Town of Mount Hope Town Board Meeting November 16th, 2020
The town board meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Mount Hope was held at the Town Hall, 1706 Route 211 West, Otisville, NY on November 16, 2020 at 7:30pm with the following present: Supervisor Chad Volpe, Councilman Matt Howell, Councilman Brian Carey, Councilman Jim Jennings, Councilman Chris Furman & Town Clerk Kathleen Myers.
OFFICIALS PRESENT: Chief Rickard, Dep Chief Maresca, Attorney Bavoso & H’way Supt. Hassenmayer.
Supervisor Volpe called the meeting to order at 7:30pm following the Pledge of Allegiance.
MOTION TO ACCEPT PRIOR MEETING MINUTES:
MOTION offered by Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Howell to accept the minutes from the 11-02-2020 meeting as submitted. All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Jennings, Furman, Carey; carried.
CORRESPONDENCE:
- Letter from Annie Hansen re: 6-1-25 & 6-1-26
- Email from attorney re: additional language for the rental agreements
- School Choice week proclamation
- Tanya Jasper letter of interest for BAR
- Vincent Galligan letter of interest for BAR
- Otisville fire call history for October 2020
- October 2020 impound report from Palmer’s Ark
- Mortgage tax receipts from Orange County for October 2020
- (2) complaints for a property of Lake Avenue
- Correspondence from NYS Dept. of State re: classes offered in December thru January
- County resolution re: Ag districts 1 & 2
- Tow & Impound Lot policy
- Supervisor’s report for October 2020
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Councilman Jennings: the planning board meets 11/18/2020 at 7pm. The village board meeting is 11/19/2020 at 7pm.
Councilman Howell: we had the Veteran’s Day ceremony recorded on Saturday – we had over 300 views.
Councilman Furman: MVYFL had their last game on 11/14/2020. ZBA meets 12/2/2020 at 7pm with a public hearing. He thanked the poll workers that worked during the election last week. They had a big task.
Councilman Carey: He’s never seen that many people come out to vote. When Board of Elections is no longer busy, he will get a breakdown of voters. Dean & Amy did a tribute truck which they parked out front and he put a picture of it on facebook. We had a new officer sworn in on 11/9/2020. Congratulations, this is our 1st full time officer. Little league registration was postponed from the 14th to the 21st at the youth center at 12pm. Town of Wallkill is having a parade on 11/21/2020 at 5pm on Winning Way. OC fairgrounds is having a holiday light spectacular starting 11/27; $20/car load. Big game hunting starts on 11/21/2020.
Supervisor Volpe: He received an email today re: Howells Cemetery. Even though Kathleen had maintained the cemetery for years, it was not actually owned by the town. Nov. 12th, the county had their auction. It is now being quick-deeded to us. We will finally be able to move forward with that. He received an emergency email from the county. There is an emergency EMS call tomorrow at 3pm. He thinks things may be scaled back again. He spoke re: volunteers to open the gym. He thinks we should wait. He sent board members pictures of the movie screen he bought. We’ll have to see what restrictions are put in place. He asked Dean to prep the tree at town hall and the tree at the youth center. Two of the highway guys can build a wood frame to hang/velcro the screen to instead of the blower in the back of the screen.
HIGHWAY DEPT.:
Supt. Hassenmayer reported that due to the storm Sunday night, they didn’t get to the sewer plant today. He hopes to start back there tomorrow morning & to have the roof sheeted by Friday. Clean-up was lower on the dollars. He met with Minisink, Greenville & Wawayanda this morning. They talked about what to do if COVID strikes any one of them during a snowstorm. They’re probably going to come up with a shared services agreement. You never know. Between the 4 towns, they’re going to make snowplow routes with mapping on the back of them. They will be laminated so they have them in case we have to put different drivers in them. The attorney will help with the shared service agreement. They also have 1 truck that they are putting new springs in. This week the goal is to get the roof on the building at the sewer plant.
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POLICE DEPT.:
Chief Rickard reached out for O&R for an extra light for the rear parking lot by the youth center. He still hasn’t heard anything. He will follow up again. He spoke re: impound/tow policy. It would go in to effect for January 1st. The police reform committee had a zoom call today. Things are moving along well. We are shooting for Dec. 1st to have an open zoom meeting for anyone in the community. He would like to have the survey done for the December meeting. As of last Monday, the body cameras were ‘live’. A couple officers do not have them yet. They’re working. We’ve had accidental recordings. There are some hiccups to be worked out. There was discussion on the daily rate for the cars towed to our impound lot.
MOTION TO ACCEPT THE VEHICLE TOWING & IMPOUND LOT POLICY:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Furman to approve the Vehicle Towing & Impound Lot policy as presented. All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Jennings, Carey, Furman; carried.
Supervisor Volpe asked Councilman Furman to look into a price/day fee for the impound lot. Councilman Furman asked the Chief if there would be any instance that we would need indoor storage. Chief: no. Councilman Furman: I’m confident with $75. Atty. Bavoso: we could always set it at that. Chief Rickard: unless there’s a rare instance that it would need to go inside. Councilman Jennings: if we impound the car and they decide not to pick it up, what happens? Is that something we would need to add in to the resolution? Atty. Bavoso: no partially it’s the policy and partially it’s in the state law. Essentially, it would be a civil forfeiture. Councilman Jennings: how long before that would happen? Atty: I would have to research that. Following this discussion, was a discussion on the movie night.
VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE:
Trustee Loeven thanked the police department. She happened to be driving by one of the buildings in Otisville owned by the county and noticed the side door was wide open. She called the PD. They immediately sent someone over. They checked in the building and didn’t look like anything was a mess. This building is about to go up for auction. She received a call back that this was taken care of. The village newsletter went out. Dec 5th is our tree lighting ceremony. It’s tentative at this point. Patriot tree lighting will be 12/7 and will possibly be video-taped. Technicalities will be worked out. Raphael Carson, foreman, is retiring after 32 years of service. Tomorrow is his last day.
BOARD OF ASSESSMENT REVIEW VACANCIES:
Councilman Howell: we interviewed 3 candidates. We had a returning interest from a previous interview. Of the 4 people, we had 2 seats to fill. The recommendations are: Vincent Galligan & Sheena Mathew.
MOTION TO APPOINT VINCENT GALLIGAN & SHEENA MATHEW TO THE BOARD OF ASSESSMENT REVIEW VACANCIES:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Supervisor Volpe to appoint Vincent Galligan (to replace Julie Musial) & Sheena Mathew (to replace Laura Sedita) to fill the 2 vacancies on the Board of Assessment Review. All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Jennings, Carey, Furman; carried
MOTION FOR AUDIT OF CLAIMS (ABSTRACT #45 & #46):
MOTION offered by Councilman Jennings 2nd Councilman Howell to approve the following:
#45: GENERAL A: #634-647 $58,978.95
GENERAL B: #100 $ 3,234.45
HIGHWAY: #172-181 $ 6,860.19
SEWER: #90 $ 2,053.97 AND
#46: GENERAL A: #648-679 $170,717.23
GENERAL B: #101-105 $ 18,588.36
HIGHWAY: #182-186 $ 77,495.90
SEWER: #91-94 $ 3,859.68.
All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Jennings, Carey, Furman; carried.
MOTION TO APPROVE THE SUPERVISOR’S REPORT FOR OCTOBER 2020:
MOTION offered Councilman Furman 2nd Councilman Carey to approve the Supervisor’s report for October 2020 as presented. All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Jennings, Carey, Furman; carried.
RESOLUTION FOR MOUNT HOPE SCHOOL CHOICE WEEK JANUARY 24-30, 2021:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Howell to approve the resolution as read. See attached to these minutes. All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Jennings, Carey, Furman; carried.
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TOWN RENTAL DISCLAIMER:
Supervisor Volpe spoke re: rental disclaimer. (inaudible) With COVID, there’s a lot of inspectors going around. This will be protection for us. This will go out with every rental agreement. It’s the 1st paragraph that needed changing. No vote is needed. All the board members agreed.
TOWN PROPERTY VALUATION:
Supervisor Volpe looking at this, I don’t think it’s bad. On a daily basis, he talks to quite a few builders coming in to the building department. Every person that has looked at the property thinks they should be combined. The large piece of property which is 20.7 acres only has 100 feet of road frontage. Every single person said, the other piece has 800 feet road frontage. Had they been combined – you could put multiple houses there. Only having 100 ft road frontage – you would have to do a cul-de-sac or you would have to cut in. If you sold the pieces together, that person could do a lot line change. Councilman Howell asked the attorney how it would work being the parcels are in different zoning districts. Attorney: it will depend on what each district requires. You can list them separately but not foreclose the idea that someone might buy them together. If you get a better offer for buying them together than you would separately, then there’s nothing stopping the board from voting on that particular item. Now, if they end up purchasing and combing the lots, and doing a further subdivision later, if there’s a zoning district line that goes right through it, then he believes it’s in the zoning code that they can ask the planning board to determine it falls under a particular zone’s requirements. If one is more friendly for a subdivision, they may ask the board for that which typically isn’t a problem. A lot of that is in the eye of the beholder. Supervisor: Every offer will come back to the board. It is also listed in the contract that everything is subject to board approval. He asked the board permission to sign the contract with Annie Hansen.
MOTION TO AUTHORIZE THE SUPERVISOR TO SIGN THE CONTRACT WITH ANNIE HANSEN TO LIST 2 PROPERTIES:
MOTION offered Councilman Carey 2nd Councilman Howell to authorize the town supervisor to sign the contract with Annie Hansen to list the two properties (SBL 6-1-25 & 6-1-26) for sale. All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Jennings, Furman, Carey; carried.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION:
Mary Beth Horzepa: the planning board meeting on Wednesday has a public hearing for Verizon cell tower. It’s for the cell tower they want to put up on the rock cut.
Jen D’Esposito: She is the children’s director at OMHPC. We have rented the youth center 2x this month. She thanked the board for the offer of the discounted rate for renting the center. She thanked them for finding and providing the space. It’s a great space. The kids love the gaming area. The adults in the leadership really appreciate the space. We think the rate you’ve given us is fair. We thought our church would use it for other services during the day. We are there for 2 hours in the morning. They were wondering, finances are super tight. Can we get in there on a Sunday morning for those 2 hours – without taking any other revenue from the town, with more leniency on that cost? We’re probably still gonna use it either way. We wouldn’t be able to use it as frequently. The expense for 2 hours/week is gonna be a lot. Thank you – we appreciate everything you’ve done. Councilman Carey: I just learned something. I thought they were using this a little bit of church, a little bit of stuff. Had no idea that this was only being used for a couple hours. Supervisor Volpe: again, trying to play it from all sides, the last time we had a meeting, I had asked permission to do the ½ price. If it was Wednesday morning, I don’t think it would be a big deal. We have other groups. If we are letting someone use it for an hour or 2, and we are letting residents come in, there could be a disruption. To allow someone to use it for a couple hours, we can’t guarantee that someone’s not already gonna be in there because it is open to all the residents. The attorney suggested that the board request a written proposal to what you are looking for as far as frequency and hours so the board has a base to determine whether it not it’s permanent. She will do this. The supervisor will then go over the request with the board members.
Mary Maurizzio spoke re: community center. She commends the board for the facility but the acoustics are not good for any purpose. She was told by somebody that it’s not meant for meetings. Supervisor Volpe: it was meant for kids to up there playing not for meetings. She spoke to Councilman Howell re: presentation for the Veteran’s. She saw it online and thanked him for that. She spoke re: election day. She worked that day (5am – after 9pm) at the senior center. She heard that the lighting outside was not good. People standing in line at a dead-end road and trying to keep their distance as well. She heard that it took the cleaning person 8 hours to clean the hall after election day. She wanted to know why. Supervisor: probably the 250 “I voted” stickers on the floor. She didn’t see that. Supervisor: shame on the board of elections. They went there & scoped this out and said this is perfect. She asked if he considered the repercussions of a crowd being there. Supervisor: I had no determination. They asked me for the keys to the building and they made that determination 100% on their own. They decided to go from 3 polling places to 1. She asked if they needed permission to use the building. Supervisor: they asked us for an access card, they went to evaluate the location and decided with the board of elections that this is what they were doing.
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We had no say. Mrs. Maurizzio: you can’t tell them no, it’s not a good idea? Supervisor: you wanna tell people they can’t vote? She doesn’t want to tell anybody they can’t vote. Chief: part of the problem is that it’s not set up for this. This is a dead-end street. Discussion ensued. Supervisor: a letter will be sent to board of election. Councilman Carey asked her who decided to set up the senior center the way it was set up? She stated: the board of elections. Councilman Carey: it made no sense to me. Discussion further ensued re: the lay out of the senior center. She further noted that there is a broken wooden step at the senior center. Supervisor had never heard about that. Councilman Carey added that he reported the step to Dean and was told it was taken care of. He had an issue with it personally. He will check it out tomorrow. She further spoke re: the ladies room needs attention and the garbage was not emptied.
Diane Loeven commented on the things mentioned by Mrs. Maurizzio. Part of the problem is that the seniors are not in there on a regular basis and they would be the ones that would alert the board to these issues. She wished everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Hometown Helpers would ordinarily prepare and deliver meals to the clients. We can’t do that. We will be delivering food baskets the day before. Additionally, both churches will provide baskets and would appreciate donations.
TOWN BOARD COMMENTS:
Councilman Carey: We’re working on facebook live. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
Councilman Furman: Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
Councilman Howell: Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Councilman Jennings: Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Supervisor Volpe: Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Check the website for the tree lighting details.
MOTION TO ADJOURN MEETING:
MOTION offered Councilman Howell 2nd Councilman Carey to adjourn the meeting at 8:37pm. All in favor: Howell, Volpe, Jennings, Furman, Carey; carried.
The next meeting is December 7, 2020 at 7:30pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen A. Myers, Town Clerk
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PROCLAMATION FOR MOUNT HOPE School Choice Week
WHEREAS all children in MOUNT HOPE should have access to the highest-quality education possible; and,
WHEREAS MOUNT HOPE recognizes the important role that an effective education plays in preparing all students in MOUNT HOPE to be successful adults; and,
WHEREAS quality education is critically important to the economic vitality of MOUNT HOPE; and,
WHEREAS MOUNT HOPE is home to a multitude of high quality public and nonpublic schools from which parents can choose for their children, in addition to families who educate their children in the home; and
WHEREAS, educational variety not only helps to diversify our economy, but also enhances the vibrancy of our community; and,
WHEREAS MOUNT HOPE has many high-quality teaching professionals in all types of school settings who are committed to educating our children; and,
WHEREAS, School Choice Week is celebrated across the country by millions of students, parents, educators, schools and organizations to raise awareness of the need for effective educational options;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Chad Volpe do hereby recognize January 24 – 30, 2021 as MOUNT HOPE School Choice Week, and I call this observance to the attention of all of our citizens.
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