Board of Trustees

. Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting February 18, 2020 Mayor Rumbold 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 Sue Rumbold Trustees John Ramos Larry Kraus Dan Svarczkopf Lynn E. Thompson Absent: Faith Moore Brian Sebring Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Kelly A. Kelly, Village Treasurer Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Trustee Ramos made a motion to enter executive session to discuss personal history of a particular employee. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Svarczkopf made a motion to reconvene. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Audit presentation for 2018-2019 fiscal year by RBT, report was submitted to the clerk for her records. Hearing – 19 Bank St – Unsafe Building Building Inspector Stickles: This is a hearing for 19 Bank St for both property management and unsafe building issues. Everybody should have gotten a copy of the notification that went out. Both the property owner who is registered with the Village and the current owner. The current owner is in pre-foreclosure. Cindy Boakye. The title search done by the Village, the property is no longer in bankruptcy. If the property was registered with or incorporated, which is a subsidiary of shell corporation. I spoke to a Charlie Sterling from Cyprexx Services today. He is contracted through the Shell Point mortgage servicing to take care of his property. They have had people here to take care of it, to get bids on it, and they should have something in place to be there at 19 banks within the next 2 weeks. I have no communication with the current owner. I have given everybody pictures of the conditions that it currently stands in. Attorney Donovan: The property owner shows a Cynthia Boakye. We can assume that she's not here this evening. We did engage the servicing title company. She still shows as the property owner. The Shell Corporation has a security interest. Apparently they are looking to secure the property to protect their interest in the property. For the board's pleasure this evening, you have the ability adjourn the hearing to see if the repairs are done. You could direct that the repairs be done. You can 1  . take action tonight or you could decree, if it's not done within 2 weeks that the repairs be done. My recommendation to the board, you are in the business to make the building safe so there's no damage to the neighbors or the public. My recommendation is any kind of repair or a remedial work is just done to make building safe. Building Inspector Stickles: The property continues to get worse. However, if you have a corporation that was willing to take it upon themselves to do the repairs and not have the Village expend anything, I would agree with Dave. Possibly if you waited for the 2 weeks that they're requesting to see if anything was done and if not, then you so order it to be made safe condition. I believe what is being asked of is take down the siding that's falling. Clean up the porch to make it look as presentable as it can be. But not engage in putting a new roof on it or reframing the front porch. We can secure the building by boarding it up. Mayor Rumbold: When they say that someone's contracted and they're going to come in and take care of the premises. Are they following the lists of violations that you've given them? Building Inspector Stickles: According to the person I spoke to on the telephone today, the list of violations that we've given will be the list that they go off of. Mayor Rumbold: I'm assuming that you made your inspection from the outside of the building. We don't know what the inside of the building looks like and what kind of deterioration is inside of it? Building Inspector Stickles: I have no personal knowledge of that. Mayor Rumbold: How do we know or do they ascertain that this building is even salvageable? How do we know that the foundation and roof is sound? Because of all the issues that this house has had for a long period. Building Inspector Stickles: I do not have that knowledge and I can't answer that question unless we had an engineer that we would hire to go through and see if it was structurally sound. Mayor Rumbold: So, right now, you're just citing these issues. But if that property isn't secure and somebody gets in it, there's a chance somebody could fall through a floor or whatever. Building Inspector Stickles: The possibility exists. Mayor Rumbold: What do we consider securing the building? Manager Revella: Board up all the doors and windows and won't be able to access it. Mayor Rumbold: How does the owner of the property access it? Building Inspector Stickles: What we've done in the past, they would go through the Building Department or the Police Department for a key to the lock that we would put on it. Mayor Rumbold: And that would include this person that's supposed to be hired and doing repairs? 2  . Building Inspector Stickles: Yes. Trustee Thompson: Has it been determined if the building is structurally sound? I really want to know if it's worth doing all of this. Going to court to find out if the building is needs to be demolished. Manager Revella: I think our point today is to make sure that the building is at least safe on the outside. That's the owner's job to check the inside. Unless someone tells us otherwise, we normally try not to go inside. We don't need to expend public funds for that purpose. If we can at least put on the record, if the board so sees fit, if you want to give them a 2 week leeway, but still put on the record that you still want this work done and if not having commenced within 2 weeks, then we would commence to make the building safe, remove the material that are unsafe and secure the building. Building Inspector Stickles: If it comes to where they actually do have a contractor on site, I can request to go through the building with them and I could give you an answer. But at this point, I can't answer the question. Mayor Rumbold: Do you know how long this building's had an issue? Building Inspector Stickles: I would say since 2017, when it was first brought to court and it was dismissed because of bankruptcy proceedings. Trustee Svarczkopf: You said that they would go off of the list from your January letter. Building Inspector Stickles: From the Violation Notice. Not the unsafe building list. There's a notice dated January 29, 2018. Mayor Rumbold: Would this person that's going to be doing these repairs have to come to your department to get a building permit to do this work? Building Inspector Stickles: Yes. They will have to provide insurance also. Mayor Rumbold: We can safely assume, if in 2 weeks no one's come to get a building permit that they're probably not coming to get a building permit. Building Inspector Stickles: The gentlemen I spoke to this morning said that he would keep in contact, as I will with him through e-mail. You will know by the middle of next week whether anything is going to happen or not. Then I can transmit that to both you and the Manager. Trustee Svarczkopf: Would you consider just taking that porch roof down to make it safe or would they have to put what was there back? Building Inspector Stickles: Our recommendation would just be taking the loose materials down, clean off the porch and make it safe and board the building up so that nobody can get in. As far as what they plan on doing to the front porch or main roof that would be up to whatever that Shell Point agreed to. 3  . Mayor Rumbold: Didn't I see some kind of correspondence? That someone from the bank or the owner said she wasn't sure about how much work they're willing to do on the property. Building Inspector Stickles: That was from the bank. They only just secure the building and pay the registration fees. This Cyprexx Service is another company that's hired by the lending services to take care of the property and secure it, so that it can be sold or transferred. Mayor Rumbold: Are you recommending, John, that we board it up so no one can get in it and then wait the 2 weeks? Manager Revella: I would recommend you give the order now, and that in 2 weeks if it hasn't commenced that we take that action. Whatever action that you deem necessary. Attorney Donovan: It would be 2 weeks from tonight. Building Inspector Stickles: I can transmit that tomorrow. Manager Revella: The people in that area have waited a long time for this to resolve. Trustee Svarczkopf: Then if that doesn't happen 2 weeks from now, we go in and charge them? Attorney Donovan: That's correct. Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve order to have the company fix it within 2 weeks and if not, the Village would take such action to make it safe and charge the property. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Village Manager’s Report  Went through Capital Projects with Village Engineer and DPW Superintendent.  Went through the budget with Chief and Rec Coordinator. Have a couple more to go through and will be meeting with the Treasurer.  Met with DKI Representative regarding opportunities to assist the Village if we ever need it. They have a contract with the County.  Had a good Climate Smart Committee meeting at Village Hall. Trustee Thompson was there as well.  Attended the Community Council meeting at Walden Savings Bank. Very well attended.  PBA negotiations went for another day, slowly progressing  Met with some reps from PTO regarding doing a Color Run in the Village. Approval of February 4, 2020 Minutes Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve the February 4, 2020 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee’s Committee Reports Village Offices Liaison – Trustee Svarczkopf Trustee Svarczkopf: Treasurer attended the webinar local sales tax. She met with Chief Holmes to go over all the transfers. Met with the Building Inspector to go over budget items for next year. 4  . Clerk accepted election packets. Took over payroll while Gina is out. Updated website, Facebook as needed. Correspondence with IWS on garbage and recycling pick-up issues. Town of Montgomery & Library Board Liaison – Trustee Kraus Trustee Kraus: The library puts on a winter story time for the youngins. Ages 3 and older every Wednesday and Thursday. They celebrate an artist every month, this month is Black Artist Celebration, Check it out, starts at 4:30. Tomorrow at 6pm is Classic Movie Night, showing "Happened One Night" Planning and Zoning Boards as well as the Building Department Liaison – Trustee Thompson Trustee Thompson: I just wanted to thank our Building Inspector because he did compile an updated list of all the businesses in the Village. That's something we've been working on with that Citizens Foundation and Dean and Marisa are going to try and keep that updated. We can support the local businesses in our community and see perhaps where we're lacking in something, if we can try and encourage anybody that any of us here that would like to bring something else to the Village that is not currently here. The letters have been going out for the next batch of inspections for the landlord registry. Town of Montgomery, it was a very lengthy meeting. They are streaming everything so anybody can watch them or jump in and out of them as they choose. They did their Citizen of the Month that went to Tim Dempsey. Delaware Engineering gave a project on water and sewer services as part of their comp plan. They discussed the moratorium again, potential zoning change of the property at Scott's Corner's that belongs to Walden Savings Bank, wastewater treatment plant update, Ambulance Corps, task for used car sales laws. That was very interesting. I want to look at ours too. We have a used car law. They talked about the PILOT deviation notification. They hired 2 new court officers. They passed a resolution declaring some of their highway department vehicles and equipment in surplus. They authorized a motion to post a job for a part time Recreation Director. Mayor Rumbold: How about Hill St Bridge? Trustee Thompson: No discussion. Mayor Rumbold: So, we're back to that issue again. What are our options? Lynn has been to nearly every meeting, if not every meeting, always asking about it and we really don't get any answer from anyone. Manager Revella: A Notice of Defect with demand to repair, would probably be our option. Trustee Thompson: I know the Highway Supervisor over there did meet with Senator Skoufis to try and seek some funding, but I don't know what the outcome to that was. I don't know if paperwork has been submitted. I didn't see anything in their budget about funding for bridge repairs. Mayor Rumbold: When did that Notice of Defect get sent to the Town? Manager Revella: I think there are 3 so far. The last one was probably 2018. We can do it again to cover our butts. It's not on us. We keep noticing the Town that they need to do something about it and they're refusing. If something happens, it's on them. We're doing our part. We can't do anything without them. 5  . Mayor Rumbold: That's the only remedy we have, is to send them a letter that they're going to ignore again? Attorney Donovan: I will look into the matter further. Police Department and Justice Department Liaison – Deputy Mayor Moore Absent Recreation & Parks Department and Valley Central School Board Liaison – Trustee Ramos Trustee Ramos: We have a total of 123 for the basketball program, 3 more than we had last year. I'd like to thank Valley Central School District for again allowing us to use the elementary school gymnasium, which helps out the practices and the number of games. It doesn't back up the number of kids that are in one location at a time. The guys are doing a number of cleanups. I met with the Principal, Mr. Heideman, about the Peace Pole. The Peace Pole is a Rotarian initiative and it just helps fortify the D.A.R.E. Program, fortifies what the risk program that the school is currently in. It's another tool in their toolbox to make the schools safe with knowledge for the kids and everybody being respectful and caring. I think we're going to see a lot coming out of the Walden Elementary School. My next meeting with them is on March 11th. Thank you to the Rotary for passing this on to them and we'll see what we can get done. DPW Liaison– Trustee Sebring Absent Mayor Rumbold read the community events into the minutes. Public Comment on Business of the Board Mary Ellen Matise: 54 Gladstone. I don't understand about the library audit. Confused about where money came from? Coldenham Rd is going to be a commercial venture. Do we charge a different rate for water and sewer for commercial? Becky Pearson: 167 Walnut. Annexation, I know there are some questions that people wanted answers to and I see that there's a schedule for the B4 for the Town. But the Village's isn't in there. Were you also checking on the wells? Are they all up and running? Also, you might like to find out what your capacity is at. How many homes is that service? If you don't want to have annexation after your discussion as a board, I don't believe that you have to move forward and don't hold the Public Hearing with the Town. It's not in the best interest of the Village. That's what you're going to decide. 90 days only starts after you have your Public Hearing with the Town if you choose to do so. I did send some people some information. Water and sewer capacity still I don't think was answered. How is your sewer plant? Those are issues you need to discuss in public. I know I sent Lynn something on Watershed Protection. She said there was a big discussion on it. Action Items Introductory Local Law 1 of 2020 – Residency Requirements Trustee Ramos made a motion to set Public Hearing for Local Law 1 of 2020 – Residency Requirements, for March 3, 2020 at 6:30pm or soon thereafter. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. 151 Coldenham Rd – Water and Sewer Request 6  . Mayor Rumbold: They want to extend water and sewer. They already get water and sewer from the Village. Manager Revella: Yes. They want to extend that service to their barn. Mayor Rumbold: Do they know how much usage it's going to increase at that location? Manager Revella: They gave us estimates. Eric Robens: The peak capacity would be about 850 gallons a day that it would increase. The sewer would be 80% of that maybe. Some of it would become beer and some of it we would reuse on the farm. Trustee Thompson: The significance is what you're going to consume, not so much as what you're going to expect. Eric Robens: Correct. The 850 is what we would consume as water. Sewer would be maybe 2/3 of that. Trustee Svarczkopf: How does that work with someone who's going to use less sewer? Do they pay for sewer anyway? Manager Revella: Yes. These details could be part of your approval, if that's what the board so wishes. Attorney Donovan: If I can make a suggestion that if the board is interested, which you can do is obviously release this document to the applicant. If you want to authorize me into to prepare an agreement for you to review. The applicant can review. Then you give it another chance to vote on it. Trustee Ramos made a motion to release document to the property owners and the attorney to prepare a possible contract for service. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Discussion – Walden Board Policies Manager Revella: There were several notes from the Board Members that wanted updates. Updated the memo with the importance of those. Review that and make sure that's what you want. Trustee Svarczkopf: 1 small change in the second bullet point. Says anything requested to be on the agenda not approved by the Manger and Mayor would need to be brought by a minimum of 2 Trustees to the Manager and Mayor, can we make that say or Mayor? Manager Revella: And/or? Trustee Svarczkopf: Yes. And if we disagree on 1 of these bullet points, how does the voting work here? Do we vote as a whole? Mayor Rumbold: I guess you have to decide if that 1 bullet point is a deal breaker to vote for this. I'm sure that not everyone agrees with every word and every paragraph. 7  . Trustee Svarczkopf: I would love to vote by bullet point. Attorney Donovan: What you can do is someone make a motion to vote on the bullet points individually. That motion would have to be seconded and adopted. If that motion fails, then you vote up or down on the entire policy. Trustee Svarczkopf: We also only have 5 members here. I think that if we're adopting rules for the entire board, the entire board should be here. Trustee Thompson: I don't understand why you wouldn't vote on each of these things separately. Mayor Rumbold: It's a policy that consists of many items. Trustee Thompson: I wouldn't be happy adopting all of them if I strongly disagreed with 1 of them. Manager Revella: If you don't agree with 1, should discuss that with the board and see if there's a compromise. Attorney Donovan: Just by way of example, you have Village wide policies. Social media policy. You have computer policy and cell phone use policy. You don't vote on those individually, you vote on them all together unless you make a motion to vote separately. Mayor Rumbold: We had discussions when he drew this up. We did have 1 Trustee who had an issue with something, but I didn't hear 4 or 5 people having an issue with it. If you're not interested, you can you can vote for it and say that I objected to bullet point 2, if you really need to get that on the record to say that you're not in favor of that. Trustee Thompson: I don't have a problem with any of these. I will vote yes for all of these. Trustee Svarczkopf: I still have an issue with the 4th bullet. I don't think 3 minutes is long enough. That's why I suggested we wait until the entire board is here or vote individually. I don't want to be unfair to the people who aren't here. I will make a motion to vote on these individually. Trustee Ramos made a motion to vote on the policies and procedures with the 1 change on the 2nd bullet. Seconded by Trustee Kraus. 4 ayes. 1 opposed (Trustee Svarczkopf). Motion carried. Discussion – Village Wide Policies Tabled Discussion – Annexation Petition Manager Revella: There were some questions from the board. I did get a memo, some feedback because there were questions about what was allowed in the B4 in the Town and what that means for the Village potentially. Mayor Rumbold: *Referred to the list* I don't see mining on here. Manager Revella: There's so many that I didn't want to keep listing. 8  . Mayor Rumbold: The choices that we talked about last time are just don't do anything. Let him stay in the Town. Can put wells where he wants to. He can put any or all of these things on that property under the auspices of the Town. Manager Revella: Correct. Mayor Rumbold: We can let him hook up to water and sewer through the Village and still let him stay in the Town and do any of all these things that are in the B4. Manager Revella: Letting them hook up to the water and sewer actually allows them to do more in the Town, than he would otherwise, because of distances between wells and septic’s. Mayor Rumbold: If the property was to come into the Village, as for the Comp Plan, it should come as an R3. Manager Revella: Correct. Mayor Rumbold: Limited uses, mostly residential single family with some special exception uses. Manager Revella: Correct. Mayor Rumbold: What are the exceptions in R3? Building Inspector Stickles: I don't know off the top of my head. It's not very many. Mayor Rumbold: If I remember the conversation, the applicant was saying something about a house with a workshop next to it. Manager Revella: That's not allowed in our zone. Trustee Svarczkopf: I know we are constantly looking for places for wells. Have we ever looked at this property? Manager Revella: This location, I can't say that in public. Mayor Rumbold: We have been exploring areas usually for the West Side because we don't have a well on the West Side. Manager Revella: I would say more, but not allowed because of the influence of pricing on certain properties that we're exploring. Trustee Thompson: My concern is the water and sewer. Predominantly the sewer. Manager Revella: My concern is having septic’s, as well as potential run-off into the Tin Brook. And just so the public, as well, is aware, the applicant is applying to have the property come in. Not coming in as any specific site plan and they have not done a site plan draft or otherwise for the Planning Board. They will have to go through that process to find out what was allowed and not allowed there, after annexation anyway if that were to be the case. It's not just a free ride through. 9  . Mayor Rumbold: You're asking us to annex property. We don't know what the water sewer capacity is going to be for that property because that would be based on what they decide to put there. Manager Revella: Correct. Mayor Rumbold: If we annex the property, just to annex it. Then they would have to go before the Planning Board with a site plan and then the Planning Board would make the determination whether our water and sewer plant had the capacity to accept that? Attorney Donovan: There's an environmental process to go through in the annexation. Need to evaluate through the SEQRA process what the potential use of the property could be and then you would have to analyze generically their water sewer, traffic, those types of things. You wouldn't have a site-specific plan; you would do a generic analysis. Mayor Rumbold: I do know that we say we have to hold the water and sewer capacity for projects that have already been approved. Attorney Donovan: What you would need to do, you need to make sure that you have water and sewer available for existing Village properties. Kidd Farm would need to be allocated even though they're not approved. You would need to be able to show logistic capacity for them. Then you could look to either go outside the Village or the next properties in. But you need to demonstrate that you can handle it. Trustee Kraus: Can't they get all of that finalized with the property before we decide on this annexation? Manager Revella: That's during the hearing process. You don't spend those funds unless you're going to the next level. You don't have to know what's going there. You're going based on a generic application. Attorney Donovan: The process is important. The process is a little abbreviated because the state law says 90 days. But the idea is to have a Public Hearing to put the applicant through their paces and what they need to demonstrate and get public input on issues that the Village or the Town will need to consider. Then you make a determination whether it's in the overall public interest to proceed with the annexation. The first hearing would be a Joint Public Hearing with the Town. We would be the lead agency for SEQRA review analysis. We issue a Negative Declaration if approved the annexation. Trustee Thompson: I'm a little not happy with all of this, because I really think it's somewhat putting the cart before the horse. I think by not having our Wellhead Protection language and everything there and our protection on the water. Manager Revella: We can't zone the Town. We have no control over it. The closer we get to the wells, the closer we can zone to the wells. Trustee Thompson: Has there ever been any talk of the Village having an opportunity to purchase any of that property to protect things? 10  . Manager Revella: Can't comment on that in public. Trustee Thompson: Wouldn't that be something that could be considered in a grand scheme? Mayor Rumbold: I think you can make an offer as a Village, as a municipality on any piece of property that you would want to. But at the same time, the owner of that property would then see the value of it and decide, am I going to sell it to the Village or get approval to do some kind of project there and then sell it? Trustee Thompson: If we went ahead with this and he presented his plan, we have the capacity for the water and sewer and we agreed everybody was in agreement. I'm talking about green land preservation to keep buffer. Can we have quite a voice in saying how large we want that buffer to be? Is that up to us? Attorney Donovan: Question is whether you want to establish a different zoning requirement for this property and whether that's appropriate. Manager Revella: No spot zoning. Trustee Thompson: I think everybody's really concerned about the water, the wells and the brook there and what this person can put in there. Manager Revella: That's my concern. What they could do now as opposed to what they could do in the Village. It's a lot better for us and for our water if they are under Village zoning rules. Trustee Svarczkopf: Are we abutting the well land at that point? Manager Revella: Not yet. But part of this parcel is already in the Village and it does abut the brook. Trustee Svarczkopf: If we annex more property in that area, get closer to the wells. Could be eventually annex the wells? Manager Revella: If the next neighbor up decides to come in. Mayor Rumbold: We have asked the Town of Montgomery and they haven't done anything with it. Trustee Thompson: There's a new administration there and new people here and there's now support with some of the water groups and there's hopefully some dialog that's going to start with the County. There are a lot of people pressing to get that language in place to protect our wells. I'm really hopeful that we're going to get that done soon. Mayor Rumbold: I understand there's a new administration there. There was a new administration last time and we thought all this stuff was going to happen and it didn't. Trustee Thompson: I think the Village of Walden is doing a lot of very proactive things now environmentally. The development going on with the Town is astronomical. Some of the decisions I have to say, I find mind boggling. I get that we need to look out for our best interests. 11  . Trustee Kraus: You're saying, if we do this, it would be better for the Village. Manager Revella: For us, the pros outweigh the cons in this situation. It's not always the case, but where this is particularly is in our best interest of what we're trying to plan globally. Trustee Svarczkopf: If we created a larger zone, the Comp Plan says that it would come in at our largest zone. It wouldn't be spot zoning. Attorney Donovan: I'm not familiar with what the Comp Plan says about this piece of property right now. Manager Revella: It just says annexations in general would come in at the larger zone. You're not creating a zone because of this application. Attorney Donovan: I made a comment about creating a zone in response to a question about a larger buffer area. But you would be making this an R3. Manager Revella: Yes. It's congruent to the R3 that is next door right now. Trustee Svarczkopf: If it becomes a thing that we're doing more often, grabbing land from the outskirts of the Village, I think it might be a good idea to bring them in as a less dense zone. I think that's a good option for us to look at. Trustee Ramos made a motion to set Joint Board Meeting for Marche 24, 2020 at 6pm. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. 4 ayes. 1 opposed (Trustee Svarczkopf). Motion carried. Resolution 16-19-20 – Budget Transfers Trustee Svarczkopf made a motion to adopt Resolution 16-19-20 – Budget Transfers. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Comment Becky Pearson: I'm really sad that you didn't take the time to get all your ducks in a row before you move forward with the Joint Meeting. Joint Board Meeting starts of the Public Hearing, does it not? Then you have 90 days after the Public Hearing to make a decision. Will you have all that information that you need within those 3 months? I don't think so. I understand we need rateables, we need money, blah, blah, blah. I don't think you've made the right decision. You guys can't even make a decision on a normal discussion on what you want things to be. I'm frustrated. I don't understand. What is in the best interest of the Village is what you have to look at. Can put stipulations on water and sewer going into it and that you want it to be single family? Those are discussions that you need to have. I know John had mentioned in the last minutes that we are producing 6-700k a day. This person wants 800 gallons. What well is that water coming from? Is there a well that's coming from and how many gallons is that producing a day? Payment of the Audited Bills Trustee Ramos made a motion to pay the Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Correspondence 12  . Trustee Thompson: I got another e-mail from the resident on Walnut St about the dog manure. He did say the Building Inspector had gone there. Manager Revella: The other property was cited from the Village. Trustee Thompson: He was just letting me know and said thank you for taking the time to listen to his complaints. I did have a telephone call from a resident on Walnut St that is very upset about how fast the cars are traveling. He would like to know if we can speak to the Police Department and set up some type of surveillance to monitor speed there is a large amount of children that walk back and forth on Walnut St to go to school. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Mayor Rumbold: Lots of trucks coming from the bag shop going up Sherman and down East Avenue to get to Route 52. I know they've been told before, but traffic has really increased in that area. I don't know what's going on, but it seems to be busier. I know what's going on the Town is very disturbing to people, but I think there are some people that would love to have nothing built. Not another house, not another chimney, not another anything. I think you have to do what you have to do to protect the Village. We've looked for years to establish a well on the West Side. Have not been successful. We've tried for years to get the watershed to be addressed by the Town of Montgomery, not been successful. I think you have to look at what's happening and try to be proactive with what we do to try to protect the Village. Having discussion, we get accused of not discussing, now we want to have a Joint Meeting with the Town Board to discuss it and get the applicant to discuss it. So, you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. You can have all the discussion here you want to have and toss the ball around forever. At some point you have to have the guts to have a Joint Meeting and talk to the 2 entities involved and the applicant and try to make a decision. I think you have to just do what you think is best, make the best decisions you can. I wish it was a Pollyanna world that we didn't have to worry about a neighboring municipality not doing their due diligence and effecting us. That's not the case. Trustee Svarczkopf: Just want to explain my vote. I agree that this property is in our best interest. I think that with that best interest, I think we can improve our position. I think that If we consider creating a less dense zone, that that's going to take longer. I feel that we can come in with a better plan. I think we're in a position where we can dictate that. That was where my vote came from. It's not that I'm against you guys. I'm totally with you, just think that we need to take a pause. Trustee Kraus: I want give condolences to the security guard down Spring Valley Library. Someone walked in and stabbed the person to death. I'm just wondering about the security of this building. They had a security guard there and someone still came in and did some damage. It's unreasonable and it can happen anywhere. I think we need to do something with the security here. At the entrances, can we have them buzzed in? I talked to Ginny, she said might have to hire a couple part timers to monitor the one door. The front entrance, the dispatcher can monitor that. They have a camera and a buzzer. It's going to be an inconvenience in the beginning, but at least the building will be secure. Trustee Thompson: Several of us went to the NYCOM Conference in Albany. It was excellent. We've brought back some good information. Made some good connections. I had the opportunity to talk with a NYSEG representative while I was there. We shall see if our streetlights come on yet 13  . again. I'm trying to keep it momentum going with our Climate Smart initiative. We did meet with the CAC. There was a presentation about geothermal heating and cooling. We're going to try and see how many people in the Village of Walden we can get onboard to get the free NYSERDA energy audit. Supervisor Maher would like to turn that into a little competition among the Town of the 3 Village's. We reminded him that 1 of the Villages does not belong to the Climate Smart Initiative, but he's quite determined he's going to make that happen. And I share the same concerns with Larry about building security, which we have been talking about for almost 2 years now. I feel like we're continually putting it on the backburner and not moving forward with it. Trustee Ramos: I have to reiterate what Trustee Kraus and Trustee Thompson mentioned about security in the building. We've had a number of discussions. Bulletproof shields and windows, etc. It's a tough call, because we can't predict what's going to happen tomorrow morning. Just the mentality of people these days, there lack of environmental assessment around themselves. It's really a tough issue. Now with the active shooters, everybody is on edge. What can we do? You go to a library and somebody gets stabbed. Can get to a point where you go to Dunkin Donuts and you're gonna have an issue there. We are feverishly looking at avenues and trying to secure this building particularly and all other buildings. We have an elementary school right down the street and they have their ring button. You have to show ID. But if somebody wants to get in, somebody is going to get in. It's really up to the community to keep their vigilance. Call 911. Like we had in the park at Wooster. Not too long ago, there was a truck surveilling kids. One of the kids did a phenomenal job taking photographs of the truck, which is great. My other comment is I went down to the Association Towns and Villages. Got some good information on grants and I'll be working with anybody that could help me. There's 2.5 billion dollars in the state pot right now. They did not totally exhaust that money. So, it's going to go in to another 2.5 billion dollars. That's a number of types of grant programs that we could be eligible for. Executive Session-PBA, CSEA and Personal history of a particular employee Trustee Ramos made a motion to enter executive session to discuss PBA, CSEA and personal history of a particular employee. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Reconvene Trustee Ramos made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. 14  . Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting February 18, 2020 Motions & Resolutions Trustee Ramos made a motion to enter executive session to discuss personal history of a particular employee. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Svarczkopf made a motion to reconvene. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Hearing – 19 Bank St – Unsafe Building Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve order to have the company fix it within 2 weeks and if not, the Village would take such action to make it safe and charge the property. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Approval of February 4, 2020 Minutes Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve the February 4, 2020 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Introductory Local Law 1 of 2020 – Residency Requirements Trustee Ramos made a motion to set Public Hearing for Local Law 1 of 2020 – Residency Requirements, for March 3, 2020 at 6:30pm or soon thereafter. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. 151 Coldenham Rd – Water and Sewer Request Trustee Ramos made a motion to release document to the property owners and the attorney to prepare a possible contract for service. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Discussion – Walden Board Policies Trustee Ramos made a motion to vote on the policies and procedures with the 1 change on the 2nd bullet. Seconded by Trustee Kraus. 4 ayes. 1 opposed (Trustee Svarczkopf). Motion carried. Discussion – Annexation Petition Trustee Ramos made a motion to set Joint Board Meeting for Marche 24, 2020 at 6pm. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. 4 ayes. 1 opposed (Trustee Svarczkopf). Motion carried. Resolution 16-19-20 – Budget Transfers Trustee Svarczkopf made a motion to adopt Resolution 16-19-20 – Budget Transfers. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Payment of the Audited Bills Trustee Ramos made a motion to pay the Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Executive Session-PBA, CSEA and Personal history of a particular employee Trustee Ramos made a motion to enter executive session to discuss PBA, CSEA and personal history of a particular employee. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. 15  . Reconvene Trustee Ramos made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. 16