Town Board Meeting December 6th, 2021

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

7:30PM Hearing re: Unsafe structure located at SBL 10-1-46:
Supervisor Volpe resumed the hearing for an unsafe structure located at SBL 10-1-46 (1641 Route 211 West). We postponed this from last meeting in hopes of hearing from the homeowner. The homeowner is here. Supervisor Volpe asked Mr. Mydosh if he had any comments.
F. Mydosh: ever since Bill Clinton was president of the US, I documented a lot of paperwork and it’s all over the place. These people keep destroying our property & cars & houses. And if you call anybody for help, they don’t do fingerprinting; they don’t do nothing. When they crash through a door and steal stuff. They took money from my other house. We’ve been threatened quite a few times. We are still in the same boat.
Supervisor: the building dept. had given us pictures last time. Has there been any repairs to the roof?
Mydosh: yes, we been working on there but the guy that was working on there – his father went in a nursing home and he stopped working for a while. I got sick multiple times. I had a major aneurism and I had 2 major surgeries on that. Then I went and got one of these shots. The 2nd one they gave me I had a massive heart attack. Then I went to Columbia and was there for 7-8 days. They had to put a bunch of stents in & an aortic valve and I’m still here but I keep falling down. Now they think I got cancer.
Supervisor: is there any way that you could get us photos of the improvements that you made on the….
Mydosh: probably I can. We been working. There is damage to both our houses. And they been stealing our property, cutting trees down, moving on. How far do you gotta be off a line to put up a garage?
Supervisor: I don’t know the answer; I can find out for you. The purpose of this hearing is the board, we are not really in the position of taking people’s property or doing anything like that. That’s the last thing any of us want however, now that the pictures have been given to the board and it seems as if the house is unlivable & condemned, the town board, I think I speak for everyone when I say if the proper repairs are done, that’s all we really want. Where somebody says it’s livable and it’s safe. But now that the town knows about it – we are on notice that it’s unsafe. We need to make sure that it’s safe. Or we have to take steps on our end.
Mydosh: I can’t beg anymore. And I did for help. And, I did everything possible. I tried to buy more tractors to keep the yard clean. I been selling the tractors trying to make extra money because all the money is going for doctor bills.
Supervisor: would you be, considering that Julie in the building department has photos of the house and the disrepair that it is in – would you be ok with having Julie take pictures to show the improvements?
Mydosh: well, when you’re sick and dying, you can’t do much. Gov. Cuomo signed a bill that you can’t sue them when they give you a shot. I would’ve had that house all fixed back up and you keep fixing it and they keep busting the windows out. I already talked to a guy and they gonna set something up down in the other house down there when these guys break-in they ain’t gonna leave. They’re gonna bust them up pretty bad and call the cops.
Supervisor: are there visible improvements to the house?
Mydosh: yes. The roof and stuff we’ve been doing.
Supervisor: I think I speak for the whole board when I say ultimately, we want you to possess your house and live in your house. Therefore, I have no problem holding it over for 1 more meeting but we would need actual pictures or engineer’s report or an inspection done to prove that improvements are being done.
Mydosh: right. I understand you’re point. The problem is I bought thousands of dollars- worth of stuff for the house and there’s still thousands and thousands worth of lumber, windows they stole my brand-new windows and there’s no end to it. I been fighting all these other people because the lawyer from over the mountain over there, he wants to put a store in across the street – the people that’s trying to sell the houses are getting big money and they’re on my property. They closed all the water off. The guy next door he had some guy in there named Decker, where Gonzalez used to live, the next house down and that place was condemned – they redid that place. But they moved their old sheds all on my property and they closed off the water. This guy down here on the horse ranch – he’s coming across with all this dirt and he’s gonna change the flow of all this water. Even though them brooks are there you can’t stop this. You dig down 10’ in the ground you can’t put enough dirt in there to cover it up – it’s like quick sand.
Supervisor: you’re talking about a couple different things. I understand your point. We just want to make sure your house is safe to live in it.
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Attorney Plotsky: if you’re going to hold the hearing open, you should ask the building inspector to reinspect and submit updated photos. You should also ask the town engineer to go and get his opinion whether or not the structure is safe or can be rendered safe. Then, you can provide an opportunity in terms of time for the property owner to make repairs himself but at some point, you have the right under the law to send him written notice that on a certain date if it’s not done, you’re gonna do it. The cost would be assessed against the property. No town board wants to do that. When you compare the cost of that which ultimately you get back because it is on the tax rolls VS the cost & liability of, if something really bad happens in the house, at some juncture, generally not 2 wks before Christmas, you need to take some action.
BI Musial: it’s my understanding, like you said, you don’t have any running water and do you have a generator running inside or outside of the house?
Mydosh: it’s outside. But I got electric there. A. Mydosh: we pay electric bills.
Musial: did you bring those because Chad asked you bring some of your electric bills.
Mydosh: I was so sick that… A. Mydosh: he fell down 3 times today.
Supervisor: I think we’re gonna go with the attorney’s recommendation.
Mydosh: not to interrupt you, we don’t want nobody down there because what they see down there – they might not want us to fix it. We got to fix it because we got all our money we worked for all our life and these people damaged our place. We’re working on it. You gotta understand these people half killed me with these shots that I took. They made a mistake when they did the aneurism on my head. (he explained what happened with the doctors) He then explained what his wife went through.
Supervisor: I am really sorry. It sounds like your family is going through a hard time. I will need updated report by the next meeting. I have no problem holding it open for another 2 weeks. Now this will be 7 weeks in total of keeping this public hearing open. I will do that. But, I need stuff from your end. I need copies of an electric bill to prove that there’s electric there. You and I had talked on the phone and I had discussed this with you. I need photos of the improvements. We will ultimately need to inspect it ourselves to see that it’s pictures of the proper house.
Mydosh: why is it that now that the building inspectors are involved when all this development is going on? If you did tear that house down, who would own the land?
Supervisor: you would still own the land which would have no house on it. You would owe the fees of tearing the house down assessed to your taxes. We’re not in the real estate business. It’s not anything that we want. We’d like you to have a safe dwelling for you to live in.
Atty. Plotsky: what’s the date of the next meeting? Councilman Howell: the 20th.
Atty. Plotsky: that’s your deadline sir.
Mydosh: what’s your name sir? Atty. Plotsky: Glen Plotsky – I am one of the town attorneys. Mydosh: do you have a card? Plotsky: I do. I thought I had one but I don’t.(he wrote it down for him).
Supervisor: does the board have any questions?
Councilman Howell: Should we have the town engineering firm and the building inspector’s office arrange for a site visit before the next meeting on the 20th with the homeowner?
Plotsky: my recommendation would be to do that because that way everybody is on the same page. Frankly, it’s either that or the property owner has to hire an engineer to submit a report by then. As much as we’d like to be very supportive, we can’t just accept his saying ‘it’s fixed’. That doesn’t work.
Mydosh: what happened to all the letters that I sent in to the Town of Mount Hope and the police? With all this stuff going on in our yard? Supervisor: never got a letter. Mydosh: plenty of letters came though here.
Musial: Frank, why don’t we set up a day when the town engineer and I can come out to the house and you can show us the improvements and he can do some structural evaluations to make sure that the house is safe. Then we’ll go from there.
Mydosh: I’ll see what’s up. I’ve been trying to get an attorney to back us up a little bit. Musial: did you call the # I gave you?

MOTION TO ADJOURN THE PUBLIC HEARING FOR SBL 10-1-46:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Carey to adjourn the public hearing for the unsafe structure located at SBL 10-1-46 at 7:46pm until December 20, 2021 at 7:30pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Jennings, Volpe, Furman; carried.

MOTION TO ACCEPT PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Howell that the minutes of the November 15, 2021 be approved as presented. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Jennings, Volpe, Furman; carried. {H’way Supt. Hassenmayer noted that the budget mod for $5,050.00 – page 107 in the previous minutes – should reflect (for TENCO dump body sold and a Winston trailer sold). Amendment noted.}

CORRESPONDENCE:
1. Sample resolution to raise the minimum amount for fixed assets
2. Two budget mods for police department
3. 2022 Library agreement
4. Letter from ORPTS for Sheena Mathew to be re-appointed to the BAR
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5. 2022 town board meeting schedule
6. Copy of the fire contract with the V/O Otisville & T/O Mount Hope
7. Three fuel agreements with Howells fire, V/O Otisville & Cornell
8. Retirement letter from Officer Skoufis eff. 12/30/2021
9. V/O Otisville ZBA public hearing notice for 62 State St LLC for an area variance of existing apartment located at 62 State St, Otisville on 11/30 2021 at 7pm
10. V/O Otisville planning board public hearing notice for site plan approval seeking approval for conditional use to renovate an existing abandoned structure located at 8 Sanatorium Ave, Otisville, on Dec 14, 2021 at 7pm
11. Notice of annual election for Howells fire district
12. Orange county mortgage tax receipts for November 2021
13. Complaint form re: 1641 Route 211 West SBL 10-1-46

COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Councilman Howell: tree lighting went well; he thanked Santa Claus for making his appearance; he thanked Howells fire for transportation as well as Otisville for getting him up to the event at the youth center; he received a letter from the VFW thanking him for the parade & what we do for the veterans here in the town.
Councilman Carey added to Matt’s report – thanking the highway department for setting up the tree and the blow-ups; village had their tree lighting on Saturday; Patriot tree lighting is tomorrow night 5:30 at Main Street & Highland; he thanked Otisville fire for donating a pool table to the town for the youth center; youth center applications are available for residents.
Councilman Furman thanked everyone involved in the tree lighting ceremony & Councilman Carey added thanking the police dept for all they did for the tree lighting & movie night.
Councilman Jennings thanked Santa for attending and Paul and his staff for the movie night. It was a great turnout. Village meeting was on the 2nd. Next village meeting is on the 16th at 7pm.

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT:
Supt. Hassenmayer reported on the vacuum truck that was totaled – our insurance offer was $9705. He got them to increase it $5000 but we are still negotiating. He is still working on it.

POLICE DEPARTMENT:
Chief Rickard explained the budget mods. We spoke about Skoufis retirement in executive session. David sent impound letters for the cars that are still here & he will mail them out. He gave everyone a copy of the speed trailer stats – it’s working pretty cool. Full training will be Monday. The board asked me to reach out to the engineer about the HVAC system and he has not responded to Paul’s email. Councilman Howell added that this has been almost a 4-month project that we’ve paid on and not had any delivery. Chief: at this point, it’s probably better if one of the board members reaches out to the engineer. He also thanked Dean & the guys for putting together the movie screen.

MOTION TO APPROVE BUDGET MODIFICATIONS FOR POLICE DEPARTMENT:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Howell to approve the following:
Increase Police fees A1520 by $1,450.00 & Increase Police equip A3120.2 by $1,450.00 (reimbursement for police vests) AND
Increase revenue A1520 police fees by $125.00 & Increase expense line A3120.4 police contr. by $125.00 (tow fee for impounded vehicle). All in favor: Howell, Carey, Jennings, Volpe, Furman; carried.

AT THIS TIME, Chief Rickard noted that today the Times Herald Record released a police discipline database that was searchable online and when you went to Mount Hope it says we didn’t respond which is incorrect. We did respond. We sent them an email and said not only did we respond but you paid for the records that you received. They said they were gonna fix the record and correct that. Kathleen did respond and found the check which was invoiced and the paper paid for the things that we gave them. We did respond. David looked over the stuff. This was months and months ago.

MOTION TO ACCEPT RETIREMENT LETTER FROM POLICE OFFICER JOHN SKOUFIS:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Howell to accept the letter of retirement from Police Officer John Skoufis, effective December 30, 2021. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Jennings, Volpe, Furman; carried.

VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE:
Trustee Loeven noted the Patriot tree lighting tomorrow at 5:30pm. December 18th at 3:00pm is the Laying of the Wreaths Across America at Holy Name Cemetery. The clerk for the village planning & ZBA has submitted her resignation. They are looking to fill this PT position.

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MOTION TO APPROVE the 2022 FUEL AGREEMENTS WITH VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE, HOWELLS FIRE DISTRICT & CORNELL COOP. EXTENSION:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Carey to approve the 2022 fuel agreements with the Village of Otisville, Howells Fire District & Cornell Coop Ext. as presented. (Copies will be on file in the town clerk’s office). All in favor: Howell, Carey, Jennings, Volpe, Furman; carried.

MOTION TO AUTHORIZE THE SUPERVISOR TO SIGN THE CONTRACT WITH VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE FOR 2022 FIRE PROTECTION:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Howell to authorize the town supervisor to sign the 2022 contract with the Village of Otisville for fire protection. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Jennings, Furman; carried.

PORT JERVIS LIBRARY CONTRACT:
Supervisor Volpe still has questions on the library contract. He was under the impression the card would be valid for one year from the time the applicant got the card. If someone came in today and got the card , in 4 weeks we would have to pay again to renew the card in January. He’d like for David to go back to the library with the board’s dislike of the way the contract is written. Councilman Carey asked if we could implement a due date where you can’t come get a card after a certain date. Supervisor: we tried that already. The supervisor asked Kathleen to follow up with an email to David about this tomorrow.

PLANNING BOARD:
Supervisor noted that after speaking with Linda & Glenn, it is their belief that the chairman may still not be back for the next planning board meeting & the only 2 items on the agenda still have outstanding balances. Linda got caught up today and those bills still haven’t been rectified. There were certain things the engineer had asked for and they still weren’t given to the engineer so it was the recommendation after speaking with Glenn & Linda that we cancelled the December planning board meeting.
Atty. Plotsky: just for record purposes there’s one application that has approval – the approval lapse goes through December but so long as …it’s my legal opinion, that so long as the town is the one cancelling the meeting it would operationally just move forward to January. Then in January they could seek the extension that they were asking for in December. It would be different if they were the ones asking for the extension but it’s us causing the problem.
There is no motion required for this.

MOTION TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Carey to enter into executive session at 8:04pm to go over a tax certiorari involving Finchville Solar and their PILOT and also SCAR petitions that are pending and a contractual item. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Jennings, Furman; carried.

MOTION TO RECONVENE REGULAR MEETING FROM EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Jennings to reconvene regular meeting from executive session at 8:25pm. THERE WAS NO ACTION TAKEN IN THIS EXECUTIVE SESSION. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Jennings, Furman; carried.

MOTION TO AUTHORIZE SUPERVISOR TO ENTER INTO A STIPULATION OF SETTLEMENT WITH REGARD TO FINCHVILLE SOLAR LLC VS THE ASSESSOR AND TOWN OF MOUNT HOPE:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Carey to authorize the Supervisor to enter into a stipulation of settlement with regard to Finchville Solar LLC VS the Assessor & the Town of Mount Hope. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Jennings, Furman; carried.

RATES FOR LOCAL LAW #4-2021:
Supervisor Volpe noted that he spoke with Julie and that’s for the solar towers and we are proposing that it be a $1,000.00 application fee.
Councilman Howell: that’s a building permit application? Supervisor: correct.
Councilman Carey: where did that # come from? Supervisor: from what other people are getting for towers. Normally it’s a megawatt – but easier to do a flat rate.
Councilman Jennings: these towers are going on poles, correct? Supervisor: yes.

MOTION TO SET FEE FOR SMALL CELL WIRELESS PERMITS FOR LOCAL LAW #4-2021:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Furman to set a flat rate of $1,000.00 for a building permit for small cell wireless with regard to Local Law #4-2021. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Jennings, Furman; carried.

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MOTION TO SET THE DATE FOR THE 2022 RE-ORGANIZATION MEETING:
MOTION offered Supervisor Volpe 2nd Councilman Carey to set date for the 2022 reorganization meeting as January 3, 2022 in the town board meeting room located at 1706 Route 211 West, Otisville, at 7:30pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Jennings, Volpe, Furman; carried.

RING CENTRAL:
Supervisor Volpe noted that he handed out the written proposal for Ring Central for new phones for town facilities. The total is $1,833.04 which we still have in 2021 buildings to pay for it. Hopefully the company will be able to come in and train everyone on the new system. We will be able to transfer to the police department, which we can’t do now. We can transfer to the building department, transfer to the highway department & vice versa. There will be extension #’s where you can internally call people in the town. The system is definitely older than the 8-year tenure he’s been here.
Councilman Carey: have they physically been in our building to see our wiring? Supervisor: no. Everything has been on the phone and virtual.

MOTION TO AUTHORIZE PURCHASE OF NEW PHONE SYSTEM FROM RING CENTRAL:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Furman to approve the proposal from Ring Central for $1,833.04 for a new phone system for town facilities. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Jennings, Volpe, Furman; carried.

AT THIS TIME, Supervisor Volpe asked Kathleen to let Linda Franck know the planning board meeting is cancelled.

FIXED ASSETS:
Supervisor Volpe explained to the board: when you see the AUD that comes at the end of the year, all of our fixed assets have to be listed. It becomes very time consuming and currently everything is done through Kathleen’s office. The number has to be raised. Between the accountant and Kathleen & myself the # has to be raised to $1,000.00. He explained we spend $700 for a bullet proof vest. Technically that’s a fixed asset. The bullet proof vest only fits Brian Carey. It doesn’t fit Matt Howell. The $ amount was set years ago and it needs to be changed because there’s too many things that are fixed assets that are constantly changing. It was the recommendation of the accountant to do a resolution to raise the threshold for fixed assets from $500.oo to $1,000.00.

MOTION TO RAISE FIXED ASSETS AMOUNT FROM $500 TO $1,000:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Furman to raise the threshold for fixed assets from $500.00 to $1,000.00. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Jennings, Volpe, Furman; carried.

MOTION TO RE-APPOINT SHEENA MATHEW TO BOARD OF ASSESSMENT REVIEW:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Howell to re-appoint Sheena Mathew to the Board of Assessment Review, term is 10/01/2021 through 09/30/2026. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Jennings, Volpe, Furman; carried.

MOTION TO APPROVE 2022 TOWN BOARD MEETING DATES:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Furman to approve the 2022 town board meeting dates as presented (as attached to end of these minutes). All in favor: Howell, Carey, Jennings, Volpe, Furman; carried.

MOTION TO AUDIT THE CLAIMS:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Jennings to approve the following bills (Abstract #46, #47 & #48):
Abstract #46
GENERAL A: #612-623 $ 2,169.66
GENERAL B: #104 $ 42.92
HIGHWAY: #204-208 $ 5,308.05
SEWER: #108-109 $ 224.26
AMERICAN RESCUE: #10 $ 16,685.00

Abstract #47
GENERAL A: #624-643 $ 51,873.48
GENERAL B: #105 $ 3,826.71
HIGHWAY: #209 $ 19,319.09
SEWER: #110 $ 1,118.90

Abstract # 48
GENERAL A: #644-666 $ 25,895.45
GENERAL B: #106 $ 4,463.00
HIGHWAY: #210-217 $ 8,105.65
AMERICAN RESCUE: #11 $ 1,555.00.
All in favor: Jennings, Volpe, Furman; Councilman Carey abstained from abstract 48 voucher #648 AND Councilman Howell abstained from abstract 46 voucher #612; motion carried.
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PUBLIC COMMENT:
Diane Loeven updated the board on the Mount Hope seniors. The regular monthly meetings are over for the year until March. We will be having committee meetings so we’ll be using the hall. They will go back to a special event fundraiser of some sort probably late January/early February. That’s for the scholarships that we started giving each yar. That will be a weekend event but we will book it with Kathleen to make sure the hall is available. The exercise group will continue to meet 2 days/week but could increase to back to 3.

BOARD COMMENTS:
Councilman Carey noted that he is going to look into a movie screen that can be mounted on the wall at the youth center. It makes more sense because right now this thing is set up. It’s big/bulky. When people are renting it’s kind of in the way. Little league just had a cornhole competition there over the weekend. They kind of pushed everything over to the end but with the 2 new pool tables in there, you’re not going to be able to move them.

MOTION TO ADJOURN MEETING:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Carey to adjourn the meeting at 8:39pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Jennings, Furman; carried.

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 21, 2020 at 7:30pm at Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen A. Myers, RMC, Town Clerk

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2022 TOWN BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE

JANUARY 3RD 18TH(DUE TO MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY)

FEBRUARY 7TH 22ND (DUE TO PRESIDENT’S DAY)

MARCH 7TH 21ST

APRIL 4TH 18TH

MAY 2ND 16TH

JUNE 6TH 20TH

JULY 5TH (DUE TO JULY 4TH) 18TH

AUGUST 1ST 15TH

SEPTEMBER 6TH (DUE TO LABOR DAY) 19TH

OCTOBER 3RD 17TH

NOVEMBER 7TH 21ST

DECEMBER 5TH 20TH (DUE TO HANUKKAH)

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