Board of Trustees

Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting March 22, 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 Patricia Maher Brian Sebring Cheryl Baker Absent: Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Presentation -Spartan Race Don Berger: We're here to present what we're calling Tri Montgomery. It's going to be a triathlon that will cover the Town of Montgomery and the 3 Villages. We're going to hit certain sections of each Village. What we've trying to do here is not only have this triathlon, we want to make it a weekend event. Randi is really working hard on that and she's going to tell you some of the things that she's working on. I have here a preliminary sketch of the route and a little flier I like to give to you. What I'm going to do now is turn it over to Liz and she'll describe the route. We've already talked a little bit to Walden about what you guys want to do here and I did put it in here. If you guys have exceptions to that, of course we could change that. Liz Lounsbury: We're trying to run through each Village with certain things. Right now we have our route set up as we were going to start at Benedict Park. We're going to run down 17k to River Road into the Village of Walden, to West Main Street, to Bank Street to Pleasant Avenue to Bradley Park at Bradley Park, you'll then get on your bike, leave Bradley Field to Albany Avenue make a left on route 208, right on Lake Osiris Road to St Andrew's Road to Berea Road. Crossover 17k to Bracken Road through 208 into Maybrook. In Maybrook, you're going to do Schimps Lane to Veterans Park to Tower Ave to Volunteer Way to Route 208 to Clark Place. Then the right on Neelytown Road to Beaverdam Road to Montgomery to Goodwill Road, then on to Clinton Street, a left on Bridge Street to Bachelor Street. Take a right to the left of the Gazebo by the river. At the river, you will then get in your kayak and your kayak up the river in the opposite direction that it flows around a buoy, back to Benedict and finish at the finish line. I kind of tested the river yesterday, and it's only like a half mile from Benedict to the Village of Montgomery, so we were trying to make it a little bit longer. The run is about 6 miles. The bike should be around 17, and then we were going to do the kayak portion at like 1.5 to 2 miles. Randi Picarillo: In addition to the triathlon, we wanted to make an eat-play-stay Montgomery event. For the past few months, we've been working on a comprehensive map of the entire Town. It'll be in brochure form filled out to 6 sides like the old school ones you get at the thruway stop. 1 There also will be a QR code, so each participating business would have the QR code as people are shopping and buying and dining and whatever as they're doing and they're saying what else is there to do here? You can scan it and we have something similar if you've seen it to the Orange County map, where it's a little bit more artistic and the different stopping points. But we do have a close up of each business district on it for Walden, Maybrook and Montgomery, and then an overall view of the Town and then there are little arrows to the things that are just outside the Town. We've tried to list a more comprehensive list of things to do, places to stay, where you're going to grab money, where you can pick up a prescription, that kind of stuff to entice more weekend tourism. We'd like to take advantage of the places like Angry Orchard, City Winery, Winding Hills, campgrounds and couple of the newer hotels that are being proposed in the area to get some more people to stay and spend more money and see why we love this area. We came up with this idea. We've been looking for a race, something to do. We've kind of tested the waters and tried out a couple of smaller things. We came up with this cockamamie idea and we have spoken to quite a few other businesses. We're looking to do a special at the pizza places, Friday night to do like a carb-load meal for anybody that's participating in the race, like a $10 pasta night. The day after, City Winery, we're working on like a prix fixe brunch and then a community concert. So, whether that means they're scheduling the talent and it's a non-ticketed event that everyone can go to and enjoy, or we can book local talent and it would be free for locals to enjoy. We're working out the details. We're trying to get as many participants business wise and see what we can do to kind of highlight different places along the way so that we can build this as an eat-play-stay weekend and we hope to do it annually. We have already talked to the fire department and the police department about this. The feedback has been positive. We've already presented to Town of Montgomery and Village of Maybrook, and the preliminary feeling was positive. We've gotten some input from a couple of local people about the kayak portion, about where we should be avoiding major intersections and how to keep it as safe as possible. It will be a 16 and up race. We do know we'll need a lot of volunteers, so we did reach out to the high school and their varsity track team. So, if they're 16 and up and a student, they'll get a highly discounted rate with the understanding that we will get volunteers from the rest of the track and field crew. First responders are also going to get a discount. I think that's it for the Business Council end of it. Don Berger: The whole concept that we're really trying to put together is bring our community together. When we come back to Benedict Park, have a community day there. Children's events, races, bobbing for apples, bouncy houses. Also have adult things up there. Will have to get insurance on all that. It's really bringing the communities together. Bringing Maybrook, Walden, Montgomery into that park. We'll have music there. That's what our goal is. I think it's something that's been positive with the Town and the Village of Maybrook. I know the folks that I spoke to here in Walden are all very, very positive about it. On April 5th, we'll be going to the Village of Montgomery and see how they feel about it. While we're hoping to hear from you guys today, okay, proceed, you're welcome here in our Village. And we could start planning the whole show. Without Walden, we'd have to change things. I'm sure you guys will enjoy it. Manager Revella: What's the sponsoring organization? Randi Picarello: BCGM. Trustee Thompson: I think it's a great idea. Trustee Maher: In other areas, have you guys looked into what the expected attendance might be? Randi Picarello: It's a 1-3 man team, if you want to do the whole thing yourself, you can. If you want to do it with a 3 man team you can. We need the go ahead to finalize the route. As soon as we finalize the route. We are ready to upload a link to that run. One of our members is 12 Rock. They 2 do a lot of local races and sponsor quite a few races for. The state line region. So, we're going to share it with them. They're hoping for 500 runners. Trustee Baker: I think it's a wonderful event and I think it's wonderful to include all the communities together. Trustee Sebring: How far in advance are you going to advertise this in the paper? Randi Picarello: We're hoping to get all of the initial approvals that we need by the next board meeting for the Village of Montgomery. Once we get that, it's full steam ahead. We'd like a representative from Walden, but we already do have someone from Maybrook and someone from the Police Department. We'd like to get a committee together of all of the stakeholders in the event and get something pretty solid done by May 1st so we can get it out to the press. We figure we need at least 3 months to really advertise it. I'd like to have everything nailed down by May 1st, ideally. Deputy Mayor Carley: I look forward to it. I want to participate to a certain degree. So, you can divide it up as a team? I can do the run and the bike and somebody else can do that. Great. The Business Council is spearheading it. Where is the fund going? Randi Picarello: It will go to more events like this. The idea with the Business Council is to really advertise and promote the businesses in the area so that we as a community, as a business community have a little bit more say in what's coming into our area so we can dictate a little bit more. Do we need to do a placemaking event again and look at what we need. Do we need more street signs? Do we need more crosswalks? Do we need more pocket parks and all of the things that we discussed? More beautification projects and more advertising of our businesses. We are doing a lot of resource work with the big small businesses to make sure that once they come here, they can afford to stay here and they're prepared with a good business plan and they have all kinds of local resources. Funding all of those efforts. Deputy Mayor Carley: Great. The cost? Randi Picarello: Right now, I think the full price cost we have is $119 and then there would be discounts for first responders and students. For part of the event afterwards their discounted ticket for that as well that you can add on to your race price if you'd like to. Deputy Mayor Carley: You get t-shirts, a little medal, the whole nine yards? Randi Picarello: I don't know about the medal. Deputy Mayor Carley: Thank you. I think it's a great idea. Mayor Ramos: What's the exact distances? Liz Lounsbury: I think it's probably like 6.25 run, about a 16 to 17 mile bike and then the kayak would be 1.5. Mayor Ramos: As we spoke before, I'm all in. I have a couple of military teams that are anxiously awaiting. It's a good timeframe. You have 7 months, which is excellent planning timeframe. All I ask is that you make sure you involve all the players, operations ordered by the Police Department. Because I know we're going straight down Main Street. I want to showcase our Village. As you can hear, you have full support of the Board. 3 Manager Revella: I was going to talk about routes with the Chief. Deputy Mayor Carley: Anything with special needs? Randi Picarello: We are not excluding anyone. We can make reasonable special accommodations so that anybody that really wants to participate, we will make it happen. Presentation – Orange County Transit Representative from Cuddy & Feder: We are still waiting on DOT comments back from our resubmission to them in January. In the meantime, we are still actively working to get a contractor for the sewer and water connection, and we actually interviewed a couple this week at the end of last week. We hope the next time we're back for an update, we do have some good positive news on that front. Furthermore, we are actively improving the site pursuant to the Planning Board approval. The internal office renovation hopefully is completed within the next few weeks. We also understand Orange County Transit filed for building permits recently this week for fencing and the screening work as part of the site plan. Mayor Ramos: I visited the new office area and it's looking remarkable compared to what it was back then. They're making tremendous strides and I thank you for taking time to come and address us. Manager Revella: Just want to make sure that the things that don't require DOT approval are being done. Those are a berm, some other on site improvements are being done regardless of the DOT holdup, right? Representative from Cuddy & Feder: So, the berm and the fence, that's the permit that you just, I think, filed. I don't know if it's been pulled yet, but it's at least been filed for. So that stuff we are going to keep moving forward while we're still trying to get the DOT sign off and the permit. Presentation – Jay Beaumont Jay Beaumont made a presentation on water aquifers. Manager Revella: Just so the public's aware, the Village spent money to pay for a well head protection plan. It was completed in 2009. Submitted to the Town I think this is the 4th time, Trustee Thompson made sure they got a copy as well recently, but they still haven't adopted it, so there really is the need for us to put pressure on them to adopt the plan as soon as possible. Manager’s Report Manager Revella: We had a few Orange County Transportation Council meetings, one with the Subcommittee on Transportation. They're trying to update the bus routes in the county to make them more efficient and to touch on more communities, they're trying to expand. Right now, the major ones are in Newburgh, Middletown and down in K.J. But there are other routes that are expanding as well, and they're looking to push that forward, as well as the trail system, which we've been touched upon in our past meetings. We did interview a dispatcher candidate. Did hire another part time dispatcher. They're on probation now. We're looking to get a couple more, as well as trying to hire police officers. We are having some difficulty. We went through the canvass list once, it actually expired. We got the updated list, which I'm waiting to receive from the county now. We've been meeting with FEMA on some reimbursements from Hurricane IDA. Department Heads have been very helpful in getting the reports in to FEMA so we can get reimbursed for that in those costs. I've been meeting with the contractor at Olley Park on updates along with the Engineer, Public Works Superintendent and the Rec Coordinator to make sure we're on track. Depending on when our supplies come in and when NYSEG gets the gas and electric and depends on when we can 4 actually open. But most of the construction should be done within the next month and a half. Village Treasure and I met with the Village Insurance company went through our policies to make sure we're not missing anything and some updates to make sure we're not being overcharged and make sure we're actually fully covered for all of our buildings and equipment. Went through the updates with Building Inspector along with court proceedings. Those should be up and running again. They have a few problem landlords they're dealing with right now. Covered for some time off from some Department Heads as well. Went through and finalized the budget, which we presented to the Board of Trustees. It's on the website and in the library as well for our budget sessions, which start in April. We're close to our goal. Next meeting, we'll discuss the tax cap and what that means, as well as talk about the budget. Went over 207c with the Village Clerk and Special Counsel. Been going over that and worker's comp cases pretty steadily to try and lower our costs and get those cases closed as soon as possible so we can cover staff issues, that's going on. Also went through the FOILs with our Village Attorney and Village Clerk to make sure we're responding timely. There were a couple of large ones that we had to go through and took a lot of effort and longer than normal because of how many documents were there. But we seem to be moving forward pretty well with those. Rec and Parks Department, even those last couple of snowstorms were quick, but they still had to clear some problem areas in the Village and help the Building Department out. Indoor basketball is going well. The Montgomery Little League is actually going to have baseball at Bradley Park this year. Some private organizations from time to time as well. Youth funding application was submitted to the county, the new online program is up and running. Building Department; Building Inspector issued 11 permits, 8 certificates of compliance, 12 CO reports and 1 CO, as well as continued fire and safety inspections. The Code Enforcement Officer issued 11 permits and 4 fire and safety inspections conducted as well, and they've been keeping up with the planning and zoning matters, which have been pretty busy lately and checking on the progress on Falcon's Rest on North Montgomery Street. Clerk has been updating Facebook/website and working with me and Special Counsel on 207c and workers comp, going over personnel, FOILs, minutes and conducted the last election and responded to complaints from various areas of the Village. Finance Department still working on bank recs, month end closing, the budget, the 2021 year audit. She did complete a 3 day course with the comptroller's office. The webinar was pretty good. Public Works have been doing as much as they can with what they have, including maintaining the Village vehicles and equipment. Water Department replaced 4 meters, 1 end point, 18 mark outs and 3 inspections. They have been getting busier every week. Unfortunately, a lot of stuff going on. Went through the budget as well. Cleared roads, maintain facilities, worked on the trucks from the storms. Work on the sewer plant. We have some maintenance issues going on, but we have a couple of grants received, so we're trying to get contractors in to do some work, as well as the altitude of the Gladstone tank, and they're continue to flush and jet the sewer system. Police have been trying to work on staffing and over time with the people that are out and being short staffed due to 207c and workers comp matters. The accreditation and policies, which we'll go over and a little bit. They have been doing special details and responding to different complaints around the Village and areas of need. They issued 19 traffic tickets. 79 parking summonses, responded to 7 MVAs and conducted 8 arrests. There were 540 blotters since last meeting to the time that I wrote the memo. Trustee Thompson: I thought we were going to get, we don't need detailed information, but for the Building Department, we were going to be informed about the violations. I don't see anything for this period. Manager Revella: He's been giving me a copy of them. There was none in his reports to report on, but they do know that they're supposed to start to tally the lists. There were a couple of really bad ones. 1 is 35-37 North Montgomery Street, where the people who got it off the tax sale just started renovating the building and kind of blew out the back wall and it's in the lawn from there to the 5 river. Some pretty bad ones they've been responding to. I'll remind them to put it in the report so they can report it to you guys. Trustee Thompson: There are physical meetings for FEMA now? If there are, I'd love to attend one of those. If it pertains to us. Manager Revella: We're on a conference call with them. This is for FEMA, for disaster relief because we had damages from a hurricane. Not the classes. Deputy Mayor Carley: The Community Center, what is the projected date? Manager Revella: It depends on when NYSEG finishes their work. They have to put a pole in to bring electric in and they have to do the gas line. We can't really open without those. The weather's getting better, it's not as important, but still it's necessary to be open to the public. The electric has to be in. Construction itself should be done within 6 weeks, depending on supplies that are coming in for finished work. We're ready for NYSEG now. It just depends on when they're available. Approval of March 1, 2022 Minutes Trustee Elliott made a motion to approve the March 1, 2022 Minutes. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Comment Becky Pearson: 167 Walnut St. Clarification, talking about the 2 mowers. Did I hear John say that 1 mower was in last year's budget? Manager Revella: Mower and a groomer. Becky Pearson: Was in last year's budget, 1 of them was. Now you want to put both into parkland expense. Can you go over what you said, please? Manager Revella: The Parks Department asked for 2 mowers last year. They got 1 approved, 1 not approved. So, they're asking for the other 1 now. Someone asked if it was a replacement for something. It's not a replacement. It's 1 that was already requested to meet their needs. Becky Pearson: If it was in the budget last year, you have the money to spend on the 1, why are you putting 2 in? Manager Revella: It's not 2, it's a field groomer, not a mower. Becky Pearson: Okay. It's 2 items, I don't care what they are. 1 item was in last year's budget. 1 wasn't. Manager Revella: No. Becky Pearson: Neither one was in last year's budget. Manager Revella: Correct. It was cut before we set the budget. Action Items: Discussion – Police Policies Chief Herlihy: This should be our last meeting for what we have on our Lexipol procedures, as well as the adopted that we included in our Lexipol policy. We updated ours to the new policies that 6 were just released to us today for the corrections that were made, that is now in our Lexipol policy is incorporated in Section 205. Mayor Ramos: It was a lot of work, a lot of paper. Thank you. Discussion – Ambulance Corps Mayor Ramos: Just to let you know, at 5:20 this afternoon, I received a call from Mr. Peter Berry. He is the new consultant for the Town of Montgomery. I'm going to ask the Village Clerk to forward him all our emails so that he may have contact with the members of the committee and the rest of the board so that he can set up a meeting and he come down. He's already talked to the Village of Maybrook. He's waiting to talk to the Village of Montgomery. If you see Peter Berry on your emails, don't destroy it. It is Mr. Berry, he is the consultant for the Ambulance Corps and hopefully he'll be able to coordinate a date and time where we can discuss this matter further. Trustee Thompson: I believe we're pretty much close to complete to speaking to all the entities that we wanted to speak to. Is there a plan then to collate all of our data and share it with everyone else on the board? Mayor Ramos: Yes. Trustee Thompson: I'm sorry to see Trustee Baker go, but she has been instrumental in all of the ambulance meetings and discussions and going to the ambulance board meetings. I'm hoping we can still utilize her services if she's still willing to participate as a Village resident. Mayor Ramos: Absolutely. I mean, if it's okay with the board, she can liaison with the Ambulance Corps and continue with this. And you're right, we're getting close. We're going to wait for the consultant. I told him to come see us first. We do have some questions still and he was very upbeat and he's looking forward to working with us. Trustee Thompson: I also got an email from Trustee-Elect Becky, I don't know if she sent it to everyone, I'm assuming, she would like to begin to be updated on where we are with the ambulance, so she's ready to go when she comes on board. Mayor Ramos: Okay, looking forward to it. Trustee Thompson: I don't really have a lot of data to give her, because you were the keeper of the notes. Mayor Ramos: There's a lot. When we set up an appointment with the consultant, I don't have a copy machine and I don't think our machine can do that because it's well over at least a thousand pages right now of all the information and the references and the resources that we had and the conversation. We're going to sit down, hopefully with our liaison and complete or finish completing an excel sheet on what we've done and we'll get it to the appropriate players. Trustee Elliott: As part of the consultant, does he give like an estimate of what a new building is going to cost? Mayor Ramos: He is going to give us what we ask him. Trustee Maher: I can forward you the scope of work. 7 Trustee Sebring: I'd like to see Trustee Baker stay on as a member of the committee since she has worked really hard with the rest of you. I have no problem with that. I look forward to having a meeting with that consultant for the Ambulance Corps. Deputy Mayor Carley: I look forward to hearing more. And I agree with Trustee Baker being part of that if she’s willing to do it. I think Trustee Pearson, soon-to-be. Mrs. Rainaldi can give you whatever she wants to give you, so that's open too. She has everything. Mayor Ramos: Just to let everybody know, he was assigned a deadline of June 1st. Between him talking to all the Villages and the Town and all the outside agencies that are involved in this, then that's his marching orders. Village Hall Flooring Manager Revella: We had gotten some pricing for it because of the pricing level, we're required by law to go for a public bid. I just wanted to make sure we get input from the attorney about the timeframe for that bidding so we can actually put the bid out for submission. The estimates is in your packet so you're aware of what the level we're looking at. Attorney Donovan: Pursuant to General Municipal Law, the minimal time frame, 5 days have to elapse between when the notice of Bid appears in the newspaper and the bid is open. A rule of thumb that I would suggest is a minimum of 7 days. A day for the advertisement to appear. 5 days to elapse and on the next following day, the bid could be opened. That's my recommendation to the board. Manager Revella: I just need consensus from the board to be able to go out to bid for that for at least a minimum bid time period. Mayor Ramos: Has everybody taken a chance to review that? All: Yes. Manager Revella: We'll put that out right away. Licensing Renewal -Sweeney’s Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve license renewal for Sweeney's. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 11-21-22 – Stop DWI Trustee Baker made a motion to approve Resolution 11-21-22 Stop DWI. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 12-21-22 – Budget Transfers Trustee Thompson: I thought that we were going to start doing more monthly meetings with the Department Heads. It does seem like a lot of money got moved around. There was no anticipation of this month by month? Manager Revella: We did some minor ones last month, but this is really most of it because of things that came up within the last month and spring started. We got an update on our cash report to know where the budget lines were and those are all accumulated in this. Trustee Thompson: I just thought that was going to be the purpose for meeting more frequently the Department Heads with the Treasurer to avoid large transfers like this. 8 Manager Revella: It should be. The big one is the Police Department’s, because we still have to cover a lot of people that are out that we were hoping would get some people back and some coverage. We tried to hire another full timer, but weren't able to off the canvass list. Trying to fill that gap. That's a big gap. Trustee Sebring: Parks and Rec, the field groomer. Is there going to be enough use of the park this summer to warrant a groomer? Manager Revella: We have a baseball league that put the park use request in for the full season. Trustee Sebring: All right. The mower, which one is being replaced? Manager Revella: It's a zero turn that we didn't buy last year. We were supposed to get 2, but we got 1. Deputy Mayor Carley made a motion to approve Resolution 12-21-22 Budget Transfers. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Allocation Parkland Funds Manager Revella: We did receive a good amount of Parkland funds. Part of that was from the Falcons Rest project. We'd like to see if we could use those funds to pay for those 2 pieces of parks equipment. Want to make sure that we do the correct process. Attorney Donovan: Your parkland fees for capital improvements. Not operational maintenance. So, if it falls within capital improvement, then you're authorized to spend the money. Deputy Mayor Carley: All the things that you were talking about were capital. Or was it for just maintenance? Manager Revella: It's for buying the 2 pieces of equipment. Attorney Donovan: I don't know what the equipment is or what it's used for. Typically, if you're going to, it would be to buy land or make improvements to, drainage improvements, stormwater management improvements, building a pavilion, that type of thing. Manager Revella: If it's a field groomer, that's for making the infield's for baseball. Attorney Donovan: That's like a maintenance thing. Generally, equipment is a maintenance item. Deputy Mayor Carley: It sound like it was more of a maintenance side versus a capital side. Attorney Donovan: Mr. Mayor, members of the Board, if I can ask. I'm the Attorney for the Village of Goshen Planning Board their meetings on the fourth Tuesday, this meeting was switched to the fourth Tuesday, so it's a conflict. I'm not going to a social event. Perhaps unless there's some urgency, if you just send me the particulars, I can report back to the Board. Mayor Ramos: Okay. We'll hold off. Knights of Columbus Car Show Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve Knights of Columbus Car show on July 9th, 2022, rain date of July 16th. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. 1 abstention (Mayor Ramos). Motion carried. 9 Flag Day Ceremony Trustee Baker made a motion to approve Flag Day ceremony on June 12th at 1 p.m. at Walden Veterans Memorial Park. Seconded by Trustee Maher. 1 abstention (Trustee Sebring). Motion carried. Public Comment Brenda Adams: 31 Valley Ave. Thank you for approving the Flag Day ceremony, I hope you can all attend. Also, Mr. Mayor, asking you if you'd like to speak again. Check that on your calendar and let me know if we can put you on the program. Mayor Ramos: Absolutely. Thank you. Mary Ellen Matise: 54 Gladstone Ave. County talking about the bus routes. Are they're talking about fixed bus routes or dial-a-bus bus routes? Manager Revella: Fixed routes. Mary Ellen Matise: Because the Town of Montgomery still has never done anything about crossing town lines, except for Crawford, because we're Crawford and Montgomery funded together. That's just a matter of them making agreements with other Towns. Manager Revella: The County is going to come out with a mobile app to coordinate all the different bus routes to try and get plans and get planned routes together. Mary Ellen Matise: You know how long ago Rob Harrington told us that? It's got to be like 15 years by now. Whenever they did the North County study. The Town Board established the Revolutionary War 250 committee for the Town under the Historic Preservation Commission and so we will we'll come to you sometime this year and give a little presentation about all the themes. It's going to be a 10 year celebration. So every year will have different themes and hopefully if there's anybody here who wants to participate. Anybody who would like to participate with the committee's work, we'd love to have people and I haven't done a press release yet. Trustee Thompson: Are you the contact? Mary Ellen Matise: Yes. Also, Walter Pahokee at Montgomery Book Exchange, he's going to be like the chair of that committee. Mayor Ramos: Are we going to dress up in revolutionary garb? Mary Ellen Matise: You can do whatever you want. Mayor Ramos: I'm in. Keep us posted Mary Ellen Matise: I will. We have a slide program that the county historian put together, so we'll bring that around. We're just getting started thinking about it. And the county commission is just getting started really. Mayor Ramos: If you need any help from many of us, let somebody know. Mary Ellen Matise: The more the merrier, because we might plan some activities here over the course of those years that just have to do with Walden or participate with the Town. Any number of 10 possibilities. In fact, 1 thing we were thinking about is like a bookstore tour or like roundtables or something. So now we have this new local bookstore, and so that would be a fun thing to do. Also, can I like throw my hat in the ring, because I've been involved with the Ambulance Corps since 2003 and I would certainly like to help out and don't we have an open committee on this that's working? The Town's supposed to have an open committee and that open committee sort of nobody knows how where it is, what it's doing. Mayor Ramos: We're happy to accept any and all help Mary Ellen Matise: I would like to. I've always been involved with it. I've been a stakeholder, especially as a senior, because that's always been my focus with that and I would just like to be part of it. If you please include me, I'd love that. Thank you. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Elliott made a motion to approve Payment of Audited Bills. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. Correspondence Trustee Thompson: I had some emails from Mr. Shorette from the Ambulance Corps and correspondence with Mr. Beaumont and Becky asking about the ambulance paperwork. Trustee Elliott: Same ones from Becky. Trustee Maher: I also had correspondence from the Town of Montgomery Ambulance Corps, Becky Pearson's email and Anthony from Cuddy and Feder. Trustee Baker: Mr. Shorette, Mrs. Pearson and then from a Village resident in regards to the elections. Trustee Sebring: I received the same ones that everybody else has had. Deputy Mayor Carley: I received an email from a Trustee-elect Pearson and also was speaking to a young lady. Her name was Carolyn Wesenberg, and she was talking about the Scout Cabin and concerning books and everything. How that it would be nice to start some type of, I guess, an area where you can either buy books and also allows for volunteers, special needs, which was where she was pointing more too. I told her I thought it was a good idea *read her email into minutes* She just wants to put something out and I just wanted to share that. Mayor Ramos: We can work on that. I too received correspondence from Trustee-elect Pearson, Mr. Mirando from Orange County Transit, Ambulance Corps and today's correspondence with Mr. Berry from Albany. Deputy Mayor Carley: A young lady in our area that was talking about the snow removal. She had some complaints that the snow removal, the width of the streets, like they wasn't clearing it to the curb. Typically, we put the signs out, the Village put the signs out, no parking, and it made it narrower and she had some issues with it. Manager Revella: Do you know what streets she was talking about? Deputy Mayor Carley: Main. Manager Revella: We don't plow Main St. 11 Deputy Mayor Carley: I told her that, but that was the main one she was talking about. She said Village in general, but especially down Main St. Mayor Ramos: We've contacted DOT for this so we're working on it. Maybe wider plows. Manager Revella: We try to clear it as often as possible. The problem is the car removal, is not always possible. The state comes through with the wing plow. It's not putting it down if there are cars there because, it'll take mirrors off. Deputy Mayor Carley: But I didn't see the stakes like we did years before. Manager Revella: We cleaned twice this year. Deputy Mayor Carley: Okay, cars get towed get towed right? Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Maher: I just wanted to say to Cheryl, what everyone else here already knows you're an exemplary member of this community. Your dedication to Walden and its residents is going to be very hard for all of us to follow in those footsteps. Even though you're not going to be in this room anymore, I know that you're not going anywhere. You're still going to be a very important person in this Village as far as a mentor and a leadership role and in community service for all that you do for us. We're going to miss you. You're always welcome at my house. Trustee Baker: Thank you for that. I want to congratulate the winners, I have absolutely no doubt that each and every one of you will zealously represent the residents of our awesome Village. I look forward to working with all of you at our community events. You're right. I'm not going away. I get to see my little mug all over the place. Trustee Sebring: It's been a pleasure working with you, Cheryl. I know you're not going to go anywhere, so you'll continue to do your thing at our events and thank you for serving the Village. Trustee Elliott: Thank you, Cheryl, you've informed me on a lot of stuff that I had no idea about. I appreciate it. I look forward to seeing you around. Trustee Thompson: I'd like to congratulate Trish and Willie. I didn't see them on election night, so congratulations and thank you for serving Cheryl. I've enjoyed working with you and I look forward to seeing you at the ambulance issues and all the other things you participate in the Village. I am getting bombarded with climate smart webinars, Zoom's, in-person meetings. I can't possibly attend every single one of these. I do my best. I have another 1 tomorrow. There was tonight. If anyone else is interested in any of the Climate Smart activities, I am very happy to forward the emails to anyone else. Just let me know. I also would like to know how everybody feels about inviting Trustee- elect Pearson into executive session this evening, just so she can get updated, get informed of things that are going on in the Village so she's ready to go at our reorg meeting. I don't know how everybody else feels about that, but I know it is permitted. We can invite anyone we like into executive session. It's my understanding that whoever we invite could be asked to leave for part of the meeting if there's information that they're not to be entitled to. I'd like to know if anyone else feels that it would be beneficial. Trustee Sebring: I have no objection. Mayor Ramos: We'll finish with comments and then we'll come back to that. 12 Deputy Mayor Carley: Cheryl, you're not going away. Thank you for all your service. We appreciate it. All right. It's a good segue way into the presentation from the Business Council. When we were doing the election, a lot of things came up, one of the main ones was the WBA, Walden's Business Association. I think we should, if the Board is willing and everyone is willing to spin it back up, get that back in action. It's a good time because I think the triathlon is a great event and we can kind of connect that, as a little startup to motivate our business district and get it back in action. One of the things I did see, with the campaign, you have some positive things, you have some negative things. But one of the positive things that I did see and I said I was going to bring up, at first chance and it's our youth, we do youth leadership, which is a great thing. I see something that I think we can start doing is more the volunteer youth get involved with the community more. I had the opportunity to talk with Brenda during Meet the Candidate night and she brought up a great point that we need more and more people to get involved because as our senior population who I think are the main ones out there doing everything, begin to move on and do other things, relocate, we need more and more people to get involved. I think if we can start some type of campaign to draw in the youth in and just talk about our millennials and say volunteer, pushing things for Women in Walden and Men in Walden and have a little events and bring them together, so forth, so on. I'd like to put that out there also as a movement for our community. The other one was, I talked about the scouts. The Walden corridors, 1 of the questions that was brought up also, what do you suggest to bring small business or other businesses to Walden? I wrote it out for the paper and I stated that not a sprucing up, but a beautification. In dialog with other people we start talking about the corridors of Main Street and Walden where the main traffic goes through and is that beautification of that area and I'd like to see a project, maybe if we can, to kind of look at that. Not saying it's going to happen this year, like right now, but maybe that ball starts rolling and we can look into a beautification project and pace it out so that we can hit all the corridors within Walden. If everyone is open to that. I'm trying not to give you any alibis, but I think that was about it. Trustee Thompson: What kind of beautification? Are you talking about buildings? Because the Community Council this year is doing planters up and down Main Street? I did planting at Wooster's Grove last summer and I've been talking to Mike Bliss and Mr. Revella and the Community Council and we have some tentative plans to do some of the entrance signs at different parts coming in and out of the Village over at the entrance to Olley Park or Bradley Field. And I know there's a Boy Scout project for beautification down at the new community center, so there are some things being formulated. Deputy Mayor Carley: I agree 100% and I was aware of those. Trustee Thompson: Well, if there's anything else, I'd love to hear, what else you have in mind. I'm eager to help on a committee like that. Deputy Mayor Carley: For example, 1 of the things I feel that can help out is that when somebody drives through Walden, Village Manager was talking about how they're doing the streets and the sidewalks and everything. But I typically don't look down. I look up. I look at the homes and the buildings and the storefronts and like a good paint job. Maybe a coordination of a paint job or things like that or to have a theme. So, when somebody comes through at a certain time, we as a business corridor. I know we do like Christmas on Main Street and things of that nature, but really push it from the business perspective and then draw in the homes. You got some homes that need some paint, that need some work. My thing is that, I'm not saying for every single house on Main Street, that's not the point, but where you can you have a conversation, can you do this? Can you do that? And if the answer is no, which it probably will be, what can we do to help and then look at the cost behind it and then do a fundraiser and do something as a project to help build that up. So when somebody pulls into Walden, they have that view. That's what I'm referring to. And then with the 13 planters on top of that and doing all the initiatives that we have already, I think that will be a plus. I don't think that can happen every single year to every single house. But you put a schedule together and then you look at it. We already talked about our Village Hall. Make sure that when somebody steps into the Village Hall that it looks a certain way. But before you get to the Village Hall, they got to look at our, our buildings, our stores, and you just want everything to look to be a theme. I was in certain Villages, up in Connecticut and I went through some other areas and you start getting these ideas and Walden can look like this versus a certain way. Trustee Thompson: I know the Building Inspector encourages people to come up here and see John about the rehab loans. Deputy Mayor Carley: That's a great point, because at that point, the rehab loans. See how we can tie that in to more and introduce people that we see that your home can use x y z. Can you do this? Can you do that? Maybe, maybe not. We don't know. But that's being proactive and we're pushing the information out there to them instead of pulling in. That's what I see. That's part of it also. Trustee Thompson: I don't think anyone will disagree and we'd like to do anything we can to spruce up Main Street anywhere else in our Village. Trustee Baker: Absolutely. Did we get the poles to extend the flags for the Veterans down Main Street and around the square? Manager Revella: I haven't seen them come in yet. I'll ask Fred. Mayor Ramos: Trustee Baker, you will always be a kindred spirit here in these halls. We learned a lot from each other, just like this team learns a lot from each other. This is a team effort. We can't do everything by ourselves. As you can see, Trustee Thompson, she's getting dated with the Climate Smart, which is an undertaking and she's been valiantly doing that for 4 years. I learned a lot from you and I'm hoping that you learned a lot from me and I know you will continue to serve the Village of Walden in any capacity that drives you and drives us. I thank you for your time, your service and your dedication to the Village and I greatly appreciate it. I had the honor of speaking to a group of 7 Webelos who just graduated to the Boy Scouts and their eagerness to come out and help this Village do little projects. We have our Girl Scout who's doing her gold project here with the mantle. If you see back there, we're about halfway there now and it's going to look beautiful. They were like sponges, I wish I was 12, 14 years old again and it was a great honor to talk to them at the Most Precious Blood Father Sullivan Hall. We continue the dialog and discussion with the invitation to Trustee-Elect Pearson to attend executive session. We can go around the room. Trustee Elliott: I have no issue. Trustee Maher: I'm okay with that. Trustee Baker: I have no issue with that. Trustee Sebring: I'm okay with that. Deputy Mayor Carley: I don't have an issue with it, but have we ever done that before? Manager Revella: Brought in a Trustee-Elect? Not that I recall. You're allowed to invite in who you want as Trustee Thompson said, if there's an issue that comes up then we'd ask her to leave at that moment, if something came up of that nature. 14 Deputy Mayor Carley: With that being said, I don't have a personal issue, she should be sworn in. Manager Revella: She has taken the oath. Correct? Clerk Kraus: Correct. Yesterday. Manager Revella: She cannot conduct any official business on behalf of the Village until April 4th in that capacity. She still serves as the Chair of the Zoning Board right now. Deputy Mayor Carley: As a precedence is that what we're going to start doing? Manager Revella: It's up to you guys. . Mayor Ramos: I don't know if historically we've done this in the past and I agree, hopefully, if there's an issue that enters into that domain, excuse yourself, since everybody's in agreement with that we'll approve it. Executive Session – Discuss Personal History of a Particular Person Trustee Elliott made the motion to go into executive session to discuss the personal history of particular employee with the invitation of Trustee-Elect Becky Pearson. Seconded Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Elliott made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Maher. All ayes. Motion carried. 15  Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting March 22, 2022 Motions & Resolutions Approval of March 1, 2022 Minutes Trustee Elliott made a motion to approve the March 1, 2022 Minutes. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. Licensing Renewal -Sweeney’s Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve license renewal for Sweeney's. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 11-21-22 – Stop DWI Trustee Baker made a motion to approve Resolution 11-21-22 Stop DWI. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 12-21-22 – Budget Transfers Deputy Mayor Carley made a motion to approve Resolution 12-21-22 Budget Transfers. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Knights of Columbus Car Show Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve Knights of Columbus Car show on July 9th, 2022, rain date of July 16th. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. 1 abstention (Mayor Ramos). Motion carried. Flag Day Ceremony Trustee Baker made a motion to approve Flag Day ceremony on June 12th at 1 p.m. at Walden Veterans Memorial Park. Seconded by Trustee Maher. 1 abstention (Trustee Sebring). 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 Elliott made the motion to go into executive session to discuss the personal history of particular employee with the invitation of Trustee Elect Becky Pearson. Seconded Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Elliott made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Maher. All ayes. Motion carried. 16