Village gets a review by the offices of General Services. • Bonnie Rum – Mr. Ugell should have been able to tell you all about that but that’s what his job is. • Bonnie Rum - I want to mention about sidewalks. It was bought up quite a bit by Mr. Ekstein and Mr. Stern. The problem with sidewalks which they didn’t know apparently is that you cannot use eminent domain to take over people’s property. You have to if you want to you can but then you have to pay them their market value for their property and I don’t know how much funds you have in 2  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday March 27, 2023 8:00pm your budget to do that. Then you have to mitigate the storm water and they can probably grieve their taxes because now they have less property. So that’s about sidewalks. • Bonnie Rum – The blue water that was coming from Clovewood that’s been all over the place and the DEC has levied fines for that project. They paid around $100,000 of it and there is some more pending but there may be more violations coming down because they are really not doing what they are supposed to be doing and water spread out all over the place. I don’t know how much dye they put into that water but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to be able to tell you dye will not cure the turbidity of the water which is the mud. It’s going to be covered up but you can’t see through the color. I don’t know how much money they spent on that but that was a waste. The fact that many developers viewed Lake Anne before King Equities and decided not to build there because there wasn’t sufficient water simply doesn’t seem to bother King Equities. I’m assuming they can get water from wherever KJ gets it. I might remind you or tell you that in Arizona they actually have developers building in dry space depending on their local nearby towns to give them water to fill their tanks for each home. Well guess what they don’t have enough water to give them so all now those homes have no water at all and that can happen here. • Bonnie Rum – Now Simon Gelb seems to be involved with Prospect Gardens doesn’t look good. Just from history and I might suggest that all of this extra building and the small sites these homes to be built on. A group of ultra-orthodox women in Rockland County sewed a developer and won because of this very same thing. • Bonnie Rum – The question of all of these grants. I mean they look wonderful but how much money have you actually received from any of these grants because they are contingent upon a bunch of requisites and prerequisites again Mr. Ugell should be able to explain that to you and the interest rates that you are going to be paying because you have been spending down your reserve funds to keep everybody’s taxes low it’s going to raise your interest rates big time. That gets revisited every year. • Mayor Kalaj – I wanted to mention about the bus route. It’s not finished yet he’s still working on it. It will be complete sooner than later. It will be on the website. • Pattie Morrice – Whatever you are trying to accomplish with 2 garbage pickups it’s not working. It’s making matters worse. Garbage and recycle pails are so overflowing and now the pails stay out all week. They are not being bought up to the house. They are laid in the driveways and in the streets. Thursday’s pickup is not being used by most of the residents. It’s a waste of taxpayers money that they need more garbage pails. If you drive around now you can see the garbage pails. • Chris Maderia – I have one question how is the village paying for the garbage removal the Thursday pickup for the months of January, February and March. I viewed the proposed contract between the village and Marangi. It’s backdated to January at the cost of $16,000 per month if I add the 3 months it’s $48,000 which brings it across the threshold that it needed to go to public bid for a public works contract. • Asher Ekstein – If it’s possible maybe you can do something maybe the village can do something about reminding people, since it’s a new pickup and not everyone is accustomed to it. Just send out 3  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday March 27, 2023 8:00pm a reminder so that everyone knows tomorrow is going to be a pickup day and they should put out their canisters.  Business o Resolution No. (25) – Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove Authorizing bid to furnish the Tanager Ballfield with outdoor playground equipment, benches, gazebos, etc. Motion to accept by Trustee Guttman, seconded by Deputy Mayor Weiss. 4 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Rosner, Trustee Guttman. 1 Absent Trustee Feldman o Resolution No. (26) – Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove Authorizing Mayor to sign agreement with Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP, for application and project for Rehabilitation System Water Project. Motion to accept by Trustee Guttman, seconded by Trustee Rosner. 4 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Rosner, Trustee Guttman. 1 Absent Trustee Feldman. o Resolution No. (27) – Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove Authorizing Mayor to sign agreement with Scott Ugell, Esq for Rehabilitation System Water project. Motion to accept Trustee Guttman, seconded by Deputy Mayor Weiss. 4 Ayes Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Rosner, Trustee Guttman. 1 Absent Trustee Feldman. o Resolution No. (28) – Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove Authorizing Mayor to sign agreement with Munistat Municipal Financial Advisory Service for Rehabilitation System Water project. Motion to accept Trustee Rosner, seconded by Mayor Kalaj. 4 Ayes Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Rosner, Trustee Guttman. 1 Absent Trustee Feldman o Resolution No. (29) – Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove approving joining in resubdivision submission and specifically agree to the reconfiguration of the boundaries of the Village owned property involved with the 58 Fort Worth Place resubdivision. Motion to accept Trustee Rosner, seconded by Mayor Kalaj. 4 Ayes Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Rosner, Trustee Guttman. 1 Absent Trustee Feldman  Discussion Al Fusco discussing Resolution 26, 27 & 28 - When we are doing the grants and we have bond council and financial advisor we are supposed to be incompliance with the mandatory EFC rules and regs. We said in the guidance mandatory rules. There are two books. Once is guidance and one is rules. Trustee Guttman - The owner will pay for the water tank and the new access road for the village property. So they are redesigning the property layout. The easement is going to be around the property instead of the center of the property they will move it to the corner of the property and they are going to rebuild new tanks for the village. 4  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday March 27, 2023 8:00pm  Abstract Motion to accept the Abstract by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Trustee Guttman, 4 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Rosner, Trustee Guttman. 1 Absent Trustee Feldman.  Adjournment o Motion to close the meeting at 8:27 pm by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Trustee Guttman. 4 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Guttman, Trustee Rosner. 1 Absent Trustee Feldman. Minutes respectfully submitted by Kerry Dougherty, Village Clerk 5