Board of Trustees

Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting November 12, 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 Absent: Ralph Garrison, Jr. Also Present: John Revella, Village Manager Marisa Kraus, Village Clerk Dave Donovan, Village Attorney Public Hearing – Local Law 11 of 2024 – Scofield St Parking Space Deputy Mayor Batson made a motion to open public hearing for Local Law 11 of 2024 – Scofield St Parking Space. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Batson made a motion to close public hearing for Local Law 11 of 2024 – Scofield St Parking Space. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. All ayes. Motion carried. Hearing – 48 Riverview St - Drainage Building Inspector Wallner: This has been an ongoing property maintenance concern. I have violations dating back to 2019 for similar issues and the violations have been ignored. There's apparently some sort of a water source in or on the property, which is a pretty significant water source, and it's running down onto the public sidewalk, creating a very dangerous situation in the summertime. It's wet always and I don't think it wasn't until very recently that I've seen it dry since I've been here. And in the summertime, it creates algae. And in the wintertime, ice is sometimes 2 to 3 inches thick. The Village has removed the ice several times, runs straight across Riverview. It makes it impassable. Unfortunately, it's also affected other neighbors because the water runs downhill and then it's collected on an adjacent property and that person was unable to remove the ice, so they were fined for not maintaining their part of the sidewalk. It's my request at this point that the Village Board of Trustees take action to remedy this situation. Deputy Mayor Batson: Can you outline what you think the appropriate course of action is, how is it correctable? What would the permitting situation be? Building Inspector Wallner: I've asked Mr. Perna to try to first of all, determine what the source of the water is, which we were not able to determine where the water is actually coming from. It's possibly an underground spring. There's a storm drain very, very close to where the water is exiting the property at the sidewalk, and it's his suggestion that a drywall could be dug and then from that point fed into the storm drain. 1 Deputy Mayor Batson: Do we have any estimates on the cost? Building Inspector Wallner: I don't believe so. I think we've really been putting a lot of effort into trying to get the residents to take the right approach here. Trustee Kyle: Is that the homeowners’ responsibility, the cost that you and Fred talked about? Building Inspector Wallner: Yes. Trustee Pearson: And the cost is for the mitigating for water or fixing the sidewalk? Building Inspector Wallner: Mitigating the water. Trustee Pearson: The sidewalk can stay the way it is right now and you just put in a little drain somewhere, is that what you're talking about? Manager Revella: It would be more like a trench drain on the other side of the sidewalk of the property that would feed into the storm drain and go under the sidewalk in the drain and the road and connect. Deputy Mayor Batson: Is it of anyone's opinion that this excess water caused this damage the sidewalk? Building Inspector Wallner: Sidewalk has definitely deteriorated because it's always wet. Deputy Mayor Batson: As we're committing to this work, should we possibly review scope of sidewalk and prepare as well? Manager Revella: Yes. Trustee Pearson: Is that the Village’s responsibility, the sidewalk repair? Manager Revella: Not if the damage is caused by the property owner. Trustee Taylor: How do we make that determination that this water issue caused the sidewalk damage? Where do we go? Engineer? Manager Revella: We can. Trustee Pearson: The sidewalk is Village property? Manager Revella: That's hard to say. It's maintained by the homeowners. Attorney Donovan: Without a survey, some properties could include the sidewalk, some may not include the sidewalk. Without a survey, I can’t answer that question as to who owns the property upon which the sidewalk. The Village is not obligated to maintain it. The property owner is, even though they don’t own it. That’s allowed by law. Trustee Pearson: If I have a sidewalk in front of my house and it's cracked, do I have to replace that or does the Village replace that? 2 Attorney Donovan: While we're a little far afield from the issue before the board of the remediation of 48 Riverview and it's difficult to answer your question because Rob's not going to walk around the village looking for cracks so he can violate people. The issue is if there's a slip and fall and you haven't properly maintained your sidewalk, I can tell you that you'll be held responsible for that. Trustee Pearson: I’m looking at the sidewalks and maybe it is the water. I don't know. How are we going to determine that? These violations, Rob that you have in here, have any of them been done? We're talking snow violations; we're talking other violations. They have been remedied except for one of them? Building Inspector Wallner: Mostly by the Village. Trustee Pearson: We sent our people. We paid to have it done. Then it goes on to people's taxes to have it done. Building Inspector Wallner: Correct. I found a violation in here from 2019 that was written by the previous Code Enforcement Official, and he included in there a note of a suggestion of how to remedy this situation. That's 5 years ago and it's been ignored. Hearing – 36 Orange Ave – Retaining Wall *Attorney Donovan read notice into minutes* Anthony Cabrera: First of all, I’d like to say that when we're doing smaller retaining wall, we were trying to do a 16 inch retaining wall, which is doesn’t require plans or anything like that. When we were doing excavation, the whole area, just fell down to the property and that caused the problem. It's not something that we intentionally did. It was an accident. That's something that we are very concerned and are sorry about. I'm trying to sell the property so that the buyers take care of the responsibility. I run out of funds. Financial difficult situation. I would like to ask for another month to have an answer whether or not these potential buyers could take over and fix the situation. Trustee Kyle: You’re not in contract, just in conversation. Anthony Cabrera: We already speaking out, the buyer is interested. He’s doing some homework. What happened to the retaining wall? How much is the cost of that? So, right now he's speaking to my engineer about the cost of building that. Trustee Hall: You had the money set aside to do a retaining wall when that property Fell. Anthony Cabrera: Yes, we were doing only 16 inches so would have only cost like $3000. Now because of that situation, the amount is higher. Trustee Hall: Have you asked somebody what the new amount would be now, to do that? So, you just push it off on someone else and you want us to wait. Anthony Cabrera: Yeah, just give me another month to have a final answer. Trustee Hall: But in the meantime, that's dangerous. There's a kid riding his bike and he falls, and he’s going to go down the hill because the wall is not there. You know what I mean? It's dangerous. 3 Anthony Cabrera: I understand that now. I’m very sorry about it and I'm just asking for a few more days. Attorney Donovan: If I could note for the board, the violations date back to April. Trustee Hall: No. Then I don't think we should give another month. I think you need to fix it. Trustee Kyle: You had $3000 set aside and that's all you had. Then it went over $3000 and you were done. But dating back to April, if you don't even have an accepted offer from April until now. What is a month from now going to do? Anthony Cabrera: Before I didn’t have any buyers. Right now, we have a buyer. As I mentioned in the e-mail I sent to the Building Inspector, I don't have the funds to pay for it. I’m delinquent in my loan payments on the mortgage. So, I’m trying to sell it to have the new buyer fix it. Trustee Kyle: Have you been trying to find a buyer since April? Anthony Cabrera: Yes. Trustee Taylor: The sale of this property does not do away the dangerous condition as it's just described. We still have a dangerous condition as it exists tonight. The sale of the property is not going to make that go away anytime soon. Our concern has to be the issue as it sits here tonight. Anthony Cabrera: I understand. As I mentioned, I don't have the funds to fix it and now I'm trying to have this close. The new buyer is aware and is going to build a new wall. Right now he's in conversation with the engineer about the cost. Trustee Kyle: What would we expect to see in a month from now? We would want to have some sort of resolution. You're asking us for a month, but what are you going to show us in a month from now? Is the property going to be closed on with the new owner that has a plan to fix it? Deputy Mayor Batson: And what if the buyer says no? Then we’re a month out. Trustee Kyle: What's going to happen next month? Anthony Cabrera: I cannot say, not there yet. But I would have an answer in a month from now. Trustee Kyle: I'm not seeing that you're going to have any answer in a month. You're asking us for a month for you to come back to the board and us to have this exact same conversation that we're having right now. Trustee Pearson: When you dealt with *inaudible*, did you have plans? Did you have engineering report at that time? Did go through the Building Department? Did you give them the plans? Did you have to do that? When you started to dig out what you wanted to put in, and supposedly the rest fell down, did you have any engineering plans to begin with? Anthony Cabrera: I was doing a 16 inch retaining wall. I believe it doesn't require any plans, any approval from the Building Department. Trustee Pearson: Did you have any stop work orders on your building because you were doing things that you shouldn’t be doing? 4 Anthony Cabrera: I never had a stop order. I did have the inspector coming out without permission inside the building. Attorney Donovan: I'm sorry, if I could just interrupt for a second. In the boards file, there are 2 stop work orders for the property of 36 Orange Ave. Wednesday, April 12, 2024. Wednesday, May 2, 2024. Are you saying you did not receive those? Anthony Cabrera: I was aware of the retaining wall stop work order. But I didn’t know about the other one. Attorney Donovan: The Building Inspector placard your building. It says stop work. You didn’t know they were there. Anthony Cabrera: As I mentioned, I know that there was a stop work order after the retaining wall incident. Trustee Pearson: I know at one time, you had been before a board wanting to put parking up there, more cars, going up the ramp and apartments in that building. What retaining wall were you trying to fix? What were you trying to do on that wall up on that hill? Anthony Cabrera: As I mentioned before, I was trying to do 16 inch wall, which doesn’t require a permit, so the car doesn’t hit the wall. Trustee Pearson: I think the Zoning Board didn’t approve any cars going up in that wall space. There was no approval for that work being done anyway. Anthony Cabrera: If you look at the plan, I think we have 2 parking spaces up on the ramp. Trustee Pearson: You wanted them, I don’t know if it was ever approved. Anthony Cabrera: I believe so. Trustee Pearson: The Building Inspector could tell if it was approved or wasn’t. Building Inspector Wallner: Removing the retaining wall was a site plan violation. That's why I issued a stop work order. Trustee Taylor: Rob, is there a potential for this to get worse as we sit here with no corrective action? Building Inspector Wallner: 100%. It’s been deteriorating since April. Has deteriorated quite significantly. Trustee Taylor: In a month we've got weather and the dangerous situation is not rectified. And the sale of this property is not going to rectify this issue. Deputy Mayor Batson: Can you clarify? I'm sorry, you said you issued a stop work order because they were removing the retaining wall, but they were actually replacing the retaining wall. You were replacing the retaining wall? Anthony Cabrera: As I mentioned before, there was no physical retaining wall. What I was trying to do was 16 inch retaining wall. 5 Mayor Ramos: When you initially started digging, your engineer or your excavator, realize that it's not going to be a perfect project when you were starting this? I see that there's a drainage, it's going to be a basin because it's large enough to be a basin. There is no sidewalk there. The earth is going to start collapsing, especially when it comes to the season. You expect us to give you a month to mitigate this and potentially looking for another buyer. Which will set that back a couple more months. It's kind of hard to believe that this is going to be taken care of without our stepping in. You follow me? That road is going to collapse and especially right where the drainage is. That's going to cause a lot more issues, especially down that street. Village Manager’s Report  Few updates on rehabs loans. Working on process, updates and payoffs  Covered for DPW Super for a few days  Canvassing for Police Chief. Had some interviews  Went over parking lot project with the engineer at Olley Park  Hazard Mitigation updates with the county. Have a lot to go still  Met with the Library and Town Board. Library Proposition did pass  Went over personnel matters with the Finance Dept. and the Office  Went over property maintenance concerns and the Building Dept.  Went over payroll, agenda items, journal entries, potential grants  Helped out and cover on the water main break on East Main St and sewer station fail at Tin Brook  Went over some accounting and billing with the Treasurer  Had meeting with Paychex  Meeting with CSEA to talk about potential MOA  Rec Dept. has their senior bus trip planned for Dec 1st. Outdoor ended, indoor soccer is ready to go. Indoor pickle ball is going well. A lot programming going on at the Community Center. Christmas in the Square is on Dec 5th. Tree is picked out.  Building Dept. issued 54 new permits, 71 violations, 3 stop work orders, 8 CO Reports, 1 court proceeding and assisted with Planning and Zoning Board  Clerk’s been updating Facebook and website, going through 207c and workers comp applications, minutes, dig permits and resident complaints  Finance Dept. has been going over invoices, reconciliations, billing, journal entries, Edmunds updates, moving vendors to online  Public Works, working on vehicles, pressing sludge at sewer plant, cleaning stations, going over resident complaints. Water Dept. did 26 mark outs, replaced 48 meters, 15 endpoints, 2 closings and 2 inspections. DPW also assist pipe replacement East Main St from water main break and monitoring the sewer stations. Been trying to grind and remove stumps as they can from around the Village. Cutting back routes and doing sidewalk repairs  Police Dept., helping with the Chief on staffing. Have a couple more full time candidates. They did have sting operation with assistance from the Office of Cannabis Management and shut down one location and find another one heavily. Will be more on that. They did 69 traffic stops, 27 summonses, 23 parking tickets, 4 mvas, 14 arrests, 552 blotters  Court is on their regular schedule. Court Clerk is out for personal issue  Library School Program is on and the ballot initiative passed Trustee Kyle: Can we talk about how the Paychex meeting went? Manager Revella: They gave us a proposal; which I don't think I can say that publicly because if we should get another cost from someone else I don't want jeopardize the pricing. But we did get pricing on it. 6 Trustee Kyle: Does it look promising? Manager Revella: Not based on the cost. Trustee Pearson: How are we with water? Water to drink. Manager Revella: We're good. Trustee Pearson: I've been talking about accreditation from PD. We haven't had a report on that. Where we at? I know we I've asked a couple times. Manager Revella: The status hasn't changed since last time. They have to do the verifications on policies with each member. They're not there yet because we got so many new members in that need to get familiarized with it so they can recite the policies when they get tested. Trustee Pearson: Bids on the kitchen. Manager Revella: None. It's out to bid again. The people that were going to bid said they needed more time. Trustee Pearson: That money is coming from where? Manager Revella: Surplus. Trustee Pearson: I have a problem with that, right now. What are you surplusing? Manager Revella: No, surplus funds. Reserve funds that we have. Trustee Pearson: I think we've been pulling a lot out of there. You know bank reqs, I had met with Jean and bank reqs are not done. We don't know really where we're at. Do we? Money wise. Manager Revella: We have a rough idea. Trustee Pearson: Rough is not cutting it for me because we as a board are responsible for that money. Manager Revella: I can't discuss anything more particular than that in public. Trustee Pearson: I'm concerned about that. I want you to know that that's my concern. What we're spending, how we're spending, what's happening, because our necks are on the line, not anybody else’s. We are responsible for that spending. I have some concerns on spending and hiring and all that. If you want to talk about that in public or executive session, it needs to be talked about. Manager Revella: If there are personnel aspects of that discussion, they should be in exec. Trustee Pearson: Right. But if it's not and it's just over spending and spending things that we don't need to spend money on right this minute. Manager Revella: When you say you don't need to spend on, that could be a personnel matter. So, you have to be careful. 7 Trustee Pearson: I think we need to really have some numbers, those I keep hearing about the bank reqs are not done and I have issues with that. I get it. It's been a long time and I think we need to really buckle down and get that done. I know, Jean said she's going to try to have it done by December, but it better be done before budget time frame, so that's where I'm at right this minute. That's why also when you talked about Paychex, I mean it's a good idea, but where is that money going to come from? We don't even know really. The water break on East Main. We are not paying for that. Correct? Manager Revella: There's certain work that we do have to pay for. Trustee Pearson: Can you explain to me right now, because I saw Spagnoli was out in front by Dean's house, that is for water or is that for sewer? Manager Revella: Water. Trustee Pearson: Have they started the sewer yet? Manager Revella: Not that I'm aware of, in the right a way. The water lines are basically done now. Trustee Pearson: We put them in. Manager Revella: No. Trustee Pearson: Went to the Town Board meeting the other night and I really think and John was there. Lynn happened to be there as well. I think we really as a board should really put something together. Maybe a letter to send to them tomorrow and Thursday night is their budget, they're going to pass and they're going to be giving us a tax on our roads. Thank you. They can't seem to fix the Hill Street Bridge, but they can certainly tax our roads. I think we as a board we should really put something together, maybe have that sent to the budget hearing on Thursday night. I'd be happy to take it if we want to go, if anybody wants to go Thursday. It’s at 4 in the afternoon. It's not like a really convenient time for people because everybody’s working. They also are raising the ambulance, maybe. They don’t know. Trustee Kyle: As far as the sewer station, I know that at least by my house, a lot of residents have complained about the smell and it being like overwhelming. What's going on with the sewer department? I know that we have a volume of sewage that the sewer department. We definitely need an upgrade. The sewer department needs to be upgraded. We need a lot of work done. Where are we at with that? I know that there was the line that was going to get put in from across the road. Manager Revella: We have grants that we were awarded. We're not able to utilize them yet because we need the plans approved by the state first. Trustee Kyle: Do we have a timeline on that? Manager Revella: No. Trustee Pearson: I was told by the end of the year. Manager Revella: That's what we're hoping the state approves us by. We have 2 parts to the project, but neither 1 of those have to do with anything with smell. That's something else. 8 Trustee Kyle: I only brought it up because I’ve heard from residents about it. Manager Revella: You heard someone say something about odor. We haven't had any complaints lately. Trustee Kyle: If you're by my house, it's bad. But I live right by the sewer department. I know I'm very, very close. Manager Revella: If you have complaints, you should let us know. I haven't heard of any. Because when we have them, there are things we can do to minimize that. Email either me or Fred right away. Trustee Taylor: John, what's the difference between conferencing with the Chief to discuss canvassing for the Chief position and conferencing with the Chief to interview Chief position candidates? Manager Revella: The interview is the actual interview with the people. The discussion was what we looked at letters and applications, letters and residency. Trustee Taylor: Where do we stand? Manager Revella: I've interviewed several and I can't discuss that in public. Trustee Taylor: When do you anticipate that that may come to fruition? Manager Revella: I was hoping to finish interviews before Thanksgiving and have a selection thereafter, but discuss in exec with you terms and conditions for that. Deputy Mayor Batson: Building Department is often 1 of the more controversial departments, but Rob, looking at your stats here, you have doubled the number of violations from this year to last. I think that's outstanding. If you pull your stats, it says you were at 504 this time last year, you're just under 1000. So, for the folks that are discontent with that or voicing opinion about things not getting done, you've literally doubled the productivity from year over year. Well done on that. Thank you. Trustee Pearson: I do have one more question. I'm sorry, John, in there also the report for the sewer digging by the company, they utilized 2 of our men. Are they paying for our men? Manager Revella: No. That was Arold Construction. That was our contractor that did the sewer lining through CDBG grant. We were just there because they found a new manhole that was buried under the blacktop. We had to uncover it. Approval of October 15, 2024 Minutes Trustee Pearson made a motion to approve the October 15, 2024 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. 5 ayes. 1 abstention (Trustee Hall). Motion carried. Public Comment Lynn Thompson: I would just like to bring up the drainage on 48 Riverview St. Again, have any of you gone there and looked at it? Thank you, because I live on Riverview St and I started complaining about that drainage problem many, many years ago. Nothing has changed. My husband and I have spent a lot of money correcting drainage problems on our property because that's what you're supposed to do. I know it's expensive, but it could be a very simple solution. I feel like these 9 homeowners haven't explored anything. I walk my pets up there; I have to go out in the road. You cannot walk there. People have fallen. It's very, very slippery. It's smells. It's really a nuisance. It's not safe. I'm very disappointed that they just don't seem to want to work with the Building Inspector or Mr. Perna to try and come up with a solution. I hope if the board has to make a decision, you'll take that into consideration, how long my neighbors and I have had to put up with this. And yeah, it might cost some money, but that's the responsibility you assume when you become a property owner. So, you need to address it. As far as the Orange Ave retaining wall. I really hope, I mean, I feel bad. I do feel bad that somebody is in financial distress for what appears to be a poor business decision that they made, but that has been a serious problem for quite some time. We're very fortunate that we haven't had a lot of rain because that bank could wash out at any minute, not only could it affect the structure of Church Street above it, but that could just be a complete disaster, with mud running down onto Route 208. And if there's a person there....there could be a real potential problem, so I'm very sorry for that property owner, but again, when you own a property, it's your responsibility and I just have a real problem with someone who's known there's a problem for months and months to ignore it and think that whoever's going to buy the property is going to fix the problem that they created. So, good luck with that one. Thank you. Mary Ellen Matise: You’re going to want to take a couple notes if you're going to follow up on Becky’s suggestion about the new Town DA Tax, Highway Department Tax, for some village residents. According to the assessor’s office, Village of Walden is 19.57% of the town tax base. Village of Montgomery is 13.18% of the tax base and Maybrook is 7.52% of the tax base. That's about 30% of the tax base of the town. Manager Revella: It's about 40. Mary Ellen Matise: That's even better. My idea and you can reject it if you want, but I think it's good one, is when you write this letter to the town, over 40% of this money that they’re going to collect should come back to the villages to do the repairs in the villages that the town is responsible for. If they felt that they had constraints on their budget before and they couldn't do that and this is going to give extra money, then this extra money should be spent in the villages. I hope that you take a firm stand with them, even though we can go there and bring this up verbally to them. A letter from the village and maybe from Maybrook, I don’t know about the Village of Montgomery, if they would be receptive to doing it also. Need to stick up for us. We’re just the little guys. I have a question and maybe this is something to look up when you go do code review again. I feel for these guys about the sidewalk and I have a similar issue, although there’s no sidewalk involved, up on Clinton St. I don’t know if that homeowner can insure the sidewalk even for liability because the village owns the property that the sidewalk is on. That’s village right of way. You’re putting the burden on homeowners saying that they're liable if somebody gets hurt. But how can they be if they can't insure it? Because you would want to insure yourself against that liability. You insure the rest of your property so that if somebody runs across your lawn and fall over and breaks a leg your insurance will cover. I think you have to look at this. I agree that it needs to be dealt with and maybe even need to be changes in code so that it can be dealt with. Because there is a problem with run off on neighboring properties that are within somebody's ownership, not village right of way. That needs to be addressed. Also, think we sent it to you in terms of asking about how’s our water doing? There’s a new round of water protection grants opening up and I think it was sent to you, John. Sue Taylor: The residents of the three villages have traveled, quite nicely, without ever or rarely, traveling on town roads. We have State Routes 17K, 52, 416, 211, I84 and 747. We have county roads, Albany Post, Searsville, River Road, Coldenham Road, Hill Ave, Plains Rd and Neely Town Rd. To get to where we need to go without traveling on a Town of Montgomery Rd. I am hoping that the elected officials in this village will vehemently resist the Town of Montgomery's efforts to 10 tax our residents on order to maintain their roadways. This is just another effort to balance their own budget shortfalls on the backs of village residents. The DA funding has been on the books for years, yet never funded. If they cannot afford to fix and maintain their roadways and now need this fund, where has the money been coming from to date? Why should the village residents be forced to pay taxes for roads that most of us rarely use, if ever? Isn't that the reasoning that the Town of Montgomery refused to fix the Hill Street Bridge in the Village with Walden? Lack of use by town residents? Why should residents of the town and two other villages pay for a bridge that is in Walden? I believe that reasoning was used from the dais and the town meeting by the previous supervisor. So, why should residents of the three villages pay for roads owed by the town that we never use? In my opinion, the Town of Montgomery can't have it both ways and elected officials in each of the three villages should vigorously oppose this scheme to force village taxpayers to subsidize these costs. This is the kinds of things that happen when you spend your fund balance. You disregard the patterns for progress report that was done. And you're going to create a bigger Police Department, tax the A fund for a new police building, $8 million. Sounds familiar when you start to spend your fund balance and now you can’t pay your bills. So, where you going to get the extra money that you’ll need to do maintenance on your roads? Bridges? That you ignore. You'll find the money somewhere else, which is your 3 villages. Like I said, they can't have it both ways. If you're not going to fix the Hill Street Bridge because your claim to fame is that nobody in the town uses it. Then why should we be taxed for roads that we don't use in the villages? And thank you, Trustee Pearson, for bringing this up. Why aren't things like this on our agenda? I know who makes the agenda. These are things that impact village residents, and I'm willing to bet that most people watching this live stream had no clue this was going on in the Town of Montgomery and village residents are directly impacted. We have enough problems in own village paying for things that need to be done here. And I think that the Town of Montgomery has a lot of nerve to institute this and force people in the villages to help pay their bills and when I say budget shortfalls, I mean budget shortfalls. People need to be careful of your fund balance. People call it a slush fund. It's not a slush fund. There's very few ways that you get fund balance. You're either overtaxing or you’re under spending. We would like to believe that all of it comes from under spending. But that's not the case. It belongs to the village residents and you're absolutely right, you have to pay attention to where our money is going and how we're spending it. I’m hoping, that you'll let them know loud and clear that this is wrong, what they're doing and find it egregious that we have the A fund. We spent, $20,000 on the patterns for progress, never talked about, never heard about it and as far as we know, this village didn't vigorously talk about it with them. They decided to ignore it, so we're going to pay the price for that. Now have this DA fund where we're going to be paying for roads they should have been fixing for years, ignore the DA fund back then. Never instituted because they have to get the money from somewhere. What's the tax increase supposedly gonna be? Manager Revella: It’s down to 19%. Trustee Pearson: May not stay there because the ambulance might go up. Sue Taylor: If I’m right they're using their fund balance to keep the tax rate down. So, now the chickens are coming home to roost, and we're going to get slammed. Manager Revella: That's correct. It's in the report that they gave us. Sue Taylor: I’m glad someone looked at it. But I don’t want us to follow the same path. Stop using fund balance. Think about what we're spending. As far as I'm concerned, I don't trust the numbers you're going to be doing budget if we have no bank reconciliations, how are we supposed to be confident in those lines knowing what we have and what we don't have? And Trustee Pearson is right. It's not a guesstimate. That's not the game that we're supposed to be playing. If those bank 11 reconciliations aren't done and you don't have firm figures when you do your budget, how you doing your budget? Has anybody been paying attention to what's going on? We've been talking about these reconciliations since August of 22 and we're still doing the same bank reconciliations. My husband would kill me if I didn't do my checkbook every month. You're in charge of the finances of this village. How is this allowed to go on since 2022? I don’t get it. John Thompson: John, I have question for you. Does the Police Department still file UCR reports? Now when you give that report of, I believe it was 500 blotter entries. How many of them are UCR reportable? Manager Revella: Not all of them. Probably less than half. We have the report here. I don’t have the exact number. It’s not a lot. Park checks are in there. John Thompson: Does everybody know that a blotter entry is not necessarily a crime entry? All: Yes. Manager Revella: I would guess a little over 200 not reportable. Park Use – Alcohol Waiver - Jones Trustee Hall made a motion to approve Park Use Request – Alcohol Waiver subject to updated insurance certificate. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Batson. All ayes. Motion carried. Park Use – Alcohol Waiver - Mcmahon Trustee Hall made a motion to approve Park Use Request – Alcohol Waiver. Seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. Park Use – Alcohol Waiver - Kirnan Trustee Hall made a motion to approve Park Use Request – Alcohol Waiver. Seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. Local Law 11 of 2024 – Scofield St Parking Space Deputy Mayor Batson made a motion to adopt Negative Declaration in regards to SEQR. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Pearson made a motion to adopt Local Law 11 of 2024 Scofield Street Parking Space. Second by Trustee Hall. All ayes. Motion carried. 48 Riverview St - Drainage *Attorney Donovan read Chapter 214-8 Subdivision E into minutes* Attorney Donovan: Now your choice is if you want that method before you before you order the abatement, or whether you're going to delegate what constitutes the abatement to the Building Department, who would obviously work in concert with the Village Manager and to the extent necessary, the Village Engineer. Trustee Pearson: I'm not so sure what the cost would be. Would we want to find that out first, because however we're going to do it, we're probably going to have to fix it #1. And the extent of the fix. Are we just putting in the drain? Would it be fixing the sidewalk? What the board's decision will be? So that's my questions on the issue. 12 Manager Revella: I think it depends on what the cost comes back at, like if we're going to bid the project, you award or not award that bid when it comes. Does that make sense? Trustee Pearson: Yes, but are you just doing it for the drainage or are you doing it for the whole piece? Attorney Donovan: I think the answer to that excellent question is you don't know. You could delegate that. But if it comes back that, hey, the scope of the project is 100 gazillion dollars, then maybe you don't want to spend that because the reality is you can relevy it, but that relevy is not going to happen till next year. Manager Revella: I think that if you are going to ask them to do the drainage work. You'd have to fix at least two of those sections of sidewalk regardless, because they'd likely come out when you do the drain. Trustee Pearson: I’d like something on that. If we're making that decision, then I want something here to read. Trustee Hall: I agree. Attorney Donovan: I can make a suggestion. Not that I want to take advantage of anyone's time, but you can always have a special meeting. The concern on both of these things is the legitimate concern, they been going on a long time, and I know the Village Board doesn't want it to go on any longer. But at the same time, you got guys like me telling you to make sure you follow the rules. A directive that you be given a scope of the work necessary to abate the condition, and then, if it comes back in time, have a special meeting. That's just an option, because then you know exactly what you're doing as opposed to the other option, which is delegate to Rob. Deputy Mayor Batson: I think we're up against inclement weather. We all know what time of year it is. I think we should take advantage of the special meeting and try to move forward with this as quickly as possible. Mayor Ramos: Everybody good with that? All: Yes. Mayor Ramos: Option one was the Building Inspector. Attorney Donovan: That's the option you guys sound like that you're gonna adopt, right? I don't know, Rob, I always hate when I say I'm going to put you on the spot, but then I go ahead and put you on the spot anyway. How long do you think it would take you to be able to develop the scope of work necessary to abate the conditions that presumably both at 48 and 36 Orange? Manager Revella: We'd be asking our village engineer to do that. Trustee Pearson: Is that something we could do in house? Manager Revella: Maybe. Trustee Pearson: I don't know how the expansive. What I'm saying, the engineer can look at it, but if the work can get done, it might get done quicker without and the village have put in sidewalks before. I don’t know if that’s possible. 13 Manager Revella: I just don't know if you want the liability for that purpose. Mayor Ramos: Then the bid process will take another 30 days before we accept the bid. Attorney Donovan: You can't expedite that. The minimum bid is really 5 days for advertising. If you wanted to. Generally, you give a longer period of time for general public works project because you want more people to bid because you want more choices to try to get the best price. These are not that situation. You're looking to take care of an emergency situation. Mayor Ramos: We're looking at the Building Inspector along with the engineer, to provide us a scope of what needs to be done. We’ll convene for a special meeting on December 19th? Attorney Donovan: Then you'll have more information in front of you. You can make a motion to order the situation abated within the scope of work that's been provided so you know pretty much exactly what you're doing. My suggestion, go ahead and do that. If for some reason you have postpone it, you can, but you have it set. Manager Revella: I won’t be here at 6:30pm on the 19th. 6 I can make. Trustee Pearson made a motion to schedule a special board meeting for November 19, 2024 at 6pm to consider action on 48 Riverview St. Seconded by Trustee Hall. All ayes. Motion carried. 36 Orange Ave – Retaining Wall Mayor Ramos: Mr. Cabrera, we are going to convene in a special meeting on the 19th of this month. Have 7 days to formulate your plan. Get your engineers. Give us a plan and how you’re going to monetarily take care of this. We're going to do our due diligence on our side and then you come up with your plan and let’s see if we can work together. But we are going to decide on what's going to happen on the 19th at 6pm. 76-80 West Main St – Unsafe Building Update Anthony Meluso: When we were last here, we didn't have insurance. It's been procured in the amount of $2,000,000 in general liability. I gave Mr. Wallner a scheduled before the meeting and you saw that we sat together in the back and discussed the project. I visited Mr. Wallner after the last meeting. I gave him plans from the old project from 2019. We’re going to use those plans as a basis for the demolition. We found the survey of the property to show where the lines are with respect to the brick building at #74 and the adjoining building at #82. We have a field meeting, which is what we suggested last time. We met with John Russo, the Building Inspector and we kind of hammered out what was important and what was not important. We all agreed that we would look at the property maintenance code and determine what, if any, effect or remedy needs to be done on the brick building while he has access to it. The other thing we moved ahead with was, we had a building sampled and we had an asbestos demolition survey and analysis and as it turned out the building is pretty clean. So, there isn't really an issue with respect to that, but now we know that so we can get this based on it not being in asbestos contaminated building. We've already had one contractor to look at it and the report came out today, so I'll follow up with a couple more contractors and get pricing for Andrew. Timing is pretty much based on two things, NYSEG did terminate the electric, but the report doesn't show that, they didn't close it out. They didn't terminate the gas and we have to follow up with that. Mr. Wallner and I tried to pressure them and make this an emergency project and they came and took out the electric, but not the gas. That needs to be closed out. My demolition plan will use existing plans. I'm waiting for 811 Safety to come and mark it out. I’ll field survey it. Put it on the plan. Here’s the gas, water, sewer. Come terminate it wherever we need to do that and move forward. I think the timing is we can get this done before the 14 first of the year, with respect to the demolition. The funds are in the place and we can move ahead with demolition. The next thing is, we call it a reconstruction of building 76-80. We submitted plans for a new building. After reading the architectural review requirements. It's a lot like replacing it with the second floor and it takes into account that the street slopes and the rooftop should line up and be the same height. I think that fits. We're gonna go to Planning Board and speak to them about this design package. Deputy Mayor Batson: I think for others out there, take note. This is a perfect example what we've asked for and you’ve delivered on. We always asked for the plan came. You came with a well- articulated plan. Everything we've asked, you've responded to. Trustee Pearson: Your clean up and your demo, is that going to be on the Main Street side or the back of the building side? Anthony Meluso: Prefer to be on the back of the building side and that's one of the reasons I submitted the survey. In its survey, it looks like that larger parcel and Jim Dillon was the surveyor. That larger parcel was recreated and no one owns the back property on that survey. So, it doesn't belong to the brick building, especially. It doesn't belong to Andrew’s building. It’s unknown. Manager Revella: The brick building owns the parking lot part. There's a road access off of Oak Street that goes all the way to Ciardullo’s old building. Mayor Ramos: You’re going to provide to the Planning Board. Anthony Meluso: Yes. What I'll do is, when I come up with the demo plan. I'll show that right a way as the staging area. Trustee Taylor: You don't anticipate any impact on traffic or anything during this demolition process? Anthony Meluso: Not if we could do it from the rear of the building. Trustee Taylor: In the event that that changed, we would need to know that. Anthony Meluso: We wouldn’t do it. Mayor Ramos: When do you anticipate the gas being hooked off? Anthony Meluso: That’s NYSEG. When close out that report, then we'll be able to move forward. Manager Revella: Just want to clarify, are you saying the demo wouldn't start till the 1st of the year? Or you’re going to be done by the 1st. Anthony Meluso: I can have it completely done by the 1st of the year. Manager Revella: Completely demolished and out of there by the 1st of the year. Anthony Meluso: Yes. Building Inspector Wallner: What he said is pretty much the summary that I had. As he stated, we had the Village Engineer do a site visit. I received a call from the neighboring parcel and he has 15 some he has some concerns about once the building is removed. How it's going to affect his building and I believe he would love to have the opportunity to have you address that with him. Anthony Meluso: It’s not a party wall, but once that roof is removed from 76-80, it kind of protects that building. Once it's gone, his side wall will be exposed and the code tells you, in case of demolition of an existing building with a common party wall, with one or more adjacent buildings, the party taking down their building is responsible to protect it. But for how long and to what level? Trustee Pearson: You'd have to close up his wall. Is that what you're saying? Anthony Meluso: We might have to put plywood on it and tar paper to give him time to make a decision about what he wants to do for siding. Mayor Ramos: I don't know what the issue is to address us for. Until all your plans are formulated. Trustee Pearson: Is it wise to have him back to see where he is in another month or something? Anthony Meluso: We should be done in another month. Mayor Ramos: December 3rd. Trustee Pearson: And if it's not, then we'll have you come back. Anthony Meluso: I'll submit plans before then. 60 Main St – Unsafe Building Update Building Inspector Wallner: On October 17th a site visit was conducted for the purpose of structural evaluation and Mr. Russo, who was the engineer who represents the village. Mr. Russo, determined that the rear portion of the structure has become decayed and dilapidated to the point of being unsafe. The recommendation is to remove that portion of the structure and secure the remaining structure prior to winter weather since snow can cause collapse. This determination was discussed in detail with Mr. Tortora following the evaluation. Mr. Tortora was also advised that a detailed plan, including demolition schedule, should be prepared prior to the scheduled continuation of hearing. To date, this office has received no further communication from Mr. Tortora and will therefore recommend the Village Board impose a finite deadline of no more than 10 days, which would be November 22nd, to allow the property owner to demolish and secure the dilapidated portion of the structure or the village will take action. The only improvement of site that was observed at the premises was that the Main Street window had been cleaned. I also received later this evening a letter from the Village Engineer stating exactly what I said. This has become a very dangerous situation. I think we’re playing with the odds right now. If we get a heavy snowfall. We're going to have a problem. Mayor Ramos: Did we get that documentation from the engineer? Building Inspector Wallner: I received it at 5:30. I do have a copy of it if you'd like. Trustee Hall: Or just shoot an e-mail. Building Inspector Wallner: There's there was also 16 pages of photos documenting the dilapidated building. 16 Trustee Pearson: I know we’re talking about the back of that building, when you got inside the building, did you go in the basement? Building Inspector Wallner: There was no safe access to the basement. It was taped off with caution tape before we got there. Trustee Pearson: I just looked up today, we have a code, chapter 213 Properties Abandoned/Vacant. There are things that we can be doing, fining, things that have been happening, and I'm not so sure, not at your fault, but I'm just saying why aren’t we doing this? Manager Revella: They’re listed under abandoned properties. Trustee Pearson: Yes, but abandoned properties still get inspected. They still have to be permitted. The whole thing that talks about abandoned buildings and the registry. Shall establish a registry of all properties registered with the village. There are fees. The owner shall pay an annual fee of $1000 for the first year. Manager Revella: They’re paying. Building Inspector: It's increased by $500 a month after that. Trustee Pearson: Why are we not doing inspections? Manager Revella: If you'd like me to speak about why or why not inspections were done, I'd have to do that in executive session as it’s related to personnel. Attorney Donovan: Rob, what is the date you put on this? Building Inspector Wallner: November 22nd. This is only for the rear addition. It's a one-story addition and basically nothing left of it now. The real complication of it is now securing the rest of the structure because that will leave the back wall completely open. Trustee Pearson: What about the roof line? There was an issue with the roof line with a couple different buildings. Building Inspector Wallner: Yes, it's a little complicated for sure. Trustee Pearson: But as the engineer said, they're responsible for the building parts coming down, and that person taking it down is responsible for making the others whole. That’s what I heard. Building Inspector Wallner: As we mentioned, to what extent do you have to *inaudible* to match everything that's there? Unfortunately, doesn't specify the extent of the responsibility. Trustee Pearson: There are things that has to be covered, painted. There are things that can happen, and it's in the back of the building. It’s not like it's on the front of the building. Building Inspector Wallner: If we abate the dangerous condition, that’s pretty much what I’m asking for. It’s certainly your prerogative not to offer the additional 10 days. I made it very clear in our conversation after we did the evaluation that if the village was forced to take action on this, that would be the more expensive route and I encouraged him to actually have a plan whether it was a 17 definite timeline or just get it done before today and that didn't happen. I have no communication from him. Trustee Taylor: Isn’t that what we discussed at the last meeting, that he was supposed to be here with a delineated plan to address the unsafe conditions, and I think you left here and we told him don't want to have this discussion when you come back. Here we are. Same discussion. No plan. Same conditions exist. Deputy Mayor Batson: Let's discuss the viability of the extension. I may very much know that the time has passed. We’ve given enough extensions. Trustee Kyle: And he showed he has no interest in working with us. Deputy Mayor Batson: Whatever we resolve, we resolve. There'll be no extension. Attorney Donovan: If the board is prepared to act this evening, it would be a motion to authorize the demolition of the rear addition and to secure the balance of the structure. To be performed by the village and the cost therefore to be billed back the property owner and collected like lien of taxes on the property. Trustee Kyle made a motion to authorize the demolition of the rear addition and to secure the balance of the structure. To be performed by the village and the cost to be billed back to the property owner and collected as lien on the property. Seconded by Trustee Hall. All ayes. Motion carried. Discussion – Municipal Parking Deputy Mayor Batson: This is for changing the timeframes of the lots and the one in particular was Oak. Trustee Hall: I think we should leave it the way it is. Trustee Pearson: Second. Mayor Ramos: Me too. Deputy Mayor Batson: I'm in a different boat and the reason that I'm in a different boat is that I know that that decision was made prior to our tenure here, but it was made for the benefit of businesses. And the businesses seem to now saying something different. Which is fine. They're entitled to change their opinions on this, but it just seems that they're wanting a bit of change on this. Trustee Pearson: They want a permit. Deputy Mayor Batson: I don’t know if permit is for discussion. The time this is up for discussion. That is our only municipal lot that is unrestricted from time perspective. I think the ask was, Cheryl, you can correct me if I’m wrong, unfortunately that creates situations in which that parking is not used for its original intent. Trustee Hall: There’s plenty of parking there. I’ve driven through at all hours, day and night. With all sizes of vehicles and there's plenty of parking there. If somebody that is working on Main Street doesn't park there. Then it's due to not wanting to walk up the street, not because there's no parking. 18 Deputy Mayor Batson: I don't disagree with that. But would you consider that it is being misused and we still need to address that? Trustee Hall: I don't think that it has anything to do with the time. I don’t know, I don’t look at everybody cars. Deputy Mayor Batson: Correct, but it solves the problem. Trustee Kyle: Yes, I do think that without the time, I think that needs to be addressed. Manager Revella: You’re talking about a tenant parking there overnight and for days and days at a time. Trustee Kyle: People leaving their cars for days, weeks. Trustee Pearson: That's probably another code revision. Manager Revella: You can change the parking rules now. I don't know what you want to do. It’s up to you. Trustee Hall: I still think there's plenty of parking there. Trustee Kyle: I think even if there is ample parking, I still don't think it should be used as a storage lot. Deputy Mayor Batson: I agree. Trustee Kyle: Can you say something to enforce long term parking of vehicles, not necessarily a time limit. Trustee Hall: How do you know? Are you sitting there 24/7 knowing that car hasn’t moved? Attorney Donovan: Parking Enforcement Officials. They use different things, technology, camera. Old school is chalk. Chalk the tire and see if the tire moved or not. Trustee Kyle: Or running plates. Maybe someone has a car that doesn’t work and they just threw on plates to have it sit there. Trustee Pearson: I think that the parking enforcer can do that a few days in a row and see what happens. Chalk. Take a picture. Does he use a camera or not? Manager Revella: He can have a body cam if he needs it. Trustee Kyle: Is there no camera that is by that lot? Manager Revella: I don’t know if there is one that reaches that lot, yet. I can check. Trustee Pearson: I think there’s 2 different issues for me. The 1 issue for non-timed parking. I think should stay for the businesses so they don't have to find a lot that they have to move the car every 2 or 3 hours. The other issue is the long term cars that are there that we the village need to address. 19 Trustee Hall: Do you know how difficult it is to have to try to go and report after 2 hours when you're sitting there with hair dye in your hair? Or foils. Manager Revella: Do you think 24-hour maximum is good at Oak St lot? What do you want to do? Trustee Kyle: Can I do a little research and see what measures could be taken? I’m more worried about the long term cars just using it as a storage. Trustee Pearson: I’m for the 24 hours. Deputy Mayor Batson: The other issue I think we wanted to address, is that we wanted to somehow explore potential better signage for municipal lots. I think in speaking with the businesses, I’m not the expert here, the feedback was that if you are local, you know where to park. But if we want to draw in commuter traffic for businesses, the signage for the lots wasn’t big enough. That was the ask. When I asked the last time, who develops a plan for signage and where it should be. I think the answer was that it falls on us. Trustee Pearson: I would rather wait for budget time, see where we are with money. Trustee Hall: That's a better idea. Trustee Kyle: The sign that has the Thruway Liquor Store, the one that’s outside the VFW. Does that have any empty slots on it? Manager Revella: That's owned by the owner of the plaza. Trustee Kyle: I’m just curious if it had any empty slots and can talk to them. Deputy Mayor Batson: Let’s take Liz on her offer to develop a plan. As the liaison to that particular group tasking with that to come in with an articulated plan on that. Manager Revella: John Joseph is the owner of the plaza. He’s very reasonable. That would be helpful for Oak St. Then we have the sign that was by Sohn’s for the Orchard lot and then also by 1 Main St for the Maple Lot. That would be helpful if that could work out. Discussion – Noise Ordinance Manager Revella: Did you want Dave to do any of those updates to look at a new version from the discussions that the board had already? Or you’re not ready for that yet. Trustee Pearson: I think we should meet 1 more time to really hammer out the Walden one because we talked about the other ones today. See what we wanted to add to the Walden one. It really comes down to measurement. Whether we want to change times for noise. Permit. The definition for sound level meter that we were taking from Warwick. Penalties. Enforcement. Restore NY Grant – Set Public Hearing Trustee Hall made a motion to set public Hearing for Restore NY Grant for December 3, 2024 at 6:30pm or soon thereafter. Seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. Tax Levy Trustee Kyle made a motion to authorize the Village Treasurer to submit levy for unpaid taxes in 20 the amount of $405,915.43 to the county. Seconded by Trustee Hall. All ayes. Motion carried. Village Fees and Town Taxes Manager Revella: I didn't know if you wanted to discuss that issue with sending correspondence to the Town of Montgomery regarding their addition of fees and taxes to village residents. Trustee Hall: We should send a letter, if she can take it with her and read it. I’ll be at work so I can’t go. Mayor Ramos: Generate some verbiage and have it sent out tomorrow. Manager Revella: I just want to make sure there’s a consensus on that we don’t appreciate the arbitrary levy, additional taxes on village residents. You can all send comments. Public Comment Sue Taylor: I attended the craft fair they had at Wooster Grove. Our brand new door has tape on it. Is there any reason why we’re taping a brand new door? Trustee Hall: How was it taped? Sue Taylor: It looked like it was taped to stay open. Can we check and see what’s the matter with the door? The kitchen. What are we doing with the kitchen? Putting a refrigerator? Manager Revella: Basic stuff. Sue Taylor: So, if you buy stuff from Lowe's, they won't come and install for you? Manager Revella: We have to publicly bid. That’s all that we’re waiting for. There’s no bids. They want to, they just need more time, that’s what they told us. Sue Taylor: How long has the community center been done? We’re supposedly sending all these bids out and nobody’s answering. Is it us? Trustee Kyle: Where is it posted? Manager Revella: It’s posted publicly in the newspapers and they have some websites that these contractors use for posting. Sue Taylor: I think Walden is great at starting things. But we don't finish. It's like we start all this stuff, we spend all this money and it's unfinished. I have to tell you the inside of the community center is going to have to be painted soon. It looks disgusting. I don't know whether that was cheap contractor paint that was put on there, but marks on the walls. The floor, who’s cleaning the floors in there? Manager Revella: In house. Sue Taylor: Maybe once every 3-4 months, get it professionally cleaned. It’s starting to look drabby. Veterans Day was a wonderful ceremony. Always great job. Place looked beautiful. I thought Bill Sestrom did a great job speaking. He’s just precious. I'm listening to all this; We’re talking about over $400,000 unpaid taxes in this village. Talking about the Town of Montgomery, 21 19% increase. Talking about a new school, $71 million. We know that village taxes are going to go up. How are people going to afford to live here? We have senior citizens that barely make it now. I don't think anybody’s paying attention to what's going on here and I think they're going to be devastated when they start seeing these tax bills. Does anybody give a damn about the people that live here? What do we have to do? Form a taxpayers’ association. Vote everybody out. Start over. Start thinking about consolidating. Something has to happen because people are being priced out of this area and I worry about the senior citizens. Talk to them all the time. I walk, they wave and talk. They cry. They don't know how they’re going to stay here and we just think well, it's only 2%. You start adding it up. Our 2%. 19%. $71 million for a brand new school. Where are people supposed to get this money? I talked a long time ago, back in the day, we had the Engineering Department doing evaluation on our water and sewer system, water and sewer rates. We’re going to be having some big tie ins coming. I don't think that's a bad idea to start talking about the water and sewer system. Are we're going to be able to maintain that? I know you say that we saved usage for these projects. Tin Brook has been an issue for 900 years. Hopefully, that will be done soon. Are we ever going to get a well on the west side? We’ve been looking for a property on the west side for years and years and years. I just don’t know where we’re heading. I think elected officials at large need to start thinking about what they're doing. How we're spending money. That's why I get worried about our fund balance. It's so easy to say “we'll just pay for it form that”. We have to really start thinking about what we're doing. We used to talk about, back when I was still on the board. We had goals. As a board we set goals in the village. What would we like to see happen? What are we concerned about? We talked about a survey for the Village of Walden residents. What do you want? What would you like? We just had an election where people were accused of not speaking to the people. We go out walking and talk to people all the time. They have had it. With this government, with the town government. With the state and county government. If you think everything is fine, there's an undercurrent that's building in this village and you're going to be shocked what's going to happen. Trustee Hall: I wish they would speak up. Sue Taylor: You're lucky that you said you believed in term limits and you were never going to run again. Because it's not going to be pretty. I'm telling you right now. And I'll be right there with them because I've had it. People are tired of things being broken and not being fixed. Our Building Department. When's the last time that thing was power washed? It looks like a swamp is growing on the side of the building. Does the ramp work that we put there? The front looks terrible. Those little things in the fences, that’s hanging off. If we don't care about what our buildings look like, how dare we go out and tell people to fix their property. I'm serious people. I love all you for deciding to serve. I know what it's like to sit on that dais. It's not fun some days. But really, start talking to your colleagues on other boards. Open dialogue and say what can we do better for the Town of Montgomery to get this place nicer to live in? Easier to live in and affordable to live in? I'm telling you, you're driving your young families out. You are driving your senior citizens out. This village is a little over 40% rental. They moved here for a reason. Blue Collar workers live in this village. They moved here because they could have a one car family. They could walk to the store, walk their kids to school, walk to a doctor, a dentist, buy their groceries. And we're losing it. Somebody has to do something and I think instead of being a separate government, you have village, you have town, you have county. Everybody needs to start talking about how they're going to save this area and keep it affordable. We talk about housing. Walden used to be the affordable place to live and it's getting to the point where it's not anymore. I really fear for our seniors because there's really a dire straight and you start talking about these kinds of tax increases. They’re choosing now whether to buy medicine or food. How do they pay their mortgage? How do they pay their taxes? It’s becoming increasingly difficult. We need to start talking about how we’re going to survive as a community. 22 Diane Sandbothe: All my complaints, in a year’s time, nothing has been fixed or rectified. Parking on Liberty St, I want re-visited. It's a disaster. It's like going through a maze. In the summertime, everyone had their lawns being mowed. They had their trucks parked there with their trailers. It was terrible. God forbid there was a fire or emergency. Nobody would have been able to get through. The house by the old firehouse on Montgomery St, is now condemned. When I was here last year, you were going to have it demolished. It’s still up. You talk about these unsafe buildings on West Main St and Main St. 1 thing what about that street? People coming right into town and see that. It’s terrible. There's a red cross on there saying the village has condemned it. First it was on for multiple listings for $100,000. Now they lowered it to $50,000. Meanwhile, probably the rats are running in and out. It’s unsafe for another place, there’s yellow tape all around it. What is the village doing with it? Nothing. If I come back in another year, the building will still be there in the same condition. The black cemetery. It has now been a year's time since you gave me that form, I have never heard from the government. I have never heard from anybody. We have a black save cemetery on our property. Deputy Mayor Batson: I remember from a year ago and haven’t seen you since. I had reached out to a local historian and asked him about that and he gave me a potential resource to help you with that. If I can get your contact information. I can't guarantee any action on it, but apparently there is an author who has written books about this that is a professor in New Paltz and he gave me that persons contact information and I've sat on it because I haven't seen you since. Diane Sandbothe: I’ve been ill. A few years ago, I had 2 people come and they would put sticks in the ground. You put it here and the bodies were there, you’ll miss it. I contacted a gentleman from Vassar who had ground penetrating. I haven’t been able to hook up with him. I’ve written him a few letters. I’ve gone with Maryann numerous times to different places to find out what we can do. All I want is a sign that says this is a black slave cemetery. I want the blue sign with gold letters. I want it to be acknowledged. I’m feeling very strongly about this. Last thing, does the village allow cars that are covered to be on the street? A car on Seely St that has over a year, been covered up and it’s just sitting there. Nobody moves it. Nobody touches it. It's just there. I thought on your property you could do whatever you wanted, but on the street you had to move it. Manager Revella: I don’t think there’s anything about covered; as long as it’s licensed and registered. And we met about your property with a person from the state as well, regarding the cemetery. I'm not sure what else the Village Board can do. We’ve been pushing and trying. Reaching out on your behalf. Diane Sandbothe: I have written to you. I have written to our town. I have written to our senators, our representatives. Everybody. It’s really very sad. Manager Revella: I know that when you came up, you said that nothing has been done in a year on the things you addressed. But that's not something that the board can really address. And then so you know, for the house that's not demolished yet, the price was 500 and something thousand and we couldn't afford to do that ourselves. There is a new property owner that filed for a demo permit to get the house demolished. So, it will be demolished. Lynn Thompson: I just would like to say thank you to the village and the Veterans Park Committee for doing such a nice job on Veteran's Day. It’s always very well done and they did not fail this year. The port-o potties from Harvest Fest, I noticed they're still out there. They’re moved and are now taking up parking spaces. That’s a problem. Why? Manager Revella: The company we got them from just hasn’t come to get them. We’ve asked them several times to get them. 23 Lynn Thompson: It’s disgusting. Somebody moved them. Why would you put there? Manager Revella: We moved them because they said they couldn’t get to them because there are always cars in the way. Lynn Thompson: Now we can’t park in our parking lot. Every parking spot is precious. They are up here talking about parking and you're taking away parking with port-o-potties. I think maybe a little more pressure on the company. It’s very frustrating. What is the status with all these utility poles? They dug their big holes and now they’re filled with gravel. The gravel is getting kicked all on the sidewalks and in the streets. We may have plows coming through soon. How’s that going to work out? Manager Revella: I know it's there on their last leg in the village. I'm not sure what else they're doing after that but almost done. Lynn Thompson: They make one hot mess all over this village. It’s really disgusting. I just want to reiterate what Sue said about the Community Center. The Community Council has been having a lot of activities. I don't know if all of you are aware of everything they're doing. There was one down at the Community Center that was very poorly attended. It was sad because a lot of work went into setting that up. But while we were down there, couldn’t help but notice the inside the building really needs some loving already. It's brand new. It should be maintained a little better than that, so I don't know if it's washing walls down or whether they need to be repainted with a higher quality of paint. I will say the sign that was finished for Olley Park, looks really terrific. I spoke with Mike, it's a little too late in the season for us to move forward with the plan to do a planter around there, but we're still to go ahead with that. He and I are going to hopefully come up with something, get it approved. The front of the building, are there plans to put any kind of a railing there? There's a big drop and I know there's no landscaping there. We spent a lot of money on that building. People are wanting to use it. Manager Revella: The parking lot is getting done now. Once that gets done, we should be able to finish landscaping. Lynn Thompson: Too late now to get that embankment. But we can do that in the spring. Speaking about the Building Department, the porch needs to be painted desperately. I know when I was still on the board I made a fuss and you did get the building power washed, but that's probably in 2019- 2020. It’s been a while. And since everyone is talking about parking. I have to tell you, Scofield St, I was almost in an accident coming off of Maple St. The cars park up the one side of the hill and I don't know if they're too close to, there’s a limit to how far you have to be from a stop sign. How many feet? Manager Revella: 15? Lynn Thompson: They might be too close because you just had to keep creeping, creeping, creeping, creeping out and a car was coming and I couldn't see it through all the other cars. Parking is truly getting to be dangerous village-wide. Walnut St is a nightmare. You literally have to be watching the whole length of the street because there’s cars parked on both sides. I had to back my car up the other day because the person coming this way wasn't going to stop. Manager Revella: It’s 30 feet. 24 Lynn Thompson: If there's only one small section that street where there's parking on one side. Then the whole rest it's parking on both sides. It’s not good. We have a lot of parking issues and I don’t know what the solution is. Mr. Revella, I also sent information about these. I was on the board when we voted to buy these and the computer to do presentations. I come to a lot of Zoning Board meetings, Planning Board meetings. You sit here, you can't hear anything. You can't see anything. I don't know why we are not encouraging people, applicants that want to present to use the technology that we use taxpayer money to fund. You sit here in the audience. People come out, they want to know what's going on in the community, what projects are before them. Becky came to the last and she came up to the dais and grabbed a map. That should all be up there for people to look at. It was a public hearing. You can’t even comment because you don’t know what you’re talking about. You had mentioned that we can't tell applicants that this is how we prefer for them to present to our community. Is that true? We can’t have a policy? Manager Revella: We talked about that. The Building Department can require that from the applicant. Lynn Thompson: The last thing that I would like to ask, I am not as active with the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance as I used to be. I'm very sporadic when I catch their meetings. Something was sent out about a grant that I sent to Mr. Revella. It's for better access to waterways. We have a boat launch that we need to work on but it has to go through a not-for-profit organization. The village can't just apply for it. We could speak to the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance and see if it's something they could help us with. I think the deadline is December 25th. But I don't know if we renewed our application. I don't know if we are a still a member of the organization. Manager Revella: We renewed it but the payment hasn’t gone out yet. Next meeting. Raymond Ortiz: 2 things. First thing is a problem that I've seen all summer long, the homelessness problem in this village. I see daily and every night. If you come down in the morning, you see the kids sitting out by the library. People are homeless. They got nowhere to go. They don't have no food either. I go to Stewarts at night to pick up my daughter when she closes. People sit out on that park bench because they ain't got nowhere to go or food to eat. This is a problem we got to address because right now they’re just homeless and got nowhere to go. But when these people start breaking into people's houses. Then you’re going to have bigger problems. Nobody wants to be homeless. Nobody want to be hungry. But there are things that we can do in this community. We see this. I see this. You come to Village Hall, I’m sure you’ve seen the people sitting around. Manager Revella: The 2 people that sit out here all the time, they’re not homeless. They live at 15 East Main St. Raymond Ortiz: what about all the kids running around with the baby strollers? Running up and down 52. Something’s got to be done. People don’t have food. What are we gonna do about it? What can we do about it? Can we get resources from the county? That's the first thing. The second thing I'm going to bring up is my daughter’s food drive. We have 12 families that we’re gonna support at the Valley Central High School. We take monetary donations and we take food donations. We're going to take the food up to the school on November 19th. The good thing is, is there is less people this year than we’ve had in the past. It’s usually 25-30. *read the flyer into the minutes* I sent the flyer to Becky and Kristie and also Mayor Ramos. This thanksgiving hits hard, you have kids in the school, that don't have food to eat. This is just a blessing to help them out, to get them through the holidays. We got to take care of these people. I don't know what to do. I can't do it by myself. If they want to drop off, I'm home all day. I’m at 113 Scofield St. Right across from the Health Center. You can leave it on the porch if you want to leave something. This is for the kids in school. Food is collected and delivered to the school. It’s confidential. We don’t know what 25 families get it. I don’t know what else to do. I see these problems. We got to do something of those people, especially about his homelessness and feeding these people. What we going to do? Winter is going to be here soon and we’re going to have bigger problems. I’ve been here 35 years and I don’t want to see this place get bad with people breaking into cars, homes. If anybody wants to help and support. Every little bit counts. Whatever can be done, whatever assistance you can provide. I’ll be grateful for it. Have a happy thanksgiving. Mary Ellen Matise: I sent this to Rob and I sent it to John, *inaudible* it looks like there was a 12- foot easement behind the stores. The whole corner was a department store. The whole corner looks like it was 1 parcel. Manager Revella: Still is. Mary Ellen Matise: That’s probably why he doesn't have parking. There is an easement that goes over to the Ciardullo’s. Cheryl Baker: In regards to Mr. Ortiz, just to let you know, several of those individuals have been reached out to multiple times, offered housing, food and other services. They declined. Unfortunately, you can’t force people to take help, but they have been reached out to. In regards to the former Mayor asking about the door at Wooster Grove, it doesn’t have a keyhole, so they have to tape it to be able to open the door constantly. Trustee Hall: Yeah, there should be a stop or something there. Cheryl Baker: Thank you for bringing up the parking again. The signs are certainly an important issue for all the businesses as far as where the municipal parking is. I'm surprised that you did not bring up the parking passes because that's something the businesses really were interested in and would be helpful to have them. I don’t know if you’ve seen some of the instruments the School of Music has, but you're not going to carting those up from Oak St. They do utilize that Orchard St parking lot and like you said, you can't move your car if you have back-to-back to back classes. The businesses are willing to pay for them. Not looking at hundreds of them that are going to have to be utilized because not everybody needs them. Perhaps that can be brought up again. I will say that with the Oak St parking lot, there are cars that have been stationary there for year. I will admit the last time I mentioned it in the meeting, whether its people watching the meeting, those cars magically moved. There are still 3 or 4 that are practically part of the pavement. We're looking for in the future to try and get businesses more parking because it's in competition with tenants. And now, as you're looking at more streets that are having problems with parking, they’re going to have to go somewhere. There’s nowhere for them to go. There are 52 parking spots there and a good 15- 20 of them get taken up by tenants. That’s half the lot. That’s a lot for tenant parking. Our Main St is vacant. Right now might not be a problem, but if you want to try to sell this village up and say that we can accommodate your business, we do have parking there. You can’t honestly say that we have that. We don’t. We now have a business, I hope it doesn't go through at the Planning Board, that is requesting to take 32 of those spots. Which would knock it down to 20. Imagine the damage that would do. 32 spots out of 52 is massive. I ask that you reconsider the municipal lot and the parking permits. That’s a simple thing to offer our businesses. We want to be pro-business. Deputy Mayor Batson: Can you help us to articulate a plan. At least for me, I have zero problem supporting that. But where I struggle with moving it forward, is that because I'm not as intimately connecting as you are. Can't articulate a plan to my peers to move that forward. That’s what we need, details that we can action on. Cheryl Baker: I have no problem doing that whatsoever and submitting it to the board. 26 Ann Ilkew: I’m the ACO (Animal Control Officer) in all the villages and the town. I just want you to be aware of something. I'm going to every Village Board meeting. *handed out copies to the board and read into the minutes regarding municipal dog shelters and that all municipalities that issue dog licenses are required shelter dogs* We have no shelter. Haven’t had a shelter since December 31, 2023 when the contract expired. That was a great contract, and it worked for 15 years. You had a policy and procedure. Policy is what you say. Procedure is what you actually do. Walden Humane followed the contract. That contract was signed by the president of Walden Humane and the Town Supervisor. Everything that follows is only a proposal, because it’s not signed. There was 4 of them. The first was great, second was not signed, third, really, terrible and fourth was completely undoable. The Town let the contract expire. Almost a year, we have been no contract. I visited very successful shelters. Warwick, great shelter. Rockland, that is run differently but it works great. This has to be known. Trustee Pearson: Are you being part of the town as the Animal Control Officer? Or are you talking about the Humane Society? Who are you representing? Ann Ilkew: I'm not representing the Humane Society. They won’t deal with us. Trustee Pearson: This says that any municipality that issue dog licenses and that’s the Town of Montgomery. They’re responsible for those dogs and a shelter. Sounds like they have been. $13,500 in April. $10,000 in July. October another $10,000. Ann Ilkew: They didn’t pay that because the shelter won’t take anything from us. From the town and the villages. Trustee Pearson: The Humane Society isn’t taking any money from the town. Ann Ilkew: No. Even when they weren’t taking the animals, the town was continuing to give a donation. I said, “you’re in breach of contract”. Trustee Pearson: Why are you involved? Ann Ilkew: Why? I’m the one they send out. I pick them up and have no place to bring them. People are suffering. The animals are suffering in all the villages. Trustee Pearson: We pay taxes to the town for that service. Manager Revella: It’s a town service paid by all of us. Trustee Pearson: We pay into that control officers line. So, it’s a town issue to get them to place wherever they’re going to the animals or open their own shelter. Ann Ilkew: That’s when I’ve gone to their Town Board meeting. Trustee Pearson: What did the town say? Ann Ilkew: Don't come to anymore meetings. Trustee Pearson: That's wrong because they're the ones who are getting funding from all of us. 27 Ann Ilkew: Here is what the town has done so far, the Chief is very good, John Hank. He acquired from the Sherriff’s Dept. a shed with 2 kennels with a closed roof. Right now, there’s no electricity. It’s going to be hooked up. But it doesn’t solve the shelter issue. You have to clean the kennels. You need a washing machine or at least a sink. We need a shelter. There are ways that you can do it. I think if the villages get together and ask the town, hey we’re all in this together. We’ve never had this before. We’ve been lucky. But it’s going to run out. Payment of Audited Bills Trustee Taylor: John, are we're still paying credit card bills autopay? Manager Revella: They told me that they stopped. That's as far as I know from the Treasurer, I'm not sure. I have to ask her. Trustee Taylor: Can you check that please? Manager Revella: Did you want to address that? Trustee Taylor: I'd like to know, the policy that we all approved, it went through excluding the payment of credit card bills. I want to make sure they’re not being automatically paid. Manager Revella: I’ll ask her. Trustee Pearson: There were Lanc & Tully bills that had question marks on the tops of those pages like they weren’t sure what funds they were coming from. I’m not signing those. Is there a system here that Building Dept. send their bills to? Or who does that? Manager Revella: I do it with the Treasurer except for escrows. Escrows are done with the Building Dept. Trustee Pearson: How does she know what is coming? If somebody comes to DPW and they're doing something with Lanc & Tully, as an example and they’re finishing a project or something. How does she know what fund to take that from? Why wouldn’t that be coming from the Building Dept.? Manager Revella: She meets with me to go over it. Not the Building Dept. or DPW. Only the escrows are the Building Dept. Trustee Pearson: Let's say a PO comes in, they bought something, blah blah blah. What line it’s coming out of on top. Does the Building Dept. Secretary send that over or is it always the Treasurer? Manager Revella: Each department does that themselves. They code the bills to know which line it's supposed to come from. Depending on what bill it is. Some don’t and they go to her and she has to refer them to somebody. Trustee Pearson: We also got an e-mail from Michelle. And then we got an e-mail from Maria and they are about the purchase order listing. And they're very different. The amounts are different at the bottom. I want to know why. Manager Revella: Maria added more. Trustee Pearson: Maria had 414 and Michelle had 145. Where is the discrepancy? 28 Manager Revella: Michelle didn’t do any on Wednesday or Thursday. Trustee Pearson: Why did she send us the report? Manager Revella: She sent you her report because she was done. Trustee Pearson: We went from 145 to 414 in 2 days. Manager Revella: Potentially. If that many more bills came through. Could have been health insurance or retirement or something. Miscellaneous Comments from the Board of Trustees Trustee Pearson: Short term rentals. Have we gotten anything on short term rentals? Building Inspector Wallner: Not even 1. Trustee Pearson: We are going to send that letter, correct? Trustee Taylor: Thank you to the Walden Community Council and the folks that work on that Veteran's Day. It was just phenomenally done. I know there’s a lot of hard work that goes into it. The folks that spend that time to make that presentation and make that place as beautiful it is. They deserve to be constantly recognized for their efforts. Went to the craft fair as well. Talked to just about every vendor in there. They enjoy being here. They fully intend to come back. I believe they're coming back the first part of next month. They couldn’t say enough nice things about having the opportunity to come here. I thank them for supporting our Community and we look forward to having them back again. Trustee Kyle: I wasn’t able to go to the Veteran's Day ceremony, unfortunately, but I just wanted to say Happy Veteran's Day to Bill and John. Trustee Hall: Halloween, I walked around with my niece and nephew on one east side. And it was nice to see that many kids. It's been a while since I walked around on Halloween. Many houses participating. I have to say it was nice, a few houses, actually gave out water, drinks, nachos, hot dogs. I was at the Meet the Community for the Walden Community Council. There were several organizations. Not very many people showed up, which was a little disappointing. Maybe next time try to figure out how to get it out there more or get more attention to it. Veterans Day ceremony was very nice. Everybody did a great job down there. I figured something with the speaker. Did I tell you that, we couldn't hear you. Maybe have the speaker faced different. We couldn’t hear you guys at the top. I made a note about the Ortiz Family Thanksgiving. I will post it publicly on Facebook, if everybody wants to share it that way. I did receive an e-mail, I think maybe Becky, I don’t know if everyone else got about a horse going through the village. Apparently, a man on a horse was going through the village, which is cool. But you need to pick up after your horse. You have to pick up after your dogs, you have to pick up after your horse. Deputy Mayor Batson: I put some survey results in front of you. We did conduct a survey at Walden Harvest Fest. The top set of questions asked people to rate how they felt about the overall effectiveness of the particular departments. You can see the scores; they are out of 5. A variance column is just a difference from the statistical average. Just taking the first one, the score 3.75. Is 3.75 good? Is 3.75 bad? In this case it’s 23 basis points below the average. So, 3.75 would not be a favorable score. The second part is we asked our residents a series of questions. Do we represent their best interest? Do they believe in our integrity? How efficient are tax dollars spent? If they recommend Walden as a place to live. You can see the results. There's no statistical variance here 29 because the questions were worded differently. The scores are what they are. The bottom part, I found particularly interesting, when we asked what are the top issues facing the village from their perspective? And if you notice #1, which is, if we had a crystal ball into this evening is absolutely taxes. Taxes were 20% the responses for #1. I think that's very telling and this was done well before the issues that came up tonight. The second one, which I also think that we should consider talking about more is the quality and quantity of businesses. The third one was other. But when I went in and read the comments for other, they were also about businesses. 1 of the other was about the library. Businesses and taxes are the significant outliers of what the people believe the outliers we should focus on. It was a small survey. I would love to revise it and post it online if that's something that we want to talk about later. The second thing I want to talk about is over the last couple meetings, we did have a citizen come in and ask us about handicap parking permits and I certainly did not like how we answered or handled that situation. I just want to say this, that the issue that was presented by the citizen is very, very different from the documentation that we have from a law enforcement agency. It is not up to us to decide which of those is correct, however, we did empower our Clerk to make decisions around those handicap tags and we will respect her decisions when it comes to that. As about being sent here or there, we are not the only place that can issue handicap tags. Turns out the other place that she was sent to, can issue them. So, while we will stand by our Clerk’s decision to keep tags confiscated if they are misused, as outlined in this document, there are alternative ways to get them. My last question is from a village perspective, the place that which there was a recent drug seizure, this appears to have not been its first offense, correct? Manager Revella: Correct. Trustee Hall: Do we have any sort of recourse, the ability to pull business license? I mean, why let these issues constantly persist in the community? Do we have any recourse for businesses that have consistently been criminal? Manager Revella: No, we don't. Mayor Ramos: My gratitude to the Village of Walden’s Veterans Park Committee for presenting a very humbling ceremony. I attended the Town of Montgomery Veterans event also. Did a great job. The library hosted a paranormal familiarization session by Mike Gordon. It was really humbling to know that there are paranormal activities in certain buildings around our county. I went to the meet and greet on November 3rd. Not only there to represent myself, but Rotary. The Masons were there. Fire Dept., thank you, Captain Hall. St. Baldrick’s and the Walden Community Council, Sunshine Club, Ambulance Corp, Historical Society and yes, we did have a low turnout. It was posted on Facebook, in the internet world. We had a good time. Trustee Hall: PD and Parks & Rec were there, too. Executive Session – Collective Bargaining Negotiations, Personal History of a Particular Person, Attorney/Client Matter Deputy Mayor Batson made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss collective bargaining negotiations, personal history of a particular person and attorney/client matter. Seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Hall made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. 30  Village of Walden Board of Trustees Regular Meeting November 12, 2024 Motions & Resolutions Local Law 11 of 2024 – Scofield Street Deputy Mayor Batson made a motion to open public hearing Local Law 11 of 2024 Scofield Street. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Batson made a motion to close public hearing Local Law 11 of 2024 Scofield Street. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. All ayes. Motion carried. Deputy Mayor Batson made a motion to adopt Negative Declaration in regards to SEQR. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. All ayes. Motion carried. Trustee Pearson made a motion to adopt Local Law 11 of 2024 Scofield Street Parking Space. Second by Trustee Hall. All ayes. Motion carried. Approval of October 15, 2024 Minutes Trustee Pearson made a motion to approve the October 15, 2024 Minutes. Seconded by Trustee Taylor. 5 ayes. 1 abstention (Trustee Hall). Motion carried. Park Use – Alcohol Waiver - Jones Trustee Hall made a motion to approve Park Use Request – Alcohol Waiver subject to updated insurance certificate. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Batson. All ayes. Motion carried. Park Use – Alcohol Waiver - Mcmahon Trustee Hall made a motion to approve Park Use Request – Alcohol Waiver. Seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. Park Use – Alcohol Waiver - Kirnan Trustee Hall made a motion to approve Park Use Request – Alcohol Waiver. Seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. 48 Riverview St Trustee Pearson made a motion to schedule a special board meeting for November 19, 2024 at 6pm to consider action on 48 Riverview St. Seconded by Trustee Hall. All ayes. Motion carried. 60 Main St Trustee Kyle made a motion to authorize the demolition of the rear addition and to secure the balance of the structure. To be performed by the village and the cost to be billed back to the property owner and collected as lien on the property. Seconded by Trustee Hall. All ayes. Motion carried. Restore NY Grant – Set Public Hearing Trustee Hall made a motion to set public Hearing for Restore NY Grant for December 3, 2024 at 6:30pm or soon thereafter. Seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. 31 Tax Levy Trustee Kyle made a motion to authorize the Village Treasurer to submit levy for unpaid taxes in the amount of $405,915.43 to the county. Seconded by Trustee Hall. All ayes. Motion carried. Executive Session – Collective Bargaining Negotiations, Personal History of a Particular Person, Attorney/Client Matter Deputy Mayor Batson made a motion to enter into executive session to discuss collective bargaining negotiations, personal history of a particular person and attorney/client matter. Seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. Reconvene Trustee Hall made a motion to reconvene the regular meeting of Board of Trustees. Seconded by Trustee Kyle. All ayes. Motion carried. 32