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Town Board Meeting July 19th, 2021

The town board meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Mount Hope was held at the Mount Hope Town Hall on July 19, 2021 at 7:30pm with the following present: Supervisor Chad Volpe, Councilman Matt Howell, Councilman Chris Furman, Councilman Brian Carey, and Town Clerk Kathleen Myers.
NOT PRESENT: Councilman Jim Jennings
OFFICIALS PRESENT: D. Bavoso- Attorney, Deputy Police Chief M. Maresca, D. Hassenmayer- Highway Supt., J. Musial -Building Insp.

Following the Pledge of Allegiance, Supervisor Volpe called the meeting to order at 7:30pm & asked audience to silence cell phones.

MOTION TO ACCEPT PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Howell that the minutes of the July 6, 2021 meeting are accepted as submitted. All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Carey, Furman; carried.

CORRESPONDENCE:
1. Email from Councilman Jennings: he will be away for vacation for tonight’s meeting
2. Supervisor’s report June 2021
3. Letter from Chief of Police requesting permission to sign contract with Orange County for ride-a-long program
4. Complaint re: 46 Maple Lane
5. Ag & Mkts Dog Control Officer Inspection Report – satisfactory 6-28-2021
6. Building dept monthly reports January through June 2021
7. Hidden Valley revised water report for 2020
8. June 2021 mortgage tax receipts from the County of Orange
9. Two quotes for work to be done at the police station
10. Letter from Assessor Ketcham re: money in lieu of parklands for 6 lot sub-division (Valuable Homes 2-1-22.3)

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Councilman Howell spoke re: heating & air conditioning system renovation at police station building. Chief had brought up that there are cold spots in the building. He reached out to Checke’s Metal from Middletown to look at installing 2 new registers to supply that air heating the air conditioning through the duct work. While we were also there, we looked at the main area downstairs where the heating/cooling units are which is next to the new police locker rooms. The corridor outside the locker rooms is not heated. The whole basement has not had heating or air conditioning. The recommendation from the police department is to have another register put in that hallway. He asked to have an executive session to discuss 2 contractual items. Councilman Carey asked about where the heating register will be downstairs. Councilman Howell explained it will be on the wall between the bulletin board and the locker room door.

Councilman Carey spoke re: getting some estimates from cleaning companies. He received 3 estimates back: Right Source Cleaning for $900/week or $3600/month; Ever Clean for $270/week or $1080/month; Wash on Wheels for $260/week. Supervisor Volpe confirmed that none of these are under contract so, if we try them and we don’t like them, we can try someone else. Summer concert series is going great. Hillbilly parade will be here tomorrow night. Little league had their picnic over the weekend on Saturday at the park. They handed out trophies. Their facebook page looked like everyone had a good time. Congrats to all that got trophies. Councilman Furman, Councilman Carey, Mrs. Carey and Amanda Davis got to clean the youth center before we opened the fitness center. He thanked them all. TV’s & equipment were all programmed. He remined everyone that it is open daily from 6am-11pm. Cards are one/family. 1846 followers on facebook now. He asked if everything for the Lions Club carnival is in order. Supervisor Volpe stated they only needed Dean to approve the dates which we did at the last meeting. Councilman Carey is concerned with rides being up in the top field and he sees a conflict with football and parking for football. He added that there was a power surge here at town hall on July 9th – some cameras got knocked out. The power box in Chad’s office luckily didn’t burn up. He’s going to send the power box back to see if it was a lightning strike or power surge. Clearly it happened during a storm.

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Councilman Furman reported that Hidden Valley video inspections of the sewer pipes had 32 of 38 runs completed. No intrusions were found. There are some manholes that need work. NYRA is a company that does smoke testing to test for open leaks. This will be scheduled for the spring 2022. Sign-ups are complete for MV youth football. He will be meeting with a few of them this week. They are doing conditioning training this week at the Greenville Park. Inaudible. Councilman Carey and Councilman Furman think some of the town buildings are looking a little dirty. He’d like for the senior center, police, court and youth center buildings to get pressure washed. FOTOS is having Cars & Coffee on July 24 from 9-12.

Supervisor Volpe spoke re: 1st round of stimulus money coming by July 29. He’d like to set up a workshop meeting at the 1st meeting in August. Some of the things we are getting prices on we might not have budgeted for but what exactly, in detail, we can spend it on isn’t out there either. He thinks it will be about $274,000 for the 1st round. And probably pretty much the same as that the same time next year. AT the workshop we can earmark what we’re spending it on. He spoke of different possibilities. Councilman Howell added a follow up to that. He had printed out a 15-page packet from the NYSAOT from the national AOT. They had a question/answer session regarding the COVID relief funds and different areas you can/cannot use the funds. Once they tell us what we can buy, we can still make it work. He doesn’t want to have to pay it back because we spent it the wrong way.

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT:
Supt. Hassenmayer notes that were requested in the last few weeks were ordered and have come in. The guys will start to put them up this week. They will try to get more spaces painted in front of the gym also. The truck bodies that were ordered back in Feb/March are shipping next week from Canada. The trailer we ordered in March arrived last week. Councilman Carey thanked the highway guys for moving the TV’s.

POLICE DEPARTMENT:
Deputy Chief Maresca about the resolution needing to be approved for the ride along program with OUBOCES. He added that the canvass letters were sent out and they had until the 30th to respond. National night out is August 3rd.

BUILDING DEPARTMENT:
BI Musial spoke re: COVID relief funds for updating the building department and automating it more.

VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE:
Trustee Loeven reported that she realized she never sent the town the village newsletter. She will send that out tonight. Community yard sale is August 7. There’s lots of space still available at the village park. At the last village board meeting the little league was there & very upset about the Lions club event in September. It appeared that they didn’t know anything about it until that day. Christine went through her emails and they were actually informed 2 days before the village voted on it that this was being presented to the board and were there any concerns. She thinks everything’s gonna work out fine. They have a meeting next Monday night with the little league and the event planners. The feedback she’s getting from them – it’s not gonna be an issue. We can work together. It’s not going to be a full-fledged fair. With the hours that the carnival is going to be operating they’re not going to conflict with little league. Happily, everyone seems to be able to work together. There’s some sort of an email problem.

MOTION TO ACCEPT SUPERVISOR’S MONTHLY REPORT:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Carey to accept the June 2021 supervisor’s report as presented. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman; carried.

MOTION TO GRANT AUTHORIZATION FOR POLICE CHIEF TO SIGN THE ORANGE-ULSTER BOCES CAREER & TECHNICAL EDUCATION CENTER’S CLINICAL EXPERIENCE CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENT FOR THE 2021-2022 SCHOOL YEAR:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Furman to grant authorization for the Police Chief to sign the Orange-Ulster BOCES Career & Technical Education Center’s Clinical Experience Contractual Agreement for the 2021-2022 school year. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman; carried.

CLEANING SERVICES DISCUSSION:
Councilman Carey’s recommendation for cleaning services company is Wash on Wheels. This person took the initiative to call & come back. It’s $260/week or $$1040/month. Supervisor: let’s say per week because some months are 5 weeks. The attorney will do a simple contract to be sure they know they are at will.

MOTION TO APPROVE HIRING WASH-ON-WHEELS FOR THE TOWN CLEANING SERVICE:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Howell to approve hiring Wash-On-Wheels to clean various town buildings for $260 per week pending submission of insurance. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman; carried.

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PUBLIC COMMENT:
Diane Loeven asked that when considering projects for the COVID money that they remember her friends on Kohler Road. She thanked Councilman Howell for the tour of the building. She asked if someone would be able to show some of the seniors how to use some of the equipment. On July 27 the seniors will have their social meeting with a bagged lunch at the park.
MaryBeth Horzepa added that the planning board meets on 7/21/2021 at 7pm.

MOTION TO AUDIT THE CLAIMS:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Furman to approve the following bills (Abstract #27 & Abstract #28):
ABSTRACT #27:
GENERAL A: #346-364 $56,941.67
GENERAL B: #63-64 $ 5,980.58
HIGHWAY: #114-121 $51,743.03
SEWER: #64 $ 1,118.90
AND
ABSTRACT #28:
GENERAL A: #365-375 $ 27,371.91
HIGHWAY: #122-123 $ 8,644.62
SEWER: #65-66 $ 225.15
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman; carried.

MOTION TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Furman to enter into executive session at 8:08pm to discuss a contractual item. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman; carried.

MOTION TO RECONVENE REGULAR MEETING FROM EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Howell to reconvene regular meeting from executive session at 8:30pm. NO ACTION WAS TAKEN AT THIS EXECUTIVE SESSION. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman; carried.

BOARD COMMENTS:
Councilman Howell confirmed that on August 2nd we’ll set a date for the workshop for the COVID money. Supervisor explained that hopefully by then he will have the funds in hand or know when they will be wired. That money has to be in an account all by itself. He and Councilman Howell set that up.
Councilman Carey asked about the town newsletter. Supervisor will send out something in the next week or so.
Supervisor Volpe explained that he asked Kathleen to send out the budget sheets. He is looking to have those back by the 20th of August.

MOTION TO ADJOURN MEETING:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Furman to adjourn the meeting at 8:32pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman; carried.

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, August 2, 2021 at 7:30pm at Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen A. Myers, RMC
Town Clerk

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