Board of Trustees

Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting January 18, 2022 Mayor Ramos called the regular meeting of the Village of Walden Board of Trustees to order at 6:30pm. On roll call the following were: Mayor: John Ramos Present: Deputy Mayor Willie Carley Trustees Lynn Thompson Patricia Maher John Elliott Brian Sebring Cheryl Baker Absent: Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Orange County Transit Allison Fausner: As you're aware, the remaining item we've been discussing here has been the Department of Transportation permit process. I want to thank you again, Mr. Mayor for helping us finally get a response from the DOT. We're really happy to report that in connection with the proposed sewer work, Orange County Transit was able to locate an available contractor who has since provided further construction comments. Our project engineer has been coordinating with the contractor to update our plans and construction details and prepare further updated permit documents to submit to the DOT. As Anthony indicated recently, the next step would be *inaudible* permit to close out that process and then coordinate with your Building Department to actually start construction. Separate and apart from that DOT issue, the only other updates we would have is that Orange County Transit has been coordinating with surveyors to do more tree and vegetation work to prepare for installation of the fences. But other than that, that covers pretty much everything. Mayor Ramos: Thank you again for our monthly briefing and we look forward to seeing you in the month of February. Thank Mr. Morando for his diligence and keeping us posted. Manager’s Report Manager Revella: Since last meeting, we've had some staffing concerns for the Police Department. I met with the Chief to go over the police list that was offered by Orange County Civil Service. We sent out canvass letters and waiting for the return. The final cutoff date, I think is the 25th in order to be back with the holiday and weekends to make sure we've met the canvass deadline. Met with the Building Inspector to go over time off, review of code for potential updates and reviewed the personnel evaluations for that department as well. Rec Department also went over their proposed budget, personnel evaluations and inventories. Met with Trustee Elliot, Trustee Thompson at a different time, Trustee Baker at a different time and the Mayor at another time. Just going over ambulance district, some discussion about grants and to update on issues for the Village. Also conferenced with the Town Supervisor, PD, *inaudible* Reviewed with Code Enforcement sidewalk maintenance and with the Building Inspector. Code Enforcement, they're on that now since the last snowstorm. Went over with the Deputy Treasurer, the payroll and PBA retro, that's all 1 done now from the PBA contract. Had a conference with Judge Ozman regarding court coverage since we had a judge resign. There's an opening for an associate judge, which I'm trying to fill soon. Went over a couple of correspondence for the union's on a grievance matter. That's been handled now internally with special counsel. The other departments are also going over inventories, budgets and employee evaluations. The Rec Department is continuing to work on maintenance during the winter. They had to shift indoor basketball to February, hopefully starting practices sooner than that. Working on the new camera system in coordination with the Police Department and are beginning a new sports software program. Transitioning from SI Play to a new program that's a little bit cheaper for the residents. Reviewing the Community Center projects. The Building Department had some personnel shortages due to illness. So, since last meeting the Building Inspector has issued 5 permits, given out 2 COs. Code Enforcement continues to fire and safety inspections. They issued 4 property maintenance violations for fire and safety inspections and they've been covering and checking on the Falcons Rest product as well. Clerk's been updating Facebook, the website, working on 207c, working with me on those matters, special counsel matters, some NYSHIP issues, we had a couple of former employees pass away. Helping with the canvas letters, MSD updates. General help with other matters in the office. Finance Department is working on the 2021 audit, we did sign the letter with RBT to start that audit. Working on reconciliation, health care deductions, workers comp. DOT paperwork was submitted and they're reviewing the AUD responses from the Comptroller's Office. DPW has been working on the vehicles. Water was able to replace 1 meter, 6 mark outs and 1 inspection. The weather kind of limits that a little bit. Working on the pumps at the pump stations, inventory and evaluations, budget, Department of Health reports, maintenance of the facilities. They repaired a sewer main break on Ivy Hill. Cleaning basins for MS4. Working on the trucks from the storms. They did go out a few times to salt and obviously the other day to plow. They had to clean up all the decorations and the trees for the holiday season. That's all done. Police have been continuing to work on overtime and staffing. We did bring on another part timer to try and help alleviate some overtime issues, but it's really hurting. We were able to do some special details and tickets through saturation. They issued 59 tickets since January 1st, 355 blotters. The court is on regular schedule. Library is on regular schedule. Been coordinating with the Attorney on the Ambulance District, FOILs and RBT representation letter. Trustee Maher: Did you say there was an update to the Falcons Rest or that there was no update? Manager Revella: They've been reviewing the project as it's ongoing. If you drive by on 52 towards Pine Bush and look up, you'll see a lot of progress going on there. Mayor Ramos: The sewer main break on Ivy Hill, did we figure out what, besides aging, what was the cause? Manager Revella: There have been at least 6 or 7 breaks on that line since they repaved the road. I think they repaved in 2008. The DPW Supervisor at the time, which is not employed here anymore, actually, graded the road a little too low and they vibratory rolled and that caused the rocks to move and cracks in the force main. That's why we've been having consistent breaks on that line for some time, unfortunately. Mayor Ramos: Are we going to set up a plan on how we can prevent that again? Manager Revella: You'd have to replace that whole line. Mayor Ramos: How about the pavement? Manager Revella: That gets patched as we go along. Until we get that main replaced it wouldn't 2 make sense to redo the road yet. Approval of December 21, 2021 Minutes Trustee Thompson: I have read the minutes for the 2 meetings repeatedly. I'm going to have to listen to the actual content because I cannot remember everything that everyone said because they were just so incredibly lengthy. I'll have to make arrangements to come in and see the Clerk and listen to the actual transcription. I don't feel in good conscience that I can approve these. Mayor Ramos: They were lengthy and thank you for the Clerk for trying to get out as expeditiously as possible. Trustee Thompson will come in at a later time to review the audio tapes if everybody else is good with the minutes, as is. Trustee Elliott made a motion to approve the December 21, 2021 minutes. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. 6 ayes. 1 abstention (Trustee Thompson). Motion carried. Approval of January 4, 2022 Minutes Trustee Baker made a motion to approve the January 4, 2022 minutes. Seconded by Trustee Elliott. 6 ayes. 1 abstention (Trustee Thompson). Motion carried. Action Items: Discussion – Ambulance District Mayor Ramos: We will go with the members of the Board. The Clerk will advise us if we have any questions from the outside at this point. Trustee Baker: I would like to thank Supervisor Maher and Miss Rainaldi for all their work. They've taken on a colossal, long standing issue that is quite complex and quite cumbersome. I'd like to thank them for their willingness and for all the information, their patience and answering and addressing our questions. One concern that I have in reviewing the Ambulance District, I do not question that it is very badly needed. It's something that should have been done a very, very long time ago, and I am thankful that the issue is coming up and that there's a drive in the passion for it. However, one of the primary concerns that I have with it is not having a contract in place. I know me personally when I go to buy a car or any big time purchase. I wouldn't purchase an item without knowing the terms. I wouldn't do that for myself, buying a car, for example, not know what the interest rate is and the terms of that. How can I ask other residents to do that when this is their hard earned taxpaying dollars? To me, it seems a little bit of the cart before the horse not having a contract and an actual though because there are different models. It's not even ironed out yet. Are we going to do a hybrid form or are we going to contract out or everything through the volunteer ambulance district? I think those are very important key issues that need to be addressed first before going to taxpayers and saying we would like to charge x y z because I think it's going to be difficult to actually know what x y z is going to cost until you have a cost analysis and know what direction you're going to go, whether you're going to do a hybrid form everything through the ambulance district itself, if you can do a contract out for that. I think those are key elements that are lacking and are missing and I think need to be answered first. I'm not quite sure how my other fellow board members feel in regards to that, but that's kind of where I am and where my consensus is right now. Even though there's a lot of detail in these plans, there's still a great deal that is missing and I find there are significant chunks that should be answered first. Town Supervisor Maher: I think that it's a difficult analogy to compare purchasing a vehicle to creating an ambulance district, though the way I understand the point that Trustee Baker was trying to make. At the end of the day, you're never going to get every single question answered on this topic because we are one of the few areas that is attempting to go out and make this work. We're going to figure it out together, any issues that we don't have solidified currently and over the last 2 3 years, we educated ourselves and our community on the need for providing ALS services and just how much our local Ambulance Corps is unable to provide the services they can without the resources they need. The Town is taking the lead, as we've done over the past 2 years during the pandemic. The Town has shown Village of Walden residents that we're there for them, that were able to think about that entire Town and not just have everyone on an island. I think we have given the information that is available to you, to us, that should give you what you need to be able to make a decision either way. I appreciate your comments, Trustee Baker. Trustee Elliott: I still have some concerns. We're being asked to vote on this and we don't really know everything about it. There are still some unknowns. I would like to see some kind of guarantees for the Village of Walden. As it currently stands, there are no guarantees. *inaudible* those are my concerns right now. I would also like to see, as Supervisor Maher just stated, that we all work together on it. I would like to do that. We're being told things that are happening, but I wouldn't say we worked together on it. I would like to see that happen. Town Supervisor Maher: We have worked together on it. The Villages were involved in the process. We are working together on it. That's just a fact. At the end of the day, there is no way to sit there and scale out everything to a degree where you can answer every single question and have everything figured out. But I do have a guarantee, if this is voted down and it takes us an additional year to be able to provide services, I can guarantee that Village of Walden residents will be further away from getting the services that they need to be provided to them in an emergency situation. That's 1 guarantee I can give you. Trustee Elliott: Why would that be, though? Town Supervisor Maher: Because we cannot provide the services that are needed in an emergency situation right now as it stands. Creating this district will be the biggest key to moving our process forward and that is the resources, the money that is necessary to provide and invest in ALS services, which I think everyone can agree is extremely necessary. Right now, the Village of Walden doesn't get the services that the residents deserve and this action, you guys supporting this and following suit with the Village of Maybrook Board and the Village of Montgomery Board and the Town Board, all in unison, all working together, saying this is an issue we need to address. We may not have every single answer, but a majority of each of the Boards in the Town, aside from the Village of Walden, unless they vote in this evening, will have come together in a very unique way to say, here's a way to address this issue. Let's do it. Sylvie Rainaldi: I would just like to respond very quickly to Trustee Elliott. 1 of his concerns as we look at our volumes, we've mentioned before that of the Villages, the Village of Walden is our number 1 call volume. Being able to staff 2 ambulances in the future or even as we would start up this tax district, it would make sense for us to be near where the volume is. That is just an operational decision based on what space we have available, but we're here in the Village of Walden now, and that would not be a game changer for us. In fact, it helps us with our response times to be flexible on where we're located in the Town. There's no promise or commitment that I can give you as far as contract wise that we would have no presence in Walden, but from just planning and logistics, it does not make sense for us to be out of Walden completely. So from a peace of mind, I'm not sure if that gives you any. As ambulances are super important and you guys have a high volume, we are not naive to that. We get that. We want that for our patients. Trustee Elliott: Just to be clear. I agree 100% that we need to fix the problems. I'm just not sure that this particular plan is actually the correct plan. I don't know enough about it to say that I'm going to put a tax on our residents and I'm still not really sure what the full picture is going to be. 4 Town Supervisor Maher: Understood. Mayor Ramos: The discussion is coupled with are you for or no, on this issue? Trustee Elliott: I like the idea, but currently I'm not for it. I'm not for this plan. Trustee Maher: I think everyone knows I've always been someone who's very capable of seeing both sides of the issue. I think that's why I was brought in to be a Trustee of this Village. I have a very level head. I always take my time and do my research, dig into both sides and sometimes I agree with the issues and the way they come out and sometimes I don't. But with this one, I'm really struggling to understand why board members are not in favor of the tax district. To be honest, John, I think you just said it, but the more I talk to people, I realize it's not that they don't want it, it's that they don't understand it and they don't understand the outcome of not having it versus the outcome of having it. I don't know what else to say, I read everything so many times. The challenges, the questions, the answers. They're all here in front of us, but they're not all inclusive of how this is going to go for the next 5 to 10 years. Like Sylvie and Town Supervisor had explained to us. We're one of the first areas to do this. They're learning as they're going. And I'm okay with that. I understand that that's scary to people. At the end of the day, it's not the Trish Maher Ambulance Tax District. It's not the John Ramos Ambulance Tax District. It's not for us to know all the details. We are going to know the details as they come about. As they continue to dig in and figure out what's needed. But as a whole, this is needed for our residents. This is, I believe, a life and death situation where we need to do what we can to provide the best outcome for our residents. And right now, an 80% dropped call rate is not okay. It's really painful to see that the lack of education could be what causes this to not go through. I think it was Rich McNamee that said in our last meeting that our budget holds 3.4 million for our Fire District and we're asking for a quarter of that for this to save lives. We have to look at things in perspective and you have to put it into perspective, do we have every single detail of every single issue that might come up? No, because we're one of the first Towns and Villages to do this. We really need to put our trust in our leaders to trust to know that this is the best thing for our residents. We've had so many testimonials from Village residents who are in favor of this. My feelings are that, like I said, putting personal feelings aside, just looking at the facts, just looking at the research, this is by far what's best for our Village residents. I'm definitely in favor. Town Supervisor Maher: I think I understand everyone's concerns. I'll continue to listen to everybody. If they have a specific question, happy to answer it. I think no matter what, if we vote on this and it goes the wrong way, we're not going anywhere. We're going to come back in your next year. Not much will be changed aside from the fact that it will be a year later and will be a year behind. Manager Revella: You are not going to wait a year to talk about it again, right? We will continue the conversation until it resolved? Town Supervisor Maher: In no world would we wait another year. Trustee Maher: Can you explain one more time, what the repercussions are and why you would have to wait a year before forming a tax district. Town Supervisor Maher: In order to form the tax district for January 1st, 2023, we need to have our tax district created with all 3 Villages opted in by March 1st. There's a 30 day referendum period, which is why we need the votes and everything done before the end of January. That's just the calendar and how it flows. So, we would have to wait until January 1, 2024 at the earliest to begin the district and it likely will take a full year to establish ALS services and get the approvals 5 from the state that we need. So, you're really looking at January 1, 2024, if the Village opts in tonight, that potentially we can provide ALS services to our residents or as late as 2025. And that is a life or death issue. Trustee Elliott: That's all assuming that we have to do it as a tax district. I don't think anyone disagrees that something needs to be done to make it better, but it doesn't necessarily have to be done as a tax district. I believe there's other ways to do it where we can have the same product, but without creating a tax district. Town Supervisor Maher: I will tell you, John, unless you have something you would like to share. Over the last few years, I've researched this, and that's just not true. The tax district is the best way to do this and the only way to really, truly guarantee ALS services exclusively to Town residents. I know that because through the last 2 years, I've had private and public conversations with individuals who have willingly admit that private industries being able to provide ALS services just don't have the bandwidth to provide those services to residents. That's just the reality of the situation. With respect, I don't agree with that statement. Trustee Elliott: Has anyone talked to our businesses in the Town like Amazon and Medline? Because I know there's other Towns in Westchester County that have partnered with the hospitals and with businesses in the area where they were able to raise funding and not hit the taxpayers to do it. Town Supervisor Maher: Westchester models that probably isn't too comparable to the Town of Montgomery, but Amazon and Medline, I was asked how much would Medline and Amazon be contributing and the PILOTs? Out of the $800,000, the 19 PILOTs and the assumption of the 20 PILOTs that would be in existence as of next year, including Medline, we're looking at just under $100,000 of the $800,000 coming from just 20 businesses in the Town. So, what you're saying is happening at a smaller scale than them funding the whole thing. I don't see that being a realistic way to say, hey, you're paying X amount of dollars already and we also need you to fund everything else. This is a shared cost based on valuation for every entity in the district. And that's not to say that we won't be able to approach Amazon and Medline and they will be generous in terms of being able to help us purchase capital equipment. But we didn't think that was a responsible way to tackle the issue because you're hoping for charity as opposed to relying on a tax source that is guaranteed. A relationship with a business can have a contract with it over a period of years. But that is only good for whoever the head of that business is at that time. With the tax district, you're creating and establishing something that is guaranteed through the taxpayers, regardless of who lives there, who owns the business. Those taxes will stay the same. So, with respect to whatever you were just talking about, about Westchester partnering with hospitals, that's nothing we've seen as a realistic possibility over the last 2 years of our research. Trustee Elliott: Has anyone talked to them about it? Town Supervisor Maher: Talk to who, the local hospitals about helping to provide ambulance services with business partners? That's a nonstarter. Yes. We've asked for things and there are definitely positive conversations that are taking place, but none that indicate that it would pay for the entire service, which is unrealistic. Trustee Elliott: We're not saying to pay for the entire service. I know in Westchester they sponsor one of the ambulances. Which basically pays for their equipment, their ambulances. Town Supervisor Maher: Yes. That likely can happen. That's something that we can't guarantee. Again, irresponsible to plan that way and say, we're going to do this, but that's something that 6 absolutely could happen. We believe it will. Trustee Thompson: I am in agreement that we can improve our ambulance service for our community. I don't think anybody is disputing that, but I feel like this is really being forced. I recall in 2021, when the Village of Walden was having its reorganization meeting after elections or shortly thereafter, there was discussion about putting people on a committee, that the dialog was going to begin talking about this, perhaps forming a district, what we were going to do because our ambulance service was struggling. I can't speak to the other Villages or the Town, but the 2 people from the Village of Walden were not included in any discussion at all until the month of August. After August, it is my understanding there was no discussion again until the month of December. Now, all of a sudden, there's all these presentations hurry, hurry, hurry. We have the legal notice to take care of. We need to do this by March. I am very, very resentful that this is being pushed. People are being made to feel pressured. Our residents are being made to feel like if this doesn't happen, they will have no service at all. I just have a lot of problems with this. And while you have put a lot of time and effort in to collect data, why you have made presentations, I still think there are questions that are not answered. My biggest thing is we need a business model. We need an action plan. We have nothing in front of us. Nothing formal. I realize you can't predict for every single situation, but everything you've given us, to me, is rather generic. I've been reading through minutes for days and I see words like "wiggle room", "so in theory", even right now, the comment was made that the Village of Walden has the most calls. In this paperwork, it says, "No, that's not true. The Town of Montgomery has the most calls". Then the comments are made that "this is going to be a model. We are one of the first in the area to do this". In the paperwork, it said "there are many municipalities taking the jump". I just feel like there are a lot of contradictions. I would like to know what have we actually discussed with the private ambulance service? I took the time to read through 2 contracts that mobile life has with neighboring municipalities. I would like to have a cost analysis for the Town. If we go ahead and do this. Create a district. We're now going to, if I'm understanding it correctly, make the paramedics and EMTs Town employees. That opens another avenue with civil service requirements. Salary. I was told the salaries are rather low. I did some comparison numbers, the salaries that it says on a Google search that are the current salaries for EMTs in the Town of Montgomery are not all that much less than the national salaries. Somewhere in here are the state salaries. I stand corrected. Somewhere in this unbelievable amount of paperwork, I believe I saw something about the salary would be $58,000 with a benefit package on top of that. You're talking a lot of commitment if these people are made Town employees and they're civil servants. That's another concern of mine with salary, health benefits, retirement. That's why I'm interested in seeing a little more data from a private entity. That would strictly be a contract and those factors would be eliminated. I just think there needs to be more dialog and I think this should have happened many, many years ago. We should have been moving in this direction of improving our ambulance service. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The dialog started very recently. December seems to be the time when things really started rolling and I counted the days. That's 39 days. 39 days of reading volumes of material, having people talk to us. I just think that that is really pushing the envelope. I think our community will continue to have the ambulance service until this is ironed out and everybody can get on board, if we don't agree to this this evening and we're still going to have to fund our ambulance and keep it solvent until this is resolved. And if it has to wait until 2023, so be it. I just feel that we do not have a sound business model in place. There are still too many financial questions and I'm not ready to say yes to this at this point in time. Trustee Sebring: Since we've had our committee of 2 members meet with you, their number of meetings has not been a lot. A lot of information that should have been told to them, I believe, has not been done. Probably you had more meetings with the ambulance people for you to understand their situation, but it was never relayed to our 2 Trustees to come back to us. That's bothersome to me, because trying to do this in 2 months does not make any sense to me because there are still a lot of questions out there that you say we can work on later. Well, some of these questions that need to 7 be answered could possibly have to do with the State of New York. In my opinion, it could be I'm wrong, but if you transfer equipment from the volunteer Ambulance Corp to a district, you're going to have to go through the State of New York for authorization. And that would have it go through the assembly, which could take up to 8 months to a year. Why I know this is when I was in the Ambulance Corps back in the 70s to sell the building by the Thruway, it had to go before the State Assembly and that took time. You're getting rid of a 501c3 which I believe is a nonprofit. Now you're going to a profit organization. Which is totally different. You're getting rid of taxpayer's money. Funded by the public through donations and whatnot, that's public funded. Then I have another question, who owns the building on North Montgomery Street? Is it still under the Walden Ambulance Corps or they reside because you tried to sell it and you couldn't do it because it would have to be reverted back to the Village of Walden? How many hours does it take for a paramedic to be qualified at the Dutchess County Community College? Sylvie Rainaldi: its 2 years. It's a 2 year college degree. Trustee Sebring: I read in the report that it cost $8,900. Is that per semester? Sylvie Rainaldi: I'd have to look on the Dutchess County tuition page. Trustee Sebring: But if that's true, that's only per semester. Times that times 4. In order to be an ALS, you have to have your paramedic already certified by the State of New York, then to the health department. That takes time. So, you're not even ready for that. Sylvie Rainaldi: I'm so sorry. I think you're under the impression that we would not start ALS until we trained our current BLS members to become paramedics. Is that what you're asking? Trustee Sebring: Yes. Sylvie Rainaldi: That is not the case. That is that is not the plan at all. We would hire paramedics who were already certified. There is no plan to start your services after we've put anybody through training. Trustee Sebring: It would be later on, if that would be one of your things to mull over after we would be involved in an ambulance district. I would like to know that. Sylvie Rainaldi: I think, are you talking about how companies can sometimes do tuition reimbursement for employees just like any other company? That's not in the budget right now and there's no plan for that. It's something that companies can do as a benefit, but it's not part of our plan. Nor would it be or how we would start for ALS services. We will be hiring experienced paramedics. Trustee Sebring: The statement was made, it would make life or death, that we should know the information now because for the lack of knowledge, the organization could go downhill real quick because we are not knowledgeable of what we are really getting. The residents that are going to be paying their tax dollars to. And that should be what we should be talking about now. Whether it takes another year, it takes another year. I'm not in favor of doing this in 2 months. No matter what you say, what you try to do. I'm not going for 2 months. There are a lot of other questions. You should have your attorney with you all the time to be answering questions that we may have. Town Supervisor Maher: Look, just for setting the record straight for the life of me, I don't understand where this 2 month thing is coming from and there was an inaccurate statement made before about the first meeting being taking place in August, which is just not true. It's factually 8 inaccurate. There was another meeting several months earlier. The conversation started far earlier this year, with Trustee Baker and Trustee Willie Carley both in attendance for a one on one course on the issue of EMS and the situation. So this process started earlier this year. I'm not exactly sure which month, so I just want to dispel that this was done quickly over the last 2 months. That's just not true. Trustee Sebring: Sue Taylor, when she was Mayor, she was the one that asked for 2 volunteers to be on a committee and that's been almost a year. These 2 members that we have, have only had 2 meetings. And that's not enough. Trustee Baker: Then one in person with Brian. We had the one introductory meeting, which I think was it was in wintertime around maybe January-ish. Then the following one was around the August timeframe. Trustee Sebring: Like I said, I'm not in favor of doing this right now. Deputy Mayor Carley: First of all, thank you everyone for stating your positions. I believe as Trustees, we're supposed to vote on our information and what we believe should be, right or wrong, but enough to make a decision. With that being said, being a part of the meetings that we did have and yes, you're correct. Trustee Baker, as she stated, we had your initial meeting and then we have the one thereafter, I believe the August timeframe. Wasn't enough for meetings, but I've stated that several times with each time we had a presentation. I believe, 100% in what all the Trustees have said. 100% about the information and not having clarity on everything. I firmly believe that this Ambulance Corps and everything that we do should be about saving lives. It doesn't matter if this is supported or not supported. I don't see why the issue of services would be altered, especially when the board has already consented 100% that this is a need. Just don't feel comfortable making this decision. Board members individually don't feel comfortable making a decision. So, with that being said, the ambulance services should not change because, when we bring this back around again, we want to make sure we all are working together as a Town? With all 3 Villages. I did look at several models that I thought could lower the amount of funds that were required based on what the Town suggested. However, I do understand that based off my understanding, Supervisor Maher wanted to make sure the dollar amount was low enough, but yet high enough so we don't have to keep going back and forth with that. I understand that. But I also understand that all the answers are not going to be answered. We're always going to have questions. I don't believe that the Villages in the Towns should get involved with the making of new FTEs and things of that nature but at the same time, I do see the value in contracting and working with making sure the funds are there to help support. So, with that being said, in closing, I believe that even though the information wasn't there and all the things that we just discussed, which I sit with my colleagues and I agree with you 100%. However, I do believe that there does come times where we have to take a leap of faith and not faith, as in blind faith, but as an okay, let's continue with the process. My position is this, I am in favor of the district. I am in favor of moving forward. But I would like to see the meetings start immediately, as soon as we can within the next month. And you bring together all 3 of the Villages, a Town representative and the lawyer there and the financial person there and one person at a minimum for the Ambulance Corps itself and we hash this out so that we can make sure we're giving the best product as possible for our Village citizens. I believe it can be done with all the unanswered questions. Mayor Ramos: You're a yes? Deputy Mayor Carley: Yes. Trustee Maher: I agree. Everything you said was spot on with how I'm feeling. I think that it 9 sounds like the other Board members just need more time to grasp all of the information and get the answers to their questions that they still have. Are we having another meeting before the end of the year? What would the next steps be? Mayor Ramos: No, I still have to finish. We've exhausted a number of hours, number of days in the quest to answer a lot of questions, especially to the taxpayers in Village of Walden and surrounding areas. I'm going to start with first, there were a number of questions that we've asked that still are in limbo, that have not been answered. Given the Ambulance Corps ample time to do that. That's one thing. I've asked for financials. I've asked for documentation from the Ambulance Corps and the historical reference to find out what went wrong. Why are you asking for more money in order to facilitate the service? This is a legislative body. This is a local government and you have to show us that you have the certificate of needs. You have your business plan. You have your expenses if you're going to receive taxpayer money. You had received taxpayer money the past couple of years, $150,000 and an additional $50,000. That's taxpayer money. We want to see what it was used for. Who takes care of your documentation, your PCRs? Who sees them and who collects them? Where are they kept? I don't know if one of those two buildings are secure enough for you to handle patient care information, but that's another issue. Department of Health Certifications, just like Trustee Sebring was saying, we haven't seen those yet. The almighty dollar. Where is this money going? How is it being used? Where is it being used? Again, the North Montgomery building, who owns it? Who pays rent there? Your paramedic hours, I don't foresee this. You're looking to hire paramedics from the outside, but I see most of the ambulance services are having a hard time keeping paramedics or training them and retaining them. You want for FTEs for paramedics? If I'm correct, for paramedics. We've given you options. We've given you models that have either been successful or they're in place right now for like Town of Fishkill, Wappingers. I have not seen any of the Town of Montgomery Board members or your Trustees talk to any of the money stakeholders within the local municipalities. Town of Newburgh, Town of New Windsor. Nobody's spoken to Mr. Pacquiao or Mr. Manley. Nobody's spoken to Mr. Myers in the Town New Windsor. Those are the checkbooks. Those are the people that are monitoring budgets and know how to dispense funds and finances. I believe we should contract and I don't think the tax district is ready yet. Need to go back to the drawing board and you need to get all the stakeholders involved. Just like what we did in the comprehensive plan, in your corridor plan, you need to get all the stakeholders, members of the Village of Maybrook, Dennis Leahy, the Mayor and along with his Deputy Mayor. The Village of Montgomery. Even though they signed on, they need to be represented and also the Village of Walden. We did our homework and we wouldn't be sitting here passionate about what the circumstances are and what is ahead for our taxpayers. We don't want to see this balloon out to a point where we're going to strangle our taxpayers later on during the years. I have a slew of other questions, but like I said, you do have a lot of homework to do. It's admirable that you got, can everybody see this? This is the list of your meetings for this year, but it didn't take but this year to generate this and this is a good start. But you're going to have to get all the stakeholders involved. All the stakeholders. I'm talking about private citizens, I'm talking about local elected officials. I do agree that we need ambulance service. I totally do. But it needs to be done right. And I profess this ever since this was brought up in December. This needs to be done the right way. That's all I have to say right now. Town Supervisor Maher: Mayor, I just want to say, I appreciate your passion and your diligence. Obviously, from what we're hearing tonight, this is not something that's being supported by this Board as a whole. So, we're going to have to go back to the drawing board. You have my commitment, 100% that we'll have more meetings. Obviously, this problem isn't going away. I'm not going anywhere. We're going to address it. We're going to address it together. I will say with some of your statements, Mayor, they're just not true. We've worked with everybody. Everybody has been involved. They've had an opportunity to ask questions to go in even deeper. Me and you have had private conversations, as I've had with everyone else in the process. We've absolutely been 10 in contact over the last 2 years with the Town of Newburgh, Town of New Windsor. If it's not directly Brian Maher, through other individuals that were part of the process creating feedback. We've had them in our meetings. I just don't want folks to believe that we haven't done all of those things because we really have. But one thing that I will do better is present the fact that all of these things have been done more clearly in the future. Work together with you, Sir, our other Mayors, every private entity and continue to do what we already have been doing to a point where we get a lot more information that you need in order to be able to be in a more successful position to make this happen next year. You have my word on that. Personally, I will do better and we will do better together. Mayor Ramos: Thank you, Supervisor Maher. Trustee Maher: I just want to know for everyone that is against this, does anyone have another plan or what is your response to the taxpayers who want this and who are asking why we're not in favor of the tax district? Mayor Ramos: Trustee Maher, I think we've done our homework on that. We provided different models from the Town of Wappingers, Town of Fishkill. Town Supervisor Maher: It won't work. But it doesn't matter tonight. We've heard the Board. We will have these conversations. We will get to a similar point next year, but with hopefully everybody having their time and the information they need and I think we'll have success next year. It is what it is. Mayor Ramos: The Town did a lot more work on the comprehensive plan and the corridor plan than we have with this ambulance tax district. You gave us your word and you're online with the by attacking this and giving it a little bit more to benefit the taxpayers of the Town of Montgomery and the 3 Villages. But I've got to say that we've done our homework and we've provided over 125 questions to the board of Town of Montgomery Ambulance. The reason why there are questions is because there are question marks in our heads. Along with the Village of Maybrook. I don't know if the Village of Montgomery had any questions that they asked, but we have questions. Everybody has done their homework and like our attorney said, if we go with this, there's no take backs. We want to do it right. We want to see 2025, with an elite ambulance service done the right way. If it's done the right way, I have no qualms in funding anything like that. I'll leave you to your word and we'll get here and we'll get there together next year. Thank you, everyone. Trustee Sebring: I would just like to say something to Pat Maher. I was one of the Ambulance Corps members back in the 70s. I helped build a building on Oak Street. I helped build a building on Scofield Street. I have a lot of faith that the volunteers back then would still want to see volunteers. However, the number of hours it takes for somebody to become a Basic Life Support member is long. I am in favor of keeping the ambulance going. I always have been and I always will. Because I did have a vested interest in the Walden Ambulance Corps and I still do now. However, times have changed. They want to advance their status. I get that. I have no problems with that. But we have to know more knowledge of what's going on. What we do with the buildings. Trustee Maher: I agree with you. There needs to be more knowledge. Trustee Sebring: Right, so it has to take more time. I don't want to see the ambulance not being able to service Walden. This is where we started from. It took a lot of energy back then to get it going. A lot of dedicated people. You have dedicated people now. And that's not going to stop because everybody has things that they want to do to help the people and it's going to take time. 11 Trustee Baker: Trustee Maher in regards to how will we answer to our residents? I know from myself multiple times and I've spoken about this with Supervisor Maher. I've gone door to door knocking on residents doors to ask them their viewpoints and how they felt for an ambulance district. The concerns and questions that we have brought up are the same exact ones our residents have. I am by no means anti Ambulance District whatsoever. I myself have had the unfortunate occurrence of having to take multiple ambulance rides. They are vital, they are important, and that's why this needs to be done. There are, not minor questions, big ones. At this point after 2 years, in my opinion, we should know what model we want to go in. We should know whether we want to do a hybrid or contract or just solely do the volunteer ambulance with both BLS and ALS. That's an example. To me and several residents, that should have already been sorted out. We should already know we want to go that direction or not go that direction. To me, that's a big one that needs to be known to be able to go forward. The "we'll figure it out later" that just doesn't sit with a lot of residents. It just doesn't. Yes, I understand there are residents that really want to go for this. Absolutely. And it will happen. But there are really big key ones, not minor little details. You're not going to know every in and out. There's always going to be an unknown variable or something unexpected come up. Absolutely. Don't dispute that. But there are certain big key ones, are these ambulance employees and that was a big one that a lot of residents brought up. Are they going to be Town employees? And the civil service requirements? That was a big one a lot of residents brought up to me when I was doing my door knocking more so than the actual model that would go with the contracts. That was probably the key issue that a lot of residents brought up. I think that needs to be determined and addressed first. I understand Supervisors Maher's point that the purchase of a car may not be the best analogy, but you get the idea of what I'm saying. When you're going with something this large and this complex, those things need to be set in place first before you go to somebody and ask them for funds. I don't see it as a leap of faith. I take it more as a gamble and hope that it works. And if it doesn't, how do we answer to the residents then, if we don't get these details down first? Because they're the ones that are going to get hurt, especially their wallets, if this doesn't work out the way we hope. Hurry up, get the district formed and then worry about details later. And if it doesn't work 1, we can't back out of it and 2, we have to answer to our residents, why did you go forward with something when you didn't have all those details? Because those details do matter to them. Town Supervisor Maher: Trustee Baker, I appreciate you. Everything you do have done that I've ever asked you to do. You've been there every time you ever need to volunteer, you've been there. I appreciate your concern. I know it comes from a very genuine place. You all have my word. We're going to double our efforts. We'll be back here next year. Would have preferred to get this done earlier. It's not going to happen. I was going to get back to work and we'll get it done the right way. Trustee Baker: I understand and I really want to work with you on that. And I hope you will want me to work there beside you because it's an incredibly important issue to our residents. I do want to be there for the step and assist you in any manner that I can. Deputy Mayor Carley: I'd like to answer that question because Trustee Maher brought it up. I'm just going to give an example because we're coming up reelections and my term for reelection is there and going around people asking about the Ambulance District. The problem I have that wasn't communicated or is not communicated well, and I think we would have answered this question a lot more effectively if it was brought up sooner and then it could have been addressed over a year, over 6 months. The question was this, are we going to lose our ambulance services because we don't have a district? I think that whole thought came out in everyone's created fear, saying, we're not going to have ambulance service because we don't have a district. And that's just totally wrong. I'm not saying that to fix it or anything like that. But the point is we could have communicated that and make sure that message was very clear. Because there is or is not, ambulance services will continue 12 in the Village of Walden until we fix this. The amount of time that we have right now as Trustee Sebring said, when you have the 2 months, we try to get this information, only went to 100 or so people. Guess what, I didn't hit the Village of Walden as tinkering between 8 and 9,000. That's another example of the information hasn't been conveyed enough so that the Village residents have a full understanding of what's going on. Clearly they grasp on to a significant emotional side. We don't have ambulance service and they said, I got a mom, I got a dad, I got this and I got that. We need ambulance services. And I had to explain to them, which I don't have a problem and I'll do it every time I speak to somebody, services will continue. However, these are the obstacles. These are the things we're trying to fix. Town Supervisor Maher: I just have to express this very important fact. That might have started some of those conversations and confusion. The reality is very, very dire. If the Town of Montgomery did not provide the financial support that it did at $150,000 *inaudible*. It's not because they had no clue what they're doing, it has to do with the fact that their operational budget is received through reimbursements that they don't know exactly when they're getting. So they don't have the ability to actually execute a real business model, which was very clearly explained for quite a while. I think you might have heard in the community, maybe somebody saying something like that, well, if we don't continue to get support from the Town, this will happen. But at no point did anyone say we're not going to get services, but it's really important to note that it is in the realm of possibilities that the Ambulance Corps itself, without support, may not be able to continue that. That's real. That's a that's a real thing. Deputy Mayor Carley: Clarity for everyone else listening, this is a reality. If the Ambulance Corps was to go away, you still get ambulance services. The timing of your ambulance services may be altered because they're coming from a distance. What I see and what I hear is that we want to make sure that the timeliness of ambulance services are provided to our residents within our Town and within our Village. They will still get ambulance services. But the timeliness of it may be prolonged versus shortened. That's the key to this whole thing. Currently, the Ambulance Corps has BLS services and we get our ALS services from a mobile life and others. That's where we get it from and from what we were told. Of course, mobile life, when I spoke to them, their services are there. When I found out they have a place where they sit here in the Village of Walden for ALS. Not always monitored or not always there, but they have a place where they sit. The ambulance services will continue with or without the district, with or without the Town of Montgomery Ambulance Corps. But we don't want that. We want to keep it. As Trustee Sebring said, it has a legacy and we want to make sure we have our legacy and we want to grow the legacy and make sure it's the best. I agree with you, Supervisor Maher. We want to be that beacon light. We want to show people and be that example to the rest of the Towns, Villages that are around municipalities. Hey, look at what Montgomery is doing. It sits back to answer the question that Trustee Maher said. It's legit. These are not questions that are just out of I don't like somebody. They're not based on relationships. They're based off a fact. They're based off of business. Do you have the funds to carry your vision? Yes or no. Then if the answer is no, then let's see all the pitfalls. Did you put in a mitigate of efforts in order to overcome these pitfalls? And now we can give you the funds or we don't. That's the typical thought of risk management when you go to a bank. The same thing happens here in the Village. We're not just taking this like we don't care because everyone has stated 100%, this needs to be fixed. It's the time frame that like Trustee Lynn brought up. It's the timeframe that others brought up that doesn't sit well. That's where we're at and I just wanted to convey that. Thank you. Manager Revella: I just want to make sure, Brian says that we will get back to this next year. You don't mean 2023 because we're in 2022. We can continue this next meeting and the meeting after, the meeting after, until it gets resolved, correct? Town Supervisor Maher: We're going to be fine. We got heated a little tonight and everybody was 13 really passionate, but it's all because we care. You got my word. We're going to start immediately, John Revella, and we'll be back in force and we'll get this done. Mayor Ramos: Just for clarification, the 2022 Ambulance Corps Municipality Engagement Plan. Is that still in effect or are we changing that? Sylvie Rainaldi: We already held the first meeting. Mayor Ramos: Your next meeting is February 8th. Sylvie Rainaldi: Correct. We already had the first meeting. Nobody from the Village of Walden attended that meeting. The next will be February. Trustee Baker: That's one thing I would like to bring up. The one day, I got the notice the day of the meeting and the other meeting, we got the notice 24 hours. I do not have that list. Sylvie Rainaldi: I'm sorry. I sent out the Zoom link that day, but the schedule I presented at the Trustees meeting that you guys how it just held. I didn't send out the Zoom link until that day, but I gave you the schedule 2 weeks prior. Trustee Baker: I'll recheck my paperwork. Sylvie Rainaldi: Just a few things from the Ambulance Corps perspective. I just wanted to thank the Trustees first for the amount of time and due diligence that you put into this project over the past, particularly 2 months that we've been working on it. I'm sure you could tell, the Ambulance Corps is disappointed in the outcome of tonight. I think that the momentum of this ambulance district with the opting in from the Village of Montgomery and the Village of Maybrook, to then be halted by the Village of Walden, I think is very disappointing. There were a few things that I wanted to just address very quickly in that the idea of having a go live of a tax district in 2023, the Ambulance Corps has committed in multiple presentations to exactly what services would be provided with that plan. We talked about it in various Trustee meetings. That would be the addition of a second ambulance that we've talked about and then the start up of ALS services later on in the year. We have a 3 year plan between 2023, 2024, 2025. That plan, ultimately just because of this decision, just shifts for a year. It gives, as you've mentioned, the opportunity to look into other decisions as far as using different services. I think from a member of the public perspective versus a Trustee had I am going to make a comment that I'm not sure your how your plan would be to do that if you had no negotiation or finances to negotiate with. Which a tax district would give you. I'm just confused on a personal note about how that is beneficial to you to have nothing to negotiate with if you don't have a tax district. That's my member of the public question. But other than that, I have sent out, I gave you guys the list of those Trustee meetings. We are available. We've put in many, many hours of work sessions and various presentations, and providing you with whatever information you need. I know some information tonight was slightly incorrect with what was communicated. It means that we're not doing a very good job teaching what needs to be done, and I know that we're committed to making sure that that happens so that there is more accurate information out there. Ultimately, you guys have put in a lot of work, and I appreciate that. I am one to ask questions as well, and we'll just keep going and work harder. Thank you. Manager Revella: The Board didn't vote no. They just didn't vote yes, yet. There's still time to move forward in the future if they can get this resolved. So, don't be disappointed. Sylvie Rainaldi: But for 2023. I guess you could still vote before the end of this meeting. It doesn't seem like that's your plan for 2023, which is like I said, I am disappointed in for sure. 14 Deputy Mayor Carley: David Donovan, our attorney. The correct Latin term was "no backsies". Mayor Ramos: John and Dave, is there a need for a polling of the Board? Manager Revella: There was no call for a motion so there is nothing to do at this time. Attorney Donovan: Your options are to do nothing. No action equals not opting in. Your option is someone could move to have a resolution that's been submitted. Someone could move that, second and it could be voted up or down. You don't have to vote. By not voting, you're not opting in. So, you are in effect opting out. Mayor Ramos: Thank you. Is that the agreement of the Board? No action means opting out. Trustee Elliott: Yes, I agree. Mayor Ramos: Trustee Maher? I understand that you were yes. Trustee Maher: We don't have any other choice, right? Mayor Ramos: Not yet. I think Supervisor Maher and the team will get together and involve us. Don't leave us out in the dark and we'll see what we can work out. Town Supervisor Maher: No, we'll continue to involve you 100% as we have. Mayor Ramos: Thank you. Discussion – Police Policies Manager Revella: The police policies that were given out, the huge documents that we’re trying to review. It's a lot to go through. I have the Police Chiefs and Sergeant Werner here to just kind of give a synopsis for the Board on where we were with policies and what we have to do to get that in place to move forward for accreditation. I did have all of the old policies and new policies posted on our website where the public and anyone else to review to compare. Chief Herlihy: Tonight I was called here to talk about our policy reform that we've been working on. It's been a joint effort between Sergeant Werner and myself. We've been working on it since the inception. I brought it to the Board's attention that we would like to partner with Lexipol around November of 2020. We all agreed upon it in June of 2021 and that's when we partnered with Lexipol. From that point, Sergeant Werner started working on it very diligently and full steam ahead. We knew we had a lot of policies that we needed to tackle. Originally, we started out with the Village of Walden. We had about 25 current general orders, as well as the rules and regulations. There was approximately 53 parts to rules and regulation. However, that was back in 1980, when those were originally put into place. We definitely felt with the times going on in the world today that we needed to make adjustments and we partnered with Lexipol. Lexipol is a limited liability partnership. 2 gentlemen created it. They were police officers out in California who turned into attorneys. They partnered with about 10 people and they grew from that point, going multi- statewide. To date, we have transformed our current general orders to encompass 160 policies. They are to comply with the State, Federal and the LEAP, which is the Law Enforcement Accreditation Program, which is what our ultimate goal to maintain is, accreditation for the agency. 160 policies are what we currently have in place, as well as 18 of the procedures. We have begun to train our membership with the hopes and anticipation that all of the policies that we worked on would be accepted by the Board. I can only bring the policies to the Board. I cannot approve them. That is up 15 to the Board. Our goal is to continue forward. We have a few more of the procedures that we need to work on. Then what we need to start doing is our proofs. Proofs are basically our showing that we are following the standards with all of our membership. So basically, we have to upload documentation to show that we are following all of our standards. I said that we have begun to train all of our membership in the new 160 policies and some of the procedures that we're working on. We have begun to do daily training bulletins. Our daily training bulletins are basically snippets of the policies. It's a reading comprehension of it and then at the end, it's a question/answer. They ask you a question pertaining to what you just read and then you must answer the policy accordingly. We've been doing that since about August. We run about 30 daily training bulletins per month and we had just executed all of July's. Currently, everyone is up to speed. Right now, though, we are working with both the previous and the new policies, although I cannot put the new policies into place until they are accepted by the Board. Mayor Ramos: Thank you. Nice job, Bill. Trustee Thompson: I'm still reading through all of the policies on the website, but thank you for all your hard work Bill and Roy. Trustee Sebring: I'm still going through them all, too. Quite lengthy. A lot I don't understand as a layman, but that's what the Police Department is there for, to do what they're supposed to do and write it up the way it should be worked out and implemented. Trustee Maher: Thank you, Bill. Trustee Elliott: Thank you, Chief and Sergeant. Mayor Ramos: I'm like about maybe not even halfway there, but from what I'm reading, it's a lot of work and it's from 1980, it's come along pretty well. Thank you, everyone. Each member of the Police Department, yourself and Sergeant Werner for taking the lead on getting us into the 2025. Deputy Mayor Carley: Because it's so lengthy, are we going to just wait till everyone finishes reading it or can we start? I would suggest a section at a time so we can get this off our plate and then Chief can move forward with either keeping that policy or reinstating the new one. If we can figure out how many we want to read, get approved? So we're not waiting. Trustee Thompson: That's a good idea. Have him break down how he wants us to review them. And then we'll have a discussion if we have a question. Deputy Mayor Carley: Right. Get that one reviewed and approved and then we move on. Mayor Ramos: Can you cut it up into quarters? That gives us one quarter at a time where we can review it? I know ultimately the whole package has to be approved by the Board. But I would think its simplicity reading a quarter of it, discussion and approving it at that point and then approving it at that point and then approving the whole package after we are done. I think most of us have gone through the first quarter at least, but that would be beneficial to us. Deputy Mayor Carley: Chief, do you have a timeline? Chief Herlihy: The sooner the better. Currently we're operating under the old policies and procedures, but I want to put the new ones into place only because that'll bring us to the forefront with everything going on. The Law Enforcement Accreditation Program puts us at the highest standards. When we read over these policies and procedures, you'll see in the outlines that we sent 16 you. There are specifics in those policies that we must adhere to and you'll see the State, which is the State. The Federal, obviously is the Federal and the Law Enforcement Accreditation Program. All those we cannot change. If we change things of that, that can ultimately not enable us to get the Law Enforcement Accreditation Program that we seek. Deputy Mayor Carley: You said the different levels you got your Fed, State and you have local correct? Chief Herlihy: No. The LEAP is the accreditation program guidelines. Deputy Mayor Carley: Is that encompassing the 160 or is that something else? Chief Herlihy: Yes. Deputy Mayor Carley: Which one would you prioritize first or can you break that down? If you had to say, these are the ones we need now, so we can get them out of our plate. I know you want them all. Chief Herlihy: I understand. It took us a couple of months to get up to speed with all of them as well. Deputy Mayor Carley: Can you bring that back to the Board? You look through it and as the Mayor said, if you break it down in quarters out of 160. And then you said, let's get this top 25, top this, go through that and then we'll move forward. Something like that. Mayor Ramos: it would really help us out and it'll bring more clarity and ease of approving them when it comes down to approval. We're not going to take long, just let us get a bite on it. If you can split those up and just tell us we need you review 1 through 60. Policy numbers and then continue. I think it would be beneficial to all of us. Then our ultimate goal, hopefully in the next 3 meetings, we could probably punch that out. 2 meetings, we could probably punch that out. Chief Herlihy: We could say do sections 1, 2 and 3 now. Maybe meet in like 2 weeks as the committee and then we can make a decision from there and then we'll move on to the remainder. Unless people need more time, if you need more time, that's fine. The longer we wait, the longer we wait to go for the accreditation. Mayor Ramos: I think everybody is in agreement Deputy Mayor Carley: Before we vote, do we have to have all of them reviewed? Mayor Ramos: Has to be all. Chief Herlihy: Yes. The Board has to approve all of the policies. Deputy Mayor Carley: No, I know they have to approve all. For instance, section one, we review section one. We say approval, so you can start acting in that. Then do the same for section two versus wait till we finish the whole thing and then get you Board approval. Can we do that? Chief Herlihy: Yes. We can do it by section. That would be fine. Mayor Ramos: What sections you're talking about? 17 Chief Herlihy: 1, 2, 3. Trustee Thompson: He wants 1,2, 3 by the next Board meeting. Correct? Mayor Ramos: Yes. And then we'll discuss the further, 4, 5, 6, maybe 7. Chief Herlihy: 1, 2, 3 sounds perfect. Mayor Ramos: And then just set up a plan where we can bite it at it. Chief Herlihy: Can you just add the mission statement and Chief's preface? That's basically just a page document. Mayor Ramos: Thank you. Discussion – Building Code – Dates and Times Work Can Be Performed Manager Revella: We were getting further clarification. We're trying to get rid of some conflicting language in that section. I'm not sure if Dave had any suggestions for potential language. Attorney Donovan: Last meeting the Building Department had identified a discrepancy, holidays with noise. You weren't allowed to do certain things. There was a conflict in 2 sections about what you can do on holidays, which led to a larger Board discussion about perhaps analyzing the entire issue. We had a question about daytime hours, actually defined in the game. I'm not sure if the Board has read through Chapter 181, fairly comprehensive. Looks like it was adopted in 2000. I don't know if the Board is interested in redoing this entire section. If you are, you may want to think about it, I don't want to spend taxpayer money for you, but to have an acoustical engineer involved because there are certain decibel levels that are identified as emanating from certain areas into other areas. I don't even think your Code Compliance Officer even has the equipment to measure that. Actually you can get it as an app on your iPhone, but also there is a decibel meter that has to be calibrated on a periodic basis. I don't know whether the board wants to host it *inaudible* or you just want to kind of take a look at and try to find the conflicting language. *inaudible*. Mayor Ramos: Can you repeat the last thing that you said? Attorney Donovan: I think the last thing I said was whether or not you wanted just to address the narrow issue that came up at the last meeting, which is the discrepancies on holidays or whether you want to look at a larger lens and reanalyze the entire Chapter 181, which does appear to be fairly comprehensive, although it was adopted 20 years ago. Manager Revella: We do need to correct the narrow issue. I'm just not sure if the Board wants to get into the whole picture or not. The whole chapter. Trustee Elliott: Does the does the PD enforce that or does the Code Enforcement? Manager Revella: Code Enforcement is the enforcement arm of it, but the PD has to come and do the actual sound meter. Trustee Maher: Can you clarify just what exactly is, not the larger issue, just what Code Enforcement is looking for us to modify here? Manager Revella: There are 2 paragraphs consecutively that say conflicting things. 18 Attorney Donovan: It's about construction activities. One section says you can't do them on holidays, and the next section right after that says you can do them on holidays. Construction activities between 10 am and 5 pm. It's a conflict. Manager Revella: The first question is whether the Board wants to allow it or not. If they do want to allow it to, are they going to have any restrictions on just for people that can do stuff in their own home is allowed and outside contractors aren't or they want to have it for everybody. I'm not sure what the Board's pleasure is. Mayor Ramos: Dave, 181, what? Attorney Donovan: 181-7 paragraphs B1 and B2. Trustee Maher: We need clarification on if we're going to allow construction on holidays and weekends. Manager Revella: At all. And if you are, are you allowing it just for people working on their own homes or for contractors as well? Attorney Donovan: Relative to that issue that came up last meeting about who may work during the week or whatever it may be but doing construction activities. Your code does regulate that. It says if you're in your home and you're over a certain decibel level, it could be a violation. Exceptions, things that don't apply and *inaudible*. But if you live in your home, doing your own work, if you exceed the decibel level, that's violation of the code. Trustee Sebring: We had a comment from the a resident that this section more or less pertains to the building industry itself, not the homeowners. The contractors working on Saturdays and Sundays and holidays. That's what I gather from this code information that we're discussing now. Attorney Donovan: I am reading this, *inaudible* a homeowner and a contractor or a business, I suppose if you are on the receiving end of the noise, it's a difference to you, whether it's a homeowner working on his own house or a contractor working. Because if you've exceeded the level of the way it is now, it's a violation. But it may not matter if you are on the receiving end of the noise. Trustee Thompson: I think we need to make holiday less generic. Obviously you don't want to hear someone on the major holidays, but does anyone really have a problem if someone wants to make a little noise on Washington's Birthday or Memorial Day? Holidays alone needs to be addressed. I agree with Mr. Donovan that I don't see where you can say a contractor or private homeowner. Noise is noise. Whoever makes the noise is making the noise. Trustee Sebring: Plus the time that they start in the morning. Sometimes they may start right at dusk. Trustee Thompson: The code says, I believe 8 am till either 10 or 11 pm. Trustee Sebring: Sometimes they start earlier than that. Soon as the sun comes up. Trustee Baker: The one thing that struck out to me is the holiday. I can understand not having it on Christmas or Thanksgiving or even Easter, but I don't think anyone's going to cry on Washington's Birthday if they hear a hammer. 19 Trustee Elliott: I think that the times need to be addressed also because I just know from when I was working. The landscapers start at, I don't know, 8 o'clock in the morning and technically the leaf blowers were above the decibel level that it was supposed to be at. But do we want to shut down the landscapers until 10 am? Mayor Ramos: I agree. Trustee Maher: I think a majority of people do work on their house, whether they hire a contractor or do it themselves. Typically on the weekends or holidays. I'm in favor of keeping that. I think that we could make some adjustments to the times. I think definitely some clarification on which holidays we can look at that deeper as far as restricting certain holidays. But I think, in general, I'm okay with that. Deputy Mayor Carley: I think there need to be revisions. However, just to go back to the Village Manager, he asked the same question. Are we looking at just this specifically? Or are we going to do the whole document? I'm in favor of doing the whole document because I just want to make sure everything is addressed and we don't have to go back and do it again. In regards to this specifically, yeah, we need to clean up the language so that we can make a decision as a Board. Either you can have work on a certain day or you cannot. Trustee Thompson: I agree we should review the whole document. Mayor Ramos: I also agree with reviewing the whole document. Obviously I see some issues with if you want to call it collecting evidence, with the decibel readers. I agree with you, Mr. Donovan, about the calibration of these instruments, who possesses them, how it's done and time limitations. If the person who's running it for 2 minutes, I'd like to see some interpretation on that, Mr. Donovan. What the length of time is for or an excessive noise? Is it 2 minutes or 10 minutes or half hour? I think we should review that. Another homework assignment for us. As we stated, historically, I think we should review the book itself in a timely fashion where we can take time and look at the codes for its relevancy. Attorney Donovan: Does the Board have any inclination about engaging an acoustical engineer? I just say that because there's limitations, for example, if the emitter, a person making the noises at a residential zone, that he/she is limited to 62 decibels going into an industrial zone. 55 into a business zone. 55 decibels to another residential zone during the day. 45 at night. I have no idea if those are still accurate. When you have a business owner going in an industrial at 62 decibels, I don't know or if there's a source that we can use that says, yes, these are the appropriate measures. I just don't know. I would just be repeating those and I don't know if the Board is satisfied with that. It must have been analyzed 20 years ago. Manager Revella: My suggestion would be that everyone would go through this chapter and come up with any suggestions for comments or question. Once we get that done, then we would consider bringing someone in when we get to that that point. I think it's important for everyone to go through first and see if there's any points of interest or contention that we need to address. Language wise or code wise, before we get to the decibels. And then the decibels will probably be like the last thing to address and if we need to. Deputy Mayor Carley: Do you think Mr. Donovan is correct? Should we get somebody in? I don't know if you get somebody in as in you paying hours of testimony or something. But just get information concerning what are the laws for the decibel levels currently. Trustee Thompson: Wouldn't our Building Inspector have some of that information? He's 20 constantly getting training about the different standards. Would Dean know that? Manager Revella: He would have some language on that and I think the Chief may also may have some suggestions on acceptable decibels from information they get from alerts or from other laws from other departments. So we could get some background on that. I can ask our engineer if they have suggestions for somebody who may have some insight. Attorney Donovan: The other thing, that this is all *inaudible* and what we have discovered there is the decibel level is an acceptable measure meter and it's over a certain level to violate. Not always the proper measure. By that, I mean, when you are out during the daytime, there's a lot of ambient noise in the background, 60 decibels, maybe too loud. If it's nighttime, when there's not a lot of ambient noise in the background decibels, maybe *inaudible* because you hear that noise. John, I don't know if Lanc & Tully has that kind of ability, but I do think we want to lean on somebody at some point. I think really should go through it. At some point in time, I think you're going to really need to lean on a professional noise person to make to make sure that what you ultimately do works in the real world. Trustee Thompson: From going to Planning Board meetings, this has come up, especially with the bus company and they do address this. The engineers can address this. Trustee Elliott: Can we have that solely on the Police Department? Usually you get a noise complaint that goes into the Police Department, then the police are going to respond and they're going to take the noise measurement and then Code Enforcement is going to write the summons? Is that how it works now? Manager Revella: No. The PD would write the summons right now. Trustee Elliott: I know a problem we used to have was, we were supposed to take the measurement from 250 feet away. But if there was a bird chirping in the tree, it picked that up first and no matter what, you could have had no TV on or radio on in your house, but it's picking up the bird. There are issues with it. Mayor Ramos: Let's all review the 181 and come back next meeting with some help and then we could reassess that to where we're going to go after that. Manager Revella: Yes. Thank you. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve Payment of Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Correspondence Trustee Maher: I received an email from a local filmmaker, David Bain. I'm not sure if he reached out to the rest of the Board. Just in favor of us partnering with our local airport and trying to get more flights out of Stewart. Manager Revella: I got that as well and I responded just so the Board's aware. Would be happy to help coordinate anything and work with them on getting more flights in Stewart. If anybody else, has any insight, obviously reach out and we'll work with them. Trustee Maher: I was definitely in favor of that as well. I'm not sure how much we can help, but whatever we can do. 21 Trustee Elliott: I received the same correspondence. I'm also in favor of that. Trustee Thompson: I received 3 different emails regarding the Ambulance District and I don't think I got the 1 about Stewart Field. If I did, I overlooked it. I didn't see it. Trustee Sebring: I received the same 3 emails about the Ambulance District, but I didn't get the 1 about Stewart Airport extra flights. Trustee Baker: I received the same correspondence in regards to the airport and to the Ambulance District. I had a couple of residents stop me in regards to concerns about speeding on East Avenue and wanted to know if it was possible to get a traffic strip monitor to see how many people are actually speeding and what speeds they are speeding that. Deputy Mayor Carley: I received the same correspondences and I agree that it's something as the Village Manager stated that it'd be nice to look into. Mayor Ramos: I received 7 different emails by residents of Village of Walden. And I received correspondence from Mayor Dennis Leahy from the Village of Maybrook, along with his Deputy Mayor, Mr. Pritchard about the Ambulance Corps. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Thompson: I had a Village resident ask me, I believe it was after 1 of our Board meetings, there was discussion about traffic control. Someone asked me, is there a possibility of putting a turn only to the right at the end of Coldenham Road? The traffic gets so backed up on Coldenham Road. and you can't really, it's very difficult to turn left to get out onto route 208. Is there any way we can control the flow of traffic there? He suggested we put the sign saying no left turn or perhaps for certain hours of the day, no left turn. Manager Revella: That was part of the traffic study for the townhouse project. I'm not sure if they ended up requesting a light there. But the other part is that's a State and County road, we can't control it. We can suggest to the County or the State to make those corrections. I believe that was part of the study. We have to ask the Building Department if they recall what the results of the traffic study was on that section. It was 1 of the intersections that was studied. Trustee Baker: I wanted to thank Supervisor Maher and Sylvie Rainaldi for all the work that they have done. I don't want them to feel as though it's not appreciated or acknowledged that the work that they did do, even though the decision didn't go the way that they had hoped. We do appreciate the leg work that they have done on that. I also wanted to thank Supervisor Maher. He did a great job at obtaining those COVID-19 kits, that have been passed out to the residents. I was one of the delivery drivers, as well as many, many volunteers. Those who volunteered to deliver those kits to those residents. They were overjoyed. I didn't come across one person who didn't appreciate getting those kits. Thank you TOM Strong, Robbie Brown and Town Supervisor for obtaining it and all those residents that stepped up and helped hand out those kits. Trustee Maher: Last week I had my monthly meeting with the Town of Montgomery Opioid Task Force and we are really trying to focus our efforts on education, especially in our youth, starting in our elementary schools. Discussed some initiatives that we're looking to put in place and really focus our efforts on prevention and education. We are also looking into holding Narcan trainings throughout the area. We had a professional who had the idea to do a pop up Narcan training and I loved that idea. We were thinking about having it in the Village of Walden. When we get more details ironed out with that, I will definitely update everyone on when that will be and where that 22 will be. But the idea behind it was to really try to get the training and the information out there to people who might not necessarily sign up for something like that. Trying to combat that whole not me and not my child idea that's out there. I think that just having it be a pop up thing where anyone can come. If they're at the grocery store and they see it going on, they might want to join and get more info. I thought that was a great idea. I'm looking forward to getting more information on that. In regards to the tax district, obviously disappointed with. I think the misinformation that was out there, I'm listening to some of the comments and I honestly don't even feel like I was at the same meeting that everyone else was. I think that sometimes a lot of group think happens. I think a lot of ideas get tossed around and I just think that I'm grateful we're going to have a lot more time to get everyone educated on the topic. Trustee Elliott: I also want to thank Supervisor Maher and Sylvie for all the hard work that they did. I want to reiterate that by no means no deal. We're going to get it done. It's just going to take a little time. So we get it done correctly. Also thanks to the Chief and Sergeant for all the work that they did for those updates. I know that's no easy task. Deputy Mayor Carley: Want to say thank you also to Town Supervisor and Sylvie for all the hard work that they did. I do appreciate it. I received a correspondence, I guess the postal services are sending out something you don't go to and get COVID tests. I'll forwarded it to the Board what I received. I don't know if you're registered or ask to receive home test and they'll send it to you. Mayor Ramos: Tuesday, January 25th. Village of Walden will be hosting booster shots for the Moderna and Pfizer from 2 pm to 7 pm here in this room at Village Hall. We've secured transportation for those seniors that cannot make it. The Town of Montgomery shuttle bus will be operating during that timeframe. If everyone would call the following phone number 845-457-2600 and I'll have the Manager and Clerk put that on our website in order to get the transport to this site. We do have the website to sign up for booster shots for Moderna and Pfizer initiated by the County. Greatly appreciate everybody signing up first and hopefully we'll get a high number to come and take care advantage of that. I would like to thank Supervisor Maher and Ms. Rainaldi for their work. This is by far not done yet. We will work at this and we will get it done. Manager Revella: I just want to remind the public that presently we're planning for the same type of Board meeting February 1st. But if the COVID conditions improve, we would return to in-person meeting next meeting, which is February 1st. That's the goal. Mayor Ramos: We will post that. Adjourn Trustee Maher made a motion to adjourn the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. 23  Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting January 18, 2022 Motions & Resolutions Approval of December 21, 2021 Minutes Trustee Elliott made a motion to approve the December 21, 2021 minutes. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. 6 ayes. 1 abstention (Trustee Thompson). Motion carried. Approval of January 4, 2022 Minutes Trustee Baker made a motion to approve the January 4, 2022 minutes. Seconded by Trustee Elliott. 6 ayes. 1 abstention (Trustee Thompson). Motion carried. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve Payment of Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Adjourn Trustee Maher made a motion to adjourn the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. 24