Town Budget and Town Board Meeting September 20th, 2021
OFFICIALS PRESENT: Police Chief Rickard, Deputy Police Chief Maresca, H’way Supt. Hassenmayer.
SPECIAL GUEST PRESENT: Rose Phillips
Following the Pledge of Allegiance, Supervisor Volpe called the meeting to order at 6:00pm. Public notice was available on the desk for anyone who wants to see it.
Supervisor Volpe: We have the lowest financial stress report. Game plan is to go over all of this. He will go line by line through budget. He referred to a paper he passed out to board members re: annual report. We really have no obligations.
BUILDING DEPARTMENT:
BI Musial passed out packets to board members. She explained she is asking for a 5% raise for herself, 3% for Heidi & a little over 3% for Deb with back-up. She went through the last 12 years and did a comparison – last years with her and the prior 6 years with Pete/Al. She referred to the papers she gave to board members & that the volume this year alone has gone up. They are still transferring the info form the old computer system to the newer system. She asked for more hours for Deb because of the volume they are doing in the office.
SUPERVISOR VOLPE started with the front cover of the budget. The number with the last budget was 6.2832. Our tentative was 6.8871 from last time when we put all the numbers in. After going through it all, social security, retirement & seeing where to cut corners. The new tentative one he gave to everyone was tax rate of 5.805 and it also has highway and town being reduced.
He went over how he got there:
GENERAL A:
Town board – 3.25% raise. Lowered $250 contractual.
Justices – he changed to 3.25% to be consistent. Lisa resigned – which changes clerk’s position to handbook. The new clerk will start with the starting salary $14/hour. He lowered their contractual $1,000.
Supervisor – new supervisor incoming will start with starting salary. Contractual he lowered.
Independent Auditing (new company) will be a flat fee.
Tax collection – he referred to stamp price increase for increase in contractual.
Budget officer changed to starting salary.
Assessor – reflects 3.25% raise. We already have $200,000 put away for a reval.
Town clerk – 3.25% for Town clerk & deputy. Lowered contractual by $100.
Attorney – same.
Engineer – same.
Elections – we still don’t pay for those.
Central svcs. – fax machine – stayed the same.
Buildings – cleaning person now gets paid out of .4. Increase is on .4 and .1 was lowered.
Central garage – same.
Central communications – same.
Unallocated ins – lowered.
Municipal dues – (Association of Towns) same.
Judgement/claims – has never been used since he has been here. Took it out.
Contingency – should never be going up in surplus – should be going down.
Public safety – same.
Police – couple changes – lowered .1 by $15,000 due to hiring 2 new FT officers; .2 went down. Police line went down $29,000.
Traffic control – same.
Control of dogs – 3.25% to be consistent. Councilman Jennings spoke with Dr. Roeder. She will not budge on contract due to insurance. We are responsible for any animal brought in. Also, contract is for dogs not cats. Supervisor left .4 the same. To use Humane society in Middletown is $150/redemption.
Supt. of highways – 3.25% for Dean & Amy. Additional hours approved for Amy went to 60 additional hours not 80 & they will come out of “B”.
Programs for aging – left the same.
Playgrounds/Rec – same.
Summer rec – same.
Library – lowered.
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State retirement – saved quite a bit however, “A” portion police went up.
Total appropriations changed to $2.13 million.
REVENUES: (Supervisor)
PILOTS went down a little because one place is getting added on and Devan’s Gate I was taken off. Their 15-year PILOT has expired. They now pay regular taxes.
Penalties – based off what Kathleen gave him for paying taxes late – he raised it $500.
Clerk fees – couple changes – we get hauling fees & quite a few other things that are itemized on monthly report (hauling, EZ Pass)
Police fees – surplus items go in this line, SRO fees, impound fees, billing out for fair.
Community day – same.
Interest/penalties – went down.
Use of prop. – rentals have gone up.
Health insurance – went up.
He referred back to the front page. Changed the amount we needed to make the budget. Revenues changed – we’ve got $371,000 coming in – traditionally we roll over $150,000 every year to offset budget. This year it’s $166,000.
GENERAL B:
Unallocated ins – same.
Safety inspection – made a couple changes; he changed Deb to 11 hours/week = 572 hours/year. She requested 15 hours – we changed it to 11. All the raises got changed to 3.25%. Mc Carey got moved to .4 because he gets paid through a voucher. .4 stayed the same.
Youth programs – gave little league extra $1,000.
Zoning – same.
Planning board – 3.25% & .4 raised $2,000.
Garbage/refuse – made changes – part of the cleaning person we no longer have was paid out of this .1 – that’s now been eliminated. But then Amy’s 60 hours were added in to this. .4 – gets paid out of here and added $1,000 in case the hauling goes up.
Administration – Angie’s portion out of “B”. He eliminated the .4. Retirement went up.
Social security went down.
Workmen’s comp went down.
Health insurance went up.
“B” to “D” transfer – this # is what he needs to transfer ‘B’ to ‘D’ to make it where taxes don’t have to go up.
“B” REVENUES:
Franchise fees: our biggest one is Spectrum – they were $55,000 themselves.
Safety inspection fees = building department – went up.
Zoning – same.
Planning board – he raised the money going out and coming in.
Garbage/refuse – same.
Interest – going down.
Councilman Carey asked what street openings line is for. Supervisor: when a road is dedicated to us.
Mortgage tax – $136,000 is where we are at this year without getting our last check. He feels confident moving that number up.
“DA”:
This is the bridges account. He lowered it. This is only for the bridges we own. This money gets carried over every year.
HIGHWAY:
Not many changes here – .1’s are 3.18%.
Unallocated insurance – same.
Improvements = the money we get from CHIPS.
Machinery – same.
Brush/weeds – increase is for payroll. Equipment – same.
Snow removal – increase on .1. Equipment – same.
State retirement went up.
Social security went down.
Workmen’s comp. went down.
Biggest jump is health and medical.
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HIGHWAY REVENUE:
Will be over one million on sales tax. We lowered it in 2021 because of COVID. Plowing for other municipalities went up.
Everything else basically the same.
“B” to “D” transfer now goes in to Dean’s revenue on this line.
HIDDEN VALLEY:
Unallocated insurance – we’re gonna be fine.
Contingency went up.
Personal svcs – 3.25%.
Contractual – bumped up.
Bond principal/interest – same.
About $40/house increase.
HIDDEN VALLEY REVENUE:
Interest went down.
FIRE PROTECTION:
Howells is an estimate – could be another month before we get that #.
Supervisor & Councilman Howell met with the fire company. They were looking for $50,000 increase. After discussion, Supervisor Volpe had called Mayor Wona and said town could only do $40,000. They both agreed on $40,000.
LIBRARY:
This figure is an estimate.
Supervisor Volpe explained the cover page. Tax rates are lower. Everyone agreed on the numbers as they stand. He suggested setting the preliminary budget public hearing for the 1st meeting in October.
Councilman Jennings asked since we didn’t have summer recreation if that money could go back in unallocated. Supervisor Volpe referred to page 6: $50,000 – this is where we charge the tax payers then referred to page 8: we’re not really charging them anything. He referred to youth services – we are anticipating getting $50,000. That’s different than the seniors. The seniors aren’t bringing money in – we’re just paying money out. There was brief discussion about possibly having summer rec at the youth center. There was brief discussion about the generators. There was brief discussion on power washing the buildings. There was brief discussion re: HVAC at police building.
MOTION TO ADJOURN BUDGET MEETING:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Furman to adjourn budget meeting at 7:09pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; motion carried.
TOWN BOARD MEETING:
Following the Pledge of Allegiance, the Town Supervisor called the town board meeting to order at 7:30pm.
MOTION TO ACCEPT THE PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Howell to accept meeting minutes as presented from September 7, 2021. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; motion carried.
CORRESPONDENCE:
1 Notice from planning board for designation of lead agency for the Krogslund subdivision project
2 Insurance certificate received for girl scouts
3 Letter from NYS DEC re: UNISON projects in Village of Otisville
4 Otisville fire call history report for August 2021
5 Supervisor’s report August 2021 for approval
BOARD REPORTS:
Councilman Jennings: planning board meets next month; village celebrated Arbor Day on 9-11-2021 by planting 5 trees. He congratulated the village on their centennial this past weekend. Everything was really good. He noted that everyone had in front of them the quotes for the generators. There’s prices on both diesel & propane.
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Councilman Furman: MVYFL had their first game this past weekend. The opposing team commented to Councilman Furman as to the great condition of the field. Dean will pass it on to the guys. He congratulated the village on their centennial. It was a great weekend. He thinks the town and village should do a parade once a year. He commended Keri Carey and Bob Clouse on their efforts for the centennial.
Councilman Carey: Little league fall ball started 9-12 through 10-16. Centennial was a great time. Parade was great. The town of Mount Hope in 4 years from now will be working on its bicentennial – 200 years. Year after that will be village of Otisville’s fire department celebrating it’s 100th anniversary. There’s a blood drive sponsored by Otisville fire department on 9-22-2021 at fire house 1:30-7:30.
Councilman Howell: Jason, from engineering office is planning to visit Baker St. building to go over the HVAC updates with police chief that will be funded by the money received from federal government for the American Rescue funds. This will go out to bid. We were a partial recipient for a grant from Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther’s office. Chief has more details on this. Howells FD has a wet down event on 10/9 from 1-4 at the fire station on Elm Street. Centennial was a good weekend. He thanked the village for having the town as a part of this weekend. Veteran’s parade will be 11/13/2021 starting at 11:00am. More details to come.
Councilman Carey added that there is an open house for the MV public library on 9/22/2021 & October 6, 2021 at 7pm at the senior center.
HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT:
Supt. Hassenmayer reported on the parking lot expansion at the rec center. The item 4 should be down later this week. Hopes to have it paved by the end of October. He needs a couple items declared surplus to put on the auction site; trailer #3, 2007 Winston trailer, bought originally for $5,931.00, been in service for 14 years.
MOTION TO APPROVE SURPLUS OF 2007 WINSTON TRAILER FROM HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Carey to authorize surplus of 2007 Winston trailer. All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Furman, Jennings, Carey; carried.
Supt. Hassenmayer also requested to surplus an 11’ TENCO combination dump body. It was on truck #8; it’s complete & in fair condition. He’d like to list on auction site.
MOTION TO APPROVE SURPLUS OF 11’ TENCO DUMP BODY:
MOTION offered Councilman Jennings 2nd Councilman Furman to surplus the 11’ TENCO dump body. All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Furman, Jennings, Carey; carried.
Supt. Hassenmayer spoke re: truck #10. It is the vacuum truck damaged in an accident. It was picked up today to be evaluated & we haven’t settled on any final #’s yet with the insurance company. We will get those listed along with Paul’s police car and whatever else he can find. Supervisor Volpe asked Dean how the process works with the trucks bringing stuff in. Dean: most of what we use is a mix of sand and salt. We screen our own sand at the gravel bank. Our trucks bring in sand. The salt trucks are bringing in tractor trailer loads of salt. Mike mixes it and stock piles it in the building in the back. We use a few routes with straight salt; places that don’t get high traffic like developments. Sand/salt needs traffic to work in to melt the snow.
POLICE DEPARTMENT:
Chief Rickard followed up with what Councilman Howell mentioned. He went to a press conference today. Aileen Gunther announced $1,000,000; for mental health. She is chair of that committee in the assembly. It’s going to go to training police officers in crisis intervention. Some will go to dedicated mobile response team and some enhancements to the ‘311’ system. The Governor hasn’t signed the bill yet but there’s new # that the legislature has approved – has already been passed by both houses – to create ‘388’ as a mental health emergency number. Probably the training is where we will get the money.
He is organizing a community NARCAN training on October 25, 2021 at 7pm at the youth center. He will do a flier.
VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE:
Trustee Loeven spoke re: UNISON project & explained that there’s a large lot at the corner of Orchard St & Seybolt Ave. UNISON has approval to subdivide that into 2 building lots however there’s a stream that goes through it. The stream itself is not protected it feeds directly into protected wetlands across the street. The DEC had to be involved for their approval.
She thanked the board for the centennial weekend towards its’ success. It could not have come off as well without Keri Carey. She jumped in at the end and must have worked 24 hours/day. She really did an incredible job.
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GENERATOR QUOTES:
Supervisor Volpe asked the board their thoughts. Councilman Furman asked if it says anywhere how many gallons it uses per hour. Supervisor doubts it. The biggest thing for him is whether we want it inside or outside. Councilman Carey asked how a wall would be done for the room. Councilman Howell asked if they were spec’d as an inside generator. Councilman Howell will have to find out. The board will table this until next meeting.
MOTION TO ACCEPT THE SUPERVISOR’S REPORT:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Howell to accept the August 2021 Supervisor’s report as presented. All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Furman, Jennings, Carey; carried.
MOTION TO SET PRELIMINARY BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING FOR 2022 TOWN BUDGET:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Carey to set the public hearing for the 2022 Town of Mount Hope Preliminary budget for October 4, 2021 at 7:30pm in the town board meeting room. All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Furman, Jennings, Carey; carried.
MOTION TO AUDIT THE CLAIMS ABSTRACTS 36-37:
MOTION offered Councilman Jennings 2nd Councilman Furman to pay the following bills:
ABSTRACT #36:
GENERAL A: #461-481 $16,621.77
GENERAL B: #81-83 $ 186.26
HIGHWAY: #149-153 $86,014.75
AMERICAN RELIEF: #3 $ 749.42
ABSTRACT #37:
GENERAL A: #482-497 $ 60,406.83
GENERAL B: #84-86 $ 7,522.20
HIGHWAY: #154-158 $ 96,681.78
SEWER: #83-86 $ 1,499.05
All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Furman, Jennings, Carey; carried.
PUBLIC COMMENT:
Tim Seymour came before the board to ask about getting the speed limit lowered at the turn by the Mount Hope country store. His daughter had an accident there turning left at the store to go towards Middletown with someone coming up the hill going straight. Supervisor Volpe asked the attorney to answer this. Attorney Bavoso stated that it may have to go through the county highway department. He will check on this during the week and get an answer as to the process for this. Supt. Hassenmayer explained even for the county they had to go through the state to file a TE-9 through the state. The state changed the procedure 6-7 years ago where the county could do it on their own but the county would have to fund the traffic study first. Supervisor Volpe stated that we would get the process started.
KOHLER ROAD:
Supervisor Volpe asked the attorney where we are with Kohler Road. The attorney stated that the reps from Spectrum had initially given us an estimate of what that cost would be. They were going to be working with their engineering team to update what that estimate was and start the process for getting the installations done. He will check the emails again to see where we are. He will do this tomorrow.
PUBLIC COMMENT CONTINUED:
Mary Maurizzio: centennial was a positive weekend. Prior to the weekend there was notice made that the town park flag has not been flying for some time. She knows the VFW presented Mr. Carey with a free flag to fly at the park but was told the flagpole was in need of repair ie: pulley. She wanted to know why nothing has been done to fix this. Supt. Hassenmayer stated the town highway doesn’t have a lift to reach that and he hadn’t procured one yet to get the job done. It was suggested that the fire department would use their bucket or ladder truck but that did not pan out. He is still looking for a truck or a lift to get us to the top of that pole. She had called the town hall Thursday to inquire about the flagpole. She spoke with Paula who said she needed to talk with Chad but he wasn’t in yet. 2nd phone call Angie answered and said Chad was in a meeting. Discussion ensued of what she was told. Councilman Carey explained that he was given a flag from Mr. Maurizzio. None of us knew the pulley was broken. When he attempted to put it up – they realized the pulley was broken. He further explained his version of the story. We are working on fixing the flagpole as soon as possible. She added that the rumors are not true about what she said.
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BOARD COMMENTS:
Councilman Carey thanked the V/O Otisville for making their flag look nice and we will fix ours as soon as possible.
Councilman Jennings asked about our tree lighting. The village has set their date for the 1st Saturday in December. Supervisor: we are working on is a tree lighting and a movie night.
Supervisor Volpe commented on the flag situation. In between all his meetings, Angie told him Mrs. Maurizzio was on hold. He explained his understanding of the timeline of events.
MOTION TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Furman to enter into executive session for a personnel matter at 8:10pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Jennings, 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 8:22pm. THERE WAS NO ACTION TAKEN IN THE EXECUTIVE SESSION.
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Jennings, Furman; carried.
CHIEF RICKARD STATED TO THE BOARD THAT FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 @ 6:30PM WILL BE THE TREE LIGHTING AND MOVIE NIGHT and popcorn.
MOTION TO ADJOURN MEETING:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Jennings to adjourn the meeting at 8:23pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Jennings, Furman; carried.
The next town board meeting will be on October 4, 2021 following the public hearing for the 2022 Preliminary Budget starting at 7:30pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen A. Myers, RMC
Town Clerk
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