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July 21, 2014: Workshop Meeting Minutes

The workshop meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Mount Hope was held at Town Hall on July 21, 2014 at 7:30pm with the following present: Supervisor Chad Volpe, Councilman Matt Howell, Councilman Gary Ketcham, Councilwoman Janet Sutherland and Town Clerk Kathleen Myers. NOT PRESENT: Councilman Dominick Cambareri

 

OFFICIALS PRESENT: H’way Supt. Dean Hassenmayer, Planning Board Chairperson Wayne Howell & Attorney David Bavoso.

 

Following the Pledge of Allegiance, Supervisor Volpe called the meeting to order at 7:30pm. He asked for audience to silence or turn off their cell phones.

 

RESOLUTION TO ACCEPT PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:

MOTION offered by Councilman Howell seconded by Councilman Ketcham that the minutes of the 07-07-2014 meeting as submitted are approved. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland; carried.

 

CORRESPONDENCE:

  1. Police dept. surplus equipment request
  2. Highway budget modification
  3. Supervisor’s report June 2014
  4. Supervisor’s office budget modification
  5. Building dept. report June 2014
  6. MHF July report
  7. Fuel agreement between Cornell Cooperative & T/O Mount Hope   

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

 

POLICE:

Dep. Chief Byrne will be here.

 

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT:

Supt. Hassenmayer reported: on mention of budget modification. They did 5 miles of oil/chip today and worked 1 ½ hours past quit time. He requested to surplus old Gradall. They used the new one last week. It worked very well. It needed a few minor adjustments.

      

VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE:

Trustee Loeven reported that at their last meeting everyone was in agreement to having a joint workshop on the 18th. She reminded everyone of the yard sale on August 2nd.

 

SUMMER RECREATION:

Trustee Loeven reported the program is officially at ½ way point. It was busy with the Sheriff’s dept. presentation of the save-a-child program. 62 kids with parental permission were fingerprinted. Lisa should be commended. They had a visit from NYS Dept. of Labor – received thumbs up. They had a visit from OC Board of Health for a re-inspection – got clean bill of health.

Supervisor Volpe spoke re: receiving phone call from parent concerned that both directors were being replaced. He spoke with Janet. Trustee Loeven had not heard of this. She spoke of incident re: a 14yr. old sibling came to pick up younger sibling. This is not allowed. Town Clerk spoke re: donation of soccer balls, basketballs, and footballs from Bill Novak’s daughter.

 

HIDDEN VALLEY:

Supervisor Volpe reported they are in final stages of compliance with DEC. Everything seems to be going well. A company will be coming from Newburgh to do testing.

 

PLANNING BOARD:

Chairman Howell reported it’s been a quiet 2 months with no items on agenda.

 

 

 

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POLICE DEPT:

Dep. Chief Byrne had no report.

 

MOUNT HOPE FIRE:

Chief Doty gave report. 2 members passed and are now EMT’s with the department. This was 6 months of schooling. He stated the reporter misquoted him. He asked why no one was notified either himself or Mr. Romano of the incident at park. He heard a lot of things. They had more than enough manpower to shoot this show. Supervisor Volpe: You’re right nothing did happen. It could have been worse. He wants all safety precautions to be taken for the future. Should be barricaded off for certain amount of hours. He is grateful it wasn’t worse. Chief Doty: that’s understandable but would have appreciated a phone call instead of hearing all these rumors. He stopped and talked to the kid. Normally they do a dud search. Normally, the grass is mowed. The dud was in the high grass and didn’t get seen. Nothing against Dean. Mr. Romano was there for 3 days afterwards cleaning up. He’s been doing this for 30 years and in this town for 17 without incident. A phone call to the people actually doing it would have been a nice thing. Supervisor Volpe: he was on his way there and last thing he was worried about was nobody would have wanted to talk to me. Not knowing what I was getting into. Chief Doty: it’s been 2 weeks. I don’t take this lightly. Supervisor Volpe will do everything to rectify this. There will be a protocol or there will be no fireworks.

 

OLD SCHOOL:

Frank Ketcham spoke re: old school committee meeting last week. They got quotes on the possibility of an elevator system. OC Planning Dept. Megan Tannerman will be coming to one of their meetings. Also, a woman from the Warwick Valley community center will be coming. They are waiting on additional quotes for roof repairs. He wanted to know if the town got any. Supervisor Volpe: Dominick was heading that up and he’s not here. This past Saturday, there were 11 volunteers for minor clean up. 1st floor floors were all scrubbed up. Made quite a difference. Next meeting is this coming Monday. He asked to reserve town hall. 7-28 at 7pm. Emails will go out to committee.

 

ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS:

Attorney Bavoso: a resignation was received from one of the board members. They need a replacement. You can set a deadline for interested residents to submit a request to the supervisor’s office. After discussion: August 15th was the deadline.

 

RESOLUTION TO ACCEPT LETTERS OF INTENT:

MOTION offered by Councilman Howell seconded by Councilman Ketcham to advertise accepting letters of intent to be on the Zoning Board of Appeals. A notice will go in the Times Herald Record. Cut off will be August 15. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland; carried.

 

RESOLUTION TO SURPLUS POLICE EQUIPMENT:

MOTION offered by Councilman Ketcham seconded by Councilman Howell to surplus and dispose of the following from the police equipment:

  • V-Tech monitor (serial #193591923b612v82403155)
  • HP Desktop 6988 printer (serial # my76t1robn)

1-  Mita DC-copier (serial #nt47021648H).

All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland; carried.

 

RESOLUTION TO APPROVE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT BUDGET MODIFICATION:

MOTION offered by Councilman Howell seconded by Councilman Ketcham to approve the following budget modification:

Increase Unemployment Ins. D9050.8 by $813.12 and decrease Playgrounds/Parks A7140.1 by $813.12. This is for unemployment expenses. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland; carried.

 

 

 

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RESOLUTION TO APPROVE SUPERVISOR’S REPORT:

MOTION offered by Councilwoman Sutherland seconded by Councilman Howell to approve the Supervisor’s report for June 2014 as presented. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland; carried.

RESOLUTION TO APPROVE SUPERVISOR’S BUDGET MODIFICATION:

MOTION offered by Councilman Howell seconded by Councilman Ketcham to approve the following budget modification:

Increase A1610.4 by $2900 and decrease A1990.4 by $2900. This is to move money into the newly created account. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland; carried.

 

FUEL AGREEMENT BETWEEN CORNELL COOPERATIVE EXTENSION & T/O MOUNT HOPE:

Supervisor Volpe spoke re: fuel agreement would be the same as the both fire companies and the village.

 

RESOLUTION TO APPROVE FUEL AGREEMENT BETWEEN CORNELL COOPERATIVE EXTENSION & T/O MOUNT HOPE:

MOTION offered by Councilman Howell seconded by Councilwoman Sutherland to approve the fuel agreement between the Town of Mount Hope and Cornell Cooperative Extension as presented in the contract. (copy on file in town clerk’s office) All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland; carried.

JACK STACK:

Mr. Stack introduced himself. Several years ago I gave a piece of property to the Town of Mount Hope. John Bell and I thought about a football (athletic) field at the time. Apparently it didn’t go through because the county thought it too dangerous by putting a tunnel under. I am proposing to put affordable housing in there. Houses would sell for about $175,000 with a buy down. Talking about incomes in the neighborhood of $60,000. It would be a point system. He is thinking about 10-12 homes. The water and sewer is an issue here. That property never perked. That’s one of the reasons I gave it up for an athletic field. Talking to the not for profit over there since they have 2 wells over there – there would be enough water to supply the houses we would put in there. Same with the sewer/septic. We were gonna try to upgrade the septic because the not for profit does not have the money to bring that up – it should have been upgraded. And we would upgrade the leech field there. Each house would have their own use of the not for profit for water and sewer. Councilman Howell: asked if the water and sewer was engineered? Mr. Stack: he would go with an engineer. Talking to the engineer, there is enough water to do what we need to do. Attorney Bavoso spoke to Mr. Stack and advised him to consult an attorney to submit a formal proposal to this board. There would have to be re-acquisition of the property. The property should not be developed while the town still owns it. He gave Mr. Stack names of attorneys that deal with municipal work. Planning Board Chair Howell: believes there needs to be research as to that being parkland or not. Supervisor Volpe: agreed. They will wait for something in writing.

 

RESOLUTION TO SURPLUS OLD GRADALL:

MOTION offered by Councilman Howell seconded by Councilman Ketcham to surplus the old Gradall and put it on the auction site. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland; carried.

AUDIT OF CLAIMS:

MOTION offered by Councilman Howell seconded by Councilwoman Sutherland to approve the following bills:

GENERAL A:               #407-428         $ 69,311.82

GENERAL B:               #63-65             $  1,821.02

HIGHWAY:                   #111-115         $ 27,417.52

SEWER:                       #65-68             $  3,732.45

MAPES ROAD:                        #1                    $ 59,853.50.

All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland; carried.

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PUBLIC PARTICIPATION:

  1. Romano: We had an unseasonably wet summer. If the lawn was mowed which normally it was when I do the show, we would have found the dud shell. It was a dud shell. When it went up and didn’t open up to the color before it came down. If lawn was mowed, I am sure our guys would have found it. It’s nothing against Dean. It’s just a wet season. His suggestion is for the country fair in the area that we shoot fireworks should be mowed down. This would be easier for people to do a site check. NFPA requirements does require us to look at the field after we do a show to see if there are any duds. This is not singled out. Most of the product comes from China with not good quality control on their products. Most big shows there’s gonna be shells that don’t go off. We make best effort we can to find it. This is unfortunate that it went off at the lawn mower when he was mowing. He heard rumors that he didn’t clean up there. He finds that offensive. The day that happened he was blowing down the parking lot to collect the debris. The shell was about a 3” shell. Thank God no one got hurt. After the country fair or his next show he suggests that he and John do another thorough look. When he was cleaning up he started at the parking lot instead of where the shells were going off. I did apologize. It was an accident. Supervisor Volpe: as we start to move forward with protocol, I would welcome your input. You have a lot of experience.
  2. Vreeland: Thinks this is horrific. It’s nothing to do with the fire companies. John made statement that letters would be sent to people on Grange Road so the cows wouldn’t be scared. He did not get a letter. How many more unexploded shells are out there? He recommends to the board that the fireworks are done. The park was a mess the next day. There’s been zero accountability. He read about a statement made in paper by president of fire company.
  3. Dodd: That’s not what I said. Someone in audience read his statement as printed in paper. Mr. Dodd had her (reporter) on speaker phone for almost an hour. That’s what she derived from my comments and put it in the paper. He asked if there was a reporter present in the audience. Mr. Barth stated that Mr. Dodd spoke to reporter for an hour & 1/2. Mr. Dodd stated that’s how long I talked to her and that’s what I get.

Mr. Wilson: Feels the fireworks should still go on and the next day the grounds are checked in the daylight.

  1. Fairweather: With the severity of this and what’s being portrayed, was there a 911 response? What supervisory personnel on the town’s part reported this? If you were notified, why wasn’t 911 notified? Supervisor Volpe: as soon as I was notified the police were dispatched and did their incident report. You can FOIL it if you’d like.
  2. Jashembowski: He resides in Mount Hope and is taxpayer to Howells Fire district. He is Chief of Howells fire company. There’s been a lot of rumors last 4 months on how our department is run. He wants to clear air because the comments could be coming from this table. We are going on 90th year as a volunteer fire department. We do drills and work details annually. Safety is most important thing to my company. On 3-17 we were dispatched to structure fire on 211 West (former Supervisor Bill Novak’s house). Call came in at 10:08pm. At 10:09 I was in my vehicle responding to the call and notified 911 that I was responding. Within 3 minutes I was on the scene along with another Chief. We notified 911 that we were on scene. If anyone would like to FOIL the records, you can go down and check my times with 911. My Car 3 tried to gain entry through the back door. It was unsuccessful. Went through 2 water cans as I was doing/calling for 2nd alarm assignments. I won’t go into detail about what happened at the call. Mr. Novak deserves better than this. When someone tries to down my company and down my fire fighters – it’s uncalled for. Whether Mount Hope & Otisville are fighting, it doesn’t concern Howells. I am here to protect our community and our taxpayers. On that call we called a couple mutual aid companies (Otisville, Circleville, Mount Hope, Pocatello, Slate Hill and Coty of Middletown). Not a day goes by I don’t think about decisions made that night. My training did not fail me. We did what we were supposed to do. Unfortunately, there was a fatality. All my guys & mutual aid companies were able to go home to their families. 2nd rumor is that we’re refusing to supply mutual aid to other companies. False statement. It happened with the fireworks show. We’ve been asked for an engine & manpower to cover the school in the past. This year we were asked for the same thing. A week prior, our assignment was downgraded to a brush truck with man power. Days before the event it was downgraded to just fire police at the scene. My fire police are not young. Out protocol is we do not send any fire police out without some type of command vehicle. They said we only want fire police. So we made a call that we can’t help you.

 

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PUBLIC PARTICIPATION:

  1. Jashembowski cont.: I am not leaving a 70 y/o man on a street corner unattended. If there are any questions, we meet every 4th Monday. It’s open to the public. I will not have my company badgered by another agency in this town. Supervisor Volpe: Spent over an hour with Lou Ingrassia, he was telling him the fire police situation. Most of your fire police are older. He was asked about the down graded process. R. Jashembowski: Explained he was on vacation and the process. He spoke with Chief Doty. Fire departments are a parliamentary organization. You start from the top down.
  2. Barth: (VP of MH fire department) He backed up what Fire Chief from Howells said. July 4th is his show. He organizes it/puts it all together. He has people that help him & everyone does a good job. We put a page out. Howells car 2 called our car 3 (Melton). They had a discussion for 1 ½ hours on phone in front of Barth. Car 2 (Fratto) expressed his concern about their fire police. Melton told him they had water and food we have everything on scene. We have someone to ride around and check all locations; it’s our responsibility. If you need to bring a truck to support your people, you can park it in parking lot with our trucks. We have gators to ride up/down road. That was our only concern. He’s (Fratto) been told your truck can come & park. Our guys were out on the street collecting money and doing traffic. We did not badger Howells; we didn’t put them down. Their car 2 & our car 3 couldn’t see eye to eye. So Howells opted not to come. AT that point we called Cuddebackville. They came with 4 members and a truck. They parked in the parking lot. Their Chief went for traffic control on Mill Pond/Finchville corner. Every location had a radio in case of an issue. It’s a misunderstanding between the 2 departments. R. Jashembowski: There was no misunderstanding. Your car 3 (Melton) said forget your apparatus, we just want your car. We do not send fire police to anything without anything. Supervisor Volpe: was Otisville fire police there? P. Barth: no.
  3. Kopp: Spoke re: Charlotte Lane and the road maintenance. The DOT has no accountability. They don’t talk to anybody. They don’t have to report to anybody. He has concerns. Over the years, the road has been repaired twice. 1st time using liquid asphalt. Within 1 year peeled up. He wants to know how much that cost. Now, someone came and tarred the road and then the town came in and did the silt chip. How long will this last? His opinion: road should have been asphalted. Especially since the contactor was done doing the construction in there. Which was never done. His house was last one built. There was never any final cap put on that road by contractor. He thinks there’s maybe 2” asphalt on that road. How many inches are required by the town? H’way Supt.: unfortunately, the development was built before anybody who is here’s time. It was dedicated to the town long before I came to work for the town. When it was dedicated, it should have been bindered and topped. He will research it tomorrow. M. Kopp: how long is it gonna last? H’way Supt.: it wasn’t just a tar/chip. What was done is called fibermat. M. Kopp: saw that but not much. H’way Supt.: explained that a layer of oil, then layer of fiberglass sharred up in 5” lengths, then another layer of oil then stone. The fiberglass helps keep a lot of that reflective cracking on top from coming back. The lifespan of a fibermat road they say is 10 years. He has roads now that have been only 6 years and they are in great shape. M. Kopp: his concern is he rides a Harley and when your guys got done I went out of my driveway and slid sideways. H’way Supt.: with oil/chip you have loose stone. We swept it on Monday morning. After we swept it you weren’t sliding around. M. Kopp: couple of neighbors had kids fall off their bikes and get scratched. He did road construction for a cable company. I know what’s required to put a road back together. And what about the asphalt thickness on roads. Some policies here are weak. H’way Supt.: unfortunately in T/O Mount Hope, we have – I have worked in this highway dept. for 16 years. We’ve only had one road cut/road opening by an outside company and that was Hidden Valley by a cable company. Those requirements were met. Our road requirements are there. They are written. The last couple developments that have been built have been 3” of binder with an inch and a half of top before they are dedicated to the town. This development, Charlotte & Dulcie Court, he would have to research. M. Kopp: the 1st builder went bankrupt. H’way Supt.: It was already dedicated at that time. M. Kopp: then Don Ross came in and did the rest. Supervisor Volpe: asked Dean to check that out. M. Kopp: the cost of the liquid asphalt and the cost of doing this; would the cost of the 2 combined cost as much as asphalt. Was any of this work bidded out? And if so, who does the bidding? H’way Supt.: I do. It’s done under state bid pricing. M. Kopp: he has full control and reports to nobody? Supervisor Volpe: Dean runs his own department. M. Kopp: he runs his own department so he has nobody to answer to? Supervisor Volpe: He’s got the public to answer to if he doesn’t do his job.

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PUBLIC PARTICIPATION CONTINUED:

  1. Kopp: I think he should be answering to you. H’way Supt.: They do approve the budget and they do approve the road work that gets done every year.
  2. Coppola: July 4th I took over as fire chief. The Mayor called me and talked to me. A while later he called and instructed me that he got a phone call that Otisville wasn’t needed at the fireworks; They didn’t have to participate. He asked the Mayor who said that John called the chief. So I told the Mayor to thank him that we could watch the fireworks and enjoy them. And I did. The night of fireworks I was at a party and I got a phone call to shut off the siren. He couldn’t do it so he called the Mayor to have the chief call the chief. No disrespect to the mayor but we have to work together, protocol. So since then, John and I have spoke on a few things. I hope it’s straightened out. Otisville was cancelled out. We had done it from the beginning. Even last year when we lost it, we were still participants. I don’t know what the problem is. We’ve worked together on a couple serious fires. We’ve done good work, they’ve done good work. I’ve thanked them. I enjoyed the fireworks – thanks John.
  3. Shafer: On July 13, 2014, the Mount Hope fire company got a fire call to go to Otis Circle. Somebody made a response to it. I listened on the scanner. I’ve been a fireman for 50+ years as a volunteer. I listened to the call. Mount Hope’s gonna respond. When they got to Otis Circle they said that’s not our area. That’s the village. They called back through central and said let Otisville handle it – it’s not ours. We’re going back in service. When they started this fire department they said we have mutual aid and we’re no worried about it because we have mutual aid. But when you get called mutual aid to another area even though it’s not your area, you’re supposed to respond and take care of there until the other company comes and takes over and then you can leave. J. Doty: we were called for Otisville….Supervisor Volpe: we are directing the board. E. Shafer: I heard the call over the scanner. It was central calling town of Mount Hope fire district. Not Otisville calling – it was T/O Mount Hope. J. Doty: Otisville got 1st call for smoke investigation for 9 Otis Circle. We were dispatched for smoke investigation at 9 Otis Circle. You can contact the 911 center. Mike said he tried to call me on the radio. I didn’t hear him. He cancelled themselves and said they were going back to quarters. We never cancelled anybody. If you wanna call 911 center…. E. Shafer: Who said that’s theirs, let them handle it, I’m going back in service? J. Doty: That wasn’t me. Ask Mike he’s right here. M. Coppola: What transpired was, we checked the area we went down Lake Linda. It was coming through the woods. So we knew it was Mount Hope. I had to dispatch/notify Mount Hope to come out and look. Once they located it, I told them we were going back in service. I tried to call John twice whether he was out of his car or whatever, then the control center said they notified him and we went back to service. E. Shafer: to me it sounded like a bunch of little kids on there playing games. M. Coppola: that’s not the way it went though. You didn’t hear me say that. You’re wrong. E. Shafer: it was car 1 Otisville. Sounded childish to me.
  4. Dodd: If anybody is interested, Bill Novak is being buried in Arlington Cemetery on Thursday the 31st at 10am. It’s a long ride. If you can’t get there, maybe at 10am on Thursday you could give a little moment of silence for Bill. Next, a lady stopped at my house today who I’ve known a long time. She was upset with me. She asked if I was out of my mind. She wanted to know how I could fathom spending $20 million on a fire house. I want to bring this out. We had drawings of the property, surveyed the property, engineered architect plans, engineering of the land, architectural drawings, site plans. We even had planning board approval at one time. Architectural bid came in at (have prints in my truck) $318,000.00 for the building from Mr. Terpstra, plumbing, heat, air conditioning radiant heat flooring in the slab $90,000, electric, phone & alarm from Mike Romano outside parking lots included – turn key $57,000, overhead doors (from Dutchess Overhead doors) $25,000, site work: all the fill, excavating complete concrete slab in grade, sewage work, concrete curbs, driveway, driveway complete paving & finished grade (from Garry Boyce) $319,000, well, pipe, pump, roughly $8,000 puts the envelope package at around $817,000. Everyone in this room works long/hard is not chump change, but it’s not $20 million, not $10 million, not $5 million, it’s not $3 million. I live here too. Supervisor Volpe: what piece of property was this on? L. Dodd: that was the 6 acres that Mr. Stack wants back, the town’s property. I also spoke with the reporter for quite awhile. I knew how that would work out. I wasn’t wrong on that. Also, I see that there’s tension between the fire companies. We come in and give report because we cover the Mount Hope area. I think that Howells should give a report for what they cover. When I spoke to reporter she was taken aback by my comment that went way out of text. It bothers me a lot that someone could have gotten hurt.

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PUBLIC PARTICIPATION CONTINUED:

  1. Dodd: There’s more we can do to prevent that. What I wanted to give reporter was this: she was taken aback why somebody would attack us. This is 1 for instance. This is a NYS Incident report from the Orange County Sheriff’s office. Incident is an animal complaint. 273 Finchville Turnpike/Harry Willis, Bernie Farrell, Dubensky, Katrina Roloson. This is a small part of what we went through. (Complete report on file in Town Clerk’s office.)
  2. Wilson: Didn’t Mr. Stack give that land to the town? Supervisor Volpe: yes. R. Wilson: the town has to vote to give it back? Supervisor Volpe: yes. Mr. Wilson asked attorney: the Coop. Extension property that’s on the parkland, was there any problem with them to have that land. Atty. Bavoso: there are concerns. We’re meeting with them Wednesday. R. Wilson: we don’t want to lose this for the area. It’s good for the community. Atty. Bavoso: nobody is looking to kill the project. We’re looking to resolve legal issues.
  3. Cook: spoke re: old school and roof quote for $3,400. But we’re waiting for more bids to save a few bucks? Supervisor Volpe: it needs to be voted on and it’s not an emergency. It’s been like that for 6 years. We should not spend any money without getting 3 prices. J. Cook: he would like to see this approved. The longer we wait, the more damage there will be.
  4. Vreeland: Just to clear the record briefly, I filed no report initially. Two veterinarians filed the report. The state never came to my place. A sheriff’s deputy came to farm and asked me as a expert witness, if they were my cows I’d shoot them. If they’re in such bad condition, they shouldn’t have cows. That was end of discussion. I stand by that.
  5. Maurizzio: had questions pertaining to upcoming vote. Mrs. Hoskings has made some calls. Who do you ask questions to? Supervisor Volpe: anyone sitting in front of you. A. Maurizzio: who answers these questions? That’s my question. Before the vote, will there be a public information meeting regarding answering questions, monies, future plans, building a fire house, taxes, equipment etc.? Is it municipal law that governs these elections? Set up of the elections? Who works the election? Board of elections has nothing to do with this I know. There’s only 3 hours to vote. Don’t think it’s fair. Who’s working the voting tables? Who’s checking to assure that only Mount Hope residents “Mount Hope not Village residents” vote? Not Howells? Who’s supervising that? What type of ballot are they going to have? Are they using a voting machine? That they would rent or borrow for an election?   Are they going to have a paper ballot? Who is going to count the votes? If it’s the commissioners, I don’t think that’s fair. They should have unbiased people. None of these questions are answered. None of this is governed by the board of elections. Supervisor Volpe: Due to the time, let me expedite this. Traditional fire district vote is 6pm to 9pm. SO they are the Mount Hope Fire District right now. If they had a normal election, the normal time is 6-9. Following suit, they are not obligated to have an election any longer than 6-9. They are not mandated to have it longer. Everything still gets reported. A. Maurizzio: Who is gonna be sitting at the tables? Who’s gonna be signing people in? Who’s gonna be monitoring? Supervisor Volpe: they have to have inspectors? H. Grunwald: yes, there’s 5 inspectors. A. Maurizzio: are they the commissioners? H. Grunwald: no. Supervisor Volpe asked Lou to answer these questions. L. Dodd: There’s 5 people that live in the fire district, they are not members of the company and they are not commissioners. We asked them to step forward. People will be checked in to make sure. You will be given a paper ballot. You fill it out put it in the box. At 9pm the votes will be read. They will be manually counted. Everything has been put in place for us by Frank Simeone. Supervisor Volpe: asked about putting info on sign out front. Mr. Dodd verified. AT 9 the voting is stopped but someone will go to end of line at 9pm. After 9pm no one can be added to the line. Everyone gets to vote who is here on line before 9pm. You can direct questions to the website or call Lou 629-7511.
  6. Hosking: This election is not governed by Board of Elections. Can any taxpayer in town vote? Supervisor Volpe: no. M. Hosking: why do we have to follow those rules, if they don’t follow the rules?
  7. Maurizzio: How are the workers and how are they chosen? R. Jashembowski: added: they are governed by the board of commissioners. They are unbiased people. Ballots are counted by people who run the election. A. Maurizzio: who are the 5 people? L. Dodd: did not have the names. H. Grunwald: has info. She can be called for this information.
  8. Prisco: if you are in Howells fire district you cannot vote? Supervisor Volpe: correct. You can only vote if you have a fire tax on your bill to the Mount Hope fire. C. Prisco: so the majority wins? Supervisor Volpe: yes.

 

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PUBLIC PARTICIPATION CONTINUED:

  1. Coppola: for the record, we were notified on the 4th that we were cancelled for no apparent reason.
  2. Maurizzio: thanked Lou Dodd for the price clarification. But you forgot one thing. The taxpayers of town of Mount Hope already paid $10 million to Otisville for that house. SO if Mount Hope went back to Otisville, the taxpayers would pay zero.
  3. Ketcham: asked about 7 Peaks. Atty. Bavoso: # of houses did not change it was a typo in the paper. Engineers, planning board and the applicant are still working on FEIS. There will be site visits to address drainage. He also appreciated the fireworks but asked if anyone from department come and tell the town board what happened? He felt they should have.
  4. Loeven: Seniors have a trip on Sunday on the 27th. She added: if we leave with nothing else, rumors are nothing but fuel on a fire. She has complete confidence in our board. She spoke about the Otis Circle call. She spoke to Mayor about it. They FOIL’d the tape. Everything was as Mike said. We need to work on communication all the way around.

 

BOARD COMMENTS:

Councilwoman Sutherland requested executive session to discuss a personnel issue.

 

RESOLUTION TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION:

MOTION offered by Councilwoman Sutherland seconded by Supervisor Volpe to enter into executive session at 9:06pm to discuss personnel. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland; carried.

 

RESOLUTION TO RECONVENE WORKSHOP MEETING:

MOTION offered by Councilman Howell seconded by Councilwoman Sutherland to reconvene the workshop meeting at 9:39PM. NO ACTION WAS TAKEN AT THIS EXECUTIVE SESSION. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland; carried.

 

RESOLUTION TO ADJOURN MEETING:

MOTION offered by Councilwoman Sutherland seconded by Councilman Howell to adjourn the meeting at 9:39pm. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland; carried.

 

Next meeting is scheduled for August 4, 2014 at 7:30pm in the Town Hall in the meeting room.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Kathleen A. Myers, Town Clerk           

 

                                                           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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