Board of Trustees

Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting November 1, 2022 Mayor Ramos called the regular meeting of the Village of Walden Board of Trustees to order at 6:30pm. On roll call the following were: Mayor: John Ramos Present: Deputy Mayor Willie Carley Trustees Lynn Thompson Becky Pearson Brian Sebring Patricia Maher John Elliott Absent: Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Presentation – Ambulance District Town Supervisor Maher, Sylvie Rainaldi and Meaghan Lass gave a presentation about the Ambulance District. Trustee Pearson: You did mention something about a contract, not necessarily using the RFP. Is that what you said, you might just do the contract without the RFP so you don't have to meet the guidelines of having x amount of people on an x amount of hours used and blah blah blah? Town Supervisor Maher: The RFP is good. We like the things that we put in the RFP. But if our attorney and their attorney mutually decide that something in the RFP doesn't make sense, we're not going to stick to the RFP to stick to the RFP. We would throw it out and just grab the contract based on the details of the RFP. So, at the end of day, what I would say is this generally, it's all been a learning process. Going forward, our goal is simply to maximize services in town. And if there's anything in an RFP that is detrimental to that, we have the ability to throw it out and just simply enter into a contract. Trustee Pearson: When you throw it out, when does it become a contract? Is it when you sign up? Town Supervisor Maher: Good question. After tonight, when we know if Walden will be in or won't be in. This contract will be solidified and signed by the latest, because they have to get things going by the end of November. So, we're going to move quickly. We pretty much have a draft ready, but we're just waiting to physically see it. We can speak to the details of it and where we're going with it. Trustee Pearson: Are you headed to a contract or an RFP? Town Supervisor Maher: Our goal is to adopt the RFP and approve it. But even if we approve the RFP, we still have to enter in to contract. The contract is separate from the RFP. It's going to happen no matter what. The question is whether or not to accept the RFP or simply go into a 1 contract. No matter what the contract has to happen. We would put in the RFP that we can get out of the RFP, we can just disregard it. That's something that we reserve the right to use. Trustee Pearson: I'm confused on numbers. I'm looking at the RFP, non-transport paramedic. The numbers on that. We're not talking about ALS or BLS service. Sylvie Rainaldi: Option 1. Trustee Pearson: In that, we are at anticipated municipal subsidy $785k if Walden comes in. In the RFP, says $660k is being awarded. Town Supervisor Maher: That's simply the district revenue from the district, not billing revenue. Trustee Pearson: What you're saying, I'm taking the difference from what Walden would have to pay, without Walden it's $660k, with Walden it's $785k. Difference is $125k, not $136k. Where did you get that $136k from? Town Supervisor Maher: The Ambulance Corp by responding to the RFP came in under what the map plan report said would be created in funding for the ambulance district. So, with Walden, the ambulance district will create $800k in revenue. Without Walden, it will be $664k. That's what the ambulance district will create, it's been established, that's what it will be. They came in under budget, knowing the budget because they felt it would be important to have some sort of flexibility. So, the number that we would charge you is to fully fund what we anticipated to charge should Walden have opted in previously. Because that number is what we believe was the right number so that we didn't have to raise it every year unless something was forecast that we weren't expecting. Trustee Pearson: Is that number generated per household? Is it per parcel? How are you determining the amount of money per Village that's being spent? Town Supervisor Maher: It's on assessment. It's just like your tax dollars. Trustee Pearson: All the PILOTs you said you wanted to include are all included in that now? Town Supervisor Maher: Yes. Trustee Pearson: After one year contract, what happens after that? Town Supervisor Maher: Our goal would be to have a one year contract with an option for another year. If things are going very smoothly, we wouldn't want to get into hard contract negotiation. We want to trigger a mutual second year where we can either quickly go to ALS provider Town of Montgomery Ambulance Corps or continue the partnership between Ambulnz and the Town of Montgomery Ambulance Corps, depending on what's going on. Trustee Pearson: Go back to the money. Really this RFP is no good. Because the number should be $800k not $785k. Sylvie Rainaldi: For us, when put the budget together, part of our understanding is that we, as Brian mentioned, wanted to come in under the tax district amount. We knew the tax district amount was $800k, so we bid at $785k. So, the town would have the ability to take that $15k if they wanted to create a fund balance, for example. They would have that. The town still would get to decide what the ultimate tax would be if they tax that full $800k. That up to them. But our bid is what it is 2 and it's for that reason. I could have increased the bid to $800k and put in a contract to put $15k in the fund balance. But we bid under. Trustee Pearson: What are you putting in the contract, $785k? Are you putting in $800k? Sylvie Rainaldi: There's 2 things that have to happen. There's a tax district budget that the town is going to do. Town Supervisor Maher: The tax district will create $664k without Walden. Our original map planner report included Walden was $800k. That is what the tax district will create. When we put a contract together, we could either base it on that number, which we plan to do to create an excess of $15k potentially, that would go towards a fund balance which would specifically go to capital improvements. Or we can just charge a lower amount. But I don't see us doing that. I see us charging $800k like we originally discussed. Trustee Pearson: So, this RFP is not correct. It's correct for you, but it's not correct for you. Town Supervisor Maher: To my point. The RFP is simply a document that we use to gather the information we need to make a decision and we have the ability to just throw it out and create a contract. It is a real RFP. It really happened. In a real RFP, the town can protect itself by saying we do not have to accept one of these bids. That is a real RFP that is what happens when we reserve that right. What matters here, if we do what's best for ambulance services in the town, not letter by letter of what we put in the RFP. That's how we feel. Trustee Pearson: Ambulnz, do you come to Walden now? Meghan Lass: We do but it's on a mutually aide basis. Trustee Pearson: What does your Certificate of Need cover? Meghan Lass: We have a CON for all of Orange County and the Hudson Valley. Trustee Pearson: But you're only mutual aide to here. Meghan Lass: Correct. Trustee Pearson: Our company, we have a fly car, Ambulnz would not be using our fly car. What would be using our fly car if we don't have a paramedic yet? Sylvie Rainaldi: As part of our proposal, 2 things can happen. First is, we do plan on applying for ALS certification next year. So, there is a possibility that we'll have a paramedic on staff at an interim basis. So that person will be able to mutually aide when they are on and a part time basis. But it will also be used for our volunteers in the community. So, we can have faster response times. Trustee Pearson: Billing. Contact is in the town, you're paying Ambulnz to be a sub-contract. Who is billing? Sylvie Rainaldi: This is actually really important to us. We don't want patients to get 2 bills. It's very confusing. The arrangement between the 2 organizations is that they would be charging us a flat fee and we as Town of Montgomery Ambulance would be the only organization generating a bill. All services would be billed under the Town of Montgomery Ambulance. 3 Trustee Pearson: Are these billing rates standard? They're not going to change. Sylvie Rainaldi: Yes. Don't have any plans to change them. We have our trustees, when we review billing rates, we use our billing company as a consulting firm to help us know what's out in the industry but we're not planning on changing it anytime soon. Trustee Pearson: When Mobile Life comes here, are they on mutual aid as well? Or do they come here, because why? Sylvie Rainaldi: Mobile Life is primary ALS servicing provider for our area right now. But there's no contract with them. Trustee Pearson: They just come and they make their money on billings, right? Town Supervisor Maher: Yes. They don't have a contract for dollar amount. They do their best but it does it does not work when you drop over 50% of calls. And the reason why it doesn't work is because they don't have a dedicated ambulance physically in the Town of Montgomery because they don't have something like what's being created here where it's a contract and this is the service and we will physically be there and we guarantee it and here's the dollar amount. The reason why they couldn't do this in the past is because the Town of Montgomery Ambulance Corps did not have the resource to enter into that contract. Trustee Pearson: If Mobile Life can come here with a CON and we don't get billed, our tax dollars are not affected, why wouldn't the Town of Montgomery Ambulance Corps be doing the same thing? Sylvie Rainaldi: Right now, with Mobile Life and their current arrangement, they are dropping 50% of ALS calls in our area. They are not able to meet the need of our community. Which means 50% of our patients that call for a paramedic are either getting a paramedic from a different municipality that may be using their tax district money to send a paramedic to us. Or that patient is getting transported with Basic Life Support, even though they needed Advanced Life Support and that is not a sustainable solution. So even though we currently have, it would be I would say it's wrong to continue that model since we are not providing adequate patient care for our community. Town Supervisor Maher: I would simply add we had internal discussions at our board level with the same exact question and what I said and the majority of the board ended up going with, was you can't put a dollar in saving a couple cents here and there per household, when it comes down due to the cost of dropping 50% in calls. It's not responsible for us as elected officials to consider saving a couple bucks at the expense of dropping 50% of calls. And again, I just want to highlight, it's not Mobile Life's fault they're not responding. They don't have an agreement. They need to be paid in order to be dedicated. So, it's not like they don't care. They have a service, they're doing their very best. But because of the absence of the resources to create an agreement, they have missed that many calls. Trustee Pearson: Now your CON covers Walden now. Is that CON changing as of January 1st? If we do not opt in, are you changing your CON for service with the Town of Montgomery? Sylvie Rainaldi: We have no plans to change our CON. The CON does not require that calls be answered just because you have a CON. Trustee Pearson: PILOTs. The amount of money coming from PILOTs isn't any more than one parcel. What is the percentage that taxpayers will be paying per household? 4 Town Supervisor Maher: I want to say the handful of businesses that are major contributors, it's over 10% of the entire bill is being paid by large companies. I'm not just saying the PILOTs, but by the largest commercial entities in town, just a handful, I think it was 5 or 6, it was between 10 or 12% of the entire budget was paid for by these large companies. Which is why they said $800k or $664k so affordable for the everyday household. Those companies are really taking the bulk of that expense. Trustee Pearson: All the communities Maybrook, village, town, are all getting the same rate? Town Supervisor Maher: Per assessment. Yes. Everyone is on assessment. Trustee Pearson: You talked about putting it into a fund balance, can you have a line in the fund balance for ambulance? Town Supervisor Maher: We're going to write it into the contract that any excess funds would go to, we would create a capital reserve fund, that would be very specific to capital improvements for ambulance. Trustee Pearson: Payroll. When ambulance gets the money from you. You're going to send it out as payroll, but it is not paying payroll, it's paying all their to do. Town Supervisor Maher: We're still in discussions. The reason why the attorneys have felt this would be the cleanest way to do it is because the amount of payroll seems to be equivalent to the total number that we created through the districts. And that's why we felt that would be a prudent way to do it, because at the end of the day, they're going to need money up front and there are certain costs that you can't predict. There are certain costs that you certainly can and payroll is one of them. Because of that, we would be able to utilize that formula and get that money ahead, but also be able to say to the taxpayer, this is what it's for and this is the amount. Trustee Pearson: When this happens, will there be more paid ambulance people or will they still be mainly volunteers? Sylvie Rainaldi: In this proposal, the primary staffing model is with paid employees to meet all the minimum standards required in the RFP. In this particular scenario, there'll be one 24/7 ambulance, that's a Basic Life Support and one 12/7 Basic Life Support. Each with 2 EMTs and that’s paid staff. The volunteers would be providing additional coverage on top of that as well as standby coverage. Town Supervisor Maher: Also, as a follow up, you save money. The baseline should be paid volunteers because we know that we're suffering from a lack of volunteers. You can't provide the services and you have to do it based on paid staff as a model. When this gets to where it needs to be, which we believe it will, and there's an ALS provider and things are cleaned up, we will be able to recruit more volunteers into the ambulance corps because that service will be at a certain level. When we do that, you'll be able to have less staff, likely part timers, arguably spending less money on paid staff as your volunteers grow, which is a less expense and that saves you money in the long run. This is a model that has worked, specifically in the Town of Newburgh. They will tell you after they've created a new facility and did their own thing and have their professional organization at a level, they saw an increase in volunteers and that helped lower their costs. Trustee Pearson: Because we have not signed on, what do you see for the money that we have to pay you, if we choose to move forward? What's the next step? 5 Town Supervisor Maher: There would be a document that your attorney would work out with our attorney, and they would specify a total amount and then that would receive services through the contract that we would have written into that contract to make sure Walden is covered and this would be the fee that you would pay just in 2023 alone to insure that coverage. That would be a separate agreement with us. An invoice I would assume. I forwarded it to the Mayor and the Manager, you can pay it in one lump sum or if it makes sense, you could do it over a period if you didn't want to hit your budget. And because your budget starts June 1, we would be fine accepting payment after June 1 so you don't get hit in this budget. Trustee Pearson: You had said that the contract with the Ambulance Corps is one year but with an option for 2, would that also be written into our contract? Town Supervisor Maher: No, you only would get into a 1 year contract to pay that bill because if you opted into the ambulance district, you're in. Trustee Maher: I just wanted to confirm, you said 24/7 ALS coverage throughout all villages? Sylvie Rainaldi: *nodded head yes* 1 dedicated fly car 24/7 paramedic in it that would be provided through contract and then we would have mutual aid agreements from there. Trustee Maher: That's incredible. I just want to say thank you. Meghan, for your organization, can you just give us a little bit more insight into what you're seeing out there? You've done this before in other areas. How is it going? Meghan Lass: We have a local agency that just did this, City of Beacon. We actually staff City of Beacon Medic 1, as you see it. And then you have B-Vac as the volunteer ambulance that we are aligned with. We just handed out lifesaver awards because our response times are so low, so we're able to get to these people quicker. Town Supervisor Maher: From other communities that aren't doing what we're doing, is it hurting them? What are your response times for towns that don't have ALS? What does that look like for towns that aren't doing what we're doing? Meghan Lass: Our response times can be upward of 20 minutes. We come from are hubs. So, if we're not dedicated somewhere and we're on transports and our ALS fly cars are somewhere else, like in another community who isn't. We have multiple dedicated 911 units, those dedicated 911 units stay in the area that are supposed to be. They're not allowed to move, they don't do transports. So, what you guys are getting is a truck here, 24/7. It's unheard of in small communities. We're making it possible for you guys, which is an amazing asset. And because we're so large of a company, we're able to do this at a low rate. Trustee Maher: It's a beautiful collaboration and I'm really grateful. I heard you say quarterly updates to the board. I think that's great. What there be a way for us to access reports monthly as you currently do and get some feedback as to how it's going? Sylvie Rainaldi: For Town of Montgomery Ambulance, we will be continuing our process, which is to invite the liaisons from every municipality to our executive board meetings. We do a presentation, go over our finances and our operations that have been updated in the last month and then anyone that wishes to stay that comes in person is welcomed to stay for the rest of the meeting and we go through a full budget session. That is available any time to any trustee in any municipality. The quarterly update is where probably myself goes to the town board meeting with 6 specific metrics to review and then for Ambulnz they have their own transparency through their financial reporting. Trustee Maher: I think the timeline for transgression into having your own ALS service is right on point with how long it takes to go through the training and development of the team. From my research, it's quite a process to get there. I think having that 2 year cushion is a really smart idea. Just a few other notes. Having a fund balance, I think it's definitely necessary. I know people might look at that and say why do we need a surplus when you can just give that money back to the taxpayers? I think when you think about longevity of something like this, you have to think about the future and plan for the future, which it sounds like you put that into the budget to do. Quality of service. Seems like the best plan for our constituents that we've been able to privy to. Thank you. Again, the longevity and tenure of your employees and getting to really be in a place where you can recruit top talent to do these jobs. Right now, finding people that even want to this job is so hard. I think you're really setting himself up for success with having a great plan. Trustee Elliott: Can you explain that ALS 24/7 because you threw in that 12/7. Sylvie Rainaldi: The arrangement that we have proposed is to have one 24/7 paramedic a SUV. Additionally, there'll be 2 ambulances in service, one ambulance will be for 24/7. The second ambulance will be 12 hours a day during our peak times. Essentially you will have 3 vehicles in rotation for 24 hour period. 1 SUV, 1 ambulance 24/7 and 1 ambulance 12/7. Manager Revella: Putting a paramedic in the ambulance, does that make it ALS now? Sylvie Rainaldi: In NY State, an ambulance can be designated as a Basic Life Support ambulance or an Advanced Life Support ambulance. Because our Town of Montgomery Ambulance is a Basic Life Support provider, we don't own ALS ambulances, which is a separate designation. When we go live with ALS, our ambulances will be converted to ALS. When a paramedic gets on board, it temporarily becomes an ALS ambulance, but not in the sense of NYS certification or that vehicle. Manager Revella: You'll be able to bill as ALS transport? Trustee Pearson: Correct. We'll be able to bill as long as it's provided. Trustee Elliott: It's 1 fly car with a medic, 24/7. 1 BLS 24/7. 1 BLS 12/7. Sylvie Rainaldi: Correct. Trustee Elliott: The new ambulance building, is that happening? Town Supervisor Maher: It is not currently happening. At the end of the day, what we need to do in the future, what they need to do, it's going to be a decision for the folks that are in seats that are making the decision. So, we decided that wasn't something that we wanted to marry with this. So, in the future, if they want to have a new facility, they're going to have 2 options. Work with the town on a town owned property, which would have been my preference, which I spoke to at length. When we do our new PD, also do PD and ambulance as an option in the future. But short term, their plan is to focus on ALS and BLS and the new building be secondary. There are no plans currently for them to leave their current facilities. Trustee Elliott: I know that current ambulance building was not up to code. Is that going to be improved? 7 Sylvie Rainaldi: One of the challenges that our current building is that we don't have a bunkroom for employees to sleep. With the expansion of services, that is going to be an active project that we are looking to put in. Trustee Elliott: You said you have the Certificate of Need for Orange County and others and then the ambulance has it for the Town of Montgomery. But you don't have to follow it for Walden. Sylvie Rainaldi: The Certificate of Need, does not have a performance metric as part of it or a requirement to respond. It allows you to respond and you are able to respond but it does not compel you to respond with some kind of legal requirement as a performance standard. Trustee Elliott: Without it, you cannot respond. But it allows you to. Sylvie Rainaldi: You can you can respond to mutual aid without the Certificate of Need. Trustee Elliott: Is there any guarantee that ambulance will not be taken out of the Village for mutual aid somewhere else? Town Supervisor Maher: We brought that up and we plan on putting it in to our contract. That was a sticking point for both the Town of Montgomery Ambulance Corps and our council, that we will put in our contract a guarantee of service here. Basically, would be if there is response outside based on mutual aid, there still needs to be a dedicated resource in the town should there be a town issue. Once we put that in our contract, it reflects through a subcontractor. Meghan Lass: As a subcontractor, we're even branding the fly car to the Town of Montgomery Ambulance. You will know if it leaves the area. That's how we're holding up to our part of the agreement. Trustee Elliott: That's big because without that, nothing changes. The Town of Montgomery Ambulance will be in and you're subcontracting Ambulnz for ALS. What will be the structure of the Town of Montgomery Ambulance Corps? In other words, is there going to be a CEO, a Chief or a Lieutenant? Sylvie Rainaldi: Our structure, some of it stayed the same and some of it changed. What stayed the same, we have a Board of Trustees. A combination of volunteers and community members. That's a 7 member board. What we will be changing is our leadership that reports to the board, will now be paid leadership. We're creating a new leadership position that will report to the board. One of them we do already have, which is a Finance Manager and that was one that did in advance. We have a Chief Paramedic that will be coming on board, potential Director of Operations and Basic Life Support Supervisor and we built in some leadership to create sustainability that reports to the Board of Trustees. Part of the relationship between Town of Montgomery Ambulance and Ambulnz is that they will be in an advisory position on our board. They won't be a voting member of our board. Town Supervisor Maher: I just wanted to reiterate that when we put in this contract what we've put in, some of these issues are going to be reflected as well. There will be protections. Trustee Elliott: Will those people will be hired from within? Town Supervisor Maher: This is an important delicate question, but it needs to be answered directly. Sylvie is one person and one community member on board. The Shorettes has been working their butts off forever, but we want to make sure and the staffing will be folks that have business experience and credentials running this operation. And that is not a shot at anybody 8 because at the end of the day, it's just reality. And those folks, the Shorettes, Sylvie, all the volunteers, they want that too. So, this isn't going to be we're going to give money and then certain folks are just going to rise up and run the show. There will be business credentials for folks with a business mentality running this organization. Sylvie Rainaldi: Our volunteers and our trustee capacity, our volunteers as trustee that's not going to change. We currently don't have any financing paid for leadership which is an issue for any organization sustainability. This RFP allows us to do that. I believe that our trustees are extremely talented in being able to accomplish what we have accomplished with so little and I'm excited about bringing people on to our teams. Trustee Elliott: I think that's important because you were running in the red. The reason why this all came up was because of the running in the red and town having to bail them out. Sylvie Rainaldi: I don't believe there was never a bailout. There's been increased subsidy over time as needed. I don't believe there was ever a lump sum bailout. Town Supervisor Maher: I think to John's point and I think it's really important that we stand up here to be very, very clear on this. I know that we described it in great detail, we had so many presentations. I can understand all the information flying around. The issues with the ambulance corps have been the biggest issues are the problems that the industry and the lack of having cash flow to be able to make investments to create a sound business plan. I think everyone would agree that the folks that are doing the job did the very best they could, but don't have degrees and experience in business management. Which is what this organization will have going forward. Or the money. We also needed to fix something that was missing and we all need to understand that that is also true. And that is by creating and investing in paid leadership with business credentials. That will be part of this organization. Trustee Thompson: The Town of Montgomery Ambulance Corps will be paying the contract for Ambulnz. where is that money getting generated? How are you getting that money to pay them? Sylvie Rainaldi: We receive our revenue from 3 resources. One is municipal subsidy through the tax district. The second is from insurance and patient revenue for providing services and the third is through grants and charities and fundraising. The money for Ambulnz is coming from primarily the first and second. If the money comes from the town payroll and then it would be insurance reimbursement that will go pay the subcontract. Trustee Thompson: You're confident that you're going to be able to sustain that for minimum 1 year, possibly 2? Sylvie Rainaldi: Yes. We've been tracking our metrics for every single call, where it comes from, how the money comes, for a very long time. It could change, but we're able to do pretty good revenue predictions at this point. Trustee Thompson: The comments about the volunteers. I'm a little skeptical about that, only because in almost every organization, it seems like they're having more and more difficulty recruiting volunteers. So, if you can't get the projected amount of help that you're hoping or counting on from volunteers, how is that difference in salaries going to be made up? What happens? Sylvie Rainaldi: Based on RFP, there is no projections for volunteers as part of the financial leverage that we have to have. 9 Trustee Thompson: I get it, but if I understood it properly, the comment was made that you're hoping to have a large pool of volunteers so you won't have quite as many paid employees. Town Supervisor Maher: That's a goal. We're not budgeting for that to work. That's an important distinction. Sylvie Rainaldi: The budget does not plan for that. Trustee Thompson: Your hope would be then that it would it would take away some of the pressure that you have to have a certain amount of money, because if you do get the volunteers that you're hoping for you'll have a little bit more of a comfort zone. I also am still very confused about CON. I don't understand exactly what you're saying about that from things that I read. I don't know if you can clarify that anymore for me. Meghan Lass: As a commercial agency like us, we can hold multiple CONs for multiple towns, city and state. We don't have to operate in certain states. We can just hold that CON. That's basically what she's trying to say. She can hold that CON, but they don't have to operate in it. Trustee Thompson: About the rates for the assessments for the properties. I wish we could have a little bit more of a solid number on what you're expecting the rates to be based on assessment per property. I feel like the numbers kept changing, so I'm not quite sure what the number is anymore. Town Supervisor Maher: The map planner report never changed. Attorney Donovan: I do have the map plan report. This shows for an assessed value of a home in the Village of Walden of $150k, the annual taxes $69.59. Town Supervisor Maher: And again, that's assessed, not market rate value of your home. Attorney Donovan: I don't know how that translates into the percentage of your county tax bill requests. There's a chart that was provided to show to satisfy per 100k through 500k. Town Supervisor Maher: As we create more business and there are more entities going into the pot, that number decreases. They're absolutely right. If we were to adopt our budget tomorrow with a 0% tax increase and we have more businesses in from the previous year and more businesses that's a PILOT program that would be paying 100% assessment on, that number will be less. As the town creates and generates more business. That number doesn't always have to be. It could actually decrease. Trustee Thompson: I would be cautiously optimistic about a decrease, but I get what you're saying. Town Supervisor Maher: Based on our budget as it currently stands, that number would decrease based on the fact that if you don't raise taxes and you have more revenue generated split between everybody else, it goes down very slightly. Trustee Sebring: For the timeline for paramedics that you're going to be hiring on the Walden volunteer ambulance. Are they in training? Are they working with a license now? Sylvie Rainaldi: Are you talking about the paramedics we would recruit to join our team for potentially 2024? We would be recruiting probably starting mid-year next year in that recruiting process. We would hire from outside. We're not training internally. 10 Trustee Sebring: How many paramedics you feel as though you're going to need because the 7 day workweek, time off, sickness and whatever else. Sylvie Rainaldi: We have staffing model and that model is calibrated with Ambulnz because they're doing it now. It's 7 FTEs plus you add for sick and vacation on top of that. Town Supervisor Maher: Just to clarify, FTE is Full Time Equivalent not 7 Full Time Employees for anyone watching. Trustee Sebring: The number of hardship cases that you have in the town, are you going to try to lower that percentage so you have more money coming back into the corps rather than on a deficit side? Sylvie Rainaldi: We have no intentions of changing our charity care process to be more restrictive and provide less charity care. If anything, we're looking to expand it and make sure that we are able to capture everybody who needs financial assistance. Town Supervisor Maher: Because why I'm asking that is that with ALS coming on board, your cost for an ALS call will be considerably higher, which would mean your loss would be considerably higher. If and when you do have people with problems paying. Sylvie Rainaldi: We currently have a financial policy and there is no plan to change that policy based on this. In fact, I would like to have it easier for people to apply. Town Supervisor Maher: We're going to make a distinction here. It would be the Town Board's job when they come in quarterly and we see a lack of potential revenue based on what you're saying, to basically say, okay, justify this because there is a feeling and I share some of this feeling that there could be some changes done that aren't going to hurt the people who really need the help the most. The goal would be if we need to make changes to ensure that we recover funds from folks who can afford to pay. And I think you agree with that. I think that's what we're talking about. The number that Ambulance Corps currently is losing is a large number. The Town Board believes there is a portion of that, whatever that size is that potentially in the future with this agreement and us speaking and having that dialog, challenging a little bit. Could see that number decrease. That's just my personal opinion. I could be wrong. Sylvie Rainaldi: I agree with Brian. Trustee Sebring: Ambulnz, how many fly cars do you have in this area here? Meghan Lass: 5. Trustee Sebring: With 1 being designated for Walden, would you be bringing 1 from an outside area? Meghan Lass: So, because we are in 26 continental states, you can actually see most of our ambulances because NY is rapidly growing, have different states license plates. We can pull from different organizations and markets within our business to be able to stack whatever we need. Deputy Mayor Carley: I want to say thank you for your presentation. I really appreciate everything that you've done. This is like seriously night and day from when we first started and to where we are today. I want to say kudos to everyone that has been part of this. Thank you for 11 hanging in there. I know you were taking some bullets and some shots and the whole nine yards, but appreciate it. I agree with the process that you're taking, and I think it's a great thing that you linked up with Ambulnz. It shows the growth process over the year from start to finish where we are today. However, it happened in the past is the past. I say kudos to them. Town of Montgomery Ambulance, you went through a process, a rigorous process, and no, everybody didn't get what they want. It's okay. But I think in the end we have a good product. Personally. I think we have a real good product and I really do appreciate the oversight of the Town of Montgomery being a part of that process to make sure that things are being run well and especially for me hearing that you employed a financial person, which I remember back when that happened. But at the same time as the Town Supervisor just said, is that bring in the credentials to make sure that that helps. Not to disparage anyone else, but it just adds another level. I personally believe that when you do add quality to your service and you show growth and people get to physically see it, you will attract volunteers. The reason I put that out there, because growing up in the field of emergency management, you always have young people who want to grow and want to strive. The quickest way to do that is through the volunteer side of the house. When I was a Red Cross volunteer, there were some things I wanted to learn about emergency management, more specifically dealing with shelters and things of that nature. What was the best place to go on to the Red Cross? They provide training, they get all that stuff. And then I really got a good handle on shelters. I just put that out there that I think it's possible marketing correctly. And if everything goes the way that we're talking. We can't hold anyone’s feet to the fire that something is going to be 100%. Everybody is going to have their hiccups and that's okay. But as you went through this process, if you continue moving the dial and I continue moving forward, I believe that it will be successful. Then later on, will be a in my opinion, a marquee for the state of New York to demonstrate that, this can work because just like you said, Town Supervisor is that, this started way back when before we even started thinking about the ambulance. That there was an issue in New York State itself and nationally. Kudos to all that. I hear your Town Supervisor, saying no tax. I think we're going to see some tax raises and some things are going to go up, in my opinion, but that's okay. Thank you for holding the line with the $800k. I think the $136k for 2023 is not a bad number. Personally. I believe that's achievable. Definitely leave that's to the Mayor and the Village Manager and with the financial and with the Treasurer to make sure that that works. I think everything that you said and everything that I see I was a fan for in the very beginning because I saw a team and when all the villages come together for the Town of Montgomery, instead of being divided, I think that will speak volumes nationally in my opinion, personally. I just want to say thank you Ambulance Corps for working with Town of Montgomery and everything that you're doing. And, you know, I'll put this out there right now. Mayor, when you get your point and I don't know how the board's going to vote or anything like that, but I think we should leave here tonight with a motion accepting the contract or how it's worded. Extending the district to fund for the $136k so that the town, the village, everybody knows that now we're together, we're going to do it and that they have the coverage that they need. Mayor, I'm not telling you what to do, but at that point, I would like to call for a motion from the board. I think we had enough time over the years based off everybody's interaction. You had your meetings, everybody had their meetings. It's time to put up or shut up. Thank you. Trustee Pearson: Town of Montgomery and Walden has 2 sites, what will be sited in Walden? Is it the ALS or BLS? Sylvie Rainaldi: Our plans to continue as it stands, which is to have our primary bay in Walden. Our secondary storage garage area in Town of Montgomery. Trustee Pearson: Will the Town of Montgomery be servicing mutual aide to other communities? Sylvie Rainaldi: We have no plans to change our current mutual aid agreements. They have been successful. We might need mutual aide in the future when we're running that 1 ambulance on that 12 12 hours a day when it's not peak time and we get a second call. So, we don't plan on severing our current agreements. Trustee Pearson: Your staffing chart, when you're hiring these new people, these people will have benefits, will have major salaries. Sylvie Rainaldi: All positions are part of our current budget proposal as well as any health benefits. Trustee Pearson: If there increases to your services and moneys that you have to put out for supplies and gas, things like that. You're locked into this. You're not coming back to town for more money? It is set at $800k? Sylvie Rainaldi: That's the way we're looking to write the contract. If there's a pandemic, we're going to have to look at it, but just a general increase in cost, we do anticipate and plan for it. Trustee Pearson: The terms of service for your Trustees. Like your volunteers, is like every 5 years, how is it selected? Sylvie Rainaldi: Our Trustees serve on a 1 year term that is voted by the membership. If the membership chooses not to vote, the Trustees can continue their positions through the following year. What we are looking to do over time is change the make up of our board to have more of a balance between member volunteers and community members. Trustee Pearson: Question for our Manager. Budget, if there's a motion made, funding to get it going between December and June of next year, what does our budget look like? Manager Revella: I spoke with the Supervisor, mentioned we wouldn't have to pay anything until our budget is adopted and it would be in our new proposed budget. Town Supervisor Maher: But if they did an evaluation and said we want to pay a certain amount because we are looking good with expenses this year, we have more revenue and mortgage tax. Maybe we can add this budget year. We'll have whatever options are best for you guys. Trustee Pearson: So, we're not going to be held to x amount per month. It's going to be something in the contract that states a certain timeframe. Town Supervisor Maher: Yes, by a certain date the funds would need to be paid by. Manager Revella: There would be a contract negotiation between the both of us. Town Supervisor Maher: Correct. But we're going to have complete flexibility because in discussions with Sylvie and the team, we can work through the current budget and the costs that they're going to have. And really that $136k is about the village paying their fair share in the district that's going to cover the whole town and not the absolute necessity on January 1 to need that in the account. Town Councilwoman Brown: I realize that you didn't get to watch our meeting, but I wish you did. My question was that if a paramedic with option 1 was out on call, and we've seen this where ALS call happens and another ALS happens, what happens? This is where I specifically asked Ambulnz and they said they would pull another from Newburgh. They can actually mutual aid themselves. I think that's very important for you guys know because we do have instances in town 13 where somebody might be might be calling from Coldenham, somebody might be calling from Walden. Both are very important, which do you go to? They can go to both. Trustee Pearson: Does that have to be in their contract? Meghan Lass: There's performance standards within the subcontract with the Town of Montgomery. Manager Revella: Right now, our community is used to getting a certain level of service, obviously talking about a lot of dropped calls. Do you have a level of service that would be noticeable, the difference in that level? You have a contract you're going to talk about, drop call percentage and penalty for that kind of thing? We want to make sure that's going to be addressed. Town Supervisor Maher: That was all spelled out in the RFP. That there were going to be some penalties and some waiver requests for extenuating circumstances, whether they be pandemic related in the future. So, that is something we plan to put in the contract, to hold the individual feet to the fire on performance standards. Manager Revella: Just to make sure we're not paying tax dollars right now, essentially from the village for a service. We want to make sure that we're getting more service from the dollars that we're putting forward. Town Supervisor Maher: You are currently over the last several years the Village of Walden taxpayers have been paying taxpayer dollars through the A fund in the town to offset the ambulance service that have been happening for the past several years. Manager Revella: So, with more money, we're getting more services. Town Supervisor Maher: There it is. Manager Revella: Just want to be clear. So, you mentioned earlier that at the end of the year, you look at what funds are extra. Who is going to determine what's extra? Isn't that up to the company, not up to the town? Sylvie Rainaldi: We're going to have a budget and we'll be sharing that with the town. That budget is going to be the standard and we're going to build in limitations to that so that there's an excess over our budgeted amount. Town Supervisor Maher: From a legal standpoint, we are going to codify the budget numbers in the contract. That will be a spending plan. If they are over the contract numbers, that's how we generate the fund balance. Manager Revella: I'm kind of a capitalist, just want to make sure. There's a demand for service right now in our community. We're losing half the calls, they're not getting picked up. Why isn't there ambulance services picking up those calls to rake in revenue? Meghan Lass: We're usually responding to the entire county. Being a subsidy and subcontractor, you have us here now. We're not going to be in Middletown. We're not going to be in Beacon. We're not going to be everywhere else. Manager Revella: But why don't you go where the demand is? There's already a demand here. 14 Meghan Lass: The demand is everywhere. Can't be everywhere. Manager Revella: If everybody does the same thing we're doing now with the town, you're still not going to be everywhere because everyone's going to have the same demand. You won’t be able to increase that staffing that much in every community? Deputy Mayor Carley: Forgive me for interjecting. If an ambulance says, we're mutual aide, we got one or two ambulance we can spread out and then they see the need for the market and based on my understanding, the market says we have a big footprint you can produce and you can bring in others as needed based on the market. Town Supervisor Maher: I'm just going to be very clear. I don't understand what you're trying to say. Manager Revella: Is there enough of a supply of paramedics, ambulance service people to cover the demand that's out there? Town Supervisor Maher: Currently and correct me if I'm wrong, there is not enough dedicated staff in every town, wanting to do what we did, it doesn't exist. There's not money to pay for the increase of personnel to cover. That is a problem that currently exists. And if every town tomorrow wanted to add the service, we're very, very lucky that we're doing it now because they might not find the employees to provide that service, which is why this is so important to do before anyone else catches wind. Trustee Elliott: Would you want to make that a longer contract? Town Supervisor Maher: From a municipal standpoint, you put a trigger in for an additional year and probably put that in perpetuity so that it doesn't need to be many changes, but we want to protect the town and if there's something that pops up that we don't know or uncomfortable with, we want to have flexibility as a town with lesser years. Trustee Elliott: And the plan is to eventually shift over to non Ambulnz. Meghan Lass: That is the goal, have them as their own ALS agency. And then we would just back them up as mutual aide. Trustee Elliott: How long do you think that'll take? Sylvie Rainaldi: We're planning for that for January 2024. There are some limitations ordering equipment and supply chain. Trustee Elliott: Are you going to train new medics? Sylvie Rainaldi: Medics is a 2 year associate's degree program to become a paramedic. We wouldn't even have time to have our employees go through that program in time to start. So, we will be hiring from the outside. Manager Revella: There's a lot of questions on the livestream, if you guys can address those later that would be great. Mayor Ramos: Ambulanz is stuck doing something else, how is that communicated to the 911 center for you to respond to the ambulance or goes out to the closest rig? 15 Meghan Lass: We actually have a communication center in our operation and communicates directly with Orange County 911. Orange County 911 dispatches the Town of Montgomery. We monitor all the channels so they know exactly when we go out and when we don't. Also, our rig would have to communicate with our com center. Mayor Ramos: What about communicating with 911? Meghan Lass: Dispatch another fly car out just not branded for the Town of Montgomery. It would be the Ambulnz brand. Mayor Ramos: With this new contract coming in January 2023, are you going to be hiring additional staff? Meghan Lass: We're continually hiring staffing. Mayor Ramos: Recruiting and retention. I don't see anything on the social media or anything else that you guys are hiring. How are you going to recruit people? Meghan Lass: We are constantly recruiting via Facebook and social media. We have a QR code currently. You'll also see inside our ambulances, QR code within our windshields. We also send out business cards and it's a lot of word by mouth. Mayor Ramos: Your timeline to, not talking about the ALS, but once you start hiring into your EMT to ALS, I know it's 2 years. Where is your facility that you're training at? Meghan Lass: We are fortunate enough that we have an educator on staff in Newburgh. We have to keep up on standards every year. That's skills, documentation, policies, procedures. It's all entwined yearly updates on training. Mayor Ramos: This reporting system that we're going to receive by the quarterly basis or monthly basis, are you still going to continue an audit process or just as the town and the village does as our auditing process on a yearly or 2 year basis? Is that how it's going to work when it comes to reviewing each budget line that you do? Town Supervisor Maher: Yes. Nothing will change. We will continue to have the same auditing process. Mayor Ramos: Ambulnz and Town of Montgomery, do you 2 share the same billing company? Sylvie Rainaldi: Our outsource billing company? No. All of the invoices will be generated through the Town of Montgomery Ambulance. Meghan Lass: We won't be billing any of the patients. Mayor Ramos: Say go to the call and ALS has to go to the rig and turn into an ALS rig, who's covering in the event that something happens you slip and fall? Who's covering that on the rig itself? The Town of Montgomery rig. Worker's Compensation issue. Meghan Lass: So, it's our insurance. Because they came out of our fly car. 16 Mayor Ramos: I understand the CON process, is Ambulnz going to include in their CON, team when they can specifically say that they have a rig in Orange County, Walden, period? Deputy Mayor Carley: Does it have to be specific Walden or can it say Orange County? Meghan Lass: Our CON is for all of Orange County. Mayor Ramos: But we're going to subcontract Ambulnz to serve a Village of Walden. Meghan Lass: We still hold the CON. Mayor Ramos: Town of Montgomery, are they going to indicate on their CON that they have subcontractors or they don't need to do that? Town Supervisor Maher: We don't have a CON. At some point during this process, we discussed the fact that we could, as a municipality, get a municipal CON, much bigger than a private entity. Sylvie Rainaldi: The Town of Montgomery Ambulance has a CON for the Town of Montgomery, but the actual municipality does not hold a CON. Trustee Pearson: Brian, you were going to set up a committee in the beginning, is it going to be just the Town Board or are you willing to allow your committee be a representative from each village? Town Supervisor Maher: I think at the end of the day, if we want to have you guys have a liaison to all the quarterly meetings that happen at the Town Board meetings, we would be very open to that. We'll have a conversation. I think what is more beneficial for all of you is to take advantage of the current transparency that's been created by Ambulance Corps, Sylvie and her team, monthly meetings. That is the best way for you to get that information from the source on what's happening. Mayor Ramos: I'd like to thank everybody for their perseverance in the past 11 and half months. I just want to let everybody know that we did take this seriously. This is good dialog. Village Manager’s Report Manager Revella: We had a great meeting with the Town Supervisor. Mayor Ramos, Trustee Sebring, and Trustee Thompson to reviewed ambulance district options. I met with the DPW Super and we got through the State DOT work on the state roads thankfully finished. They do have a few more sidewalks and things to paint in the street. Went over some personal matters with the Finance Department. Went over Building Inspector issues with bulk pick up and the office to make sure those were attended to. Went over staff and traffic issues with the Police Chief. Had a meeting with Building Departments and owners of 29 Grant and 150 Coldenham Rd to make sure issues were addressed. They're having some future plans they wanted to discuss and I also addressed that with the Town of Montgomery IDA. Rec Dept had a wonderful Trunk or Treat over 500 participants. They have a Jets trip coming up on November 6th. Outdoor soccer almost done. Indoor soccer and basketball registrations open. Teen Center and after school is going well. The Building Inspector retired on Friday. Had a great sendoff. He had issued 3 permits, 10 certificates of compliance, 4 COs. Waiting for next court date for violators. Code Enforcement Officer issued 17 permits, 10 certificate of compliance, 12 fire and safety inspections. The Clerk's been updating Workers Comp, 207c, meeting with me on special counsel matters. Going over FOILS with myself and the Department Heads, responding to issues with bulk pick up. Finance was going over issues in some staffing, bank reqs, bonds, the Treasurer got her notary and the stamp and review rehab loans. DPW pressing sludge, working on road maintenance. Water meters, replaced 7, 21 mark outs, 2 17 inspections, 5 closings, swapped 3 endpoints. They finished flushing hydrants in October. Patching and repairing roads and sidewalks and assisting with DOT with their completion of the roadwork. Police working on special details, trying to get some more saturation patrols, been having issues with staffing. They did issue 4 traffic tickets, 4 parking summonses, went to 8 mvas, 8 arrests, 30 vehicle traffic stops and at 342 blotters. Trustee Sebring: I see on the boards that the state has out on 208 and 52, is that going to be for the striping? Any punch list work for blacktopping? Manager Revella: Correct for striping. Not blacktopping, but there is for sidewalks. They have some more to do. Trustee Thompson: Treasurer's report. She put in her report that the rates are going up significantly with the bond anticipation notes. Is that a major concern for us financially? Manager Revella: Yes. The interest rates for the entire nation have gone up and it's affecting the bond note rates as well. We'll be able to cover. Trustee Thompson: The comment about the old payroll checks, is that something we have to be that's being taken care of? Manager Revella: It's not at your level yet. We're trying to take care of it our level to make sure that things are out so we can close that account. There were some employees that weren't cashing in their paychecks and we trying to follow up with them to do that or get them back to re-issue from the new account. Trustee Thompson: Is it feasible to do electronic payroll for all employees? Manager Revella: We can't require it. Trustee Thompson: Is it something we can encourage? Is there a reason why the employees don't want to do that? Manager Revella: Yes, they individually have reasons why they don't do that. Trustee Thompson: That's fine. So, we can't make that the village policy. We can't do that. Manager Revella: No, we can't do that because we have employees that make under a certain amount per week anyway. Certain employees. Trustee Thompson: This is not a major deal breaker. Manager Revella: No. Just annoying. Trustee Thompson: I was going to ask about the general fund bank reconciliation. Is there anything else that's going to keep coming with corrections that has to be made? It seems like every meeting we're catching up, catching up, catching up. It sounds like this is another pretty significant issue. Manager Revella: It's an arduous task to go through each month's report. And as you go through each month, you're getting those errors and correct them as you go through. 18 Trustee Pearson: I just feel like it goes on and on and on. And I know she's been inundated, the Treasurer and she's doing her best. Do we have any date on the community center? Manager Revella: Our sidewalks will be finished before Sunday. Once that's done and the paving is done, we're ready to dedicate and open. Trustee Thompson: On the bottom of the Parks, Boardwalk Project Community Center and Scout Cabin with engineer. We have something at the scout cabin that we need the engineer? Manager Revella: Yes. You guys approved using parkland funds to do some improvements at the scout cabin. Trustee Thompson: The boardwalk project, my only question with that, I have your paper here about the Greenway Grant, that grant is what we were hoping to get the extra funding for this project. Manager Revella: Correct. This is to add on to the project we've already approved. Trustee Thompson: Do we have any updates on the third floor construction? Manager Revella: Yes. We're working on little pieces at a time, in-house, as much as we can, waiting for the flooring from the contractor. Trustee Maher: Just to clarify, with the Community Center that will be ready to be dedicated, but we're still waiting on kitchen, right? Manager Revella: We have a kitchen plan. We just have to make sure we have the appliances so we can approve the plan. It's within budget, though, so we're hoping to get that right on line as soon as we get CO. Trustee Maher: Will we open to the public before then? Manager Revella: Yes, absolutely. Trustee Maher: Seemed like there was a little bit of an issue with bulk pick up this time. Manager Revella: What was the issue? Trustee Pearson: People not knowing the date, garbage left on sidewalks. Manager Revella: People put things out that weren't supposed to but we post everywhere about what they're allowed or not allowed to do. Trustee Pearson: The one hydrant on Walnut was not working at one time, I don't know if was ever repaired. It looks like there's another one on Walnut St. Manager Revella: The one that's down further has to get a valve installed. Trustee Pearson: Bulk pick up, Marisa are there a lot calls you get for this garbage company not just for bulk pick up but all the time? Clerk Kraus: Yes. 19 Trustee Pearson: Our garbage contract is up next year? Manager Revella: Yes, we have to RFP February/March, somewhere in there. Trustee Pearson: Payroll checks, I also don't understand why people aren't cashing their payroll checks. They're making double work. Park use, do we have a lot of people signing up? Manager Revella: Yes. Trustee Pearson: The millings from the road, where did they go? Manager Revella: DPW. We use them for a lot of different things on digs. It saves us money from having to buy material instead. Trustee Pearson: It looks like we're getting our snow blowers up and running, but they look like they're in need of a repair. Approval of October 18, 2022, Minutes Deputy Mayor Carley made a motion to approve the October 18, 2022 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Pearson. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Comment Mary Ellen Matise: Thank you, Ambulnz and all ambulance people for coming answering all these questions. Hopefully we can move forward and like the NY Lottery says, you gotta be in it to win it. So, you can't influence them unless you're part of the deal. And no matter what kind of system you pick for an AV system, or something that ties into livestream is infinitely better than a projector. Kathy Passineau: It was like a light came out today with this presentation. Thank you, everybody who came from the Ambulance Corps. This information that we wanted for a long time and it's not been coming to us really easily. We've been asking for it, kind of back and forth for several months and I really appreciate everybody on the board who had good questions and concerns about this and did their due diligence to make sure it's the right thing. I think it's the right thing for Walden and I hope you make the right decision. Bill Sestrom: I voted for many of you. and I encourage you to vote yes because by the time you guys vote on this, I'm going to need an ambulance. Nancy Mitchell: The retiree healthcare, who does that pertain to? Manager Revella: It does not pertain to any past retirees or people that are retired. To clarify, we had an issue where our policy didn't really address what happens to spouses of retirees when they pass. So, we're trying to get that included into the policy and also designate what happens going forward. Discussion – Ambulance District Trustee Sebring: We went through it quite a lot of questions for them. A lot of the questions we put to them, they were answered properly and for me, I feel as though that we've done our due diligence for the residents. Hopefully with the board, tonight, we should get this done so they know that we're behind them as always. The vote has to be done by the Village Trustees. This is for cover for them so that they don't have to worry about ambulances not coming to them when they have an 20 emergency. They've done a terrific job of putting this all together, which it's taken a long time. So, thank you for your due diligence. Trustee Thompson: Thank you, everybody, for the months of hard work. I think the execution of this entire topic in many ways, I think the cart was put before the horse and it's unfortunate because I think that's why the Village of Walden had so many questions and it seems, as our other municipalities, just didn't have the questions. We were getting questions from the community. We had questions of our own. Now everything's been answered. Every avenue has been exhausted and it comes down to the best service for the community at a price that's reasonable. And I feel after everything that was presented tonight, with the subcontracting Ambulnz to get a little more dimension and a little more experience from someone who's involved with this, I think that's a good thing. So, thank you. Trustee Maher: I just want to say that it's been very clear that this is something I have been in favor of Village of Walden of opting into the tax district since the very beginning. Having said that, I want to be very clear that it doesn't mean that I did any less work. This is probably one of the hardest things I've worked on this year, and that includes learning a new job role. The amount of work that went into finding answers to questions, asking people, getting into rooms with people who are making these decisions for our community, going to meetings and just learning as much as I could with the limited information that we were given. It was a big task. It is definitely something that I'm very proud of that everyone worked so hard and got answers that they needed. Thank you everyone for all the work that you've done, for your presentations and for all your questions. Trustee Pearson: I want to thank the Ambulance Corps for letting me come to your meetings and learn about you more. Understanding how much you've grown and move forward. Thank you. Part of what I heard tonight when I heard the Supervisor spoke about possibly putting an RFP in but not necessarily sticking to it to make it work for you, if something happens. I think that's an okay thing. Having a contract is great. I would suggest if the motion was made tonight that we include how we are going to pay the town and the time line in that motion as well. Make sure that we are covered. Deputy Mayor Carley: I said what I said earlier and I still stand by. Great job. Town of Montgomery, not just the workers and not just a board, but everybody that did their due diligence in this and to have a real solid process, especially with the RFP. It really opens up some eyes and including the Village of Walden in that proposal. Thank you very much. I thought that was really commendable because you didn't have to do it. I give kudos. You agreed to do it as a group, and you included the Village of Walden even though Village initially opted out. I think that's just kudos in overall to everybody that was part of that process. With that being said, I'll leave it alone and thank you for everything that you did. I know it's been a long journey, but we're here. I appreciate it. Mayor Ramos: Obviously there's two issues that have gone down the pike. One is to opt in and two is how we're going to do it. Manager Revella: If you vote to opt in today, the town and the village would have to negotiate a contract for service. The town says that their price for the service is $136k. They also told us that the timeline to pay would be flexible. I wouldn't want to go past June 30th. Our budget negotiated in March/April. We vote on May 1st. We know how much money we have, we'll know our surpluses. We could pay some before that if we wanted to, but the balance we would have in our budget on June 1st and be able to pay by June 30th at the latest. That's what I would prefer. That's up to you guys. Attorney Donovan: Mr. Supervisor, is the district formed? 21 Town Supervisor Maher: Yes. It's a petition to extend the district. Not to opt in. Attorney Donovan: Correct. To extend the district, which I think is still subject to permissive referendum. So, understand that you adopt a motion petitioning to extend the district to include Walden in the district. Then I'll work with the Clerk to publish a notice, the 30 day period where there could be a permissive referendum, a certain number of signatures, if they're presented, this thing goes on the ballot and the people vote. If that doesn't happen and district gets expanded, we will contract with Town of Montgomery, the ambulance district, I'm going to assume that come January 2024 is the first time the Village of Walden residents would get on their town tax bill a district bill. Deputy Mayor Carley made a motion to expand the Ambulance District to include the Village of Walden. Seconded by Trustee Maher. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Maher made a motion to enter an agreement with the Town of Montgomery for the amount of $136,000 no later than June 30, 2023. Authorizing the Manager to sign. Seconded by Trustee Elliott. All ayes. Motion carried. Discussion – Retiree Healthcare Manager Revella: I had discussed the topic with our special counsel. I couldn't get feedback since last meeting because she got married and was off for a little bit. So, I didn't get a lot of feedback on the question the board asked what the county was doing, what was the state doing. I wanted that feedback for you guys. I don't think it's much different. I talked to other municipalities who don't have much of a different policy than what was proposed. But if you want to wait for that feedback on her, we can. If you want her here, I can get her here. If that's your wishes. Trustee Thompson: How many employees are we talking about? Manager Revella: All non-union. A dozen. Trustee Pearson: I'd also like to know in real time, because I know things go up, insurance cost goes up every year, but on an average of numbers like 20, 25 or 30 years. How many typically stay here. What that looks like for us money-wise. With what is proposed here and see how much money. Manager Revella: We have an anticipated increase by NYSHIP that they do annually, we can figure that out. I'll get her to come to a meeting. Fee Schedule Deputy Mayor Carley made a motion to adopt fee schedule. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Sign Law Manager Revella: I reached out to our planner to get insight and a couple other stakeholders. I do not know who from the board wants to be included in that committee. Attorney Donovan: Or if you wanted to, I can work with the planner and get something back to you for your review. However, you want to do that. Did touch base with the planner a couple of times the last couple of weeks. We can include somebody. Kristin and I could bring something back to you in draft form. I think it's a bigger project and just making sure it satisfies the First Amendment. There are other things that you may want to do. I have looked at other communities. Some of them are very, very extensive. Some are very simple. 22 Trustee Pearson: There's a lot in ours. I don't mind working on it with somebody or if you want to send me information. Manager Revella: I think it'd be good to have the attorney get a working draft and then meet and do that. Attorney Donovan: We may need a little bit longer. Trustee Pearson: It could be January. It's been going on the way it is so if you want to wait until the beginning of the year. Attorney Donovan: Let's shoot for December. A/V 3rd Floor Assembly Room Trustee Thompson: I'm very glad that Seemless Tech back and said bad idea for the projector. I liked their proposal the best. I think the computer piece is significant. And that wasn't offered by Acquisition. Trustee Elliott: I liked the one with the bigger screen. I think it was a little more money but I think it makes more sense. Trustee Maher: It's looks like the biggest difference was one you just plug in your HDMI and anyone can present. The other one you can still do that but they're offering a computer option with Wi-Fi. Both plug into the sound system. My inclination would be to go with the most cost effective. But the monitor size is a little bit different. The pricing isn't really too far off. Trustee Pearson: I can't remember how they were going to attach them. Were they angled or flat on the wall? Trustee Maher: Flat. I think it was recommended to be safer, but they were able to make it work. Trustee Pearson: Acquisition was angling and the other was flat. I don't know enough about it. I just hope it would work. Whatever works the best for the least amount of money. Do we even want to do it now or do we want to wait until next year? I'm happy we're talking about this because I think it's necessary. Manager Revella: The board had designated funds from ARPA for improvements for this building. We do need to spend that money by a certain date. Trustee Pearson: I'm fine with what the board wants to do. It'd be more cost effective and do the less expensive one. Deputy Mayor Carley: My question is, do we need the Dell monitor, desktop? That's the only difference and about $1,175 difference. Do we need the desktop? Typically, they bring their own laptop because that's what they've been working on or whatever. And then they plug it in and then they project. I don't think we really need a laptop or desktop. Manager Revella: You can accept parts or not parts of each proposal. It's up to you guys. Trustee Maher: It's $6425 for the two 86 inch tvs and taking out the computer. 23 Trustee Pearson: And that would still work for the live feed? Manager Revella: That's all that was in there. I'm sure, they could both make that work. Deputy Mayor Carley: On average everybody always come with their laptop. I would say to go with Acquisitions, I would vote for them. Because we don't need all the other stuff. Trustee Elliott: I think it's cheaper if you eliminate the computer. It's cheaper to go with a bigger one. Deputy Mayor Carley: How don't know how much bigger six inches is. Either way, my thing is, I don't think we need the desktop. Trustee Sebring: With the articulated mount, my only concern is that they wouldn't be able to find stud there that is going to properly hold the weight of that 86 inch screen. That's very important. To have the articulated mount for one here and one for the people out there, I would say that Seemless, to me, six inches on a TV screen is a lot. I would go with a Seemless for the price that they are offering. Mayor Ramos: We are limited in space. 86 inches can fill that pretty well. I think two monitors on each side of the room gives the flexibility of viewers, the ability to watch what's transpiring. We do have three really huge meetings here between Planning Board, Zoning Board and us. And library. 65 inch monitors and especially library, they can split up two areas where kids can watch one segment and kids can watch another segment and our boards when we sit here. I like the separation. We don't need a computer with this day and age. We have WIFI. Anybody with connectivity can produce whatever presentation to any one of the screens that are provided. I like the lesser of two evils. Deputy Mayor Carley: He didn't say put him on both sides of the wall. Trustee Thompson: There was an issue with that wall. Manager Revella: Stud and electric. There's electric there but not sure if the power is efficient. Trustee Thompson: I have to disagree with the size of the TV. I think 65 or 75? Mayor Ramos: I would say 65 or 75. Trustee Thompson: That's very small in a room this big. Just my opinion. Deputy Mayor Carley made a motion to approve Acquisition Marketing with 80 inch monitors. Seconded by Mayor Ramos. Trustee Thompson: Did anybody do the math? If we get the bigger television. Get rid of the micro desktop. Seemless comes in at $6425. If we take the biggest TV Acquisitions, it's going to be $6700 for 80 inch television screen. I just wanted to make sure everybody did the math. Roll Call: Trustee Pearson: No Trustee Maher: No Trustee Elliott: No Trustee Thompson: No 24 Trustee Sebring: No Deputy Mayor Carley: Yes Mayor Ramos: Yes Motion failed. Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve Seemless Tech without the computer in the amount of $6425. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. 5 ayes. 2 nays Deputy Mayor Carley & Mayor Ramos). Motion carried. Zone Change Request – Edmunds Lane Manager Revella: The board received the petition some time ago. Referred to the Planning Board. The Planning Board did take action and reviewed and submitted their response to the board. You should have a copy of that. The petitioner is here for any questions, comments, concerns. Trustee Pearson: Number one, it was past 30 days that we got this. My only concern is that road, if it's going to be changing to OL-I, it's going to be a warehouse. It's almost near impossible in the morning and afternoon getting out of Coldenham Rd. I know that there's still a development that has to go in there. There is no red light. I out that way every morning and come back in and try to make a left to go to my house and it's a nightmare. I'm concerned about traffic, no matter what it is. I would say possibly OL-I is a little better, but it is what you're taking out is zoned residential. If I was a person living in a residential neighborhood, I would rather have more property then putting it into OL-I. Trustee Elliott: What are we really asking for here? Manager Revella: It's a sliver of land. They have two parcels on Edmunds Ln. One is zoned residential and one's zoned OL-I. There's a sliver of land in the center that they want to switch from residential to OL-I to join the OL-I side. While the residential side stays the same residential where they have a subdivision plan. The OL-I side will be planned for some industrial or warehouse use, which is allowed in the zone. Attorney Donovan: Just to kind of go through the process. What happened, there was a petition was referred to the Planning Board. The Planning Board made a report. We only really need to get the report before the public hearing because there's a process. The next part of the process, if the board is inclined to move forward, Mr. Jacobowitz has prepared a local law, you may want to take a look at that and see, I think it's pretty basic stuff. The process is, if you're inclined to go forward, you need to have a public hearing. I'm going to assume it needs to go to county planning. You have to conduct a public hearing and decide what you want to do. There's no timeframe that you're subject to now. So, if you want to move forward, it will be to analyze the local law to make sure it was okay. Then if you want to go forward, then you would need to schedule a public hearing and get to the county, need to listen to the public, decide what you want to do. Trustee Elliott: The request is currently residential? Manager Revella: It's residential to OL-I. Which is an office light industry use. There's a piece of residential they want to switch to this one. To make the usable area of the OL-I lot better for the building that they're looking for. Trustee Thompson: The Planning Board on page two acknowledges that it went over the time and they don't have a major problem with that. They're hoping we will still accept their comments, which I'm fine with. The only thing I would like to know is the comments down the bottom. Questions about capacity issues, water and sewer, apparently it would be less for what they are 25 proposing in the OL-I zone than it would be if it was a residential area. But how much of a concern is that still? Manager Revella: Water use is not a concern. Trustee Thompson: I know the sewer part is. Again, I would think changing it to an OL-I would hopefully alleviate some of that concern. The only other thing I'm asking, they have on here, the zone change will not have an impact on local streets. I'm already hearing concerns from residents up on East Ave that some of the flow of traffic is going to go through their residential neighborhood, including truck traffic. While all of these projects down in that area are being done. So that's the only thing that concerns me. Aside from that, I don't have a problem with the zone change. Manager Revella: So, the board is aware, you did pass a law that makes truck routes in the village. So, anytime they deviate from that it's a fine. Trustee Thompson: Yes. But I just want you to know that that's already a topic being brought up by residents in that area. Trustee Sebring: I'm fine with the change because the sewer capacity and the water capacity has no real direct. You wouldn't be using any more water and as far as a sewer, it's a lot better than the other use that he wanted to put in there, which would be totally, really a lot of use of water and sewer. As far as the trucks going up and down the East Ave. I have a concern about that. But most of them, they just use that as a through street. With whatever you're going to put on Edmund's Lane, maybe they put it in there of being so close to Coldenham Rd, it's easier to go out Coldenham Rd to catch any other 17k, 84, it's easier for them to go that direct route rather than go through East Ave. You can't have a cop sit there day after day after day, because once they leave, then they all come back. Since I live on the East Ave, it's a no win situation. You can't monitor it all the time, but you can maybe put some stipulations on the factory or warehouse or whatever that all the trucks go to Coldenham Rd. Deputy Mayor Carley: I'm fine with the change. In reading the report from the Planning Board, they accepted. They acknowledge certain things here. There are going to be some different factors that the community has to adjust to. Which I think we can overcome. I appreciate the due diligence once again and the patience and the work of the board in order the Planning Board to get it to this board, to move it forward. Trustee Pearson: In OL-I, its senior group residents, that's allowed. They can put that in, which is water and sewer. Church, temple, daycare center, fire station, nursery school, public library, community centers, schools, public or private, college and satellite. Those are special exception. So, there's a lot more than just warehouse that can go on that property. You're talking about water and sewer, you have no idea what's going on that piece of property. They're just changing it to get it bigger. Bigger piece of property, the more they can put there. Permitted is a bus passenger shelter, nursing home for special exception, public utility structure. You have agricultural farming, animal, livestock, bakery, bank, gas station, hotel. That's all OL-I. It's not just warehouse. If you're really thinking about it, you need to think about your water and sewer department. There's no plan for what's going to go there. I'm just being cautious. It's already residential, already approved by the Planning Board that's there. Manager Revella: They could change that again to make another complex or a senior complex as well. 26 Trustee Thompson: It does fall within what's in our comp plan too. Is the parcel large enough that it would be feasible that all these other things would want to go there? Manager Revella: The usable space of that lot is the issue. That's why they need the extra space because there's the wires on one side that cuts off a lot of the property and there's frontage on both sides as well, which cuts off of the property. That's why they need the side added on. And the Planning Board would go through a long process before any approval would take place. Mayor Ramos: The Planning Board has done their due diligence recommending in favor of the zone change request for parcel. Attorney Donovan: Has everyone read the local law? Because it was it was prepared. I don't know if there was much to it, I don't have it with me tonight. Manager Revella: No. It's for you to draft a local law and for them to review it. Greenway Grant Resolution Trustee Thompson made a motion to approve the application for Greenway Grant. Seconded by Trustee Pearson. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Comment Mary Ellen Matise: Thank you for finally dealing with the ambulance issue. I supported the Town of Montgomery Ambulance for many years. I'm happy that this is going to work out. Something that we all need. Thank you. Jerry Mishk: First I want to commend the board on the great job researching this ambulance project. While it was needed, so was the research. Thank you. Couple of things. One, here again, to complain about the speeders on Wait Street. It's an ongoing problem. Like Brian said, we can't police there all the time. We have unregistered motorcycles and 4 wheelers race up and down the street. The other day, for the second time I've seen this, a kid was popping a wheelie going down the street, headed towards a stopped school bus. Somebody is going to get killed there. I estimated the speed based on my law enforcement experience sometimes in excess of 50 miles per hour. That's too fast for that street. I don't know what the answer is other than maybe a speed bump. Law enforcement, I know they're busy, but they do have to get there. The other issue I want to address with you is the garbage pick up. The last three weeks they've been using man dumping the cans in the back of trucks. My recycling has not been emptied yet. They dump out half of it and it just keeps on piling up. I do a lot online shopping, so there's a lot of cardboard there. I don't know if that's something you can address. Thank you. Jerry Jacobowitz: I wanted to try to address a couple of the concerns that I heard you voice when you were discussing Edmunds Ln zone change. With respect to traffic, that would be topic that the Planning Board will deal with and as imposed conditions with respect to the direction that vehicles are going to be able to go to and from the property. And you are correct, the best direction is Coldenham Rd because it gets you to 2 state highway in a very short distance. So that should not be a concern. But that will be something the Planning Board is going to address. All of the issues about water, sewer and all of the kind of paraded tragedies that are being suggested. This is a 1.3 acre piece that you're focusing on. You're not focusing on the other 12 acres that are already OL-I. That's not in front of you. What's in front of you is this one strip of land that got changed in 2014 based on an erroneous assumption of where the property was. And I would respectfully suggest if you have a few minutes, the submission that was made, exhibit E, tells you how the mistake was made from the comp plan and more importantly exhibit G, because exhibit G clearly shows what happened and that the strip of land, we're talking about is shown on here and it's a no man's land because you'll see 27 there's a 7 lot subdivision there on R3 piece, that does not need more land to satisfy your zoning. Every one of those 7 lots that are going to be built on that side meet your zoning without any variances at all. So, the strip of land that's between that 7 lot subdivision and the OL-I piece is a piece of property that serves no purpose for the residential zone. What it does do is it makes the configuration of the OL-I zone much more difficult because it takes away 130 foot of frontage off of Coldenham Rd. It effects the set back and distances that you must meet under your zoning code when you have two districts that aren't the same adjoining each other and it takes away the area that is the most likely place for a stormwater retention facility. It would then effect the use of the entire property because those facilities, access road, the parking, the stormwater, it all has to be located someplace else. Instead of being located in the area that the zoning changed on. So, all we're asking is go back to 2014 and the zone it the way now the way that it was then. We will try again on the 16th to get a copy of whatever comments you made so we can try to address those as well. Thank you very much. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Elliott made a motion to approve payment of audited bills. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Maher: I just wanted to comment that that Trunk or Treat was really, really well done. That was actually my very first Trunk or Treat. It was such a great turnout. Everyone I talked to had such a great time. The kids were so excited. It just flowed very smoothly. Trustee Pearson: Veterans Day, Sunday. Hopefully you can all come. It's November 6th at 1pm. The letter written for the sewer, that’s going to go out, have we heard anything about that? Manager Revella: We asked them for a cost proposal. It may have come back to the person that sent the request. I have to find out. Trustee Pearson: I sent a letter to the Mayor and most of the board members about the contract that we should be looking at and seeing. I never heard back from anybody, so hopefully you can get that contract and go over it as a board in executive session. Manager Revella: I have it on my agenda for executive session. Trustee Thompson: When I came in this evening. Ginny gave me a flyer and asked me to share it. I guess she gave it to me because of the Climate Smart. On Thursday, November 10th at 630, there is a program in the library called Ocean 8 Films. I think it's going to be very interesting. He has worked on a boat called the Apollonia, and what they're doing is they are trying to use sail freight. They're trying to bring that back again for shipping with all the issues with diesel products. She asked if anybody would like to come, please come. Trustee Pearson: Also, there's a town meeting this Thursday. There will be some good things on the agenda for the Village of Walden. Mayor Ramos: I attended the senior luncheon. They're all excited about having our community center up and running. Trunk or Treat was a great success. Everybody praised and applauded. 500 participants were there. Last night’s Halloween festivities went uneventful, I hope. Good turnout, a little drizzly. *Read community events into minutes* 28 Executive Session – Personal History of a Particular Employee Trustee Sebring made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss personal history of particular employee. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Elliot made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. 29  Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting November 1, 2022 Motions & Resolutions Approval of October 18, 2022, Minutes Deputy Mayor Carley made a motion to approve the October 18, 2022 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Pearson. All ayes. Motion carried. Ambulance District Deputy Mayor Carley made a motion to expand the Ambulance District to include the Village of Walden. Seconded by Trustee Maher. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Maher made a motion to enter an agreement with the Town of Montgomery for the amount of $136,000 no later than June 30, 2023. Authorizing the Manager to sign. Seconded by Trustee Elliott. All ayes. Motion carried. Fee Schedule Deputy Mayor Carley made a motion to adopt fee schedule. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. A/V 3rd Floor Assembly Room Trustee Sebring made a motion to approve Seemless Tech without the computer in the amount of $6425. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. 5 ayes. 2 nays Deputy Mayor Carley & Mayor Ramos). Motion carried. Greenway Grant Resolution Trustee Thompson made a motion to approve the application for Greenway Grant. Seconded by Trustee Pearson. All ayes. Motion carried. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Elliott made a motion to approve payment of audited bills. Seconded by Trustee Sebring. All ayes. Motion carried. Executive Session – Personal History of a Particular Employee Trustee Sebring made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss personal history of particular employee. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Elliot made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Thompson. All ayes. Motion carried. 30