Board of Trustees

Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting July 19, 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 Trustees Lynn Thompson Patricia Maher Becky Pearson Brian Sebring Absent: Willie Carley John Elliott Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Kelly A. Kelly, Village Treasurer Presentation – Orange County Planning – Rail Trails Alan Sorensen gave a presentation on Rail Trail Initiatives Trustee Thompson: It always feels like this side of the county sort of gets left out. Thank you for addressing that. You mentioned that you've had conversation with Planning from another county. Would it make any sense to link Walden with Orange County, but to go into Ulster County, is that something that you would consider discussing with your counterpart there? Alan Sorensen: It does make sense. I have a good rapport with Dennis Doyle, who's the planning director in Ulster County. In fact, as we were developing the Walden Wallkill Trail that required collaboration between the Town of Shawangunk and Town of Montgomery and the Village of Walden. So, yes, I think there are opportunities to expand those linkages regionally and we should pursue those options as well. Trustee Pearson: My concern to you was also getting into Ulster County because we had talked at one time getting around the prison was probably one of the issues that are there. But might be some way to do that. I know there has been talk about that at one time. That would be nice because that links you to Ulster County, to Kingston and up. So that's a really another nice way to go. One of my other questions was going to be about can you utilize rails that are being utilized now? You answered that question because I think that's a really great idea. Maybe go to Montgomery and we can maybe hook to Orange County Park that way as well. That would give you another park to connect to if we could get something like that between here and Montgomery and Campbell Hall and then up that way would be great. Alan Sorensen: I was so happy when I was thinking about this and like is it a crazy idea? And I started Googling and I was like, there's a US DOT publication. So it has been done throughout the country. 1 Trustee Pearson: And is it that when you read through that, is it the rail companies that are like giving you land to utilize or do you have to purchase it or what has to happen? Alan Sorensen: From what I understand, they have an easement along the right-a-way to allow for that. In the states where it's more prominent, they have passed the legislation enabling legislation to make it more comfortable for the rail lines to do that. They're addressing some of the potential liability issues, but they've also adopted best practices and standards to minimize potential conflicts. The one advantage is if you have a separated walkway along the rail line, it's less likely that people are going to walk on the tracks, which is always a concern, and I'm sure people do it. But if you gave them a safe alternative, there are benefits to that as well. Trustee Pearson: And the new paths that you're making are they paved or are they natural? What are put down in the eastern part? Alan Sorensen: It will be paved. The one caveat with the 5307 funding, it has to serve the transportation system. So, it's intermodal and so that does need to be paved. That right-a-way is actually a 60 foot wide right-a-way. First phase will be a paved rail trail running down the center of it, but we still have 25 feet on either side. And we're exploring other opportunities, maybe even a segment that's an equestrian trail, running along the dedicated bike path. I'm waiting for a colleague to send me the drawings. Apparently, they've just done that over in Dutchess County. 60 foot is a wide right-a-way. We want to explore those opportunities. Mayor Ramos: Commissioner. The vision of Camp LaGuardia, I saw some of the plans from the County Executive's Office. Is the ultimate goal to make a hub out of that area where all the trails are starting to meet? I kind of took a glance of it, and I see that coming to that. And some of the sponsors and some of the people there that are making this possible over there is got an excellent dream. Are all those rail trails looking to centralize there? Alan Sorensen: It will become a bicycle hub. I believe one thing that we want to introduce there is the idea of a bike share so that if someone just visiting comes to the campground, they can rent a bike and go off and use it. I'm currently working with our sister agencies, Department of Public Works and Parks, going through with some conceptual ideas for Camp LaGuardia. We do think a component of it will be a campground. But we're also looking at recreation fields, nature trails, maybe even a small component that community gardens because there's some black dirt there as well. We're looking at all the different options. The thing I'm most excited about is the accessibility that so many people will be able to get to it either by walking or just taking a bike. I know the County Executive is very excited about the project, is very, very big fan of open space. And Chairwoman of the legislature and other members of the legislature are really excited about transforming Camp LaGuardia into a new county park. Without their support, obviously, we couldn't do anything. Now that we have that vision, we're going to do everything in our power to make it happen as quickly as possible. Manager Revella: And there are other trails on the horizon as well in the county that aren't as far along as the ones that Alan has mentioned. So, when those come up, will update you on those as well. Mayor Ramos: Just keep us posted on bundling those projects so that we can get the railroad to give us an easement on those abutments. It's a short distance from the end of the rail trail here at Walden but it would still look really nice coming across. I remember when the bridge when I was younger. The scalper was still there. Keep us posted and see if we can do anything. Alan Sorensen: I will and thank you so much for the opportunity to come. Kind of like a little 2 homecoming for me. Orange County Transit Anthony Mirando: The latest update is, I don't know if we informed you this last month around, but Orange County Transit has their contractor in place for the sewer and water connection work to commence the highway work permit, which was the last piece of the DOT permitting process was filed about four weeks ago with all the materials. That's really just the final pieces of insurance, things like that. Those materials are with the DOT. We're now just awaiting the DOT highway work permit to be issued so that they can commence work on the sewer in the right of way. As far as the permitting process goes at this point, I think its good news. It's been long and arduous, as you can probably know from all my monthly updates, it's all but complete. The Planning Board is complete, the DPW process is complete other than we're going to circle back with them obviously before and as part of the work, the DOH process is complete. But again, I think the engineers will circle back to them as well. And now the DOT is just awaiting the administrative permit to physically start the work. As you may know, the site is already currently connected to Village water and has been paying the Village water has been metered and been paying Village water for some time. Orange County Transit worked very diligently with the Village to address that as soon as they took over control of the property. As far as the rest of the construction timeframe, I'm sure you're interested in knowing where we stand as far as the next few months. Nothing I can say can guarantee anything, of course, depends on the getting when we get the highway work permit and then they're going to start, from what I'm told, imminently thereafter. The hope is to get the DOT permit by September, start the work very quickly thereafter. Project takes a few months and then it's just a question of does it run up against weather and problems that could push it out past the winter season. That's the fear for coordination. But the good thing is that it's all imminent and will be started very soon. We as part of our recent letter filed a request for consent to extend the period to connect to the sewer. I won't go through the very voluminous documents we've submitted over the past year and before that, documenting everything we've been doing. I know as we feel and I'm sure you feel as well, this process is painful and takes longer than we'd all like. But we've been moving forward every step of the way and always working or trying to work as closely we can with Village staff and officials. So at this point, I can update you on other things with regard to the property if you'd like, or we can discuss the update and our request to extend by consent. Mayor Ramos: We'll start with the update on what's happening. Anthony Mirando: As far as that goes, now what we're talking about here is the other improvements that were part of the site plan approval that Orange County Transit got at the end of last year. In April, they completed the internal office renovations. They also obtained some additional ARB approval for signage. In April, building permits were issued for the fencing and the berm work and the other site improvements in April as well. During April and May, they started some additional layout with surveying work. There was vegetation clearing that occurred previously as well. They have their contractors in place for the berm and for the fencing. The fencing work commenced with the contractor a few weeks ago. If anybody's seen the site, I know Dean was out there recently. The posts are in the ground and that work is moving forward as well. The busses along the eastern property line have all been moved off. The tractor trailers are gone and the site is fairly well organized. I actually went over there today myself. That's all imminent and happening as we speak. In terms of the fencing and the berm and the rest of the work, and that'll sort of be coordinated with the other sewer and water infrastructure work. While water is connected to the site, there's still internal work to connect all the buildings to Village water, sewer. Once the right of way work is complete, then they run the lines through the rest of the site. So that all happening over the next few months and throughout towards the end of the year. Trustee Pearson: The berm. I know I saw the posts on the ground in the back, but nothing berm 3 wise is being done yet. Is there a reason for that? What are they using for a berm? Dirt, rock? Anthony Mirando: Actually, all the specs for those materials are with Dean as well, because Dean's been very focused on making sure we're using the right materials. The berm contractors should be starting, if not today, this week, as far as I've been advised. The materials are what took a little time, but those are supposed to be delivered, I don't want to say tomorrow, but I thought so. Delivered the materials to be delivered this week for starting work. They did the surveying, they had to plot it out, which they also worked on over the last month or so. Trustee Pearson: And the posts in the back, they'll be finished soon as well with a screened fencing, so there's less noise. Is that what that's going to be? Anthony Mirando: As part of the Planning Board process, we agreed to put on acoustic fabric. So, effectively, I don't want to misstate what the material, the actual fences, I believe it's chain but then it's all matted with acoustic fabric. That was a topic of conversation with Dean this week as well. Trustee Pearson: The sewer work that needs to be done onsite instead of the road, what you're waiting for the permit, can that start sooner? How does that go? I'm just thinking, if you can start that work on the property and get that taken care of and ready to go so you can hook in as soon as you can get your permit for the road. Wouldn't that save a lot of time, especially if you're coming into winter months and do that work first? Anthony Mirando: I don't want to answer that like I'm a contractor and I did try to get answers to that anticipating that question. My understanding is that when they mobilize all their resources, it's got to be done from the street in. I'm happy to do this and help coordinate this. If you want to speak with some of the people offline, we can set up a meeting and talk through some of those questions just because I don't want to misstate what they are, what the answers are. But I know that that was something I asked about as well. And my understanding is that when they mobilize the resources, it's street and it goes in and they have to also move all the busses and keep that moving, which will be interesting coordination. Trustee Pearson: It would be a good time to do it now when it's summertime instead of wintertime, when they're trying to do school bussing and everything else so this is the time to be doing it. I would just say it makes more sense to do whatever work you can now inside the program. Anthony Mirando: Logically for me, I don't think that's wrong. I think from construction sequencing, I don't know that that's how it works. I asked and the response I got was, my gut on that was correct that it's not how it's sequenced. But again I'm happy to help coordinate a discussion where you can ask that directly so that I don't misstated. Trustee Pearson: I'd like if you want to just get an answer for me. Anthony Mirando: I'm sure my answer will then get a follow up question and then I'll screw that up but I'll certainly try. Trustee Thompson: I agree with you, if you have to bring equipment and manpower, you don't want to bring it twice because that costs more money. So when you're ready to go, you bring everything. Trustee Pearson: That's not our problem. If you're going to give an extension, then why wouldn't you have half of it done and all you have to do is wait for the road permit to be done and you're finished? 4 Anthony Mirando: I'm not saying it's your problem. I'm saying it's just the sort of way it's *inaudible* Trustee Pearson: It is our problem because we're not getting sewer rates right this minute. So, it is kind of our problem. We can have it half done and then move forward with your other half. That's how I feel about it. Time is money. And so, yes, it cost them more. But that's not our issue too. How much it cost them to do that. Trustee Thompson: Then the road will have to be closed down again too. Anthony Mirando: That's part of it too. There's a few week period where they have to work on the road again. Trustee Thompson: If they're bringing equipment in and out of the site to do what you propose that they do. We're going to have traffic flow issues not once, but twice. Trustee Pearson: they're going to be inside their plot of land doing the work. They're not going to be coming in and out of the site. Anthony Mirando: There's a logical sequence. Trustee Pearson: I guess I'm too logical for construction. Anthony Mirando: Well, for me and you as laypeople, that's logical. But I think from the construction side, it's not. And I think to Lynn's point, when you mobilize the resources, it's "let's get this all done" sort of sequentially, quickly. Not have it bleed out. Just to say we did some work first but didn't actually end the construction any sooner. But to your point, either way, an extension is something we have to have just in part for purposes of completing the work regardless. Certainly I hope I've expressed we're always open to communicate. I'll ask that question directly again. I'll see if I can get an answer from the actual contractor himself. And then follow up with you. If I can open up a line of dialog where you want to ask any other questions. Trustee Pearson: I just was reading some minutes today from 2018, and you were in those minutes in 2018. Not you, but the bus company was, talking about water and sewer when they voted on it. 2018. We're talking almost four years. Anthony Mirando: Planning Board only approved that last fall. Then you have to take those plans, get them done by the DOT, which we immediately did. And then it takes time to land your contractor, but you can't bid out a project without approved plans by the DOT, DOH and town. That takes a couple of months. And if anybody's done construction during COVID or post-COVID, it's a completely different era than 2018. And you brought up costs? John, from OCT has not brought it up with me. But I can tell you any expectation of what this may have cost prior to COVID to now is exponential. I'm not saying it's your problem, but it hasn't delayed it either. I think there's some good faith there, too in what he's trying to do. I know there's other issues that may upset people, but in terms of this project, I can tell you it's been a consistent path of action. Trustee Sebring: Becky. The sewer line that's going to be on the state roadside. They have to know the height of the elevation, how far is below ground, because they have to run the pipes, a certain quarter inch per foot going into the site. They have to know what the whole thing is. Just to work from inside the bus garage out to the road, they have to know that. So, they can't start inside and work out towards the state road. 5 Trustee Thompson: 52 is going to be redone. Is there any communication between the DOT since they're going to be doing that about coordinating it with this big project? Manager Revella: They're not paving where this sewer line will be. Trustee Sebring: I asked your protégé from last month. How are they going to go underneath the road? Are they're going to dig it up or are they going to bore underneath it? Anthony Mirando: I wrote down what I know about those questions because Ali did pass those on. I think one of the questions was about when they're doing the work where they have to go in the eastern entrance? That one was, yes, temporarily. They'll do that when they close that so they can access to the back of the site just for safety purposes. The other question you had, I don't have that answer. Trustee Sebring: It's one you can you can keep the road open and just drill underneath the road. Anthony Mirando: Can I email you in the next couple of days with a specific answer to that? Manager Revella: I don't know the diameter pipe, but if it's a large diameter, they were not going to be boring. I'm not sure if it's a lower diameter they could. Anthony Mirando: My gut is that they're not boring but I don't know. Trustee Pearson: And there's a stream that runs underneath that. It's not going to be close to that stream, is it? Manager Revella: It's the other side of that. Anthony Mirando: I'll get you an answer on the boring. But I think John's correct. I'm not positive, so I'd like to make sure I know the answer. Mayor Ramos: Sir, what about the temporary trailers, not the semi-trailers that were on the property, the temporary trailers that were used for the offices that you've already successfully renovated? Anthony Mirando: One of them is completely vacant and done because the office now has a CO. They're able to now move. That's what took time on that one. I was just there today and I understand it's supposed to be removed by the end of the summer. The other one I didn't have a timetable on, but they know it's got to be removed. I will follow up on that as well. Manager Revella: Do you want to give us a date of extension to request the board to vote on? Anthony Mirando: In our letter, we requested 12 months with the understanding that we continue to be here every month giving you updates. Manager Revella: So you go into August of 2023 now? Anthony Mirando: 9 months? Our formal request is 12 months to just close this out. My concern is, as somebody who is very much a pessimist, is when something will happen, can happen, will happen. I just have a fear of materials, even though I was told today I shouldn't be fearful of materials. I am. I'm fearful of weather and then I'm fearful of coming into the holidays and not 6 having it finished and then being stuck in that sort of middle ground. Then it's hard to say when you could start closing things up again come springtime. Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve an extension to Orange County Transit for 12 months ending August 18, 2023. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. Trustee Pearson: I'd be more comfortable with 6 months. I think take 6 months at a time and see where we can go with that. I think reporting is good. Having you come is good. I think it keeps their foot on the fire and makes them be possibly a little bit more diligent in what they're doing, not that you're not. I'm just saying, things can say, we have another hold on another year. 6 or 8. I don't think a year is necessary right this minute. I think I'd rather hear the progress of what's happening in 6 months and go from there. And if they need another one, then we do then. Mayor Ramos: You wanted to say, well, the motion is to grant them an extension from 18 August 20, 22 to 18 August 2023. Motion by Trustee Sebring, seconded by Trustee Thompson. All in favor. Trustee Sebring: Yes. Mayor Ramos: Yes. Trustee Maher: No. Trustee Pearson: No. Trustee Thompson: No. Mayor Ramos: The year is not granted. Anthony Mirando: Okay. Mayor Ramos: We'd be open to the other suggestion of 6 months or whichever. Anthony Mirando: Of course, 6 months, obviously. A modified motion, wish the rest of the board was here. Trustee Maher: I think 8 months gets us past the season and is more realistic. Maybe we'll grant you an 8 month extension, and then check in at 8 months. Trustee Thompson: I think 8 months is fair because it'll get them past the winter months. If things do get a little bit delayed like December or January, you still have a fairly decent window to try and finish it up. And if that's not going to happen, I guess we'll be having you back to talk about yet another extension. Anthony Mirando: I understand. I appreciate the time and the working together. So. Trustee Maher made a motion to approve an extension for 8 months, ending April 18, 2023 to Orange County Transit. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. 3 ayes. 1 nay (Mayor Ramos). 1 abs (Trustee Sebring). Motion Failed. Manager Revella: 3-2, no extension. Anthony Mirando: I appreciate the support for the 12 month, but I would like to at least get the 8. 7 It's up to the board. Mayor Ramos: We're talking about April 18th of 2023, correct? Barring snow, barring ice. Anthony Mirando: I have a lot of concerns. Mayor Ramos: They're going to shut down after December 30th and bridge construction stops at December. We're at a conundrum right now. I'm still happy with the 12 months. Trustee Sebring: I'm happy with 12 months. Manager Revella: You're not getting an extension because there is no agreement for an extension. So, you have to come next meeting and ask again. Mayor Ramos: You're going to be here anyway. Anthony Mirando: I didn't want to ask until the last minute. I thought Ali had mentioned at the last meeting. Mayor Ramos: Hopefully you'll have a better picture of materials for that site and give us a broader picture of what we can approve. Manager Revella: Does the board want him to come back August 2nd to discuss this? Otherwise it's August 16th. I don't know if we have that meeting sometimes that gets canceled. I don't want to take a chance. August 2nd is the next regularly scheduled meeting. Mayor Ramos: His employer hires him. August 2nd we'll put you back on the the agenda and you'll have a couple of answers to questions that. Anthony Mirando: Can I leave here with the understanding and feeling that everybody's in support of an extension? Trustee Maher: Yes. Anthony Mirando: It's just a question of whether it's 8 months or 12 months. Attorney Donovan: The only thing I'll say that, Anthony, as you well know, it's a long time from now to then. The board does have the right to change their mind. Manager Revella: Correct. Attorney Donovan: Both motions went down. I'm the last person in the world who wants to be difficult, but if there's something happens between now and then, there could be a different motion from the board or no motion from the board. I don't know what will happen. I know you would like to leave with the understanding that you either have 8 or 12 months, but you have a motion for 12 months that failed and a motion for 8 months that failed. Those are the facts. What will happen at the first Tuesday in August is anyone's guess. Village Manager’s Report Manager Revella: One of the biggest things that's come up in the last two weeks is the state has awarded the bid for paving of the state roads in the Village to Tilcon. I did speak with the rep from Tilcon about timeframe because the letter states that they're starting July 25th. That's for Route 6 in 8 Wawayanda. They think it's more likely they'll start at the beginning of September. They have to be done by October 15th and they'll likely work nights in the Village starting at 9 p.m., waiting to meet with them to get a more definitive time frame and logistics. And I'll let the board know when I hear back from them on those. Had some meetings with the Rec Coordinator at Olley Park, going over the summer camp procedures and talking about different things have come up from day to day. We have gas lines going in this week, so we had to coordinate going to Wooster. Went over the canvasing with the Police Chief. We asked for another canvass letter from the county for the Police Officer list. Went over coverage and safety procedures in the departments and safety improvements of Village Office with the Chief and as well as with the Village Engineer and the office staff as well. I had several conferences with the Finance Department, with the Treasurer regarding invoices, payroll and reporting. Went over property maintenance with the Building Inspector before he went off on vacation. Met with a rep from the NY Comptroller and the Treasurer to go over AUD and state processes for retirement to get updates. I did go over the bank docs for Orange Bank and Trust and will be on the agenda later for permission. We had a wonderful retirement party for the former court clerk, Gayle Smith. Very well attended, she was very happy. Did attend the Knights of Columbus car show in the square. It was a wonderful event. The weather was great. Went over applications for the several different job postings and doing interviews now. Should be making hires shortly for those positions. Went over the school safety proposal with the Police Chief. There's a meeting on Thursday with the school reps about school safety. Met with the CDBG committee, with the Mayor at Thruway Plaza to move our application for our sewer lining and smoke testing. Seemed to be well received. And went over the climate smart submissions with Trustee Thompson and with a rep from NYSERDA. Parks, flag football is going strong. We may have some delays due to the heat index this week, but it's been going well so far. Music in the Grove is going well. It's a big concert again tomorrow and teen center's open and going well. Building Department, Code Enforcement was out for a week for health matter. The Building Inspector issued 17 permits, 4 Certificates of Compliance, completed 4 COs and 2 residential and 2 commercial fire and safety inspections, and issued 4 violation notices for 4 different locations for various violations as well. Clerk's been going through her day-to-day items, communicating with me and special counsel on personnel, FOILs, responding to resident issues and invoices, and also went over safety procedures and potential updates at the Village office as well did the Treasurer and they both went over applications with me for the Deputy Clerk/Treasurer position. The Treasurer also went over the BAN bids. Signed today. Escrow deposits within the Building Inspector and updated, the tax reports from state. Went over revenues and updated year end for 2021 and is continuing to catch up on those reports. Public Works, still pressing sludge at the plant. The sewer did have an issue at Pine Street Station. Water Department replaced 4 meters, did 4 mark outs, 3 closings and swapped 1 point. They also helped trace the sewer line at Olley Park to help for the gas line installation that DPW is doing now this week. They've been repairing catch basins and replaced a basin on the corner of Walnut and Rifton. They also had to remove a hydrant at the corner, Elm Street and Main due to the poor connection. They'll have to re-establish that at a later date. Made some sidewalk repairs at different areas in the Village from different complaints that were received and just updates. They did get the field grooming piece for the baseball fields at Bradley and followed up with the vendors for new vehicles trying to get those in place. Police Department still working on staffing issues. We did order the canvass list to update so we can fill the position. Working on traffic details, they issued 5 traffic tickets. They gave 15 warnings, 2 parking summonses, went to 4 MVAs and had 2 arrests and 305 blotters since the last meeting. Trustee Pearson: You talked about the safety procedures with Chief Herlihy and what have you come up with for the Village? Manager Revella: We had an engineer come to review options and he's getting stuff drawn up for us. 9 Trustee Pearson: What about the little button things? Manager Revella: That as well. The company came to get those. We're waiting for them to come back. Trustee Pearson: You just talked about the field groomer. What did you say about that? Manager Revella: They've rented a field grooming piece for the machine we have to do the fields at least once. Trustee Pearson: Do we have baseball teams that are playing down there? Manager Revella: We do. We've had it all year. Trustee Pearson: How many? Manager Revella: Montgomery Little League. Private teams use it. Trustee Pearson: It's being maintained then? We are maintaining that. You were going to because we needed to get the lawn mower and we had to get something else. Manager Revella: Correct. A field groomer. But we didn't get the field groomer. Trustee Pearson: Teen centers open. Do you know how many people are showing up there? Roughly. Manager Revella: Same as last year. Well, before COVID. Like 30 or so. It's pretty well used. Trustee Pearson: You did say there's a school safety meeting on Thursday. Are you talking about the one with the Town of Montgomery meeting? Something other? Manager Revella: Something other. The school district. Trustee Pearson: Did you all have a meeting Monday? Meaning Chief and you? Manager Revella: No, I didn't. The Chief did. Chief had a meeting with the superintendent regarding school safety last Monday. Trustee Pearson: There's no update on any of that right now. Manager Revella: We'll find out Thursday. We did give a proposal as well as what it would cost us if we were to supply an officer for our school. Trustee Maher: Any updates for Olley Park? Manager Revella: The building is complete. We need the gas line run and NYSEG is running it. They did today. They should finish tomorrow. That's the hope. Then the building will get a CO and then just really doing the work around the perimeter. But the building will be usable at that time. Trustee Thompson: Has your new car arrived yet? How close are we to getting you your vehicle? Manager Revella: Not anywhere near close. There are no vehicles right now. My vehicle and the 10 police car are just not even ordered yet. There's none. Trustee Thompson: I was just curious. I know that's an issue, but I didn't know if it was different for municipal vehicles. It's my understanding that COVID numbers in the community are going up a little bit. And some of our employees have also gotten sick. Have we changed any of our policies and procedures? Are we doing anything different as far as interacting with the community here in our buildings or the numbers are not that concerning right now? Manager Revella: We haven't done anything different since the end of really the end of the COVID epidemic. We still have safety glass in certain places when we have interactions, that kind of thing. We have the hand sanitizer around and that kind of thing. Trustee Thompson: I didn't know if you were initiating anything that you could only come by appointment only or any of those. I didn't know if we were going back to any of that. Manager Revella: We haven't gotten to the point of the health emergency yet that we would need to. But if we do, obviously we will. Trustee Thompson: Okay. I had a Village resident ask me with all of the publicity on the news about the fentanyl coming into the country. If we have seen any remarkable increase with our issues with narcotics here in the Village. Manager Revella: We had a huge problem with fentanyl for a number of years, but that has significantly dropped, thankfully, in our Village. We still have it, but not as bad as it was probably 10 years ago. 8 years ago. 5 years ago. Trustee Thompson: Right. But with all of this information that we're all hearing that the drug problem nationwide is becoming an issue. She wanted to know if we have had any substantial increase here in the Village recently? Manager Revella: No, not an increase. It's pretty much the same as normal, which is not good either. But there still is use there. Unfortunately. Approval of July 5, 2022, Minutes Trustee Thompson made a motion to approve the July 5, 2022 minutes. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Comment None Local Law 2 of 2022 – Landlord Registry Attorney Donovan: Let me just say, what Dean's outlined, obviously, it's legal. The only question, if that's the direction you're headed into, if you look at his suggestions, bullet point one talks about a yearly fee. Then bullet point two says the registry form we sent out on a two year basis. And bullet point four says that all forms are to be sent out by July 1st of each year. I was just confused because in certain instances it seems like they're annual, in certain instances they're every other year. I'm not sure what you want to do with that. Manager Revella: I was trying to explain to Dave that we do it by area. I think Dean's intention is to do one area for year one, it would be area one in year two, then area two, three. I don't know how you break that down into the law. 11 Attorney Donovan: We have a fee schedule. Is the fee every year? Is that what you want? Trustee Pearson: Every 2 years. Attorney Donovan: Okay. Because he's got yearly fee. Trustee Pearson: Because somebody will be paying a fee every year depending on how it breaks down. Attorney Donovan: You don't need to explain why, that's okay. I just want to make sure I write it correctly. Trustee Pearson: The way he has a broken down. Every year there'll be somebody paying something, but it's not the same neighborhood every year. Attorney Donovan: So whatever's being paid is being paid every other year. I'll modify. If you all are okay with what Dean has said. I'll turn that into local law and you'll have it for the next meeting, as a draft to consider. Trustee Thompson: I tried to reach Dean. I didn't realize he was away. I wanted to ask him, but could you just go over what your concern was about the single family inspection? Attorney Donovan: The discussion before had been that everything will go together with the fire inspection notices, but not all owner occupied two families. So, not everything that gets a fire inspection and not everything that's a landlord registry gets fire inspection. That was my concern. But I think that this is addressed here. Trustee Thompson: He would like to see everything inspected is what I got out of that, correct? Attorney Donovan: Well, I think he'd like everything to have a fire inspection, but we got an issue with state law. Trustee Thompson: And that's what I wanted to talk to him about because I wasn't quite sure I was understanding that properly. But you're understanding what he would like to do? Attorney Donovan: Correct. I don't think he could do what he wants to do. I think he could do the landlord registry every year because we have that now. But you can't do fire inspections for single families, renters or owner occupied two-families. Manager Revella: It's preempted by state law. Attorney Donovan: The amounts are going to be referenced by a fee schedule. You can change by resolution if you want to. Trustee Sebring: Would the single family owner living in it, what if he has one of his kids living in the house? Is that still the same? If he's on the deed for the house. Attorney Donovan: If it's owner occupied two-family, it's exempt from fire inspection. General Board Meeting Procedures Manager Revella: The board said that they were waiting for the attorney to be here to have a discussion. So not sure who had a comment. 12 Trustee Sebring: I've read it and I believe that everything is that I'm reading is satisfactory to me. We've given the general public that does come in ample time to speak. And it has been at some times that the comments will be duplicated. But we get through that. The recording devices, we have cameras here now. Other than that, I'm satisfied with what we have for the public hearing rules. Trustee Thompson: Nothing. I've read it several times and I'm fine with what's presented. Trustee Maher: Same. No changes. Trustee Pearson: Just two things. On the public hearing ground rules. I don't know why you're not having people sign in like you do a regular meeting. Come into the room, sign in and state their name. Why not keep them consistent? Public comment, I still think speakers, I don't think we need that in there. The speakers may not yield any remaining time. I think sometimes if it is a full house that people may want to yield their time to someone else who has something more important to say than what they have or did, more research. So I don't think that necessarily needs to be in there. Trustee Thompson: I don't understand. I think it would be very difficult to have people sign in at a public hearing, because sometimes if you're here at the public hearing and you hear what other people are commenting, you decide to make a comment like you don't know when you get here that you would like to make a comment. Trustee Pearson: You sign in now and you don't know if you're going to make a comment. Attorney Donovan: So, I've been through this, so you can do that. But that happens with some degree of frequency where you have a sign in and you post the sign over there and then you leave it up during the hearing. So, if people hear something in the hearing, they just go and sign in. Mayor Ramos: I've read it in its entirety and NYCOM's rules and this seems sufficient to maintain the order of a good, efficient meeting. Manager Revella: If you'd like Dave to modify into something specific to the Village of Walden. Mayor Ramos: Yes. Attorney Donovan: Yeah, because all I've given you is some public hearing ground rules that I kind of made up over the years. And NYCOMs guidelines for public comment. Let me just ask you this question, in terms of the public hearing ground rules, do you want to sign in as opposed to raise the hand? That was suggested by Trustee Pearson. Feel free to change your mind. Trustee Maher: I think sign in makes sense. Mayor Ramos: The formal record is on tape. We should be given an option. People will not want to sign, but they still have to be recognized the record. Attorney Donovan: That's up to you. You can make it optional. You can enforce a rule that if you want to speak. Because remember, at a meeting like this, the public doesn't have to speak except to see what's going on. At a public hearing, they're entitled to speak, but you can set reasonable rules. If you set the rule that they must sign in, then they must sign it. But again, that's up to you. Mayor Ramos: But your guidelines does specifically say public comment period must sign in. So 13 why don't we keep it at that? Generate something formal and bring it back. Thank you, sir. Orange Bank & Trust Signatories Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve the Village Treasurer, Village Manager and Village Clerk as signatories of Orange Bank and Trust. Seconded by Pearson. All ayes. Motion carried. Riverfront Park Bid Manager Revella: The park bid came in and as we expected, it was way above our estimates because of costs going up over the last couple of years since we initiated the project. Due to that fact, the engineer has recommended the board approve certain sections of the project instead that we have funding for from the grant and they are bid line items one, two, four, six and nine. Trustee Pearson: I understand that this has been on the plate for a long time, and it's been kind of not added to, but I just saw the plans the other day. I have a concern. I lived on the river. I know those ice chunks come down that river. The ice breaks open and that boardwalk is on a curve right there in the river. Maybe not so much anymore, but when I was younger, those cakes were like 12 inches thick and 6 feet wide, and they take everything out that's coming in their way. I have a concern that it's being so close to the river that are we wasting money? And hopefully that's not going to be ruined in a few years. I can't say it's going to happen, but you have to think for the future. So I think it's a nice plan. I understand it. I know they wanted a boat ramp. They wanted the walkway. I don't know whose plan it was, but I think that I worry about that and spending X amount of dollars on putting that in and in 10 years it's going to be ripped out with something from the river. I just have concern. That's just my thought. Trustee Thompson: I also wonder about the wooden boardwalk, just as far as maintaining it. When we flood. I just worry about that it's made of wood because I know that wasn't the original. Weren't they going to put, like a stone wall and all these other things there? I guess I can't visualize how that's going to be. Manager Revella: Still it'll be above flood plain. Trustee Thompson: So we will not have any issues with it washing out if we have flooding down there. Manager Revella: The largest flood we had was Irene. It ought to be above Irene's flood stage. That's the plan. Trustee Pearson: How high up over the ground is the platform? Manager Revella: I don't know. I know they have to do a lot of fill first before the boardwalk. That's one of the other segments. This is step one of the project, really. Once this is done, it would be the first phase, I would say. And then we would consider other phases in the future, including more concrete for the boat launch pavilion/gazebo on one side, more sitting area, other things as well. Trustee Thompson: Is that boat launch going to be handicap accessible. Is it going to be something that people will be able to get in and out of their kayaks or canoes or whatever? Manager Revella: The project is handicapped accessible of what the parts that we're doing. We're not doing the launch section yet. The current launch that's there now would be the same as would be thereafter. It'd be better grading, but it wouldn't be concrete yet. It would still be stone. 14 Trustee Maher made a motion to approve ADP Group, in the amount of $142,030 for line items, 1, 2, 4, 6 and 9. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 2-22-23 - ARPA Trustee Maher made a motion to approve Resolution 2-22-23 - ARPA. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. Motion carried. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Comment Mary Ellen Matise: How are you dealing with comments that people are making online? Because I was in the store the other day and somebody said, I heard what you said at the meeting last week and blah, blah, blah. And of course they were sitting home and it had something to do with them. They may not be making a comment to you at that point, or they might be. I don't know if you're reading the comments that people are adding as the meeting goes along right now because it's live streamed. Are those comments considered as public comment? Because not everybody's going to come out and maybe like we leave public hearings open for a written comment. I think it's something to think about because your public is mostly sitting at home watching you more so than here. Trails, John. Maybe the thing to do because and I asked Alan, how can we get connected to what's going on in the southern end of the county? This whole thing with this Skunamunk Trail. Great, wonderful. But we're still just hanging up here. These other projects are great ideas, but they're a long range. This thing about along the side of the tracks is great. And I don't see why it couldn't be like a platform. Maybe not on the ground, but like when you see these trails that they build in state parks and national parks where they're raised on wooden tracks, that composite material. It could be any number of different ways that that's approached. When are we going to get connected to Stewart? Stewart's right here and even bringing us down to Campbell Hall is still not going to connect us to the trails in Stewart and I would see that as a way to get connected to this Skunamunk Trail more than more than the Rail Trail. Maybe talk to OSI, John. See what kinds of ideas they might have. Also New York, New Jersey Trail conference. But maybe OSI can help us out and seeing that would have the support of the Planning Department. Can I talk trash? Today was absolutely disgusting. They left all the lids open, the flies and the maggots and people's garbage cans are just horrible. The cans are in the street. You can't drive around them. You can't make a turn to get into your driveway without difficulty or maybe knocking them over. I don't want to be touching other people's garbage cans. People don't wash them out. I did finally flip the lids on my neighbors because I was going to be driving in and out and leaving my car windows open. What is wrong with this company? I'm tired of being the trash monitor in this Village. It's like I call up every week. I've been doing this since 2005 or since whenever we went online with this company. Becky, we were like every week, every week, every week. It's 15 years. I'm getting tired of it. Dave Sperry: Where are they going to pave? Manager Revella: I have a map I can share. Dave Sperry: The reason I say that is Main Street is terrible. There are potholes. They've been here all summer long. I know the main street is a state road or county road. It's not responsible to Village, but something should be done. It reflects on the Village. Projects in Walden, years ago downstairs in the Planning Board room, used to be, I think there was a room down by the library. They used to have maps of what's going on. Like they're putting an apartment house on 52 outside or just inside Village limits. There used to be a map where you could go see. I think it's in Dean's office now. Manager Revella: It's next door. Dave Sperry: Is there a way that we could put it back in here where everybody can use it and see it 15 during the day? The off hours. People work during the day. So maybe something like it was downstairs and you could just walk in. You could see what developments are coming, what's going to happen eventually. So people aren't blindsided by all of a sudden there's a three story apartment building going on. They could have stopped in after hours when their home from work to see where this stuff is. Dumpsters? Do you need a permit to put a dumpster on a Village street? Manager Revella: You need permission. Not a permit. Dave Sperry: Who gives permission? Manager Revella: I do. Dave Sperry: If you're not around anybody can just put a dumpster on a street and pick it up in two days and nobody knows nothing about. Manager Revella: They don't have permission. They're going to get cited for it. Dave Sperry: How many citations have gone out for people putting dumpsters on Village streets? Any? Manager Revella: I don't know, I have to ask. Dave Sperry: Well, if you don't have it, then we don't know. Maybe it's happening and you don't know about it. I guess what I'm saying. In my concern is that the roads throughout the Village and everywhere are terrible, completely terrible. I'm just trying to fix the roads and the damage to the roads from the hot weather and the weight of the dumpsters on these roads and pick them up and put them down all over the place. That's why I was asking if you need permits for dumpsters. The sidewalk that was or the building that was hit the beginning of River Road. When you go across and make the left there, how long do we give people timelines to fix the building so we can use the sidewalk again? What would that be? Manager Revella: I can't speak to that. I don't know what that citation said. Dave Sperry: I don't know if it was a citation. I guess I know the sidewalk being closed down has been closed down for a couple of weeks. I don't know since the accident. I did see the porch come off, but there's still the sidewalk still closed. I didn't know if there was a timeline we give people that they have to fix their structure to do that. Manager Revella: There is. I just don't have the letter to know. I'm not supposed to respond unless the board asks me to respond. Dave Sperry: Well, I'm asking the board. Mayor Ramos: He's responded. They're demolishing. It takes some time. Dave Sperry: I just wanted to know if there was something in place. Unfortunately, there was an accident. You got to wait for your insurance and you got to hire a builder. So, is the sidewalk going to be closed? Are we closing a stretch for pedestrians to walk around until that's finished or we just walk out in the road while it's being finished? Mayor Ramos: That's a good question. I know that they've got it taped off. I ride there pretty much every other day. They're working diligently on that. Obviously, they're not waiting for insurance 16 money, they're working. Dave Sperry: I understand. Everything takes times. I didn't know if there was a timeline. Obviously, he finally ripped the porch down a couple of days later, that was a hazard. Paul Vermilyea: I didn't know that I had to sign up when I came in here. I came in here a few weeks ago, asked you about sewer main on Clinton Street, on updating your infrastructure so that I could repair the leak that I have without ripping up 100 feet of Clinton Street. That's not for me. So next time I come in, I will sign your sheet. But I would like some kind of answer as to what's going to happen here. I have no problem with replacing a 150 foot of my lateral to Clinton Street. But I am not going down Clinton Street to Gladstone because you don't have the main. 15 years ago, Tommy Fodor's house had a problem. A Leak behind Mary Ellen's mother's house. The Village said, Tom, right here you got a main, tie right into it. When the contractor came in and went to tie into the main, there was no main. When they went back to the Village infrastructure, they found proposed main nonexistent. That was 20 years ago. Still undone. Now I have a problem. And I was told to start digging here. Not doing it. I'm not digging up Clinton Street at my expense. I will replace my whole lateral to the street as soon as you give me a main to tie into. I don't think that's wrong. Anybody want to make a comment? Mayor Ramos: What would you like us to do? Paul Vermilyea: I would like a main so that I can solve the problem. Mayor Ramos: I think we've addressed your issue with the water department and obviously the Village. So, we're just staying as is. Paul Vermilyea: Then the leak will stay as is. Thank you very much. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve payment of audited bills. Seconded by Trustee Maher. All ayes. Motion carried. Correspondence Trustee Sebring: I believe I got one from Marisa concerning Mr. Maher and his past employment with the Village that she found the records to give him the proper information and information that he wanted. Trustee Thompson: I had an email with photographs from a Village resident about furniture that was dumped over on Edmunds Lane and I forwarded it to John Revella and hopefully it has been cleared. Manager Revella: He was cited, but it wasn't cleared yet. Trustee Maher: Just the email from Dean with the updates to the landlord registry and the email from Kelly. Kelly. Trustee Pearson: Email from Mary Ellen Matise on a DEC Water Infrastructure Grants available for homeowners. We might like to look into some of that maybe for people. Manager Revella: I had the grant writer look into it for us. He hasn't responded yet. Trustee Pearson: Homeowners might be able to come to the Village. I didn't read it, maybe you'd 17 be able to elaborate me with the next meeting if you can find out some information on that. Also, one from Marisa about Mr. Maher's issue. Mayor Ramos: I, too, received the Making Waves grants for homeowners from the DEC provided by Ms. Matise. I also received the email from Ms. Marisa to regarding the Dennis Maher. Our Building Inspector Dean with his landlord registry information. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Pearson: I gave you guys two papers tonight, which I hope you'll take some time to read. It came from Mike Ciardullo. He started the process and it's about water sewer insurances for homeowners that have to replace pipes into the streets because in 2018, the Village Board here took away part of what people were the Village was paying for. So, now the homeowner has to pay from your home to the main connection. So this is a pretty nice program. I know Kelly Kelly had also had it in Middletown, I did some research. I spoke to the gentleman who's a rep for the company and I said maybe those two pieces of information, those are emails from the rep about how much it would cost the homeowner. There's really no path to the village of Walden except for having the attorney read the agreement and make sure we're okay and make sure it aligns with our laws in the Village, what homeowners are responsible for. It is really just an insurance policy for water, sewer and inside plumbing but this gentleman said he'd love to come and give a presentation. I think it's really worth having to have a presentation. You're talking at $6.25 for external water line service a month for the water and sewer is $7.25. You're talking about $162 a year that the homeowner can pay into insurance. It covers $8500 worth of bills that would be accrued. They look for the contractors, for the Village, so they'd be using people that the Village would recommend. Manager Revella: Just want to clarify, it's $8500. The way that you said it would be for water and $8500 for sewer. Trustee Pearson: Any issues in a year. You just have to sign up and you cannot collect anything before 90 days. I'd love to have the guy come and do a presentation if we can hook him up to come and just have you read this information. Mayor, I know before you were the one who voted no to change that. So maybe we could do something good for the residents that might be able to afford this. It's multiple times in a year they can fix it. They still have to go through the Village inspections. They still have to go through all of that. They've been using Village people that we recommend to do the work. The homeowner doesn't really pay anything and the homeowner can cancel at any time. I believe there's probably a time frame they have to write into, but then they can cancel at any time. I think it's worth a talk and I hope we can at least get that far unless you want to change the law and go back to the Village maintain their own service lines. Manager Revella: You know the law never stated the Village was to maintain those lines, right? The Village had just been doing it for a number of years and we clarified it by local law that it was on the homeowner. Trustee Pearson: There is a law on the books that states that. Manager Revella: There was none that was found by the attorneys. It was just laterals. Trustee Pearson: I'd love to have a discussion. I'd be happy to invite him into the meeting and somebody would like you'd like to have him come. I think it's a plus for the Village. There's really no cost to the Village. Maybe ask a lot of questions to him and see what you feel. Trustee Maher: Sounds good. 18 Mayor Ramos: We would have to open it up to other carriers that are providing the same type of insurance that assist homeowners. I don't know if we can do an open invitation to lateral. Attorney Donovan: I'd like to take a look at it. My concern is not that the Village is looking at the way to provide insurance over a certain incident. My concern is that you are endorsing a specific company. Just mark it up the agreement. I was not listening to anyone, but it allows this company, whomever they are, to use the Village brand. So basically they're going to say that they're communicating on behalf of the Village of Walden. So you have to decide whether you want to do that. I don't know, because you're preferring one private entity over another. I don't know that you want to do that. I don't know if you want to develop an RFP for something like this, which would be different in that that would invite different people to submit proposals to provide this type of service. Those are those are just my thoughts. Trustee Pearson: We're not supplying the insurance at all. Attorney Donovan: The way this is written, it's going to look like you are because you're endorsing this company. This says that you give them the right to use the Village's branding. So they're going to use the nice Village logo. They're going to make it, I think, look like it's coming from the Village. Trustee Pearson: I just know that a lot of insurance companies do not cover. They'll cover from your house to the curb box. But they will not cover the curb box to the main. This would cover all of that. Attorney Donovan: We don't really know that do we? Because we've all had insurance claims in our lives. And I'll give you my standard line. Insurance companies exist to collect premiums, not pay claims. I would be hesitant to say that everything's going to be covered because you don't you don't know that. Which brings us to another issue. What if they deny a claim? Are you willing to take the heat for it? Trustee Pearson: It's not through the Village. We have nothing to do with it. They send it out. They give it to the homeowner. It's like an insurance company dropping it off at your house and saying, this is coming in the mail. Mayor Ramos: But we're promoting it. We'll think about it. Attorney Donovan: Let me take a look at it and listen, part of my job is to raise off these potential problems and then part of your job is to say thanks a lot for that, we're going to do it anyway or not, whatever it may be. I'm not saying that you can't. I'm just saying I think there are some issues when you prefer a certain private company over other private companies. Trustee Thompson: I understand that I'm not opposed to this, but I am in agreement that we should let you investigate. I know when this first came up, people did try and look for coverage on their own. And the premiums were reasonable. Someone brought it to our attention to really, really read it. And when we did, it really didn't cover much of anything. Those are the policies that some of the Village residents have already purchased, and I don't think they explored it further or not far enough. So the coverage is not perhaps what they thought it would be. This is the type of coverage that I think people are very interested in purchasing. If there's a legal way, a good sound way for us to make that happen for our Village residents, I would like to do that. But by all means, I think we should have the lawyer do a little research. Trustee Sebring: I've already gotten two letters asking for the same thing to cover your water and 19 sewer line. And I just throw them in the trash. Trustee Maher: I just wanted to circle back to Mary Ellen's comment about the social media comments and just see, I don't know, Dave, if you know of any legal way that we can comment back. I think it gets a little tricky because when you're live in the meeting, there's comments that are made live in the meeting, but then there's also comments that are made after the fact and sometimes could be a month later and someone makes a comment. How do we know that we're going to be able to respond to every comment? I see comments in here now, I wouldn't mind spending a few minutes at the end of the meeting responding to some of these, but I think there should be some sort of unified response if you do decide to. Attorney Donovan: Couple of things. I think, as most board members know, I don't like when you engage in a conversation at a meeting. I think public comment is public comment. Then it's responded to as appropriately as necessary. But I would not suggest continuing dialog. Right now, in terms of what's required by the law, what's in your minutes, I mean, Marisa goes above and beyond and then beyond and above what's required. Basically, who's here, what time the meeting started and any action was taken, what time the meeting ended. Resolutions. Other than that what every each and every Trustee said, not required to be in the minutes. What each member of the public said not required to be in the minutes. And certainly there's no legal requirement that what comment maybe through Facebook or the chat function in Zoom or whatever. There's no legal requirement for those to be part of the official minutes of the board. And I would not suggest that you try to do that until there is some legal requirement. I think it's impossible to capture. Because people always have comments in different places, but to try to make them a party official minutes of the meeting and then to respond to them I think is too difficult and causes more problems than it's worth. Trustee Maher: Agreed. Thank you. Glad we brought that up. Trustee Thompson: I brought this up at our board, Zoning Board and Planning Board. When people present to us, it's really difficult when you can't see what they're presenting. I wish we could figure out how to get everybody to use the projector, the computer, so they can put things up on the screen. Mr. Sperry was saying, it's difficult when you can't visually see something. I would like us to do a little exploration or get some pricing on how we can actually put things up that the community can see. Even the board, like when I go to a Planning Board, it's so frustrating because they're presenting projects. When you're in the audience, you have absolutely no idea what they're presenting. You can't see anything except the back of the guy standing at the podium. It's really hard to try and understand, what they would like to do. Even when we have presenters here, which we don't have all that often, but it would be nice if the people that come out can actually see what the heck we're talking about. Attorney Donovan: I don't mean to cut in, but it's not really that difficult if you had a laptop and a projector. I can tell you the Planning Board for the Town of Chester. Every application, every plan set has to be submitted by PDF. It's saved, it's projected. The Chairman he may go on binge. You get a street side view or you get an overhead view. He may go on the Orange County GIS website so you can get a little vision of that. It's a really helpful method not only for the board and the people at home. I was talking to John before about posting stuff on the website, saves a lot of time. Saves Marisa a lot of time for people in FOILs and they can just go on the website and they can access information. I don't think it's that you need somebody at the meeting who's tech savvy. But basically a laptop and a projector and you pull that down, you're able to do it. Trustee Thompson: Which we have, but it's nothing's ever utilized. So how do we encourage people on all the different boards? I would just like to see that happen. I would just like to thank. I 20 don't think a lot of people realize the team effort that goes into all these Climate Smart things that we're working on and I would just like to thank John Revella, Kelly Kelly, Marisa, the other girls, the other employees on third floor, Dean, even our Police Department. All the people here in the Village, it's a lot of work. It's very detailed work. And I could not do it by myself without the help from everybody on our team. I would just like to say thank you for that. There are still some ongoing issues with some of the park beautification, if that's what you want to call it. Listening to the Department Heads and I wonder with our recreation program and our Parks Department, this is just something that's on my mind. If we are at a place where perhaps we should have some board discussion on how we can more effectively make our rec program grow and maintain our parks the way we would all like to see them maintained. I don't know if we're at a place where perhaps we need to split that into two different departments. I feel like maybe there can be some creative dialog on how we can improve both of those things because we have a lot more people using our parks. We have a lot more people enrolled in our rec programs. I see how they struggle to get every single thing done. I just think it's something maybe we could explore. Trustee Sebring: I agree with what Lynn and the rest of Trustees said about the things having a monitor over there for us to see as well as what the comments are from the general public makes a difference because you don't know what they're really saying. I don't have mine on, so I have no idea what anybody saying. We found that out when we had a discussion about the Ambulance District. People made comments that were unnecessary, but that was their comment. I would be in favor of at least trying to figure out something for us to see the comments that are being made by people during our meeting, plus the Planning Board and Zoning Board. For trial and error to see how it's going to work. If it does work, fine. Then we continue with it. But try it, see what happens. Mayor Ramos: In our packets, there is a flier. Veterans benefits for beginners. We're going to be hosting it here July 30th from 1 pm to 3 pm. we have representatives from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. We will have representatives from the Air National Guard base who deal with ID cards and eligibility for benefits. What spurned this was, I've been to quite a few funerals in the past two years and helped facilitating honor guards and families not having the proper documentation. DD 214s Honorable Discharge Documents to help them facilitate their services and their benefits. So here between one and 3 pm, it'll be a definitely a good venue. Need to advise attendees that to bring their laptops, iPads so that they're able to log on to programs like my healthy vet and better serve them and facilitating their benefits. Their cell phones are just as good so that they can log on to certain venues in the VA system and the DOD. Should prove to be a good, good program. I, too attended the Knights of Columbus car show, was very well attended. A good number of vehicles. It was beautiful weather. The Knights of Columbus did a phenomenal job in making this program a success. I attended 2 new Eagle Scouts for Troop 31. Congratulations to them for accomplishing some hardy Eagle Scout programs in order for them to attain the rank of Eagle Scout. Executive Session – Personal History of a Particular Employee, CSEA Grievance Trustee Maher made a motion to enter into executive session for personal history of particular employee and CSEA grievance. Seconded by Trustee Pearson. All ayes. Motion carried. 21  Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting July 19, 2022 Motions & Resolutions Approval of July 5, 2022, Minutes Trustee Thompson made a motion to approve the July 5, 2022 minutes. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Orange Bank & Trust Signatories Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve the Village Treasurer, Village Manager and Village Clerk as signatories of Orange Bank and Trust. Seconded by Pearson. All ayes. Motion carried. Riverfront Park Bid Trustee Maher made a motion to approve ADP Group, in the amount of $142,030 for line items, 1, 2, 4, 6 and 9. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 2-22-23 - ARPA Trustee Maher made a motion to approve Resolution 2-22-23 - ARPA. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. Motion carried. All ayes. Motion carried. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve payment of audited bills. Seconded by Trustee Maher. All ayes. Motion carried. Executive Session – Personal History of a Particular Employee, CSEA Grievance Trustee Maher made a motion to enter into executive session for personal history of particular employee and CSEA grievance. Seconded by Trustee Pearson. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Sebring made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Thompson made a motion to deny the CSEA grievance. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Maher made a motion to approve stipends to Maria Tapia and Marisa Kraus for covering the office under extraordinary circumstances of up to $5,000 each. Seconded by Trustee Pearson. All ayes. Motion carried. 22