The regular meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Mount Hope was held at Town Hall on March 6, 2017 at 7:30pm with the following present: Supervisor Chad Volpe, Councilman Matthew Howell, Councilman Brian Carey, Councilwoman Janet Sutherland, Councilman Dominick Cambareri & Town Clerk Kathleen Myers.
OFFICIALS PRESENT: D. Hassenmayer Highway Supt., Police Chief P. Rickard, D. Bavoso Town Attorney.
Following the Pledge of Allegiance, Supervisor Volpe called the meeting to order at 7:30pm. He asked everyone to silence or turn off their cell phones.
RESOLUTION TO ACCEPT PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd by Councilman Howell to accept the minutes from February 21, 2017 as presented. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
CORRESPONDENCE:
- Highway budget modification
- Performance Evaluation police policy for approval
- Letter from Orange County Tourism re: grant resolution to be passed
- Letter from Ag & Mkts. re: Middletown shelter
- Rabies clinic flier: Wallkill Community Center 3-12-2017 11-1
- Public hearing notice from V/O Otisville re: variance request April 12 @ 7:30pm
- Cornell 5K road closing information
- Bid opening results re: hydrogeological services
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Councilman Howell: Master plan meeting March 22 at 5PM
Councilman Carey: Football/cheerleading fundraiser Mar. 8 at Buffalo Wild Wings 11am-12am
Councilwoman Sutherland: 86 library cards sold; next planning board mtg Mar 15; ZBA had 2 applicants – the next meeting is in April.
Councilman Cambareri: no report.
HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT:
Supt. Hassenmayer requested training schools approval: Mar 22 = Bucket truck training by PBE $100/person (Walters/Wickham), May 3 = Local Roads Done Right & May 25 Road Safety 365 $50/person (Hassenmayer/Wickham for both). He requested approval for himself for highway school in Ithaca June 12-14 – does not have cost yet. He spoke re: bid request from Garland for the roof work – he has not received it yet. It’s a bid for a contractor to come do the work for the roof. The pricing as it is now is for a single person to come oversee us do the work so we can guarantee the warranty. The materials list was previously submitted. The contractor to come oversee project is approx. $1,000/day. The bid he was waiting for to come in today was for the professionals to come in and do it. Supervisor added that with the weather breaking maybe we can get additional prices. Councilman Howell asked about doing this as an RFP due to the size of the job. Supervisor: RFP would have to be separate: 1 for the sealant and 1 to replace the roof. Hassenmayer: this work is called resurfacing. Supervisor: why don’t we put bid out for resurfacing? That will be ¼ the price. Hassenmayer: the people that have been up there said it’s a good roof but it needs attention. Councilman Cambareri: you don’t have to do an RFP. You can just call different contractors. Supervisor would like to get going on this as soon as the weather breaks. Supt. will make calls for resurfacing prices. He next reported that last Friday we had the wetting system installed on the truck. Two drivers and Dean were all trained on this system. Last Friday we went out and pre-treated 12 miles of roads. We didn’t get a good enough snow last Friday night to tell whether it worked or not. He is hoping to get a good snow storm to test it out before he makes the decision to put it on 4 or 5 more trucks. We are spraying calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, sodium chloride & potassium chloride on to the salt before it leaves the truck. The salt crystals the rocks lay right there on the road & work. He rode the roads Friday night/Saturday morning & it’s still there.
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He next reported on the property on Shoddy Hollow Road that the town owns. There’s an old garage/barn type building. It was purchased from Chris Dul. There used to be a house on it. He had Julie check the barn. There was empty beer cans in basement. He’d like to tear it down or offer it the fire dept. to burn. Supervisor would like for the board members to drive over to see it 1st then make a decision at the next meeting.
RESOLUTION TO APPROVE HIGHWAY TRAINING @ PINE BUSH EQUIP.:
MOTION offered by Councilman Carey 2nd by Councilman Howell to approve training at Pine Bush Equipment for 2 workers $100/person on March 22, 2017. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
RESOLUTION TO APPROVE HIGHWAY ‘LOCAL ROADS DONE RIGHT’ TRAINING:
MOTION offered by Councilman Howell 2nd by Councilman Carey to approve training for ‘Local Roads Done Right’ on May 3, 2017 for 2 workers @ $50/person. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
RESOLUTION TO APPROVE HIGHWAY ‘ROAD SAFETY 365’ TRAINING:
MOTION offered by Councilman Howell 2nd by Councilman Carey to approve training for ‘Road Safety 365’ on May 25, 2017 for 2 workers @ $50/person. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
FIRE DEPARTMENT:
Chief Capalbo read report into record. Councilwoman Sutherland requested for a written report with running totals. Chief stated the village has that information. Councilman Carey asked if that is talked about at the village meeting. Trustee Loeven: yes.
POLICE DEPARTMENT:
Chief Rickard requested board approval on the performance evaluation policy. He requested executive session for litigation & personnel. He introduced Steve Hayes (new police officer) who spoke briefly to the board. Councilman Cambareri spoke re: alarm system quotes. He received 2 so far. They are not apples to apples. They are going to start over with the quotes.
VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE:
Trustee Loeven spoke re: email problem. She was told it’s on our end. She suggested we speak to our IT guy. She explained the ZBA public hearing for an area variance. She asked Paul about the county permit for the yard sale. He will check into it. The seniors have their 1st trip on March 16. Cars will be parked here.
F.O.T.O.S.:
Atty. Bavoso stated that a referendum date needs to be picked. It can be between April 19 and May 4. There will be no machine. The ballots have to be approved & ordered through the county. There was discussion over the hours for that day. The town incurs all costs associated with this election. They agreed on 6:00am to 9:00pm on May 2.
RESOLUTION TO SCHEDULE REFERENDUM VOTE:
MOTION offered by Councilman Howell 2nd by Councilman Carey to hold the referendum vote for the fate of the old school on May 2, 2017 from 6:00am to 9:00pm, by paper ballot at to be held at Town Hall. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
RESOLUTION TO APPROVE HIGHWAY BUDGET MODIFICATION:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd by Councilman Howell to approve modification as follows:
Increase A2770 Unclassified Revenue by $560.83 AND
Increase A5132.4 Garage Contractual by $560.83. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
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RESOLUTION TO APPROVE THE PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS POLICY:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd by Councilwoman Sutherland to approve the Performance Evaluations policy as presented. (Copy on file in Town Clerk’s office.) All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; ABSTAIN: Carey. Motion carried.
RESOLUTION TO ACCEPT THE ORANGE COUNTY TOURISM GRANT:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd by Councilman Howell to authorize the Town Board of the Town of Mount Hope to accept the grant from 2016-17 County Executive Arts, Heritage & Tourism grant program in the amount of $2,400 to support the “Summer Concert Series” project. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Cambareri; ABSTAIN: Sutherland; motion carried.
ALARM SYSTEM QUOTES:
Supervisor reported we are not ready to move forward with this because we do not have 3 prices for the alarm system.
RESOLUTION TO APPROVE SIGNING CONTRACT WITH MUNICIPAY:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd by Councilman Carey to approve the Supervisor to sign the contract with MuniciPAY. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
CORNELL 5K:
Supervisor Volpe the 5K was approved at a prior meeting. Board members received packets from Cornell explaining the itinerary for the day of the race. Any additional policing will be paid for by Cornell. Chief Rickard will go over this paperwork and get back to the Supervisor.
RESOLUTION TO AUDIT THE CLAIMS:
MOTION offered by Councilman Howell 2nd by Councilman Cambareri to approve the following bills:
GENERAL A: #111-134 $ 48,450.21
GENERAL B: #14-18 $ 2,348.11
HIGHWAY: #29-35 $ 56,305.74
SEWER: #16-18 $ 2,965.89
HOWELLS FIRE: #1 $202,649.55.
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
HYDROGEOLOGIST BID:
Supervisor explained that we only received one bid for the hydrogeologist service. He asked the board for their thoughts. Councilman Howell asked if we accept the proposal – we still have the option to work with a 2nd or greater number of firms if we so choose? Bavoso: certainly. It would have to require a contract between the hydrogeologist and the town and make it exclusive if the board sought to do that. We set up the RFP so that the board had the power to accept/reject any bid as they saw fit. There was nothing in there that gave any time frame to engage in hiring one. If you wanted to ask the lone bidder to come in and discuss what they submitted would not be a problem. After discussion – they agreed to have them come to a meeting.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION:
MARY MAURIZZIO stated that she needed to correct a previous statement made by her re: Mount Hope fire company full page newspaper ad cost. The correct cost for the ad was #3,379.00. She is still waiting for December 2016 information from Helena Grunwald. Councilman Carey stated that Paul Barth has that information. She asked about the correspondence the town received from Frank Simeone – what it was about. Supervisor stated it was to sell off surplus equipment that was part of the dissolution of the Mount Hope fire company. She next spoke re: the dog park. She is not in favor of a dog park in the town. She asked if Janet was attending the village meetings. Councilwoman Sutherland stated no. It was 1 of the committees she was asked to do. She hasn’t gone to the meetings because Diane comes to our meetings and gives a report.
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The liaison goes to report back and when she would go, in the beginning, it was not a healthy environment. It was a hostile environment. Maurizzio asked in what way it was hostile. Sutherland stated when she asked a question that she would get sighs and eye rolling. There was a couple times she went and the meeting was already over. She had asked to not be on that committee because she does not live in the village. Diane knows where I am (Janet is) when she needs her and vice versa.
DIANE LOEVEN asked if the Cornell 5K is going through the village. Chief: no. She added that the new tips on the chairs at the senior center sure work. She asked if Dean could check on the chairs in the office that the exercise ladies use. She added that this the 1st time she’s heard of Janet’s feeling of a hostile environment at the village meeting. If there was an issue that Janet could have spoken to her about it. She asked Janet if there ever was a time her question(s) were not answered. Sutherland: no. Loeven: meeting times are not changed without announcing it at the prior meeting. Sutherland added that the 2 she went to there was a public hearing before and the meeting was over before she got there. Loeven: when we have public hearings they are at 6:30 with the regular meeting to follow after. Councilman Carey asked how long it takes for the village to put their minutes on line? Loeven: not sure. There was a problem a while ago but it was a problem with Digital Towpath and has been fixed.
BOARD COMMENTS:
Councilwoman Sutherland stated that she reached out to several communities that have dog parks. She visited them. She spoke to our DCO. He is not a fan of dog parks. He doesn’t want the responsibility of having to go police them. I he was asked to do that he would. He spoke to a community upstate where the citizens actually police the dog park. She spoke to parks & rec in Middletown and over by Shannen Park. They both said there haven’t been any issues at their dog parks except for the occasional pile of poop. Middletown said if people want to come to their dog park, they are happy to have them. Their dog park side for small dogs is 30 pounds. She spoke to people who brought their dogs there. They were pleased. The same with Shannen P ark & Thomas Bull park. She spoke to Dana in Mamakating and their dog park was just approved and they are in the process of raising funds for it. Councilman Cambareri stated that the town park in Mamakating you are allowed to walk your dog there on a leash. Councilwoman Sutherland added that they just had a penny social to raise money for the dog park. Supervisor Volpe asked her to get some pricing for the fencing. He was told Middletown’s was upwards of $50,000. Sutherland: sure. Are we going off the plans we had? Supervisor: the way Tom explained, it would have to have a gate that you would walk in with your dog and it would have to be 2 separate gates. Like a foyer if you will. Not sure how big Middletown’s is compared to the towns plan. She further spoke about DCO Yonskie being in the paper for a dog that actually lived in North Carolina and via the chip was returned to its owner.
Councilman Carey asked Diane to verify how long it’s been since there has been a liaison from the town at the village meeting. Sutherland stated probably since April. Carey would like to have that answer at the next meeting. He also spoke with the Dept. of Tourism to find out how we can advertise our community day. They are 100% behind us. They will put Mount Hope on the map and help us in any way. Supervisor: as soon as Kathleen has the minutes done and the resolution you’ll take that to them with the resolution? Carey: yes.
RESOLUTION TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered by Councilman Carey 2nd by Councilman Howell to enter into executive session at 8:20pm for police personnel & litigation. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
RESOLUTION TO RECONVENE REGULAR MEETING:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd by Councilman Howell to reconvene the regular meeting from executive session at 9:09pm. NO ACTION WAS TAKEN IN THIS SESSION. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
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RESOLUTION TO ADJOURN:
MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd by Councilman Howell to adjourn the meeting at 9:09pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.
The next meeting is scheduled for March 20, 2017 at 7:30pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen Myers RMC
Town Clerk