REGULAR TOWN BOARD MEETING, TOWN OF MOUNT HOPE, July 3, 2017
The regular meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Mount Hope was held at Town Hall on July 3, 2017 at 7:30pm with the following present: Supervisor Chad Volpe, Councilman Matt Howell, Councilman Brian Carey, Councilwoman Janet Sutherland, Councilman Dominick Cambareri & Town Clerk Kathleen Myers.
OFFICIALS PRESENT: D. Bavoso-Attorney, P. Rickard-Police Chief.
Following the Pledge of Allegiance, Supervisor Volpe called the meeting to order at 7:30pm. He asked for audience to silence their cell phones.
MOTION TO ACCEPT PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd by Councilman Howell that the minutes of the June 19, 2017 meeting as submitted are approved. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
CORRESPONDENCE:
- Palmer’s Ark impound report June 2017
- Letter from J. Sullivan re: thanking police for lock-out assistance on May 8
- Corres. from O&R re: paving schedules
- Corres. from D. Bavoso re: cable franchise agreement
- Corres. from Jacobowitz & Gubits re: Quigley Road quitclaim deed
- Note from Bookkeeper’s office re: overhead door bill taken from wrong account
- Corres. from O&R re: tree contractors being in the area
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Councilwoman Sutherland reported that she met with Chief Rickard, Dep. Chief Corcoran and went to Devan’s Gate for the prescription drop. Not a great turnout. They will possibly do another one in September. Seniors had questions regarding senior scams. There will be no meeting tomorrow for ZBA. Planning board meets 7/19 at 7pm. She thanked Councilman Carey. He discovered the dog park quotes were inadvertently sent to Ketcham Fencing with the other quotes attached to them. She suggests getting rid of those and hit the ground running; reach out to KC Engineering to have a site plan done and have them give us an idea for parking and drainage, lights.
Councilman Cambareri – no report.
Councilman Carey reported that it was the 1st day for summer rec today. He went there 3x. He noted there was a small issue with kids other than the camp kids playing on the playground behind the school. Toni Coppola asked them to leave because it was still the camp time. They left. Chief stated they would keep an eye on it. He’s been putting a lot on facebook page ie: Community Day, flag drop box, concert series (no concert tomorrow – will resume July 11th). He spoke to John about the car show. There are a lot of cars coming. He noted the old fire truck that the town has – 1926 Chevy. He thought it was brought up a while back about donating it to the historical society. He would like to see it go back to the Otisville Fire department if they have room or to a museum instead of sitting out in a trailer and baking. Supervisor added that he hasn’t seen it in a while. He would like to pull it out and take a look at it.
Councilman Howell next master plan meeting will be July 20 at 5pm at town hall. Howells new truck wet down will be Aug. 6 at the fire station on Elm Street.
Supervisor Volpe would like to plan another NARCAN class for September. He’d like to have it at senior center. There will be no cost associated with this.
HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT:
Supervisor Volpe spoke re: storm that came through this past Friday. There were phone calls of trees down, power outages. He reached out to Paul and Dean and started calling down the highway list. The fire company was dispatched to Guymard Tpk 1st. By the time he & Paul were running through town, all 3 chiefs were at separate locations with trees down blocking the whole road. Grange Road was hit the worst, Guymard Tpk, Kohler Road, Mill Pond. It was awesome to be part of it and see highway dept. and fire dept work together.
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OTISVILLE FIRE:
Supervisor Volpe thanked the fire department – they were out in full force.
POLICE REPORT:
Chief Rickard reported the county radio system went down. They had to switch over to high band. Tony told him this was the 2nd time that the generators failed up at the Graham tower. Slow down signs have been going up around town. Anyone interested in getting one, can contact him. Officer Menendez submitted his resignation effective July 8th. He will be going to the state troopers. He gave town clerk the resignation. He requested approval to go to the IMPACT conference in Albany from 9/12/17 through 9/14/17 total cost is $232 which includes meals. He requested approval to hire Gregory Metakes effective July 5, 2017. Councilman Carey asked if there were any fireworks issues over the weekend. Chief was not aware of any. There will be a supervisor working each night. There’s information on facebook and twitter. Appearance tickets will be issued for firing illegal fireworks. Councilwoman Sutherland asked what’s legal and what’s not. Chief stated anything that goes in the air is illegal. Metal handle sparklers are illegal; wooden handle sparklers – things that just make smoke things that do not go air born. Firecrackers are illegal. There’s not much that’s legal.
VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE:
Trustee Loeven reported that Frank Valentino volunteered his services for community day for the garbage services. Supervisor thanked everyone involved with that; Frank and the village board.
ROSE PHILLIPS – LIBRARY:
Supervisor Volpe stated he ran in to Rose Phillips at the first concert series at the park. She is in the middle of building the library and hopes to have it finished very soon. He ordered community day water bottles which came in huge boxes. He would like to use the boxes for gently used books to be dropped off here at town hall. When the box gets full either Kathleen or myself can call Rose to let her know the books box is full. She’s local – maybe the highway dept. can drop off as well. Councilman Carey asked for the senior center to be a drop off as well. Supervisor will send pictures to Mr. Carey for the facebook page.
PESH VIOLATIONS – PARK PAVILION:
Supervisor noted that the park pavilion PESH violations have been taken care of.
SENIOR CENTER RENTAL AGREEMENT:
Supervisor spoke re: senior center rental agreements. Brian and Janet have, in the past, sent pictures of issues due to renters using the hall. He wants the board to discuss whether or not to return deposits if there are unresolved clean up issues. Councilwoman Sutherland added that her issue was with glitter all over the tables which was very hard to get clean/off the tables. Councilman Carey spoke re: his weekend to check and there was trash to be emptied and it was a waived fee (rental) for a fundraiser. Supervisor’s issue was back to back rentals which was a disaster with sticky stuff all over the floor etc. He had the cleaning crew come up and mop. Councilman Carey wanted to know what to do in that instance (Friday rental then a Saturday rental) – is the cleaning crew on call? Supervisor stated no but most of the time they are all local people. If we have to pay them $30 to go clean the hall then we’re not giving them their deposit back. He wants everyone to be on the same page. Councilman Carey asked about holding a deposit until clearance is given from the board member in charge of the hall check for that weekend. Supervisor would like for each board member to make the call whether or not to return the deposit. Councilman Cambareri has swept the floor a couple times and feels that if you have to spend 45 minutes sweeping, then they shouldn’t get the deposit back. Supervisor added that if it’s to the point that we need to call someone to clean they shouldn’t get their deposit back. If you see something document it, take pictures, sign off on it and put it in Kathleen’s window. When she sees it she’ll know they are not getting their deposit back. Town Clerk added that she let the lady that there was an issue with (that rented for the fundraiser) know that she didn’t take the garbage out and she apologized profusely for that. She (renter) said she was a one woman show and it was an oversight. She asked for her apologies to be extended. Supervisor asked if the renter’s phone numbers are on there. Town clerk stated a line for that has been added to the checklist.
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Supervisor added that if there’s an issue, a board member can call the renter right away and let them know. Everyone agreed.
QUIGLEY ROAD QUITCLAIM DEED:
Atty. Bavoso reported that he and Glenn had received correspondence from Jacobowitz & Gubits who is representing an applicant currently in front of the planning board. In their review of the town records, on this property, there is an old road on the tax map known as Quigley Road which was initially a planned road but it doesn’t appear to have ever been built, used or maintained. The request from J & G was that the town quitclaim any interest it might have in that road over to the property owner on which the road is located. A quitclaim deed is technically a deed but it states that if you have any interest in that property – you are signing over that interest in it. It doesn’t acknowledge an actual interest in the property. It doesn’t guarantee an interest in the property. If the town has no interest in the property then technically it’s not transferring any interest in the property. Basically transferring zero interest in the property. David spoke with Dean once he received it. Dean verified that although it does appear on the tax map that road was never built, never used as a public road; it has never been maintained by the town. For all intents & purposes, it is not a town road. He provided the correspondence to the town clerk & supervisor to pass along to the rest of the board to consider that. It would be this board making the determination to allow the supervisor to sign the quitclaim deed over to the property owner for any interest it might have in what is known on the tax map as Quigley Road. Councilwoman Sutherland asked where it is. Atty. stated on Pierson farm. Bavoso added that if the board needs a couple weeks to think about it – that’s fine. Councilman Cambareri asked if it was the road that has a bridge on it – there was an existing road there at one time; there’s actually a bridge back there over… Bavoso: there may be – he’s not sure. He would have to verify with Dean. Supervisor asked if we were sent maps. Bavoso stated yes. They sent copies of the tax maps. IN order for them to receive the approval from the state for the facility they want to put in there, this has to be resolved in the ownership. Councilman Howell asked the attorney what effect it would have if the quitclaim deed is signed on the existing homes on that road – there’s 2 or 3 homes there. Bavoso: on this portion of it? Howell: or is it only on the undeveloped portion? Bavoso: it’s his understanding only for the undeveloped portion. Dean told him he does not maintain that road. If it’s a private road then their access to that private road is gonna be dictated by any type of road use or road maintenance agreement or a deeded right that they may have. As it stands now, they don’t have access to a public road.
CABLE FRANCHISE AGREEMENT UPDATE:
Attorney Bavoso stated he emailed the entire board the updated cable franchise agreement as we received it from Spectrum. Everything looks in order. He wanted to bring this board’s attention to Section 6.1 which states ‘the density requirements would be 35 homes per linear strand mile of aerial cable’ which is down from the initial 50 homes. With that, section 6.2 states ‘if a subscriber is not in an area that fits that density requirement, they will split the cost of running that line with Spectrum’. That was what he wanted the board to take a look at. He asked if the board wants him to go back with a different # on that. This agreement, once in the final form, would have to go to public hearing, this board would then decide whether or not to authorize the supervisor to sign it. If they do authorize him to sign, it has to go to the public service commission for their approval before Spectrum would be able to sign it and for the agreement to take effect. Councilman Howell asked if there’s any room on Spectrum’s end to bring the cost percentage higher on Spectrum’s end or the linear mileage lower. Bavoso stated he doubts it but it’s worth asking the question. Cambareri asked if we want to consider 25 homes per mile. Bavoso will go back to them with that. Board agreed to have David ask that.
TOWN NEWSLETTER:
Supervisor stated that last year was the 1st newsletter. His target date for this year is August 7. He would like any committees & departments to have their information to him no later than 8/7. It will be a bigger newsletter than last time. Email articles to the supervisor.
AT THIS TIME, Supervisor Volpe thanked Chief Coppola for Friday night. The guys did a great job getting trees cleaned up and helping unblock the roads.
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MOTION TO HIRE GREGORY METAKES AS PART TIME NON-COMPETITIVE POLICE OFFICER:
MOTION offered by Councilwoman Sutherland 2nd by Councilman Cambareri to hire Gregory Metakes as a part time non-competitive police officer effective July 5, 2017. All in favor: Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; (Abstain: Councilman Howell – because he knows this person for the majority of his life & Abstain – Councilman Carey) – motion carried.
COMMUNITY DAY FIREWORKS NOTICE:
Supervisor asked town clerk for the dates the ad will appear in the newspaper for the fireworks. Town Clerk stated that the information has been included in the online listings and will also be included in the July 4th listings as well. Supervisor added that in addition to that- mailings were sent to Mount Hope Road, Mill Pond Road, Finchville Road, Grange Road; basically all surrounding roads with the fireworks information. Mailing went out Wednesday & Thursday of last week. He is still getting people to register for community day.
AT THIS TIME, Supervisor Volpe noted that there needs to be a change made for a bill that came from capital reserves for highway. It needs to be paid from A5132.4 instead of capital reserves for highway. Dean’s capital was put into a 90 day CD – we will move it back.
MOTION TO ACCEPT RESIGNATION FROM POLICE OFFICER DANIEL MENENDEZ:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd by Councilwoman Sutherland to accept the resignation from Police Officer Daniel Menendez effective July 8, 2017. All in favor – Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
MOTION TO APPROVE CHIEF RICKARD TO ATTEND TRAINING:
MOTION offered by Councilwoman Sutherland 2nd by Councilman Howell to authorize Chief Rickard to attend IMPACT training for Chief Rickard in Albany Sept. 12 – Sept. 14 total cost $232. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
MOTION TO AUDIT THE CLAIMS:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd by Councilman Howell to approve the following bills:
GENERAL A: #357-388 $ 58,916.36
GENERAL B: #54-55 $ 1,979.60
HIGHWAY: #102 $ 17,234.06
SEWER: #49-53 $ 3,662.31
CAP RES GEN B: #9 $ 2,880.00
CAP RES GEN A POLICE: #1 $ 16,367.28
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
(Supervisor Volpe noted that there are 4 vouchers for the bands that have supporting documentation attached to the vouchers but the voucher itself is not signed. Before he releases the checks, he will make sure the voucher is signed.)
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION:
Kathie Yedziniak spoke about the antique firetruck. She remembers there was a discussion last year/year before about the antique fire truck going to the historical society. Supervisor agreed there was a discussion.
Mary Maurizzio read into the record a letter she mailed to the town board. (Letter is attached to the end of the June 19th minutes.) She asked why the clerk did not provide copies to the board members. Town Clerk stated the cover letter was addressed to the Town Supervisor, Town Board & Town Attorney and she believed they already received their copies.
Diane Loeven asked if something could be out into the newsletter about putting house numbers on houses. She requested having recycling bins put at the senior center. The board will look into this. She next spoke about calls coming in with regard to underserviced pockets of the town for cable. If the pockets are less than a linear mile, how is it determined if they are to be serviced? Atty. stated whether or not there’s that # of homes in the linear mile. They are basing it on residences they find given the amount of cable they’re gonna be using.
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Atty. cont.: If those pockets are sparse, even if you have 25 in a compact area & you don’t have anything else for a while, it’s gonna fail their density requirements. Loeven: if there’s a ¼ mile pocket, would they take that ¼ mile and add the other ¾ mile that’s already serviced to determine? Atty.: potentially. That density calculation is going to be based on how they view it. Based on that, they’re gonna view it in the way that’s most favorable to them. Loeven: one of those residents in 1 of those pockets called Spectrum & asked if there were any changes on the horizon; they were told the entire town would be serviced.
Tim Selg thanked the highway department for the work they did for Friday’s storm. He’s upset by certain individuals in the town speaking negatively about a board member. Everyone on the board serves by doing a community service. He asked Supervisor if he had an aspect of protecting the board from these personal attacks. To personally attack one individual every time isn’t productive.
They have a right to say what they want to say – it’s in the constitution but it should be productive.
TOWN BOARD COMMENTS:
Councilman Cambareri asked Tony to thank the guys for the work the other day. He thanked Paul and Dean as well.
Councilwoman Sutherland would like to move forward with dog park. She suggested sitting with KC Engineering to talk about a site plan, drainage, parking & lighting instead of just getting quotes. Supervisor noted that we don’t have process to go by. Sutherland added: we don’t have an official site plan. Supervisor is not sure everyone wants to move forward with this. He thought we were getting prices to know if we wanted to move forward. Sutherland: we’re getting process & need to know where it’s gonna be. Cambareri: we need to set up a set of specs/get prices. We don’t need lighting – we don’t need to spend a ton of money to see whether or not…we have parking. There’s a parking lot across the street. Lighting not needed; it’ll be closed from dusk til dawn. We need prices estimates on the exact same thing. He doesn’t think we need to go to engineering. Supervisor asked what kind of draining would be needed. Cambareri: we don’t need any drainage. What needs to be decided is who is gonna clean it up and take care of it. We can’t put that on the highway dept. Sutherland: that would be on the people that have their dogs there. Cambareri: that’s never gonna work. Sutherland noted that she reached out to other towns; they didn’t have an issue. Cambareri: so far only 1 person has come to ask for a dog park. Do we pursue spending $10,000+ to appease 1 person. He personally sees no need for a dog park in our town.
Councilman Carey spoke re: last meeting Councilwoman Sutherland was not here. He made statements about dog park & estimates. He feels it’s sad that we have to start all over. This town has rules in place long before any of us have been on this board – none of them were followed. He was contacted by News center 12 so were other people on this board that decided not to say anything. He decided to because he thinks wasting tax payers time/money is not something he was elected to sit here and do. He apologized that it was considered it an attack. When he got elected he tries to do what he can for people. He answers phone calls/emails. He is not against the dog park. He’d like to see it move forward in a manner that we get it done. Councilwoman Sutherland spoke re: Matt having questions on linear footage. She had asked for anyone to email her regarding any concerns. She did not receive any emails. Mr. Selg in regard to dog park: some issues are grass or sand areas, who’s gonna pick up if people don’t pick up, how large it’s gonna be, the specs that went out were in linear feet. They were 150 linear feet per side plus a linear foot in the middle bringing it to 750 linear feet of fence. The specs included gage, the stabilizing wire in the bottom of the fence (650 feet) plus the spacing of the poles and the cap. All if that was in the bid. Each one had that same amount. All 3 were the same. The park included an access gate in the back for mowing equipment. Can’t get a lawn mower in the front gate. It troubles him that a board member can go public against another board member in the media and use the word leak which is an incorrect statement. It was inadvertently sent. He thinks the town supervisor should be the town spokesman for the board, not a councilmember. Joe Myers thinks you need to come up with a proposal – he doesn’t think it’s very safe for people to be crossing the street. He thinks there should be a site plan. You have to come up with parking. In order to get quotes you gotta have a plan. Supervisor added that where we were is where we were getting prices on fencing. On one particular avenue. That was unsuccessful. It doesn’t matter – we are not there yet. Myers: wasn’t it approved before you guys came in? Supervisor: yes but then someone asked about big dogs/little dogs. If I don’t have process – I don’t have a plan.
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Councilman Howell spoke re: procurement policy and the use of “best value” to allow townships to choose a local contractor over an out of state/area contractor even if they are not the lowest bidder. He had asked attorney to draft an addition to the procurement policy to allow the town to use that option at our discretion. Also, if he could get us figures on the dollar value discussed at the last meeting in comparison with other municipalities.
Supervisor Volpe stated he was contacted for a comment. He has no comment. What happened – happened. However, earlier when going through fire protection the same thing happened. There was a councilperson that decided to talk to the media. He sees nothing different whatsoever. It wasn’t done through the supervisor, it was done through a councilperson. He agrees he runs the day to day operations. Each person sitting up here is elected for whatever reason people put their faith in these 5 people. He has no problem with any of the 5 talking to the media.
Councilman Howell was asked and commented to about highway equipment going in/out of Cornell property. Where does the town stand with that position. Supervisor spoke with Dean who asked what the board’s pleasure was with this. If the directive comes from this board that the we will not be sending anymore trucks down to Cornell; if they come and make a formal “can you help us out for a few days” it should be addressed with the board. Sutherland asked what they were doing there. Howell: no, there was equipment. Supervisor: bulldozing and taking some stuff out. Cambareri: it’s private property – town vehicles shouldn’t be there under any condition unless approved by board. Like anything else they should be reimbursing us for the fuel and man time. They shouldn’t go off town property unless under contractual agreement or without approval of the board. Sutherland: Dean didn’t know why they were there? Supervisor: he knew they were there. He was told that phone calls were made. He asked what’s the board’s pleasure. Supervisor told Dean they shouldn’t be there. Sutherland: Did Dean share with you why they were there? Supervisor: they were levelling dirt, dropping off dirt. Cambareri: when they were cleaning the ditches they were donating the dirt to Cornell then he brought a bulldozer in to level it off. Anyone in the town can get the dirt cleaned from the ditches. Sutherland: we’ve discussed this before. Supervisor: we owned it at that time. Cambareri: we were under a contractual agreement before. We were required to build the roads because we owned the property. Sutherland: if they want to put something in writing and granted it is not ours anymore, and it’s explained to them it shouldn’t be an issue. Carey: doesn’t feel we should be down there. If the town wants to mow his lawn; what’s the difference? If it’s private property, we don’t belong there anymore. Howell: agrees with Dominick. Supervisor will advise Dean to not go down there without prior board approval. They can come to us with a formal request.
MOTION TO ADJOURN MEETING:
MOTION offered by Councilman Howell 2nd by Councilman Cambareri to adjourn the meeting at 8:41pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
Next meeting is scheduled for July 17, 2017 at 7:30pm in the Town Hall in the meeting room.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen A. Myers, RMO / Town Clerk