Town Board Meeting February 1st, 2021
The town board meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Mount Hope was held at Town Hall on February 1, 2021 at 7:30pm with the following present: AT TOWN HALL: Supervisor Chad Volpe, Councilman Brian Carey, Councilman Chris Furman, VIA ZOOM: Councilman Matt Howell, Councilman Jim Jennings & Town Clerk Kathleen Myers.
OFFICIALS PRESENT: VIA ZOOM: Attorney Bavoso, Police Chief Rickard.
**Variation in attendance meeting site due to N’oreaster.
Supervisor Volpe called the public hearing to order at 7:30pm following the Pledge of Allegiance.
MOTION TO ACCEPT PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Furman that the minutes of the January 19, 2021 meeting as submitted are accepted. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Jennings, Furman; carried.
CORRESPONDENCE:
- Offer letter for Shoddy Hollow Road property
BOARD REPORTS:
Councilman Carey is still working on getting estimates for the senior center ceiling to hopefully get rid of the echo in that building. He hopes to have more information by next board meeting.
Councilman Furman reported he hopes to have more information for next meeting but they will be filing for a grant for the Hidden Valley sere plant.
Councilman Jennings reported the planning board meets on the 17th but he’s not sure if they will be moving the meeting place. He gave the number of fire calls for Otisville Fire. The access road has been started. The village is going to get estimates for renovating the restrooms at the fire hall. Next village board meeting is 2/4/2021 at 7pm.
Councilman Howell wanted to know if there was an update for the cemetery parcel purchase. The attorney will get an update from their attorney and have it for next meeting.
HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT:
Supervisor Volpe reported for the highway department. He gave Dean the link for the meeting. Things are going ok. The language for the signs at the park should be ready and signs will soon be made for the walking trails.
POLICE DEPARTMENT:
Chief Rickard hopes to have a recommendation for the 2nd full time hire. There was a problem with the heat at the police station over the weekend. Something on the air handler broke. Steve Dodd gave recommendations for a replacement system, possibly. The reform committee will meet next week via ZOOM. Draft copy of report will come out tomorrow. The public hearing is the 1st of March. 2 officers came back to work from having COVID. One officer is still out. He did a “Coffee With the Chief” with County Executive Steve Neuhaus this past week. He was excellent and gave an update on the bridge project.
SHODDY HOLLOW ROAD PROPERTY OFFER:
Supervisor Volpe asked board members if they had any questions on the offer for the other piece of property. Councilman Howell asked we would go in to executive session since all board members are not present. Attorney stated that he thinks whoever initiated the meeting has the ability to allow only certain people in the meeting. Supervisor as the attorney if it’s that important to make a decision on the property tonight. Attorney: if the board is satisfied with the offer, you would authorize him to move forward with putting together the contract. The board wouldn’t be binding themselves to anything until the contracts were agreed and the buyer has signed & provided a down payment. Then, the town signing the contract puts you under contract and obligated under the terms of that contract. The supervisor’s biggest concern is contingent upon them getting an approval for something that we have other boards for that.
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Supervisor: it’s not normally the town board’s decision if it’s not in the zoning. We have a board for that.
He doesn’t want to taint or influence either of those boards. Attorney: if you want, I can go back to Annie and say, if we’re gonna sell the property to this individual, there would have to be no contingencies. That’s up to the board. The board would like to wait until next meeting.
RESOLUTION TO AUDIT THE CLAIMS:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Furman to approve the bills for Abstracts #3 & #4:
ABSTRACT #3:
GENERAL A: #38-47 $ 53,122.52
GENERAL B: #6-9 $ 4,023.39
HIGHWAY: #9-11 $ 28,044.80
SEWER: #6 $ 1,118.90
MOUNT HOPE FIRE: #1 $140,900.50
AND
ABSTRACT #4:
GENERAL A: #48-60 $ 5,764.27
GENERAL B: #10 $ 33.56
HIGHWAY: ` #12-14 $ 3,799.91
SEWER: #7 $ 130.00.
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Jennings, Furman; carried.
TOWN BOARD COMMENTS:
Supervisor Volpe: the #’s are coming down. It’s his personal intention that next meeting be open to the public again however, looking at every surrounding town – nobody is open to the public yet. He would like to be open as soon as possible especially the first week in March because we have public hearings coming. He would like to continue monitoring surrounding towns as the COVID #’s come down.
Councilman Carey hopes to have more information to share for next meeting.
Councilman Furman hopes everyone will be safe tomorrow with the storm.
Councilman Jennings asked about other boards being opened/closed to the public. Supervisor: we’ve never dictated to other boards how they should run their meetings. If you look at surrounding towns, they are not opening to the public for any of the boards. It was my recommendations last time to move it because they had public hearings. Councilman Jennings asked if we have a generator for the youth center. Supervisor: we don’t have one yet. Councilman Jennings asked if we could look in to this. Supervisor: we are actually looking at putting a 40,000BTU generator courtesy of the sewer district once the renovations are done there – they will no longer need that there; he’s already reached out to Mike Romano to install it. Cost will only be to hook it up.
Councilman Howell: be safe with the ending of the storm.
Town Clerk Myers asked the attorney if he will be writing the hearing notice for the reform committee. The attorney will check with Glen on the wording and send.
MOTION TO ADJOURN:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Jennings to adjourn the meeting at 7:50pm. All in favor: Howell, Jennings, Carey, Volpe, Furman; carried.
The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 16, 2020 at 7:30pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen A. Myers, Town Clerk, RMC
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