Town Board Meeting August 15th, 2022

REGULAR MEETING, TOWN OF MOUNT HOPE, AUGUST 15, 2022
www.townofmounthope.org

The regular meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Mount Hope was held at Town Hall on August 15, 2022 at 7:30pm with the following present: Supervisor Matthew Howell, Councilman Jim Jennings, Councilman Chris Furman and Town Clerk Kathleen Myers. NOT PRESENT: Councilman Brian Carey.
OFFICIALS PRESENT: Chief P. Rickard, D. Bavoso Town Attorney, D. Hassenmayer, H’way Supt.

Supervisor Howell called the meeting to order at 7:35PM, following the Pledge of Allegiance.

MOTION TO ACCEPT PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered Councilwoman Davis 2nd Councilman Furman to accept the minutes from the August 1, 2022 and August 4, 2022 as presented. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.

CORRESPONDENCE:
1. Resignation from Police Officer Tom Miller effective 08-12-2022
2. Supervisor’s report July 2022
3. Orange County mortgage tax receipts for July 2022
4. T/O Mamakating public hearing notice re: Amendment to Use Table held on August 16, 2022 at 6:00PM
5. Letter from NYS DEC re: Wilderness Estates re: freshwater wetlands & stream disturbance
6. Overdose Awareness Day 09-14-2022 virtual event
7. ARPA funds request from F.O.T.O.S.
8. Police Dept. policy copy re: Extreme Risk Protection Orders

COMMITTEE REPORTS:
BOARD REPORTS:
COUNCILWOMAN DAVIS: Otisville Fire had 8 calls for July 2022. Planning Board meeting is 08-17-2022 at 7pm. Otisville Country Fair dates are August 25, 26, 27, 28, 2022 – lots of events have been posted.
SUPERVISOR HOWELL FOR COUNCILMAN CAREY: Tomorrow night is the last in the summer concert series with Tim Urban performing. Thank you for all the support. 2022 fall ball for little league registration is open and will be closing soon. You can register your players at otisvillelittleleague.com. Fall ball begins 09-10-2022. Halloween night trunk or treat – he would like for the board to vote on this and allocate money for candy. He’d like to have it from 4:30-6:30. He will work on fliers and get sponsors for the winners prizes.
COUNCILMAN FURMAN: MVYFB Mighty Mites are having a scrimmage on 08-20-2022 for a couple hours. He reminded everyone that Hidden Valley sewer district will have the smoke testing done on August 24. He is off from work that day so he will be there. Knights of Columbus of Middletown at Our Lady of Mount Carmel will have the Wall That Heals between Sept. 15-18. That’s for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial replica and mobile education center.
COUNCILMAN JENNINGS: Village meeting is 08-18-2022 at 7pm. He is still working on the networking for the town hall. He spoke with the company for this. They will alter the quote to reflect a wall rack vs. a floor rack.

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT:
Supt. Hassenmayer reported that tomorrow they will be paving Dulcie Court/Charlotte Lane. 650 tons of black top to put down. It will be done in 1 day. It’ll probably run until 5:30-6:00pm. He has help form T/O Wallkill, Greenville, Crawford & Deerpark for the hauling. That’s our biggest re-surfacing venture this summer. We piggyback off T/O Wallkill for the line striper. Supervisor Howell asked the total cost for the highway school. Hassenmayer: $1,495 includes hotel, meals, educational products; 09-20-2022 through 09-22-2022.

POLICE DEPARTMENT:
Chief Rickard asked Councilman Furman to remind the football league to make the parking announcements for not to park on the grass. Discussion on signage and issuing tickets. Chief Rickard asked for permissions for the supervisor to sign the SRO contract. He gave the HVAC update. It will be one day of work then another day for the switch over. He was hoping to come this week to do the one day of work then he’s looking for a rainy day to do the switch over. He noted that PO Miller has resigned. The roof estimate for the cheapest price for the roof guards will expire on 8-22-2022. This needs to be addressed because the ice will kill that unit. Chief’s request for ARPA money is for $10,000 to add to the money for 2 additional FLOCK cameras which would give us 6. Extreme Risk Protection Orders policy was given to board members. Contact him with ?’s. He hopes to vote on the policy next meeting. There are 3 O&R poles we’d like to use. To do that, we have to sign a contract with them & send them insurance information for the FLOCK. They do all the installation so all we are doing is renting it. There’s a $350 application fee. Then, it’s $34.73 per month/pole; this rate is set by the public service commission. He is looking for authorization to sign this agreement.
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MOTION TO SCHEDULE BUDGET WORKSHOP MEETINGS FOR THE 2023 TOWN BUDGET:
MOTION offered Councilwoman Davis 2nd Councilman Furman to schedule the 2023 budget workshop meetings for September 14, 2022 and September 20, 2022 at 6pm at the town hall. Ad to go into Times Herald Record. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.

MOTION TO ACCEPT RESIGNATION FROM POLICE OFFICER TOM MILLER:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Jennings to accept the resignation from Police Officer Tom Miller effective August 12, 2022. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.

MOTION TO APPROVE CONTRACT WITH MV SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR THE SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER FOR SCHOOL YEAR 2022-2023 & AUTHORIZE THE TOWN SUPERVISOR TO SIGN CONTRACT:
MOTION offered Councilman Jennings 2nd Councilwoman Davis to approve the contract with the MV school district for the School Resource Officer for school year 2022-2023 and authorize the town supervisor to sign the contract. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.

MOTION TO APPROVE SUPERVISOR’S REPORT FOR JULY 2022:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Jennings to approve the supervisor’s report for July 2022 as presented. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.

MOTION TO GO TO BID FOR THE 2023 FALL TRASH DAYS ROLL OFF DUMPSTER SERVICE:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Jennings to authorize the highway superintendent to go to bid for the 2023 fall trash days roll off dumpster service. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.

MOTION TO APPROVE HIGHWAY SUPT. TO ATTEND HIGHWAY SCHOOL IN ELLICOTTVILLE, NY:
MOTION offered Councilman Jennings 2nd Councilman Furman to approve highway supt. to attend highway school in Ellicottville NY Sept. 20-Sept. 22, 2022 for a total cost of $1,495.00. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.

MOTION TO APPROVE THE CONSERVATION EASEMENT FOR ‘55 FOREST HOUSE INC.’:
MOTION offered Councilwoman Davis 2nd Councilman Furman to accept the conservation easement for ’55 Forest House Inc.’ and authorize the supervisor to sign the easement. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.

AT THIS TIME, Chief Rickard added that the movie night went well and explained that the reason for needing a ticket was for a head count so they could have enough snacks and drinks.

MOTION TO APPROVE THE HOLD HARMLESS AGREEMENT WITH NY RURAL WATER:
MOTION offered Councilwoman Davis 2nd Councilman Furman to authorize the town supervisor to sign the contract with NY Rural Water Assoc. to allow the smoke testing to commence on August 24, 2022 in Hidden Valley. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.

CORNELL COOPERATIVE RESTORE NY GRANT:
Supervisor Howell spoke re: CORNELL COOPERATIVE RESTORE NY GRANT. We were asked by Cornell Coop. Ext. to be the primary applicant for the RESTORE NY GRANT. They are looking to restore the historic dairy barn which is adjacent to the park. We had gone through the initial piece of that which was the intent to apply. That application was filed with them on August 11, 2022. Empire State Development organization has accepted the intent to apply letter & form. Now we will continue to work forward towards the entire application with Cornell Coop. Extn.

ARPA FUNDS REQUESTS:
Supervisor Howell began discussion about the ARPA funds requests. Second ½ of the funds were received $287,588.87. He received a couple of requests.
1.)Dean’s request was to allocate a portion of the $ to employees that worked throughout the pandemic. He made a proposal that includes originally 45 employees. Any employee that worked within the time frame of April 2020 through December 2020 – a minimum of 200 worked hours. Total would have been at $6,500. If we exclude the 5 town board members that brings the employee # down to 50. I pulled that # of employees through the payroll system so anyone that met that date range – then went through individually and then pulled out the less than 200 hours employees. He will update that with current employees minus the town board. That # will be less than the $6,000 then he’ll make the adjustment to get it down for any non-current employees. FT employees will get $200. PT will be $100. Both will go through payroll.

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2.)Supervisor Howell stated that we’ve been working with the company that does the work in the sewer plant in HV (Engineer Solutions Corp.) – in terms of dollar value, the sewer plant filters – approx. 600 filter membranes need to be replaced – the quote from April is $132,115. He’s getting an up-to-date quote from the contractor. He thinks the new quote will come in around $150,000. Councilman Furman agreed. Things have escalated in the 4 months since that quote came in. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get this kind of money allocated to the town not through a tax levy. Councilman Jennings asked what we can to be proactive so this doesn’t happen again. Councilman Furman: unfortunately, the screens have out lived their life. Councilwoman Davis: they need to be monitored and taken care of more often. Supervisor would like to allocate $150,000 for this issue.
3.)Nancie Craig, Historian requested funds for the historic property for the resource room barn roof, $5,126.83.
4.)Building department requested funds for a digital blueprint scanner ($3,226.95) with a screen ($280) to view them on. (We can out this one on hold.)
5.)F.O.T.O.S. requested some funds. Councilwoman Davis: couple months ago Brian Lattimer came to us and said that he had volunteers to fix the ballfield – why can’t those volunteers work on that ballfield if it is going to be for the OLL? Councilman Jennings added that the request from F.O.T.O.S. was for the fencing for that old field to stop cars from going on the field. Alison Miller: that’s the majority of the cost we’re asking for; Brian Lattimer has said in the past that he has volunteers to help us. I’ll be honest, we haven’t seen those volunteers come to the field to do work there. Majority of that cost is for the 2 fences to protect the ball field because there are people who drive on it repeatedly.
6.)Police dept. request for the 2 years of the camera contract rental, 2 additional cameras for $10,000.00.
7.)Councilman Jennings requested $10,000 to replace the 4 basketball hoops systems at the park. Supt. Hassenmayer stated that they should be seal coated next year and them re-lined. Councilman Jennings will get some pricing on those. Supt. Hassenmayer stated that the $10,000 will cover the equipment and the sealcoating and striping but he will get pricing for the seal coat and striping.
8.)Town Clerk asked for microphones for the meeting room.
9.)Supt. Hassenmayer asked about replacing the sign out front.
Supervisor Howell added that we are at $102,462 for the ARPA funds so far.

MOTION TO AUDIT THE CLAIMS:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilwoman Davis to audit the claims for Abstracts #31 & #32:
ABSTRACT #31:
GENERAL A: #392-400 $ 41,901.27
GENERAL B: #71-72 $ 8,162.34
HIGHWAY: #125 $ 21,023.11
SEWER: #68-69 $ 3,095.49
MOUNT HOPE FIRE: #2 $160,900.50
AND
ABSTRACT #32:
GENERAL A: #401-418 $ 17,113.76
GENERAL B: #73-74 $ 313.09
HIGHWAY: #126-135 $ 72,036.28
SEWER: #70 $ 40.56.
All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.

PUBLIC COMMENT:
Alison Miller: F.O.T.O.S. would like to rent the senior center Dec 3 for a Meet the Friends of the Otisville School open house. We will have pictures with Santa. We’ll do raffles and giveaways. We’ll have informational fliers. She asked the board to waive the rental fee. It will be a morning/afternoon event.

MOTION TO WAIVE RENTAL FEE FOR F.O.T.O.S. FUNDRAISER AT THE SENIOR CENTER:
MOTION offered Councilman Jennings 2nd Councilwoman Davis to waive the rental fee for F.O.T.O.S. fundraiser at the senior center on December 3. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Jennings; ABSTAIN: Furman; carried.

MOTION TO APPROVE NOT-FOR-PROFITS FEE PER CALENDAR YEAR:
MOTION offered Councilwoman Davis 2nd Councilman Furman to allow not-for-profits one free rental of town facilities per year with subsequent rentals for the calendar year at half the posted rate for that facility and to waive the non-refundable deposit. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.

BOARD COMMENTS:
Supervisor Howell spoke re: Hidden Valley mailing. It will go out this week.

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MOTION TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Jennings to enter into executive session at 8:30pm to discuss a contract issue. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.

MOTION TO RECONVENE REGULAR MEETING FROM EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Jennings to reconvene regular meeting from executive session at 8:49pm. NO ACTION WAS TAKEN IN THIS EXECUTIVE SESSION. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.

MOTION TO AUTHORIZE TOWN SUPERVISOR TO SIGN THE POLE RENTAL AGREEMENT WITH O&R:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Jennings to authorize the town supervisor to sign the pole rental agreement with Orange & Rockland. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.

MOTION TO ADJOURN MEETING:
MOTION offered Councilwoman Davis 2nd Councilman Furman to adjourn the meeting at 8:50pm. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.

The next meeting is scheduled for September 6, 2022 at 7:30pm and the 2023 town budget meetings at 6:00pm Sept. 14, 2022 and September 20, 2022.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen Myers, Town Clerk

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