Town Board Meeting June 20, 2023
OFFICIALS PRESENT: Police Chief Maresca, Highway Supt. Hassenmayer, Attorney Bavoso.
Following the Pledge of Allegiance, Supervisor Howell called the meeting to order at 7:33pm.
MOTION TO ACCEPT PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Jennings that the minutes of the June 5, 2023 meeting are accepted as submitted. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Jennings, Furman; carried.
CORRESPONDENCE:
1. O.C. DPW Agreement for Snow/Ice Control for 2023/2024
2. O.C. Tax receipt for May 2023
3. Supervisor’s monthly report for May 2023
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Councilmember Jennings: next village meeting is July with a public hearing at 7pm. He supplied the other board members with 3 quotes for the wiring for town hall addition and current town hall. Quote 1 is a 2-page quote: one for wiring and 2nd page is for the hardware. He explained the other 2 quotes. We purchased new ring essential phone system last year and this wiring would actually help. He recommends quote 2: Central Alarm & Telephone Corp. for $8,960.00. He informed everyone that they will do the test shoot for the fireworks on the 26th at 9pm. Letters will be sent and it will post to facebook. It will be 2 shots at most. Councilmember Furman confirmed at most 2 shots to be fired. Supervisor Howell confirmed that all documents from the fireworks operator was submitted.
Councilmember Furman apologized that he missed the last meeting due to an emergency. Summer recreation is cancelled due to low camper enrollment. We’ll try again next year. Football/cheerleading sign ups are online. The DMV bus was an easy set-up. Cell service was excellent for them. They will be back to the village on July 21st. The Dragon Board festival was a great turnout. Town hall expansion is coming along. CAT lines will be voted on tonight. The lines will run to all the offices. Both treadmills at the gym are broken. There an issue with the motors. They are out of warranty. He will look into repair as he found a company that will work on them. Everything is going well at Hidden Valley. He is going to get quotes for redoing the manholes. He noted to Dean that the AC is not working in the kitchen at the youth center. Dean will call someone to look at it. Ping pong paddles are bad so Councilmember Furman will order some new ones. Summer concert series will start July 4th at 7pm.
Councilmember Davis reported the planning board meeting will be on the 21st. She would like for the vacancy on the board (after board discussion) to be filled at the next meeting. She noted the email from the highway supt. with regard to Juneteenth day and these town offices were closed but not the highway department. She asked if that is suitable. Supervisor Howell: a couple of the offices that set their own hours had closed. That was talked amongst the other departments that other part time employees were not gonna come in. That left one office that was gonna be here so I said to that office that they were the only one here – to not come in as well that was it wasn’t a mis-match in the town hall as to who was coming and not coming. She asked if the highway employees would be compensated. Supervisor: that would have to address within their contract. She was under the understanding when she saw the note on the door that everything was closed. Supervisor: the police also worked. She feels it should be all or none with regard to departments being closed. Supt. Hassenmayer: what you need to decide is Juneteenth gonna be a holiday or not. Right now, it is not. It’s not a holiday but yet 3 offices were closed. There should be some disciplinary action – some steps taken to stop that from happening again. Supervisor: David, that’s something I can talk to you about for procedures to take and for next year too? Attorney: absolutely.
Supervisor Howell: The Dragon Board Festival was at the park over the weekend. The group that put that on – a group of volunteers as well as the majority of the volunteers from the Mount Hope Chinese Association – they’ve been working with the village and town. He and the mayor met with a couple of the organizers that are looking to put together a community Asian advisory committee. This way anybody within their community that has any questions, concerns anything they want information-wise, for new residents to the area, they will have someone from that committee be able to contact someone from the town/village to get information. We are going to be working with the growing Asian population here in the town to assist them with information/any direction they may need.
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HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT:
Supt. Hassenmayer put an ad on facebook for summer help. Last year we weren’t able to find anyone. He received 6 applications. 2 of them were priors. He met with those he could get in touch with. Others didn’t leave a phone #, no answer or no voicemail. He decided on Drew Jashembowski & Ethan Bavolar. They will both work 8-hour days Monday-Thursday from 6-2:30. He will give applications to Angie tomorrow. They’ll both work 7-week periods. Ethan will start July 10 through August 24. Drew has a 2-week summer vacation in the middle of that time. He will start June 26 – through August 24. They are strictly working on landscaping and mowing at the parks and other properties. He asked for approval for the applicants. Councilmember Jennings asked when the pole barn will be done. Supt. Hassenmayer: hard to say. He’d like to say by the end of the summer but road work came up. They should be done with that by Thursday afternoon. Next week the oil and chip program is starting. Should just be Monday/Tuesday. They have insulation to do in the addition yet. Councilmember Jennings asked who will be monitoring the summer help. Supt.: I don’t know. Joe went for his 1st CDL road rest. I haven’t heard whether he passed or not. If he passed, they’ll be fulltime monitoring and if he didn’t – it’ll probably be one of the other guys. It will be somebody fulltime.
MOTION TO HIRE SEASONAL PART TIME EMPLOYEES FOR THE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT:
MOTION offered Councilmember Furman 2nd Councilmember Jennings to hire for 7-week terms: Drew Jashembowski 6/26 through 8/24, 2023 and Ethan Bavolar 7/10 through 8/24, 2023. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Jennings, Furman; carried.
POLICE DEPARTMENT:
Chief Maresca advised that the Highland Avenue bridge will be closing from July 3rd for approx. 300 days.
VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE:
Trustee Clouse noted the bridge closing. They are hoping to keep that little road between Highland and Kelly Hill after the bridge is made will be permanent one way. The mayor is working on that. They are looking forward to another summer of music. Next year they’d like to try and bring some of them down to the village park. He’s sorry to hear summer rec is a no-go this year. He’s glad they will try it again next year. July 22, 2023 the village is having a dedication ceremony at the pavilion at Veterans Memorial Park in honor of Lou Maurizzio, our former mayor. Pavilion will be names after him. More info to follow.
MOTION TO ACCEPT THE SUPERVISOR’S REPORT:
MOTION offered Councilmember Furman 2nd Councilmember Jennings to accept the supervisor’s report for May 2023 as presented. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Jennings, Furman; carried.
MOTION TO APPROVE THE 2023-2024 SNOW & ICE AGREEMENT WITH COUNTY OF ORANGE:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Furman to authorize the town supervisor to sign the 2023-2024 Snow & Ice Agreement with the County of Orange for certain county roads for $5,200.00/mile for a total of 9.18 miles ($47,736.00). (Copy on file in town clerk’s office) All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO AUDIT THE CLAIMS:
MOTION offered Councilmember Jennings 2nd Councilmember Furman to pay the bills for Abstracts #23 & #24:
Abstract 23:
GENERAL A: #262-280 $45,461.86
GENERAL B: #67-74 $ 9,745.68
HIGHWAY: #104-111 $58,746.55
SEWER: #55-57 $ 1,519.67
ARPA: #6 $ 391.51
Abstract #24:
GENERAL A: #281-295 $42,408.73
GENERAL B: #75 $ 117.72
HIGHWAY: #112-113 $ 1,335.49
SEWER: #58-59 $ 242.04
ARPA: #7 $11,831.23
All in favor: Howell, Davis, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO AUTHORIZE THE COUNTRY FAIR FIREWORKS TEST LAUNCH:
MOTION Councilmember Furman 2ND Supervisor Howell to allow the country fair test launch for 2 test launches on June 26 at 9:00pm. All required documents have been submitted. Certified letters to be sent. All in favor: Davis, Howell, Furman: ABSTAIN: Jennings; Motion carried.
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INTERNET UPGRADE WIRING:
Councilmember Davis asked about the 2 items that were being taken out from the Knight Watch quote. Councilmember Jennings explained they are patch cables that go from the PC to the wall jack. She asked if there was a rack mount power supply. He replied that we don’t but we can purchase that ourselves for cheaper. This is mostly for the new locations and where the rack is for the switches.
MOTION TO ACCEPT QUOTE FROM CENTRAL ALARM & TELEPHONE CORP FOR INTERNET UPGRADE WIRING:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Furman to accept the quote from Central Alarm & Telephone Corp. for the internet upgrade wiring for $8,960.00. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Jennings, Furman; carried.
UPDATE FOR THE EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT & INSURANCE WITH MIKE MARESCA:
Supervisor Howell noted that he had the update for the employment agreement and insurance for Mike Maresca. There’s an addition to be adopted by the board pending the clerical errors to be corrected as discussed.
MOTION TO ADOPT THE EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT AND INSURANCE AGREEMENT FOR MIKE MARESCA:
MOTION offered Councilmember Furman 2nd Councilmember Davis to adopt both agreements pending the clerical error updates. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Jennings, Furman; carried.
Supervisor Howell received the notification from the OC DPW with regard to the Highland Avenue bridge closing. This notice will be posted on the bulletin board.
PUBLIC COMMENT:
Brian Carey would like to hold a defensive driving class at the senior center. He would like it to be open to all town and village employees for $32/person on Sept. 9. He is looking to get 40 people in the building. It’s a 6-hour class. He added that the town had 27 transactions for the DMV bus when it came. The county is publishing a road closure notice for July 4. He meets with the construction crew 1/week. The bypass road has to be blacktopped. He thinks they’re going to bring in traffic lights.
MOTION TO APPROVE DEFENSIVE DRIVING COURSE AT SENIOR CENTER:
MOTION Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Furman to allow the village to rent the senior center on Sept. 9 & waive the fee for rental, for dual municipal employee offering for defensive driving and if space allows to open it up to residents. Fee to be paid directly to training school. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Jennings, Furman; carried.
MaryBeth Horzepa is selling through the end of next week the ladies Pocatello aux lotto calendars for $5 each. She reported that the seniors have a trip tomorrow which the bus leaves at 9:30am.
Keri Lee Carey asked if a 2nd fireworks show has been scheduled yet for this year. Supervisor: no, just the fair.
BOARD COMMENTS:
Councilmember Jennings congratulated the graduating class of 2023.
Supervisor Howell: the board did work very hard to get the summer camp going but due to lack of attendance of campers we cannot hold it. We will try again next year.
MOTION TO ADJOURN MEETING:
MOTION offered Councilmember Furman 2nd Councilmember Jennings to adjourn the meeting at 8:15pm. All in favor: Howell, Davis, Jennings, Furman; carried.
The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 3, 2023 at 7:30pm at Town Hall.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen A. Myers, RMC
Town Clerk
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