The regular meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Mount Hope was held at Town Hall on August 17, 2015 @ 7:30pm with the following present: Supervisor Chad Volpe, Councilman Matt Howell, Councilman Gary Ketcham, Councilwoman Janet Sutherland, Councilman Cambareri and Town Clerk Kathleen Myers.
OFFICIALS PRESENT: Highway Supt. D. Hassenmayer, Police Chief P. Rickard, Planning Board Chairman W. Howell & Atty. D. Bavoso.
The meeting was called to order at 7:30pm by Supervisor Volpe following the Pledge of Allegiance. The audience was asked to turn off/silence their cell phones.
RESOLUTION TO ACCEPT PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered by Councilman Ketcham 2nd by Councilman Cambareri that the minutes of August 3, 2015 meeting as submitted by the Town Clerk are approved. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
CORRESPONDENCE:
- Fireworks permit for approval
- Road closing notice re: County Road 11/Highland Avenue
- Supervisor’s report – July 2015
- Community Advisory Board minutes 7-21-2015
- Request for Girls on the Run to use park/soccer field – insurance cert. provided
- Insurance cert. for Otisville Country Fair
- Impound report from Palmer’s Ark July 2015
- Municipal Shelter report completed 8-12-2015 (Palmer’s Ark)
- MHFC monthly report thru 8-17-2015
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
POLICE DEPARTMENT by Chief Rickard:
- Fair operation plan is done; new route for parade
- Working on the budget; will be done by end of week
- Detour via White Bridge Rd. is an issue due to weight limit on that road
- Tomorrow the new county CAD system will go online; this is for dispatching police calls, fire calls, EMS calls; went for a demo last week
- Spoke re: car larcenies since beginning of July; we’ve had 10 for the year; 8 have been in July/August; extra patrols have been added; some evidence was recovered; some video footage obtained; all vehicles were not locked; spoke to State Police; statistically we are much lower than surrounding municipalities; we’ll support a neighborhood watch.
HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT by Supt. Hassenmayer:
- Last auction: ford tractor high bidder did not pay his debt, we will re-list it, it will go to auction again along with Crown Vic, the lights from Crown Vic, old radar unit, refrigerator and freezer previously declared surplus (out of old school)
- Slowly getting the grading done in the parking lots; hope to pave early September & will advise once a date is given
- Supervisor Volpe spoke re: receiving an inquiry into using the old fire truck (1924) in the parade; Dean looked at it: steering wheel is broken & battery is dead; he recommends to surplus; Supervisor pulled voucher & asked if there is a need for it in the highway dept? Dean: never used it; there was an idea maybe to use the pump to pump water at the park; he has mechanics but they aren’t antique mechanics; it is stored in a metal storage container; Supervisor: we can think about it and decide for next meeting
PLANNING BOARD by Chairman Howell:
- We are working on the solar planning with attorney; it was drafted and forwarded to Supervisor
- Wind plan model should be ready for Wednesday meeting to be finalized
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HIDDEN VALLEY: No report
LITTLE LEAGUE: Councilwoman Sutherland stated they are getting the booth ready for the fair.
MOUNT HOPE FIRE:
- Report read by Chief Doty
- We are all set to cover the fireworks and the fair
- Supervisor Volpe asked Dominick & Matt if they are getting close to putting this (fireprotection) out to bid? Councilman Cambareri: working on it but wouldn’t say they are close to it; work in progress. Supervisor asked if it will fit within the budget parameters? Cambareri: yes.
VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE by Trustee Loeven:
- There will not be a board meeting on 8/20/2015; next meeting will be Sept. 3
SUMMER RECREATION by Trustee Loeven:
- Successful end to summer recreation program
- Drama performance was beyond expectation; credit to counselors; the lead girl was exceptional
- Type-o pg. 83 of minutes re: after ratio 10-1, where it says 16-1 – it’s not 16-1, we have 16 counselors
- Supervisor spoke re: extra dumpster they have until Dean gets the new one. Loeven: yes. Frank will work it out with Dean.
RESOLUTION TO APPROVE THE LIONS CLUB FIRE WORKS PERMIT:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd Councilman Howell to authorize the Supervisor to sign the Lions Club Fire Works permit. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
RESOLUTION TO APPROVE THE SUPERVISORS REPORT:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd by Councilman Howell to approve the July 2015 Supervisor’s reports as presented. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
RESOLUTION TO APPROVE THE GIRLS ON THE RUN REQUEST:
MOTION offered by Councilwoman Sutherland 2nd Councilman Ketcham to approve request from Judy Faust to use the Mount Hope Park, trails & soccer field, for Monday & Wednesday practices. Insurance certificate has been provided. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
FOOTBALL LEAGUE:
Mike Razukiewicz VP of MVYFL spoke re: box container they would like to place at the football field. They will put logo on it. It will be used for: football and cheer equipment. It would be placed on the field at 50 yard line on the home side (not street side).They would like to put a fence around the top of it for announcements & play by play announcements. Councilwoman Sutherland has not been able to access email. She did not receive this info. Councilman Cambareri asked about the fence on top & if it’s a flat top or ribbed top. Thinks it may be a problem for insurance. Mr. Razukiewicz : flat deck. It’s only for adults. Supervisor Volpe spoke re: safeguarding it to keep kids off the top of it. Discussion on a ladder ensued. Mr. Razukiewicz added the ladder could be removed and stored inside. Cambareri spoke re: panic hardware. Mr. Razukiewicz: it has that. It is at the Greenville park now. You are welcome to go look at it. Cambareri would like to look into the insurance. Paul and Dean will go look at it. Councilman Ketcham asked if it’s permanent or temporary. Mr. Razukiewicz: permanent. Chief Rickard spoke re: the part of the walking path that runs behind where the unit would go. It is already an isolated area of the walking path.
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RESOLUTION TO AUDIT THE CLAIMS:
MOTION offered by Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Ketcham to approve the following bills:
GENERAL A:#401-429 $ 49,846.97
GENERAL B:#58-60 $ 1,064.64
HIGHWAY:#117-129 $ 84,997.68
SEWER:#68-71 $ 1,538.17
All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION:
John Doty: in favor of keeping the 1924 fire truck in the community. It’s the 1st piece of motorized apparatus obtained by the community. He suggested putting it at the historical property.
Frank Ketcham: asked for status of school report. Councilman Cambareri: report is finalized and they will print it and email it. He asked status of 7 Peaks. Atty. Bavoso will follow up and advise at next meeting. He asked status of 30 acre solar farm. Planning Board Chairman Howell: nothing.
Brian Carey: spoke re: neighborhood watch program. 13 residents are a part of it. He will go to Mount Hope police this week. He has contacted Troop F in Middletown about this. He lets them know every night what vehicle they are in. He spoke re: police car tracking. In the last 5 nights from 12:30am to 4:00am he has seen one state trooper. He spoke re: ‘upping’ the patrols. Chief Rickard: state police is set up different. Marked patrol units of state police covers a huge area overnight. Because of very little activity here there’s very little presence of other agencies here. He clarified these are petit larcenies not robberies. Social media was discussed. Need to get word out to lock the doors.
Dawn Keeler: asked Councilman Ketcham if he had the opportunity to look at the time sheets for the summer rec program? He stated he did not as he is not in charge of the program; Dominick and Matt are. Cambareri saw/reviewed them and Chad has the last 2 years. She added that she’s from Greenville and they have had break-ins in homes without dead bolts.
Ken Coppola: suggested to put the “lock your doors” note in the Otisville Mount Hope Voice. He also supported asking the historical society about the fire truck.
TOWN BOARD COMMENTS:
Councilwoman Sutherland spoke re: (1) soccer camp at townpark interfering with wet down Wednesday. Supervisor Volpe: they were there without authority. When he received the call he sent the police over. Matter was resolved. The soccer people normally used it on Tuesdays but it had rained on Tuesday so they assumed Wednesday would be ok. (2) she asked what happened with the volleyball court. Supt. Hassenmayer stated they (Julie and one of the kids) were weeding it to clean it up and there is a hornet nest in the ground; they got stung. It was sprayed a couple times but thinks we need to wait until colder weather comes to turn up the ground to get rid of the nest. (3) she requested executive session for personnel issues.
Councilman Howell spoke to Chief Rickard: would a resolution passed by the town board help to get more state police coverage or sheriff department coverage? Chief: they’ll acknowledge it but again the numbers in Mount Hope do not equal what’s around us. It is not necessary at this point. Mr. Carey asked if the sheriff department has been contacted? Chief stated we are talking about 5 car larcenies. There are homicides and shootings in Newburgh & Middletown. While important to us we are not near what any other municipality is in car larcenies. We are taking it seriously.
Supervisor Volpe thanked Trustee Loeven and the village board for waiving the building fees for the pole barn building. He spoke about the budget and hopes to have it done by next meeting.
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RESOLUTION TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered by Councilwoman Sutherland 2nd Councilman Ketcham to enter into executive session at 8:25pm to discuss personnel. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
RESOLUTION TO RECONVENE REGULAR MEETING:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd Councilman Ketcham to reconvene regular session at 8:52am from executive session. NO ACTION WAS TAKEN AT THIS EXECUTIVE SESSION. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
RESOLUTION TO ADJOURN:
MOTION offered by Councilman Howell seconded by Councilman Ketcham to adjourn the meeting at 8:52pm. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
The next meeting is scheduled for September 8, 2015 at 7:30pm in the Town Hall meeting room.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen A. Myers
Town Clerk
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