Board of Trustees

Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting April 2, 2024 Mayor Ramos called the regular meeting of the Village of Walden Board of Trustees to order at 7:46pm. On roll call the following were: Mayor: John Ramos Present: Deputy Mayor Chris Batson Trustees Becky Pearson Kristie Hall Ralph Garrison Jr Liz Kyle Bill Taylor Absent: Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Village Manager’s Report Manager Revella: Since last meeting, we obviously had the bid review for Waterfront Park. Trying to get those contracts signed and get them started right away for Millspaugh Park. Went over a few things from the last board meeting agenda. Had a lot of time spent moving the third floor to the second floor and the second floor back to the third floor while the floors are getting done. I think, everyone did very well under the circumstances. Just a heads up, they're going to start the second floor on Monday. Went over some budget and capital project items with different Department Heads and the Treasurer as well. Went over HVAC issues with the contractor and the Chief at the Police Department. Went over some property maintenance concerns with the Building Department. Did the tour of the village with Trustee Taylor also did a tour of the village with Trustee Kyle and the Village Treasurer. Still have a couple of things to hit with Trustee Taylor with the Water Department, but not too much. Went over the scout cabin work. That's going well. I know a couple other people on the board got to go be a community reader at the elementary school. I did, as well. Good experience. If anyone ever is interested in doing that. Contact the school and they'll bring you over for that. Went over payrolls, went over insurance application with our insurance rep. Had a good meeting with the DPW Super and the Building Department going over the notices on the poles with the new law that was passed. Make sure those are getting filed. Went over insurance claims with Travelers. Different things with the departments especially the journal entries and things with the Treasurer. Those are going well. I had a few conferences with residents and businesses about parking enforcement. There was a lot of upset people, yelling about getting parking enforcement. Now that we have it, there's upset, yelling that we have parking enforcement. We try our best. Recreation and Parks. The basketball program is done. Indoor pickle ball is still going well at Wooster. Adult gym is going well. Easter egg hunt went very well over the weekend. Scout cabin works almost done after school and Teen Center is going well. The tennis program will be starting up very soon. Registration is open for summer camp as well. The Building Inspector issued 17 new permits, 12 certificate of compliance and sent out 31 violation notices for code violations. The Code Enforcement Officer also sent out 28 notices of violations, followed up on 30 other ones for complaints and did an inspection. The part time inspector completed 3 certificates of completion, 1 CO report, 4 residential inspections and commercial inspection, and finished the 2023 annual report that's required by the state. Clerks been updating Facebook and website as needed. Going over 1 personnel and insurance issues with myself and the companies that help us, handicap and FOILs, finished all the stuff in the election, including returning the things to the Board of Elections, payroll, minutes and helping out different things whenever she can. Finance Department, obviously a lot finishing up the budget in time, going over invoices, bank reqs, journal entries, resident concerns, vouchers, just a lot going on and a lot to do still with the audits and learning the ropes. I think that the Treasurer's doing very well at that so far. Public Works, maintaining vehicles equipment, they’re pressing sludge still, doing some pump repairs. Working on the stations. Still an issue with people flushing things they shouldn't, that are causing issues with our impellers. Water Department did 14 mark outs, replaced 1 meter, replaced 22 end points and did 2 inspections. The Public Works Superintendent been working with me on different issues with the budget and capital to get those done. Including catch basin work needs to be done next year. Police Department. Staffing, with the 3 in the academy, it's still tough on the officers that are here until they finish to help carry the load. Parking Enforcement Officer is out doing well. The police issued 10 traffic tickets, 48 parking tickets, responded to 4 MVAs and 3 arrests, and there were 193 blotters since last meeting. Trustee Pearson: We have a Working Leader in the DPW. What is the role that he plays? Manager Revella: He used to be called Foreman. If you know what a foreman is, that's what it is now. They're more at the job site. Directing people on a specific job, not actually programing things and staffing in that manner. Trustee Pearson: When the Superintendent is off, what do you do there if we have a Working Leader? Manager Revella: The Working Leader can't do time off. So, I do that. Time and attendance issues. Purchasing. They don't have purchasing power. I would do purchasing and things like that as well. Trustee Pearson: You actually go down to the DPW Department and work down there or do you work over here? Manager Revella: I'm here usually, but I do stop down there when I have to cover. Usually in the morning and in the afternoon just to make sure everybody's okay and the day went well. If there are any issues to report then and make sure they're followed up on. Trustee Pearson: Parking Enforcement. I know you said there were some complaints, which is kind of normal. But he did walk around and went to every business because he stopped in our business and said, starting this so the businesses knew it was going to happen. These 48 parking summonses, is that from that? Manager Revella: Yes. There are a lot of businesses that have asked for permits for their businesses so they can park in timed parking without getting tickets and having to move. Trustee Pearson: Also, water meters and looking at the big comment, by DPW on the water meters and about them not being fixed and valves. We should really look at something like that. Do we need to really do something, make something happen? I think we really need to look at that and move forward. Manager Revella: I think there was a provision in the code that we talked about that allows for a charge, quarterly charge for people that have not followed up. Trustee Pearson: Maybe we should look at that. He was concerned because we're losing money for 2 that, because they're just leaks and things that those meters need to get changed. If there's a provision we need to do, I'd like the board to put that on the agenda and get that going, please. Deputy Mayor Batson: I'd love to continue talking just a little bit about this parking enforcement. Were there any particular hot spots? Manager Revella: Mostly the Orchard Street parking lot was the hot spot. Deputy Mayor Batson: You brought up something in your comments there that I had never considered. How do we allow for employee parking at these businesses? They are going to exceed the time frame. I think that's a legitimate question we've got to tackle. Manager Revella: The village used to have meters and they got rid of the meters and just did the regular timed parking with a parking person. The board might want to consider a meter station for some nominal charge so that people actually are following up. Otherwise you're going have cars parked there, no spots for people that actually patron those businesses. No customers parking. That's going to be a problem. Trustee Pearson: That parking lot was paid for by part of the businesses to be able to have patrons park there. When that was formed, that was paid for by a lot of the businesses in that area when, they're new businesses now, but those businesses that owned those buildings paid for a lot of that parking lot. Deputy Mayor Batson: Patrons or employees? Trustee Pearson: The businesses paid to build for customers to park there. Deputy Mayor Batson: When I think about future, investment, village, do I want to put a business here? Not having parking for my employees feel like is a real concern. Trustee Pearson: There is the Oak Street parking lot, but nobody wants to walk. There's the Maple Street, which is always full. I don't know if that's changed. That's a lot of renters in that area. It's still possibly getting people to walk. People go to the mall, I don't know if you still go to the mall, but people walk for miles at the mall and they can't walk down the street. It's an issue. It's always been a big issue. When ticketing starts happening. I was in Newburgh the other day and I had to put money in the parking meter and I said, wow, we should really have parking meters. Make some revenue with that. Let's do it. The gentleman I was speaking to in one of the businesses said there was a place in Massachusetts that you should really look into because the parking meters there are they're awesome. I have to look into it. Manager Revella: White Plains has an app. There are lots of options. Meter Station is easier than having individual meters in every spot. You just have numbers. Trustee Pearson: But then you still need a Parking Enforcement person to put tickets on them. I'll have to look up the one he told me and see what it says. Deputy Mayor Batson: I think you're a local business and you're listening to this, I think it'd be an engaging conversation to bring up to us. Manager Revella: They want to. Deputy Mayor Batson: This is your opportunity, please come talk to us about it. 3 Approval of March 21, 2024 Minutes Trustee Hall made a motion to approve the March 21, 2024 minutes. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. 5 ayes. 2 abstentions (Trustee Taylor & Trustee Kyle). Motion carried. Public Comment Sue Taylor: Just a little history on the parking. I worked in a business on Main Street for 20 some years. We did a survey one-time of all businesses in the Main Street area, wanting to know how many parking spaces they would need for employees and it exceeded the number of parking spots in the parking lot. It's really become a tenant parking place. So you have those people there. Now you're going to have to try to put employees in. You're not going to have any parking for patrons. Also, I believe that the parking lot next door for the Cedars, that gets the overflow in our parking lot from visitors. They allow some parking for businesses that are in their building there. So, employees, that's where I used to park. And then you had residents parking their cars and then the aides that used to come in and work with the people in the building. Parking is a real issue. I understand the businesses want parking for their employees, but you also need parking. People don't want to park on Main Street. I would sit in my office and watch the side view mirrors fly off as the 18 wheelers went down Main Street. People are really reluctant to park there. The other issue is OCT. Oh, boy. I can remember, Trustee Garrison requested that they please come before the board. I don't know whether I missed them, but I don't think they ever came, which I think is rude. I remember Trustee Hall, when you were talking about an extension for them, wanted to go for 6 months. We didn't do that. We decided to give them 12 months. I don't think they've come maybe once. I don't know if they've even come once since then. I think we're coming up on them going to be here, hat in hand. Wringing their hands as well that they want another extension. I don't know how many times you can give them extensions. I refuse to believe that it's taking this long. If they were doing their due diligence. I don't know, that's just my feeling. Again, reminding people that weren't on the board when this first started. There was an issue with capacity for the number of employees they had. We were told that their sewer system could handle that at the time. And, I did question. I read from minutes when we had that meeting and I said, they understand that the capacity will hold the number of employees they have there now. Oh, absolutely. Then in the dark of night, they moved the whole operation there. You woke up one morning, the place was full of busses, more employees. Never advised the village. It's been an issue since day one with this company being here. I am so sorry that I ever voted to acquire that property from the town. I think we really need to think about what's been going on. Do your due diligence. I think these milquetoast emails or whatever they've been sending you is ridiculous. I think you at least deserve to see a face every once in a while to explain what's going on. I just refuse to believe that it's taken this long. I would like to see the board take a stronger view on what's been going on. That was the deal. They were going to hook up to sewer and water. They're very happy now. They have the water hook up and they're still using the sewage system that they have there. So they're very happy. They don't care how long it's going to take. I think we really need to think about what's happening and maybe start fining them, because I refuse to believe that it's, I understand the DOT. Please. I dealt with them enough for the 12 years I sat on this board, but they can't be that slow. Unless, you know, we're trying to wake the dead up in Albany, I don't know, but I just think the board really needs to think about how they're dealing with them and the fact that they haven't even had the courtesy to show their faces, even when a Trustee requested that they come before this board. I think it's rude. I really think you need to think about putting the hammer down. It's ridiculous. Pak Use Request – Alcohol Waiver - Odle Tabled Park Use Request – Alcohol Waiver - Padilla Trustee Pearson made a motion to approve park use request - alcohol waiver - Padilla for April 27, 4 2024. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. All ayes. Motion carried. Village Code Updates Attorney Donovan: I don't have anything new, for some of you will know, the last couple of weeks have been a little hectic in my life, with my partner of 31 years retiring and selling our building. I'm not going anywhere. Marisa has provided me with the minutes. I know the 2 new trustees probably are not up to speed at all on the code amendments that the board had discussed and the 3 draft local laws that I had prepared. I read the minutes. I could have modifications to you the next time. If you have any other comments, please let me know. Other than that, I don't have anything new. Deputy Mayor Batson: I thought we did have one outstanding piece from Trustee Pearson and it was just a clarification on an additional responsibility of one person, maybe a Code Enforcement Officer or something like that. Attorney Donovan: I think it was actually the Police Chief. Manager Revella: They're included under the Chief. Trustee Pearson: So they were. We don't need to put that in the code then? It doesn't have to be listed as a person somewhere under one of them? Attorney Donovan: What the code does is it calls out who can issue tickets for different violations. We do have the Chief of Police. We're making the change to this section of code anyway. Why don't we just have Police Department? Trustee Pearson: Have the Police Department be the code? Attorney Donovan: They can issue tickets. Instead of just limited to the Chief of Police. If we're changing this code, this provision anyway, that's an easy enough change to make. Trustee Pearson: Perfect. Manager Revella: That was the big one I remember. I sent him a couple of other notes as well. Like define or definition. Something like that. Mayor Ramos: Dave doesn't the CPL specify appearance tickets? Who can issue, who can serve them? Attorney Donovan: Yeah it does. The interesting thing about your code is it does call out different, like who could, the Building Inspector, what he can issue, really violation notices for. DPW Super can. The Water Super, Sewer Administrative, same person or same department with the Village Manager. Then it says Chief of Police. You know Police Department. That is the defined, but that's just for a criminal offense. Some of these other would be non-criminal offenses. PBF 2nd Annual Bike Show Trustee Hall made a motion to approve PBF's 2nd Annual Bike Show on July 27, 2024. Seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. OCT Update Manager Revella: Hopefully everybody got the email and attachments I forwarded from OCT. It was a little more detailed than last time. Instead of three lines, it was three paragraphs and they had a timeline. 5 Trustee Garrison: Timeline doesn't make sense. Trustee Hall: I caught that too. Trustee Garrison: Timeline on the email doesn't make sense. They said 4 to 6 weeks for them to have the permit, but they scheduled to break ground in October, which, makes no sense because it's going to start getting cold. They're not going to be able to start and finish anything. This is absolutely ridiculous. Not to mention coming up on October is when their deadline is for the 12 month extension. I did request that they do show up here in person. I will request it again on record that I would like them to come to the next meeting in person. Trustee Garrison made a motion to request that OCT comes in person to the next scheduled Village Board Meeting. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. All ayes. Trustee Garrison: Thank you. I was a big advocate for them when they first came to us, when I first got onto the board. Just in an understanding in an engineering aspect, that is what I did when I was in the military for 15 years. I understand how it works with heavy equipment and frozen ground and when you can and can't dig and how you can and can't do certain things. I understand the DOT issue. We let it go for a while. We understood it was an issue. But this is becoming, just it's a dog and pony show. At this point. They're just prancing around to drag it out as long as possible. October 2024 is a start date where the contractor, you're expecting 4 to 6 weeks for your permit. You're not expecting to break ground until October. There's no deadline on when in October. This is just getting out of control at this point. I don't understand how much further we can continue to drag this out. Trustee Hall: They're expecting an extension again. Trustee Garrison: They are 100% going to expect an extension. Trustee Pearson: Extension is up in May or July? 6 months was November because that's what you said. Let's go to 6 months. Time frame coming up. Trustee Pearson: Can you double check that John and see what that was? Trustee Taylor: At what point did the light go off that they needed to find out how much this permit was going to cost? I look at the emails attached to this lovely Gmail that they sent out and the first one starts March 5th. Manager Revella: Correct. Trustee Taylor: So all of a sudden we don't have any of the other paper trail here. All of a sudden March 5th, they said, oh, we gotta pay for this. And there are all these emails back and forth to DOT. Manager Revella: It doesn't add up. Trustee Taylor: No. Trustee Pearson: Not from 4 years ago. Trustee Taylor: It's got a stench associated to it. 6 Mayor Ramos: This is the permit fee that they're paying. Manager Revella: That's what it looks like. Deputy Mayor Batson: What do you think your expected outcome of that is? A fine? Trustee Garrison: The problem we ran into, I believe and Mr. Donovan can attest to this because I'm not a lawyer. Is that the way the contract is written, they just have to provide that they are practicing their diligence before we can even attempt to assess a fine. It's going to be the last I knew and please correct me if I'm wrong. It's going to be very hard for us to attempt to, as long as they are continuing to show any kind. Attorney Donovan: I wouldn't want to prejudge anything right now. We can discuss that at the appropriate time and I can give you the ups and downs in a different setting. Trustee Pearson: How long is due diligence? Let's say that. Deputy Mayor Batson: The only recourse is a fine. That's it. It's a substantial fine, I acknowledge that, but there's no other recourse beyond that. Manager Revella: Dave couldn't give you legal advice on those potentials in public. Trustee Taylor: It would definitely be nice to see a face associated with this package. Manager Revella: You haven't made them come, I don't remember the last time. Trustee Garrison: They've been here in a few months. Trustee Pearson: Since approval. They might have come once, but since they got the approval. Trustee Hall: I wanted them to come in right before winter to feel what's going on. Trustee Garrison: Then what was it, 2 or 3 meetings ago, I requested that they come in? And they still have nothing. Trustee Hall: I'd like to see them. Mayor Ramos: We can send a formal letter to them. Return receipt. Budget Transfer Manager Revella: It's for $9,000 to have the tennis courts painted for pickle ball and tennis for the coming year. Since the season's starting, we'd want to get it done now. The Recreation of Parks Department is going to transfer some funds between their accounts to get that done. Trustee Pearson: It's for 3 courts. There's $2500, $2000 and $4500. Manager Revella: Sealing, striping and painting. Trustee Pearson: $7800 and $9000? Manager Revella: No. $9000 with the pickle ball. 7 Trustee Pearson: What's the $7500 $7800 Wooster Grove blows, sweep, clean out, courts, crack, filler. Manager Revella: That's a different, separate quote. That's the basketball court. We're only doing the tennis courts. We need them right away. Trustee Pearson: Misunderstanding. Pickle ball is broken down here. 3 different things here. Was it the same company who did the last quarter? Manager Revella: Yes. Trustee Pearson: How's it been holding up? Does it get used a lot? Manager Revella: Yes. We have a tennis program there. It was 40 something kids last time. Pickle ball as well. Trustee Pearson: That 1 court gets used. It's only 1 court or 2 courts that are pickle ball? Manager Revella: We will have 2 pickle ball courts there. Trustee Pearson: That $9,000 is for 1 court. Manager Revella: No, it's for both courts. Trustee Pearson: But we already have a court there. Manager Revella: It's got to be repainted. Trustee Pearson: They painted it once. They have to repaint it again. Manager Revella: Yes, it's a crack seal and redo the whole court. Trustee Pearson: And when did we paint it originally? Mayor Ramos: I don't know. Trustee Pearson: It has held up for a couple of years, maybe. And then we have to repaint every year. Manager Revella: We only painted pickle ball. We didn't paint the whole court the last time. Trustee Pearson: Start over. We have how many tennis courts? Manager Revella: We have 2 tennis courts. Trustee Pearson: 2 tennis courts. And 1 is pickle ball included now. And we're going to make the other 1 pickle ball. But we're going to do both courts again. Well, 1 again and 1 new. Manager Revella: Both courts are getting work done. Trustee Pearson: But the same company did the work originally that's now coming off. 8 Manager Revella: No, not coming off. Trustee Pearson: So, they're just fixing the court. They're painting both courts again or not? *read part of the quote* It's not telling me if it's doing 1 or 2. Manager Revella: The tennis court part is the green, the pickle ball part is the blue. Trustee Pearson: Plural, so it's meaning 2. But we already have 1 that's already pickle ball, so they're only going to paint 1 pickle ball court more. Manager Revella: If there's any cracks they're going to fix them first and then repaint it all. Trustee Pearson: Thank you. We will have 2 outdoor pickle ball courts. Manager Revella: That's the goal. Yes. Eventually we could have a third in the future. Trustee Garrison made a motion to adopt Resolution 24-23-24 Budget Transfer. Seconded by Trustee Hall. Deputy Mayor Batson: It's about the transfer. I don't like them. The money that we are surrendering comes from holiday decorations, community celebrations and programs expenses. Is that money that we are surrendering there excess now or will it result in a deterioration of future services from those accounts? Manager Revella: I believe that the director advised that those are what is left in the accounts that is available to be used for this purpose without suffering. Deputy Mayor Batson: We've in essence spent all of our holiday decorations money. We have in excess of $2500. We should use that $2500 for something productive. We believe that something productive is to take care of the pickle ball courts because it's a growing sport. Love that. Great. Spend our money. No problem there. Second question. Do we absolutely need a budget transfer? Is it just okay for this money to be over and short in this account? Manager Revella: I would love for that to be true. But according to our accountants, we have to do these transfers because we have a line that says this. We have to transfer it. If we went to generic lines like it was discussed previously, there wouldn't be a need for a transfer. Deputy Mayor Batson: I can't debate with them. They're not here. Manager Revella: It's for the public really, for transparency. That's the way those lines came into fruition. A lot of municipalities don't have as many lines as we do at all. Deputy Mayor Batson: Even though in this case it is, so it's within the same fund? And it is most likely within the same controller because it is Parks. Manager Revella: Yes. Deputy Mayor Batson: My rules were that if it was within the same controller, I would reluctantly agree. I don't like it. All ayes. Motion carried. 9 Set Public Hearing Manager Revella: We have a real emergency issue. We neglected to set the public hearing for the budget for next meeting the 16th at 6:30 p.m. or soon thereafter can be heard. Trustee Pearson made a motion to set public hearing for the Village Budget on April 16, 2024 at 6:30pm or soon thereafter. Seconded by Trustee Hall. All ayes. Motion carried. Public Comment Lynn Thompson: I'd like to thank John for putting on the village web page about the post office. I don't know if anyone else is having trouble with the post office. Trustee Pearson had asked me and I said, no, everything's perfect. Bam! 2 days later. Anyway, I took the liberty of stopping in the post office today because it's ongoing and there was 1 person in the post office. The phone was ringing off the hook. He had a line. It was it was horrific. So I did have a conversation with him. I did tell him that I approached the village and they asked if we would please add to that post contact information for Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand. That's where it really has to go. He did say that Congressman Ryan and Congressman Molinaro are actively working on this, but they're like swimming against the tide that they need those other 2 elected officials to really be contacted. They said that the village as a whole has really got to rally behind the post office or nothing's going to change. The goal is to privatize them. It's a mess. I'm concerned. I hope if people are watching a live stream, I have a lot of new neighbors on my street. I know in years past, if I received someone else's mail, I would walk to their house and give them their mail. I hope a lot of our newer residents will do the same thing. I'm just not sure. Sometimes it doesn't feel quite as neighborly with new people that don't really know you. We'll see. The parking is going to be an ongoing issue forever. I know my husband has spoken to John Revella about metered parking in that Orchard Street lot. I think we're to a place where it's long overdue. If we want to drive business here, we have to give the patrons a place to park. The employees also need a place to park. Hopefully the employees can walk a little bit. They're usually younger people coming to work, I don't know, but parking is an issue. I know there was conversation a while back about the village, perhaps looking into some of these abandoned properties and trying to negotiate some purchasing, like the one right here behind the police station. That would be really nice for people to quickly get downtown or for employees to park there from some of the businesses. It seems like we have several properties in the village that I don't know. Mr. Revella, can we try and make some magic happen and buy some things and make some additional parking? I don't know how many of you go on Route 208 to go over to the Hamlet of Wallkill, but on the sharp curve where you would turn right to go to Lake Osiris Road. It's pretty horrifying. People have asked me, my husband, our neighbors. What is that? How does the Village of Walden allow that? And we tell them that is not the Village of Walden, that is the Town of Montgomery. Perhaps you should contact the Town of Montgomery. I have been over there. My husband has been over there. They supposedly are citing those people. I personally would like to ask the board that on a village government level, we press the Town of Montgomery. That is a very, very bad reflection on our village. People think that it's our village. It is zoned residential. I need to look further at their code. Maybe Mr. Donovan knows something about their code. I don't know. What does residential mean? Does it mean you can have shipping freight containers with a porch attached? It doesn't look like there's electric there. It doesn't look like there's sewer there. It doesn't look like there's water there. There's a jug which I'm assuming is potable water. They have an outhouse. Where are they emptying it? Where are they flushing out the campers that are there? It is one hot mess. And if none of you know where I'm talking about, take a drive on to 208. Go over to Wallkill. You can have something to eat and drink once you get there and look at that. It's a mess. I'm starting to think maybe the village needs to start writing letters. Maybe our Building Inspector needs to talk to their Building Inspector. Perhaps Mr. Revella can contact the Town Supervisor. The last thing, these scooters. I sat on this board when we wrote the law, we promised at that time, you can read the minutes that if we had to revisit it, we would. I think it's time to be revisited. I watched 10 2 of them on Coldenham Road about a week and a half ago, riding on the double yellow line on 1 wheel. No helmets, no nothing. It was terrifying. Cars were coming in both directions. They're on the sidewalks. They're everywhere. They're riding in the dark. They have no helmets. They're not going the way traffic goes. I'm really afraid we're going to have an accident. I hope you guys can maybe talk to the Police Department. See if they have any data. If they've ticketed anyone and I think it might be time to relook at that law. Thank you. Mary Ellen Matise: Unless I'm wrong and I think I know Jim Farr has acted on that parcel on 208. I think that you've been in touch with Jim Farr about it at the time that I brought it up last year. As far as I know, because I've checked with the Planning Department over there. You're not allowed to be living in campers on your property and that's in the town code, so I think he's cited them, but I don't know what's happened since then. Today was a pathways meeting and I did send your resolution to OCCTC commenting on their plan and also emphasizing the bike path visions plan that the Planning Department has and Visions Hudson Valley, they're going to be meeting with Steve Newhouse on April 12th, about the bikeways vision plan. I did ask them to bring your resolution to the county also. I'd like to see the Town Board pick it up and endorse the resolution that you wrote about connectivity so that we do some kind of connection so that they pick it up and I also asked Vision Hudson Valley if they have a letter that they could send to Hamptonburg and Goshen and let's get them on board with it so that at least it starts to back Alan's idea for this trail to connect down to Goshen. Mayor Ramos: Have they solicited the railroad? Mary Ellen Matise: You're 3 steps ahead of what's going on. Manager Revella: So far, the railroad's been cooperative. Mary Ellen Matise: They need to know that there's public request for it and support for the idea. Then the rest would be up to Alan Sorensen and let him deal with the railroad. He's got to also find grants for it, too. He's doing that. He's looking for tip money and for other grants and actually for the Skunamonk Trail. They have all the funding in place. That is mostly federal funding. That's a big accomplishment. He's on it. We just need to let him know we want it and we need to let the county legislature know we want it. Simple. William Lopez: My wife always says I got great ideas. If you got a lot of things to say, come down. We just came back from Baltimore. We were the first cruise ship back into Norfolk, so we were on that ship and we watched it live and everybody was from Baltimore. A little tired. I came because I talked about Gladstone. We've talked about it. You talking about the water sewer. You're going to up this. If you see all the pipes that are exposed up there, I'm well versed. I was a PBA rep, I am retired under 9/11 and I'm retired military. A lot of you guys have come knocked on my door for votes. I've asked Mr. Revella to do something about Gladstone potholes, sidewalks, the water pipes that you're talking about. How are you going to up that when there are no water pipes in the ground up there? You go right up the street on Gladstone and we walk up there right now, you're going to see one of the big pipes exposed. It's only one federal lawsuit. But again, I'm well versed in stuff like this. For me I'm retired, 9/11, military and now Rockland County corrections. I'm well versed in lawsuits, well versed in lawyers. You had you were spot on with, let's just continue this law firm. There's a Binghamton law firm, Gephardt something, you can go into bidding, but there's no bidding. So, for you guys, it's just, okay, let's do this because it's the easy way to do it. Grants. I've done the veterans grant to get people out of jail. I went behind the scenes and I approached the county executive. Listen, this is going to save us $400 a day per person. Of course, what do I do? Every politician jumps on and says, listen, we'll get a judge involved. We'll do this, we'll get a DA involved. We went up to Buffalo. We trained in Buffalo. Orange County started after it. A lot of this 11 stuff, Pave New York, all the grants that are coming out right now from under New York State. There's a lot at the end of the day. I just haven't had time, like I just came off federal grand jury duty. I put in my absentee ballot. I'm sure your office knows. At the end of the day and I'm just coming off vacation. I will get a little bit more into grants and again, I'm well versed into it. I'm asking again, Gladstone, sidewalks are cracked up and down sideways. I'm sure you guys have stomped and walked our block and looked for votes. You got potholes everywhere. What are we doing here? But then you're asking to raise revenue on sewer. The pipes aren't even fixed. It's all exposed. Willie came and walked out with us. Man actually came up, knocked on my door, said, listen I ride down your block all the time. Funny thing is, I got 3 cameras. You can't tell me what you do when you don't do it. I got cameras everywhere. For that, what I learned. It's like this. The 207c. Got 1 officer out on 207c, 1 out on comp. I've been out on 207c. 207c you get reimbursed. The town gets reimbursed because we got insurance. I know what I'm talking about. You guys stomped for votes. We want you guys. Obviously we want at least you to do what you guys were intended to do. Look for grants, look for stuff to reduce the village budget. But we're not doing that. We're just sitting. We stamp this. Will rubber stamp that. I've done it with the PBA. I go stomp, I got lawyers. I know exactly. Listen, let's put it out for grant. Let's look for different lawyers that are cheaper. It's like him, $200. She's right. You should be looking at other stuff. Nobody should be rubber stamping anything here. Nobody. We should be looking. Insurance. Reduce insurance. Let's go out. Put it out for bids. Let's look for other people. I've done this. So, I know it's. It's not easy. He doesn't have an easy job. But everybody here, the $4.5 million grant that Montgomery just got. I said that last year. We should apply for it. What do we do? Nothing. We can't do that. I've engaged the Senator's Office. I've engaged Senator Ryan. I've engaged all the Senate up in Peekskill. I've got them all on emails. It's nothing that I don't know what I'm doing. Just you think that residents are just sitting here. I got kids running up and down the block. It's only going to take 1 lawsuit. 1 fall. 1 trip over them sidewalks. It is what it is. Again parking. Your issue that you have with parking. Give them a permit. Firemen get permits. You know I know? Village of Haverstraw. I'm a retired fireman too. I got a permit. You're an employee. Here. You get a permit. Special permit. We're not going to hit you with a with a summons. Firemen, you have parking in here. Okay, you get a waiver. That's part of the process. You're thinking straight up in the box like this, but at the end of the day, it's pretty simple. You're an employee. You got an employee slip. Come in here, we're going to give you a permit. We're going to waive what you're doing here. It's very simple. It's common sense. We're going around in a circle here. Think of everybody's money here. Think of the budget. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Hall made a motion to approve payment of audited bills. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. All ayes. Motion carried. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Pearson: Cameras, where are we with cameras? Manager Revella: Probably another two weeks after he finishes, depending on pole replacements. Trustee Pearson: That's going to be on the street only, in parks? It's going to be for everything. Manager Revella: Yes, parks, streets. He was up today to conference with us. He's done some work already in the building to get all the wiring and TVs ready. Trustee Pearson: I do have a question on one of the bills. Should have asked it before. Dutchess County, we went to Dutchess Tire County for tires. Why do we not shop locally? Manager Revella: They may be under state bid. I need to check the bill you're talking about and 12 which vehicle it is. Certain tires are under certain bids from different companies. A car tire. Easy. If it's an excavator tire or the loader tire, that's different. Trustee Taylor: We're just about ready to enter into the budget season. I'd like to get a copy of budget transfers that we've done in the last fiscal year. Manager Revella: Will ask the Treasurer to get those for you. There's not that many, I don't think. Trustee Taylor: I just like to get those, see where money came from, where it went. I'd like to thank the people that have given me some guidance here, my fellow trustees, today as well. It's a pleasure to be here and like I said, from the on go here. This is working for the residents of the village. It's my sole goal. Trustee Pearson: Welcome to you and Liz. Trustee Hall: I want to say thank you on behalf of the Walden Fire Department, for everybody who came up to the Easter breakfast. I know we had quite a few people stop in and ask if we were still doing it. Unfortunately, we had a Easter morning fire. There is a GoFundMe for the Ford family. It was a multi-family house over here on Walnut. The breakfast still went on and we did fairly well with it. Thank you. Mobile DMV ,I've heard great things this last time that they were here, so I'm happy that they're coming back. Hopefully they continue to come back. Online on the Rec Page I saw that the New York State Preparedness course was up. Please sign up for that. You do have to sign up for it. That is in May. I think about 100 seats. There was a couple things coming up that I didn't see on the list of the wonderful events. Honor Flight is the 13th Saturday morning leaving out of Shoprite. On April 27th, Hudson Valley St Baldricks is back at the Firehouse. It's our 17th year and to date, we've done over $650,000 for childhood cancer research. If anybody's interested in that, get in touch with me. Manager Revella: What time can people start showing up there? The firehouse. Trustee Hall: The event's going to kick off at 1:00, so usually people start to come in around 12 to check in. The shavees come in around 12 to check in and stuff. They can get checked in and get your before pictures and check out the raffle baskets. Trustee Garrison: Kudos to the Fire Department for the Walnut Street fire. I heard it was really bad from the start, but you were able to handle it in less than 4 hours, which is incredible. Shout out to the PD. I've been seeing them patrolling a lot more of the neighborhoods and stuff. Hopefully with the new officers coming on board. Things will start to get a little bit better. For Ms. Thompson. I did ask about the e-bikes and scooters and a lot of stuff when I was doing my ride along with the PD. Without getting into too much detail, it's a little bit of a thing where they have some guidelines they have to follow and how they handle it. They are tracking it. They are doing the best they can with the guidelines and the parameters that they have set on them. I just want to let you know, I did ask them about that and it was a whole guideline and way that they have to handle it. I'd be more than happy to discuss it with you at another time. Kudos to the DPW. I see they're still replacing grates and doing everything that they're doing. Manager Revella: They're a big help, in helping us move as well. Trustee Garrison: Wonderful. Coming into the nicer weather, bikes are out there. They do not follow the rules of the road very well. If you're driving through town and you see people on bikes, please be aware that they tend to cut traffic off. There's going to be children out playing. I was questioned by a couple of residents about maybe since they can't get a stop sign on, Valley Ave at 13 Lincoln, that maybe they can get a slow Children at Play sign. Manager Revella: Yes, they are. Trustee Garrison: Because the cars come down that hill. They do not stop. I've seen it multiple times, and then they just drive right through and to the first stop sign, which I believe is at the end of James St. If we can just get a Children at Play sign or something down there, that'd be great. Congratulations to the new members of the board. I look forward to working with you guys for at least another year and we'll see where it goes from there. Deputy Mayor Batson: The first one is the exact same budget project thing that I presented to you last meeting. I'm ready to move forward with this. I'm more than happy to set up the initial work in. I don't think it's any substantial ask of you. Most of it I can knock out with the Treasurer, but for the public, it is the project name, the project year, source of the budget, the budget, what the actual spend was, the delta, and then things like bid date, who's the vendor, the date that's complete, and then any notes that go along with the project would simply be included here. Ultimate goal would be this helps us to manage these projects, understand the costs. Hopefully we could make it transparent to the public. They could see not only what projects are still out there, but also what projects are coming up. What I have here is just examples. If you all are good with this, after we get through these couple of weeks of budgets, I would love to start to engage John and the Treasurer and get this filled out. Trustee Pearson made a motion to adopt Deputy Mayor Batson's idea for capital project reports. Seconded by Trustee Hall. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Batson: This one's a little more controversial. I haven't discussed it with everyone, but one of the things that we've all sort of talk about individually was how do we officially have conversations with our employees, right? How do we officially have meetings? How do we schedule that so there's transparency on our part? So there's transparency on their part? This is just an idea. If we lead these people, we owe them some level of diligence as managers, we have to conduct performance reviews. We have to conduct proper check-ins. We cannot have a tremendous amount of discussion at the last moment and it just needs to be consistent and it needs to be formalized. This is just simply an example of a schedule that we could hold ourselves accountable to. I tried to make it to where every single person meets with the Treasurer or the Clerk. Also this makes it so the Clerk doesn't have to have some of the same conversation 7 times. It is just nothing more than the month and 2 people who engage them in a touch base. Ideally, it would be performance focused. However, I don't know that it needs to be formalized from an agenda perspective. Everybody meets with those employees 3 times per year, except for the, I think I set it up to where the Mayor meets 4 times a year with the Treasurer, the Deputy Mayor meets 4 times a year with the Clerk. That's just simply because there's an odd number of us that smooths it out. I did my best to put the schedule to where nobody is back to back that heavy. You basically have a month on, a month off. The ask would be 30 minutes a month, basically that we have a proper conversation with our employees. That the goal. It's just a schedule to hold us accountable, to have the right level of managerial oversight to the employees that we directly have. Trustee Hall: Sample or not, looks like you have it pretty well mapped out for me. Trustee Pearson: Are you thinking of putting a program together of performance questions that we should ask or we're going to leave it up to people? Deputy Mayor Batson: I'm really open to that. 14 Trustee Pearson: Everybody has a different perspective. I'm fine with that. Deputy Mayor Batson: Everybody has a different perspective. I don't want to stifle the different perspectives on that and make it the same conversation over and over again. First, a monthly performance conversation is daunting. Most people aren't used to that. I can assure you that if we do it and we stick to it, when you get to those in conversations, there is no confusion. Trustee Pearson: There'll be a report to the board or a memo or a note to the other trustees? How would that work at the end? Deputy Mayor Batson: Great questions. That's why this is a very rough idea. Trustee Pearson: Do you want to form a committee to talk and talk about that? Is a board even willing to go forward with it? Deputy Mayor Batson: Yeah. It needs done. We need to have a formalized line of communication to the employees that we have. Mayor Ramos: Everybody in agreement that, Trustee Pearson, Deputy Mayor and Trustee Kyle or do you want to give Bill a shot there? Trustee Pearson: Doesn't matter to me. I think it's a great idea, but we need to kind of maybe finalize and move forward. Deputy Mayor Batson: Rough draft. Mayor Ramos: Trustee Taylor, you good? Trustee Taylor: I'm good. Deputy Mayor Batson: I don't like, old business. We started on the path of discussion of liaisons. I don't want that to drop. I think where we agreed is that we do not want liaisons. We do not support liaisons into John's organization. However, there are other facets of community in which liaison seems like a great idea. Small businesses. I think there are some suggestions to the school. I just don't want that conversation to drop off. There seem to be some value and some traction. We really don't have a place on the agenda for discussions like that. We often tackle some of these in executive session. I just simply didn't want that to drop off, because I do think that there's some, some great things that can come out of that. Then along the same lines, we also very briefly touched on policy. I know that we had a slight disagreement amongst what portions of the policy that we should review, but I don't know that we resolved that either. I just want to put those 2 things out there as old business that that we should probably bring to resolution and not just let it hang out there in perpetuity. Although I do not know how to bring either 1 of them. Trustee Pearson: Bring it back up as an agenda item, put it back on the agenda for both of them and we can discuss it at a board meeting. Deputy Mayor Batson: My preference would be post-budget time. Trustee Pearson: Let's get through that. Maybe into May. John, I have 1 more thing. I'm sorry. New board members and old board members. Ethics. You need to sign your ethics forms. I know Marisa might not have them ready yet, but I don't know if she does. She might have them ready. Just to sign ethics. Employees at the beginning of the new year. That's not just board members. 15 Mayor Ramos: Orange County, thank you. County Clerk Kelly Eskew for fitting us into a monthly schedule. We had 32 customers, on the 29th. They're doing very well. Everybody's pleased. We are the third municipality to have connectivity built in to Wooster Grove. The RV power unit, so that they can run on straight power instead of generator. Generator often times flickers, shuts off the computer and customers stay there long time. Kudos to Mr. Bliss from the Recreation Department for facilitating that with the electrician. They will be back on April 24th, which is a Wednesday, for another DMV session. Easter egg hunt on Saturday went very well. There was at least over 750 kids, family, friends. The weather was nice. It was nicely done. Kids had a blast. Bunny rabbit was phenomenal. He had a line of kids at least 150 deep. That was wonderful. Had a great time reading at the Walden Elementary School for fifth and fourth grade. They're awesome kids. We look forward to seeing them progress in their years. *Read Community Events into Minutes* Trustee Pearson: Mayor, this woman that wanted these back, do we need to do anything? The constitution thing. Mayor Ramos: Did we review that? Trustee Pearson: I read through a lot of it. Trustee Garrison: I'm not comfortable putting my name on that. Just for the record. I'll say that up front. I'm not comfortable signing anything that is in that that folder. Deputy Mayor Batson: The summary of petition 2 calls out articles 1-9 of the Constitution. Sorry, 1-10. It also calls out 14. My opinion on legalese here. My opinion of this is that this petition basically, implies, which is fine, I'm not for or against this morally or anything like that. I'm just simply reciting my interpretation of it, that the US has granted some sort of voting power or relinquished its power under the Constitution to a foreign power. If you believe that to be true, this this would be a petition for you to sign. The next one has to do with the, in essence, chem trails and those things like that. Again, my opinion is, I think that your vote can probably establish your opinion of that. Number 9, is challenging because it heavily says that it builds off of petition 6. We're not provided petition 6. I think it's very challenging, for that one. And actually number 11 is the chem trail one as well. I think what they're ultimately trying to do is to sign, I don't know if the petition that she's asking us to sign is the New York State Public Service pledge. I can't recall verbatim, but this appears to be the something similar that we signed when we took oath. My personal opinion, I applaud her for coming out and believing in this. Whether I agree or disagree, I don't think it needs to be a matter of public record. My opinion is that most of these, from my perspective, for me personally, can be satisfied with my power to vote. If I don't like these issues, they are far enough on the political spectrum that my vote will correct that. That's my opinion. Trustee Pearson: We'll give these to Marisa. Meeting Adjourned 16  Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting April 2, 2024 Motions & Resolutions Approval of March 21, 2024 Minutes Trustee Hall made a motion to approve the March 21, 2024 minutes. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. 5 ayes. 2 abstentions (Trustee Taylor & Trustee Kyle). Motion carried. Park Use Request – Alcohol Waiver - Padilla Trustee Pearson made a motion to approve park use request - alcohol waiver - Padilla for April 27, 2024. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. All ayes. Motion carried. PBF 2nd Annual Bike Show Trustee Hall made a motion to approve PBF's 2nd Annual Bike Show on July 27, 2024. Seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. OCT Update Trustee Garrison made a motion to request that OCT comes in person to the next scheduled Village Board Meeting. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. All ayes. Budget Transfer Trustee Garrison made a motion to adopt Resolution 24-23-24 Budget Transfer. Seconded by Trustee Hall. All ayes. Motion carried. Set Public Hearing Trustee Pearson made a motion to set public hearing for the Village Budget on April 16, 2024 at 6:30pm or soon thereafter. Seconded by Trustee Hall. All ayes. Motion carried. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Hall made a motion to approve payment of audited bills. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Pearson made a motion to adopt Deputy Mayor Batson's idea for capital project reports. Seconded by Trustee Hall. All ayes. Motion carried. 17

Board of Trustees of the Village of Walden Regular Meeting Tuesday, April 2, 2024, 6:30 P.M. One Municipal Square The Agenda 1. Call to Order / Pledge of Allegiance 2. Roll Call 3. Village Manager’s Report 4. Approval of Minutes – March 21, 2024 Minutes 5. Public Comment on the Business of the Board 6. Business of the Board of Trustees A. Park Use Request – Alcohol Waiver – Odle B. Park Use Request – Alcohol Waiver - Padilla C. Village Code Updates D. PBF 2nd Annual Bike Show E. OCT Update 7. Public Comment 8. Payment of Audited Bills 9. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees 10. Executive Session – Personal History of a Particular Employee 11. Adjournment