Board of Trustees

. Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting January 7, 2020 Deputy Mayor Moore called the regular meeting of the Village of Walden Board of Trustees to order at 6:30pm. On roll call the following were: Present: Mayor Trustees Faith Moore John Ramos Larry Kraus Brian Sebring Dan Svarczkopf Lynn E. Thompson Absent: Sue Rumbold Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Kelly A. Kelly, Village Treasurer Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Public Hearing – Comprehensive Plan Trustee Ramos made a motion to open Public Hearing – Comprehensive Plan. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Mike McNamee: Railroad Ave. I went through, I found a couple of things that were kind of inaccurate. A lot of it seemed to be kind of cut and paste in the Police Protection. The numbers were not even close to being accurate in the timetable that's listed. I think showed that 81 arrests for the month on average. Yet there's like 240 arrests for the entire year. It was on page 60. 8.1 Police Protection. It's also in there that downstairs is going to answer 911 calls. Orange County took that capability away from all peace apps. Probably about the time of the 2012 Comprehensive Plan. It lists in there the Foot Patrol. Pretty sure the Foot Patrol for the Police Dept. has not been staffed for a number of years now. The evening Foot Patrol has been gone for quite a while. Page 61, 8.2. for the Fire Ambulance inspection. It cites several Fire Ambulance companies and the fact there's only 1 in the Village. It lists over 200 active members of the Fire Department. That number is probably about 25% of that. It lists 7 Fire Districts in Town. Walden is 1 of 4. Just some things that I want to give my opinion on. 8.1 for Police Protection. If you look at the table, there's a significant jump in 2011. Pretty sure that there should be a note that said they started counting their calls for service. So, it looks like it almost doubled in workload. When in reality, that's not true. Page 68, 8.5.4 a recommendation for Public Works for plan on working with the town on the Wellhead Protection areas and looking at Wellhead Protection areas while analyzing annexation requests. A few members of this board have recently spoke out in meetings against entertaining annexation of lands adjacent to some of the Village wells on 52. Even without the new annexation that was recently 1  . discussed. The previous annexation property could have easily included the uninhabited lands of Wallkill Valley Cemetery and wetland across the street. The best way to be able to protect the lands around the wells, is own the lands around wells. You don't have to worry about what the Town of Montgomery Planning Board does around the wells if it's in the Village of Walden. Page 82 the overall Chapter 10 Implementation Plan of the 72 items in the Implementation Plan, 11 are ongoing. Need no policy or action taken. Of the remaining 61 items, 38 are listed as immediate or short-term priority in the 2012 plan that have no action taken. So, I'm not sure what the point of updating the Comprehensive Plans is if more than half of the recommendations in the last plan have not been addressed? Number 22, the sidewalks on East Main Street from Highland Avenue to the center of town. This is also listed in the 2012 plan. Today, there is significant safety issues with the sidewalks and portion of the roadway that are significantly undermined and collapsing in the area of Railroad Avenue. Number 27 refers to working Orange County Transportation Council, bus and shuttle service. Yet, the most recent plan that was adopted just a couple years ago has an entire section on this. Walden was not mentioned in any way, shape or form. Again, the last 5 years, nobody has been working with them on that. Now the long-range plan is to adopt it and there's nothing in there whatsoever. 38, 39 refer to open spaces at the edge of the Village to keep a distinctive edge. This contradicts the regional plans in sections 2.1.1 and 2.1.5. encourage your growth to occur at existing developed areas like Walden to preserve the rural nature on the outside. Number 53, the plan calls for service to be monitored for EMS. Yet no statistics are here. There's a significant need for improvement. Overall, I noticed very little has changed since the 2012 plan. Many of the maps, the figure tables in the 2019 plan are extremely poor quality. They appear to be snippets of the 2012 plan. You just can't read any of the maps. Implementation, there was a removal working with the state and county of working with a truck bypass route for Walden. Not sure why that was removed. Shared Services, in the entire plan is for Recreation. I think the plan should also be looking at all areas of Government services for shared services or consolidation of Village of Walden $16.85 in addition to water and sewer fees are extremely high, in my opinion, for the service that we get. The fact that in the Town of Montgomery, we have 4 Planning Boards, 4 Ethics Boards, 4 Zoning Boards, 4 Police Departments, 4 Fire Departments. I think overall, all these plans should get together and figure out what we can do to make it better for the brethren. Trustee Ramos made a motion to close Public Hearing – Comprehensive Plan. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Village Manager’s Report  Had a wonderful D.A.R.E. Graduation all Walden Elementary School. Trustee Ramos spoke to the students at graduation as well as Chief Holmes.  Went over the Sewer Plant inspections.  Went over PBA matters with Special Council.  Worked on audit progress.  We had the Tree Lighting Ceremony. It was wonderful as well.  Went over vehicles. There are a couple new ones coming in soon.  Attended a luncheon with the Historical Society for the Sunshine Society. Wonderful, as always.  Had a conference with Orange County Economic Development regarding projects around the area.  Went to the OCATVC holiday Event.  Went over some insurance claims with the Clerk, as well as NYSIF.  Few meetings with the attorney regarding their resolutions, local laws and some attorney - 2  . client matters.  Had an ice storm. Thankfully, didn't cause any major problems in the Village. We were able to keep on top of that  Went through FOILS with Village Clerk and Attorney.  Went over some civil service matters. We have a couple positions that need testing coming up soon.  Had a lovely holiday breakfast for some of the CSEA employees.  Covered for a few Department Heads. Some due to sick, some due to vacation time over the holidays.  Had a small issue on Ulster Ave from a resident that was handled by a contractor.  Went over the bail reform issues with the Chief again.  We have all our grants in for the Youth Bureau now for the coming year.  Had a nice conference with the new Town Supervisor, regarding some upcoming items. One in particular is the bridge in the Village that needs work and some annexation discussion. Approval of Minutes – December 3, 2019 and December 19, 2019 Special Meeting Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve the December 3, 2019 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve December 19, 2019 Special Meeting Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. 4 ayes. 1 absence (Mayor Rumbold). 2 abstentions (Deputy Mayor Moore, Trustee Svarczkopf). Motion carried. Trustee’s Committee Reports Village Offices Liaison – Trustee Svarczkopf Trustee Svarczkopf: For the Treasurer, we did a cost analysis for the radios. They're working to finish up audits and update the Edmunds Software. Clerk attended NYCOM Webinar on elections. She also updated the calendars. A lot of FOIL Requests that she's been working on and updated the Village website. Town of Montgomery & Library Board Liaison – Trustee Kraus Trustee Kraus: Library has a few classes going on. Sign Language Class. Also, they have a Chess Club. It's been very successful. The Village has a lot of different Faiths. Each Faith has community leaders to talk about the history. They're going to form a committee for the 2020 Census. People are going to go into the library to be counted. Will be able to put information into a computer and it's all private. Planning and Zoning Boards as well as the Building Department Liaison – Trustee Thompson Trustee Thompson: The Zoning Board did not meet. The Planning Board meeting was well attended. There were a lot of topics on the calendar. Falcon Rest was the biggest topic up for discussion. People on the Planning Board did make a site visit. There's still a lot of back and forth dialog about the height of the building. So, there's going to be some more revisions and Mr. Donnelly and Mr. Marshall will present again at the next meeting. I did not meet with Dean. I was really sick these last two weeks. I spoke with him briefly tonight. There's nothing new to report. Town of Montgomery has been very interesting. Brian Sebring and I, either we both go or we take turns going. He has the report because he went to the last one. Trustee Sebring: For January 2nd. The new Supervisor, Brian Maher, has on his agenda that he is 3  . going to have a Citizens of the Month every month. You can send in your nominations to him by email. Only Town Residents are going to be eligible. The Comp Plan and the Moratorium discussion, 7-9 people on the board, when they do get it going, a letter will be sent to people who responded for the Comp Plan. People will possibly be appointed at the January 23rd meeting. Work session, the Town invites previous RFP for the Comp Plan. Like Alan Sorenson. They want to have a new one to give their presentation, LeBarge. They're focusing on how the committee is set up first then invite the companies to come in. So, they will have an idea to what they're going to be doing. Then the accepted company will go from there. They may try to use Orange County to help cut down on expenses through the Orange County Planning Department. The Comp Plan would like to have a moratorium put in place as soon as possible, but that's still up for discussion with the Town. Bernard Bowen, a Village of Walden Trustee in the past, was appointed to the Town Bookkeeper for $30 an hour for 3-6 months. Only him and one other employee in the accounting department. If accepted, his hours for the year should not exceed 1080 hours. Ron Feller was put in as Deputy Supervisor, his stipend will be $2500 a year. The Deputy Registrar for Statistics will be $1500 a year. The Deputy Clerk and the Town Clerk will be doing that. They set up a task force of the Attorney for the Town, the Ambulance Corp Attorney and the Ambulance Corp itself, on a conference call to try to rectify this problem that they have, since nothing has been done in 6 months. The Ambulance Corp has asked for help from the Town. Now, whether or not who isn't responding to which lawyers, that's to be seen. But they're going to set up a three-way conference call. Personnel that want to attend an Association of Town Conference in New York City is Dennis Ketchum. He represents another Town, so the cost for him will be split between Town of Montgomery and the other town that he works for. Kristen and Brian will go and not to exceed $1500. All of the appointments for Zoning, CAC, the Planning are being put on hold for 2 weeks. They have a lot on their plate. As far as all the Town employees, they went through all their wages and whatnot. The January 6th meeting, that was about Amazon and Sailfish. Stated that the USAA was the real estate agent for USEF Sailfish on the application for the building Amazon, which was officially stated as the tenant. The people that spoke were numerous, but Brian Maher stated that the last Town meeting, the majority of Board Members wanted the IDA not to vote on any tax breaks, to hold off because of concerns that they have. Mike Anagnostakis suggested that they pay their taxes like Medline did. Not to have tax breaks as requested. What Amazon would like is $25 million over 15 years. Which would be about $2.5 million or so per year. If they didn't have that, the Towns and school and everybody else would benefit really well. Amazon is the biggest company and they should pay all their taxes like Medline. Michael Sussman talked about the 800 jobs that they would create is not always correct, because out of that there would be 25 management positions and automation in warehousing has been mentioned as the biggest moving of products and cuts down on the amount of people. The wage would be $15 an hour, which is really not enough to support any family. They did say that they have benefits. Kristen Brown stated that Amazon said they would deal over the wastewater treatment plant to the Town, but the Town and the Planning Board was never brought up. Susan Cockburn stated that the wastewater treatment plan is the single most expensive to the Town. There are many other people supporting the project and many more in favor of not having it. The IDA will make their mind up on February 14th. Jim Taylor said that Amazon is good for the businesses around, because it will employ people and not too many companies want to come to New York because of the high cost of insurance, workman's comp and all that stuff. They should want them no matter what. Because it is jobs for people. There were quite a few comments about the other companies on Neelytown Road who can't find workers. They must have found something here that they wanted to come. Deputy Mayor Moore: I did notice that the Town of Montgomery is now streaming their meetings live. I just wanted to add to that. If anyone is looking to join any of the committees, please send a 4  . letter of interest and your resume Brian Maher's attention. Police Department and Justice Department Liaison – Deputy Mayor Moore Deputy Mayor Moore: Met with Chief and talked about a couple of things within the Police Department. Reviewed fuel and mileage usage and secondary employment. Recreation & Parks Department and Valley Central School Board Liaison – Trustee Ramos Trustee Ramos: School Board doesn't have a meeting until next Monday. Met with Mr. Bliss, we started our strategic planning for the 2020 season, summer camp and discussed possibly Intermural Volleyball, since that's been an interest on some of the residents here. We may be able to factor that in. Everybody is doing great. Tree decorations are down. Village is looking great. DPW Liaison– Trustee Sebring Trustee Sebring: They had a water main break on an Orange Avenue. Today they had another water main break on East Avenue by my house. I'd like to give kudos to the Water Department and the DPW for doing the work that they do because they couldn't fully shut the water main break off. So, they were fixing it with some pressure coming out of it, which they did a good job working with their hands in the cold water. Good job. The DPW has been cleaning basins for the MS4 program report. They've been picking up Christmas trees, flushing hydrants. Had the ice storm and were out salting. The Water Department went to Montgomery to help them correlate a water leak that they had. They replaced 22 meters. The mechanic was off sick for a week or so because of the flu. Deputy Mayor Moore read the community events into the minutes. Public Comment on Business of the Board Becky Pearson: 167 Walnut. I want to talk about the annexation. How much tax revenue will the Village be getting? Manager Revella: We'll talk about that when the Board discusses this. Becky Pearson: B4 zoning, you have 4 different parcels that I believe is there now and they all have different works going on there. There's a car sales place. There's a fuel place. There's a rented bus company. There are 4 different things. Are you going to combine all those parcels? Or are they still all going to be what they're listed as what they already are? Manager Revella: We can talk about it when the Board discusses it. Deputy Mayor Moore: We're going to be talking about all that in our discussion. Becky Pearson: You're going to vote on stuff before I come back. So, I want to talk about it now. Deputy Mayor Moore: I welcome your comments. Becky Pearson: In your B4 zone, what will it be listed as for the bus company? Whether it's special exception or is it permitted in that space? I have my use table up and it doesn't say anything about a bus company can be there. It's not a permitted use. I don't know what you're going to call it. How many people will they be employing and how many people will be using water and sewer? If you put any agreement, if and when it ever sells and the project hasn't started yet, because you're giving up to 2 years to have it start. I don't understand why it's 2 years. You're giving up to 2 years to start 5  . the project. In those 2 years, if somebody else purchased the property, does this annexation roll over and all this goes to that person's purchasing? Is that in here? Who is the agreement with? It sounds like it's with the owner, but it just states an LLC. You talked about contaminated soils; I know you asked for that report. It's not listed in here if you got it or not. Page 3 of 5. You talk about existing site plan is approved, is there a site plan? Have you seen it? Where is the site plan? No automatic merger, I would like a clarification of what that means? Contract radios. You talked about a 15-year contract with the radios. It doesn't list in there for 15 years. I just read that quickly, too. But I know there was a major discussion about signing something for 15 years. That is a very long time for new technology that comes up. We are paying for stuff that we've already paid for once and now we're paying for it again. Policy on setting agenda. I do believe that board members could be and should be able to put something on the agenda. I don't believe it's wrong to have 2, because in my mind, the mayor sets the agenda and it was always that way. I don't know where the manager sets the agenda with the help of the mayor. That's up to you guys to decide. Mary Ellen Matise: 54 Gladstone, Is Amthor up for vote tonight? Manager Revella: We either vote tonight or it's automatically granted. Mary Ellen Matise: I just hope that we become better with enforcement than the Town. To let them park buses on tar paper and rock is ridiculous without proper drainage being done. The Climate Smart Community, Tin Brook Watershed Alliance going on, these are things we need to focus on better. The guy with the cars. The Town has a 13-foot setback from the right of way, from the shoulder. That guy is parked right up to them. The never enforces their own codes. I just hope that it gets better, because it is the entrance to our Village. Setting items on the agenda. I think other people can set items, too. I don't know if in our Village Law, if there is any specific language. Did you find any specific language in the old Village Law? Manager Revella: No. Mary Ellen Matise: I was always under the impression that it was any 2 Trustees and they can approach the manager and then the manager meets with the Mayor. And if it's an item that really needs to move forward, then hopefully the Mayor will hear what the manager has to say. I don't understand this thing about if the Mayor and Trustees utilize Village funds for events. Citizens come to Trustees who they know and friendly with. So, why shouldn't 2 Trustees be able to come to the board put an item on the agenda? Action Items Resolution 14-19-20 - Contract County Radios Chief Holmes: I'm here to discuss some of the questions that you had at the board meeting previously. Just a quick overview. On December 11th, myself, Manager Revella and Trustee Ramos did speak on a conference call to Craig Sherry, to discuss some of this. What we have right now, we have an inner system radio. We have 508 & 956 radios. The inner system is the MRD system. That has been around since the 60s and 70s. But that's where the interoperability first started. The key to what we're talking about here is interoperability. We will now be able to talk to other agencies around us, which we don't have the capabilities of right now. We also have the 800 system. In our patrol cars, we have a high-band radio and we have an 800 radio. The officers carry a portable that has high-band. The 508 we have been using historically for DPW and as a backup for ourselves. They also carry a second radio. It will be the 800 system. The 800 system is primarily used when we talk to other agencies, where we talk to 911. That was started almost 15, 20 years ago. The 6  . question has come now from police agency, fire agencies as well as ambulances, that we can't talk to each other during a major event. Each one of us our own frequency, our own radio system. You throw into that mix, state police. They have a different system that they talk state-wide on, as well as the sheriff's department. When the sheriff's department vehicle comes in here, they can go to the inner system. When we do get 911 calls, we have to be able to multiplex that to all the agencies around us, which the dispatcher has to do downstairs. The whole idea of this system that we're talking about has been taking a few years to get to. The system that we're talking about is in the 700 system. The 700 system, there was a question, why not the 900? The 700 system has been the federal emergency first responder system that they want us to use. Now we get into the idea of what we're going to be replacing. We'll replacing at our station. There's going to be 2 base stations because we have 2 seats downstairs. We're going to get mobiles that are going to go in patrol vehicles. We're going to get 19 portables. The handheld radios. We are breaking the county down into zones, 3 zones. So, when we do use our radio system, we are going to get a little talk around, going to get a major and then we're going to backup as well as an emergency talk around. We won't hear like we do on the 800 system, what's happening in Port Jervis, in the City of Newburgh. We'll have our own zones that are going to be used that you officers can switch to. That's all going to be a work in progress. It's part of our plan. The interoperability system of 700, we now will be down to 1 mobile in the car and the officers will be carrying 1 portable. Dispatchers now will have the 2 desktops. Now, we are going to be able to on a major event, especially if we have something major here, we will be able to go to our own tactical station, our own emergency frequency. The same thing could and is supposed to happen with the fire services. Say we have a major fire, police, ambulance and fire are all involved. We now will have our own tactical. Any agencies coming in will have to operate on that and we'll be able to talk to any agencies coming in also. We start getting into the questions of the 15-year contract. I can't give you an answer. It's a lawyer question. But talking to Craig, 1 of the reasons why he thinks 15 years was picked is because we don't want an agency getting the equipment and not using them. Why 15 years? I can't give an answer. They invested quite a bit, about $30 million. They just don't want the system be put in someone's closet. We're giving you this equipment and we want you to use it. If you're not going to use it, give it back. Equipment can last a long time. Mobiles can last a long time. Base stations can last a long time. As long as we don't get hit with lightning, pour coffee into it. Portables are what we need to be worried about. Dropping them, leaving them on top of a car, leaving it somewhere, etc. Those things are going to happen. But also, the wear and tear. Our plan is to decide for full time officers to have their own portable. Like we do now. Then we'll have 5 portables that will be used by our part time officers. The length of time on the warranty. The portables are going to have a 5-year warranty. The warranties on everything, start January 1st, 2020. Regardless of the time we get them. We're supposed to be getting them some time in in February, possibly early March. But January 1st by the manufacturer, Motorola. The other radios, the mobiles and base stations are 3 years. There is cost for warranties after that, which I do have. This is a cost that has been put out not officially by an RFP, but what they're offering to Village of Walden is going to have the same warranty as Port Jervis. I believe it's under the national bid system. Which we can use, the way I understand it, through accounting. The costs for them, there are 2 costs for our portables, depending on which system we have. There's going to be 2 service agreements. 1 service agreement where the local devices combine picking up and delivery to your station. The other 1 is where you take it out and mail it to Motorola. Our portables would be $78 each. Base stations $78. and so will the mobiles. That would run $2,184. Then the cost for pick up takeout delivery would be $198. You're talking about $5500 as compared to that. Trustee Svarczkopf: Is there any other difference other than it includes shipping and being taken out of their car? 7  . Chief Holmes: There are some things like antennas, but they can replace those as they go bad. That would part of the service agreement. I'd have to look at it in more detail, but this is what I got from Orange County. Attorney Donovan: The resolution to the board, indicated that the county said the value of the equipment was $102k and change. That's not accurate? Chief Holmes: No. As we were discussing this, I noticed that they switched things. They put 24 portables and 6 mobiles. We have 7 vehicles. They adjusted that. On December 17th, we've got the new contract and it says $87,767. That's for the equipment. There are other costs that the county is paying for. My suggestion is to sign it. If we don't sign it, we will still have to have a radio system and we'll have to continue our lease. I know the Treasurer did a lot of work putting together the cost analysis and there are some extension costs. There are some substantial costs. We tried to guess what would be damaged over the next 5-10 years out. I based that upon my years of service here on what's happened to some equipment. Deputy Mayor Moore: For the record, how many years have you been here? Chief Holmes: 38 years. Attorney Donovan: How many other municipalities have signed on to the 15 year? Chief Holmes: I think in December there were 12. There are 32 police agencies, that doesn't count state police agencies. One thing I did find out recently, I don't believe a MOA has been sent to the fire service yet. Attorney Donovan: If the Village elected not to sign this contract and continue to lease on our own, would we be the same frequency? Chief Holmes: No. We would be an island by ourselves. We will not have the capability. The 800 system would be going out. We may still be able to talk on the MRD for some departments that are continuing to have a backup system. Now, one of the good things that is coming out of this is the other agencies that have said that they've been forgotten things like DPW's. Private industry, especially utility company, are going to have the opportunity now to jump in. That's the next phase. When that happens, then you'll have a full interoperability being able to have all of us talk together. Trustee Sebring: How would you communicate? Just say if we took on that and you don't know when the utilities would be hooked in. Chief Holmes: We don't talk to them now. We can talk to our DPW only because we've got the capability with our system. Trustee Svarczkopf: One warranty is $198 per year per mobile and base. Chief Holmes: Yes. Trustee Svarczkopf: And the other is $78? 8  . Chief Holmes: Yes, $78. Trustee Svarczkopf: How often do we do we get new equipment now? Chief Holmes: Depending on how the equipment is going and new technology. At one time, we were getting new equipment every 5 to 6 years. Manager Revella: When was the last time you replaced your radio? Chief Holmes: 8 years ago. Trustee Svarczkopf: How many repairs have we had in the last 10 years on the radios? Covered or not. Chief Holmes: I would say on portables, things like antennas and knobs, I would say per year, probably on portables, about 3 per year. Mobiles, maybe 1 a year. Our mechanic is able to do some things. Usually the things that are affecting our radios are fuses and the electrical system. That's what effects it. Sometimes we're able to handle that in-house. The base stations, we've had some problems with base stations. I would say during any given year, NYCOMCO, depending on what happens with weather, what happens at our repeater, as well as the generator that runs the repeater up there. Probably in a year, NYCOMCO comes here for base station about 7-8 times. We have antennas on the roof. We have the system in the attic. If we have a power outage. It kicks off something. The other thing is we only have 2 towers that we're currently working off of. The new system has 5 towers. With these 5 towers, there should be no issue anymore for dead space. Mount Hope has the system and it's working very well. Town of Highland said that they can hear a lot. Trustee Svarczkopf: Let's say, after 5 years we decided to replace all of our radios, when we purchased them again, do we begin a new warranty? Manager Revella: New warranty. Chief Holmes: Say after the 5th year, we have the county's equipment and it no longer works. It becomes our piece of equipment and we have to replace it. Everything starts new again. But you can also pay for extended warranties at the time of purchase. Trustee Svarczkopf: Essentially over the 15 years, we would spend $38k on warranties for portables. If we bought portables every 5 years, that cost goes away? Chief Holmes: It depends on what you want. Sometimes they'll offer you 1 year, 2 year and a 5- year extended warranty. Trustee Svarczkopf: When I worked out the numbers on the equipment, I had $79,627. I'm not sure where you got your number. Chief Holmes: I'm not sure. I do have a sheet for what the costs were for the Village of Walden, which I can show you later. Trustee Thompson: My concern was that 15 years. That just sounds like an outrageously long time for electronics. 9  . Chief Holmes: This is the system that we're going to be operating with. It's the 700 system. It's not going to go away now. I can't see them within the next 10 years, because it's taken them this long to get the 700 system, to move to something else. The 900 system. I'm not sure what the history and what that'll be. Either way, we've already been using the 800 hundred over 15 years. Trustee Svarczkopf: What I like about it is as more and more people sign under, we're all on the same boat. At least we can deal with them as a whole. Chief Holmes: The bottom line is we're going to be in the same boat. There is no other system for us to go to. Trustee Sebring: How many maintenance companies will they have? Chief Holmes: It's Motorola. There are 2 Motorola Companies right now. Which we have contracts with both. Trustee Sebring: How many technicians are they going to have to be able to service? Manager Revella: Those are the same ones that serve everybody now. Trustee Sebring: They're pretty responsive when you have problems. Chief Holmes: I have not had a problem. Let me just say that. Trustee Thompson: So, you have no reservations about this. Chief Holmes: I'm ready to go. Most all Chiefs are. The questions that you're asking are things that I can't answer from the legal side. None of that was run by us before, anyhow. That went to the county attorneys when they wrote this. The things that we are going to be working on is are there channels that we're going to be assigned. It's going to be a work in progress. We'll have to learn how to do those things and how we break up the zones. Trustee Sebring: What's going to happen when you retire? Chief Holmes: The officers that you have now, it's not going to be an issue. Trustee Svarczkopf: I don't see a choice as to whether to sign the contract. I think that when it comes down to the budget season, the first 3 years are free. So, why not save the money? I know that we can't put things that in a line that specifically said that we're not planning on spending, but why not save over 5 years, so that after 5 years we have enough to replace all radios. Manager Revella: You could, it's called the Reserve Fund. Just have to be careful because it can only be used for that. Trustee Svarczkopf: I think we need to look at our options there, because after 5 years, I think we should start looking at replacing them. As far as signing the contract, I'm okay with that. 10  . Trustee Kraus: I'm on board with signing the contract. Trustee Thompson: I don't see us having much of a choice. I still am not happy that it's for 15 years, but I think we have to do what we have to do. Trustee Ramos: I was kind of apprehensive about the 15-year contract, but after talking with past Chief Cherry of Orange County, he pretty much laid everything to rest. Obviously, like the Chief said, you can't predict what's going to happen 5 years from now. But in all reality, we should have been on our 3rd cycle of the 15 year with these radio systems. I can remember back in my day where I could be sitting the traffic stop at Bank St and the Village of Walden be on Orchard St watching me and I couldn't talk to him on the radio. I couldn't talk to the City of Middletown. The State Police had their own GE, old fashioned 1950s radio. We couldn't communicate to outside agencies unless we hit the emergency button. And even our emergency button didn't communicate to the agencies that are around us. Chief called it interoperability; I call it intercommunications. The theory of something catastrophic happening in our Village and not being able to communicate that word to word to another agency in another car that's 5 miles down the street to get to you, is a travesty. When an officer needs backup, he doesn't care if you're wearing green, blue, purple, pink. If you're coming to help me, I want you to know that in a matter of minutes, I can hear you. I worked on the thruway for 14 years, my backup was 20 miles away. When you're sitting there fighting with someone on the side of the road, you're pulling all the stops and with this radio system, it should've been done years ago. With the 15 years, I think is an investment. Our public safety is when you can switch over to a channel in the event that something is happening, like a house fire, you can talk to a Fire, EMS, Deputy Sheriff, State Police, another township around you. You can all jump on the 1 channel and listen for what's going on, you can better serve. If you hear the ambulance is going to have a hard time coming down 17k, there could be a car 15 minutes away blocking traffic so the ambulance can get through. This is a win situation for public safety, for law enforcement and fire. Radio systems are getting antiquated. I think us buying into the 5-year warranty, it takes a lot to break a radio. This is a win-win for us. We have to look at the year 2040, 2050 and I'm all for it. There's going to be some bumps, but I think the powers that be in Orange County and all of the Chief's Associations are not going to leave us dangling with an inoperable system. Trustee Sebring: I think that we need this system, too. Our system here has been around many, many years, as Jeff stated. It does come to a point in time where you have to be able to communicate with all outside agencies. For every instance, we have had our catastrophes here in Walden and we got through them. But with this system, it will help us tremendously. The warranty and whatnot. We can get around that. The County's 911 system has been in an operation for quite a while. They've had their ups and downs. They're not going to leave us high and dry because you've got too many people, too many municipalities, all in the same boat. So, if things happen, it will get resolved one way or another quickly. It will be a cost savings to us in our budget, hopefully. There's going to be some outlay in the beginning, which is fine. I'm in favor of this system. Deputy Mayor Moore: With making the change on the resolution that was presented to us up to dollar amount Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Resolution 14-19-20 – County Contract Radios. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Dispatching 11  . Chief Holmes: My official feeling is that 911 is not going to provide the service that our dispatch does. I'm not naive enough to think that there are costs to that. You heard what they said with what they could cover and what they could do for us. Right now, the way our Village is set up, roughly depending on the year, anywhere between 15-25% are walk-in complaints here. We are centrally located; someone has to be here. If you use that phone outside, they're going to call 911. 911 will call our officer. The officer will come in and handle it. Right now, we have a dispatcher that's able to handle all of that. To weed through any of the issues. At the same time, there's a lot of assignments. I have a list of everything that our dispatchers do. Yes, they do a lot of clerical work. They also do a lot of paperwork for our County Attorney's office, our District Attorney's office. When we do have an arrest, they are monitoring the person inside the cell. Obviously, we don't go past their training, but if there is someone that has other issues. They're not going to do those things. If we have someone that's violent, they're not going to do those things. They are monitoring is someone in the holding area. If we don't have those dispatchers, an officer will have to sit in there and that means taking an officer off the road. And possibly calling another officer in. There are costs again. I can go through the lengthy list of all of the work that our dispatchers do. What is dependent upon when the Village Office is closed? When we have things like snow problems and we have electrical problems. Building issues. Our dispatchers are there to handle and to call the right people. We have someone down there that can handle knowing where to put things in the Village, knowing where to send our officers, knowing what to do. I think we have to seriously think about all the services that 911 will not be able to do that we do right now. I think you heard them say that they are not going to provide the same services that you as a Village provide. Trustee Thompson: Those gentlemen discussed combining service from the county and keeping service that we already have, but perhaps cutting some hours. Chief Holmes: I think what they were trying to say is that they can't piecemeal it here. We can't just have them do the weekends. If they're going to do it, it's got to be a full shift, 7 days a week. Trustee Svarczkopf: They said that they can take the 3rd shift, night shift. Chief Holmes: Yes, but for 7 days. Trustee Thompson: What is your thought about combining service with them? Chief Holmes: I think you're still going to have the same things that are going to happen again. Obviously, the point you're talking about is the midnight shift. There are things that the midnight shift, clerical things they do that will have to be pushed off to someone else. I think there is a comfort level having a dispatcher downstairs. There's a comfort level for the police officers on duty. I would say, with the 38 years that I have, the busiest times, is from about midnight to 2:30am. Then it starts all over again, about 4:30 to 8a.m. So, you have a couple hours in there where most normal things don't happen. Again, weather related issues. We are not going to be able to do what we do now. You're not going to be able to call 911, call for a tow. You are going to probably still have to have someone come in to do those things. Otherwise, we will get to the cars when we get to them, which I know the DPW would not be able to do since they're cleaning off the streets the way they do it now. We also have something happening right now. The Bail Reform. Which is still going to be a work in progress, still going to be an issue for us. Our discovery has been kicked out to 15 days. That means everything. That means every camera that I have out there. If I drove to your house to arrest you, every camera has to be downloaded and sent to Discovery. Even though I had nothing to do with the case. Who's going to do those things? Right now, we have a plan in place that 12  . we are going to do those things. Trustee Sebring: Hypothetically, if we were to have 911 to do midnight to 8am, is there enough work to keep a secretary? Chief Holmes: The reason why we have the midnight dispatcher doing some things that we can do during the day, because of the day shift, just with people calling and walking in are busy. The 4-12 shift gets the busy shift and that dispatcher only gets assigned certain things. We depend on the B line dispatcher and the A line dispatcher. I would say, yes. There's always going to be enough work, but we'll probably need to have that dispatcher work another shift. All 3 supervisors downstairs have the training and I have the confidence that they know what to do. Deputy Mayor Moore: I thought that it was very important before we made any decisions to continue having this conversation that I didn't want to meet any of those types of decisions without having all the facts that we were able to gather those facts during the course of this year. Trustee Svarczkopf: He said 15-25% of the police calls are walk ins, I'd like to know what time of day those are. If most of the walk ins happen in the second shift between 4-12, I don't see a reason to have someone there from 12-8. He has a lot of reasons. I'd love to know about that time. Just to refresh, when it comes to budget season about the total cost of dispatch. I never saw those numbers last year. Trustee Ramos: I haven't seen them, but is there a blotter that they do? Manager Revella: Yes. Trustee Ramos: The blotter entries for that particular times would be a useful piece of information also. Resolution 12-19-20 – Amthor Annexation Manager Revella: The assessor has rated the land with a certain value, that times our tax rates are what the taxes would be due. The tax parcels will stay with tax parcels, they're not changing tax ID numbers that I am aware of yet. They can always merge in the future, but they haven't talked about that yet. Attorney Donovan: So, relative to the merger provision, if a property owner wanted to merge, they can. The reason for the language that this doesn't constitute a merger in the agreement is not automatic. There is a concept in the law, that if you have non-conforming laws, they're too small. They adjoin under common ownership that they may at some point and time merge and become one parcel. This agreement is saying that that's not going to happen. Manager Revella: The agreement is binding on the property. Not necessarily the owner. We did see a report on soil testing saying everything seemed ok. Site plan is for the future. There's no current application for the Village. It's not in the Village, yet. Once it is, anything that would happen, would need a site plan. Attorney Donovan: The time period it referred to, there was a question, we had a committee that had met on this, it was for tie into water and sewer. Within 12 month and then they could request an additional 12-month extension. And if they hadn't tied in, there is a per diem penalty of $5k a day. 13  . Trustee Thompson: I recall that, but I just read through these 2 more times and I can't see what you referred to as 2 years. Attorney Donovan: It's 12 months with a 12-month extension. Trustee Svarczkopf: So, we're giving them a year and then we can or cannot grant them an extension? Attorney Donovan: 1 of the things that was important was they that they tie in and they pay water and sewer charges. Trustee Svarczkopf: Would they have to come to us for that extension? Manager Revella: Yes. Trustee Ramos: Then it would be our decision whether or not to grant them the extension or fine them. They have to show some form of due diligence. Deputy Mayor Moore: If during the initial year, they don't do anything. Then it sells. The new owners would get this? And then ask for another 12 months? Attorney Donovan: This agreement runs with the land. It's not specific to a specific property. John Cappello: We asked for that additional language, because is if this is part of an application and there is a new user and part of the site plan review, it takes time for your Planning Board to review it. So, to commit that this is going to be installed in a year, if your Planning Board is reviewing it to determine what the appropriate size of pipe is. This is a main extension. The Department of Health at the county level for water, the New York State DEC for the sewer main extension may be involved. While a year or 2 years may seem a long time, in the land use approval process, it's a blink of an eye. Trustee Svarczkopf: It says an additional 12 months, so if 12 months down the road and they finally got approval for a site plan, can we say, it starts now and it's 8 or 7 months or is that the language for 12 only? Attorney Donovan: It depends. If an amendment to this agreement was negotiated, then the answer is yes. Parties can come to an agreement to modify it. Trustee Svarczkopf: She said the B4 Zone doesn't list buses. What would the bus be listed as? Attorney Donovan: If I'm reading this correctly, is that it's a permitted use. That's the purpose of this agreement. Trustee Svarczkopf: She had also asked about how many employees. Manager Revella: There was something about the Town guiding and guarding the site. We have no control over it until it's part of the Village. Obviously, we'll do our due diligence and take efforts to patrol the property. 14  . Becky Pearson: What about #9? Says existing site plan. You said there is none. John Cappello: It's called a site plan in the agreement just to acknowledge that the net and the usage and what is there now is approved. That it doesn't need any more approvals from the Village of Walden, unless it changes and more buses are added or the use change and then it'll go through the Planning Board. That the layout is as it stands. Deputy Mayor Moore: My only question is regarding #2 and #3 subsections under the acknowledgment, just regarding the Auto Sales lot and the repair garage. Once this is done and they are officially properties within the Village of Walden, they must adhere by our codes. Manager Revella: Correct. Deputy Mayor Moore: Then there would have to make changes as far as the way they operate now, to the way they would be operating under our code? Attorney Donovan: This agreement says they come in as permitted uses. Are you indicating that something in our code would not permit what is occurring now, because this agreement says that they're allowed? Deputy Mayor Moore: Let's just say that our code says they only are allowed to have a certain number of cars for sale at any particular time. Are we allowing them to come in under the number that's under the Town? Or once they come in for a permitted use they have to abide by our code? Attorney Donovan: What we're saying now, is what is there now, is what is permitted. Trustee Svarczkopf: Do we have set back? Manager Revella: Absolutely. Trustee Svarczkopf: Then with its permitted use, but they still need to follow our codes within that use? Attorney Donovan: I don't know the answer to the question as to whether or not the setback is the same or different from what we have now. But this agreement says that these are coming as permitted uses and they're conforming to our code. I want to be clear as I can on this. If they have 20 cars, as an example. And our code says 15, they're coming in permitted for 20. Manager Revella: If they're coming in with a 13-foot set back, it's 13 feet. Even if ours says 10. Attorney Donovan: Pursuant to this agreement. Deputy Mayor Moore: Then it's up to us. We can patrol and enforce it. John Cappello: These uses are historically uses in the Town that have been determined to be preexisting nonconforming uses. So, they are coming in to you as preexisting nonconforming uses as they exist. If they change and extended more, then that's your purview. If they change the use, they have to go back to the Planning Board like any other properties. What I would reiterate to the 15  . Board is the different uses, in different lots and different sizes, but providing water and sewer, there is a large portion of this law that is not usable, because it's septic and there is a separation from the well. The installation of water and sewer is for the exact purpose of now giving more flexibility in designing for future uses that you can use that property that was septic system and hopefully you wouldn't have to go right up to property lines. It facilitates making his property nicer by being able to use that area. Attorney Donovan: We are saying that these are proper uses and that they are legal uses. They are going to be in the Village. That's what an annexation is all about. Then they have to follow the Village Code. Pursuant to this agreement, what's there now, we are saying is legal. If there's a modification in the future, they don't follow the Town Code, they follow the Village Code. John Cappello: I agree that if there is a modification, it's just like if a property existed in the Village and the zoning law changed or there's a new zoning law. They are entitled to continue to operate, but if they do anything new that can come in, comply with the zoning law as it exists. Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Resolution 12-19-20 – Amthor Annexation. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Discussion – Policy for Setting Items on Agenda Deputy Mayor Moore: It had been suggested by the Village Attorney to have a conversation regarding policy procedures set forth for setting stuff on the agenda. I mentioned at the last meeting that I would put some stuff together for the board to review. The Village Manager and I talked about the agenda being created by the Manager with input from the Mayor. Anything requested to be on the agenda would need to be brought up by a minimum of 2 Trustees to the Manager and the Mayor. If the Mayor or any of the Trustees utilize Village funds for an event. Such as we go to something that the Village is paying for us and we do not show up nor do we not stay, it is our responsibility to find someone to take our place or we would owe the money back to the Village for that cost. We also put on here to discuss was about how the Board feels about all fees being paid by any applicant before getting referred between Village Boards. Also, to consider a conversation regarding any time restraints or restrictions on Public Comment. Whatever the limit, it would be all or nothing. Trustee Svarczkopf: I agree that the Mayor should make the agenda with input from the Manager. Manager Revella: The only problem with it is the Mayor doesn't do the daily operations. They wouldn't know what to put on the agenda necessarily unless I got that to them. That's why I create it and they say yes or no. Trustee Svarczkopf: Right. You need to bring that to her, because the meeting is ours. I agree with that small, weird switch there, but I think the agenda is the Mayor's and the Manager can bring all of those things to the Mayor and then the Mayor can decide on it. Manager Revella: That's what I'm doing. I'm drafting the agenda. Then the Mayor says yes or no and brings it to you. Deputy Mayor Moore: Unless we change the word from input to approval. 16  . Trustee Svarczkopf: I almost want to say that there should be a time constraint the 2 Trustees adding item to the agenda. Like 3 days before the meeting. Trustee Ramos: Unless there are some exigent circumstances. Deputy Mayor Moore: Mayor and Trustees utilizing Village funds for events. Trustee Thompson: Does it have to be just Mayor and Trustees? Manager Revella: No, it's open. Trustee Thompson: I think if any of the taxpayers are paying for any event for anybody who is an officer or an employee of this Village, you have a responsibility to go to the thing you signed up for. Manager Revella: I push that with the employees already. Trustee Svarczkopf: So, we have an employee we want to send to a NYCOM Conference. A parent dies, super sick. I don't want them to shell out a thousand dollars because a parent died or something like that. I think it's has to be at the discretion of someone, but because we are imposing ourselves it can't be at the discretion of the Board. Trustee Thompson: It can be at the discretion of the Manager. There are extenuating circumstances that we can't control. But for the most part, I just think that we shouldn't be wasting taxpayer money. Deputy Mayor Moore: I'm fine with that. Trustee Thompson: Having all fees paid, I'd like to know what the legality of that. Deputy Mayor Moore: All fees must be paid for by an applicant before being referred between Village Boards and placed on the agenda. Trustee Svarczkopf: What if there is a 30-day time line for them to put it back and then decide not to pay. Attorney Donovan: Let me look into that. Deputy Mayor Moore: Do we want to consider a time constraint for Public Comment? Trustee Thompson: I think it depends on the topic and the number of people that come out to take the time at a meeting to express their concerns. Deputy Mayor Moore: I spoke to the Attorney to see if this was something that we could do, it's either all or nothing. We cannot decide tonight, I'm going to put 5 minutes and not do it tomorrow. Attorney Donovan: Potentially, you could do it different for a Public Hearing and Public Comment. So long as they were uniform. What I don't want to get involved in is a situation where you decide because it's whatever date and you've got something to do, you're going to limit it to 2 minutes for every other speaker or something random. 17  . Trustee Thompson: I was talking about if we had a hot topic with residents in the Village and 50 people showed up for a meeting, everybody wanted to speak, we could be here all night. I don't think that's unreasonable. But I get what you're saying. Attorney Donovan: I always feel better when you have something in place, instead of doing it ad hoc at the last minute. I understand the reason for it, but if you have a rule and you say for Public Comment, it's X minutes and for Public Hearings, it's Y minutes, it could be the same, could be different. So long as by category of public input, if you want to put a time limit, you don't have to, but I just think you need to be uniform. It's just the better way. Manager Revella: I think if you have some of the situations like that where you have 30 people coming, set a Public Hearing. Then you can have a different time constraint. That's always possible. Trustee Svarczkopf: I'm torn. Part of me wants to sit and listen when people are here. The other part says, if someone is going on for 15 or 30 minutes, maybe if we do set a time constraint, it's a long one. Trustee Kraus: I say 3-5 minutes. Trustee Thompson: Will we run into any issues where people are going to claim we're violating their First Amendment rights by silencing them? Attorney Donovan: The interesting thing is that you're required to have an open meeting. You're not required to have Public Comment except at Public Hearing. Your First Amendment right, if you say to someone you can't talk about subject X, Y or Z, you can't criticize the Village of Walden or the Village Board. That's a problem. But you can impose a time limit. You don't have to. As part of your meeting, you do not have to allow Public Comment. Manager Revella: I think it's important, if that's how you feel, to not have it for Public Hearings, because you never know what will be talked about. But then have it for Public Comment. And those people that want to make Public Comment can always do so in writing without limit. Attorney Donovan: And this stuff should get revisited periodically. If you feel like it's not working. You can always change this and you should revisit it. Trustee Ramos: I agree with time limitations and 3-5 minutes. The School Board allows you 4 minutes. It's worked effectively. Trustee Sebring: I'm inclined for the 3-5 minutes. But if you're going to get into repetitive answers and questions and statements, then that should be cut off. If you got something new, 3-5 minutes. Deputy Mayor Moore: Personally, I am inclined for 5 minutes. Becky Pearson: My opinion, you're elected by the people to sit and listen. You're here for the people. Deputy Mayor Moore: What I'm hearing from the Board is that we're in agreement for a 5-minute Public Comment time period would be fair. John will redraft this after we get the answer from our 18  . friendly Attorney on #4 and send it back out to everyone for the next meeting. Attorney Donovan: You would have something a little more formal than this want and then you would you would adopt it. Probably a good idea, I'm not saying wait until then, but to readopted every year at your reorg meeting. If I can be so bold as to make one other comment, Public Hearings and Public Comments are not for the people standing in front of you to get their questions answered. It's to assist the Board and understanding issues that the public and to assist you in your decision. If you have a couple of people asking questions, devoting time to answering those questions at the meeting. Not saying they shouldn't be answered, but at the meeting, tends to be a less productive use of the time since you represent the entire Village. Understanding what issues are important to people who come to meetings is important because it helps you in your deliberations. Remember, the Board is the people that vote. Resolution 11-19-20 - Comprehensive Plan Manager Revella: I just want to touch on some of the comments that were raised today. The information that was in those reports that were discussed on pages 60 and 61, were from the Chief and department records. I'm not sure what day they actually received the information since we started the discussion the second time, which was over a year ago. I understand there's a question about the membership numbers in the Fire Department. This page is not active members, it's just members. Maybe there is a misconception regarding inactive. It could include the Auxiliary. I'm not sure. But I will confirm those numbers. That's true regarding police protection. The calls of service changed, because there is a change in how they're reported. That's not just from us, it's other departments as well. We've been working with the Town, trying to get Wellhead Protection. You mentioned something about the uninhabited lands in the cemetery. That's land the Village sold to the cemetery years ago. That land doesn't attribute to that aquifer. The land that is around our land is the one more concerning to us. Its owned partially by Central Hudson and other private entities. We're just trying to make sure the zoning in that area. Regarding East Main St sidewalks, I obtained a grant after the last Comp Plan to redo that sidewalk for the full price that our engineers told us we would need and we went to the State and the State said no. That we have to do it a different way. It was 5 times the cost. So, we couldn't do it. It was over a million dollars just for that small stretch. We actually moved the grant to Maple and Walnut St. And the conditions that are there now on East Main Street are the State’s responsibility. The State has sent engineers out to do that project. They told us that they would be here in the spring to fix that. We have discussed a lot of these items. I'm actually on the Transportation Council and the long-range plan hasn't been adopted yet. Actually, going to meet on the 21st to go over that again to talk about bus and shuttle service. The county is on a program where they're doing interoperable for multi-mobile transportation, taxis, buses, trains and a program that actually show you if you use their app, how to get from point A to point B anywhere in the County. They're working out the kinks now to try and make sure that helps all the residents in the county. Regarding the maps in the plan, the ones that we have in our hard copy are pretty good quality. We'll try to fix the scanned version on-line. The bypass, the Board did pass a truck route law. Trucks are only supposed to use certain routes. We can't do anything about State roads. We can't touch that. We're not allowed. We're trying to get to redo the truck route that went down to Grant. They said they won't because they don't want to pay to maintain it. Any other roads the trucks go on, it's illegal. Obviously, we'll have 2 officers per shift, so we try to monitor as well as we can. We do get shared services from time to time. I was actually on the Shared Services Committee for the County. That's how we got the radio shared service. We get a reimbursement from the State for being a part of the radio shared service as well. We talked about probably 50 or 60 different things that we could do for shared services. The board discussed those. The County only implemented this first one. We do share other things with the Town of Shawangunk, Town of 19  . Montgomery and surrounding Villages. We'll continue to try and do that as often as we can. We have had a couple of questions on a few of the technical plans. Most of them are immediate or short term. Just really depends on funding. We're trying to try to get funding for as many as we can as frequently as we can. We try to work on them as well as we can. We have made progress on a lot of them. Trustee Svarczkopf: Want to thank you for coming out and doing research. I also want to thank the people on the Comp Plan. I've been here for 2 years and I'm not sure that's long enough to make this statement, but I don't know if we spent enough time. If there are more things that are immediate and short term, we have 24 meetings in the year. Maybe we should be talking about updates. Trustee Ramos: Just wanted to say that we did put in a lot of time in. Thank you to the Ladies and Gentlemen that are sitting here those evenings. The Comp Plan is a living and breathing document. If we see any time during the year that there's a need to correct it or facilitate an action. We'll do our due diligence up here on the Board to address it. This is a dream machine. Some of the things are DOT and DEC control. I think we're doing our 100% best to address some of the issues and I think it's a solid document and we can work on it. There are other municipalities that haven't addressed this in years. Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Resolution 11-19-20 – Comprehensive Plan. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 9-19-20 – Designating Place and Time of Annual Election Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Resolution 9-19-20 – Designating Place and Time of Annual Elections. Wednesday, March 18, 2020. 8am-9pm on the 3rd Floor of Village Hall. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 10-19-20 - Budget Adjustments Manager Revella: The $75k is to cover DEC mandated jobs that we have to do. It was a sewer siphon part of the DEC Consent Order. There's flow monitoring and some planning for the Tin Brook Pup Station as well. We have to pay for that and as well as bugs. To reduce the ammonia outflow, that's now required. The water money is because one of the pumps broke one of the walls. We had to fix it. So, it's emergency repair. Ramos and Lynn Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Resolution 10-19-20 – Budget Adjustments. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 13-19-20 - Exempt Properties Manager Revella: There's certain property that the Village owns outside of the Village and because it's not in the Village, we are not tax exempt unless we pass a resolution, that's also passed by the county to exempt it. Which is Well #4, 5 and 6 and Well #7 and 8. Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve Resolution 13-19-20 – Exempt Properties. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Comment Becky Pearson: The contract for radios, that is also including Fire and Ambulance? Manager Revella: Not in our contract. But same radios. 20  . Becky Pearson: Just for reference, Alan Sorenson's son passed away. Mary Ellen Matise: I would like to request that the members of the board direct the manager to write a letter of condolence to Alan Sorenson for the death of his son. He did a lot of work for us. He's a good friend. Jerry Mishk: I'm sitting here listening to the discussion on dispatchers. It does present a place of safety. People do child exchange here. Separated couples can come in to the dispatch, they have some that's watching their backs and they exchange the children, especially in cases where there is orders of protection. The other thing is you put a call box out there and there's nobody here on midnights, you're going to be locking the building. There's going to be no safety for the building. If there's an issue, somebody is going to have to be called out to come on out. Emergencies, catastrophic weather-related things. They don't just happen in the Village of Walden. Now if you're using 911 to call for extra services that you need, you might be waiting in line for those calls to be made. The dispatcher can make those call. For instance, if you need more police or more DPW workers, 911 is not going to get those. Most of us have 2 or 3 different numbers. 1 of the things under the Criminal Justice Reform, the dispatchers are going to be helping, not only with the discovery issues, but the issue of arraignments. Under the new law, we going to centralized arraignments. Which means that prisoners are going to have to be taken to Goshen and dropped there. If I remember correctly, under the PBA contract here, anytime a prisoner leaves, we need two officers to go. You have to call 2 people in and that calling could take an hour or an hour half. If they're busy out there, who's going to make those calls? The big one is, that I think, is all too often people run to a police station for help. Say a violent domestic. They rip the phone off the walls and the victim can't make the call. So, they run out, gets in the car or runs down the street. And to make a phone call, the offender is probably going to probably chase them down and assault them right in front of the building. The last point we spent a lot of money on cameras. Who is going to watch those cameras? We have a good service here with our dispatchers. If money is the issue, considering farming out our dispatching services. Montgomery closes down at midnight, offer to do theirs. Payment of the Audited Bills Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve payment of audited bills. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Correspondence None Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Svarczkopf: I have spoken a couple times about taping our meetings. I know that Montgomery just started live streaming theirs. I know that it was a budget issue. I understand it being a budget issue for a live streaming. I would love to start taping and then putting on the website. That takes a camera that most of us already have. Maybe it's the next day, but it doesn't cost any money. I have a camera that I wouldn't mind giving here. I would love for it to be considered soon. Trustee Thompson: I have had several Village residents tell me that they wish they could come to our Board meetings, but they're just not days and times that work for them. They asked why we don't record it. There was a comment about a Census Committee. Yes, there is a committee. Ginny is Chairing it. They're trying to improve our reporting numbers in the Village of Walden. We had a 21  . fairly significant underreported population and it translates to a whole lot of money. Manager Revella: $2500 a person. Trustee Thompson: What the Census people would like to tap into all already organized, scheduled Village and Town events where there's going to be a large draw of people, so they can reach out and grab large groups of people at a time. Rather than reinventing the wheel to just try and reach larger numbers of the population. They talked a lot about underreported segments, which is children under the age of 4. They have approached the school district as far as reaching out to the Board of Education and educating the teachers in the Valley Central community about the importance of particular groups in the population. They're also going to be reaching out for our elderly. The goal is to improve our numbers so our funding is improved. There will be a lot of brochures turned out in the community and other organizations are working with the library. Business owners in the Village are also encouraged to participate. I wanted to mention that we have participated in an energy audit months ago and we were very hopeful that we would qualify for some additional cost savings. Unfortunately, we do not. They analyzed all of our data and they don't feel that the cost savings would be enough for us to participate in that program. we tried and we'll keep trying. Climate Smart is definitely going to be a focus for me in 2020. The month of January is the month that I'm hoping to make the connections with the County so we can start moving forward. I'll be working with Patricia Hannigan from the CAC on that. Lot of things in the Water World. It's my understanding we did not get that grant. There's another one I found and sent that over to Mike Bliss. We'll see where we go with that. It's for green space and it can tie in to the plans we have coming for a Community Center, Community Garden and our Waterfront Park. Just a reminder, Walker River Watershed Alliance meets in the Village of Walden every other month. We start in January meeting here and it'll be every other month. Community room 7:30p.m. 2nd Wednesday of the month. The Tin Brook Meeting is at the Grove. 2nd Thursday of every month, 7:30. Anyone who would like to come, please join us. I sent Trustee Ramos some information about poster contests with the DEC for middle school students. He did send it out in the Valley Central. The competition ends on January 10th. I'm very hopeful that some of our middle schoolers participated and if they get chosen, they will be part of the calendar with the Hudson River Estuary DEC and River Keepers. I would just like to ask our Village Manager what we as a Board and our Community can do to really take action with this streetlight issue? I really feel that we need to make a concentrated effort to get some action here because it's just unacceptable. Manager Revella: Like I said last time, we have to keep lobbying our State Senators and Representatives to help. Senator Skoufis has been helping us as much as he can. Trustee Thompson: Do you need constant emails from each member of the board, people at a community? Manager Revella: Absolutely. Everyone. Trustee Thompson: I wish you would send the board a list and a web address of where you need us to email, because we really need to push hard on this. Nothing's happening. Trustee Svarczkopf: In addition to that, at the last meeting, we talked about the ones that the Village did do. You fixed them within 2 days and I really appreciate that. Manager Revella: The ones that we couldn't fix is because of a line comes from the NYSEG pole 22  . has to be changed and they haven't. Trustee Sebring: The article that was in the Wallkill Valley Times about the lights on the Main Street being out for so long. How many comments did you get from public? Manager Revella: Not too many. Trustee Sebring: It's getting ridiculous that it's been out for that long and it all falls on deaf ears. Manager Revella: It's been over 2 years in front of our post office. And there was an issue, we can't get another electric supplier here because they own the rights to this area. When the State broke up the monopoly each area was given territory and I guess some people have rated NYSEG worst power company in the nation. Deputy Mayor Moore: When you send the list of contacts, can you do a little script that we can even share with the residents? Manager Revella: Yes. You'll have the County Legislator, State Senator, State Rep and the Regional NYSEG Rep. Trustee Thompson: In our petition for the Hill Street Bridge, it was turned in. You saw the town budget. I saw nothing about funding to fix that bridge. Which we were assured that they were going to take care of. I watched the live stream last night, from the IDA, the comment that was made, is if Amazon comes, they should not get the tax break, because the Town could use a million dollars to fix the 3 defunct bridges. They still have not made any attempt to fund that bridge repair. What do we do now? Manager Revella: Just so you know, there was comment from the Town about implementing the D Fund, which is the DPW fund, which would tax everyone in the Town for those projects. They are allowed to do that. Instead of getting grants, they would just tax you. It's ridiculous. Trustee Sebring: The other day I was talking my mail man, Drew. He said that back then when he was the Mayor, that Charlie Frank had put in for a grant to fix that bridge and the one on Highland. When they got awarded that money, I believe he said he turned it over to the Town to fix those 2 bridges. That was going to be a question when I go up to NYCOM. How can we get grants for the bridge again? Deputy Mayor Moore: I want reiterate thanking the Comp Plan Committee for their time and effort. Wish everyone a Happy New Year. Remind everyone Leadership Day Thursday night. Executive Session – PBA, CSEA and Personal History of a particular employee Trustee Ramos made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss the employment history of a particular person and collective bargaining negotiations for the PBA. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Thompson made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. 23  . Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting January 7, 2020 Motions & Resolutions Approval of Minutes – December 3, 2019 and December 19, 2019 Special Meeting Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve the December 3, 2019 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve December 19, 2019 Special Meeting Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. 4 ayes. 1 absence (Mayor Rumbold). 2 abstentions (Deputy Mayor Moore, Trustee Svarczkopf). Motion carried. Contract County Radios Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Resolution 14-19-20 – County Contract Radios. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Comprehensive Plan Public Hearing – Comprehensive Plan Trustee Ramos made a motion to open Public Hearing – Comprehensive Plan. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Ramos made a motion to close Public Hearing – Comprehensive Plan. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Resolution 11-19-20 – Comprehensive Plan. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 12-19-20 - Amthor Annexation Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Resolution 12-19-20 – Amthor Annexation. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 10-19-20 - Budget Adjustments Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Resolution 10-19-20 – Budget Adjustments. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 9-19-20 – Designating Place and Time of Annual Election Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Resolution 9-19-20 – Designating Place and Time of Annual Elections. Wednesday, March 18, 2020. 8am-9pm on the 3rd Floor of Village Hall. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 13-19-20 – Exempt Properties Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve Resolution 13-19-20 – Exempt Properties. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Payment of the Audited Bills 24  . Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve payment of audited bills. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Executive Session – PBA, CSEA and Personal History of a particular employee Trustee Ramos made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss the employment history of a particular person and collective bargaining negotiations for the PBA. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Thompson made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. 25