Town Board Meeting March 4th, 2024
OFFICIALS PRESENT: Attorney Scott Bonacic, Police Chief Maresca, Highway Supt. Hassenmayer.
Following the Pledge of Allegiance, Supervisor Rickard called the town board meeting to order at 7:30pm.
MOTION TO ACCEPT PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered Councilmember Carey 2nd Councilmember Davis that the minutes of the February 26, 2024 meeting are accepted as submitted. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
CORRESPONDENCE:
1. 2 budget modifications from Supervisor’s office
2. Complaint re: 35 Lake Claire Drive
3. Orange County reply – mandatory review of local planning action per NYS General Municipal law
239-l,m,n re: OYA Renewables/Sweetman-owner
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
BOARD REPORTS:
COUNCILMEMBER JENNINGS: Easter Egg hunt March 24 at town park. Girl Scouts will help stuff the eggs on 3/19 at 6pm. Dean will have the Easter supplies put in the meeting room by the 18th. He asked Dean when the basketball hoops will be put up. Dean thinks sooner than later.
COUNCILMEMBER FURMAN: ZBA meeting on 3/6/2024 at 7pm. He will meet with MVFB this week. He apologized about the DMV bus not being at town hall last week. They had a problem with the van. He would like to take the lead with the DMV bus scheduling.
COUNCILMEMBER CAREY: Village meeting is 3/7. DMV van to be at village hall 3/8. Village election is 3/19 at village hall. Defensive driving class will be on 3/23. March 10 is the Holy Name St. Patrick’s Day dinner. Holy Name church cancelled their fish fry dinner – no new date yet. Little league pancake breakfast is 3/10 at the firehouse. She spoke re: town logo. The company is in Newburgh. Town employees wanting a shirt with the logo on it could order from this company.
COUNCILMEMBER DAVIS: Asian American committee was supposed to meet last Thursday. They had to cancel. They rescheduled to March 5 @ 7pm.
SUPERVISOR RICKARD: First PAYCHEX pay was last week. There were a couple learning curve issues. Lorelei will have the supervisor’s monthly reports for the next meeting for Jan & Feb.
March 11 we will have a department head meeting at 1pm here at town hall at which Lorelei will explain things with the bills and any other issues that may come up.
HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT:
Councilmember Furman noted that our roads and the county roads are better than the state roads.
POLICE DEPARTMENT:
Chief Maresca requested the board to approve signing the DWI contracts with the county. The attorney reviewed the contract and there are no issues with it.
MOTION TO AUTHORIZE TOWN SUPERVISOR TO SIGN THE DWI CONTRACTS WITH ORANGE COUNTY FOR 2024:
MOTION offered Councilmember Furman 2nd Councilmember Davis to authorize the town supervisor to sign the STOP DWI contracts with the County of Orange. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE:
The mayor spoke re: village newsletter. It is coming out the 14th. Also, they started with CONSTANT CONTACT (public notification system). They have 183 people signed up so far. They had water main issues on Wallace Street so this was a good test to send this message out.
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HIDDEN VALLEY SEWER PRESENTATION/DISCUSSION WITH ENGINEER JASON PITINGARO:
Jason Pitingaro, Town Engineer gave a brief summary on the Hidden Valley sewer treatment plant. He brought with him a couple sets of documents. One is some original plans that depict a majority of the collection system. The plans are very old and don’t even show the actual location of the treatment facility. The other set of plans is a set from his office that were prepared a couple years ago with some recommendations for some improvements to the collection system. He will leave both sets here at town hall. Jason spoke of the violations received from the DEC for the sewer plant. They were minor items that came about from an inspection. Mainly they were recordkeeping and testing type items. Those items have been addressed. A local sewer law needs to be enacted. Jason prepared a response and sent it in by the due date. Supervisor Rickard added that the advisory law will be adopted tonight and the committee will be created hopefully at the next meeting.
Councilmember Jennings asked if a policy could be created to clean the membranes every so many years.
Jason Pitingaro confirmed that this was the 1st time the membranes were replaced.
Councilmember Furman: correct.
Pitingaro: [his recollection is] the plant was modified to be a membrane plant in 2007/08. The membranes have a life span of about 12 years. There is a clean in place procedure. Not sure if that’s been followed although they lasted this long. It is a part that’s going to have to be replaced from time to time. He recommends to the committee and the board that there be a game plan.
Councilmember Davis asked exactly how many homes are hooked up to the plant.
Pitingaro: I can get you an answer.
Supervisor: 101 houses via the Assessor. 100 homes pay taxes and one is a state-owned home that does not pay. The attorney recommends verifying with assessor.
Mike Meere: there’s 101 plus one not paying sewer tax because they’re not hooked up yet. So technically 102 homes. He asked about the filters only being good for 12 years.
Pitingaro: yes. 10-12 years.
Meere: with 100 homes, how many filters should there be?
Pitingaro: you should have 2 banks of membranes working. 60,000 gallons uses 2 banks of membranes.
Mary Carver: she is interested in the water infiltration.
Pitingaro: I will get the reports to get an answer for that. He explained how infiltration works.
Sean Burke asked Jason with the new maps that were done and recommendations made at that time to the town – were they acted on and if so, why or why not.
Pitingaro: no, they were not and part of that had to do with cost. There has to be a budget to allow for the cost of things. INI is a very difficult and you will never remove all of it. If you could remove 20 or 30% of it, that would be very successful.
MOTION TO AMEND A PREVIOUS MOTION TO SCHEDULE A PUBLIC HEARING FOR PROPOSED LOCAL LAW #3-2024 – A LOCAL LAW AMENDING CHAPTER 185, ENTITLED “SEWERS” OF THE TOWN CODE OF THE TOWN OF MOUNT HOPE:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Furman to AMEND THE PREVIOUS MOTION to schedule a public hearing for PROPOSED LOCAL LAW #3-2024 – A LOCAL LAW AMENDING CHAPTER 185, ENTITLED “SEWERS” OF THE TOWN CODE OF THE TOWN OF MOUNT HOPE from March 18, 2024 at 7:30pm at town hall to April 15, 2024 at 7:30pm at town hall. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO PURCHASE SHARP COPIER FOR TOWN HALL FROM ARPA FUNDS:
MOTION offered Councilmember Furman 2nd Councilmember Carey to purchase a copier off state bid for town hall in the amount of $2,007.75 to come from ARPA funds. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO APPROVE LOCAL LAW #1-2024 – A LOCAL LAW ADDING CHAPTER 6, ENTITLED “ADVISORY COMMITTEES” TO THE TOWN CODE OF THE TOWN OF MOUNT HOPE:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Carey to approve LOCAL LAW #1-2024 – A LOCAL LAW ADDING CHAPTER 6, ENTITLED “ADVISORY COMMITTEES” TO THE TOWN CODE OF THE TOWN OF MOUNT HOPE as presented. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; motion carried.
MOTION TO APPROVE LOCAL LAW #2-2024 – A LOCAL LAW AMENDING CHAPTER 21, ENTITLED “ETHICS” OF THE TOWN CODE OF THE TOWN OF MOUNT HOPE:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Furman to approve LOCAL LAW #2-2024 – A LOCAL LAW AMENDING CHAPTER 21, ENTITLED “ETHICS” OF THE TOWN CODE OF THE TOWN OF MOUNT HOPE as presented. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; motion carried.
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PHONE PROPOSAL:
Supervisor Rickard spoke re: phone system. The problem we are having now is between 6-12 minutes the new phone system disconnects whoever you’re talking to depending on the call. First thing you have to so when making a call is to get the call back # from the person you’re talking to for when you get cut off. We have approx. $55,000.00 after the copier comes out of ARPA funds to allocate to a phone system with an RFP.
MOTION TO SOLICIT RFP’S FOR A NEW PHONE SYSTEM:
MOTION offered Councilmember Carey 2nd Councilmember Furman to put an RFP out for a phone system for town hall. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO AUTHORIZE THE TOWN SUPERIVISOR TO SIGN THE CONTRACT WITH THE PIKE COUNTY LIBRARY SYSTEM FOR ONE YEAR:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Jennings to authorize the town supervisor to sign the contract with the Pike County Library for one year. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO APPROVE BUDGET MODIFICATION FROM THE SUPERVISOR’S OFFICE:
MOTION offered Councilmember Carey 2nd Councilmember Furman to process the budget modification as follows:
FROM A Cap Reserve TO A1620.4 $21,290.00 for the cost of the office furniture for the addition.
All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO APPROVE BUDGET MODIFICATION FROM THE SUPERVISOR’S OFFICE:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Furman to process the budget modification as follows:
FROM B Cap Reserve TO B9901 $100,000.00 for the cost of the addition.
All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
RESTORE NY GRANT:
Supervisor Rickard spoke re: RESTORE NY grant. This would be done in conjunction with the 4-H. He will have a conference call tomorrow with Lucy. The proposal will be due May 22. Lucy is looking to do the same project to possibly add septic and water to the barn. This could be used in conjunction with us to put in bathrooms for the football. He wants to be sure everyone is on board with this.
Councilmember Davis asked if this is for the roof and the?
Supervisor: Lucy mentioned they were gonna put in for the water and septic. She didn’t mention the roof. He will ask Lucy.
MOTION TO AUDIT THE CLAIMS:
MOTION offered Councilmember Furman 2nd Councilmember Jennings to approve bills: (Abstract #9):
ABSTRACT #9:
GENERAL A: #115-126 $ 8,789.14
GENERAL B: #26-29 $ 754.94
HIGHWAY: #12-13 $ 8,746.91
SEWER: #17 $ 260.10
ARPA: #3 $ 9,767.00.
All in favor: Davis, Rickard, Jennings, Furman; ABSTAIN from voucher #119 – Carey; carried.
PUBLIC COMMENT:
Marybeth Horzepa spoke re: Pocatello Mount Hope ladies auxiliary is selling lotto calendars.
Mike Meere spoke re: extra house on the books. 102 homes in the development pay in to the sewer. He spoke about a house on Ash Lane not hooked in to the sewer plant.
BOARD COMMENTS:
Councilmember Carey asked if someone was looking into the Constant Contact. Councilmember Jennings said he is.
Supervisor Rickard spoke re: updating the hall rental procedures.
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MOTION TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Furman to enter in to executives session at 8:13pm to discuss a personnel issue. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO RECONVENE REGULAR MEETING FROM EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered Councilmember Davis 2nd Councilmember Furman to reconvene the regular meeting from executive session at 8:32pm. NO ACTION WAS TAKEN IN THIS EXECUTIVE SESSION. All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
MOTION TO ADJOURN MEETING:
MOTION offered Councilmember Carey 2nd Councilmember Davis to adjourn the meeting at 8:32 pm.
All in favor: Davis, Carey, Rickard, Furman, Jennings; carried.
The next Town Board meeting is scheduled for March 18, 2024 at 7:30pm at Town Hall.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen A. Myers
Town Clerk, RMC
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