The WORKSHOP MEETING of the Town Board of the Town of Mount Hope was held at the Town Hall on 1706 Route 211 West, Otisville, NY on November 16, 2015 at 7:30pm with the following present: Supervisor Chad Volpe, Councilman Matt Howell, Councilman Gary Ketcham, Councilwoman Janet Sutherland, Councilman Dominick Cambareri and Town Clerk Kathleen Myers.
OFFICIALS PRESENT: Highway Supt. D. Hassenmayer, Chief Rickard, Attorney D. Bavoso.
Supervisor Volpe called the public hearing for the proposed Hidden Valley Expansion to order at 7:15pm following the Pledge of Allegiance. Supervisor asked for cell phones to be turned off/silenced.
PUBLIC HEARING FOR THE PROPOSED HIDDEN VALLEY EXPANSION:
7:15pm. Supervisor Volpe stated this was advertised. Town Clerk stated it was on the table. Ryan McGuire from KC Engineering introduced himself. He stated the applicant (Mr. Lazier) is before the planning board for a 6 lot subdivision located at the end of Hill Road & Guymard Tpk. (He held up the map and showed the project on the map.) The proposal is for 6 lots; 5 lots will access from Hill Road. The 6th lot is located on Heather Lane. All houses will be served by individual wells. The applicant is proposing a central sewer system to be extended from Thistle Lane with the end of the existing town sewer main through lot 2 into Hill Road & the extension off Hill Road to collect wastewater from the remainder of the lots on Hill Road. All costs associated with the project including design, construction & administration costs will be borne by the applicant. No cost to the town tax payers or to the Hidden Valley sewer district residents. Supervisor Volpe verified that the hook up fee for each house would be $6,000.00. The existing houses would not bear the burden of any of these costs. D. Tripken: he referred to the new houses having their own wells and the sewer plant using metered water. Once in a while the residents get charged a surcharge for the maintenance of the plant. HV water wanted to sell it to the town but the town did not buy it due to age of system. If something goes wrong, how do the people in the new houses pay? A separate line? Water that goes into that plant is on a separate meter that we pay through our taxes. McGuire: you’re talking about the water that the sewer plant uses as part of the HV water system. Supervisor: the existing 99 houses in Hidden Valley now. We pay water also. Collectively we all pitch in when there are repairs on the water lines. Doug’s question is will they have to contribute towards water lines going in considering there’d be more water? McGuire: any costs associated with water use at the sewer plant would be spread among the existing homes as well as the new 6 lots. Any costs assessed as part of the water system if a water main breaks would still be on the existing lots in HV water district. We’re not proposing extension of that district. New lots would not be subject to any of those costs. Tripken: spoke re: separation of bills. McGuire: There’s no extra water line going there but the costs associated with operating the sewer plant (chemicals, water usage, electricity) increase will now be split between 105 homes now. Supervisor Volpe: the new houses would not be part of the water infrastructure, they’re only gonna be part of the sewer part. They’ll have to split the HV water bill that the sewer plant gets. McGuire: when your sewer bill comes it gonna go to these same 6 houses. Councilman Cambareri: it’ll be divided equally between 105 houses. Supervisor Volpe: there’s also mandatory upgrades to the plant from the DEC that we’re gonna be working on next year. Est. cost is $70-110,000.00. All the metered water at the sewer plant will be divided between all the houses equally.
RESOLUTION TO CLOSE THE PUBLIC HEARING:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd by Councilman Howell to close the public hearing at 7:30pm. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
RESOLUTION TO APPROVE PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd by Councilman Howell to approve the minutes from the 11-05-2015 meeting as submitted. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
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CORRESPONDENCE:
- Resignation form J. Guarnieri (police Officer)effective 11-30-2015
- MHFC report through 11-16-15
- Corres. From Assoc. of Towns re: newly elected officials (sent to councilman elect)
- Supervisor’s report 10-2015
- Kiryas Joel resolution
- Letter re: flushing of mains 12-2-2015 for Hidden Valley residents
- Copy of Local Law from T/O Wallkill re: Shawangunk Kill Preservation Overlay District
- Congressional Proclamation from Hon. Patrick Maloney re: Veterans Day
- Memo from Assessor Ketcham re: Solar Exemptions, etal
- Info. From Real Property re: BAR member reappointment (J. Musial)
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
POLICE DEPT.:
Chief Rickard spoke re: a bill that was mis-coded. Gutters are up on front of community center. The fascia is fixed. The hot water heater exploded in the community center. It was replaced by Steve Dodd. There was a broken urinal in community center. That was fixed. Joe Guarnieri resignation – moving on to a full time position. Officer Gaita is also resigning. Letter to come for next meeting. He is moving. The drain held up well with last storm. He & other police chiefs met with Steve Neuhaus re: county radio project. Motorola was awarded the bid. The big question is who is gonna pay for the radios. The county will pay for the radios on a 1 for 1 basis. The county will be voting to bond that in the next few months. In 2018 we will no longer have any radio costs. Maintenance for radios will be for 2 years then we can purchase another 3 years at $50/radio/year. Councilwoman Sutherland asked who is resigning? Chief: Officer Guarnieri. Officer Gaita will have letter for next meeting.
HIGHWAY DEPT: No report.
PLANNING BOARD: Meeting this week on Wednesday.
HIDDEN VALLEY: No report.
LITTLE LEAGUE:
Councilwoman Sutherland stated registration is now open.
MOUNT HOPE FIRE COMPANY:
Chief Doty read the report which will be on file in the Town Clerk’s office. Thanked Supervisor for putting message on sign.
VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE:
TrusteeLoeven reported that 12/5 at 4Pm the Presbyterian Church is having choral rendition, Santa will come at 5:30 to light the tree. Refreshments at firehouse after. On 12/7 the Patriot Tree lighting will be held at 5:30pm. Light refreshments at village hall directly after.
BARTON & LOGUIDICE (Chuck Voss & Glenn Gidaly):
Atty. Bavoso introduced Chuck Voss & Glenn Gidaly. They will give a presentation of services they provide. Mr. Gidlay spoke re; Master Plan. They work for Deerpark, Warwick, County of Orange, Blooming Grove, City of Newburgh and Middletown. He is a planner. Mr. Voss is a senior practicing planner. Mr. Voss then spoke. He thanked the board for having them. He does land use & planning, zoning work, master plan updates, comprehensive plan. Sounds like the codes here could be updated. Town master plan has not been updated since 1991. Councilman Cambareri asked how long the process is master plan through zoning. Voss: it varies; a simple update could be 6-8 months for master plan then 6-8 months for the zoning. Your zoning might take a little longer. You would want to sit with a committee and walk them through. Cambareri: asked if they start with the planning board 1st. Mr. Voss: we’d start with the committee. The town board would be driving that project. Zoning & Planning board would be involved.
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BARTON & LOGUIDICE (Chuck Voss & Glenn Gidaly):
Atty. Bavoso added that when they worked with Mr. Voss in Forestburgh their committee was the town attorney, town clerk, 2 town board members, 2 planning board members, 2 zoning board members and the public was welcome to come and comment. You can have it however you choose. Supervisor Volpe would like the community involved. Cambareri: a neighboring town a Shawangunk Kill preservation zone. Would you look at that with us? Voss: when we start thinking about the process, we like to look beyond your borders and see what the neighbors are doing in terms of long term growth development plans. We would look at different issues. Supervisor asked about the fees/proposal. Does it depend on how much time you put in? Voss: we put together a proposal on what we think it might be with a fee. It’s a work in progress. We can give hourly or lump sum rate. Supervisor: Asked if it’s done in phases. Voss; it would be done in 2 phases. The master plan would be done and adopted by the town board 1st. Then we’d move into the zoning phase. Atty. Bavoso: by state law, the comprehensive plan is intended to direct planning & zoning boards in their decisions. Mr. Gidaly: requested that everyone on hid planning/zoning board read and understands the master plan. It’s a valuable tool. The public has to be an essential part of this. Supervisor: would like to get a proposal. Cambareri: budget-wise you have to have a lump sum with a cap. Mr. Voss passed out paperwork to board members; he left extras on the table for the public. He spoke about a SEQR process class coming up. Councilwoman Sutherland: asked for the date for the class. Mr. Voss: will get it and get back to her. M. Maurizzio asked about there being no cost estimate. Mr. Gidaly: he could give a range but it would be inaccurate at this point. Could go as high as $50, $60, $70,000. Supervisor will get some planning board & zoning board members.
GENERAL CODE:
Supervisor asked attorney if the code book could be passed tonight. Atty. Bavoso stated no; we have to wait until next month.
SHAWANGUNK KILL PRESERVATION OVERLAY DISTRICT:
Atty. Bavoso had a chance to review the resolution. If the board is considering updating the zoning, you may want to consider holding off on this so it could be incorporated into that process. Councilwoman Sutherland: we couldn’t do it now? Atty: we could it’s up to the board. Councilman Cambareri would prefer to hold off. Atty. can prepare a proposed local law for discussion in the future.
JUSTICE AUDIT: Councilman Howell stated justice audit was completed on Nov. 7. All is good.
RESOLUTION REGARDING ANNEXING LAND FROM TOWN OF MONROE TO THE VILLAGE OF KIRYAS JOEL:
Town Clerk read the “resolved” section of the County Legislature resolution re: Kiryas Joel. Atty. Bavoso: the county is going to bring in an independent contractor to work on the annexation. He spoke to 1 of the attorneys handling the litigation, they advised they we don’t get involved since we don’t have land within their borders.
RESOLUTION TO APPROVE SUPERVISOR’S REPORT:
MOTION offered by Councilman Howell 2nd by Councilwoman Sutherland to approve the 10-2015 Supervisor’s report as presented. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING:
Supervisor advised that the Tree Lighting will be held at the next board meeting on 12-7-2015 at 6:45pm. Matt’s daughter will flip the switch. Santa is coming. Police department will bring Santa. We have carolers coming.
AMENDMENT TO 2016 BUDGET:
Supervisor spoke re: amendment to budget. Town Clerk made copies of Page 1 & page 16 for board. He explained that each when you do budget you have to fill out a paper for the tax cap for the state. The state kicked it back stating that this shows a tax override and you need a vote for a tax override. 123
This resorts back to 2013 when in 2014 we realized there was an overpayment to MHFC. In 2014 we got all of the money back. When we did 2015 instead of charging people $325,000 we charged them $270,000 and we got all the money back from MHFC to offset 2015. That said, it moved that line from $325,000 to $270,000. The agreed upon amount of $325,000 this year put us over the tax cap. In 2016 the fire protection will be done on a calendar year not on the village year and 2016 we don’t need fire protection for all of the year. We only need it from June 1st though Dec. 31st of the calendar year. Therefore, we don’t need to collect the entire contracted amount. That changes the MHF line from $325,566 which is what the contract price is. The adopted needs to now be $298,436. This will put us back in sync.
RESOLUTION TO APPROVE 2016 BUDGET AMENDMENT:
MOTION offered by Councilman Howell 2nd by Councilman Cambareri to approve the budget amendment for the 2016 Town Budget MHF line from $325,566 to $298,436. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
PROPOSED LOCAL LAW RE: FIREWORKS:
Supervisor noted that everyone received a copy of the fireworks local law. Councilman Ketcham questioned the number of fireworks shows. How do you pick and choose? Supervisor: fill out a permit. Councilman Howell thinks there should be one 1. Councilwoman Sutherland disagrees with the number – not fair for 2. Councilman Cambareri: 4H has agreed they’re never gonna do it again. He doesn’t agree with more than 2 or 3. You can’t do it in your back yard. Sutherland: What if someone wants to have them at a graduation party at the park? There’s 3 right off the bat. 2 for fair and one for 4th of July. These 3 have been going on forever. Cambareri: it’s no more than 60 days before no less than 30 days prior to make application. Supervisor: it would be 1st come 1st served. J. Doty: for the fire company it won’t be on the 4th. It’ll probably be on the following Saturday. Discussion over possible dates to fill out application. Chief Rickard: asked if this will regulate private shows. Atty. Bavoso: biggest progression is the local law sets forth specific items that need to be in application in order to make you eligible for a permit. As it reads now, it’s limited to 3 events/year. There’s a spacial requirement as to how far from a residence/accessory building. Sutherland: how many private do we have right now? Cambareri: not allowed to do them privately. Chief: a permit was obtained from the Sheriff when Mike used to do the practice shoots on a Saturday. Supervisor: there’s no local law now. Chief: the Sheriff or town supervisor has to sign for the permit. J. Doty: we used to get them from the Sheriff department. Mike started getting them from Bill a while back. Fireworks have been legalized in NYS. June 1st through July 5th anybody can purchase class C fireworks and shoot them off in their yards. Cambareri: not if there’s a local law. Sutherland: if there’s a local law, you guys are gonna be very busy. Chief: I’m against fireworks in general because they are dangerous. Atty. Bavoso: the local law requires for a notice requirement that has to be published in the paper. Supervisor: we had a meeting & met with John. We found some areas, took some measurements. We found a spot where they’d still be able to be seen. He met with Rick and looked at everything. Then he contacted David and asked him to start putting something together. Sutherland: asked if he had some of the comparisons for the board members to see? Atty. Bavoso will send them in email. M. Maurizzio asked if the location of fireworks were being moved. Supervisor: we gotta move them. Atty. Bavoso spoke of the original 4 he had provided already in email. Supervisor: we need to set up a public hearing. K. Coppola: you mentioned a 30 day requirement prior to the show. That’s as far as they can go. Mount Hope or the fair can’t come in in January and say we want to have them in July or August? Sutherland: it’s no more than 60 days, no less than 30 days. Coppola: so then they are out and so is the fair. Sutherland: they can’t come in January. We need to preserve the 2 nights for the fair & 1 for July. Supervisor: after the 25th anniversary they started doing 2 nights. L. Maurizzio: those 2 nights go back 10 or 15 years. Why can’t those 3 items be exempt? Then you issue the other permits. Supervisor: because you live on the other side of Otisville. There’s so many people that live near it. There’s not that many spots that you can shoot them off. Vreeland: we talked about 2 nights. D. Tripken: can’t you reduce the size of the shells? I can feel them at my house. J. Doty explained the salutes. The size of the shell doesn’t make the sound. K. Coppola: the way it’s written, is it at the board’s discretion or is it 1st come – 1st served. Supervisor: board’s discretion.
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FIREWORKS LAW CONTINUED:
- Maurizzio: with respect to Mr. Vreeland, I think the board should also consider the fair’s 2 nights and the 4th of July should be grandfathered in. The July 4th and fair are like institutions in this town and should remain as such. Whatever you have to do to notify people should be done. They shouldn’t be eliminated or at boards discretion. Cambareri: can we limit the law to say once for 4th of July & once or twice during the fair and exclude everyone from it. Why do we want 4x/year fireworks? C. Furman: suggested one for fair, one for July 4th and one an open date. Other people look forward to it. Our fair is better than the Orange County fair. Councilwoman Sutherland: (to Lou M.): which night has the most people? L. Maurizzio: This is a project of the Lions Club. All the volunteers rely on the income from the fair. If you cut it down to 1 you cut the fair profits in half. He disagrees with 1 day. This has been a project of this community for 20 years. J. Doty: started here in 1998. Maurizzio: this community relies on the fair. Lions club can’t give out what they do without that. We give scholarships. We do a lot for the community. All based on income for country fair. Sutherland: right now we are doing 4 kids for Minisink Cares. Maurizzio: this community has to support the fair. M. Maurizzio: my suggestion is 2 nights for fair, 1 for 4th of July and leave 1 open. Give plenty of notice. Sutherland: as a board member, I’m fine with 3 – 2 for fair & 1 for July 4th. Chief Rickard: as a private citizen, all private fireworks should be banned. Supervisor Volpe: we’ll have a public hearing. D. Tripken: to put a strict number is wrong.
It’s too strict. F. Ketcham: Has there been any consideration for the decibels? Can you limit that in the law? Councilman Howell: do we have something to measure that Paul? Chief: we have a machine but it’s never been calibrated. J. Musial: asked about the salutes to J. Doty. J. Doty: explained that the weather has a lot to do with the sounds/sounds ceiling. K. Coppola: asked about the issue of the area they are being shot off from. Supervisor: that’s part of it. The problem is going to the park…Coppola: couldn’t you limit your property to 3 a year? What if someone 5 miles away wants to have one? Supervisor: that’s the purpose of having a public hearing. I guarantee everyone from Grange & Finchville will be there. D. Loeven: whatever fireworks are going to be approved, they should serve some municipal purpose. This isn’t a private event. She asked this be taken into consideration. Councilman Cambareri: private fireworks are restricted anyway. He quoted a section of the proposed law. Atty. Bavoso: the private shows, although banned, it’s difficult to be proactive in finding somebody setting them up & seeing them off. That’s why you define the permit procedure better. By requiring that anybody doing it has to have the permit available in case law enforcement shows up. They have to have the insurance if law enforcement shows up. This is a draft law beginning the regulatory process. M. Maurizzio: as John stated, the state passed a law that they’re allowing private fireworks to a certain extent, does the town law supersede that? Atty. Bavoso: a town law you can make it more restrictive, you can’t make it less restrictive. If the state is allowing certain things, the town can regulate even further. They can’t directly contradict. M. Maurizzio: can we override the Sheriff’s office allowing them whenever he feels like it? Atty. Bavoso: he will have to research a little more on that. Chief: can the local municipality restrict the fireworks contrary to the county? Atty. Bavoso: they can restrict it further but they can’t do anything in direct conflict with the county law. Supervisor: the spot that we’re looking at is the spot where Mr. Hosking wanted to farm across from the 4H opening.
RESOLUTION TO APPROVE THE EXTENSION OF THE HIDDEN VALLEY SEWER DISTRICT AS SET FORTH IN THE ORDER & REPORT:
MOTION offered by Councilman Howell 2nd by Councilman Cambareri to approve the resolution allowing the Hidden Valley extension of sewer district. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
RESOLUTION TO ACCEPT J. GUARNIERI RESIGNATION:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd by Councilwoman Sutherland to accept the resignation from J. Guarnieri effective November 30, 2015. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
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RESOLUTION FOR AUDIT OF CLAIMS (ABSTRACT #23):
MOTION offered by Councilwoman Sutherland 2nd by Councilman Ketcham to approve the following bills:
GENERAL A:#576-595$ 17,899.08
GENERAL B:#83-84$ 6,318.52
HIGHWAY:#168-174$ 9,961.22
SEWER:#97$ 136.60
MHFC:#5$ 1,427.63.
All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
RESOLUTION TO RE-APPOINT JULIE MUSIAL TO BOARD OF ASSESSMENT REVIEW:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd by Councilman Howell to re-appoint Julie Musial to the Board of Assessment Review term; is 10-1-2015 through 9-30-2020. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION:
Chief Rickard spoke re: people setting up hunting stands on the town property, 4H property. He reminded that you cannot hunt on town land or 4H land. He spoke about posting the land for next year.
- Tripken: asked about the required upgrade to the sewer plant. Supervisor stated there will be a public hearing on that. We don’t have all the information on it right now. He’s working with the DEC. R. McGuire: is not familiar with this. He added that the DEC from time to time visits the permits. They tend to make them (permits) more stringent as time goes on. Councilman Cambareri: added that it had to do with the chlorination of water going back into the stream. You’re no longer permitted to chlorinate the water. It has to be treated ultraviolet. Tripken: spoke re: 1st building where the emergency generator was, they wanted to fine us because it wasn’t presentable. He hasn’t seen anything done to it. Supervisor will speak to Mike regarding this.
- Ketcham: asked about 7 Peaks. Atty. Bavoso: hasn’t checked on this. Ketcham asked about the variances he sat through on the zba meeting. He FOIL’d the paperwork that was read at the meeting that night. The paperwork doesn’t exist. Atty. Bavoso: is not sure what the variances are he’s referring to. They discussed options at that meeting. They may not be written up yet as they may be up for consideration. Ketcham: There was a stenographer there. Bavoso: will check with Glenn. Ketcham asked about submitting written comments through December 4th. Councilman Cambareri: yes. You can still make comments. Atty. Bavoso: Letters received can be read by members of the ZBA and they can be foilable. Ketcham: Is the school report final? Councilman Cambareri: no.
Supervisor Volpe: wants to set up a meeting with the school committee and the board. He would like to set up public hearings. He will send emails with dates possibly January.
- Loeven: she understands the budget modification and the length of the contract. Supervisor: the contract in place now is already paid. No tax payer money will be paid out until June 1st. When Linda collects the money in January, we won’t be paying it out until June 1st. Then June through December will be paid. Then we’ll also have re-bidded for 2017 and then everything will be on our calendar year.
BOARD COMMENTS:
Councilwoman Sutherland: (To Atty.) asked if there were other companies to look at for the Master Plan. Atty. Bavoso: will look into other companies.
Supervisor Volpe: spoke re: Senior CPR at Devan’s Gate. Mr. Decker is putting on the class.
RESOLUTION TO ADJOURN MEETING:
MOTION offered by Councilman Howell 2nd by Councilman Ketcham to adjourn the meeting at 8:55pm. All in favor: Howell, Ketcham, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
The next meeting is December 7, 2015 at 7:30pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen A. Myers, Town Clerk
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