Board of Trustees

. Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting March 3, 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 Faith Moore Brian Sebring John Ramos Larry Kraus Dan Svarczkopf Lynn E. Thompson Absent: Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Kelly A. Kelly, Village Treasurer Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Public Hearing – Local Law 1 of 2020 – Residency Requirements Trustee Ramos made a motion to open Public Hearing – Local Law 1 of 2020 – Residency Requirements. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Sebring made a motion to close Public Hearing Local Law 1 of 2020 – Residency Requirements. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Manager Revella: First, I must declare that there is going to be a restart of the Ulster Ave Project on March 9th. There'll be the traffic issues again. As you noticed the last time, they weren't too severe or pervasive. Mayor Rumbold: We're going to notify everybody in the area that it's starting up again? Manager Revella: I will do a notification again. The contractors are pretty good about notifying residents as well. Village Manager’s Report  Attended the conference in New York City last month. Trustee Ramos attended some of the classes, as well. Good networking as well. There were some interesting topics that I went over with the Special Counsel, especially regarding the changes to discrimination laws in the State of NY. That was incorporated in our policies.  Good meeting with Assemblyman Miller. He came down to tour around the Village and talk about issues that we would be facing, with the Police Department, Rec Department and the DPW as well. 1  .  Went over a couple different requests with the Building Inspector. 1 that I reviewed with Dave regarding some potential code updates.  Went over the final audit reports with the Treasurer, as well as the billing to make sure that we are covered under our agreement.  Went over potential Capital Projects for the upcoming budget. Reviewing that daily as a whole.  Meeting for Transportation Council at the 911 center to review projects. There's a big 1 in Middletown that's going on. That's going to be coming up soon regarding synchronizing traffic and pedestrian flow through the city.  Went over a couple potential grants with the Engineer. A couple that Trustee Thompson brought up, as well.  Went over a couple of major projects with the Town Supervisor to get some feedback on potential impacts for the Village. Approval of February 18, 2020 Minutes Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve February 18, 2020 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. 6 ayes. 1 abstention (Deputy Mayor Moore). Motion carried. Trustee’s Committee Reports Village Offices Liaison – Trustee Svarczkopf Trustee Svarczkopf: Reviewed the Garbage RFP. Sent out all the water and sewer bills. Ordered ballots and updated Village calendar and website. Town of Montgomery & Library Board Liaison – Trustee Kraus Trustee Kraus: Spoke with Ginny and she was going over the funds that the County allotted her. They didn't take anything away. She still has enough money to do what she needs to do. Also the 30th of March, they're going to do a Fraud, Schemes and Scams event with the Walden Savings Bank at 1pm. Trustee Ramos will be a speaker. Also, the 28th of this month is American Sign Language Class. Planning and Zoning Boards as well as the Building Department Liaison – Trustee Thompson Trustee Thompson: I did not meet with Mr. Stickles, but his report is very thorough. It's self- explanatory. Fire and Safety inspection letters are going out. He's had several landlords who have not replied. He's doing what he has to do to get compliance. There are no other issues that I've been made aware of in the Building Department. The Town of Montgomery, I went to that last meeting. Still a packed agenda. Moratorium is still a hot topic over there. They still have not come to a resolution on how they're going to handle that. They are moving forward with their DPW garage, entertaining bids. You can look at it online. They are working on the water and sewer districts. They're leaving a public hearing open on the Medline petition to extend the sewer district. They finally got language that they're happy with, with the used car law. We may want to look at theirs because they did alter it and they based some of their new language on Town of Crawford and the Village of Maybrook. They're also reviewing ethics, what they want to do with their ethics committee and their ethics laws. They're going to continue to stream their meetings. Apparently, that's going to be a state mandate, coming up. They feel like they're going to just keep going, doing what they're doing to get out front of it. I found that interesting since we've had the discussion about, do we want to report our meetings to a video record of our meetings? I guess after listening to what went on in their meeting and it was confirmed by their attorney that that's going to be a state 2  . mandate in the near future. They talked about our joint meeting. That's coming up on March 24th. And they're approving a credit card for the Highway Superintendent and the Town Supervisor. Mayor Rumbold: Anything on the Hill Street Bridge? Trustee Thompson: No, it wasn't even on the table. The only bridge they said they talked about was the Corbett Rd Bridge. That's the bridge that's getting top priority of the 3 bridges that the Town needs to repair. Manager Revella: Just 1 other thing that was in Dean's report was about 19 Bank St. They had to clean up the property and address the issues that we saw on the outside. They're trying to address the issues on the inside for us. Dean has been following up with the manager for the property. Mayor Rumbold: Are we're going to proceed with Hill Street Bridge? Is our attorney drawing something up for that? Manager Revella: Yes. Before the next meeting. Police Department and Justice Department Liaison – Deputy Mayor Moore Deputy Mayor Moore: Spoke to Chief. Discussed the NYS Live Scan Grant. Stop DWI Grant. Reviewed the vehicle usage and gas usage, the secondary shift. Radio transition has been completed. We have all of our new radios. There are a number of upcoming trainings, CPR/AED and First Aid training is happening for all of our police personnel. Child Safety Seat training, Officer Conklin is attending. Firearms. Training will be taking place for all of our officers. Tactical Arm Training, Officer Montanaro is attending. There is also an Intelligence Summit coming up and a Child Safety Seat Conference coming up that we have people attending. Recreation & Parks Department and Valley Central School Board Liaison – Trustee Ramos Trustee Ramos: Spoke with Mr. Bliss. The Summer Camp brochures have been sent out to the schools and hopefully we'll get another 400 plus people for that program. I did talk to Mr. Bliss about doing some preventive action, especially in our public areas, in order to facilitate the Coronavirus issue. Now that is full swing in New York, we should take preventive actions. Disinfect certain areas that are mainly for public use. I didn't have any conversation with Mr. Xanthis. Will be meeting with him on Friday for coffee. Will be discussing his districts new proposal for the 10 million dollar bond, that's going to be coming up late April for a vote in May. DPW Liaison– Trustee Sebring Trustee Sebring: DPW has been busy cleaning out catch basins for the MS4. They cut back some dead trees on First Street. Repaired some of the catch basins that are rotted away from the salt. They had 1 of the guys work with the mechanic on some issues. The Water Department replaced 7 meters. They had a water main repair on Ulster Ave and Northgate. The Sewer Department has been having a big problem with people flushing the disposable wipes down the toilet. They're clogging up the sewer pumps. Just about every week, they have to pull the pumps to remove the rags. It's been mentioned in the papers previously about them, but people don't listen or read the paper. That's been a real problem for them and that takes quite a bit of time to pull and clean them and put the pumps back in. Mayor Rumbold read the community events into the minutes. 3  . Public Comment on Business of the Board None Action Items Local Law 1 of 2020 – Residency Requirements Trustee Ramos made a motion for Negative Declaration for Local Law 1 of 2020 – Residency Requirements. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve Local Law 1 of 2020 – Residency Requirements. Seconded by Trustee Svarczkopf. 5 ayes. 2 opposed (Trustee Thompson, Trustee Ramos). Motion carried. PTO Color Run Request Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Walden Elementary PTO Color Run on June 13, 2020 at 10am. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Arbor Day Request – April 30th at Walden Elementary Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve Arbor Day at the Walden Elementary School on April 30, 2020. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Knights of Columbus Car Show Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve the Knights of Columbus Car Show for July 11, 2020 from 9am to 3pm. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. 6 ayes. 1 abstention (Trustee Ramos). Motion carried. Resolution 17-19-20 – Stop DWI Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Resolution 17-19-20 – Stop DWI. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. 151 Coldenham Road Attorney Donovan: *Read Agreement*. Mayor Rumbold: As a reminder, they have a hook up now for 1 building on the property. This is to add a 2nd. Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve agreement. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Ramos Mr. Donovan, nicely done. Drew a circle and you filled it up with everything that was needed. I know it was a trying time this week. Nicely done. Discussion – Village Wide Policies Manager Revella: There was comment and the board asked for some updates on social media. There were some updates. We also required updates on sexual harassment and discrimination language. We already had the policy, the language was updated to conform to the current law. Trustee Thompson: I think we needed to improve upon what we had. I think it could still be stronger language. Apparently, most people are content with what has been documented now. It's a slippery slope. You can't violate someone's First Amendment right, but you have to be able to have 4  . some type of control over some of the posts that go up for people that works for a municipality, because they represent the Village. I think it’s better. I don't love it, but I can deal with it. Trustee Thompson made a motion to adopt Village Wide Policies previously disseminated to the Village Board. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Discussion – Annexation Petition Attorney Donovan: This is a chicken soup local law. There is a provision in the General Municipal Law under the annexation section that requires a local law when there is a need to have an election. An election only occurs when there are residents in the next area. So, if the annexation is approved by both municipalities, the residents in the next area would actually vote. There are no residents in the next area, so there is no vote. The subdivision that speaks to the local law is specifically within the provision that calls for the election when there are residents. A strict reading of this, in my view, the local law is not required. It's a local law without the need for a public hearing. In communications with the Council for Walden East, they've expressed the feeling that perhaps we should do it anyway. It's a very brief local law, doesn't require a public hearing. We've already approved the annexation. I come back to my original state of things, Chicken Soup. Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to adopt local law. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Manager Revella: The Board asked to just keep the other petition active on the agenda, just in case something came up. I don’t know if anything has, but it's on in case you want to discuss the one across the street from this. I hadn't had any updates. Mayor Rumbold: Hopefully, we'll get some more information from them or the discussion will be helpful at that point. We have our own meeting after the joint meeting. Garbage Bid RFP Manager Revella: We'd like to ask for 3 years of bids again with options for year 2 and 3, just like last time. Along with providing toters. Mayor Rumbold: You're basically echoing the last RFP we did. Manager Revella: Yes. I'd like to be able to get permission to advertise. Attorney Donovan: What I've provided for us is March 31st. This is what we did 3 years ago. We advertise and made it available the 1st week in March and returnable the 31st. Mayor Rumbold: I'm just wondering if that's enough time. Attorney Donovan: Need a minimum of 5 days advertising. You may want more. Manager Revella: We wanted them sooner so we had numbers in time for budget sessions. Trustee Ramos made a motion to allow Manager to advertise. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 18-19-20 – Budget Transfer 5  . Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to adopt Resolution 18-19-20 – Budget Transfer. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Comment None Payment of the Audited Bills Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to pay the Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Correspondence Deputy Mayor Moore: I did receive a phone call from a resident just questioning the pricing for Summer Camp. Let them know the brochure is going out. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Thompson: I just wanted to share with you that on February 20th, I traveled up to Kingston to go to a workshop on grant writing. It was very productive. I'm trying to get together with Trustee Ramos. We have something we want to discuss and try and figure out what we can do to get a better line for some of the grant funding that's coming available this spring. Also met with Ginny and the ad hoc committee for the Census on February 27th. Just to let everybody know, they shouldn't really be getting anything about the census till March 12th in the mail. But there are scammers out there. I had an issue. John Revella received something in the mail and our Treasurer also had an issue. So just be very, very careful. All you have to do for the census, you're going to get an I.D. number in the mail. You'll do your little 5 to 10 minute thing on the computer. Its a few questions. No personal information at all. If you don't do it on the computer, you'll get something in the mail to do it in the mail. If you neglect to do that, a census counter will come to your house. They should have all the proper credentials. Again, what they should be asking you should be no personal information. Just how many people live at your household. There are scammers already out there working really hard. I would just like to let everybody know to be very, very careful. If you're suspicious of anything, don't do it. Contact either John or the library, myself. Anyone on the committee. There's a fraud number you can call for the census. It's on their website. I'll be going to a CAC meeting on March 10th and we'll be discussing the Climate Smart Initiative further. I hope we'll get more information about this free energy audit with NYSERDA. We can try to get people in our community involved to take the free energy audit and then decide if they want to go down the path any further. I just want to make a comment about the wipes in the sewer. Can we maybe put a reminder in the next billing cycle? Can we maybe put something in for the residents about the wipes? Mayor Rumbold: Is that something we could do also with the elementary school? Chances are there's younger siblings at home. Maybe if a notice was sent home to parents, just letting them know that that's not a great thing for the water and sewer system. Trustee Thompson: John, I know you met with someone who does disaster recovery and relief services. And with all this information out there about this Coronavirus, is that anything after John gave his report about some of our public areas for children and elderly people congregate? Is that anything that we're going to consider doing? Having the company come here and treat anything? 6  . Manager Revella: There's a sanitation service that they could provide for a cost, but it's not much different than the spray sanitation that we do in house right now. When we have issues with sewer breaks or backups, that's when we usually call an outside person in, because of the contact issues. The indoor areas, we have that covered. That kind of stuff we can do in house. When it comes to sewage issues, then we talk to this vendor. Deputy Mayor Moore: Northwind Church is having a Community Public Lunch on Saturday at noon. Everybody is welcome. It's where Victory of God Church used to be. I have been selected and I will be serving at the Town of Montgomery Comprehensive Planning Committee. I will keep everyone informed as it goes along. Trustee Ramos: Thank you again for the Woman's Club Pot Luck Dinner. Went to the Association Town and Village's Conference, where a couple of the classes, specifically a grant writing class. There are a couple places up in upstate New York where they've been really successful. Lynn and I are going to be in conversation with that and see if we can get some more assistance on grants. We're still behind the eight ball. We're in big competition. We have a small Village in competition with 10-20 thousand Townships and Village's. We need to get better at writing these grants. If anybody is savvy on grant writing, we're going to pull together a task force and try and get some more money, especially for our Parks and Rec, our sewers. We have CDBG to help us out. But we need to get over the top. A lot of money is out there. I mentioned last meeting there's 2.5 billion dollars in the pot. They haven't finished the 2019 2.5 Billion dollars. There's an excess of more money that's going to come. Executive Session-PBA, CSEA and Personal history of a particular employee Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to enter executive session to discuss PBA, CSEA and personal history of a particular employee. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Thompson made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. 7  . Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting March 3, 2020 Motions & Resolutions Approval of February 18, 2020 Minutes Trustee Ramos made a motion to open Public Hearing – Local Law 1 of 2020 – Residency Requirements. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Sebring made a motion to close Public Hearing Local Law 1 of 2020 – Residency Requirements. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve February 18, 2020 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. 6 ayes. 1 abstention (Deputy Mayor Moore). Motion carried. Local Law 1 of 2020 – Residency Requirements Trustee Ramos made a motion for Negative Declaration for Local Law 1 of 2020 – Residency Requirements. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve Local Law 1 of 2020 – Residency Requirements. Seconded by Trustee Svarczkopf. 5 ayes. 2 opposed (Trustee Thompson, Trustee Ramos). Motion carried. PTO Color Run Request Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Walden Elementary PTO Color Run on June 13, 2020 at 10am. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. Arbor Day Request – April 30th at Walden Elementary Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve Arbor Day at the Walden Elementary School on April 30, 2020. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Knights of Columbus Car Show Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to approve the Knights of Columbus Car Show for July 11, 2020 from 9am to 3pm. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. 6 ayes. 1 abstention (Trustee Ramos). Motion carried. Resolution 17-19-20 – Stop DWI Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve Resolution 17-19-20 – Stop DWI. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. 151 Coldenham Road Trustee Ramos made a motion to approve agreement. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried Discussion – Village Wide Policies Trustee Thompson made a motion to adopt Village Wide Policies previously disseminated to the Village Board. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. 8  . Discussion – Annexation Petition Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to adopt local law. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Garbage Bid RFP Trustee Ramos made a motion to allow Manager to advertise. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 18-19-20 – Budget Transfer Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to adopt Resolution 18-19-20 – Budget Transfer. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Payment of the Audited Bills Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to pay the Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Executive Session-PBA, CSEA and Personal history of a particular employee Deputy Mayor Moore made a motion to enter executive session to discuss PBA, CSEA and personal history of a particular employee. Seconded by Trustee Ramos. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Thompson made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Moore. All ayes. Motion carried. 9