Board of Trustees

Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting June 4, 2024 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 Chris Batson Trustees Becky Pearson Liz Kyle Bill Taylor Kristie Hall Ralph Garrison Jr Absent: Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Introduced Michele Butcher as Deputy Clerk/Treasurer Chief Herlihy Introduced Josh Louks as FT Police Officer Public Hearing – Local Law 9 of 2024 – Residency Requirement Deputy Mayor Batson made a motion to open public hearing for Local Law 9 of 2024 – Residency Requirement. Seconded by Trustee Garrison. All ayes. Motion carried. Sue Taylor: I did speak last meeting about why I felt that it was a good idea to not just limit our options to the Town of Montgomery, but to open it up to the entire county of Orange. I think we're handcuffing ourselves if we just limit it to the town. We have an opportunity to attract more diverse range of candidates who possibly have new perspectives on policing. New eyes, seeing our community and formulating our department that could be unique to our needs. Nothing wrong with new eyes looking at Walden and seeing what could be instead of what's been for many, many years. In my opinion, to leave it just for the Town of Montgomery is short sighted and really not in the best interest of our village. Things have changed so much in our community. In the county, in New York, in the world, entire country, and I think that it's time for us to be a little more innovative and try to get with the program. Old is old, new is new and I think there are many more challenges that maybe a candidate within the county could bring us new life and fresh ideas. Thank you. Trustee Hall made a motion to close the public hearing for Local Law 9 of 2024 – Residency Requirement. Seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. Village Manager’s Report Manager Revella: Since last meeting attended a few different events around the community. Did go through the tax relevy with the Treasurer. It was pretty cumbersome. Went over some interviews with the Chief and looked over the county list, sent out letters as well for canvassing. Discussed hiring and staffing questions. Went over some forms and potential policies with the Building Inspector, went over projects with the engineer, went over property maintenance with the Building Inspector, discussed the cameras with the camera contractor and the Chief. Cameras at the parks are 1 done. Also discussed the other portion of the grant. Which is the LPRs. And what we can do to get those in soon. Met with the Rec Coordinator and DPW Super at the Riverfront Park to go over that project and any things we can assist with down there to keep it moving fast. Which is going pretty well. They should be formed this week and ready for pouring next week. Covered for time off for departments. Went through some retirement filings, had a meeting with the Clerk and the Village Justice about that. Went through a lot of new hire packets for the summer camp staff. Discussed the MOA with the PBA. It’s not there yet. Once it comes back, I'll bring it to the board, hopefully soon. Went to the Associated Towns Villages meeting where they discussed the home rule issues with the state. Went over the comp plan with the village planner, which they sent an update out to the comp plan committee today. I went over some code updates with the attorney from last meeting some updates there for this meeting. Went over the parking lot painting. Attended the Memorial Day event here at Village Hall and the opening of the charging station at Orchard Street parking lot. Did the bid opening for Walker St. Rec Department, continues to do maintenance and repairs at the parks. Mowing, flag football should be starting soon. Tennis ended, the program went very well. The summer camp registration is open, going well. Indoor pickle ball is once a week now. Teen Center and after school program going well. Scout Cabin Project is completed. And they're assisting where needed for the Water Front project as well. Building Department, the inspector issued 19 new permits, 5 stop work orders and followed up on issues at 36 Orange Ave and 35-37 North Montgomery Street, which is out to be bid to be demoed. Code Enforcement, sent out 70 violation notices, 8 of those for grass that got mowed by the village. 4 CO reports and numerous violation letters. Thankfully, a lot of those got corrected. The Clerk updated Facebook, website, going over personnel with me, processing handicap, finished the new bimonthly calendar, payroll, minutes and resident responses. Finance Department, finished the tax bills and got them out. The other billing also got sent out by the staff in the office. Had several support calls with Edmunds, worked on bank reqs and tax invoices and vouchers. DPW's continue to maintain vehicles, pressing sludge as time allows, cleaning stations, checking stations, going over some complaints with my office and me from different residents to follow up on sidewalks and trees. Water Department did 19 mark outs, replaced 3 meters, 35 endpoints, 4 Closings. The DPW Super and one of the water staff also attended the Rural Water Conference for a few days and did the MS4 webinar and so did the Building Inspector. The Department also worked on catch basins, patching roads. They've repaired a sinkhole at Grant and Elm from a bad drainage pipe and continued flushing and jetting. Police are working on staffing, as you can see, we're getting new staff in. We should have one more new hire in by the end of the week, we hope and then be here for next meeting to be introduced. And we're still going through the list to get a couple more. Patrols did issue 10 traffic tickets, 10 parking tickets, 2 MVA's and 6 arrests, and there were 233 blotters. Trustee Pearson: You had conference with the court clerk on procedures or something that's changing or something different. Manager Revella: There is something pending that I'm not allowed to discuss in public that came from the Comptroller. I can talk in exec about it. Trustee Pearson: You had a meeting with residents, speeding. Were there certain areas? Manager Revella: Yes, there were complaints about people speeding in different areas. East Main, South Montgomery. Trustee Pearson: Was there a group of people or just people? Manager Revella: Different people at different times. Pretty consistent. Wait St, South Montgomery Street and East Main St were the 3 recent ones. 2 Trustee Pearson: North Montgomery house. It says in Rob's report that proceed as positive on safe to enter. What's going to happen? Manager Revella: That was about asbestos. They have to proceed as if there is asbestos in there. So we're bidding it as if there is asbestos and we're waiting for the bids. Trustee Pearson: But that was a long time ago. Manager Revella: No, they just got that report back about asbestos. Trustee Pearson: I thought that's what they were waiting for before. Manager Revella: That report, yes. Trustee Pearson: They listed 5 stop work orders on the paper, but I only saw 3 on the list, so I'm not sure if I missed something. I’ll talk to Rob about that. When they do grass and something like that, there's a lot of second notices and there what happens after a second notice, do they go to court? What happens? Manager Revella: They mow it. Trustee Pearson: The other thing is parks had a in their notice about how many they've done since June. Well June is just starting. So maybe they need a new report for June. Manager Revella: Well, the report came in on Thursday, which was still May. Trustee Pearson: So, next one will say June. Cameras, we’re all done with the cameras? Manager Revella: No, not even close. Not even close. Trustee Pearson: Is it the poles, still? Manager Revella: Yes, we're trying to coordinate with NYSEG. Trustee Pearson: 12-hour shifts, will we talk about that later? Manager Revella: No, that's where I said MOA's not done yet. Once the MOA’s done I’ll bring it to the board. Trustee Pearson: Olley Park still has a mess of parking for the parking lot. When's that going to get fixed? Manager Revella: That contractor is working on the Waterfront Park right now. I'd rather not take them from that job yet. Trustee Pearson: It's not the same contractor that we're bidding on maybe tonight. Manager Revella: They're #2 on that list. Trustee Taylor: The traffic tickets, specific areas, those are the ones that you mentioned? 3 Manager Revella: The 10 traffic tickets Chief, do you recall where those were location? 10 speeds. They're all different? Chief Herlihy: They're not all speeding. Manager Revella: They're various infractions. Trustee Taylor: How many speeding have we issued lately? Manager Revella: Do you know how many of those out of those ten were speed? Chief Herlihy: I can get that for you. Manager Revella: It could be registration, inspection stickers, too, who knows. Trustee Taylor: And just in response to some of the resident issues, I'm getting the same phone calls. Trustee Kyle: I'm also getting phone calls and messages about the speeding too. Deputy Mayor Batson: Is it possible on the Village Clerk's report to include a couple of numbers for some of these, just so we can get a sense of volume, I think I'm particularly interested in number of FOIL requests completed. Manager Revella: Sorry to interrupt, by year, month, week. How would you prefer? Deputy Mayor Batson: I think I think just by how many were done from report to report if that's possible. Then a couple of other random things I noticed that there was problems with the backhoe, again. That's a brand new piece of machinery. It's still under warranty. So, it's being fixed under warranty. Manager Revella: That's correct. Approval of May 7, 2024 & May 21, 2024 Minutes Trustee Hall made a motion to approve the May 7, 2024 minutes. Seconded by Trustee Pearson. 5 ayes 2 abstentions (Trustee Garrison & Mayor Ramos). Motion carried. Trustee Pearson made a motion to approve the May 21, 2024 minutes. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. 5 ayes. 2 abstentions (Trustee Garrison & Trustee Hall). Motion carried. Public Comment Sue Taylor: I spoke last meeting about the East Avenue parking issue on the 52 end. Again this week I pulled off of 52 to come up East Avenue. There was a FedEx truck right at the top of the street. I couldn't see around them, so I kind of edged out. Got around him and right in front of him was a truck pulling a landscaping, whatever you call those things, wagon or whatever it is. I had to go and there was a car parked directly across from it, so I had to kind of sneak through that end and the FedEx truck had to exit back onto 52 because it couldn't get down East Avenue because of the clog there between the truck, the wagon that it had in the back of it and the car parked on the other side of the street. I don't know about you, but I don't think it's a good thing to have delivery trucks and whatever backing up onto 52 because they cannot get down East Ave. In that case, the guys had equipment, they were all in the lawn and the guy obviously couldn't get through because there was no room for him, so he had to back out onto Route 52. Anybody that lives on East Avenue knows 4 what it's like to try to even pull out on to 52 from East Avenue because the cars come flying around that turn. So is it happening all the time every day? No, but it happens enough. There's no way a fire truck would have been able to get and I'm not even sure an ambulance could have fit in between the landscaping vehicle and the car that was parked on the side of the road. Trustee Pearson: Sue, were there two cars and the landscaping car? Were the two cars there and the landscaping in the middle? Sue Taylor: Like an SUV. And the landscaper was pulled out. The wide trailer was out in the street. So I got through, but there's no way the FedEx truck could get through and he was coming up East Avenue off of 52. And again, the car is parked on the side. The guys can't go curb to curb with the plows in the winter, the snow's piled there. Now, if you get a delivery truck that pulls there and somebody's parked, forget it. Nobody's getting through. It's only really on that end. The road narrows and everybody's got driveways so I don't know other than house with the 10 vehicles, obviously you're not going to get the 10 vehicles in that driveway. But people park in the front of their house, which they're allowed to do. But if there's two cars there and now you have a delivery truck pull up. Forget it. You're not getting through. Local Law 9 of 2024 – Residency Requirement Attorney Donovan: What you have in front of you is a local law that allows the positions of Clerk and Treasurer to be residents of the County of Orange and the Chief of Police in the Town of Montgomery. I know there was some discussion about amending the law to provide that the position of Chief of Police may also go county wide. If the board wants to do that, we just a new local law and new public hearing. If that's what you want to do. If you want to adopt this, you've had your public hearing. You can adopt the negative declaration, adopt the local law. You could put it in your coat pocket and think about because you're under no time constraints for the local law. Trustee Kyle: Yeah, I would want to think about that one. I don't know. It got opened up to Town of Montgomery. Which I feel like is a step. I just want some insight about moving it to Orange County. Trustee Taylor: I'm a proponent of moving county wide. Times have changed. We've got supervisors here on shift and to get a lot of applicants, I think we would be remiss not to expand our umbrella to get the best possible candidate for such a sensitive position. So I am a proponent to expand the Chief to Orange County. Deputy Mayor Batson: I don't disagree, but I just want to talk about the why it's right. Can you walk us through the candidate selection pool for Chief of Police? Is the list that you've referenced in the past for Chief of Police limited to the geographic area that we choose here or is that list a statewide list that we can pull from? Manager Revella: It's a county list. They could live anywhere, but they have to be on that county list. Deputy Mayor Batson: We could only hire a Chief of Police from a county list. We don't have the ability to pull from the biggest pool? Manager Revella: You can get a lateral if they qualify. New York State Civil Service law. Trustee Pearson: We couldn't pull one from Ulster County if we had a radius into a different direction. Instead of saying Orange County and our radius was 35 miles from village limits. 5 Manager Revella: The state law only allows you to say county. You can't go outside of the county in your law, it says your Chief has to reside in the county. You can hire someone from anywhere in the world if they qualify, but they have to move to the county to keep the position. Trustee Pearson: But only because we're putting it in as Orange County. What if we put it in as a radius from our line? Attorney Donovan: The law doesn't allow that, we went through that before. Kristie had asked that before. It makes a lot of sense to maybe go to Shawangunk instead of Port Jervis, but that's not what state allows us to do. Trustee Hall: I think it's a great idea. But on the other hand, I get a little, if you want to wait for somebody to come from Warwick or Port Jervis and there's something that, somebody needs to be here in 15 minutes. That's not going to happen. I guess I could, but not in the right way it can't. Trustee Garrison: Yeah, I have to say that was my concern. Trustee Kyle: They don't have take home cars. Trustee Hall: Yeah, but even if they do, you shouldn't be 100 miles an hour. Trustee Kyle: In an emergency situation. Trustee Hall: You're going to drive 100 miles down 84 to get somewhere? You're gonna put somebody else's life in danger? Trustee Kyle: Police officers get emergency vehicle operation training. Trustee Hall: Doesn't matter. You're still putting somebody's life in danger. If you're driving down that road with your child in the car, do you want somebody driving past you 100 miles an hour? I don't. Trustee Kyle: It depends on what the emergency on the other end is. Trustee Garrison: There's a lot of legalities there. There's a whole lot of liability that comes with that. Trustee Hall: I don't know. I think it's a great idea to expand it. I just don't know how. Trustee Kyle: When we have cops and ambulances and fire trucks, they fly everywhere all the time when there's an emergency. Trustee Garrison: And if they are in an accident and somebody is injured or dies or anything happens, then the jurisdiction of which that vehicle is from is liable and can be sued. Manager Revella: Just so you know, just because you opened the pool to the county doesn't mean you hire somebody from 30 minutes away. We can always say no. Trustee Hall: But it's still the option. It's still there, and if it happens, it happens. Trustee Garrison: I'm also nervous about response time. I mean Orange County, we’re talking. Port Jervis is Orange County, Deer Park. 40 minutes on 84. Doing over the speed limit. I don't know. I know you're saying you can open it up to Orange County and not hire that far out. 6 Trustee Kyle: Is there an in between? Trustee Pearson: Do the radius in Orange County. Trustee Kyle: Can we do a radius within Orange County or is there some sort of in between where we can specify an area within Orange County, but that's bigger than the town? Trustee Hall: I like the idea. I just worry about... Trustee Garrison: The idea is great. It does give us a wide variety. Manager Revella: Dave can check on that. If that's the board's pleasure. If there's a majority that says, let's do that. Trustee Kyle: Can we check on that? Trustee Hall: I would like to check on that. Trustee Pearson: Whether it doesn't have to be all of Orange County could be a radius from the Village of Walden so far out into Orange County. Trustee Kyle: Picking between either town or county. There's an in between somewhere that we can maybe just specify. Deputy Mayor Batson: What's the number that you have in mind? Trustee Pearson: That I don't know. I'm just thinking what's 20 minutes away? Deputy Mayor Batson: That's fine. Let me just say this, how do big cities deal with that? If you were a huge town like Poughkeepsie, and you have requirement of Police Chief has to stay in town, the distance from one end to that town to the other is easily could be 45. The crime on this end and on this end, you meet the requirements, the distance to travel between those could easily. Trustee Hall: We're just not a city. We're a little village. Trustee Garrison: Like Poughkeepsie has multiple Chiefs and multiple precincts. Manager Revella: They all do have limits as well. Even NYPD has limits to where they can live. Trustee Kyle: I mean down South their jurisdiction area could be 45 minutes from one side to the other so they can literally be on shift working and not make it to an emergency situation in less than 30 minutes. Trustee Pearson: Well, in our perfect world of a Police Department, we would also have three Sergeants on and somebody that would be there in that emergency situation to cover before the Chief got there. We are supposed to have three Sergeants and we do have them, I don't know where they are in our mix now. How many police officers we have now, but in our perfect world, we would have that coverage. We don't necessarily maybe have it now, but we would possibly have that. So that's what you hire those people for and that's why they're in those positions that could also be in those positions until the Chief got there. I'm just throwing it out there. 7 Manager Revella: In emergencies, I have to have the FEMA training as well that's needed for any disaster emergency that arises. And we have backups to backups. If there's a need. What if the Chief’s just not available for whatever reason? We have other means to make sure that things are handled properly, so not too worried about it. Dave's not sure if you can do a radius or certain distance. He can check. If that’s what the board wants. Deputy Mayor Batson: I just want to clarify, the why of Part B really has to do more with response time than it does the candidate pool. We can still hire from anywhere we want with the proper things. Manager Revella: Yes. Deputy Mayor Batson: So, B does not expand the candidate pool. Manager Revella: Well, it does in a sense that some people may not be able to find housing in a small area. Deputy Mayor Batson: Understood. Manager Revella: Or they live in their homestead they lived in. Family’s been there for 150 years, but they're only 10 minutes away outside the Town of Montgomery. It could happen. Trustee Pearson: But we also don't pick the Chief. The Manager picks the Chief, so something that you know we have no control over who he's going to hire. Basically, he's going to pick who he's going to pick. Our job is to figure out where he can hire from. Attorney Donovan: Just to be clear, it's not in his total discretion, though. They have to satisfy the civil service requirements and score sufficiently on the test, and then you dictate the geographic area. It's not like he can just pick me to be Chief of Police. Trustee Pearson: My other question for this, I'm looking at the village further provides this section and it says the police have to choose the village shall be a citizen of the United States, shall be at least 18 years old and shall reside in the Town of Montgomery. We may be changing that. I don't know, but I just looked up the difference between residence and resident and I really think we need a definition. Attorney Donovan: You would make me feel so much better if you read to the end. There’s a definition. Trustee Pearson: I didn't like it. Attorney Donovan: Just so you know, I did not make that up. I took that from the New York State Election Law, which I thought would be a pretty good place to take a definition of resident because as you all well know, attorneys are paid to plagiarize. In all seriousness, since that establishes where you need to be a resident in order to run for office. I thought that was a good place to start. Not saying that you have to live with it. If you if you want any reasonable changes or of course invited. But that's where that comes from. I didn't just pull that out of thin air. Trustee Kyle: Is it that you don't agree with the definition that's written there? Trustee Pearson: There's a lot to it to me because we talked about resident versus residency and The resident is the person who lives there. The residency is where they live. So it's really the word 8 itself that should be used, not necessarily a resident. So there's this whole thing on the difference between residency and resident. Trustee Kyle: I know, but I think that's what the intention is. For it to be the resident, the person who actually living there. It's like if you rent a house, you can be the homeowner and live in Florida. You're not a resident, you have a residence in the Village of Walden. But you're not a resident unless it's your primary home. Trustee Pearson: But it doesn't say that you have a residence here. It says you're a resident, but it doesn't mean you have to actually have a residence here. Trustee Kyle: No, because this says that it has to be the resident. It has to be their principal home. It has to be your primary home. Deputy Mayor Batson: What if it's reversed? What if you live here but don't own a home? What if you rent? Trustee Pearson: No, that's fine. But that's still your residency. I don't know. I was reading this whole thing between the two and I was so confused about it because I often said that we don't have enough definitions. Trustee Kyle: I think they are different, but I think that's why it says resident and not residency. Like it specifically says resident. Like who's living in the home? Trustee Pearson: All right, if you guys are happy with it, but I wasn't happy with it. Trustee Kyle: How would we fix it? What would we put instead? Trustee Pearson: I'll just read that to you. The residence is a noun that refers to the dwelling place of someone lives, encompasses physical structure of the house, apartment, dormitory, boarding place, on the other hand a resident is a noun that describes an individual who lives in a specific place, such as residence or community. So it's adding both of them together, not just a resident. It's also have a residency here also. Trustee Kyle: Do you think that we should require both? Trustee Pearson: You need to be a resident, yes. And you should have a residency. I think you need both of them. Trustee Kyle: No, because what about all the renters? How many renters do we have? Trustee Pearson: But that's your residency. You don't have to own it. Trustee Kyle: Yeah, you do. For residency. Trustee Pearson: No you don’t. It's a place where you vote. It's totally different. Trustee Kyle: That's why I feel like we should just stick to resident and it would be like your principal home where you live primarily. Trustee Pearson: Does that say that in this this definition? 9 Trustee Kyle: Yeah, it says a fixed permanent and principal home and which if he were ever temporarily located always intends to return. So yeah, it's your primary home and if you're going away for somewhere, that’s where you're coming back to. Trustee Taylor: We should add “she” to paragraph D as well. He/She. Manager Revella: The state doesn't identify as he or she. Deputy Mayor Batson: That was my comment to change that. Trustee Pearson: Can I just say one more thing? Sorry. I don't mean to make it confusing. It says, it's important to recognize that residence refers to the physical dwelling or place that someone lives while resident refers to the person occupying the dwelling. So that's why I think we need both of them. I don't think you just need one. Deputy Mayor Batson: Can you just tell us why? If they live here, in your example, residency seems to imply that that is one place if they rent an apartment here and are here during their working hours and other reasonable times, why can't their residency be 40 miles away? Trustee Pearson: Because they can rent here and not live here. Deputy Mayor Batson: But if you are here, sleep here five nights a week and work here during those time frames, How do you not live here? Trustee Pearson: And if you just rent an apartment here and you don't really live here, but your residency is here, but you're not a resident here. Trustee Kyle: I don't think that's enforceable. Unfortunately. I'm not like completely disagreeing, but I can live at my house, but then I can sleep over a friend's house four nights a week if I wanted to, but that's still my home. I can sleep at my friend's house in Newburgh or Maybrook for multiple nights a week, there's no way to really enforce that. Trustee Pearson: You could, but because we're expanding this thing, we're making them being able to live in Orange County. So somewhere in Orange County now. It's not like it's just here in Walden anymore like it used to be. It’s a little different. Mayor Ramos: We've ironed this up pretty good. You're going to have somebody discuss the distances, right? Manager Revella: Next meeting. Dave's researching. OCT Update Anthony Morando: We were here on May 21st to provide an update. We also provided a written submission back on May 21st as well detailing what has been going on. Providing an update on the sewer and water connection process. Since then, that was about two weeks ago. We are back. I gave you a brief letter today, which is the latest hot off the press type letter. It's relatively brief again, just going backwards a little, we're still down. The matter is down to the obtaining the highway work permit to start the connection process. After many months, Orange County Transit received confirmation on April 16th from the DOT that they didn't need or want anything further to finish their review of the highway work permit, which is the item that's been identified by the engineers, is the last item. And we're literally just waiting for the permit. The DOT responded on Friday, May 24th and apologized for the delay and asked for two other supplemental forms. One of those Orange 10 County Transit submitted immediately or within a few days. I guess it was the holiday weekend and from the time they got it completed, it was a few days. That was the payment agreement form and then the other form involves the inspections of the DOT work, which has to be apparently an outside consultant in certain situations. They're now asking for that. Orange County Transit reached out to a consultant to get them on board to fill out the form and submit it. As of today, it wasn't filed yet, and we don't have somebody who has signed an agreement, but that's the hope in the next couple of days if that will be done. Manager Revella: You mean consultant? Not Norton, Mercurio, who's the consultant you're talking about? Somebody else? Anthony Morando: It's not MNTM, it's not Zach and Larry. I guess they have the discretion prior to construction to ask for another outside consultant that's listed as a DOT credential inspector, which they asked for. Trustee Taylor: I do not have any permit questions, but I do have questions relevant to the facility. Anthony Morando: May I ask, Mr. Mayor, if there's any questions on the DOT permit issue? Mayor Ramos: Where did the perm 50 and the perm 36 come from? Anthony Morando: You mean, esoterically? Again, I've said this a number of times. I'm not an engineer or construction manager. I don't really handle DOT highway work permits. Apparently, they’re not necessarily required, but they can be applicable if they decide. Which they did. And again, as of after spending significant efforts to get a response in April, we did provide you an e- mail. They said they don't need anything else. And now they requested it. Again John turned that around as far as what he controls immediately. And the other form hopefully within days will be submitted. If there's nothing else on that, again, I think I mentioned this last time. If there's other things involved with the property or site, we can certainly set up a conversation with the Building Inspector and you if you'd like around the table. Trustee Taylor: Yeah, I've had that discussion with the Building Inspector. That's kind of where I'm going. Anthony Morando: We could, but I just want to not conflate that conversation with this. So if you start pinging them with questions that may not be relevant. Trustee Taylor: We had a conversation in the last meeting and I want to revisit the issue that we were discussing. I know no DEC was there because you know what I'm talking about. The issue where we received an anonymous call, i.e. our Building Department, that there was a strong scent of sewage to which they responded. And when we discussed that you indicated nothing hit the ground. Am I correct? I mean stop me if I'm going off track here. John Mensch: What I did say was I wasn't there, and Jim, who manages the property, wasn't there when it happened, and it was a pump that broke from one of the tenant buildings that I have and that he was on the phone with the other Building Inspector. He spoke to Dean and I believe you went to the site with your assistant (turning to Building Inspector Wallner). Trustee Taylor: The only ones that responded were the gentleman that's sitting here. Dean did not go to the site. 11 John Mensch: Dean did not go to the site, but he did talk to Jim because Dean actually called Jim and wanted to know what was going on and the gentleman sitting in the audience was at the site with his assistant, I believe. Again, I wasn't at the site. Jim was there. Trustee Taylor: In the meeting minutes as I went through them, you kind of indicated the last time that Dean was there and he okay’ d everything. John Mensch: I did make that mistake. I thought Dean was there. And then when I checked with Jim, he said Dean spoke to him on the phone when the incident did happen. But the other Building Inspector was there. You did have a Village Inspector on the site. Anthony Morando: Again, I appreciate it. Can we have a meeting with the Building Inspector to talk about this? This isn't what we're on the agenda to discuss. Trustee Taylor: Its sewer related. Anthony Morando: Well, not really. We're here to talk about the agreement regarding the sewer and water inspection. You want a question Mr. Mensch in front of everybody, but really, it's more appropriate to have a conversation... Trustee Taylor: I’m not questioning him personally. Anthony Morando: What we've offered again is why don't we have a meeting with the Building Department, and I certainly don't know anything about this, so as an attorney here with my client who doesn't know anything about this. Would you sit up here and just let him field random questions about a topic? Come on. Trustee Taylor: John, can you put the pictures up? Maybe explain a little bit better. Anthony Morando: And now we’re presenting pictures. Trustee Taylor: They're germane to the issue. Anthony Morando: Again, we've invited you to the site. We've invited you to have a meeting with the Building Inspector. No idea what these pictures are. Trustee Taylor: Can you tell me what I'm looking at here? This is the day that there was an issue. I'm looking for clarification is all. Anthony Morando: Mr. Attorney for the Village. Is this a deposition? What is this? Attorney Donovan: Anthony, I'm not gonna tell my Board Members or my client that they can't ask questions. I understand what you're saying and this is here for a specific purpose. But I'm not going to tell them that they can't ask questions. You don't have to answer the questions. I think, I'm not going to put you on the spot. But last time you were here. You said there wasn't any sewer. You were advised there wasn't any discharge on the property. I think that the pictures, the idea is they tell a different story. I understand saying two different things. But I'm not going to tell a member of the board that they can't talk about. *pictures from the site are being shown* Anthony Morando: I don't know what this picture is or who took it. 12 Trustee Taylor: The gentleman that took the picture is here, so maybe he can expand upon what he saw when he arrived at the facility. I'm just looking at a picture like you are, so I don't know. Rob, can you elaborate a little bit please? Building Inspector Wallner: This was the day of heavy rains. April 3-4th. The parking lot was significantly flooded. I was called by a resident because of the smell of sewage. So I responded to the call. I took several pictures, this one in particular caught my attention because of the oils range in the water. *Next picture* This photo is, I believe, a septic tank clean out. Apparently this this was the pump that failed. And there was a discharge hose from that clean out hole that was exiting into the parking lot into that puddle. Trustee Taylor: So, what were we pumping into that pool of water? I'm confused. Trustee Pearson: Sewage? That's a question. Attorney Donovan: Like I said before, I'm not going to stop them from asking questions. You don't have to answer those questions. There is a forum that this could be brought in. You have legitimate questions. I'm not going to, they’re your elected representatives of the village if you want to ask them. You certainly don't have to answer them. If there's a proceeding that the village intends to bring, the Building Department and bring that proceeding and there would ultimately be if it went that far and adjudication of the Court of Law, if there's evidence presented by the village, there's the defense by the property owner. That's the way this could go. But Anthony, I'm telling you, I'm not going to say they can't ask you questions. You don't have to answer them. But here we are in a public meeting. I know we're here for a certain purpose, but this is also the 64,000 gorilla in the room. Anthony Morando: Understood. Again, hearing about this tonight for the 1st time. But to be called in to give an update to not be at all told that this is what you wanted to discuss to bring. Trustee Taylor: No, we talked about this the last meeting. Anthony Morando: All right. Fine, there's no answer I can give that either makes me look good or makes me look bad. It just is what it is. I’m just trying to have a positive dialogue. But we're happy to sit down and talk as always. Which we said last meeting too and didn't hear anything. Trustee Taylor: I'm just asking what am I looking at here? Trustee Hall: You can leave it at “no comment” and be done with it. Anthony Morando: Happy to sit down and talk. As always. Trustee Hall: So, why don't we set something up so we’re not here for 8 hours going in circles? Mayor Ramos: Let’s set something up. Trustee Hall: I’m not here during the day. I can talk after 5:30. Mayor Ramos: Three can have the conversation with the date. Trustee Taylor: I want to be involved in that. 13 Trustee Hall: We'll set up a date. Mayor Ramos: We'll inform you. Trustee Pearson: There was also at the last meeting we talked about, I asked a question about whether the Building Inspector has to reinspect that afterwards and whether it was done and you were going to check into that. The whole where that sewage was coming from. Manager Revella: I know that the septics are functioning now. They checked. Trustee Pearson: Do we have to inspect them? Do we have to inspect them? Because that was my question from the last meeting, whether we reinspected them after that mishap with sewage coming out of there. Building Inspector Wallner: *inaudible* annual sewer waiver. Trustee Pearson: When something like that happens. If that happens, does the village need to know when they're pumping out? You talked about pumping out your sewage every two years. You do that? Does the village need to know that, or you don't need to know that they're pumping it out? Manager Revella: They provide receipts. It's part of the septic inspection. Deputy Mayor Batson: What if we just take Orange County Transit out of it. Didn't happen there. Happened at Stewart's. Happened somewhere else. What's next? What happens in that situation? Building Inspector Wallner: Typically, the protocol would be to inform the DEC if the sewage is travelling onto someone else's property. As long as it's contained on a single parcel. That generally becomes the property owner's responsibility to clean up as soon as it moves on to someone else's property. Deputy Mayor Batson: Is there any evidence in this case that it did move on to someone else's property? Trustee Pearson: You have a stream that runs underneath that road. The other property that takes you to the Tin Brook. Building Inspector Wallner: I'm sorry. I'm no expert. Deputy Mayor Batson: Again, I'm. I'm not a legal expert either, but evidence seems to be a pretty key word. Attorney Donovan: Don't guess, Rob. If you know, you know, if you don't know the answer is you don't know. Building Inspector Wallner: Yeah, I don't know. There's no way for me to know. Deputy Mayor Batson: Would there be any way for anyone to tell? Building Inspector Wallner: Sure, if the DEC could do testing. Deputy Mayor Batson: It would still be valid, even though this occurred over a month ago? 14 Building Inspector Wallner: Not sure. Deputy Mayor Batson: So there's no way realistically, that we could prove anything that happened here. I mean, yes, pictures still need answered, but if it was contained in their property and it's the property owner's responsibility, any other property outside of Orange County Transit, it would have been handled that way. Mayor Ramos: We'll set something up and reach out to you. Thank you. Discussion – Liaisons Manager Revella: The board was going to discuss last time, but they wanted to make sure everybody was here. They had some ideas, what they wanted to do and how they wanted to do it. I'm just not sure what the preference is. Again, Town Board, Library Board, Community Council, Fire District, Ambulance District, the County, Planning and Zoning Boards, Business Association, those kinds of things. I'm not sure what you guys prefer and how you want to divide that up. Mayor Ramos: Did you indicate Orange County Land Trust on that too? Manager Revella: County, I don't know what County Departments you want to consider, but they're all there. Deputy Mayor Batson: I have lots of questions. I'm absolutely for some of these but I also just want to make sure that we've got the right people assigned to these. I don't want to pressure anyone here who doesn't want to be a liaison to not be one, nor do I want to overextend anyone who wants to be overzealous on them. Trustee Hall: What do you hope to accomplish with the liaison? You want somebody to like, attend their meetings and then come back here and explain what's going on in their meetings? Deputy Mayor Batson: My vision of it would be, that kind of is a liaison, but is there a way for us to not only to attend their meetings and I get the potential bit of a stretch, but to see somehow if there's not some sort of connectivity between us. If we can't share resources. I think I would like it more than just simply a report back of hey, here's what they're doing. In some cases, maybe that's great. I'll give Liz's idea of No Mow May. That's a fantastic idea, right? And so sometimes just information is a wonderful idea, but in other places, some sort of participation or meeting with a liaison for them. I don't know. When I think about examples of this and I think about local businesses, we apparently have a reputation of being difficult with for new businesses to come in. How can we connect with existing businesses and understand that possibly remove those barriers and make the town open for proper investments when it's necessary. Could we potentially have more pull with the School Board as it comes to the fixing of the school or other things. Is it possible for us to have a liaison with the Town of Montgomery or something to share resources? Couple of perfect examples pop up. We share a street sweeper. We just bought a new asphalt machine, right? Surely other places could use that. Is there a way to share that and perhaps generate some revenue? I think there's just potential out there, but ultimately, we're going to get as much out of a liaisonship as the person who wants to be a liaison puts in it. But I don't think that it's just simply attend a meeting, pull back information. I think it's an active role. It's a significant step up for an elected official or a volunteer role or however you want to say it. But I think the right amount of work needs to go into it to be successful. Trustee Kyle: I agree. I think that definitely the Montgomery Business Council, if we worked, I've talked to Cheryl Baker about a Walden Business Council and I feel that's why I volunteered to be that liaison if we did it because I do think that just sharing resources and information and 15 knowledge would be really helpful. We are not known to be small business friendly, which is not like a great reputation to have. I would like to see that change. Trustee Hall: I think that sounds like a lot of extra work, honestly. That's more meetings. Trustee Kyle: Doesn't have to be meetings. Trustee Hall: Well, how else would you get the information? Manager Revella: You can liaison the Fire District. It would make sense… Trustee Hall: No, not the district. The district and department are two different things. That's more meetings, that's more time. Trustee Kyle: If we just had some sort of mutual agreement with whatever board or office we were trying to work with. Maybe a point of contact so that we have someone we can call and ask questions or get, like Chris was saying. Trustee Hall: Like the Mayor calling the Mayor of another village? That kind of thing? Trustee Kyle: Yeah, I guess Mayor to Mayor or like he was saying sharing resources, like if it was say the Police Department or DPW. I'm sure they already do that. I know that they do share some resources, but. Trustee Hall: Yeah, I would think that if the Town of Montgomery has a machine or something like a hot box or something we would like to use. I'm sure that would be John's job to call. I mean, I couldn’t call and say, hey could I use your hot box this week? I don’t have to do that. The Town Board you'd really have to go sit through their meetings. Personally, would I be able to go sit there and do them? No, but I watched them at night when I can't sleep or on lunch or when I have time to catch up. I could do it online or something. Trustee Kyle: I see perhaps the Business Council and maybe the School Board being beneficial. The other ones I don't really know. Like you said, I think that that's things that get handled when issues arise. Deputy Mayor Batson: Is there anybody here who would like to at least give this a shot? And again, I think it's an individual basis. I don't think it should be mandated to anyone. Trustee Hall: I'll give anything a shot. Trustee Garrison: I'm not doing it. The last time I tried to do this to help out a department that needed help it blew up in my face so I absolutely refuse to do this. I refuse. Trustee Hall: We can't do it departments. This is organizations, local organizations. Trustee Garrison: No thanks. Trustee Pearson: I think if you're really interested in wanting to know what's going on in other departments, you're going to go listen to the Zoning Board, you're going to go to a Town Board meeting, you're going to go to a School Board meeting, going to do that anyway. I know you talked about the Business Association. I'm sure that if Cheryl needed help, she would let you help her. I don't think that there would be something wrong with that. I know she's working on it. I don't know 16 where she's at this time, but when I was a Mayor, I started a Business Association. And then what happened is the Business Association took off. You're not involved in it anymore. The businesses become what they want it to become, they have a president, a vice president, the secretary. They become their own entity and then they come before the board and say, can the board do this for us or do that for us as a group. I can't imagine it not being helpful to start out and help that group get started, but I don't know if you need to be liaison to that. If you want to be a part of that group, then go for it. Trustee Hall: Doesn't the Business Council of Montgomery cover Walden? Trustee Kyle: They do. Trustee Pearson: Well, sort of. Trustee Hall: I noticed that when I went to get empanadas today and they were closed. Trustee Kyle: We're obviously struggling in it, and I've spoken to business owners and they don't have good feelings about Walden. They said that the Village of Walden is not small business friendly. They're not helpful. They are given a hard time. It's like they're being chased out of here. I think that the Business Council of Montgomery is a great resource, but I don't know. Maybe it's just like taking that and having someone in Walden to push that information and make it more available to the businesses. Even if it's directing them to the Business Council of Greater Montgomery. But somehow helping to disseminate that information. Trustee Hall: No. Deputy Mayor Batson: Are there any objections to Liz piloting this? Give it a shot. We're not really empowering her to do anything. We're kind of blessing her. Trustee Pearson: No, but I certainly wouldn't want her to step on Cheryl's toes because Cheryl was talking about doing this long before. I'm saying if Cheryl wants to be in charge of that and you want to help Cheryl, that would be up to Cheryl and you to match that. Trustee Kyle: Oh yeah, I've been talking to Cheryl. I see the point of what you’re saying. You can be on that and not necessarily need to be a liaison. I don't know, like I said that's the only reason I brought that one up is because I have been talking to Cheryl. So, I don't know about liaisons for other departments or what. Deputy Mayor Batson: Well, can we start with that one? Can we ask you to take a shot at it? Again, we're not formalizing. You're not writing any documents. We're not being overly bureaucratic. We're not putting any codes out there. We're just simply saying, can you attend these meetings? Can you participate and can you potentially bring value back? And if so, if there are others who want to take on some of these then we can move forward as individuals. Trustee Kyle: I will do the test pilot. We'll try it out. Deputy Mayor Batson: But the only ask would be that if you're committing to it that we reserve the right to badger you. If you do not. We can't hold her accountable. It's an informal agreement. Intro to Local Law – East Ave Parking Trustee Hall: Is it possible to and I don't know if this is the right time to ask, but is it possible to have a meeting at the corner of East Ave like we did at Liberty Street with the residents there? 17 Manager Revella: You have to set the meeting. Mayor Ramos: What kind of date are we looking at? Trustee Pearson: How are you going to let the residents know? Manager Revella: Letter. We can hand deliver if we need to. Trustee Kyle: I mean social media also. Trustee Hall: Social media is hard. Not a lot of people are on it. I think the notice that the Memorial Day Parade was moved, and the village didn’t say anything and it was posted on social media, so I heard it from a 3rd party. Trustee Pearson: Evening is best, after work. I think for people. That's the time we did it, in evening last time when we did it on Liberty St. Trustee Hall: Yeah, it was like 5:30 or something, right? Trustee Kyle: Would it be helpful if it was on Juneteenth, federal holiday? Maybe more people could make it that have off work? I know it's also a holiday. Mayor Ramos: 17/18/20? Trustee Hall: 17th before the next meeting. Manager Revella: Monday the 17th. Mayor Ramos: Can we do Monday the 17th, 5:30? All: Yes Mayor Ramos: Where are we meeting? Manager Revella: I think meet in the middle of Hill and East. It's a little safer than down near 52. You can still set the public hearing for the 18th if that's okay and if there's any issues from the 17th, you can address those at the meeting. Trustee Hall made a motion to set the public hearing for Local Law 10 of 2024 – East Ave Parking for June 18, 2024, at 5:30pm or soon thereafter. Seconded by Trustee Garrison. All yes. Motion carried. Village Hall Building Safety Discussion Library Director Ginny Neidermeir: The Chief and I had a productive meeting. We've mapped out a little bit of a plan to address some of the issues that are going on in the building. There are some legal things that our hands are tied on about the building. But I think the library and the Police Department are on the same page. Trustee Pearson: Is it still as bad as it was or are they going out more? Are they still sitting downstairs? Are they lounging on the stairs? Are they still doing all of that? 18 Library Director Ginny Neidermeir: It hasn't increased, but what I find with the kids that are hanging around, it's usually the end of the school year and the beginning of the school year. So that seems to be the peak for a lot of these kids. There's still an issue if they're running around then we have to go out and babysit and tell them to stop or move away or move along. With us, we have a lot of younger staff that are coming on now for the summer. So, they have to get comfortable with calling the police. They're very responsive. But my staff has to learn how to do that also. They also have to either press the panic button which we have at both desks or just call dispatch, or they have to start getting comfortable with that. But I find that it's the usual kids. So, it's we're chasing them, moving them along. But it is towards the end of the school year, in the beginning of the school year. Trustee Pearson: We had talked about after hours and Sundays. Did you talk about that at all about the building closing and locking and being able to get in? Chief Herlihy: Then you have to discuss with Dave about closing the building, this is a public access building. So, at what time are we going to make it not public access anymore? Trustee Pearson: I would just say like the library closes at a certain time and that's the public coming in for the library. Chief Herlihy: The library at the separate entrance. Trustee Pearson: Correct, but it can be done. I mean you can lock the other doors and they can come in the library door. They don't have to come in the main unless it's handicapped. Then Ginny could always open the door, or the library staff could let them in the handicapped door if they need to get in that way. Chief Herlihy: We talked about weekends, too, at what time you’re going to close the building down because we have handicapped accessible bathrooms that can be utilized by the public. Trustee Pearson: Yeah, but there's many municipal buildings that are not open during the day for people to come into. The library is closed, to me, this building is closed as far as I'm concerned. Chief Herlihy: Let’s establish a time frame and get it get it set in stone. Trustee Pearson: That's just my thoughts, I'm just throwing it out there because I was witness to some things and it was kind of scary that on Sunday when I came in to pay bills and I said, why are they here on a Sunday and why isn't the building locked down and the library is not open? I think that that's how I feel about it. Manager Revella: I just want to confirm for everybody's purposes the call box outside the front door is operational. Outside the front door where they can press a button to intercom. Chief Herlihy: Yes. But we do have a problem in with the way that the front door secures. Manager Revella: Understood. Trustee Pearson: I thought we fix that. We paid money to fix that door. So, what happened? Manager Revella: It locks. The side door, you’re talking about the glass doors? Chief Herlihy: The pressure on the front door to close it. 19 Deputy Mayor Batson: Have we diagnosed why? So, it's the same couple of kids. Have we engaged them as to why this is their preferred place? Is there some world where this is the only safe place for these kids? Manager Revella: Yeah, Wi-Fi and charging for the phones is big for them. Deputy Mayor Batson: Does that mean that they don't have access to those things at home? Library Director Ginny Neidermeir: We do get a lot of kids in the afternoon and most of them are there for the right reasons. Chief Herlihy: And some of the ones just don't want to be at home. Why be at home when I can come here? Manager Revella: Well, during the summer, the teen center is open every day except for Sunday. They have an option 7:00. The library is not open after eight any day, so it's there. There's no overlap and I think it's covered. I don’t think it's an issue if the board has that in mind to lock it down once all the offices are closed, there's no issue. Chief Herlihy: We just need to post signs and make it obvious to everybody outside of this building. Be closed between so and so. Then we have to make sure that the exterior box outside is able to accept the court payments as well as the water payments. Manager Revella: No, not required to. Come between business hours just like any other municipality. Trustee Pearson: You don't go to the government office on a Sunday or Saturday and I'm just thinking, it's no different than any other government building, aren't going to walk into the Town of Montgomery building on a Saturday or a Sunday, unless they're doing a program or something, but otherwise you're not going to do that either. I just think for somewhat safety purposes, I know Ginny had some concerns and I had some concerns with what was going on in the area. Whether the Village Board needs to set a time for locking things down and how it's going to work. You guys had a meeting, did you come up with a plan of something of lockdown or no lockdown? Library Director Ginny Neidermeir: No, because that’s kind of out of our hands. Chief Herlihy: More of a sweep of everything. Keep a watchful eye on the library. Trustee Pearson: Then the lockdown would be after hours from a Saturday, you're here from Saturday till what time, Ginny? Library Director Ginny Neidermeir: Saturday, we're here to 2, but on 2 Saturdays, we have a teem program that is supervised. So, by 5:00, we're out. But we can give them a calendar of our events. We can tell them when we're here. When we’re not here. Trustee Pearson: Yeah, I think it's wise. I'm just one board member. I don't know how anybody else feels about it. Trustee Taylor: I'm totally in agreement. I mean with what Trustee Pearson was susceptible to when she came in here to sign bills. That's just unacceptable. Chief, you know as well as I do something like that could escalate in a moments notice. I agree with Trustee Pearson and I think we 20 have to come up with a plan, establish the hours, be like every other municipality. This is when we're shut down. This is when we're open. Deputy Mayor Batson: Do you think that's going to solve the problem or just divert the problem somewhere else? The problem is we have unruly people causing a disruption. Simply changing the building hours. I'm fine with. Of course we can do that. It's a matter of safety. But at some point we have to address the actual problem. Trustee Pearson: I think that they're doing that between the two groups. You're trying to do that. But I'm talking about on a weekend when it's not necessary to be here on a Sunday or a Saturday night. If they're strolling around here, I think it was a Sunday afternoon when I came in and three of them coming out of the bathroom on the third floor and they were not pleasant. They were not nice people. It was kind of like, why are you even in the building? Trustee Kyle: What happens with the cooling station? Then it would have to be open. Manager Revella: When we announced cooling and heating station, we announced that and we'd open for that. We can continue to do that. Trustee Kyle: Otherwise, I don't see the issue of keeping the library hours the same as the building hours, then it's all the same hours for the entire building. Trustee Pearson: No. The building would follow the library hours. Trustee Kyle: Keeping the library hours for the rest of the building so those hours just making them the building hours. Library Director Ginny Neidermeir: And there are days when, like a Sunday afternoon when we'll partner with the Historical Society and have a program up here. I'm fine with being responsible for that. Trustee Pearson: Well, maybe we can have John meet with the two of you and come up with a plan on closing and times and hours. Manager Revella: Yeah, I just want the board to give authorization to do that. Deputy Mayor Batson: Yeah, let's just get that part done. Just get time so we can get this at least temporarily resolved. Manager Revella: We’re 7:30 in the morning. Monday through Friday to open. And you close? Library Director Ginny Neidermeir: 8:00 Monday to Thursday and 6:00 on Friday. Manager Revella: And 2:00 on Saturday. You open at 10:00 on Saturday? Library Director Ginny Neidermeir: We're here at 9. We open every morning at 10. Manager Revella: We’re open earlier Monday through Friday. It’d be 10-2 on Saturday. Chief Herlihy: But then we also have to consider once we're open for anything anyone is allowed in the public access building until a crime is committed and we can remove them from the building. 21 Manager Revella: When the building’s closed, they can be removed from it being closed. That's what we're concerned about. Chief Herlihy: Correct, but when the building is open. Manager Revella: That's okay. Trustee Pearson: So, if they're actually loitering. There's nothing you can do about it. Chief Herlihy: Public access building. Manager Revella: Anything they’re doing on the street they can do here. Trustee Pearson: Then why do we have loitering signs on the walls? Manager Revella: Fire escape, like fire access for the stairs. That's really what it's for. And you can put signs anywhere. Like there's a curfew in the Village of Montgomery. It's not enforceable they way it is presented, but you can put it out there. Trustee Pearson: Well, that ruling has changed. You can enforce curfews now. That was 20 years ago. Trustee Hall: Are you uncomfortable with these kids being here while you're open? Do you feel unsafe with them causing ruckus? Library Director Ginny Neidermeir: I do not but I have different staff. I have young staff, I have teens, I have volunteers and some of them are uncomfortable, so that would be my priority. Trustee Hall: That's why you're open. So even if we're closing it after hours, we still have to or somebody still has to figure out why they're there. Trustee Pearson: Right. And I think you have established something between the two of them. They've established what the plan would be there. I'm just talking about after hours. Should not be open. Trustee Hall: Just after hours. I don't see why there should be any reason. Library Director Ginny Neidermeir: Like if we're close to 8 o'clock why is somebody on the 3rd floor is 9:00. Trustee Hall: There should be no reason that anybody should be in. Deputy Mayor Batson: If these kids are nuisance, can we issue trespass? I do that in the corporate world but cannot trespass juvenile from us. Chief Herlihy: Not unless it’s a crime. But then still, what's our recourse? The building is locked down, then it becomes misdemeanor. Deputy Mayor Batson: Basic nuisance, nothing have to commit a crime. Trustee Pearson: My question is whether the board wants to have John meet with them then come up with a plan? 22 Mayor Ramos: Everybody in agreement for John to explore with the Librarian and the Chief find alternative hours of opening and closing? All: Yes Award Bid – Walker St Sidewalks & Paving Manager Revella: I just request the board consider the alternate bid option. It’s a residential street, the Belgian block looks better than the straight concrete curb on a residential road. Mayor Ramos: I agree. Trustee Pearson: Where's the funding coming from? Manager Revella: The board bonded this project last year. Trustee Pearson: Time frame? Manager Revella: I just have to tell them we approved it. They'll get the contracts, get approved by Dave and then they'll get started within 30 days. Trustee Pearson made a motion to award bid to Ron DeGroodt Paving, Inc for the Walker St Sidewalk, Curbing & Paving Project in the amount of $248.000. Seconded by Trustee Garrison. All ayes. Motion carried. Building Permit Waiver – 11 South Way Manager Revella: There's a request from a resident for a waiver of building permit due to an accident. The owner needs to put in some modifications for handicapped access. They're asking for a waiver of that permit fee. The Building Inspector said it's $100 or less around that area. Deputy Mayor Batson: Can we just again clarify that this is a waiver to waive a building fee waiver to help out a person who was in an accident that requires handicap access to their own home? Manager Revella: That’s correct. Mayor Ramos made a motion to approve building permit fee waiver. Seconded by Trustee Garrison. 6 ayes. 1 abstention (Trustee Hall). Motion carried. Public Comment Sue Taylor: Thanks for speaking up and clarifying that, Chris. Once again, I couldn't hear what you were saying. So, thanks for clarifying. I couldn't hear about the waiver. 2nd floor. I was coming in tonight and I heard a commotion on the 2nd floor by the library. Two kids were fooling around by the machines. I asked them if they were okay. The boy said somebody fell. One of the kids fell, told them to be careful and be careful around the stairs. Maybe it's time to take those machines out. They seem to be an attraction to kids. Memorial Day service was great, as usual. Wonderful speaker who had a great message. Sorry, it had to be inside. As it turned out, would have been able to make it outside, but you have to do what you have to do in case of inclement weather. I did see a car using the charging station. First one I've seen using it. I wish it had been mentioned at the service. Maybe more people would have come to the dedication. There were very few people there but it's being used. That's great news. As far as the Police Department and the Chief getting here, Jeff Holmes lives in the village. I can't remember many times that he showed up. Even living in the village. We 23 have officers in charge. They're trained to handle situations. I'm sure he was here on some occasions, but generally the Chief is not a responding officer to most things that happen in this village. I think the storm that we had, he responded because it was an emergency situation. I think it was May of a couple of years ago when that tornado thing went through. Most of the time, the Chief doesn't respond. So, if you're worried about him getting here, it would probably be in an extreme situation that the Chief would respond. since we do have officers in charge. Wooster Park. Love to sit out on my deck late at night and just have a nice cup of coffee or something and many nights. I listen to screaming and hollering down in Wooster in the playground. Parks are supposed to close at dusk, I believe. I know we may not have had a lot of patrols down there, but there's activity in there. I almost did call the police one night because I heard a young girl screaming and hollering and I kind of was deciding should I shouldn't I, and it stopped. But there's a lot of nooks and crannies in there. You could have an issue happening there and I don't want to be the one that has to, you know, because I can hear it. I'm in close proximity to that park. Trustee Kyle: Is that where they do teen center? Trustee Pearson: Teen center’s open till what time though? Manager Revella: But it's only Friday and Saturday until summer starts. Then it's every day, so that's not what's going on. Trustee Pearson: Until what time at night? Sue Taylor: 9-10 o'clock. Trustee Pearson: Teen center is open till 10 there. Sue Taylor: Not on these nights. It was an odd time, so that's why I contemplated calling the police. Because I knew the teen center wasn't open. Manager Revella: New cameras have a motion sensor too, which is going to be helpful for that. Sue Taylor: Yeah and you don't want to be the Nervous Nelly and get on the phone and call for nothing but... Manager Revella: You don't want to be the one that doesn't call and there was something going on either, so it's hard. Sue Taylor: Yeah, that's kind of the dilemma you're in. Trustee Pearson: Are the parks cameras up and running? Manager Revella: Yes. All three main parks. Sue Taylor: We still close at dusk, right? Manager Revella: Yes, absolutely. Sue Taylor: Okay, there are kids playing, we have the lights on down where they play basketball. That area is lit, so I wouldn't worry about somebody having an issue there. But in that playground, there's all kinds of little nooks and crannies where things could happen. 24 Mary Ellen Matise: The thing that’s in your packet about parking, standing, stopping, no parking at any time, somebody has to go through this for accuracy because right off the bat here Gladstone Ave between Clinton and Hillcrest, west side, well, people park up to Grandview. Trustee Hall: I noticed that too. Mary Ellen Matise: This should say if there's no parking from Clinton to Hillcrest, then people are parking between Clinton and Grandview on the west side. Attorney Donovan: Well, that's what the law is now. The reason why I provided that is so the board didn't see and say, hey, what does this mean? I gave the local law so you could see where it fit in. What you have now is the law. Mary Ellen Matise: Exactly. But it's not being enforced properly because people are parking on both sides of Gladstone, in between Clinton and Grandview and even above Grandview. I know this you're saying this is the law. I mean maybe this needs to be checked against what's happening on the streets. Manager Revella: We'll make sure there are signs out on all those. Mary Ellen Matise: If you're reviewing East Avenue, you might as well review all of these streets. But it's a problem, and the whole thing about FedEx trucks and UPS trucks and whoever else is making deliveries, it's a nightmare in the village and the garbage trucks are still a nightmare and it's like some things never change. The bit with the building and the kids, when you don't take the elevator and you take the stairs, you see a lot of stuff you don't want to see happening in the building and you see stuff happening in the bathrooms and it happens even when the library is open and it puts all of us in a precarious position, especially after the incident with the chairs. You don't know what's in their mind and how they might react to you, so hopefully you'll correct it. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Garrison made a motion a approve payment of audited bills. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. All ayes. Motion carried. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Pearson: Fire Department. Beautiful fundraiser. It was a well oiled machine. That was wonderful. Memorial Day, as Sue said, was great. It was very nicely done. Do we need to finish code review? We got so far, but we didn't keep going. Don't have more to do in code review? When is that going to happen? Manager Revella: Residency was the last law we're reviewing and then on to the next ones. Trustee Pearson: Should we start another one since we're almost done with residency? 00:43:30 Manager Revella: When you're done residency, you can start maybe 3 more maybe. Trustee Pearson: I called you about the trees over the sidewalks. That's our sidewalk. Why wouldn't we be cutting those trees? Go across the high bridge, make it left. It's a one way street. People have to walk up there. They can't walk underneath those trees. Manager Revella: They're not our trees. They're private property. I talked to Building Inspector about it. They cited them. 25 Trustee Pearson: Do we know anything about when they're going to trim them back? Manager Revella: They have a certain number of days and then they get done by us and billed. Trustee Pearson: Because there are sidewalks. Manager Revella: It's the county sidewalks. They're not ours. We can cite the people, and we will. Let me clarify, part of that walk is County controlled. Trustee Pearson: Just a reminder that Flag Day is Sunday at 11:00 AM. If anybody can make it. Then the Fire Department is having a food truck and a kind of craft thing that's kind of cool. So, thank you. Trustee Taylor: Back when we had candidates night, one of the questions was the residents kind of wanted to know what can we do? What are we going to provide that maybe the residents are missing? And we talked about that and we indicated, at least I did and I think some the other nominees that were on the dais that afternoon that we would think about putting together a survey and asking the residents what is it that you're looking for? What is it that we're not providing and formulate some questions to kind of get an idea and be responsive to the residents needs. I'm of the opinion deciding what the residents need, doesn't necessarily come from this side of the table. It comes from the community and I think we need to maybe think about putting together that survey and kind of get some information fed back to us and get some honest opinions from the people that we serve here. Manager Revella: I have a meeting with the Orange County Partnership coming up and that's something they're very experienced in getting surveys together. I'll talk to them about how to put one together and bring it to the board. Trustee Taylor: Yeah, it doesn't have to be super extensive. Deputy Mayor Batson: I can build a survey. I think it's fantastic idea. 3 of us are out there with an iPad. It's not challenging to do. I can totally build that. Trustee Hall: I also attended the fundraiser. It did go very well. Thank you for making meatballs. They were delicious and baking some other stuff that was really good. Thank you to the Taylors for coming and Mayor Ramos and Manager Revella. It was a nice turnout. We are also doing the vendor fair. So, right after you guys do the ceremony, then come on up. Unfortunately, I won't be able to make the ceremony because I will be up there doing that. National Night Out, I know you mentioned it last meeting. Has anything come up about that yet? Manager Revella: Yes, the Police Department's organizing it for the first Tuesday in August. Trustee Hall: Is that all that we have on it? Manager Revella: They're getting it taken care of. I think they're working on the food right now. Trustee Pearson: Is the town doing it also? We're going to be splitting? Town people won't come here. It'll just be small and tiny. Manager Revella: Not many people go to the town event. Trustee Hall: It's the same day across the country. 26 Trustee Pearson: The helicopter and all that other stuff. Are we still going to get that? Manager Revella: That's what they're working on. Trustee Hall: Scofield St. The last week or so. I mean, it's all the time, but the last week or so, it's kind of just jabbed at me every time I drive up the hill and see that garbage on the trailer. Manager Revella: At 83 Scofield. They get cited and they dump it and then they fill it up again. We tell the Vermillings often to please keep it clean. Trustee Hall: Yeah, it just kind of stinks when you're driving up the hill and you see a sofa right there. I mean, come on, put a tarp over it, do something. Go to the dump a little more often. I would think going to the dump is less than the fines. Manager Revella: I see it every day. Trustee Hall: The Community Center parking lot. I think you touched on that last week. Did that get done? Manager Revella: No, not yet. Trustee Hall: The Memorial Day Ceremony was very well done inside. I know it was crowded. There was a lot of people, so it was nice to see so many people come out. I know everybody else mentioned the speeding earlier. I've also gotten complaints. It's kind of hard to harp on the cops when the people are the one driving the vehicles. It's not that hard to. Do 15 going down the road, not 30. I hate to harp on the cops on that when it's the people driving. Trustee Garrison: Just a couple of quick things. Riverfront Park looks good. I drove by it. They got some nice gravel laid out there. It's starting to come together really well. That was very nice to see as I was traveling down towards the boat launch. Touched on National Night Out. It's a shame that we couldn't get with the town sooner and try to make something large scale but that's not my department to get involved with. I apologize for missing the last meeting. Unfortunately, a lifelong family friend that passed away, lifelong village resident Aldo O’Dell. A lot of people know her as Nan. Lifelong member of the Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary, so I attended and I was with her family when we had the last meeting but just wanted to keep them in my thoughts and prayers as they go through this. Deputy Mayor Batson: Just one quick thing, Trustee Pearson and Trustee Taylor and myself are going to meet next week to go over what we talked about previously around meeting with the Clerk and the Treasurer on a regular basis and what that conversation looks like. We'll hopefully get that scheduled and report back on the next meeting on June 18th. Manager Revella: They're planning on being in exec tonight to have a meeting with you guys. Mayor Ramos: I too attended the fundraiser at the Fire Department. Very nice. My food got cold there for a while, sitting there, talking to a lot of people. I wanted to give a shout out, to Wallkill Firehouse or Wallkill Hosen. They did donate the Sundays breakfast, right? Manager Revella: The proceeds. 27 Mayor Ramos: Thank you, Chief. That was a really top line thing to do. Memorial Day services went phenomenal and Flag Day will be again on Sunday. Executive Session – Personal History of a Particular Employee Trustee Batson made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss personal history of a particular employee. Seconded by Trustee Garrison. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Kyle made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Hall. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Hall made a motion to approve Edmunds going cloud based seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. 28  Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting June 4, 2024 Motions & Resolutions Public Hearing – Local Law 9 of 2024 – Residency Requirement Deputy Mayor Batson made a motion to open public hearing for Local Law 9 of 2024 – Residency Requirement. Seconded by Trustee Garrison. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Hall made a motion to close the public hearing for Local Law 9 of 2024 – Residency Requirement. Seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. Approval of May 7, 2024 & May 21, 2024 Minutes Trustee Hall made a motion to approve the May 7, 2024 minutes. Seconded by Trustee Pearson. 5 ayes 2 abstentions (Trustee Garrison & Mayor Ramos). Motion carried. Trustee Pearson made a motion to approve the May 21, 2024 minutes. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. 5 ayes. 2 abstentions (Trustee Garrison & Trustee Hall). Motion carried. Intro to Local Law – East Ave Parking Trustee Hall made a motion to set the public hearing for Local Law 10 of 2024 – East Ave Parking for June 18, 2024 at 6:30pm or soon thereafter. Seconded by Trustee Garrison. All ayes. Motion carried. Award Bid – Walker St Sidewalks & Paving Trustee Pearson made a motion to award bid to Ron DeGroodt Paving, Inc for the Walker St Sidewalk, Curbing & Paving Project in the amount of $248.000. Seconded by Trustee Garrison. All ayes. Motion carried. Building Permit Waiver – 11 South Way Mayor Ramos made a motion to approve building permit fee waiver. Seconded by Trustee Garrison. 6 ayes. 1 abstention (Trustee Hall). Motion carried. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Garrison made a motion a approve payment of audited bills. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. All ayes. Motion carried. Executive Session – Personal History of a Particular Employee Trustee Batson made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss personal history of a particular employee. Seconded by Trustee Garrison. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Kyle made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Hall. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Hall made a motion to approve Edmunds going cloud based seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. 29