City Council

Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday May 20, 2024 8:00pm  Call to order Mayor Kalaj called to order the Village Board Meeting at 8:08pm on May 20, 2024, 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 Yitzchok Feldman – Trustee o Zalmon Rosner - Trustee o Joel Stern – Confidential Assistant to the Mayor o Isaac Ekstein – Legislative Aide to Mayor** o Al Fusco- Village Engineer o Kerry Dougherty – Village Clerk • Absent o Abraham Weiss – Deputy Mayor o Asher Guttman- Trustee o Scott Ugell Esq. – Village Attorney  Correspondence o May 16, 2024 – Town of Blooming Grove correspondence regarding Prospect Road  Discussion o Mayor Kalaj advised there were some errors with the water bill and the village is working on new meters. Mayor asked Mr. Stern to discuss the progress with the smart meters. Mr. Stern advised that we are speaking with Sensus, the village received some pricing, and we are doing an analysis for wireless reading and where to place the athenea and based on that we will get the final price, we will go through the procurement process and budget process. Regarding Mr. Maderia, errors happen sometimes and he encourages the water department to go check out that meter, maybe somebody tampered with it or maybe somebody tried to by-pass the meter as we have heard in the past it happens sometimes, to confirm the bill is actually an error and maybe replace the meter as well, maybe the meter is broken. Mr. Maderia added that he is right, he spoke with Sensus this morning and has a relationship with them, his meter is not defective, o Mr. Stern added that the village received correspondence from the Town and it is not the first time that they contacted us about this issue, it was about 6 or 9 months ago, they are claiming that a certain part of Prospect Road, to be specific from Round Hill to Turtle Knoll belongs to the Town. So we excessive research before the winter of this year and we have the original survey that was done when the village 1  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday May 20, 2024 8:00pm was created, he thinks it was done by Joe Haller who actually did all the surveys when the village was created and it clearly shows that, that piece of road belongs to the village. It is being taken care of by the village snow plowing or any maintenance that needs to be taken care of. But he is not surprised because in 2021, the Town tried to sneak in some deceiving stuff into an IMA Contract, he is saying on the record for the record because its not the first time they are trying to do that. We caught them red handed at the time and we did a resolution to nullify the entire IMA because they snuck something into an IMA that was signed by the Mayor and notarized. This looks like another try, we were in touch with the Highway Superintendent in the beginning of the winter to make sure that we are taking care of that part of the road and to make sure that’s our part and we are cleaning it. We will have to once again make it clear to the Town that the Village is not up for grabs and you cannot all of a sudden just walk in and one day decide that a certain piece of road belongs to the Town. The attorneys will send a full legal answer, attaching the surveys and clearing this up. He is not surprised about it but it can be disregarded.  Public Comment • Bonnie Rum – you missed the last meeting so she will repeat what she said, Joel Stern has a conflict of interest, he should not be in management of the village, he is the CO of Windsor Capital which is a big investor in Keen Equities, which is a developer which includes Clovewood and other Developments so his motivation above all is profit and that is a conflict of interest and with any ethics committee that would be a problem. Since the waste contract that was negotiated by Mr. Stern and he knew it was something that should not be done by the village because she FOILed the emails, he knew that but he did it anyway. So he has a contract for a second day pick-up and you are charging the entire village but it is an illegal contract. She asked Mr. Ugell who is going to pay this bill because you can’t bill and expect the village residents to pay for that bill if its illegal and he was a little bit upset and didn’t have an answer for her. She looked on the internet and tried to find some answer, some of this stuff is true some is not, she suggested the Mayor contact, she found out that the person who negotiated the contract, the counsel members who voted to have the contract into effect and the Mayor may each one be responsible personally. Of course you have the money from the sale of your property. They will end up suing the village if they don’t get their money. You may want to check that out. • Chris Maderia – just to clear the air, I think we are all well aware that the State Comptroller is working on that issue and nobody can do nothing until they do their thing, so the State Comptroller is looking into that issue, so until that is clear nobody can do this. He had a question for Mr. Rosner Mr. Stern advised this is not a Q & A, it is a public comment, please make your public comment. Mayor Kalaj advised that it is not mandatory to have pubic comments at a village board meeting, if it is a hearing it is required, lets continue. Mr. Maderia, Mayor you are absolutely correct. He wanted to know what is the need for the fire truck. This is the first time he has seen it as a resident. He hasn’t seen anyone show a need, what is the wrong, he doesn’t see the need, what is the wrong, we have the right to know. If we need to fix something, what is wrong, that the validity. Test of Validity, so please what is wrong and why do we need the fire truck, did you do a study, how much brush fire, does the fire department have one, whats the study, we need some test of validity, we 2  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday May 20, 2024 8:00pm need to start hearing, we need test of validity, we are going to be reasonable as a group, as a community working together. • Ryan Kitrow at the last planning board meeting they discussed submitting some zoning amendments to the village board for review, he doesn’t know if you have received that yet, he doesn’t see it on the agenda. At the risk of underestimating the significant impact of the changes those changes that are being passed by the planning board are irresponsible or negligent and they have the potential to be destructive to families and residents of this village. He wanted to highlight what some of these changes are and why they are dangerous. The first is that it is removing all of the overlay districts, scenic gateway, scenic viewshed, ridgeline, scenic roads, surface water overlay, significant biological overlay, he would not go in to detail about what each one of them offer, but the districts are here to guide developers and development in a way that helps protect the village and its residents. By removing them you are putting your families, your wives and your children at risk of not having access to water, having contaminated water, potential death and injury from floods, landslides, financial risk from these types of disasters, increased insurance premiums and from what we have seen loss of insurance all together. Additionally, the other change is by essentially reclassifying open space, to be defined as a parking lot or for parking lots to be defined as open space. This is particularly problematic because open space is beneficial to the health, safety and enjoyment of the residents of the village. Currently in the village code for high density housing one of the allocations is that you have a portion of land that is set aside for conservation area, once again for health, safety and benefit of the residents. Redefining that area as essentially a parking lot so by removing that from high density areas, you are removing that area of environmental health and safety benefit and replacing it with a parking lot. He encouraged the board to think of their families when considering this and how you would explain this to your wife and your children, having access to clean water, to quality water and putting your home at risk. • Barbara Hanley wanted to share that the garbage and recycling go into the same bin on the truck. She is disappointed that she is separating and washing before she does that. Previously if there were to be a change in the neighborhood, letters would go out to the residents to be able to respond. Two houses have been raised and nothing came out for us to be able to react to it prior to this happening. The synagogue on Lake Shore Drive is a skeleton and has a pond. Clearly there is a problem with sidewalks. People that would not be on the sidewalk. People walk 8 across and don’t really move out of the road. Are people going to shovel the sidewalks, if they can’t bring garbage cans in they are not going to shovel. Her suggestion is to widen, improve and resurface the road, that would give more space for kids and cars to drive by. Kids need to learn the rules of the road, they ride their bike in front of cars. Sidewalks will not change that. • Carol Ball on March 20, 2024 she sent an email to building inspector about property maintenance. To name a few, 13 Dallas is an active construction site and still has fence missing. 15 Dallas has no fence left, 7 Dallas has pieces of fence in a pile, 20 Dallas is a single family home with a dumpster in front of it. The response from building is that all have been sited, this is now two months later and nothing has been done. 3  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday May 20, 2024 8:00pm • Al Fusco advised that we have at least 6 that will be going to court. Mr. Stern advised that this takes some time, they are doing a drive through each week. Sometimes give them up to a month. At the last meeting the DPW bid was awarded to Cioffe. It is about setting up a system, notice, update status that it is still in violation and then it will go to Cioffe to send out their crew. This cycle can take a minimum of two weeks. It has to pass through the process. • Kelly Pazar we have a florist running out of Laredo Court she came and spoke with building 3 months ago, they are still out there delivering their flowers. Nobody is doing anything. The grass at 26 and 27 Duelk is up to her knees. That is 5 weeks old. There is always these excuses. 2 Laredo Court is never locked. There are 8 year olds climbing in the window. She has never seen people not care about their children, she cares more about the children then they do. She watches these little kids 4 and 5 years old getting off the bus by themselves.  Business o Resolution No. (28) – Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove authorizing the Mayor to execute engagement letter with Financial Advisor for Sewage System Rehabilitation.. Motion to accept by Trustee Feldman, seconded by Trustee Rosner. 3 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj Trustee Feldman and Trustee Rosner. 2 Absent – Deputy Mayor Weiss and Trustee Guttman. o Resolution No. (29) - Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove authorizing the Mayor to execute an engagement letter with Bond Counsel for Sewage System Rehabilitation. Motion to accept by Trustee Feldman, seconded by Trustee Rosner. 3 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj Trustee Feldman and Trustee Rosner. 2 Absent – Deputy Mayor Weiss and Trustee Guttman. o Resolution No. (30) - Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove authorizing the Mayor to execute engagement letter with Local Legal Counsel for Sewage System Rehabilitation. Motion to accept by Trustee Rosner, seconded by Mayor Kalaj 3 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj Trustee Feldman and Trustee Rosner. 2 Absent – Deputy Mayor Weiss and Trustee Guttman. o Resolution No. (31) -Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove setting a public hearing on proposed local law amending Section 85 Water Cross-Connection of the Village Code. Motion to accept by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Resolution Feldman.. 3 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj Trustee Feldman and Trustee Rosner. 2 Absent – Deputy Mayor Weiss and Trustee Guttman. o Resolution No. (32) - Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove authorizing the execution of any and all documents required for the procurement of a Brush Fire Truck. Motion to accept by Trustee Rosner, seconded by Trustee Feldman. 3 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj Trustee Feldman and Trustee Rosner. 2 Absent – Deputy Mayor Weiss and Trustee Guttman . o Resolution No. (33) - Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove establishing a Capital Sewer Fund. Motion to accept by Trustee Rosner, seconded by Mayor Kalaj. 3 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj Trustee Feldman and Trustee Rosner. 2 Absent – Deputy Mayor Weiss and Trustee Guttman. o Resolution No. (34) - Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove establishing a Capital Water Fund. Motion to accept by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Trustee Rosner. 4  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday May 20, 2024 8:00pm 3 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj Trustee Feldman and Trustee Rosner. 2 Absent – Deputy Mayor Weiss and Trustee Guttman. o Resolution No. (35) - Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove declaring all excess equipment, tools, apparatus and vehicles in the DPW yard as surplus. Motion to accept by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Trustee Rosner. 3 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj Trustee Feldman and Trustee Rosner. 2 Absent – Deputy Mayor Weiss and Trustee Guttman.  Abstract Motion to accept the Abstract by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Trustee Rosner, 3 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Trustee Feldman and Trustee Rosner, 2 Absent.  Adjournment Motion to close the meeting at 8:53pm. by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Trustee Rosner. 3 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Trustee Feldman and Trustee Rosner, 2 Absent. Minutes respectfully submitted by Kerry Dougherty, Village Clerk 5