Board of Trustees

Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting February 1, 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 (Zoom) Cheryl Baker Absent: Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Manager’s Report Manager Revella: I've been going over staffing concerns and budget concerns with the Police Chief. We're going through the canvass list. We have interviews scheduled for next Thursday. Hopefully we fill that full time vacancy. We had 1 officer come back from injury. We're getting a little bit better. We have some part timers that are training up, so we should have them fill some gaps as well to cut down overtime. Went over DEC issues with the sewer plant with the engineer, we're working through the grant funds and the projects to be completed with the grant that we received and any additional funds will be coming up with as well for those projects. Went through property maintenance and easements with the Building Inspector. They've been doing a lot of citing for snow removal. Went over the Olley Park Community Center with the Rec Coordinator and the engineer and the contractor and DPW Super as well. Went over Tip updates and policy updates with the Transportation Council. Went over staffing in the Village Court with the judge, the mayor. Went over a few FOILs with the attorney, the Clerk, Mayor, as well. When over inventories for some of the departments. Finished drafting evaluations for all Department Heads and went through evaluations for employees. Went over some water bill questions with the Treasurer and the Deputy Treasurer and the Finance Department in general. Went over workers comp matters with the Clerk and special counsel. Met with the Librarian regarding potential repairs in the building that she's working on. Started going through the budgets from the different departments. Rec and Park Dept has been assisting the Building Department with clearing sidewalks after they have been cited for property maintenance issues. Went over the community center. Waiting for the engineer bid for the waterfront park. Indoor basketball practice is ongoing, games starting this week. The Harvest First meeting is coming up as well this month. Building Department, the Inspector issued 4 permits, 5 COs and 4 CO reports. Prepared and sent out the sprinkler system bills. Went to the Zoning Board Meeting on Walden Glen. They have a Planning Board meeting coming up. They've both been working on fire and safety inspections and work orders for rehab loans. Code Enforcer has been assisting with the permits and inspections. Issued 12 permits and 9 fire and safety inspections. Answered some questions about the Falcon's Rest project to the neighborhood. Clerk's been updating Facebook, website, working on 207c. Working with me and special counsel on personnel matters, FOILs, updating the official Village map with the Building Inspector, MSDs, budget and 1 assisting with various issues in the Finance Department. Finance started working on the 2021 audit, bank recs, they distributed W-2s, 1099s, workers comp audit, tax cap with me now to try and get the budget ready. Working on the sports engine transition that's taking over SI Play with Rec Coordinator and went through a NYS Comptroller webinar. DPW has been working on vehicles, equipment, snow removal. Water Department replaced 6 meters, 2 end points and updated 3 mark outs done for closing readings. They repaired a water main break near 130 South Montgomery Street. Sewer continues to clear rags and debris from the stations and the plant. People just need to remember not to flush things down the toilet that are not toilet paper. Even flushable wipes aren't good. They're flushable, but they're not supposed to be in the sewer system. Mechanic's been working on trucks from the storm. Cleaned up the Christmas trees from residents throughout the Village and responded to a couple water breaks at houses to shut off the lines due to hazardous conditions. Police, the Chief especially, working on reviewing overtime and staffing issues, accreditation and policies with Lexipol as we're reviewing in this meeting, as well. Special details and tickets. 75 tickets were issued so far this month. 697 blotters so far up to January 25th. The Village Attorney has been working on the Ambulance District correspondence and reviewing FOILs, including a potential litigation matter. Trustee Thompson: Police Department. There were 75 tickets and 697 blotter entries. Is that average, below average, above average? Those numbers, I don't know what to compare them to. Manager Revella: Tickets are above average from the last several months. Blotters are pretty normal. Mayor Ramos: Flooring for the upstairs? Manager Revella: We're waiting for the bid to come in. It's flooring for all 3 floors. We had a specialist come in that does flooring to review all the floors and common areas to try and update those. He's looking at various products to see what would be more compatible and easier to ply without being too costly. The library wanted something different on their floor, especially in the community room, which obviously will try to accommodate it as well as we can. Trustee Thompson: Parks and Rec. Is there an updated schematic of the waterfront park? I haven't seen anything in a very long time and I know there's been a lot of movement on that. Have there been a lot of changes? Manager Revella: I asked for it today. I don't have it yet. I don't think it changed much from the last one that you saw, but I'll make sure. Approval of January 18, 2022 Minutes Trustee Thompson made a motion to approve the January 18, 2022 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Baker. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Comment Brenda Adams: 31 Valley Ave. I was glad to see that the discussion for the ambulance was being continued so that it can be properly funded. Looking forward to the long term sustainability of it. Members of the Corp are to be commended for their dedication and willingness to volunteer for the betterment of the community. They are much appreciated. Moving from volunteer to a paid employee service is a big step. It's the benefit to all those who have worked so hard to create this energy and I mean the Volunteer Ambulance Corps, that the transition is done right and their legacy honored. I thank the members of the Village Board for your steadfastness through the harsh conversation filled with drama and emotion. It's a shame you have all taken such a, let's say, such heat for doing your due diligence before committing taxpayer money. And I appreciate that and I 2 know a lot of people do. Now that the Town is moving forward with the Ambulance District, it's a good opportunity to reset the temperature and to tame the tones. The positive outcome of the Town Board voting to go forward is the focus can now be put on to addressing delivery of ambulance service and hone in on the ambiguity in the various presentations, such as, will the Ambulance Corp be a 501c3 continue and secure a contract with the Town or become a Town Department governed by the Town. Applying to New York state for advanced lifesaving certification. If going the contractual route when the Town prepares its RFP, it will have to be very specific about what kind of service they want, so you'll know for sure what they are asking for. And to develop a budget based on actual costs. Prepare a timeline for implementing upgraded service and so on. The answers to the questions you have been pondering for the last several weeks. It is my hope that the Town Ambulance and Ambulance Corps will apply their energy to constructive planning. The second item, also with the Ambulance Corps, due to all the ugly and intimidating information that's been spewing out there, I have a suggestion. I'm not sure if you would like it or not, but for the Village to develop a message to the residents either mailings, newspaper or social media, just find some dollars that will allow you to reach the whole Village. Because some people look at Facebook, only some people look at the newspaper. Some people do all sorts of things differently to explain that if you need an ambulance, 1 will come just as in the past. The Town budget includes money to support the ambulance from the A fund. Walden taxpayers have contributed to ambulance service using financial support from all taxpayers in the Town of Montgomery, including Walden. In the January 2022, tax bill, people have paid towards ambulance service this year, so no one should be afraid that it's not going to come. Thank you. Mary Ellen Matise: 54 Gladstone Ave. I want to address the building code requested change. I have a couple of concerns about it. 1 concern actually is who and why the Manager was asked to ask the Building Department to look at that code? Code 181. I have a big concern about the last sentence in this memo that was in the packet 2 meetings ago. I'll quote, "but as I spoke with Dean, I think holidays and Sundays, there should be no work at all unless working inside one's own house and no noises to be made to be heard outside by fellow neighbors". I don't know if everybody else looked at the code, but I read the code through. In 181 work in your private residence is exempted. 181-7c2, home repair is not restricted. There are a whole list of exemptions in 181-5e, which include hammering, nailing, sanding, sawing, any of the common things you might do to repair your home, which needs to be fixed. Some certain types of yard work, snow removal to the whole list. This code was written in and adopted July of 2000. I'm guessing that their engineer wrote it. A 7 member board, people who served for a long time. You had Drew Uzenski. Richard Hurd, Roy WynCoop, Midge Norman, Gregg Raimondo, Craig Maslin, who's on the Board and Marty Bedesky. They weren't stupid people. They weren't inexperienced people. They adopted a code that is so inclusive, why somebody wants to come along now and say you can't work in your house on weekends, unless you can muffle the noise of a hammer? You're going to hear the noise of a hammer outside your house. What's the big deal? All of the definitions for the code are right in the code. So you're not dealing with any ambiguity in terms of is it the definition on page 2 at the beginning of all the codes. No, they are clearly defined in 181. Everything that pertains to that code. Daytime hours, nighttime hours, emergency work, everything. I don't know what this request is all about. I think you're being asked to fix something that isn't broken. The other concern I have about it, too, is enforcement. If you're talking about Sunday, well, where's the Building Inspector on Sunday? Not working next door on Scofield Street. Who's going to enforce this? You're going to wind up calling a Police Officer on your neighbor. He's hammering too loud. I think that the request is totally unreasonable, and I hope that you've all read the code and I hope that you discuss it intelligently. Thank you. Action Items: Discussion – Ambulance District Trustee Elliott: I still have the same questions I had the last time. I listened to the Town Board 3 meeting and they said they've been working on this for 2 years. If you've been working on this for 2 years, how do we not know who's going to be the employer? We still don't know if it's going to be the Town. If it's going to be the Ambulance Corps or if it's going to be contracted. Then that's going to change all the numbers based on which 1 you pick. So, until I know some of these answers, I'm not going to proceed. Trustee Thompson: I just have to reiterate that I am not necessarily opposed to an Ambulance District. I just feel like this is not well thought out. Not well planned. How we go from A to B to C to D to E. I have to see a business model. I'm just not going to say, okay let's just do it. We'll figure it out as we go. I just find that to be unacceptable. I know there were requests made about perhaps engaging the services of a consultant. I think that is a very sound idea, and I'm sorry that that wasn't brought up at the inception, and I understand that this has been an ongoing issue, but it hasn't really been brought into the spotlight until very, very recently. I really feel like the Village of Walden has been doing its due diligence to garner a lot of information. And you guys have been really good about answering a lot of questions. But there still are questions and I don't like the narrative that's being spread through the community that there will be no ambulance service at all. Whatever the vibe is, whatever we're saying, that's the perception from some of our residents and that's very disturbing to me because that's not true. I do believe the Ambulance Corps has been doing the best job that they can with what they have. I think everyone's in agreement. We would like to see our service improved. There's 3 things you need. You need police, you need fire and you need your ambulance. It seems like the ambulance has been getting the short end of the stick for years and years. That's really unfortunate because I think most people are going to call a policeman or an ambulance before they call a fireman. I'm sorry, but I just feel like there's still things that are not clear to me. The financial things are a little troubling to me, and I feel like we need to have a little more transparency and we have not had that. I'm sorry that there seems to be a time frame put on all of this. But I feel like this is an enormous move for the community and it just needs to be done thoughtfully and appropriately. Trustee Sebring: My feelings have not changed since I made the last statement at the last meeting that I feel as though a consultant has to be hired for us to know exactly what we have to do. Until that is done where there is a contract signed, I'm still in favor of just plugging along and getting more information. And when they have a consultant, then we will find out more precise answers that a lawyer would have to explain to us. Then there's still more information about the FOILs that will be coming soon with the answers that was asked. I'm just in favor of keeping going in and doing what we have to do with due diligence. We're covering the Village of Walden people. We have to do our due diligence for them. We have to just keep going. Trustee Baker: Thank you. I appreciate that. You guys have done a profound amount of work on this. I don't want that overlooked. It is a colossal undertaking that has been long overdue and I think I can speak for the Board, greatly appreciate the amount of time that you have done that. I do, however, still have some of the issues which you and I have spoken about. I was very happy to hear that Dennis Leahy, Mayor Ramos and yourself did sit down to talk about getting a consultant. You had gone above that and searched for someone in Albany. I don't know if the Board members looked at the email from Dennis Leahy in regards to the contract. My question going forward, I don't know how this would work. Did you select the consultant from Albany versus the other gentleman that had been presented? Town Supervisor Maher: No. It's going to be on our Board meeting for Thursday, but the majority of the Board feels that Tim Eagan would be the right fit. That action won't take place until this Thursday. Trustee Baker: Now with that, I had spoken to you with that contract, with the addition that I had 4 noticed it mentioned the Police Departments and the Town of Montgomery. Will they be adding in the consult or to speak with the Village Boards as well? Unless I missed that, I did not see that in that contract. Town Supervisor Maher: I read it as when he said Police Departments, that it was plural. That was all 4. I am going to just double check to make sure that's in there. That is our expectation as well, that it won't just be the Town of Montgomery Police Department, but all of the Police Departments that impact the community, including State Police and the Sheriff's Office. Trustee Baker: Not just the Police Departments, I meant the boards. Town Supervisor Maher: The Village Boards are going to be part of a group like we had discussed that's going to be represented every step of the way. Trustee Baker: I wanted to make sure that we would have access to that consultant. The Village Boards, not just the Police Departments. Town Supervisor Maher: The consultant will absolutely get your feedback. If that's your question. There's going to be a group that's going to include representatives of the Village that work with this consultant, be at the table with this consultant. As we discussed whether or not you guys opt in, you're still going to be part of the table because our hope is you will eventually opt in. Trustee Baker: And when you present this to your board this week, from when they vote on that, how long do you expect the contract would go into effect? Town Supervisor Maher: It would probably take effect immediately. I would assume. Trustee Baker: And from the creation of the district, has it been determined, yet, advisory role versus commissioner role with this board that would be working with this consultant? Town Supervisor Maher: From my research, it doesn't matter if it's an elected commissioner set up or if it's a committee. Whatever we call it would still be an advisory group that would advise the Town Board and the Town Board would make the decisions. I believe that's how it has to be set up by the state. I haven't had anyone been able to disprove me that that is not the case. Trustee Baker: I don't know if it would be included in the contract with the consultant, but another issue that I brought up with you, which you are well aware of, is having an outside audit done. Have steps been done to order one on the Ambulance Corps? Town Supervisor Maher: You all should have received financials that include 3 profit loss statements as well as the 990s for the last 3 years of the Ambulance Corps. So, are you saying a step above that in terms of not just numbers but controls, best practices and a full independent audit? Trustee Baker: Yes. Town Supervisor Maher: That's something that will absolutely be on the table in terms of whoever we contract with, we're going to want to know as much as humanly possible. We know a lot in terms of the Ambulance Corps, but you're right, we do not have an independent, complete audit report from the Ambulance Corps. Trustee Baker: Should that not be done before because you're going into business with somebody and typical at least for the times that I did books with businesses before they went to business with 5 someone you had that audit. Town Supervisor Maher: Historically, we would have access to information like that. Right now, that doesn't exist. And it probably takes several months to be able to put that type of audit in place. That's something we can definitely talk about moving forward. It doesn't exist right now, but I do think obviously the more information, the better, for sure. We would be interested in being able to do that. Trustee Baker: In the event when you guys apply for your CON, right now you have all 3 villages with that CON. If Walden does not opt in, when you apply for that additional CON, do you plan to still include Walden on that CON? Town Supervisor Maher: Really good question. Thank you for bringing it up. 100% if the Town decides to get a municipal CON, right now, the Ambulance Corps has their own CON which includes the Village of Walden. If we contract it with them, there is, in my opinion by reading that, a legal obligation to be able to respond to calls. That's, probably up in the air based on who you talk to. When I read it, that's what it says. If the municipality were to get a CON, we would absolutely include the Village of Walden. There's going to be no scenario that exists at all where we use not serving the Village of Walden or not answering a call in the Village of Walden as anything to get something. That's not happening. It's absolutely been made abundantly clear by me at my Town Board meetings. Make it clear right now, that's not going to be a bargaining chip that's used as long as I'm here at the Town. We'll make sure that we respond to calls in the Village of Walden. Our hope is that as we move forward, whether you opt in tonight or you opt in at a future date, that this is temporary. It's a temporary, maybe, 1 year situation that we can navigate through and figure out. The answer is yes. It would include the Village of Walden if we applied for a municipal CON. Trustee Baker: That's an important thing because that was a big concern with a lot of residents. I did the door knocking to get people's viewpoints and that was 1 thing that some people brought up. They were concerned that when you go forward with this, Walden hadn't opted in would they be dropped. Town Supervisor Maher: Village of Walden residents will receive ambulance services in the Town of Montgomery. They will. That will not change. We will absolutely make sure we let the public know and direct mail is certainly an option. Trustee Maher: I wanted to start off by letting Mayor Ramos and Trustees know that I have nothing but the utmost respect for all of you. Someone once said that there's some of us that think that our job ends when we leave this room and I don't believe that to be true at all. There is not 1 person on this board that doesn't work hard on behalf of the residents of the community. We're always on the clock willing to volunteer, coach, shovel out seniors, sit on panels and boards to help make our community better, and the list goes on. We may not always see eye to eye on everything, and that's okay. We each bring a different level of perspective and education and experience to the table. That is what makes us great. It was said at the last meeting that we all want to improve the current state of the Ambulance Corps in our community. A proposed plan of creating a special tax district, an ambulance tax district was presented to us and the majority of you said that you needed more time to make a decision. You needed more information, more clarity, more education. That was 2 weeks ago. It had been my hope that in the past 2 weeks that you would have asked the right questions to the right people to find some of those answers. I had questions as well. And I know that when I reached out to ask questions, I was able to find answers. Upon hearing of some of the obstacles my peers were facing, it came up that members of the board wanted financials. They wanted to see the proper reporting to know where our current tax dollars were going and I was able to directly ask for those reports and I received them within 24 hours. They were made available to 6 all of you last week for review, and I just received some notes on those financials today before our meeting. The Ambulance Corps is a 501c3, as we all know, so all of the financial information is available for public record for anyone to look at. It was brought up. How did we get here? It's been said in the presentation that we received that this is not just happening here. This is in fact a national crisis, and it's worsened by the fact that the days of volunteer EMS are dwindling and going forward, we need an attractive model in place to ensure that we can secure the future stability of our Ambulance Corps for our community. After reading some of these notes, I do see that there is a concern over payroll. Yes, payroll is going up year over year. I clearly can see that, but we do not have enough volunteers in our community to sustain the demand of our ever growing region. It was brought up that we need to investigate the past before we can move forward. While I understand that sometimes we need to play detective and go back into the past and figure out what went wrong. That is not going to solve the problem at hand. It's not going to move us forward as a Village. I believe that our job is to look at the facts presented before us and make the best decision for our residents of our community so that we can best provide the best ambulance service to our residents with the best response times. I actually did make an error in our last meeting. I caught that in the minutes. I said there was an 80% dropped call rate, and that's not correct. It was 20%. 20% is still way too much. Our job is to look at the facts and make the best decision for our residents. I don't base decisions on rumor has it or I've heard this and I've heard that. I believe that that's gas lighting the issue at hand. I believe that's how communities get torn apart. I think we're better than that. I know we're better than that. And it's not factual information when you hear a rumor or when you hear something that may or may not be true. So we should not be letting that hearsay cloud our decision making. I'm all for an audit of financial history. I'm all for that kind of transparency and I do appreciate that it seems like that will be done. But my point is that's a completely separate issue. Another question that was brought up is why now? Why is this being rushed? And to that, I just have to think, why not now? This is the time to act. It's time to make a decision. It's time to move our community forward. We have to improve the quality of life for our residents and this is long overdue. I'm looking forward to moving this process forward for our residents and to increase our quality of life and the services offered here. As previously discussed on day 1 of our discussion, special tax districts are unique. They're not similar to existing fire districts of that nature and you really cannot compare this to that. It's it's own separate monster. They're more comparable to a sewer tax district. And in my research and homework, I could not find a situation where there was a Board of Commissioners and I did reach out to Dave Donovan and Dave, do you mind just clarifying the results of what you found as well for the board? Attorney Donovan: I, of course, hedged that I would may need to do further research, but my understanding taking a look at the Town law, section 62 actually abolished commissioners for special districts in 1930-something. Unless a commission was in place at that time and specific commission like Board of Fire Commissioners, they could continue, but a commission for an ambulance district would be in the nature of advisory only. Was my understanding based upon some quick research in response to a question this afternoon. Trustee Maher: Thank you. I also reached out to the Stony Point Town Board. They went through this process 2 years ago and they have been successful. It was enlightening to hear how their process went and I would encourage you guys to reach out to them as well and just get some more clarity. We don't want to go back. We want to move forward. I do understand there is a process and I understand that there is questions that people still have, but I just would encourage you all to make sure you're asking those questions and make sure you ask the right people. And if you don't get an answer, maybe you should ask someone else. Just keep digging. I have been able to get an answer to every single question that I had. I have done a ton of research as well. And I don't believe that we should have to wait a whole other year to be able to provide our residents with the ability to receive effective ALS services and timely ALS services. It's also been said that we can't fix ALS services without first fixing BLS services. I believe that the proposed tax district addresses a solution to both 7 of these problems. The majority of the Town of Montgomery is in favor of moving forward and I strongly encourage my peers to think about the future. Think about those families in our community who depend on ALS services. My family is 1 of them. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Carley: I voted for the Ambulance District and primarily because I believe that we can move forward, even though there's a lot of questions that need to be answered. I agree with, believe it or not, both sides of the aisle. We do need more answers and I think the individuals who put together their inquiry and got the information that was sent to me, I had a little time to peruse it, but not the whole time to read through it in detail. But it does point out some things that hopefully moving forward, that could be corrected. I believe that's the part where we all the Village residents our due diligence in that. To make sure that we don't make the same mistakes moving forward. The reason I say moving forward as though already happened because it has happened. We're going to get the district, we're going to move into it. It's a timely thing. I was shocked at the Town meeting. When I was listening and I said that I really believe that it shouldn't go forth if all 3 Villages wasn't in there and I had some issues with that. The Town said, "I'm not worried about the Village, I'm worried about the Town". Now when we talk about the CON and you're saying that it won't go forward, I've come to realize and I understand you're only 1 vote and we need to hear from your Board. If your Board says we're going to move forward regardless. What happens in the Village of Walden is there. That's great because now we hear it as a Board. But when we hear just from Supervisor Maher, which I respect highly, we find out there's only 1 vote and the Board says otherwise. Even though you stood by your word, which I do appreciate and you voted no. But they all voted yes. That's the only thing I would like to hear more. Where does the Board stand? Not Supervisor Maher. So that we can get a full picture of how the train is moving forward. Mayor Ramos: We've done more work in a week and a half than we've done in 2 years. I applaud you for being open minded on the consultant. When Mayor Leahy brought this up to you, you were 100% for it. That's what we've been asking. We've been asking for records. Obviously, we got tax documents just recently. That's what we've been asking for. There's a boatload of other things that we've been asking for. The reason why we're apprehensive about doing this is because of the lack of information. If you don't have the proper information, you can't make a logical and intelligent decision. We're here because of almost 7000 people in the Village of Walden. And we need to make a precise decision. That's what we're all here for. We have differences of opinions. But bottom line here is where we are looking for the residents of the Village of Walden. We received your tax documents. Thank you. What troubles me is the first page of your RBT, sorry, third page. This is not an accurate document. Hasn't been verified. Town Supervisor Maher: It's a profit loss analysis. It's not an independent forensic audit. It's them looking at the numbers. Mayor Ramos: Obviously, I'm for what Trustee Baker said, that we need an independent audit for the years that we requested. Not to feel that we are trying to get at something. What we're trying to do is how did we get here? 1962 this started. 1993 they adopted the Town of Montgomery Volunteer Ambulance Service from Walden Ambulance. How did we get here? When my checkbook is empty, I'm going to ask myself, why is it empty? Why do I have a zero balance? I'm going to find out what happened? Why did we get here again? I have no problem with trying to establish an ambulance tax district. But what I want to do is I want to make sure that it's done with the preciseness that we do everything here on this board. The 7 of us, we analyze our budget, we hold him accountable for things that we can't analyze or we can't see. We hold ourselves accountable for things that goes awry. What I want and I'm hoping that we can continue this. Your board meeting is on Thursday. The stakeholders on your proposal from Mr Eagan. The stakeholders are us too. Not just the Police Departments, not just the Ambulance Corps, not the Fire Departments. It's us too. We are the stakeholders. I have 2 people that we nominated a year ago to 8 be on that as stakeholders. I would hope that the doors get open for that when it comes down to dialog. When your consultant comes in and they'll report back to the board. But we analyze some of the documents that was proposed. I believe the Clerk is going to have, I don't want to bring it up right now because you didn't have time to chew on it or the members who were financially responsible for the Ambulance Corps, but you'll get a copy after we're done talking. Take a good look at it. It's only a cursory view of things. A professional eye had put this together and that's just a start. We've been asking for transparency. We've been asking for how did we get here? And I'm going to keep saying that. How did we get here and why did this get put on your shoulders? You took on a mammoth of an issue. I do not want to see another tax line unless it really is needed. It is needed, but we have to get to point A. Remember, I told you, I don't like speeders. We're speeding at this. We're not going to get there, because you're going to get stopped. Obviously, the Village of Walden has put a hold on it because of lack of information. Again, I applaud you for for getting the consultant. I appreciate the residents giving us full support. I appreciate the residents not giving us the support. But we are going to do our due diligence. We are the holders of the pocketbook. We have a fiduciary responsibility to the Village. Just like you have to the entire Town. Again, we're walking, but we're not going to speed to this. I appreciate you coming out. Thank you. Town Supervisor Maher: Yes. Not this past Sunday, but the Sunday before, Mayor Leahy and Mayor Ramos both reached out to me on a Sunday let's meet up, let's talk about this. How can we work together? The hope at that meeting for me was to try to get to a place where we get the Village of Walden to opt into the district before the Town Board public hearing vote next Thursday on February 10th. Because, as Deputy Mayor Carley said, I did vote no to extend that public hearing because I wanted to stay true to my word that this shouldn't be done unless all the Villages are on board. Just wanted to catch your comment, they absolutely didn't say, we don't care about the Village, we just care about the Town. They said in their opinion, they didn't want the Village of Maybrook or the Town residents or the Village of Montgomery residents who wanted to support this, who are in favor to suffer because of a decision by this board. That wasn't we don't care about Walden. We made it very, very clear and I know I did personally, that we will not be in a position where Walden does not get calls to service. That's not going to happen. That's not the Town saying, we don't care about Walden. I just wanted to talk about that. A couple things. We've been 100% transparent. The issue here is and this is a legitimate issue that I agree with you all to a degree, most of you believe that this process of the RFP of the consultant of whether it's going to be a Town employee or a contract, should have been hashed out previously. I think that is the root of this issue. I don't think you guys can say you didn't receive the information. Everything you requested you received. I think that is a nonstarter for me. We've been 100% transparent. Every document that you guys have asked for you, you've received and I have to defend myself and my team in this process and the ambulance corps for being transparent. That's a word that gets a little to me because that's not true. The process has been done thoughtfully and appropriately. Again, it's just the issue of, I think there's a bunch of you that would have preferred the consultant to be hired, the RFP to be done and a decision to be made before creating the district. That is a fair stance and if you guys don't have them for that reason, I can appreciate that and accept that. We decided to go this route. The Village of Maybrook and the Village of Montgomery and the Town Board all agree this is worth figuring out and getting done and moving forward now and not wasting time. They did due diligence. Nobody asked more questions than the Village of Walden. You did a lot of due diligence. So did the Village of Montgomery. So did the Village Maybrook. And so did the Town of Montgomery. Maybe it might have been in private conversations, in private emails that you didn't see on every single live stream. It may seem like it wasn't done as much as the Village of Walden, but as it was stated earlier, our jobs don't just stop at board meetings. We're on the phones, we're making house calls or making visits. Due diligence was done by everybody who's been a part of this process. More some than others, for sure. I also don't want other shots taken at other boards for accepting this, as if they did not do due diligence. I don't think that would be fair to them. We're all public servants. We all do what we have to do and work hard and we all care about the community. 9 I think this is my urging to the community and anyone negatively commenting on social media to stop. We're going to figure this out. Me, Mayor Ramos and Mayor Leahy sat down as gentlemen and had a great conversation. I truly believe you want to do what's best for your residents. He wants to do what's best and I want to do what's best. In an area, in a state and in a region where we see people screaming and yelling at each other. We're doing okay. I think we all need to take a second and understand that we have elected officials within this whole Town that truly care. And because of that, we will make this work. Another quick correction before I end, the Town of Montgomery Ambulance Corps, this is not a transition to paid service. Paid service has been happening for several years. So this is a transition of funding paid service which has already been established, which Village of Walden taxpayers are already paying into through contributions made by the Town. And if people want to know specifically how that works, we have $150,000 budgeted. We have invoices to match every single dollar of what we give to the Ambulance Corps. Every Town taxpayer dollar and Village taxpayer dollar is accounted for by the dollar and that is publicly available information. Anyone wants it. Anyone asks for it. You can receive it. Those things have not been specifically asked for aside from maybe the FOIL that we received recently and you'll have that information as soon as we can get it to you. The Town of Montgomery is doing things responsibly. We've shown a great deal of effort in terms of reaching out to the Villages and we will continue to work with you on a variety of issues, which is why we're not going to belabor this 1 anymore. There's a lot of other things that we're going to address and work with you on. I'm still excited and ready to work with all of you as a partner. I just again would encourage anyone who's responding negatively and talking negatively. Just stop doing it. We're going to figure this out. I get it. Maybe it's therapeutic in some way, but it's not helpful. I'm very willing and able and excited to partner with you all. It looks like the Town is going to move forward anyway. I will vote no if they do, to stay true to my word. But if they do move forward and it happens, we're going to get it done the right way and we'll keep you involved in the process. You have my word and we'll get this thing done. I want to thank the Ambulance Corps members for being here, everybody for doing all the work they have to do. I just appreciate all of you. But we're going to get this done. We're going to get done right. Thank you. Discussion – Police Policies Chief Herlihy: Our last meeting, we discussed the policies where we were so far. How many policies we've come across and changed. We had requested that the board read over section 1, 2 and 3 of our policy procedure manual. Trustee Thompson: No, I was understanding of everything and I didn't see anything that jumped out at me. Chief Herlihy: I know 3 was very detailed. Trustee Maher: Everything look good. There was nothing that stood out to me either. Trustee Baker: I have the same sentiments. Trustee Sebring: I read through mine and everything was pretty much explanatory to me, so I have no questions for the Chief at this time. Mayor Ramos: Page 4, your definitions, specifically, loyalty. You want to read it through? Chief Herlihy: Loyalty. We are loyal and care about each other, endeavoring to perform our duties to the best of our ability for the citizens of the Village of Walden and all people. We respect, care, trust and support each other in a team effort and take pride in our accomplishments and consult the people who are affected by our conclusions. 10 Mayor Ramos: Just making sure that's taken care of. Thank you. I also have an issue with obviously the nationwide issue with chokeholds and you have carotid control hold. Chief Herlihy: They are excluded except for when deadly physical force is authorized. That is the only time that should be in here. Mayor Ramos: I don't think I read that correctly. Should be 300.3.5. Chief Herlihy: On the first 100 best practice, the last sentence, "the use of the carotid control hold is limited to those circumstances where deadly force is authorized and is subject to the following", and then we have A through E. That's when deadly physical force only is authorized. Mayor Ramos: So, where does that fall on the on the continuum? Chief Herlihy: If it's a deadly physical force option, the deadly physical force option is any manner or weapon utilized at that time to basically end the threat. So, if I'm on the ground and somebody has a weapon to me who is essentially about to kill me, this would be the only time that the carotid would be accessible to use. Any other time as a no go. Mayor Ramos: Thank you. You gave us our homework assignment. That was 1-3. What is your suggestion? Sergeant Werner: 4, 5, 6. Chief Herlihy: And 7. 4 is a little lengthy, but 5-7 are only like 5-6 apiece. I think the longest or the most detailed would be our Patrol Operations and then that way we only leave 8, 9 and 10, with 10 being the lengthy one. Mayor Ramos: Thank you. Discussion – Building Code – Dates and Times Work Can Be Performed Trustee Maher: In reviewing the policy, I think that it's pretty well outlined and I do think that in my opinion, we shouldn't tell residents that they can't perform activities. Restrictions like that to a certain extent, are a violation of their rights as a homeowner. I know that like I've said previously, the majority of people in my house and in my family, that's when we do perform work in our house. That's the only time we have. That's still my stance on that. Trustee Baker: I feel the same way. no need to change what is already there. I don't see penalizing homeowners. I agree with a lot of times the holidays is on as long as they don't have jackhammers going off. I don't see any reason to prevent them from doing improvements in to their homes. Trustee Sebring: I don't see the penalizing the homeowners for work that they want to do on the weekends because if they work Monday through Friday, that's the only time that they have. The ones that I do feel as though should be checked up on is the contractors that are doing work on the weekends, so they don't have to feel as though the Building Inspector is going to be around. Other than that, I would leave the law as it is because I feel as though you're taking away the rights of the homeowners. As far as the noise, it may be excessive at times, but sometimes what they're doing may have to be that way. I just feel as though the leave law like it is. Trustee Elliott: I also agree to leave it as is. 11 Trustee Thompson: Can Mr. Donovan just go over with us again? There was a part of the law that was a little bit contradictory. Attorney Donovan: Where we started this discussion a couple of meetings ago is there's one provision in the law, and that says you can't work on holidays and the next one says that you can. The Code Enforcement Officer pointed out to the Manager who gave me a copy and we started the discussion. Do you want to modify that specific provision to make it consistent one way or another? That kind of jumped off into, maybe we ought to widen the lens and take a look at the whole code. Whatever the Board wants to do is up to the Board. The discussion, though, started with the one that is still in conflict. So, at some point in time, you should address that specific provision. Whatever you want to do with the rest of the code is up to you guys. Trustee Thompson: I agree with everyone that has spoken already. It's just I don't see how it's okay to restrict property owners from doing work on their own property. I agree some people that's the only time they can work on their homes or their projects is on the weekend. I don't know how we could say no to a contractor because of what Brian mentioned, the Building Inspector and the Code Enforcement Officer would not be here to go to a site to inspect or comment on any work that's being done. I don't know how restricting contractors on the weekend would even be possible. I don't know how we would do that, how we could enforce something like that. Manager Revella: Same way we do now, we call the police. Trustee Thompson: Exactly. But if something needs to be inspected before they can move on to the next phase, but are people going to try and perhaps move on before they've been inspected? And that's another whole issue. Because there's no one here to supervise the work that's being done. I don't quite see how you could differentiate between a contractor and a homeowner. Manager Revella: That's what I believe the intention of the code was when they first adopted was that homeowners have stricter times that they can do the work themselves because they have jobs. The contractor has more liberty as to when they can do the work, so they should do it when the Building Inspectors are around to inspect or at least stop that phase until it's inspected before they move on. Not saying that they couldn't do work at times when the Building Inspectors not there, just they couldn't move on to the next phase until they get the inspection. I believe that was the intent. The issue is the contradiction that the attorney brought up, where one section says they can't do it at all. The other section says they can. Mayor Ramos: Can I have the specific because I'm reading it and I'm a little confused on it. 181-7 Permitted and Regulated noises, "construction activities Saturday, Sunday and holidays during the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m." That limits the contractors from working 7 o'clock in the morning. Am I correct? Attorney Donovan: I think the next said, except holidays. We have to read this subdivision right after that. Mayor Ramos: "As may be permitted by variance granted by the Village Board of Trustees, as outlined in 181-9". Deputy Mayor Carley: I agree that the law should stay as it is, but with corrections about either holidays or not. I personally believe that based off my experience, holidays offers times also to allow us to do something. In regards to the comment about the contractor to get the move on to the next phase, if it falls on a holiday, I believe they should just go ahead and they can move on, but it would have to be Monday or whenever that next day, reviewed by the Code Enforcement. I know as 12 an individual, especially when I was commuting, I didn't have time to just sit right there every single time waiting on somebody to come there and to look at everything. You do give liberty to your contractors to go ahead and do the work. It's more prudent if you have somebody there watching them, but not everybody has that liberty. I think we should correct the language about the holidays, I still say yes, they can work on holidays, but everything else was fine. Thank you for the Board reviewing the whole policy. Attorney Donovan: The conflict is in section 181-7 subdivisions B1 & B2. Subdivision B is entitled Construction Activities. It says "any building construction activity, including the clearing and removal of trees or other site preparation work, which is audible outside of a building or structure, is permitted only as follows, 1. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, except holidays during daytime hours. 2. Saturday, Sunday and holidays during the hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Except the blasting is not permitted on Sundays and holidays." The narrow conflict is subdivision 1 says except holidays. Subdivision 2 allows the construction activities on holidays. I think the request was just for make it fish or fowl. Trustee Thompson: But then you get into how do you define a holiday? Are you talking about the major holidays? Or are you talking about people can't do anything on Memorial Day etc? Manager Revella: Village holidays. Trustee Thompson: I understand that but, to me, in my mind, there's a big difference of doing something disruptive and noisy on Christmas Day as opposed to 1 of the lesser holidays. Attorney Donovan: Holidays are defined in Section 181-3, as New Year's Day, Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. Trustee Thompson: I just think we should let people do the things they would like to do on their homes when they would like to do them. Attorney Donovan: My only other comment, I think, is that this has been in place for 20 years. There is a conflict. I don't know, John, that's presented the big problem to the Village? Manager Revella: It came up recently. Mayor Ramos: I just had 1 little issue on 181-5 noise levels exceptions. Section 10, "sound reproduction devices used in connection with weddings or similar events on property used for residential purposes. Sound levels in excess of these permitted in this property are allowed, provided that such sound levels do not exceed 65 decibels on any other property used for residential purposes within any residential zoning district and provided that sound levels in excess of those permitted in statute 181-5a cease by 11 p.m. on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night and by 12:30 a.m. on Saturday or Sunday mornings. There's a 24 hour period missing out of there, Friday to Saturday morning. I also have to agree with everyone else. My home is my castle and when I work 60-70 hours a week, my only time that I can work on my house is when I'm home. Oftentimes it may be on holidays or the time frames where I'm not allowed to. I think we can safely say that we're not going to be blasting in the Village of Walden. I'm not going to be blasting at my home and anybody here will not be blasting in their own. That's probably the only high decibel feats that would occur in the Village. We have storms. I know they're exempted by DPW emergency actions that we have to take. If residents need to cut down a tree, they're not going to do it at 5 o'clock in the morning, they're going to use their common sense. That's your neighbors. I think with the exception of that holiday issue that was brought up, let's make it simple and keep it straight across the board that we can work on our homes at any, at any given time. 13 Manager Revella: You're not going to make a distinction between a homeowner working in their home and a contractor? Deputy Mayor Carley: It should be both. Trustee Elliott: I still agree. Just keep it as it is. Weekends and holidays is fine. Trustee Thompson: I think we should leave it as it is. Trustee Maher: I'm fine with both. Trustee Baker: Leave it as is and just remove that contradiction and allow for the holidays and the weekends. Trustee Sebring: I believe we should leave it as is. Most of the time, even Thanksgiving and Christmas, there are not people working out there. They have their families that they want to go to and whatnot. New Year's also, but all the other times, as long as they're not making noise at 5 o'clock in the morning, I say, leave law as it is. Deputy Mayor Carley: Leave it as is. Just add the Friday. Manager Revella: And you're making the correction that it's going to be allowed, instead of not allowed. The instruction from the Board was to make sure Dave does a draft Introductory Local Law for the next meeting. Public Comment Becky Pearson: 167 Walnut St. I know I sent the Mayor and the Manager an email about Arbor Day. I know it's not on this agenda, but I just want to talk about it a little bit because I wanted to be able to get hopefully those trowels ordered. Manager Revella: We ordered them already. Becky Pearson: Thank you. Arbor Day is going to be April 28th. Nancy Phelps and all the third grades will be going to hopefully as long as you approve it, to Olley Park. They're actually going to plant trees this year, which is great. She's going to get about 70 trees. I usually do trowels every year for the kids and hand paint those. I didn't do them lately because the kids weren't coming. There's a rain date for May 5th. I believe it's the next Thursday. I hope everybody can come please, but we still have to approve it by the Board. Hopefully that will happen. I think it's going to be our 15th. We also would like to plant a tree in memory of Sam Wright if that's possible. Like we did last year for Officer Winum. We'd like to be able to do that for Sam Wright. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Mayor Ramos: Are you open to a different type of tree specifically for Mr. Wright? Becky Pearson: Usually, the Nancy Phelps get the DEC trees. The Village usually purchases a bigger tree. I have spoken with Jim Presutti. He is also on board with us, which is wonderful. It's just a nice little program. Mary Ellen Matise: Pathways meeting. I just mentioned this to Brian that somebody from the Town should get involved with this and John, I know you hear about it at OCTC. But their focus is the southern end of the county and they're connecting into Sullivan County and they're connecting 14 Ulster County through the O&W Rail Line and we're just kind of hanging here. They should be looking at us because we connect up to the Walkway Over the Hudson and to New England. They should be looking at us and trying to get us connected to the southern end of the county and nobody's doing it. I'm asking Village and Town, let's hop on board. The next meeting will be April 12th, I think he said. Trustee Maher: I actually have a meeting planned with Sharon from Visions, not part of Pathways, but she's been involved since she stood up. Manager Revella: They didn't give that option at the presentation? In our presentation, they showed those options to connect to our trail and what the problems were to overcome that. Mary Ellen Matise: Okay, but they never talk about it. This is like a 4th or 5th meeting I've attended. They never talk about it. Manager Revella: We had in our presentation, I'll ask them to make sure they emphasize that. Mary Ellen Matise: It's not so much a matter just of emphasizing it, but of putting something in place on our end to make it happen going south. Manager Revella: Yes, that's part of the presentation they gave. They talked about it. Mary Ellen Matise: Occasionally I'll bring it up, but we're just kind of in limbo. Have another concern about access to applications that come before the ZBA and the Planning Board. Years ago, they used to put them in the library. I don't think that's happening anymore. And when people get a letter, it's complicated. People are sitting there with no information. They're told in the letter you can go to the Building Department, but the Building Department closes at 3 o'clock. Now when it was in the library, people could come Monday through Thursday till 8 o'clock, Saturday till 6, on Friday until 6 and Saturday from 10 to 2 and look at the plans. I don't know why that stopped. I really have a concern about that. It would make the process a lot better if people were given the information right from the beginning. Even as board members, we get the information. But when as a resident, I got the letter about this school on Gladstone. I was told go to the Building Department and look at it. It didn't help me. I'd like to see that changed again because I know the plans and the Town plans used to go to the library. I don't know why it's stopped because the board has to send a copy. The Building Department makes sets of copies. 1 extra copy can go to the library and then people can be told to look at it in the library. Garbage. I FOIL’d for the contract. Obviously we don't all know how the garbage pick-up works and what's involved. And of course, contract is going to come up for discussion again with the new budget. I have a neighbor that's having an issue and I've got myself in the middle of it. I don't know what to say about garbage, except it's trash. I just can't deal with it. I'd like to see some improvements in the next contract. I think they have to be improvements in the way it's communicated to the public. I just don't get it. And every week it's the same problems. And every week the Village is a mess when they get out of here on Tuesdays. There's garbage all over the streets, always, and they don't pick up after themselves. I don't know, leaves a lot to be desired. I think maybe a bigger discussion should be had this time before we go into the same old contract over again. I don't know about you guys, but I rude awakening, because budget time is coming up and it's going to bring this up. The cost of electric with NYSEG doubled. My last bill went from 7.5 cents to 13 cents. It's not going to go down. That's going to affect the Village big time in the budget. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Elliott made a motion to approve Payment of Audited Bills. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. 15 Correspondence Trustee Maher: I received the correspondence from the Ambulance Corps regarding their financials and then also the email from Mayor Leahy. And the Town Supervisor regarding the scope of service. Trustee Baker: I received the same email from Dennis Leahy and there was a correspondence that I forgot to mention last meeting, which I would like to mention now, which I apologize, it wasn't a purposeful oversight. There was a suggestion from Robbie Brown in regards to honoring the great Sam Wright by renaming a street in our Village to honor him. I thought that it's a wonderful idea, a great way to honor a wonderful man and that would be something I'd like to see go forward. Trustee Sebring: I received the same from Mayor Leahy and the one from Robbie Brown about the changing the street name on Woodruff Street on the east side of the tracks. Deputy Mayor Carley: I receive the same correspondence. Mayor Ramos: I received the letter from a resident advising us that a certain section of apartments here in the Village. Their rent is being raised over almost 20%. There's not much we can do about giving them the 90 day notice. I told the resident to collectively get together with all the residents and discuss it with the management. Especially other issues like windows that are broken. Nowadays, smoke detectors, etc. I also received the email from Mayor Leahy, from Supervisor Maher. Deputy Mayor Carley: I apologize. I forgot to mention I had a phone call from a resident and it was in regards to, I guess, there was an accident in Ulster, but there's a habitual speeding. She brought up the issue about them speeding. I asked the resident to come to the meeting today and she's not here. I told her to bring it up. I guess someone was hit a couple of weeks ago. She didn't give me an exact date and time. They were like something done. I told her it's state owned, correct? Manager Revella: Yes. They regulate the speed on that street. We do enforce. But the accident in question, I don't believe speeding was involved. Not that people don't speed there. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Elliott: I don't remember if it was the last meeting or the meeting before, we did speak about speed humps. Did we get anywhere on that? On Wait St. Manager Revella: They can't get put in until the spring. Trustee Thompson: I need to make a correction. I also received the same correspondence. I was thinking more about correspondence from our residents. I wasn't thinking business correspondence. Marisa, I also received the email from Mayor Leahy and I think maybe 2 emails from Supervisor Maher. I also need to say that a few meetings ago, I would not approve the minutes because they were so lengthy. I felt that I didn't give them my proper attention. I did finally finish everything and aside from a few little typos, the content was fine. I know everybody's really probably weary of going over and over about the ambulance district, but I would just like to say a few things. I definitely think no one in this room is opposed to improving ambulance service. That is a no brainer. I personally am not opposed to the possibility of creating an ambulance district. We need to improve the service. There's no dispute. I just feel like we can't go backwards. We can't worry about everything that's been done 10 years ago, but the cart was put before the horse with this entire issue. The consultant should have been something discussed at the beginning. All the pieces should have 16 been laid out in the beginning and I'm sorry. The ball was dropped. Now the expectation is you have what you need, make a decision. I disagree with that. I'm glad, Trish, you were able to get records. But John Ramos asked repeatedly meeting after meeting for records. Some of the records that you obtained and they never appeared. That's a problem. I'm glad that you were able to reach out to another Ambulance Corps that created a district. Several of us went down and spoke to the Town of New Windsor about creation of a district. There's been a lot of things going on. But I do agree with other people that I've spoken too, that the narrative that's floating in the community and going on social media is really shameful and heartbreaking. To let anybody anywhere in our community think that when they need help, no one is coming. I would just like John to address something. Our Police Department is a first responder. They generally are the first person at any scene. I don't even know if people know how skilled they are. There's a lot of things they can do to provide for a person in distress while you wait for an ambulance. But if you can just explain why, maybe in the last year and a half, our police sometimes aren't at an emergency call. I think the community needs to understand. Manager Revella: The calls come out and they're have a radio based system alpha beta all the way down to Delta and Echo. Those are the more severe calls. They'll go to all those Echo calls, which are the most severe or potentially traumatic. Most Delta. They don't go to a lot of the ABC calls unless they are free initially, because they're usually minor in nature. The basic issues that are happening to somebody that needs help. And to tie them up on that doesn't make a lot of sense sometimes. Especially when we had issues with COVID. That's really why we kind of pulled it back a little bit, to lessen their exposure. We were losing staff so much. If it's a medical call, they try to respond to all of them if they can. The priority calls are the Delta and Echo and they make all Echo calls. Almost all Delta calls if they're free. Trustee Thompson: I just wanted the community to understand that there are people out there that are going to come and help you. We're currently getting service. We will continue to get service. The key is how do we improve service? I think everybody wants the same thing, but this is an enormous undertaking to create an ambulance district and it's got long lasting implications. I really and truly don't feel bad that we don't rush forward. That doesn't mean we're going to wait 5 years before we make a decision. It means we need a little bit more time to act on something that is going to impact our constituents. Trustee Maher: I completely agree and I think that I would just encourage you to make sure you're asking the right questions because it has been a few weeks now and I do see or hear the same questions. I still have this question and I still haven't had an answer to this question. That was my main concern and main point that I wanted to make this evening. Continue to ask those questions and just keep seeking out the answer. There is a high level of transparency here and I think that I haven't had an issue with getting an answer to a question. Just keep digging. We'll get there. Deputy Mayor Carley: Ambulance Corps, I don't know how long we're going to keep digging. How much are you going to dig, dig, dig? The term I really want to use is kick the can down the road. It does get to a certain point where information is information and that's all it is. The district has been created. It's done. I believe if we find out more information good, bad or ugly, whatever it is, I think it will help the committee moving forward in their decision making. However, it's not going to change anything because that's the past. I believe with the Village of Walden has done, is do our due diligence. When we did go to the different areas, find a different models, asked different questions. And now, as Trustee Thompson said, it took a minute, but we got the information and the review that was done to kind of show some things. I think the information that we have found will help the committee and that's the positive out of this whole thing. I believe that everyone should always do their due diligence. Yes, we want things to move faster. But yes, sometimes you got to hold back. I think everybody's doing their part. I believe the Town is doing their part. We just have 17 different views and that's okay. We will get this done. I just want to say there was a good review in the minds that came together to put this together. Everything that we found and when we get to the point with the committee or whatever it's called, this will be a part of that to bring up some questions or make sure that certain things don't happen, so that we can take care of the Town. Mayor Ramos: I do have to applaud our Village Board. I know we've exhausted countless hours in this endeavor. We've done our homework. We've talked to a lot of people. What makes me feel confident in my decision making process is that I know when I ask a question, I already know the answer to. I feel really uncomfortable forging through this without having the questions answered. I've provided, or this Village Board has provided a number of questions to the appropriate personnel. We still haven't gotten a response. We created a FOIL to request this. Yes, we went through the back door because we couldn't get it through the front door. Those questions will be answered and eventually this will get done. We're going to do our homework. We're going to make sure that this is the right thing to do for the residents of the Village of Walden. Not for upstate New York. I care about what happens to the Village of Walden. We've provided enough information to the the stakeholders, but we haven't received the proper responses. The questions need to be answered. We are a legislative body. We deserve answers to questions. This is how we sit. We're in a position right now where the Town Supervisor took the initial step. Something that should have been done a while ago. It took 3 minds to sit collectively with the rest of the Village Board to understand that there needs to be a consultant. That is done. We got tax records. That's good. I believe we've handed a supporting document from a reliable source to outline some of the things that are in the documents. I don't want to get into the relevancy of the in-depth portion of this because obviously I want to give the Ambulance Corps time to respond. We want to do this right. You can't sit here and take a leap of faith like everybody else has been saying. We can't work out the kinks. We need to get this right. Some sad news for us today. There's going to be redistricting here in the in the local area. We're going to be losing Senator Skoufis, who's been a staunch supporter of our community. If anybody see's, calls or texts him, tell him thank you for everything he's done. We do not know yet who's announced to be our Senator for our location yet. I believe the redistricting for the Assemblyman may still be up too. That's to be to be determined. Had a wonderful D.A.R.E. Graduation. We graduated 22 students from the Walden Elementary School. Students that weren't able to attend on the first go around back in 2021. It was awesome that the Walden Elementary School set this up. It was definitely a good event. Executive Session – Discuss Personal History of a Particular Person Trustee Maher made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss the personal history of a particular person. Seconded by Trustee Elliott. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Elliott made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. 18  Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting February 1, 2022 Motions & Resolutions Approval of January 18, 2022 Minutes Trustee Thompson made a motion to approve the January 18, 2022 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Baker. All ayes. Motion carried. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Elliott made a motion to approve Payment of Audited Bills. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. Executive Session – Discuss Personal History of a Particular Person Trustee Maher made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss the personal history of a particular person. Seconded by Trustee Elliott. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Elliott made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. 19