Board of Trustees

Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting March 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 John Elliott (late) Patricia Maher Absent: Brian Sebring Cheryl Baker Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Public Hearing – Local Law 1 of 2022 - Noise Trustee Thompson made a motion to open Public Hearing Local Law 1 of 2022 - Noise. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All aye. Motion carried. Mary Ellen Matise: 54 Gladstone. My understanding, on this local law, doing construction on your home. Manager Revella: Construction in general. Noise in general. There was some concern with dates. Attorney Donovan: There's 2 changes. In 1 code section, there was a prohibition on noise at certain times or needed to cease by a certain time. Friday, for some reason was left out. We don't want to leave Friday out. So, we added Friday in. In another provision, Section 181-7 B 1 & 2, there was a conflict. 1 section said you couldn't do anything on holidays and another section said that you could. So that's been clarified by allowing the work to be done on holidays, but limiting the hours between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Those are the only 2 changes. Mary Ellen Matise: It's allowed on Sunday until 11 p.m.? Manager Revella: No, its 5 p.m. correct? Attorney Donovan: Correct. That wasn't changed. Mary Ellen Matise: What's 3.1? Attorney Donovan: 3.1 is not that section. That's the section that I added on Friday. The existing code said, except for holidays. Subdivision 2 said Saturday, Sundays and holidays. It was a conflict as to whether or not you can work on holidays. The board discussed it at the last 2 meetings and thought that you should be able to work on holidays with the same limitations as Saturdays and Sundays 10 a.m. To 5 p.m. You're not going to see 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in subdivision 1 because it's in 1 a subdivision 2 that's already in the code. The only code provision change was in 4.1-1, which deleted the 2 words except holidays. This entire change, the word Friday was added to subdivision 3.1-10 and the words, except holidays were deleted from 4.1-1. Mary Ellen Matise: In the section that wasn't changed Saturday, Sunday and holidays is until 5 p.m. Attorney Donovan: 10 a.m. to five p.m. That's what it says now. Mary Ellen Matise: Then how come here it says 11:00 p.m? Attorney Donovan: These are different sections of the code. They are 2 different things. 181-7 is permitted and regulated noises. Subsection B is construction activities. 181-5 talks about noise levels different from construction activities. So they speak to 2 different things. Mary Ellen Matise: Like 181-5 is parties. Attorney Donovan: Correct that particular provision is parties, correct as opposed to construction activities. Mary Ellen Matise: I don't know that this is right yet at this point, but I don't think that homeowners should be penalized for working on their property. I'm sorry. Trustee Thompson made a motion to close Public Hearing Local Law 1 of 2022 - Noise. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. Manager’s Report Manager Revella: Since last meeting, continuing to go over potential police officer candidates with the Chief. We've looked at laterals and canvassing. We're continuing to work on that now to fill in gaps. Construction at the Olley Park Community Center is going well. Had a conference with the Chief and the insurance company regarding a police matter as well. Making sure we have coverage for anything that might pop up. Went over court proceedings and violations with the Building Inspector. Went over Climate Smart with Trustee Thompson and Kat Carol. We're progressing well there. Went over the Ambulance District updates with the Mayor as well as with other Trustees. Covered for DPW Supervisor while he time off. Had a wonderful dedication for a historical marker on Maple Street. Went through budgets again with Department Heads and the Treasurer making good progress. We still have some money to cut the balance budget down to get to the tax cap. Went over 207c issues with the Village Clerk and Special Counsel. Had a meeting with FEMA from some costs we had from Hurricane Ida, clean up, with Department Heads as well, with another follow up tomorrow. Went over some FOILs with the Village Attorney and the Clerk, should have those responses out soon as well. Recreation and Parks continuing to clear sidewalks for the Building Department for property maintenance issues. Going over the Community Center, indoor basketball is going well. They opened up the new online program today. All departments attended a workplace violence sexual harassment course set up by our insurance company. Building Department, Building Inspector was off. Code Enforcement Officer had issued 8 building permits, conducted 6 inspections, sent out 2 violations and has been continuing to review projects for Planning and Zoning and the Falcons Rest project. The Clerk has been updating Facebook, website, 207c, working with me and special counsel and Village Attorney on matters including FOIL's. Finance Department's been working on month end close, the budget and audit as well as ARPA Compliance DPW is maintaining vehicles. Water Department replaced 5 meters, 3 endpoints and the 3 mark outs. Responded to some issues with frozen meters and a frozen hydrants. Repairing those as they come up, keeping the roads clear of ice and snow, working on the vehicles from the 2 storms. Making sure they're following up on sewer issues. Had a couple sewer complaints. They are very diligent in following up. There was one on Linden more recently that they had taken care of. A new homeowner had an issue and they responded quickly. Kudos to them for that. Police have been working on overtime and staffing issues. Policies for Lexipol, which is later in the meeting, working on the budget as well with us. They issued 28 tickets and responded to 360 blotters. Court's on regular schedule. Library is on regular schedule. Trustee Thompson: I would like to thank Mr. Revella and Marisa for always helping me with Climate Smart. I appreciate that very much. It's a very big project. All help is very much appreciated. John, can you please tell me about the workplace violence and sexual harassment class? I was hoping that the Trustees would also be invited. I didn't know anything about that. Was that scheduled? How did how did that run? Manager Revella: It's required for employees to take part. They actually prefer me and you guys not to be in the same classes, but we could probably. The guy from NYSIF, Fred actually contacted him, to make sure he got it in and then contacted the Department Heads to make sure they had staff there. Trustee Thompson: All of our employees attended? Manager Revella: We will have it again. Not all of our employees could attend. The Police Officers still have to set up a course. Trustee Thompson: It's a video presentation? Manager Revella: It is like a PowerPoint slide. The guy from the insurance company came to do it, so he made sure that everyone is paying attention and he actually did the slide show and talked through it. It was more of a slide show presentation than it is of in-person presentation, so you could do it on a computer Trustee Thompson: It doesn't rotate all day long. He's here once. And then he'll come again and try and catch everybody else? Manager Revella: Or he can send us the presentation digitally and we can do what we need to. I think that's what the police are planning on doing. Sgt. Werner: We're going to hold a class in April *inaudible* Trustee Thompson: I don't know how the other Trustees feel about it, but I personally would like to watch the program because we interact with a lot of the employees. I think it could benefit all of us and we also interact with a lot of people in the community. I think there's going to be some helpful information in that that could benefit me at least. I don't know how everyone else feels about that. So, when it comes up again, could you let me know? Manager Revella: Liability-wise, it's always best if everyone did it. If Roy can give us the times that you're going to get on the 21st, 22nd of April, I can disseminate that to the board so they can attend if they wish. Sgt. Werner: I'll send an email. Mayor Ramos: What were those dates again? 3 Manager Revella: April 21st and 22nd. Time's to be determined. Trustee Thompson: The number for the blotters, what is average for this time of year, is that a high number, a low number? Manager Revella: That's about average. Trustee Thompson: Do you have any idea when and if the mask violations are going to be lifted in the library? Manager Revella: The library is in charge of that. They get that from RCLS. I'm not sure if they have lifted anything. Deputy Mayor Carley: That's mandatory training, correct? Workplace violence. Manager Revella: It is. Deputy Mayor Carley: We don't want to get in the business of getting all the mandatory trainings. This is something that if someone wants to attend, they can correct? Not mandatory for the officials. Manager Revella: Not for the officials. It's mandatory for employees. Deputy Mayor Carley: Right. I just want to make sure that was clear. It's not mandatory for us. Just based on liability. I hear you on liability, but it's not a liability from us. It's liability from the employees, not the elected officials. Attorney Donovan: Deputy Mayor Carley made a motion to approve the February 15, 2022 minutes. Seconded by Trustee Elliott. 4 ayes. 1 abs (Trustee Maher) 0 Nays. Motion carried. Approval of February 15, 2022 Minutes Trustee Thompson made a motion to approve the February 15, 2022 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Baker. All ayes. Motion carried. Jennifer Muehlen: 42 Alfred Place. I'd like to commend the board for putting this on the agenda for possibly renaming Albany Avenue to Samuel E. Wright Way. When I hear Sam's name mentioned, I can only think of light, love and acceptance. Anyone that was blessed enough to have met him will tell you the same exact thing. I know that this may be something up for discussion for the homeowners on Albany Avenue, but if any resident of the Village deserves this honor, it would be Sam. I'll remind everyone that he could have placed the conservatory in any Town, but he chose Walden and he loved this Village. Please allow his wife, Mandy, his children, Dee, Sammy, Keeley and Zach, along with his beautiful grandbabies to have this recognition. Thank you. Michael Lynch: 54 Albany Ave. I've known Sam, probably since he moved to Walden. Met him one night by the Wallkill River when he had a dream of a park down there. Became friends with him. I think it's a great honor. I'm not opposed to naming of a street. Is there any cost involved to the homeowners on Albany Avenue? If there is, aren't there better streets to choose? There's new developments going in on the west side. I know that there's a street right in the local area where he lives, where no houses would have to change. Short street, but it's still honorable and it's right near where his daughter lives. John Street, also another street, only affects 1 place. Is there going to be a development on the old Hillside Avenue? Manager Revella: We don't think that's going to be a Village street, though. Private. 4 Action Items: Local Law 1 of 2022 - Noise Trustee Maher made a motion to adopt Negative Declaration. Seconded by Trustee Elliott. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Carley made a motion to adopt Local Law 1 of 2022 - Noise. Seconded by Trustee Maher. All ayes. Motion carried. Discussion – Police Policies Chief Herlihy: Last meeting, we requested that the board read over the policies contained in article 7, 8, 9 and 10 of our Lexipol policies. Do we have any questions or concerns relating to any of those policies contained there? Trustee Thompson: It was very clear. Very concise. Chief Herlihy: This is the home stretch of policies. What we have here is the procedures manual. It's about 76 pages long. It shouldn't be that detailed as the last set that we had to read over. I sent them to Manager Revella for his distribution, to all of the board members and the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor. In addition to, we included all of the Village's policies, which I believe you all adopted in 2020. So, we made that part of our procedures manual. If you want to peruse that. Everyone adopted that so it should be passed and no issues. Mayor Ramos: Okay that's our homework for next time. Manager Revella: The next meeting is March 22nd. Discussion – Ambulance Corp Trustee Thompson: Mayor Ramos, Trustee Baker and I have been talking to many different ambulance people and municipal leaders, and there still seems to be a lot of questions about the way this is being implemented. Unfortunately, we thought the consultant would be speaking with us tonight, and that's not true. I understand that the Town Board is going to have that on their discussion for Thursday evening. We went to the Town of Newburgh public hearing last evening. We had spoken to their Town Supervisor and Deputy Supervisor prior to that. I just feel like we're not doing things properly in the Town of Montgomery. After talking to their ambulance people, it seems very clear that the first step should have been to present what we would like to do to a consultant. Those people are there to guide and direct. It sure did seem like in the Town of Newburgh, they talked about this for 18 months. It was a lengthy process. There was a lot of dialog between the ambulance service and the elected officials. They dotted every I, crossed every T looked at all the finances, looked at the staffing. I mean, they did everything. There was nothing that was not figured out. And then they voted to accept the district. Now they will go on to all the public pieces of that. I just feel like we've talked to a lot of people. We are not opposed to the possibility of a district. We still would like to meet with ambulance from Plattekill and mobile life and we'd very much like to hear what a consultant has to say and make sure that we've exhausted every possibility that forming the district is the right thing to do for our Village. Mayor Ramos: As Trustee Thompson mentioned, the process took for the Town of Newburgh, 18 very arduous months. Their head of the department, very astute gentlemen and a professor in economics. The Town of Newburgh has been an Ambulance Corps for a very long time. They're pretty much set. 48 were volunteers, 20 were paid and they have a couple part time per diem. The Town of Newburgh did their homework and they had dialog with the Ambulance Corps for many months. They were provided information, a lot of dialog between the two entities. I applaud Mr. 5 Piaquadio, the Town Supervisor and his board for his continued working with the Ambulance Corps in facilitating this ambulance district. Plus they had a little piece in the Town of Plattekill that they were responsible for aligning with the Town of Plattekill. They're under a time clock now. By the end of April, they should have their tax district in play and they just adopted a $400,000 increase for their ambulance. Again, we preface to their board that we are not against an ambulance service, but we are trying to do this the right way, fiscally and responsibly to the Village residents of the Village of Walden. Trustee Maher: I don't understand why these meetings are not open to all the Trustees. I understand only a certain amount can go, but I have never been a part of any of these discussions that you've had. I've never been invited to any of these conversations, so just keep that in mind for going forward. My stance on this hasn't changed. I think this is a really important matter of public safety. I think that we need to do the best by the Village residents as a whole and we need to make the best decision for the majority of the people. We need to be careful when we talk about issues like this, because there's a lot of misinformation out there. I've talked to people, I've been going door to door and people are genuinely getting information from certain people and it's not true. I don't want to put it out there and call people a liar. But I think any time you mislead people and cause fear in public, it's not okay. I don't condone that. I don't condone giving people false information. I think that we need to have some sort of communication avenue to get people the right information. So, whether that's on the Village website or the Village Facebook page, there needs to be a gathering of truth and correct information. Because what's getting out to people is not correct. I think that's pretty much where I'm at right now. We need to obviously do more communicating. I went back and read through the minutes of our last meeting and you know, some people are still saying they have 30 to 40 questions that were never answered. Why and what have we done to get those questions answered? So, if anyone still has questions at this point, I'm just a little confused by that. Deputy Mayor Carley: Trustee Maher, I need some clarity. When you talk about 1 message, you're talking from the Village of Walden or from the Town? Trustee Maher: As far as misinformation? Manager Revella: No, you want to put something on Facebook and website? Trustee Maher: I'm talking about our Village, directly our message, this is the facts, this is the information we have currently out on hand. Because if people are going to other people for information, that's not accurate information. You have to make sure you're getting it from a credible source. So, we need to provide that information to the public. Manager Revella: Can we do that? Just put out 1 message regarding our stance on where we are with the ambulance. Manager Revella: I was thinking something about the current status in the Village, where we are, what's pending and what needs to be done to move forward. Something like that. Mayor Ramos: We can. Obviously, our minutes are open to the public. If there's any question, they can always go to the minutes and refresh their memory or provide any guidance and information that they need. But we can put the play by play. Deputy Mayor Carley: Not play by play as in like, give a long chronological history of everything, but just enough to quell any misinformation that's out there where we stand as a Village and what's rejected. I guess that's a good invite for when our consultant comes to say on whatever date, if you 6 have any questions or you want to hear more. Just for clarity, you said the Town of Newburgh had a long standing Ambulance Corps. Is that Corps or District? Mayor Ramos: They just voted for their district. Deputy Mayor Carley: So, they just voted for their district? That was a Town in the City? Mayor Ramos: No. They have mutual aid to the City. They're encompassing the Town of Newburgh. Deputy Mayor Carley: The only reason I'm making a distinction because we have the Town and the Village, it's similar to the City. It's not joint. Their committee. Are you familiar with their make up? Mayor Ramos: Their committee was their Chief, their Administrative Chief, their Captain, and they have an Assistant Chief. Deputy Mayor Carley: So, no one from the committee is from the City itself. Mayor Ramos: No. Deputy Mayor Carley: The mutual aid side that, I guess the Town provides and then do they do a supplement, as in like if they come over just says they pay per ambulance run or something to that effect? Mayor Ramos: Their contract, as the lawyer stated, has not been finalized yet. They're working out the finances and the monetary fees that are coming up. That's still upcoming right now. They do not have a full-fledged contract that's going through the Town board and the Ambulance Corps. Deputy Mayor Carley: Okay. So, does this model look good based off of what you heard? Mayor Ramos: I thought they did. Mr. Napolitano had projections for years out. He's on the Ambulance Corps side. He's their administrator. We just sat there and he just gave us numbers for projecting for 2024. They're not even in a tax district yet. They did their homework. It's 18 months of talking with the board, shoring up their volunteer base, making sure that their equipment is the state of the art or pretty near close to it. They're heavy. They do over 3000 calls a year. Deputy Mayor Carley: If possible, can you ask them for the mutual aid piece? That'd be similar to our piece. Mayor Ramos: Yes. As a matter of fact, I've openly invited him to come talk to us. He just had a new baby, so he's going to need some time, but I would like to see him come within the next couple of weeks. Trustee Thompson: They also are not considering any type of a new facility. They are going to be upgrading the facility they currently use. I don't know how that really compares with the facilities we're going to use, but they're staying within their budget and whatever happens down the road, happens down the road, but they're not moving. I would just like to address what Trustee Maher said. We had a committee formed to address the ambulance issue. Willie stepped back from the committee and I was asked to take his place, which I had agreed from the beginning to serve as an alternate. So, that's why the 3 of us. Mayor Ramos, Trustee Baker and myself have been doing this. We are the committee from the Village of Walden. I feel like we've come back from all of our 7 meetings and let everybody know who we went to visit, what we discussed, why they did what they did. I'm not opposed, but I just feel there's still a lot of questions and it's disturbing to me that we have not heard from a consultant. The Town also used an attorney that worked very closely with them. We've heard nothing from an attorney. I would like to say to our current Ambulance Corps, I thank you for all the hard work that you do. I don't want you to think that at any point during this process, you are not appreciated because you truly are. I think you've done an exemplary job with what you have to work with. I just wanted to thank you and I've heard that there's a message like, we don't like you, we don't want you. That is not true. You've provided ambulance service for a long time. I know that we still will have ambulance service and I know the goal is to improve the service, make sure we don't drop the ball at times. I think everybody up here is on board with that. It's just we want this done the right way. This is a huge undertaking and I feel like there can be no shortcuts. There just can't be. If this is going to come off right and be really successful, it has to be implemented properly and I can speak for myself. I feel like that has just not been done despite all the presentations, which again, thank you. I know that took a lot of time to do all the work that you've done. I just I feel like there's still a lot of financial issues that haven't been addressed. Staffing issues that haven't been addressed. Contracting of services that really hasn't been addressed. I just feel like there's questions that remain and I'm sorry if people in the community are upset that we're not moving fast enough. But my job is to represent 6000 people in this Village and make sound decisions for them and to spend their money wisely. Potential Street Naming Manager Revella: A letter was sent out to all the residents on Albany Avenue that there's a potential renaming of Albany Avenue to the Samuel E. Wright Way. I did not receive any negative feedback. I did receive some positive feedback, including a card, couple of emails from a few people and we have the comment from Mr. Lynch and the comment from Ms. Muehlen. *Mayor Ramos read note from Mrs. Long into minutes* Trustee Maher made a motion to approve naming Albany Ave “Samuel E. Wright Way”. Seconded by Trustee Elliott. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Carley: With the renaming of the street and we heard from Mr. Lynch regarding costs regarding any type of logistics, I'm not 100% percent familiar with the process, but can we just, if you don't mind, just discuss that just a little bit so that everyone knows if there's a cost and how that change will come about with addresses and timeframes so that everyone can make the proper adjustments as needed moving forward. Manager Revella: We'll make arrangements with the family regarding the actual unveiling of the sign, things like that. But we have to send paperwork to 911 to update the address. Once that's done, it's considered official. The cost to a homeowner would be if you have a return label stamp that has Albany Ave on it, obviously, it's not the same street. The Post Office usually carries it up to a year. That's what they did with Lustig Court they were still delivering mail with the old address, I think was for up to a year. Deputy Mayor Carley: Is it a dual sign? Manager Revella: No. It's just 1 sign. Deputy Mayor Carley: Hopefully, Mr. Lynch, that would kind of help out a little bit that year of the same address and then be able to deliver both. Manager Revella: They will still mail for up to a year. That's what they did for us last time. I 8 assume they would do the same. We'll talk to them to make sure they're on board and they're aware. Mayor Ramos: I know there's a cost for signs to the Village, but we do have a donor that's going to take care of the cost. I believe there would be 10 signs. So, that's not an issue to the Village. Manager Revella: Just for anyone that lives on the street, if anything comes up where there's an issue, please contact me and I'll help walk you through whatever it is. Public Comment Becky Pearson: 167 Walnut St. Ambulance Corps, can you tell me the outcome, you said there's not going to be a contract, so they don't really know if there's going to be a contract in the Town of Newburgh? Mayor Ramos: There's going to be a contract. Becky Pearson: Are they staying it the same way, volunteers and paid as well? Mayor Ramos: Yes. Becky Pearson: Pretty much how they had it already, they're just getting more money from the residents as $400,000. You can't really compare the 2, Walden versus Town of Newburgh because they don't really have Villages in the Town of Newburgh. They just have the Town. Mayor Ramos: But they also have 35,000 people. Becky Pearson: Yes, I understand that. What is the Village doing now? I think that's really where you were headed last week. All this information you're gathering, where are we and what's your next step as a Village to move forward? I understand that you want to hear from a consultant, which I don't blame you. I think the consultant should have come years ago, but that didn't happen. This is where we are right now. What is Walden's plan for the next 6 months before December? Do you have a plan? I know you're gathering, you're gathering, you're gathering. What's next? Where are we and when are we moving and what are we going to be doing? That discussion has to happen here. It can't happen on the phone. You need to kind of go through all your projects that you've already discussed and see what direction you guys want to go in because you have the information and the other people don't have the information. The public doesn't have any information either. I think the public is just wondering what's your next step and when will those decisions be starting to be made? Mayor Ramos: We're going to wait for the consultant. Today would have been a great night for a presentation from the first one and I understand that there's circumstances, but we're going to wait. Thursday they're going to hire the next consultant and we will invite him to the next meeting on 3/22 so that he can discuss his vision and where it's going. Obviously, we know the scope of what they're going to do and we are anxiously waiting. We've briefed the public on each and every aspect that we've been doing through other Towns, other Ambulance Corps. I'm eager to listen to this consultant. Becky Pearson: I'm just thinking that you've done so much research that you've said you've done that. Maybe there's like a spreadsheet or something with each place you've gone to. What's similar, what isn't similar? Are you doing that as well so you can put that together to present it to your board members? Mayor Ramos: Yes. 9 Mary Ellen Matise: What is the Village of Walden going to do for 2023 because you're not going to get on all of our SBLs on the list with the Real Property Office. You've passed that point in time where that can happen this year. So, what happens for 2023 specifically? And are we putting money in the Village budget to cover us for 2023? Because even if then you get all your questions answered and the Town comes up with a plan and you're part of the planning process, which you should be, which is what I went through at the last meeting. Hopefully the Town will enact that committee as a bona fide committee of the Town board. Who is the consultant talking to, but just an ad hoc group of people who have no real advisory power at all? Going past that, what are we going to do here in the Village? Because you're not going to get in the district for next year? We're going to be going along and how are we going? What's going to happen? Then the following year, 2024, if you opt in any time later this year, sure, we'll be part of it then, but we've got a whole year of gap that somehow this Village has to cover for its residents and I want to know how you're going to do that. Also, can we go back to this, when are we going to do the dedication for Joel Cook. Can it be done for Memorial Day? Do a rededication a P.O.W. M.I.A. Flag, which is what he supported. He is a hero. National hero. Mayor Ramos: Let's set a date. May. *Discussion between Mayor Ramos and Sylvie Rainaldi regarding the ambulance district*. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Elliott made a motion to approve Payment of Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Correspondence Mayor Ramos: Letters for the renaming of the street. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Maher: I was very happy with that we were able to do something for Sam Wright this evening and more to come. I think there's definitely still more to come there. I wanted to comment on a few things that I said earlier because I didn't quite get to finish my thought. I think that as we pull together all of our research and homework and communications, there has to be open communication amongst all the Trustees and all of the members of the Board when we're finding out this information. It's fine if you guys go to the meetings, but then I think that we should be aware that you're going to these meetings and we should receive that information timely, like before the board meeting would be great. Then we can compile that and work together to compile that for the Village residents. If we can do that as soon as possible, I will gladly help with that. Upon reading the minutes from last meeting, there are a lot of comments being made even by members of the board that are not accurate. That's where I think that we just need to be careful about what we're saying and make sure that they are in fact, true statements. Trustee Thompson: Since we are currently reviewing all of the police policies and procedures. I think perhaps we should take a look at the Village policies and procedures. They have not been looked at in a few years. Is that correct? Manager Revella: 2020. Deputy Mayor Carley: Ambulance Corps, I made it very clear that based off the history that I've read and discuss that there were some issues with financials. That was the reason for the Town being involved years ago. And based on the history that was presented to us, that there was some financial problems, some issues. That's where I get my comments from. I don't know people 10 personally. I don't know the Ambulance Corps. I didn't go through your financials personally because we didn't receive those and based on your presentation, that's what we received in the latter part of our discussion. 2021. Mrs. Rainaldi. We met twice, 1 at the Town and then other than at the initial meeting, that was an overview. But we met that once and then we have one via Facebook or Zoom with the committee. Regards to my role and my responsibility as a Trustee with the Village, I'm supposed to look at everything and we did. And yes, I was one that voted saying that we can work together because I believe we can and we can move forward and get this done. I feel that there's a lot of emotions here, which is fine. We don't have to create an environment where we're so negative. Everyone's looking out for the best interests of their interests. All I want to say is that the goal is to make sure we do the best for the Village and if it's there's opposing sides, that's okay, let's just do the work and not slander mud and just make sure we all work together with this process. I just wanted to make sure that it's very clear my position on that. It was just based off the information received before and looking at the history of the ambulance corps financially. Moving forward as Ms. Pearson talked about, I just want to bring up a couple of things that I think that it needs to be discussed from our board real soon so that we can have clarity. I know the value of a consultant, but when we get the consultant here, what do we want to do with that? Are we asking the consultant to give us a direction to go in? I'm just reflecting on Mr. Donovan. He said, as a lawyer, that's not his role because we're supposed to say which direction we want to go in. If we're looking for the consultant to say, these are your pros and cons for going with the district. He or she will lay those out. These are your pros and cons for not going with the district and lay those out. These are your pros and cons for doing it on your own and lay those out. If that's the role of in my mind, the consultant should be to say that and that's where we looking for. And we have to discuss as a Village, those pros and cons for opting in, opting out and doing it by ourselves. Don't get me wrong, information is good, but at some point and it shouldn't take another 5 months to do that, where we should come and say, option 1, option 2, option 3 and then we move on from there. Then I think that will make it very clear to the public all the different options that we have to have. Then when we start making decisions and clearly in public make those decisions so that everyone is fully aware. Ms Rainaldi brings up a valid point, we can't kick the can down so far that we forget about if we're going to do that, which we now we missed that window, we have to consider what that would look like financially for the Village. That's what I want to put out there that I think that should be done sooner rather than later. Trustee Elliott: I think that's part of the purpose of the consultant, correct? He says, all right this option is not good for you. So, we kind of take his opinion into account. Deputy Mayor Carley: Consulting is based off their experience. Trustee Elliott: Does the consultant do some type of study based call volume? Deputy Mayor Carley: That's exactly what I'm saying. That's what we want from the consultant. We as a board want him to look at the call volumes for Walden and we want to compare contrast with the Town and see where the value is. That type of dialog is what we got to say. This is why we have a consultant. Not that he comes in and tell us X. We have to tell him, this is what we want. I don't know if we have all that laid out and maybe we should lay that out for the consultant so that the board knows as a whole those questions. Just like we presented over 100, I think we should have the same amount of questions or something similar for our consultant. I don't know if we can do that because he's not our consultant. That's their consultant. So, we need to kind of look at if we want to have our consultant. That's what I'm getting at. Mayor Ramos: I want to thank the Historical Society for inviting the board members to the John R. Hayes Historical Landmark presentation. DPW. I would like to thank Walden Fire Department, our Recreation Coordinator, our Village Manager, Trustee Sebring, Trustee Baker for attending this 11 wondrous occasion and showcasing a number 9 landmark for the Village of Walden. As for comments to the Ambulance Corps regarding the contract. I don't know, I've been sitting on board for 5 years already. We don't engage contract talks unless it goes to the Village Manager or Attorney. So, if there's contract talks going on for ambulance service, we don't know anything about it until it's presented to the Village Manager. Am I correct? Manager Revella: Could be. If that's the direction the board wants to go. Mayor Ramos: We don't engage in contract talks with outside entities besides the PBA and the CSEA. Executive Session – Discuss Personal History of a Particular Person Deputy Mayor Carley made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss the personal history of a particular person. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Thompson made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Elliott. All ayes. Motion carried. 12  Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting March 1, 2022 Motions & Resolutions Approval of February 15, 2022 Minutes Trustee Thompson made a motion to approve the February 15, 2022 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Baker. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Hearing – Local Law 1 of 2022 - Noise Trustee Thompson made a motion to open Public Hearing Local Law 1 of 2022 - Noise. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All aye. Motion carried. Trustee Thompson made a motion to close Public Hearing Local Law 1 of 2022 - Noise. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Maher made a motion to adopt Negative Declaration. Seconded by Trustee Elliott. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Carley made a motion to adopt Local Law 1 of 2022 - Noise. Seconded by Trustee Maher. All ayes. Motion carried. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Elliott made a motion to approve Payment of Audited Bills. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Executive Session – Discuss Personal History of a Particular Person Deputy Mayor Carley made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss the personal history of a particular person. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Thompson made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Elliott. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Carley made a motion to reduce Fire and Safety from the Masonic Lodge to $65. Seconded by Trustee Elliott. All ayes. Motion carried 13