Town Board Meeting May 17th, 2021

The town board meeting of the Town of Mount Hope Town Board was held at the Mount Hope Town Hall on May 17, 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, Attorney D. Bavoso, Justice J. Hosking, Court Clerk L. Bacigalupo.

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

MOTION TO ACCEPT PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Carey that the minutes of the May 3, 2021 meeting are accepted as submitted.
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; carried.

CORRESPONDENCE:
1. Email from Brian Waugh re: request to hold 5K on 9-25-2021
2. Letter from Ahmed Artola re: request for fee to be waived for cornhole charity fundraiser on May 23, 2021
3. Supervisor’s report April 2021
4. Village of Otisville planning board public hearing notice re: SBL 106-4-24.21 final approval for 2 lot subdivision
5. Email from Cornell re: snowplowing request
6. Orange County mortgage tax receipts April 2021
7. Revised building dept. reports for August through December 2020
8. Otisville fire department fire call report for April 2021

COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Councilman Howell: wanted to recognize Dean Hassenmayer as well as the OC highway supt. as they sponsored a lunch for the OC health department for the COVID 19 facility in Goshen. We want to recognize all our local highway reps for what they’ve done donating to the community. Through Cornell Coop Ext of Orange County they are participating in a “Give Where You Live” event on May 19 – they have a goal of $5,000 to benefit the relatives as parents program. You can get more info on their website &/or call 344-1234. This past week was National Police week. He recognized all our police officers. May 15th was National Armed Forces Day – he recognized all of our currently serving veterans in the armed forces. May 31st will be Memorial Day and we want to recognize and remember all of the service members who have lost their lives serving our country.
Councilman Jennings: As of May 1st, we have 93 library cards out. May 19 is our next planning board meeting at 7pm. Otisville fire calls for April was 31-total. Next village meeting is May 20th at 7pm. He spoke to Police Chief re: discussion at village meeting about overweight vehicles on Field Road. There was talk about moving the sign because it is too far down. The village was talking about moving the sign up a little bit so that the overweight trucks will see the sign earlier when they make the turn. I guess there’s damage on peoples’ property on Field Road from the overweight trucks. Chief Rickard asked if the signs were moved. Trustee Loeven: this has been going on over the last year. I think the problem is that GPS’s are now identifying that oversized vehicles can’t go across the bridge.
Councilman Furman: We had some extensive cleaning done at the Hidden Valley sewer. I just forwarded you guys a copy of the report. I thought you had received it so I re-sent it. Ryan from Engineer Solutions Corp. sent a detailed list of what they did, suggestions of what we should proceed from going forward and where we should be in the future. They’re going to be in Hidden Valley July 6 & 7 to put cameras into the pipes to see if there’s any other leaks because there still is some high intrusion of water. It is operating better but we’re trying to see if there’s anymore cracks/leaks. I spoke with Mike Brock this afternoon and they’re trying to get a cleaner that cleans the system as well – it’s just difficult to get at this point. The other thing I want to address is that last year in July 2020 I expressed the travel warning to NYC. I know most of the residents that live here work in NYC and as things are starting to open people are thinking that it’s a good idea to go there – I don’t. Shootings alone are up 166%. Last year in July, it was almost that much. He re-issued a warning due to the recent shootings in Times Square; 2 women and a 4-year old child were shot while shopping in Times Square. I renew my calling for July 2020 for increased caution while traveling in New York until Mayor DeBlasio or the Governor of NYS start to enforce laws that protect residents over the criminals. I can’t tell you not to go but I’m gonna tell you to use common sense because you’re not going to be protected in NYC. It’s EMS week. I appreciate everybody in our community that’s in EMS.

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Councilman Carey: School budget vote is tomorrow the 18th from 12-9pm. I believe everyone around here would vote in Otisville Elementary school and it’s also at the middle school. Orange County is holding a household waste collection event – this is also for businesses that have large amounts of hazardous waste. It’s actually over at the Port Jervis high school lower parking lot on Saturday, June 5. I saw the county had it posted on their page so I will forward to our page as well. If you have large hazardous waste that you need to get rid of, there’s a list of stuff that they do accept and a list of stuff they do not accept.
Supervisor Volpe: We have a contractual issue and a personnel issue that we’ll need executive session for at the end.

HIGHWAY:
Supt. Hassenmayer reported: just to go back to the village, I had given Frankie a sign last Friday. Maybe he put it up, I don’t know but he did get one from me.
There was a drainage problem on Tall Oaks Lane. I know the resident had contacted some of the board members about it. Just so you know, it’s started – the job was laid out – O&R and the other utilities were all marked out but it’s on hold for this week because I have 2 guys on vacation and we are behind on mowing. There was an email about police car services. I though everybody was on board – every 3 months all the cars are brought in serviced and checked over. If they need brakes or tires at that time, they’re done. If they look good at that time and think they could go another 3 months, we’ll let them go. If something comes up in between, Paul and I usually work it out and have no problem. Just so everybody knows every 3 months the cars are brought in and gone over.

POLICE DEPARTMENT:
Chief Rickard followed up with what Dean said. He stated it’s really his responsibility if there’s a problem with the cars. Normally we rely on the officers to tell us if something does come up in the interim with the 3 months. They had a bald tire issue. That’s on him to figure out why that wasn’t reported to him. Our cars are in really good shape in general. Dean and the guys do a great job. He reminded everyone that the next meeting will be June 7th that will have the police awards at the senior center.

VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE:
Trustee Loeven reported the village ZBA is having a public hearing on June 1st. That’s an application they are looking at from FOTOS for an interpretation of a variance that they received back in 2018. There was confusion on the word commercial and exactly what the definition is. The planning board has a public hearing on June 8 for a 2-lot subdivision at the corner of Orchard Street and Seybolt Avenue. About a month ago they wanted to do a 3-lot subdivision but got denied. They are trying for a 2-lot. Both hearings will be at the firehouse so more people can attend at 7pm for both. Our 1st centennial event is coming up on the 12th. It will be at the old school. There’s a touch-a-truck event and Cornell Cooperative will be there. With restrictions having eased up a bit, we’re more comfortable with the fact that that’ll all be run smoothly and the numbers will be well under what the restrictions are. The yard sale which takes place in August – we have still not made a final decision. With restrictions being lifted as they are, looks like it’ll be able to happen.
Councilman Carey asked about an email written to them about something in the Times Herald Record about Kohler Road. No one from Kohler Road is keeping this alive. He asked David about how many people were looking to do something with cable TV. Trustee Loeven thinks there were about 7 and that there’s more lots there. Supervisor Volpe added that normally David was emailing them once a month. Sometimes they would get back to them and sometimes it would take a couple months. They’re gong to try a different route to see if there’s less footage to go off a different way and honestly the answer is no. Attorney Bavoso: unfortunately, it’s kind of like what Diane said, there’s properties there that are undeveloped. In the agreement there’s a particular density requirement within a certain amount of square footage in order for them to provide a service and it doesn’t meet that at this moment. They’ve been attempting to try that measurement from different angles to see if they can fit it in but it’s not. Supervisor Volpe asked the attorney if he recalled what the estimated cost was for that. Attorney answered between $8-10,000. Discussion ensued. Diane has seen an article in the paper about the stimulus money the municipalities would be getting and different things it could be used for. One of the examples was expanding high speed internet service. David will look at that.

ATTORNEY BAVOSO REPORT:
Attorney Bavoso reported that he received something tonight from the planning board secretary. The board has been notified of the lead agency declaration by the town of Wallkill planning board for a solar array on VanBurenville Road. This is to let involved and interested agencies know that they’re declaring lead agency and give them an opportunity to challenge it. He doesn’t see any situation under which any agency or board in the town could challenge the lead agency of the planning board of Wallkill for a solar array in Wallkill. If you don’t respond by June 12, then it’s presumed that this board isn’t challenging it and it would be his advice not to do anything with it at this point because 1 – I don’t think you want to be lead agency so you don’t have any basis for a challenge or to claim lead agency on it.

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CORNELL COOPERATIVE REQUEST FOR PLOWING:
Supervisor spoke to David about this and this will be a discussion in executive session.
Lucy Joyce explained the request. She stated that a few years ago she and Dean spoke. She wondered if it would be possible for the town – after a snowstorm – not in the middle, a day or 2 after when they’re going around cleaning up the drifts off the shoulders to be able to come in and do the park and make a loop around for accessibility, fire protection. That was the discussion that originally took place when we were leasing the property because our department was helping us build a road to begin with. Then we bought the property she learned that the municipality can’t do that for a private entity. In talking with our town attorney in the fall of 2019, she brought it up again and asked if there was a way this could happen and it turns out there is. It needs to be a situation where the town would need to use some arrangement of working out that you would need access rights to the park for some reason. She hopes we can be creative and that would be really great for us especially for the larger storms. She hopes that will be taken into consideration. We are happy to talk about what you would want.
Supervisor Volpe asked her to give an update as to what’s going on up there. She stated the dog program been out running. It ran last year. We are hosting a youth opportunity so any of the youth here is open. You don’t have to be FFA or 4H to compete. We’ll be coming out with that on the various exhibits both animal but also the static exhibits. We have premiums now. Hard work really paid off to be considered state aftermarkets agricultural threat which is why we have premium dollars now available. We are very excited about that. Without gate fees or other ways of generating more income we’re gonna be somewhat limited to what ag & markets is reversing us for sponsors. That’s July 9, 10 & 11. The 9th & 10th would be 4-H and FFA or any other youth competing. Sunday would be kind of like a walk through – kind of guided tour of the various youth projects and go through and see different exhibits and end with the purchase of a milkshake or ice cream smoothie by the 4-H teens. We’re wanting it to be as interactive as possible without getting close with people. It’ll be a nice family event. She explained the water collection. They will be installing a rain water roof – a rain water collection system was donated to us by a big local donor but we have the funds to install it. We applied for and received a grant from Environmental Facilities Service the Green Infrastructure group grant program (GIGP) – anxiously awaiting any day to get approval so we can actually buy the materials as the material prices are soaring. They’re putting gin a rain garden which is part of our SWPP – putting gin a beautiful rain garden with a walkway between the 2 barns. There will be a 17,000-gallon cistern. We’ll be able to demonstrate the rain barrels, a rain garden demonstration & then for commercial operations & since we teach stormwater management it’s fantastic to have all of this right there. Plus, some of you know we had issues with the well and had to drill again and it’s still 400’ deep and it’s adequate but we have a big livestock shell you might have to really conserve the water. This will give us extra water especially for irrigation.

BRIAN WAUGH 5k:
Supervisor Volpe added that Brian was supposed to come tonight but contacted Kathleen & he was not available tonight. We’ve done this before so if no one has any questions we can make the motion.

MOTION TO APPROVE 5K REQUEST FROM BRIAN WAUGH:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Furman to allow the 5K to go on September 25, 2021 providing we receive all insurance requirements.
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; carried.

FRANCIS FEELY CHARITABLE FUND REQUEST TO WAIVE FEES:
Supervisor Volpe explained that they are asking for us to waive the fees to use the youth center on May 23. He has no problem doing it providing we have the insurance. It’s a fundraiser. Councilman Carey verified they’re providing insurance because they’re going to have alcohol there. Town clerk said yes.

MOTION TO APPROVE WAIVING FEE FOR FRANCIS FEELY CHARITABLE FUND:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Jennings to waive the fees for the Francis Feely Charitable Fund to hold an event at the youth center on May 23, 2021.
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; carried.

MOTION TO APPROVE SUPERVISOR’S REPORT:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Jennings to approve the Supervisor’s report for April 2021 as presented.
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; carried.

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MOTION TO AUDIT THE CLAIMS:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Howell to approve the following bills (Abstract #18 & #19):
ABSTRACT 18:
GENERAL A: #235-258 $ 58,226.68
GENERAL B: #37-39 $ 3,653.50
HIGHWAY: #76-79 $ 673.87
SEWER: #36-41 $ 37,760.11
AND
ABSTRACT 19:
GENERAL A: #259-267 $ 49,566.86
GENERAL B: #40-44 $ 9,107.68
HIGHWAY: #80-87 $ 46,249.92
SEWER: #42-45 $ 4,263.67.
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; carried.

PUBLIC COMMENT:
Diane Loeven reported from the Mount Hope Seniors. She verified the Supervisor received her email about the re-opening plan. The exercise group will be starting on Tuesdays & Thursdays in the beginning. All the protocols are in place. We purchased 2 additional thermometers so we can have people standing at the door of where they come in because we anticipate they’re very anxious to get back so it could get bogged down so that’s all set. She reported the TV sound wouldn’t work at the senior center. The seniors who exercise use the TV for their videos. Brian will meet with Diane to go up there and get it working. She reported that Linda Renner is the member of their executive board who is taking responsibility for the exercise group and making sure that all the protocols are followed. She asked the Supervisor if he has time on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday afternoon to go over the fogger with Linda and herself. He will call her.

2020 ANNUAL REPORT:
Supervisor Volpe added that the 2020 Annual Report has been filed with the NYS Comptroller by Cooper Arias on May 5, 2021.

MOTION TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION FROM REGULAR MEETING:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Howell to enter into executive session at 7:57pm to discuss a highway contractual issue and court personnel.
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; carried.

MOTION TO RECONVENE REGULAR MEETING FROM EXECUTIVE SESSION:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Howell to reconvene the regular meeting from executive session at 8:15pm. NO ACTION WAS TAKEN AT THIS EXECUTIVE SESSION.
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; carried.

SNOWPLOWING FOR THE 4-H:
Attorney Bavoso stated that at this time, he can’t advise the board to authorize it on private property. Generally, in all cases, he recommends that to all municipalities he represents the idea of municipal equipment and municipal resources on a private property is always something that we’ve stayed away from. Ultimately, it’s a board decision but that would be his advice at this time. Ms. Joyce thanked the board for entertaining it.

MOTION TO GRANT EMPLOYEE #1 FAMILY LEAVE ACT:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Carey to approve Employee #1 for Family Medical Leave which is effective June 1, 2021 for 60 days.
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; carried.

MOTION TO HIRE MYRNA MACINTOSH AS TEMPORARY COURT CLERK:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Howell to hire Myrna MacIntosh effective May 21, 2021 pending information back from Orange County and on a temporary basis to cover the Family Medical Leave for Employee #1.
All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; carried.

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BOARD COMMENTS:
Councilman Jennings: This Saturday from 9am-2pm FOTOS has their yard sale at the old school. There is no guidance yet for the fair. They hope to have more info by the end of the month.

MOTION TO ADJOURN MEETING:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Howell to adjourn the meeting at 8:17pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Furman, Jennings; carried.

The next meeting is scheduled for June 7, 2021 at 7:30pm at the Mount Hope Senior Center on Baker Street, Otisville.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen A. Myers, RMC
Town Clerk

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