Town Board Meeting April 19th, 2021

The town board meeting of the Town of Mount Hope Town Board was held at the Mount Hope Town Hall on April 19, 2021 at 7:30pm with the following present: Supervisor Chad Volpe, Councilman Matt Howell, Councilman Brian Carey, Councilman Jim Jennings, Councilman Chris Furman and Town Clerk Kathleen Myers.
OFFICIALS PRESENT: Police Chief P. Rickard, Deputy Police Chief M. Maresca, Attorney D. Bavoso, Highway Supt. D. Hassenmayer.

Following the Pledge of Allegiance, Supervisor Volpe called the meeting to order at 7:30pm.

MOTION TO ACCEPT PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Furman that the minutes of the April 5, 2021 meeting are accepted as submitted. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; carried.

CORRESPONDENCE:
1. Supervisor’s report March 2021
2. Two budget modifications from highway department
3. Letter from Senator Martucci re: CHIPS money
4. Library card memo re: # of cards issued this year
5. Orange County mortgage receipts March 2021
6. Letter from Jacenta Parker requesting meeting with ZBA
7. Letter from OC Dept. of Planning re: comments on our local law #1-2021
8. Thank you note from: Bird, Richichi, Weissinger & Budd families
9. Palmer’s Ark impound report for & March 2021
10. Otisville Fire call history report March 2021

COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Councilman Howell reminded everyone that there will be no summer rec this year due to COVID. He would like to discuss some buildings and their maintenance during executive session.
Councilman Jennings reported there are 96 library cards issued so far. The village had their re-organization meeting. Their next meeting is May 6 at 7pm. Town planning board meeting is April 21 @7pm.
Councilman Furman reported on 4/26 at Hidden Valley they will start cleaning the membranes. July 6 & 7 starting 8am they will be scanning with cameras and doing a smoke test in the lines at HV. The corner of Guymard and Thistle Lane there was a problem and it needed an emergency repair. The engineer is supposed to go back there because they are still getting some water in there. MV football league is doing everything virtual for a May meeting. He thanked Brian for getting the fence done at the park.
Councilman Carey added to summer camp report from Matt – he realized he had only posted that there will be no summer camp on the private summer camp page and not on the town FB page. He posted it on the town FB page. He thanked Ketcham Fencing for the fence done at the park. Little league parade on April 24 at 10:15am start time. He noted that Pete Capria passed away – he was very involved with Troop 1 boy scout.
Supervisor Volpe added that the community group usage of the buildings will be discussed in executive session. The digital sign area at the end of our driveway was done as an Eagle scout project and spearheaded by Pete Capria. He noted that Police reform was due April 1st. It was sent March 5th – return receipt. We ended up on the bad list that we never did it. They accepted an emailed copy of it due to this.

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT:
Supt. Hassenmayer reported trash days are very busy. Had a lot of senior pick-ups. Wawayanda had a fire in their highway department. It was an electrical fire in the rear of one of their new trucks. It happened in Deerpark due to pinched cables for the tarp on the back of the truck. Ours have been checked and saw no hazards. Supervisor Volpe added there is a resident that will be coming to the next meeting and maybe you could meet with him. Dean spoke with him this morning. He has concern with drainage in his cul-de-sac. They had spoken over the past few years. We were supposed to do the job last year but it was put on hold due to finances and how they would go as highway is mostly funded by sales tax. It will be scheduled this year and will do catch basins and some pipe. Right after trash days is complete, they have Mine Hill which has 6 catch basins to be re-built. Then they will move over to Tall Oaks.

POLICE DEPARTMENT:
Chief Rickard stated the new car to replace 154 will be delivered Wednesday. It is a hybrid. He’d like to move the police awards to June 21 meeting at the senior center.

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MOTION TO MOVE JUNE 21, 2021 MEETING TO SENIOR CENTER:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Furman to move the June 21, 2021 meeting place to the Mount Hope senior center on Baker Street. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Furman, Volpe, Jennings; carried.

POLICE DEPARTMENT CONTINUED:
Chief Rickard added that Officer Art Bonjourno’s mother passed away. He sent an email to all the officers. Councilman Howell added that he met with the Chief & the town engineer to look at the HVAC system for the police and senior center building. The current system has exceeded its useful life. Chief Rickard spoke re: speed trailer. The strut broke; Dean fixed it. It will be going back out soon.

LOCAL LAW #1-2021 UPDATE:
Attorney Bavoso updated the board re: local law #1-2021. The law was sent to the state and officially in place for the town.

SHODDY HOLLOW ROAD PROPERTY FOR SALE UPDATE:
Attorney Bavoso explained he received a message from Annie Hansen, realtor who has had people inquire on this. The town is not under contract with anyone on this. There is other interest and town could pursue it.

HOWELLS CEMETERY:
Attorney Bavoso explained he is working in this. Should be finalized soon. The maps have been filed. We should be able to schedule the closing.

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

MOTION TO APPROVE HIGHWAY BUDGET MODIFICATION:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Howell to approve modification as follows:
Increase revenue a/c B3889 Other Culture Rec. $300.00 and
increase Youth Programs Contr. B7310.4 $300.00 (clay for little league).
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Furman, Volpe, Jennings; carried.

MOTION TO APPROVE HIGHWAY BUDGET MODIFICATION:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Howell to approve modification as follows:
Increase Unclassified revenue D2655 $395.32 and
increase Machinery repairs $395.32 (misc. income for scrap metal).
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Furman, Volpe, Jennings; carried.

MOTION TO AUDIT THE CLAIMS:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Howell to approve the following bills (Abstract #14, #15):
ABSTRACT 14:
GENERAL A: #189-205 $ 12,249.40
GENERAL B: #29-30 $ 235.79
HIGHWAY: #64-67 $ 22,131.62
SEWER: #28-30 $ 3,143.31
ABSTRACT 15:
GENERAL A: #206-219 $ 43,359.80
GENERAL B: #31-32 $ 25,452.70
HIGHWAY: #68-69 $ 1,171.94
SEWER: #31-32 $ 1,272.59.
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; carried.

VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE REPORT:
Trustee Loeven reported the village had their re-org meeting on the 15th. They welcomed Lance Davoren as the newest trustee and look forward to working with him. Howard Dallow, village attorney has retired. Mark Specthrie is the new village attorney. The fire house has gotten a new face lift. The bathrooms need upgrading and they are looking for contractors. The village contracted with Ketcham Fencing and they will do the fence at the “C” field. It has been temporarily fixed by the DPW until Ketcham can get there. They’ve started to get calls for the community yard sale. They are hoping that the guildelines will allow them to have it. The village board will make decision by the end of May. She thanked the Chief for helping her to get the application in to the county for this. She thanked the board for allowing the village employees to take the sexual harassment training via ZOOM. She invited Chief Rickard to the 5/20/2021 village meeting to speak on the marijuana opt-out.

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PUBLIC COMMENT:
Jessica Caldwell spoke re: marijuana law. How will it be kept out of schools? Chief: it’s a schedule 1 drug in the system. It’s illegal on school grounds under federal and state law and at colleges as well. Through the county – there will be a campaign to educate in that area. One of his suggestions is to ban smoking of tobacco in the parks which would ban marijuana as well.
Diane Loeven asked if the county is giving any direction as to when senior activities will be authorized again. Supervisor Volpe: it’s horrible. Because the governor changes everything everyday – I think the county is afraid to give any guidance. She added that she will be meeting with other senior officers to brainstorm and kind of get a re-entry plan. Obviously, we can’t do trips for quite some time. She asked the Supervisor if he could find out – she’s thinking one of the things they could do is for the re-opening – is that anyone that’s participating would have to have proof of the vaccine. She wants to be sure they are on legal grounds to do that. Supervisor: people in Devan’s Gate were sent a memo from the Rockland Housing authority that they could meet in groups of 10 or less, if they were vaccinated, in the community rooms. He doesn’t know where they got their guidance from because he looked on the site and can’t find anything. He helped several seniors there to get signed up for their shots. Jessica Caldwell asked if a waiver could be done for the seniors – that they had a vaccination – so they could take trips again. Supervisor: no.

MOTION TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Howell to enter into executive session for issues with the building department and our buildings at 8:06pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; carried.

MOTION TO RECONVENE REGULAR MEETING FROM EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Howell to reconvene regular meeting from executive session at 9:15pm. NO ACTION WAS TAKEN IN THIS EXECUTIVE SESSION. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; carried.

BOARD COMMENTS:
Councilman Howell has had inquiries about if there’s anything scheduled for CPR/First Aid classes. Supervisor Volpe will reach out to Bob Decker to see about scheduling these classes. Councilman Howell asked the attorney if he could draft up something for the OPT-OUT for the marijuana law. Attorney Bavoso will get with the Chief and draft something up.
Councilman Jennings asked the attorney – you were gonna look at the law to see if that’s covered with the smoking law. Attorney: did I send you guys an email about that? I thought I had. I will go back and look. Basically, there’s nothing specific to smoking as to the use of town property. In my opinion, you can do it in either of 2 ways: you can do it as a local law for the town properties or you can do it by resolution updating the rules of use of the – particularly the parks and for all town buildings as well. There’s no blanket or even specific smoking provision. There’s a provision about drugs and alcohol & nothing about smoking in any of the buildings. He could draft a local law or resolution. Councilman Carey: I think it’s gonna be a little tricky when you’re incorporating marijuana and cigarette smoking.

MOTION TO ADJOURN MEETING:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Furman to adjourn the meeting at 9:20pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; carried.

The next meeting is scheduled for May 3, 2021 at 7:30pm at Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen A. Myers, RMC
Town Clerk

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