Town Board Meeting April 15th, 2024
OFFICIALS PRESENT: Police Chief Maresca, Attorney Scott Bonacic.
Following the Pledge of Allegiance, Supervisor Rickard called the public hearing to order at 7:34pm.
PUBLIC HEARING FOR PROPOSED LOCAL LAW #3-2024 SEWERS:
Supervisor Rickard noted there are copies of the proposed law on the table as well as the legal ad. He reported the DEC did an inspection of the sewer plant in October and one of the violations we were cited for was that we did not have a local sewer law. This public hearing is to resolve that violation. He called for comments from the public; there were none. There were no board comments. Attorney Scott Bonacic: just for clarification, this is statutory. It’s not unique to Mount Hope. DEC wants uniformity throughout NYS. This local law is technical in nature. He suggested leaving the hearing open to written comments through the next meeting or two.
MOTION TO CLOSE PUBLIC HEARING:
NOTION offered Councilmember Furman 2nd Councilmember Carey to close the ‘verbal’ part of the public hearing at 7:33pm and allow written comments to be received until May 6, 2024. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO ACCEPT PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Jennings that the minutes of the April 1, 2024 meeting are accepted as submitted. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered Councilmember Furman 2nd Councilmember Carey to enter into executive session at 7:34pm to discuss a personnel matter with the town attorney. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO RECONVENE REGULAR MEETING FROM EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Carey to reconvene the regular meeting from executive session at 7:47pm. THERE WAS NO ACTION TAKEN IN THIS EXECUTIVE SESSION. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
CORRESPONDENCE:
1. Standard Work Day & Reporting Resolution
2. Supervisor’s report March 2024
3. Budget modifications from the Supervisor’s office
4. March 2024 mortgage tax receipts
5. Building Department monthly report for March 2024 & February 2024
6. Resignation from Michael Brock, Sewer plant operator effective May 1, 2024
7. Resignation from David Brock, Asst. sewer plant operator effective May 1, 2024
8. Highway 284 Agreement
9. 4th Annual Youth Fishing Derby from DA David Hoovler April 1, 2024 through September 2, 2024
10. Complaint re: 1021 Route 211 West
11. Results of complaint re: 15 Lake Claire Drive
12. Old School Community Center flier, May 25th from 12-4pm
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Councilmember Jennings: The sign at the end of the driveway has been fixed.
Councilmember Furman: April 19th, the DMV bus will be at town hall from 10-3:30pm. Requested the 2 old treadmills and a computer monitor be surplussed and destroyed from the youth center. The cleaning interviews were done. Recommendation will be made later in meeting.
Councilmember Carey: The bridge should be open by the end of the month. There will have a ribbon cutting. AT last village meeting, the budget was adopted. They also adopted the local law establishing weight limits on local roads. April 27 will be celebrating Arbor Day and there will be a tree planting in at the village park at 10am. Bulk pick up starts in the village the week of May 6th. This Saturday at 10 is the little league opening day and parade. She and the supervisor did interviews for the ethic’s board and the clerk’s position. She thanked Officer Fenfert and Officer Hahne for an incident that occurred on Thursday night. They were very quick to respond.
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Councilmember Davis: April 17 is planning board meeting. She is still working on the movie choices for the family movie nights. She would like to borrow the speakers from the police department.
POLICE DEPARTMENT:
Chief Maresca spoke re: renewing the Unifirst contract for the rugs. It is a 5-year contract. He would like approval. They raised their price. He negotiated a lower price but needs approval. Attorney will review contract.
The AED’s need to be replaced. He has 3 quotes for the board to review.
The junior academy will be 8/26 through 8/30. Fliers and registrations dates to follow.
National Night Out is August 6.
He would like to do the police awards on June 17th.
There will be a scheduled power outage for Shoddy Hollow Road, portions of Rose Lane, Sagamore Drive for about 2 hours.
BOARD OF ETHICS:
Councilmember Carey noted that interviews were done. Recommends the following be appointed: Kathy Russo, Jen Artola, Ken Bello, Rachel Doty, Kareem Forbes.
MOTION TO APPOINT 5 MEMBERS TO THE BOARD OF ETHICS:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Furman to appoint Kathy Russo, Jennifer Artola, Kenneth Bello, Rachel Doty & Kareem Forbes to the Board of Ethics.
All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
HIDDEN VALLEY SEWER:
Supervisor Rickard noted Mike Brock’s resignation to be approved tonight.
They did a walk through with 3 separate management companies. They received proposals from them as well. Jason will make a recommendation.
The advisory board has been working hard and reviewing things. They came along on 2 of the walk throughs.
Jason has identified some of the items that need to be repaired. There are some safety issues and some other repairs. Additionally, some infiltration has been found to be about 12,000 gallons of water/day.
SUMMER RECREATION:
Supervisor Rickard reported that 8 kids have been signed up so far for camp. 50 is the break even point. Board members agreed to cancel. Maybe there can be an arts/crafts program. Hope to have more info for next meeting. He noted that 1 person paid via credit card and he would like to return payment plus the fee and needs a motion.
MOTION TO RETURN CREDIT CARD PAYMENT & FEE TO SUMMER RECREATION APPLICANT:
MOTION offered Councilmember Furman 2nd Councilmember Carey to return credit card payment and fee to Jasmine Perez for a total of $769.88 for summer recreation camp cancellation due to lack of interest.
All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
PHONE RFP’S:
Supervisor Rickard noted the phone RFP’s were opened today. We received 3. Not all board members have had a chance to review yet. Councilmember Jennings asked for a generic breakdown per month of the totals. Keith Studt, ITC stated that is in the proposal. He further explained other parts of the proposal.
RESOLUTION FOR THE STANDARD WORK DAY AND REPORTING FOR ELECTED & APPOINTED OFFICIALS:
MOTION offered Councilmember Furman 2nd Councilmember Carey to authorize the following:
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town of Mount Hope/30364 hereby established the following standard work days for these titles and will report the officials to the NYS & Local Retirement based on their record of activities for: Kathleen Myers, Dean Hassenmayer, Christopher Furman, Dennis Ketcham, Amanda Davis, Keri Lee Carey, Jospeh Hosking, John Goldsmith.
All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO ACCEPT THE AGREEMENT FOR THE EXPENDITURE OF HIGHWAY MONEYS (SECTION 284 OF THE HIGHWAY LAW):
MOTION offered Councilmember Jennings 2nd Councilmember Carey to accept the Agreement for the Expenditure of Highway Moneys (section 284 of the highway law) as presented.
All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
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MOTION TO APPROVE BUDGET MODIFICATIONS FROM THE SUPERVSIOR’S OFFICE:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Furman to approve the following modifications:
FROM: A1989.4 OTHER GOVT SUPPORT TO A1220.1 SUPERVISOR $25,000.00
FROM: A1990.4 CONTINGENT TO A1010.4 TOWN BOARD $1,158.00
FROM: B1990.4 CONTINGENT TO B1989.4 OTHER GOVT SUPPORT $42.84
FROM: SS9730.7 BOND INTEREST TO SS8130.4 SEWER CONTRACTUAL $2,400.00
FROM: A3510.1 DOG CONTROL TO A3120.1 POLICE PERS. SERVICES $7,878.00
FROM: A3510.4 DOG CONTROL TO A3120.4 POLICE CONTRACTUAL $3,500.00
FROM SS1990.4 CONTINGENT TO SS1989.4 OTHER GOVT SUPPORT $14.27.
All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO SURPLUS THEN DESTROY OLD OFFICE FURNITURE, GYM EQUIPMENT AND COMPUTER MONITOR:
MOTION offered Councilmember Furman 2nd Councilmember Carey to surplus then destroy old office furniture, 2 old treadmills and a computer monitor. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO HIRE DAN MARTINE AS A PART TIME NON-COMPETITIVE CLEANING PERSON:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Furman to hire Dan Martine as a part time non-competitive cleaning person effective April 29, 2024. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO APPOINT HELEN STEHLIK AS A PART TIME NON-COMPETITIVE CLERK:
MOTION offered Councilmember Carey 2nd Councilmember Davis to appoint Helen Stehlik as a part time non-competitive clerk, effective April 22, 2024. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO AUDIT THE CLAIMS:
MOTION offered Councilmember Jennings 2nd Councilmember Davis to approve the bills (Abstract #14 & #13):
ABSTRACT #13:
GENERAL A: #169-184 $ 98,096.53
GENERAL B: #35-39 $ 7,961.96
HIGHWAY: #20-22 $ 31,809.92
SEWER: #22-28 $ 58,596.67
AND
ABSTRACT #14:
GENERAL A: #185-208 $ 18,334.76
GENERAL B: #40-42 $ 3,537.17
HIGHWAY: #23 $ 600.00
SEWER: #29-31 $ 3,532.37
ARPA: #4 $ 11,424.29.
All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO ACCEPT RESIGNATION FROM MICHAEL BROCK, SEWER PLANT OPERATOR:
MOTION offered Councilmember Furman 2nd Councilmember Carey to accept the resignation from Sewer Plant Operator Michael Brock, effective May 1, 2024. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO ACCEPT RESIGNATION FROM DAVID BROCK, ASST. SEWER PLANT OPERATOR:
MOTION offered Councilmember Jennings 2nd Councilmember Carey to accept the resignation from Asst. Sewer Plant Operator David Brock, effective May 1, 2024. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
PUBLIC COMMENT:
JOHN & VAL RICHICHI: Mr. Richichi spoke re: 278 Brola Road. There’s been 11,000 yards of demolition for deposit on the driveway. It’s been tested for PCP’s, metals & lead. Previous town attorney was supposed to be working on it. It has nor been removed yet. Our water hasn’t been tested yet. The procedure is at a standstill. We’ve been looking at it for 18 months. We’d like to know the town’s position on this. Attorney Bonacic has had basic communications with the property owner. Another faction is that the pre-fab house is already on the premises. That builder has an attorney as well. There’s been communications between those 2 attorneys and him. The goal is to have a meeting between the engineers for the property owner with respect to soils. The town previously put forth what they wanted to see with testing, remediation & removal; no progress has been made. We hope to have a face-to-face next week to address a list of what we are asking of them.
MARYBETH HORZEPA: Pocketbook bingo will be held on May 18 at the Pocatello FH. It’s $35 if it’s prepaid.
ALISON MILLER: Grand opening for the Old School Community Center on May 25 from noon-4pm. Hoping for the HVAC to be finished on the 1st floor by the end of this week. There will be food, drink & raffles and an opportunity for the public to see the interior.
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KEITH STUDT/ITC: He introduced himself. They have provided a bid for the new phone system. He noted local businesses that use his phone system. He’s confident they can meet the price point and requirements.
MARYBETH HORZEPA: Seniors have a day trip tomorrow. There will be cars parked here.
MOTION TO ACCEPT THE MARCH 2024 SUPERVISOR’S REPORT:
MOTION offered Councilmember Jennings 2nd Councilmember Davis to accept the March 2024 Supervisor’s report as presented. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO AUTHORIZE THE PURCHASE OF A NEW COMPUTER OFF STATE BID FOR THE NEW CLERK:
MOTION offered Councilmember Carey 2nd Councilmember Fruman to authorize the purchase of a new computer off state bid for the new clerk. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
PRESENTATION OF 30 RECOGNITION CERTIFICATE FOR TOWN CLERK KATHLEEN MYERS:
Supervisor Rickard
UNIFIRST CONTRACT WITH POLICE DEPARTMENT:
AT THIS TIME Attorney Scott Bonacic spoke re: the Unifirst contract for the police department. He noted the 5-year term with an automatic renewal if you don’t cancel in 90 days. He doesn’t like that. In 5 years from now if you don’t remember you’re stuck with it. He’d like for the chief to go back with, we are going to accept but we have to strike the auto renewal.
MOTION TO ADJOURN MEETING:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Jennings to adjourn the meeting at 8:19pm. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
The next town board meeting is scheduled for May 6, 2024 at 7:30pm at Town Hall.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen A. Myers, RMC/Town Clerk
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