Board of Trustees

Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting October 18, 2022 Mayor Ramos called the regular meeting of the Village of Walden Board of Trustees to order at 6:30pm. On roll call the following were: Mayor: John Ramos (late) Present: Deputy Mayor Willie Carley Trustees Lynn Thompson Becky Pearson Brian Sebring John Elliott (late) Absent: Patricia Maher Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Village of Walden's Building Inspector, Dean Stickles, was recognized and honored on his retirement. Manager Revella: On behalf of the Village, I appreciate everything that you have done for the Village over the years. Thankfully, you won't be going far. We will miss you. Trustee Pearson: Dean, Thank you. I know I can cause a little headache and heartache and trouble. Zoning Board, thank you for all your information and everything you did for us. I appreciate that and every question I had, you answered beautifully. You know your heart is in Walden and thank you. You're not going far. We don't think. If I have any questions, I'll still come find you. You have all the info. Trustee Thompson: Dean, what are your official years of service? Dean Stickles: 32 years. Trustee Thompson: For that alone, you deserve a medal. People don't stay in jobs like that anymore. I'm going to miss your smiling face and your pearls of wisdom as Zoning Board and Planning Board. It will be a little different without you there with your expertize. Much like Trustee Pearson, I think you're going to miss me calling you and stopping in at the office. But I have to say, because of you, I've learned an awful lot about village code. I know where to look and find things. So thank you for that and best wishes with whatever the future holds for you. Trustee Sebring: Dean, it's been a pleasure working with you as a Trustee and as a personal friend that I know you and I remember your father. You're in the right footsteps from your father. He would be very proud of you for what you have come to be. Because he had the same kind of job as you. Back then, things probably not as technical as they are now. We are we are going to miss you because of your knowledge. And that's one thing anybody coming in, they don't have the knowledge of that you've been here for so long and you know so much. A new person, it just doesn't work. He's always asking questions from the old timers for what they know. Even though you may put it on 1 paper, it's not the same. So good luck to you and have your deer all ready. Dean Stickles: Brian and I also work together on the Planning Board. Trustee Sebring: Yes, we did. Deputy Mayor Carley: Dean, I didn't know you as long as anyone else. But I do appreciate your honesty and being forthright when we did speak. I can always say you were a straight shooter and I appreciate everything that you did on the board and what I know about you. Even though you have that serious mean look at times, you still have some joy behind it. I appreciate it. I really do. On behalf of the board, we applaud you. Thank you for your 32 years. Dean Stickles: I would just like to say that I enjoyed working with all of you. Some of you I work with a lot. Some of them I didn't work with you at all, but I think we got many things done through the years. I thank you for all your support and everything you helped me with. Manager Revella: Make sure everyone is here on October 28th at 12:30 p.m., for the Dean Roast. Dean Stickles: October 28th, that is my son's Eagle project. Hopefully at the end of the 29th, he will be one step away from becoming an Eagle Scout. Deputy Mayor Carley: Congratulations. It's a big honor. Orange County Transit Anthony Morando: We submitted another update the end of last week, giving you the latest in our back and forth with the DOT on obtaining the final permit that we need. As I mentioned in there and as you know, we worked with them for a very long time. Just last month they had advised us they were in the process of issuing our permit and in the same sentence said, but we also want an additional permit from you. We immediately jumped on it, everything's been filed and we've been following up repeatedly. That said, I think Orange County Transit would like to do this work and connect more than you would believe it or not. Orange County Transit reached out to Dean's office, has been working with them to actually try to start the work before getting the permits, assuming they're fine with that, which I think they are. The work would only be internal to the site and we can't predict the status of the permit. But they were saying a few weeks ago that it could take 2 months to get the final permit. We don't want to wait and miss the opportunity to start work before the winter. John and Jim and Orange County Transit are trying to set that up with Spagnoli, the contractor. I think if not today, tomorrow, there's been paperwork, additional paperwork filed with the Building Department just to sort of solidify starting that work. It's requiring a little bit of creativity just because it's odd, the way they're going to structure the sequencing of the work, I think. But in any event, they want to start. Manager Revella: What if your contractor went and did the work without the DOT permit because they forgot they needed it and just got it done? What happens? By mistake obviously. Anthony Morando: I'm assuming that's not going to happen. I don't know. I don't know the answer. I would never advocate to my clients to do work without a permit. Deputy Mayor Carley: What kind of extra work that was added? Manager Revella: The extra permit was for the sewer connection. Anthony Morando: Basically there's a highway work permit that's required to work in the DOT. 2 We filed that months ago. In addition, DOT was apologetic even in writing to only bringing this up now and I believe they also contacted the Dean's office to talk to him directly about it. The additional permit is called the Use and Occupancy permit. This is something that I've been told from the engineers because I don't typically interface with the DOT, that they're asking for this more and more now if there's a private line put into a public right of way, they want a Use and Occupancy permit. I think this is happening more frequently. I don't know the reasoning. I won't be cynical, but when you asked for another permit, you know you need to pay for it. We filed all the paperwork for that and now it's just the wait. The hope is that the contractor is doing the work and then by the time they get that permit, they can just fluidly continue without having to re-mobilize. The fear is the winter time. Deputy Mayor Carley: Being the newest board member, having the least amount experience with the Planning Board and everything. The Use and Occupancy permit is just to use the sewer line? Anthony Morando: No. It's effectively, I may be using the wrong terminology, but it's basically a license to put it in the state right of way, which in my understanding was kind of included. And when you get the highway work permit to be in the right of way. But now it was forwarded to a separate office, the regional real estate office to issue that. They've been responsive thus far since this came up a couple of weeks ago. We immediately contacted the DOT and within a few days things were filed. Now it's just waiting for it. But we don't want to slow that down and try to get work done. John and Jim told me today they think they have a way to start work before they get the permit. Trustee Pearson: The berm. How's that going? Anthony Morando: Done. Trustee Pearson: Are they planting trees? Anthony Morando: The berm is done. I don't have an answer on the landscaping, but today I did speak to Jim. The fencing is ready to go. They're waiting for the actual fence to get there. What they were advised by the contractor is by the first week in November, the fencing should be installed on top of the berm. My understanding is the landscaping goes in after the fencing. I don't know by that point in the season and if that makes sense to plant it. I'm not sure. But the berm work, I was told today it was done. The acoustic block, that was put on the fencing. That's the sound dampening material that was placed on the back fence. The good thing about starting this work is that some other things they want to do in the site pursuant to the Planning Board approval is kind of held up until you do the work at grade. The striping, all that stuff. That's all part of getting this done. Trustee Thompson: I was just wondering if there was any further dialog about the drainage issue on the neighboring property. Anthony Morando: Dean met with Orange County Transit on the site as part of the inspection since that meeting. They looked at the piping. What I was told is that it was done to plan, that there wasn't an issue and it's been installed correctly. Trustee Sebring: How long do they figure it's going to take to do the sewer work on the state right of way? They have to go from the bus station up to the village line. How long do they estimate? Anthony Morando: I don't know. If I'm guessing, which I shouldn't do. I think it's weeks, not months. That's what I think. But that could be, 5 weeks, not 3 months. 3 Attorney Donovan: Let it be known that Mr. Morando beat the elevator up. We raced, I was in the elevator. He was out of breath, though. I was not. Village Manager’s Report Manager Revella: We did receive a contract from Orange Bank and Trust to do our mailings for utility billing, along with what's called a lockbox. They're going to send out and receive our water sewer bills and payments directly. It'll help save on a little bit of cost from the people we use now. There'll be a lot more flexibility in what we can do. Hopefully, they help with future mailings when you do that to add things to the bill in language on the bill as well. Did meet with special counsel and the Treasurer on another arbitration that's coming up in December with CSEA. Went over with state DOT and the DPW Super issues with the roadwork going on the state roads. There were some issues where they had hit 2 of our manholes. They were repaired. The communication in the middle there was a little lacking, but it's been better in the last 3 or 4 days. Rec Coordinator and I met with a couple of different Eagle Scouts for Eagle Scout projects, including Mr. Sickles and Montgomery Devils regarding park use at Bradley Park. Went over with the engineer the CHIPs reimbursements along with the Treasurer and timelines for reimbursements. Coming along well, everything was submitted to the state for reimbursement. Had a conference with the Mayor, the DPW Super and grant writers to talk about our current and future projects that we've been working on with the grants. There's a few more coming up and we also pointed them to some private companies in the village to help them with grants as well. Went to the Orange County Transition Council meeting in Goshen. We approved the tip from 2023 to 2027, which includes Route 17 improvements to turn it into Interstate 86. Went over staffing and events with the Chief, along with the press release that went out. Also met with Rec Coordinator and Trustee Thompson on the annual plantings and coordinating that and next year and what the end of the year should look like. Covered DPW for when the Super was out. The Rec Department has been working on park maintenance. They finished the plantings for the end of the season. Trunk or Treat is on Saturday. Rain date is the next Saturday. The Jets trip is November 6th. It's the first weekend in November, but it's sold out now. Teen Center and after school is going well, soccer's going well. Basketball registration is open. Building Inspector issued 4 permits, 5 Certificates of Compliance, 2 COs and waiting for the next court date for the violators that didn't make it to court last time. Code Enforcement issued 13 permits, 9 Certificates of Compliance, 1 CO, 14 fire and safety inspections conducted, 2 landlord registry violations submitted and 11 lawn violation submitted. Clerk's been working on social media, workers comp, went over a few updates on files with the Police Officers that are out. Nothing positive to report yet. Went over some other personal matters, including reporting, payroll change forms and assisted with resident violations and invoices and complaints as usual. Finance Office still going over staffing and training, bank recs, NYSEG bills, which we went over with the Village Attorney as well for some assistance. New bid bans and rehab loans were completed. Public Work, still pressing sludge until it gets too cold, so not too much longer. They replaced 5 meters, 26 mark outs, 1 inspection, 2 closings and swapped 7 endpoints. There still patching roads and fixing sidewalks as they can. They also had to assist the DOT with the road work to make sure the valves and manholes are done right, and that to fix the 2 that got damaged from the grinder. They are getting the reclaim from the roads from the state and they're flushing hydrants this month and jetting. Police, we do have one new full time hire, should be here next meeting to be introduced. Through details they issued 4 traffic tickets, 2 parking summonses, went to 6 MVAs, 10 arrests, 11 vehicle traffic stops and responded to 302 blotters. Trustee Pearson: The Grinder hitting utilities and manholes, are we being reimbursed for what we put in? Manager Revella: No. Trustee Pearson: Why? 4 Manager Revella: I can talk to you outside the meeting on that as a potential litigation issue. I can't talk in public about it, but no, they're not. Trustee Pearson: The Tri-Board meeting, did we hear anything back from other people? Clerk Kraus: A couple of them have responded that they are coming. I haven't heard from anybody on the Planning Board. Trustee Pearson: The rehabilitation loans that we have, there's a list of those? Manager Revella: There is with an Excel sheet. Trustee Pearson: It shows what is left to be paid on them and how they're paying? Manager Revella: Correct. We have it in Edmunds as well. It's broken out. It's tracked finally. Trustee Pearson: The New York State Gas billing. There was a big issue with that? Manager Revella: There's one issue where they were billing the wrong property and then there's one issue where they swapped a meter out and billed us for 2 years at once. We haven't paid it, though. One of them is not ours. We told them. And the other one, we're trying to negotiate with them because it seems silly that they're going to try and charge us 2 years at once under the current rate when it should have been pro-rated and apportioned. Trustee Pearson: Highway Department, we sent to a hearing in Poughkeepsie. What type of hearing is that for? Manager Revella: From Fred's report? Those 2 members had to attend for arbitration for CSEA. They had to go to their attorney's office in Poughkeepsie. That was the other side of the arbitration. Trustee Pearson: Parks Department. Did we get the sign yet for the building for down at Olley Park? Manager Revella: It's on the building. It's hidden. Trustee Pearson: It's hidden? Speaking of that, there was some aluminum siding off the side of that building already up at the top. Manager Revella: The flashing, yes he is going to reattach it. Trustee Thompson: What do you mean the sign is hidden? Manager Revella: We don't want to reveal it until it's open. Trustee Thompson: The sidewalks are in Olley Park, correct? Manager Revella: No. I have to bring that up actually to the board later tonight. Trustee Thompson: Is there anything new to report on the Waterfront project? Manager Revella: Yes. In house, we're doing the drainage work. There was an issue with the pipe. 5 It just takes forever to get. Once we have it, Fred will get it in within a couple of days and the company will come and start. Trustee Thompson: You requested me to try and get you a letter of support to put in for the gateway grant. I've had a little difficulty because there's been another change of the board at the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance. Today I emailed Riverkeeper to see if they could provide a letter to us. I still will continue to try with the Wallkill River Group, but I believe Dan Shapley wrote us the letter the last time when we applied for that grant. Hopefully we'll hear something back on that. I know we have a little time, but I don't like to wait. My goal is to have my end of the climate smart work done by November 1st. And with your end, hopefully we can get that submitted. I have listened to 2 of the cohorts and they mostly pertained to the greenhouse gas pieces that you've been working on. I'm trying to get that done. I'm hoping to have it done by November 1st. But I was going to try to go to a 3 day Watershed Alliance program next week. I have a lot of busy work to do, so I'm going to try and get that done. The After School Program. How many participants do we generally have in that? How many children? Manager Revella: Usually about 12 to 15 daily. Trustee Thompson: It's every single day after school. Manager Revella: Yes. Trustee Thompson: And on holidays? No program? Manager Revella: No. Trustee Thompson: I bring it up at every single board meeting. I'm reading the Building Department report and I don't see anything about property violations other than the grass. I'm going to keep asking. Manager Revella: We have some members attending our executive session tonight. Trustee Thompson: I just like to keep updated on how that is going. I have not looked at the webpage recently, but we talked about maybe putting a reminder on there for people to call and make arrangements to get their water meters, did it go online? Clerk Kraus: It's on the calendars, not on the webpage. Trustee Thompson: I was just curious what the response was if we had an improvement in people contacting Fred's Department to get their meter installed. Clerk Kraus: We're constantly reminding them. Manager Revella: The only thing that helps us is the closings. When someone tries to close on something, they can't get a closing until they fix or replace their meter. That's the only real pull we have. That's been helping. Otherwise, nothing else was really helping. Trustee Thompson: Sending out something, it's on the calendar, putting it on the Walden page is not useful? Manager Revella: I'm all for doing it. Anything that we can do for free. Yes. 6 Trustee Thompson: I haven't heard any word in a while about the Accreditation for the Police Department. Are we all good? Manager Revella: They finished everything. I think they're just evaluating now. Trustee Thompson: I just wanted to say that I've had several village residents complaining to me about the speeding in the village. I was standing out in front of the building the other night and the cars were flying up Scofield Street like crazy. I don't know how we're doing with that. Manager Revella: I know how to help that part. Make the circle out front bigger. That will help slow people down going around it and keep traffic on one side of it. Trustee Thompson: I never really saw people going the wrong way around the circle until recently. That seems to be crazy. Manager Revella: T-Mobile will help us get money for that if you want to apply for that grant. Trustee Thompson: I know certain streets have been targeted recently about the speeding, but people are saying that they're seeing it on a lot of different streets in the village. If you could just pass that on to Chief Herlihy. Trustee Sebring: The conference with the FEMA for management cost reimbursement. What does that consist of? Manager Revella: We get reimbursed for our time doing the FEMA work and FEMA meetings. They're going to get us money for that, too. It's somewhere over $6,000. Approval of October 4, 2022, Minutes Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve the October 4, 2022 Minutes with changes. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Comment None Resolution 13-22-23 – Exempt Properties Trustee Thompson made a motion to adopt Resolution 13-22-23 Exempt Properties. Seconded by Trustee Elliott. All ayes Discussion – Ambulance District Manager Revella: I would just say that the committee met with Supervisor Maher and myself yesterday. We discussed the status and we received copies of the RFPs today from the 3 companies that submitted to the town. We discussed options moving forward, costs moving forward, and what the Village Board would want to do to make sure that our citizens have the same coverage as everyone else in the town. Deputy Mayor Carley: What options? Manager Revella: Depends on what they choose. We don't know what they're going to choose yet. It's in the RFP packets that were given. They're within about a $200,000 range of each other. All 3. One is from the Town of Montgomery Ambulance Corps, one is from Empress. The other one is from Mobile Life. 7 Deputy Mayor Carley: Town Board has their meeting on this Thursday? Manager Revella: They're discussing Thursday. We don't know if they're going to vote. They may have a special meeting on Monday to discuss further and actually meet with the companies to review before making a decision. But it will be before our November 1st meeting, which the Supervisor is intending on coming to discuss with us as well. Trustee Sebring: I'd rather wait and see what the town does. We have the RFP, but it doesn't do any good right at the moment to say anything about it until the town officially makes up their mind as to what they are going to do. Then we can make up our mind because then we have numbers in front of us too. Deputy Mayor Carley: You're comfortable with what was discussed? Trustee Thompson: I think so. They got their RFPs. They're going to discuss it and they're going to talk about it at their meeting this Thursday, which I have every intent of being at. I can't speak for everybody else, but I will be there and I'd be happy to share whatever they tell us with the board. We still didn't get any notes from the Mayor, so I guess we're just going with what we are learning now. But it was a productive meeting with Brian and he answered a lot of questions we had. Again, he couldn't tell us everything because they need to review the RFPs and decide what they're going to do. One of them came in late, believe the Mobile Life submitted late, but the town is still going to entertain it. Manager Revella: They found it late. It was submitted on time from what we were told. Trustee Thompson: They're going to entertain all 3 RFPs and hopefully have information to give us Thursday evening. And as John said, the Supervisor plans on being here at our first meeting in November to fill us in on anything else and to answer any questions that the entire board might have and the community if they come out for it. Trustee Pearson: I just left everybody a paper so that you know that. I know the big discussion last meeting was about information and who was supposed to supply the information and get it to everybody. Before I was a Trustee, I emailed most everybody on the board that was involved with the ambulance corps asking for information so I could be up to speed when I got on the board. What I gave you, Lynn Thompson is talking about I got an email this was in the minutes and then Mayor Ramos stating how they're going to put together all that information and get it back to the people who need the information. That was in March and April of this past year. It's been 8 months since then. When we had that discussion last meeting, I didn't say much because I knew that that was in the minutes somewhere. It is important there's a committee being formed. There's a committee that needs the information. You form a committee to gather that information to take back to the board. That's why you have committees. Willie, you've been on committees before and most people had been on a committee. The committee puts the notes together and there is usually a leader of that committee. That person, for me as a Mayor, if you were sitting in that committee, that person to me would be the leader of that committee because he is the top dog. I just want to put that out there because the conflicts last meeting there, it's in paper, black and white, so that you know that there are issues that getting information back to people that have been asking every month for the last 8 months. Deputy Mayor Carley: I know the Mayor is not here. Can anybody remember in context, was this about his personal notes or was this about a committee meeting notes? Trustee Pearson: I had emailed everybody before I became a Trustee as I was getting on the board. 8 So it was probably the first meeting in April and asked him to please get me any information that they could about the Ambulance Corps, because I knew there was a committee set up. You were on at first. I think I emailed you and Brian, you came on later, Cheryl and Lynn and the Mayor. I emailed everybody. It was just a little frustrating listening last meeting that nobody wants to be in charge, but they want to be in charge, so somebody has to be in charge. That's the bottom line. And if there's a committee, then somebody has to be in charge of that committee. Most of the time if a Mayor is on a committee, then that person will most likely be the person in charge of that committee. But to state that they don't have the information and there's just too much to print, that's what you do and go through and give you the best ideas of that conversation that you had or the information that you had. There's lots of notes in the agendas if you go back. Move forward from here. I think we just really need to hear what the town has to say now before we make any decision, because we don't even know what they're thinking. To have a discussion tonight to me is not going to prove to be anything. I don't think. I don't have any other information because I don't have notes. I don't have anything to go by. So, I'm fine for waiting for the town and having the next discussion at the next meeting. Trustee Elliott: The RFP is the only option? Can the town be the employer? Manager Revella: It can, but it's not the direction they're looking in right now. Trustee Thompson: I would just like to say that the dialog with the Supervisor yesterday, it was kind of generic, actually. They were waiting on these RFPs. I don't want anybody to think that there's no information to give you. He basically talked about getting the RFPs. They have to go through them. Talking about making the employees, town employees. He's not inclined to do that. He didn't provide a lot of additional information on that. So I feel like there's not much to report until we hear what's going on Thursday night or after they have their special meeting, then we definitely will know what their selection is, what we would like to do, and what our timeframe is to do that if we do decide to get into the district as far as the taxation. Our tax year is different from the town's tax year. They'll have to figure out that equation if we do decide to agree to the model service that they're going to pick. Trustee Sebring: Like Lynn said, everything we talked about was generic. I'm just waiting until Thursday night to see what they have to say, if they have to possibly hold a special meeting about it. Then we have to wait till then, but we have to have the final word from the town to see what they are going to do. Deputy Mayor Carley: We have our meeting for November 1st and we'll see then. Any information that needs to be put out, we can do it via email as long as we don't comment with the board. Trustee Thompson: I would like to think within the next 2 months, we're going to be able to make a decision of what the Village of Walden would like to do. Deputy Mayor Carley: The committee, did you come up with a meeting to meet soon thereafter to report to the board on the first? Trustee Thompson: The Mayor is the chair of the committee and I've not been contacted about any committee meeting. Trustee Pearson: I think that we really all as each individual should read through the RFPs and see how you feel about that and have those questions ready for the Supervisor on November 1st. I plan on going Thursday night to the meeting as long as things go okay to get there and hearing what they 9 have to say. But I also think that board members should take a look at that. At least have some questions of how you feel about what direction we need to go in. We won't know anything until probably after that of how much our finances will have to be to join on if we are going to join on and all kinds of questions. Deputy Mayor Carley: I would just like to recommend, that the committee have a meeting after the Thursday meeting from the town and then have something ready for the 1st. Trustee Thompson: As long as everybody goes to the town meeting, we're not required to go to that. I'm planning on going, but we'll see what happens. But again, the Mayor should tell us if he wants to have a separate meeting after that and give us a date and time that he'd like us to meet. Deputy Mayor Carley: We'll definitely bring it up and hopefully he'll come in tonight. If not, I will definitely email or text him. Discussion – Retiree Healthcare Manager Revella: There seems to be a slight gap in our current policy book regarding health care and retirement, so we wanted to try and tighten it up a bit. There's an old policy from 1993 that's still technically in effect because it hasn’t been revoked. So, we're trying to adopt something that's more modern that takes into consideration all the other options. We had some retirees pass away and their spouses had questions and we really don't have good answers. So, this kind of tightens it up as want to make sure everyone looks through this thoroughly, thinks about what's appropriate and what they would like to do going forward. I had emailed some of the old stuff to everyone almost 2 months ago. This is kind of the draft from our special counsel on what they think we should do going forward. Obviously, there's a couple of gaps for dates. I'm going to confirm what's more appropriate based on our staffing for the dates and see what we can do for a final draft. But if anybody has any questions reviewing it or going forward, it's really just something to look at and think about for next meeting. I want to make sure it's on the agenda. We'd like to finalize it the next meeting. So, have questions, comments, concerns then we can put it in final form. Trustee Thompson: Do we try and model this from what the county and the state do for their retirees or we do ours completely different? Manager Revella: We do ours on our own. I can check to see if the county has changed anything on theirs. The state, depends on what kind of employee you are and what union you're in. They're different based on union contracts. This is for non-union. The unions are covered by the contract. This is only for non-union people. So, it's hard to get information from non-union county people. But I'll check with Steve and see if he can give me something. Trustee Thompson: I was just curious if we have something that we look at to model a draft or whether this is just like a policy that you've used in the past and it's time to just reevaluate. Manager Revella: It's time to update our current policy, which has been in place since 93, hasn't been updated. The special counsel didn't say that it was deviated much from other people that she works with. Trustee Pearson: You sent that email and she had some interesting comments in her email, so you may want to pull up that email and read her comments. Because that was pretty interesting of things you don't even have to do. Deputy Mayor Carley: Did you highlight anything in particular? That was a while ago since I read it. 10 Manager Revella: This is new. It has categories. Fee Schedule Trustee Pearson: When we changed the law, we didn't change the fee schedule that Dean had kind of recommended in that law. If we look at the very bottom of the page for Planning and Zoning Schedule. It talks about landlord registry fees, $25 per person and $10 per unit residential and commercial buildings, one-time fee. But then we changed that because then it says unless changes are made to registry owners are occupied, that should come out of there. If we're going to change it to what we voted on and say that landlord $25 per building, $10 unit for initial fee thereafter, $25 landlord fee every 2 years being scheduled for the fire and safety inspection. That is how I think that should read. I'm just putting it out there for you guys to think about. The next sentence down, the fire and safety inspections are $65 per residential, $25 for single family and owner occupied every 2 years. Only the rental unit would be charged. So, that's not in there, but that's what we talked about as a board and basically voted in. I think the fee schedule should have to change to reflect what we voted for. Deputy Mayor Carley: I agree. Manager Revella: If the board is comfortable with us updating those changes based upon the updates to the laws, no deviations because it does say we can change it from time to time. We will make that update to the current one and you can vote on it at the next meeting with all those updates, if the ones that Trustee Pearson were okay. Sign Law Manager Revella: As you're aware, our attorney advised us that our sign law is a little outdated, doesn't follow the model code. We do need to discuss updating that. Attorney Donovan: john had the question about a month ago and emailed back and forth with him. I didn't perform any comprehensive analysis on code was just one item that came up. We had a discussion in a meeting. I indicated it's not that regulation's not content neutral, which is what the law requires, and that maybe you want to look at kind of redoing your sign ordinance. My thought is, if you're interested in doing this, because obviously nothing untoward has happened because the litigation made a lot of changes was 20 years ago. But I had suggested to John that maybe he ought to engage the Village Planner, you want to fold in the Building Department and the Village Board needs to be involved in some level of. If you want a committee, you can certainly do that. You come up with some model, I say model, some draft legislation that could act as a substitute for what we have now, but to do it comprehensively, even since this model law came out from the county planning department some 20 some years ago, we have led lighting, which wasn't in before, static signs versus digital signs. If you want to regulate those, there's different things that have happened. There's a lot of more sophisticated sign ordinances that come into play. I had mentioned to John I'd given you Hamptonburgh's because that was modeled on the county. But Hamptonburgh is obviously different from Walden. Towns or rural towns like Hamptonburgh is going to have different regulations than a village like Village of Walden or about 3 or 4 years ago we made some changes in the Village of Goshen. It's a different community and you need different needs for your signs. Long story short, I think it's something that should be evaluated. I think you want to fold in your planner. I think you want to fold in your Building Department and whatever you want to do with the Village Board member or something, just my recommendation. Manager Revella: And I would just ask permission from the board to get that started. That's really what this is on for. 11 Trustee Pearson: I'm happy with that. Trustee Thompson: Will that include the Planning Board? Because they already do sign and architectural review and all that. Will they have a lot of input on this? Manager Revella: They'll review it because they have to once it's done. Attorney Donovan: If you want to go the committee route, you could put a Planning Board member on there. You may just want to have, for instance, myself and the planner put something to you first for you to kind of critique and then take it from there, send it over to the Planning Board. And when you get to the point, it would be a local law, they have to report on that. But you don't have to wait for that. You could say, we were thinking about this and we'd like your input on this. Manager Revella: I'll get the planner involved, the Building Department involved and I'll reach out to whoever wants to help from the board as well. Deputy Mayor Carley: Thank you. Olley Park Community Center Sidewalk Manager Revella: We did get numbers back. I just need the board to okay it. We did have a company confirm they would donate the paving that's needed for the ADA parking. But we do need to pay someone to do the sidewalks. The lowest responsible bid was $34,000 LP Builders. The second was Consorti Brothers for $36,000. The engineers recommends you award LP builders for $34,000. It's up to you guys. Trustee Thompson: What does that work include? Because I thought we were going to do some in house with the sidewalks. Manager Revella: Not the sidewalks. We're getting the sidewalks done around the entire building. Trustee Pearson: It's all the way around the building? Front, both ways, sides and then there's parking past that. Manager Revella: Correct. Right now, it's just the right side. We're talking about the other side in the future what to do with that side. Trustee Sebring made a motion to award LP Builders to complete sidewalks at Olley Park in the amount of $34,000. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Comment None Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Thompson made a motion to approve payment of audited bills. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Pearson: Hill Street Bridge, anything? Attorney Donovan: I had a conversation with the Town Attorney today in which he said it was on the agenda for Thursday for at the Town Board then to authorize by me. 12 Trustee Pearson: The letter we talked about for the sewer, which will definitely go out? Manager Revella: We just have to talk to them about how to manipulate that with the new company, the new system. Trustee Pearson: And if we can't get it in the new system, then what? Manager Revella: Then we'll figure out another alternative. Trustee Pearson: Code of ethics. I know Lynn brought that up a couple meetings ago, whether everybody signed up for the code of ethics or not yet. Don't forget to do that. Water shut off at the Veterans Park yet or not? Manager Revella: It's not winterized yet. Trustee Pearson: Mom and tots, is it still going on? Manager Revella: No. The library does have a tot program. Trustee Pearson: Marisa, I want to thank you for the minutes. They were awesome. They were so easy to read the way they were spaced like that. So, thank you. It was long. I know, but thank you. I just made mention because I thought they were really good. Trustee Thompson: I would just like to ask if anyone on the board participated in the triathlon. If maybe you could let us know how that went. I was not able to participate, so I was just very curious if the event was well attended and if everybody thought it was successful. Trustee Sebring: The only thing I want to mention to the Manager, ask Mike, if Veterans Park, water system winterized. Manager Revella: I have that note. Should be soon. Trustee Pearson: The Veterans Memorial Park. Everybody got their invite. Anyone from the public would like to go. It's November 6th at 1:00. We will have another meeting before. I'd love to have everybody come. Mayor Ramos: Tri-Montgomery was a brisk morning. There were 125 participants. Probably another 100 onlookers and support staff and volunteers. Volunteers did a phenomenal job for the first race. Next year will be similar or a lot better. The run obviously was challenging and the bike ride was more challenging and the kayak was frigid. The water was really cold. I could barely get out of the kayak because my legs were frozen and you had to run to the unicorn to stop the timer. It was very well run. They had a lot of vendors there at the site between food and radio was there, the bicycles, everything was staged perfectly. The run that went through the Village went really nice except for the first bicyclists was sent to the right off of 208 and he still won. I don't know how that happened, but he still won. I did the run, my wife did the bicycling and I did the kayak, which was it was a lot of fun. It was a beautiful day. It was my first time kayaking. So it was there was a lot of debris in the river. I had to manage a couple of big trees that were in there and almost fell over. The Fire Department and the PDs, I can't thank enough. The Fire Department from Sullivan County had their air boat and Montgomery Fire Department had their rescue swimmers there in case anybody fell out. Luckily, nobody got hurt. I know there was a lot of sore muscles. I didn't do the 17 mile bike ride like my wife did. We're expecting it again next year. The reason, I was delayed. I was attending the Medal of Honor recipient, Major General Livingston, coming to the Village of 13 Walden to speak. It was being well represented right now. I missed his comments in his speech. I'm hoping to read his book when I get it. Trustee Thompson: I forgot that it's in the packet, the updates for the video. Are we going to be discussing that ahead of future meeting? What we're going to do, if anything? Manager Revella: I don't know what you guys want to do. Trustee Thompson: We did their bids. We didn't talk about it and it wasn't on the agenda. Next meeting? Manager Revella: I can put it on. *Read community events into minutes* Executive Session – Personal History of a Particular Employee and Potential Litigation Trustee Elliott made a motion to enter into Executive Session to discuss personal history of a particular employee and potential litigation. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Elliott made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. 14  Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting October 18, 2022 Motions & Resolutions Approval of October 4, 2022, Minutes Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve the October 4, 2022 Minutes with changes. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Resolution 13-22-23 – Exempt Properties Trustee Thompson made a motion to adopt Resolution 13-22-23 Exempt Properties. Seconded by Trustee Elliott. All ayes Olley Park Community Center Sidewalk Trustee Sebring made a motion to award LP Builders to complete sidewalks at Olley Park in the amount of $34,000. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Thompson made a motion to approve payment of audited bills. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Carley. All ayes. Motion carried. Executive Session – Personal History of a Particular Employee and Potential Litigation Trustee Elliott made a motion to enter into Executive Session to discuss personal history of a particular employee and potential litigation. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Elliott made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. 15