Town Board Meeting June 7th, 2021

The town board meeting of the Town of Mount Hope was held at the Mount Hope Senior Center on June 7, 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.

Following the Pledge of Allegiance, Supervisor Volpe called the meeting to order at 7:30pm. The notice for the meeting venue change is on the table.

MOTION TO ACCEPT PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Carey that the minutes of the May 17, 2021 meeting are accepted as submitted. All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Jennings, Carey, Furman; carried.

CORRESPONDENCE:
1. HV Water Annual Water Quality Report for 2020
2. Certificate of training for Vincent Galligan III for Board of Assessment Review
3. Certificate of training for Sheena Mathew for Board of Assessment Review
4. Orange County mortgage tax receipts for May 2021

COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Councilman Howell reminded everyone that Monday, June 14th is Flag Day. He thanked the VFW for the Memorial Day service. The Town of Wallkill is sponsoring a blood drive on June 30, 2021 from 10-4 at the T/O Wallkill community center.
Councilman Carey reminded everyone the concert series starts July 6 through August 17. There are fliers on the table. The Orange County fair is having their fair from July 15 – August 1. They have concerts scheduled. Town of Wallkill put out today the Galleria is having a carnival on June 10th-13th & 16th- 20th. The republican primary is coming up on June 22 at the senior center from 6am-9pm. He wished everyone a Happy Father’s Day.
Councilman Furman reported that MV youth football league has continuous sign ups through June 24. He spoke with Mike Brock about Hidden Valley. Everything is good there.
Councilman Jennings reported the planning board meets June 16 at 7pm. The village meeting is June 17th at 6:30pm. There were 21 fire calls for May 2021. He sent an email about Kohler Road. There’s been discussion about Spectrum. He received an email from Councilman Howell re: COVID relief fund. He asked if some of those funds could be set aside for that project. He spoke re: smoking at the town park. He attended the last village meeting. He spoke with David who said we’d have to change the rule to no smoking at the park. Atty Bavoso added or designated smoking areas, if the board preferred. You can change it like you would any other park rule. You wouldn’t need a local law for it. He spoke with Mike Romano re: the TV set-ups at the youth center to get power to those TVs there. He also spoke re: the handicap parking spots that need better lighting in the parking lot. Mike Romano recommended adding another light down by the kitchen end. Councilman Carey added that when we talked about doing a light that’s on the pole out here, we kind of discussed doing a solar light so we don’t need another electric hook-up. That should throw plenty of light. Chief Rickard added that O&R is in the process of adding a light there. He’s not sure of the status of it but he will check on it. Councilman Jennings next spoke re: a generator for the youth center. He stated that Mike Romano recommends a 70K-watt generator for the youth center building. He thinks the one there now is a 35. Supervisor Volpe: the one that we can get for free. Councilman Jennings: yes. Mike recommends a 70k-watt. Supervisor Volpe suggested he get some prices. Councilman Carey added that when Mike wired up the building with light switches where – when you 1st go in the exercise area – the outside light stays on. He’d like for Mike to put a timer on it.

POLICE DEPARTMENT:
Police Chief Rickard reported the police awards will be at the end. He went to the village board meeting at their request. They are interested in banning smoking and marijuana smoking at the park but they are waiting for direction from the town board. He referred to an article in the paper today that Crawford & Middletown have come out with local laws banning the sale of marijuana in their municipalities and also of lounges. He added that in the budget bill that the Governor signed, there’s a change in the law. They created this section of law as it applies to police departments and it says that each municipality must get a certificate of compliance from the state. It’s still a little vague as to what this means, it sounds like on Jan. 21, 2023, every police department will have to meet all of the NYS accreditation standards. The good thing for us is we currently meet all the accreditation standards. This is an additional mechanism for them to take control because if they change a standard, we would be required to change our policy.
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Chief Rickard continued: In general, he is in favor of it. He thinks we should have high standards. It’s a little bit of an unfunded mandate. He spoke next about Article 35 which is penal law section on the use of force. The attorney general has made a proposal – there’s only 4 days left in the session. Our senator is against this. There’s a lot of concerns with this. We are for some tweaks to the use of force law – this would be a drastic change in essence – we would no longer be able to respond to calls of crimes in progress. It would be that police departments would purely be responding to take reports. It would end proactive policing. The officers would have less power to use force than a home owner. Councilman Furman would like to move forward with the ban of the sale of…(inaudible) lounges. Atty Bavoso stated that he sent the town board a draft for this. Supervisor Volpe has it.

VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE:
Trustee Loeven reported that the smoking at the park. The village board wasn’t sure if the town was totally banning or having a designated smoking area. The village wants to be on the same page. She spoke re: the generator. She heard that there was a smaller generator that was available for free. The village is in real need for a generator for the village hall. We tried to get a grant for it and we were told the grants for emergency services generators are no longer available. She asked the board to keep the village in mind should they find one they will no be using. She spoke re: centennial year. This Saturday is Family Fun Day at the old school on School Street. Cornell co-op will be there with animals. There will be master gardening presentations. There will be a lot of vendors. There will be some food and touch-a-truck. It will be from 9am-3pm. Rain-date is Sunday. She spoke re: the red bicycles throughout the village. There is a raffle that the Hometown Helpers is raffling off. It will be raffled off Saturday.

MARIJUANA LAW:
Supervisor Volpe would like to do a public hearing for the marijuana law on July 19. Chief Rickard asked to re-schedule to the August meeting as he will not be able to be here for the July meeting. The board agreed on August 2. He added: as far as smoking at the town park, he asked the board how they felt: designated area or ban it from the park. Councilman Carey asked: is it an option to ban it from the town property and have a location in the park for someone to use? Supervisor: right now, we are only doing town park. His concern is the rentals. Councilman Carey would like feedback from the community. Atty. Bavoso will draft a policy based on designated areas. Councilman Howell asked about the public hearing being in August; is there a requirement to have a waiting period to adopt the opt-out policy? Atty. Bavoso: yes – there is a subject to 30-day permissive referendum period.

CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE:
Keri Carey (member of centennial committee) gave an update for what’s happening this year. Diane went over family day for this weekend. We have a facebook page to show all of our events. July 17, the town/village historian, Nancie Craig, is doing a cemetery walk of the Plains Cemetery. This will be from 1pm-3pm. The big event is centennial weekend – September 17-19. Friday night will be a community BBQ at Veterans Park. There will be entertainment. Saturday will be the centennial parade at noon. After that there will be food and other things going on at Berger field. Sunday there will be historical programs going on. A time capsule will be buried. There will be an art show at the old church on Highland Avenue. Nancie Craig will be doing a presentation that day. The centennial bikes – there are 20. 2 people have made their own. 22 total so far. She asked about fireworks on Saturday night if the town would be interested in doing this. (inaudible) Supervisor Volpe added that he thinks they were going back and forth with trying to extend Night Out Against Crime with a fireworks thing – we were unsure because the town only allows 2 fireworks shows if the Otisville fair was happening. There were a lot of factors we didn’t know. She added that if the town wanted to have a float in the parade – they had sent information out about that. The police department is having a booth this weekend at family day with fun stuff for kids. The next centennial meeting is June 16 at 5:30. The parade ends at Berger field. Their event will be held there and if the town was going to fireworks (inaudible) Parade starts at 12 to 2. Supervisor Volpe will reach out to Mike Romano to see if he is still available. He asked if there was any rain-dates for that. Mrs. Carey: That weekend we are going rain or shine. There’s so much going on in so many different areas. When they booked marching bands, they don’t do rain dates.

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MOTION TO AUDIT THE CLAIMS:
MOTION offered Councilman Jennings 2nd Councilman Howell to approve the bills (Abstract 20, 21, 22):
ABSTRACT 20:
GENERAL A: #268-273 $ 827.48
GENERAL B: #45 $4,664.00
HIGHWAY: #88-94 $9,777.80
SEWER: #46-48 $ 394.08
ABSTRACT 21:
GENERAL A: #274-284 $61,244.17
GENERAL B: #46-47 $ 4,021.78
HIGHWAY: #95-96 $17,982.43
SEWER: #49-51 $ 4,022.90
ABSTRACT 22:
GENERAL A: #285-300 $10,255.01
GENERAL B: #48-49 $ 236.40
HIGHWAY: #97-98 $ 640.48
SEWER: #52 $ 1,664.53.
All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Jennings, Carey, Furman; carried.

PUBLIC COMMENT:
DONNA BAKER (Kohler Road): Earlier she heard Mr. Jennings mention the cable issue on Kohler Road and finding the money to help this. She asked if this is something the rest of the board would entertain. Supervisor Volpe: I don’t know if legally we can use that money for a few residents. I know there was a couple correspondence with the attorney. It’s great for us to come up with an idea but we need to know that’s it’s legal to do what it is we want to do. He asked the attorney to elaborate. Atty. Bavoso: At the moment, there’s limited guidance on defining the terms for that type of infrastructure project. Right now, we would fit under it. I believe that the state will be giving more guidance in the next couple weeks. As of right now, I don’t see an issue with doing that type of project. The restrictions on those funds is to prioritize such a project for non-profits but if there’s no non-profits actually requesting that type of infrastructure project then I don’t see why they couldn’t do that for regular citizens. Mrs. Baker thanked the board.
ALISON MILLER asked about work on Robbins Road. Normally there are notices and/or its’ mentioned at a meeting but she didn’t see anything for the 2 days that Robbins was closed last week. She was going to ask Dean but he’s not here. Does anyone know about this? Councilman Jennings knows there’s a project with the planning board on Robbins Road. Councilman Howell recalled that a few meetings ago Dean mentioned about replacing guide rials on that road. She asked that if that road is going to be closed again if a notice could be posted.
DIANE LOEVEN reported that Hometown Helpers has started face to face service again. Safety protocols are in place.

BOARD COMMENTS:
Councilman Jennings wished a Happy Father’s Day to all fathers. He congratulated the seniors for their graduation.
Councilman Furman wished the dads a happy Father’s Day. He spoke re: kids having to wear masks in school. He encouraged everyone to write a letter to the Governor. Supervisor Volpe added that the restriction was lifted.
Councilman Carey is in the process of sprucing up the board room at town hall. He just got the county flag in. He wished a Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers.
Supervisor Volpe spoke re: concert series. He asked for people to check it out on facebook. A comedy night was added to the line-up. It’s family friendly.

MOTION TO ADJOURN MEETING:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Carey to adjourn the meeting at 8:04pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Jennings, Furman; carried.

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 21, 2021 at 7:30pm at Town Hall.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen A. Myers, RMC
Town Clerk

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POLICE AWARDS 2021

2020 Police Officer of the Year: Angello Vellake

2020 Dedicated Service Award: Nigel Balgobin

The following Officers have been awarded commendations for their contributions during the year:
Angelo Vellake
Nigel Balgobin
Nick Contino

Life Saving: Steven Hayes
Art Bongiorno

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