Town Board - Regular Meeting

It ensures that new growth contributes to safeguarding the qualities that make Chester unique without placing additional financial burden on the current taxpayers. We know other municipalities have adopted similar funds and have successfully advanced open space preservation, farm conservation, water quality initiatives, and safeguarding our historic landscapes. Their experience demonstrates a dedicated preservation fund can deliver measurable long lasting benefits. It's also important to recognize that the bipartisan support this concept has received both in Chester and in other communities. Supervisors and board members past and present representing different political parties have worked to advance the enabling legislation needed to consider this proposal. Those efforts are what help secure authorization at the state level, reflecting a shared understanding that preservation is not a partisan issue, but a community responsibility. This history underscores the question before the board is not about politics, but about allowing residents to decide how best to plan for Chester's future. Thank you for allowing residents the chance to weigh the benefits and choose a path forward, the path forward they feel can help to preserve the character of Chester for generations to come. All right, I'm gonna open it up to the public here. I have Susanna Devine.

Is that working fine? All right, good evening, supervisor and members of the town board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight on introductory local law four. This represents a rare and historic opportunity. I urge the board to vote yes to placing the Community Preservation Fund on the November 3rd ballot, and I urge my fellow residents to vote yes to making it law. Look around Chester. Many of us chose to live here because of the rolling hills, open fields, historic character, and vibrant farms. But the Hudson Valley is rapidly changing. The pressure to develop our open space is stronger than ever. If we do not act intentionally today, the landscapes we love will be paved over tomorrow. Once family farms and wetlands are converted into subdivisions or sprawling warehouses, they are gone forever. You cannot unpave paradise. The Community Preservation Fund gives us the power to choose our future. It creates a dedicated local fund to protect our town's natural beauty by voluntarily purchasing development rights from local farmers, securing trail corridors and safeguarding our drinking water. I know some are thinking we can't afford another tax. Please understand, this is not a property tax. It will not raise your annual tax bill by a single dime. Instead, it is a modest 0.75%, that's 0.75% transfer tax paid only once a home closing by the buyer and only when the property is sold here are two important points of the chester's cpf first any property sold at or below the orange county median home price of 450 000 pays exactly zero dollars For a typical $550,000 Chester home, the tax applies only to the $100,000 over the Orange County median price of $450,000. So the closing costs of that new home to the new buyer, what is that? $750 at closing, $750 for an average Chester house. For a premium residence sold at $750,000, the tax applies only to $300,000 over the median. And so that's 200, I'm sorry, $2,250. For that buyer investing in a three quarter of a million dollar house in Chester, that one time fee of just over $2,000, I think it's a great investment to protect their investment. Here's a second important feature. Qualified first time home buyers are completely exempt. They pay nothing, zilch. To see a preservation funded work, just look down the road to Warwick. Since 2006, Warwick's plan has permanently shield roughly 5,000 acres of open space and farmland from suburban sprawl. In contrast, please look towards Monroe and Blooming Grove where there is no CPF. There you will find acres of trees and hillsides forever gone, buildings upon buildings with no protected open space, no room for plants, animals, or anything that is not manmade. With no community preservation fund, that may someday be Chester. I've heard some social media chatter claims that the CPF will increase regular taxes or allow only certain people to select the properties to protect. Neither claim is true. By state law, CPF revenues are strictly firewall. The money cannot be transferred to a general fund or used for other projects. It can only be spent on specific publicly reviewed target areas outlined in Chester's community preservation plan. An advisory board comprised of your fellow citizens from Chester will oversee the fund and ensure transparency. Finishing, some realtors, some say that realtors will hate this. That is not so. While many realtors originally voiced strong opposition and predicted economic gloom and doom in Warwick when the plan was first proposed in 2006, they have since acknowledged that it has enhanced local property values. In fact, the relationship shifted so positively that the New York State Association of Realtors awarded the town of Warwick its very first Smart Growth Award in recognition of the town's innovative zoning guidelines. There are two more other very wise elements specifically designed into this Chester plan. First, again, the rate is very low. At a modest 0.75%, Chester is proposing to collect a fraction of rates elsewhere in New York State. Also, Chester's plan leans heavily towards buying development rights from farmers. This keeps the land in private hands, meaning the property remains on the tax rolls and continues to generate revenue for towns and schools. The plan is solid. I asked the board, please, please vote yes to put the Community Preservation Fund on the ballot. And I asked Chester citizens to vote yes this November. Let's come together and on November 3rd, protect and preserve the beautiful lands of Chester, New York. Thank you all.

I just want to make one point in response to the comment, which was pretty close. I just want to make sure that the public is clear. The exemption for homes is the first, it mirrors Warwick exactly. For the first, and just so the public is aware, the first $100,000 of a residential property is exempt from the tax. So if it's a $400,000 house, you pay tax on $300,000. then unimproved real property would be 50 000 so i just want to make sure uh the public is clear as to the level of exemption and what is taxed so it's it's 0.75 but the exemption part um is broader is a hundred thousand is a hundred thousand so if you have a five hundred thousand dollar home taxes on four hundred thousand but but it's warwick it's warwick's exact next is ryan senning

I didn't understand this, was that the tax starts once you are above the median price. That is inaccurate.

There are other municipalities that have similar, New Paltz, which was under a different legislation, but ours is- 100,000 like Warwick. Yeah.

Okay, cool. Good evening. I'm speaking in support of local law for the three quarter percent real estate transfer tax to fund the preservation fund. What remains of Chester's open space farmland and historic character are what make this town worth living in. And once it's paved over, we don't get it back. Like my friend right before me just said. I've heard that there are oppositions or there is opposition to taxes like this. So I wanna address some of them directly. Some argue that this adds to an affordability problem for buyers. At 0.75% on typical home sale, this comes out to a few thousand dollars and in practice, It's absorbed on both sides of the deal through a negotiated price. I realize that doesn't make sellers particularly happy, but it makes buyers a little bit more happy. And I think that kind of things come out even in that way. I also, in my opinion, a few thousand dollars is not the kind of number that is going to price someone out of a home in a real estate market like what we have in Chester, the majority of the time at least. That said, I do think there is a fairness concern. The town of Warwick imposes a $100,000, I don't know what you call that, shelf? Something like that. I think $100,000 is low and I'd propose that we move that up to $200,000 and we tax buyers on the money above the first $200,000 in the sale. The average home in Chester is 550,000 and so you'd still end up taxing the majority of every home sale. I've also heard the argument that it's unfair to load the cost of a town-wide benefit onto a narrow group of people buying or selling property that year. I'd push back on that as well. Every resident benefits from the preserved open space and property values it supports. But... We've all invested in that over the time that we've spent living here through our property taxes, through supporting groups like the Orange County Land Trust. And people actively buying and selling here are the ones that most directly benefit from it now. The more it remains a desirable place to buy into, the better it is for them. So it's fair that they contribute a small share to keep it that way. I actually have heard that the loudest opposition to these taxes statewide is from realtors. It's interesting that the price of homes probably offsets that to some bit. As land is preserved, the value of home goes up, and so realtors are probably okay with that. Mostly, I think we should ignore that. The town board doesn't represent realtors. It represents the people who live here. I'd urge the board to move forward with the referendum in November with an income-sensitive exemption, ideally closer to $200,000. Thank you.

Don Sirota, who I will note is our former planning board chairman. Thank you for coming back. I think you have your flashlight on.

Give me one second. For some reason, it's not going to work, so I'll put it in my pocket. So I'm glad, Liz, that you explained. I don't know where those numbers came from. Suzanne and I are friends. but I don't know where those numbers came from. So Warwick, we mirror Warwick. It's going to be a 50,000 for land and 100,000 for the house. So what I wanted to talk about is a couple of things tonight. I've been a resident here since 1982. I moved here in 74, but I rented prior to that in Chester, but then I built my house in 1984 now. So I've been a long-term resident. It's still in the same house over on Bull Mill Road in Chester now. So I did have a question for Liz. Does houses sold in the village, Do they get, the village gets their own transfer tax, right? Do we get transfer tax from the village?

So it's in the village. It's still subject to the jurisdiction of the town broadly. They would pay for the tax.

So no, they would. So they would pay for the tax. A village knows this. Did they vote on this or anything like that? No, because I saw that an incorporated village would get their own money for a transfer tax. Transfer taxes go to incorporate the village.

The village does not have specific authorization. So my understanding is.

We should check that, though, because it doesn't make that much of a difference because I brought some different numbers here I wanted to share with everybody in that. So I just wanted to a couple of things, one about affordability and that. And one statement I wanted to make was about work. I was a supporter of work for a long time of everything they've done up there. And I think it is fantastic what they did. they would they saved about five over five thousand acres of land up there now but we're totally different down here we keep talking about active farms we have hardly any active farms left at this point in time tom's an active farm we have a few left we don't grow a lot of vegetables the vegetable farms are down in the village down in the black dirt farms down in that area. But we don't really have a lot of farm. We have over on Johnson's Road, Talmadge is, we all know probably the number one target would be Ted Talmadge's farm. Ted's getting old. i've known ted for 50 years and uh that would probably be our main target of going i don't know whether he would do public should understand we're using a word i think we should stay with the word community preservation fund not pdr because pdr is where we purchase the development rights warwick purchased development rights 55 55 i thought it was even more about 5500 acres they purchased but the farmers own their own property They own that property. No tax money was lost by the people in Warwick because they received money. But if we buy a farm or we buy a piece of property here, so for instance, the LaRue farm, in the past, we've been talking about buying that farm. He's had a hard time selling that farm. He wants over a million dollars for the farm. But if we buy that, it's a piddling sum, but $6,000 a year in tax money goes bye-bye. It's a revenue source that goes, it's not going to happen. So we start purchasing farms, we're going to lose money that way. Purchasing a farm, like if we're forced into purchasing Talmadge's farm, and Ted's getting old, I don't know, I can't speak for Ted Talmadge, I'm not about to do that. Ted's a very nice man. But if we purchase that farm, the one thing that stands out about Ted's farm is the way Ted takes care of that property. It's just absolutely incredible. I've been in his barn a hundred times. Tom will tell you that, that he's been in that barn probably a million times and now he's a friend of Ted's. But it's beautiful. There actually is. If we take that by a purchase, even with our money here, that you're going to get from your fund. And I think you reserved, I saw the last plan, you reserved something like no more than 10% of the fund can be used for maintenance or something. Is that in the new that was put out tonight? I'm not sure that was in there. The one that you voted on recently talked about a sum of money from the preservation fund to maintain a piece of property. So someone like Ted's, those barns and his fields, I always kid Ted that I think it's a phony farm. It's a picture. It's not really, it's not real. I mean, you know, when the hay was growing this year, it was absolutely beautiful. It always is. I mean, and his barns are beautiful and he paints them, he takes care of them and all that. We have to be careful when we start buying property because how is that going to be maintained? And is 10%, if that's still in there, I don't remember, from the community preservation fund to maintain these properties, it might not be enough money. It might not be enough money at all to maintain some of these. So we're going to lose tax revenues and so on and so forth. The other thing I want to say, I keep hearing about warehouses and so on and so forth. I'm I was a planning board chair for many years. I am not for Amazon warehouses or anything like that. But we are out of business space in this town. You don't have any more space, right? No matter what anyone tells you. You're not getting an Amazon warehouse or anything like that. You've zoned out the two parcels off of Lake Station Road were business parcels. They're not there anymore. They're gonna become half acres only at that point. The only two major parcels I know of that could happen is people don't even realize that Tetz, used to be Tetz, I forget who they are now, is mining up along where Coach USA or the Tetz Road there. They're flattening out the mountain that goes all the way over to um farm right all the way over to that farm on that side that will be it for now that could be a big warehouse that could be a warehouse in there someday i'm not going to say it's not it's an industrial zone that's where coach usa is there's a uh the dog place but that's still there i've been back in there a long time so there's a couple of big businesses unilock is in there i think yeah there's a couple of them in there uh so you have that and you have the mine the i think it's called aiden mine in there that they're mining now they uh they had to submit when they did the mine there years ago a plan to the dec to go ahead and what it's going to be when they're done and how they're going to do that well it's the same thing that happened on the rock but that doesn't mean the way it's going to end up in the end. Okay. In the end, the rock submitted a sports complex into that bowl that was in there. And I think it's a pretty nice job that they did in there and that became revenue and everything to the town. But I can assure you that I don't know of any other Kristin Cadela's, but I don't know of any other business. Kristin is the planner for the town. I've known Kristin many years too, but I don't know of any other business owners we have now. Tiny little ones like they want Pond Road, they want to do a small little warehouse over there or like for a contract or something major or anything like that. So I don't think there's going to be major, we're not in Blooming Grove, which is happening down there. I get it, right? Farms like the Jermaine's are in the back here. That's agricultural residential areas. It can't be a warehouse unless the town changes. There's still a live zone along Raycourt Road. Well, that's an industrial zone in there. Yeah, that's true. And the farm that's, but there's not a lot in there. You got the solar farm.

You got the solar going in. You got, of course, street is floodplain.

right and you got floodplain so i mean very little could be happening over in there there's a small piece that he could do there's how there's some houses and remediation but wouldn't be much in there and that you know and uh and your farm i guess you're in an industrial zone you know uh it got zoned years ago and when all the everything was going on in campus office motel then with camp guard you changed everything right they changed everything to i over there i took another and and i apologize for running on but i've been you know they did a lot of research on this the town of chester has about uh if the village is included into it would be 16 000 acres if the village is excluded from this it would be about 14 800 acres just on these pieces of property alone the goose bond majority of goose bond is in the town of chester Some of it's in Blooming Grove. The majority is. The Palmer's added, thank God, to the land trust, right? And then eventually to the county when Newhouse bought it. But now we own Sugarloaf Mountain. We own access down onto both Sugarloaf and from LaRue Road. We can see what the county's already done on LaRue Road, which is a nice little pond. 30 families fishing the other day i thought it was i sent a note to uh steve newhouse saying that this is what it's all about guy you know and he did a nice job in there uh sherman's property he went bankrupt years ago and it foreclosed the van kitty bank foreclosed that that was 402 acres went into goose pond And then the planning board over the years put at least 200 acres on conservation subdivisions, 85 acres up on Surrey Meadows, different ones in different places. You have 44 acres up here on the Downs Park. So all told, it's about 2,700 acres. that on just large projects that have been preserved without any cost to the public. It didn't cost anything to do that. This is all, you know, came from different sources from the state or from the land trust and from the county and everything like that. and that if i originally calculated i didn't think the village was included in this but if uh it would be about eighteen percent is already on large uh parcels uh on camp aguardia that's the other one uh eighteen percent is now preserved in the town of chester these are big pieces and that big vistas and so and so forth and that i happen to live near one which is goosebump and you know uh which is very nice uh so and the county's already developing campo guardia you're putting they're putting a new heritage trail that's going to go from campo guardia all the way over to the scunning monk trestle and the first piece has been done now it goes over to craigville road it's about uh maybe a couple of miles goes in behind rose farm and everything and comes out on the county route 51 uh uh over near uh hubshot road i think it's called and that piece is being finished as we know now i don't know if they haven't been out that way but they did that the bulldozing and everything like that and maybe black popped i'm not sure the county's yet Have they done it yet? No. But that will be done. I mean, they have to put bridges. It's expensive. Someone told me it costs a million dollars a mile to put a heritage trail in, which is a lot of money. And they have to go across the Black Metal Creek and the whole thing when they get over there. So we already have a lot preserved in this town. right we're not going to be putting large warehouses unless someone can tell me where these business zones are uh and anything we do uh i wanted to talk a little bit about if in the last year so let's take it with the village then included all right i had two charts with me one was with the village without it and my notes i'll give to the town board i will i just didn't have time to prepare it all tonight i'll give you the copies of everything i've done here and that But in the raw notes here from June 30th, 2025 to June 30th, 2026, there was $42,568,300 in sales in Chester. This is in Chester. and that'll include the village, right? With the exemption of the 100,000 or 50,000, that would fall down to 33,868,300. Now, this is not cash deals. Liz knows she's a closing attorney, I'm sure. This is not cash deals and things that this is straight from the MLS numbers. All right. So which would net the board $254,000. That's what you're going to get. It's gonna be a long time before so if you're going to buy Talmadge's farm, it's been a long time before you're going to get enough money to go ahead.

Just to clarify, you can also use the fund to take loans out against

so you could take loans and now what warwick it did cost taxpayers some money right they took a nine million dollar loan before they got the tax a nine uh and that and and and it's it's piddly money that the taxpayers paid out back but they pay a small fund on their tax bill every year for the pdr tax and the rest of the pr tax is used to help pay down that bond and they might even be done with it at this point in time and stuff like that so So that's kind of the number you're going to get. I mean, it's going to be $254,000. I guess you could borrow money against it, but I don't know who pays that interest and so on and so forth. I don't know. That's for you guys to know, not me. So I'm not sure on that. Without the village, again, if the village is not included, the numbers come down a little bit. You would only get $201,000.

That's what you would end up with in the end.

The other thing that... first of all i i am a realtor and realtors don't take this already like that i'm an avid fly fisherman i fish the i love the willow weemouth i fish once a week and so on and so forth i'm all for land preservation and everything like that you know i worked on i worked very hard upon uh when palmer's farm got done all right i worked with the county and everything to get that done in land trust And I worked with the TD Bank when they took over Sherman's property in that. So I'm not against buying things in that. But I did want to just talk about affordability because it is a piddly sum. I'm not arguing that it doesn't seem like it's a lot of money, right? And one thing that you did say was the average home price for a decent house in the town of Chester, right, that basically moving quality, but it's gonna definitely have a lot of updates. It's got a 30-year-old bathroom and a 30-year-old kitchen and everything like that. It's about 500, 550,000. So I based this one on 500,000 in that. So young people, right, Older people like myself, I own a house, I have no mortgage, right? If I sold my house, I have a lot of equity that I could buy another house in the town of Chester. I happen to like this town and I've stayed here many years in that. But on a $500,000 purchase, I just wanted to bring some numbers because these are scary, these numbers. And think of the young people or even an elderly person or anyone who wants to buy a house. And also just one other thing about buying houses, I'm finding that people are, two families are buying houses together. That's what's happening, to move into them. This is the only way they can afford it. do that anything else so a five hundred thousand dollar house if you put ten percent down you're gonna have to come up with fifty thousand dollar down payment that's not a piddly something that's a decent amount of money fifty thousand dollars all right then comes the great closing course right right so here here's some of the closing course what we don't know right is there was a new law that was not a law but there was a lawsuit in louisiana and somewhere else where the seller doesn't any longer have to pay the buyers uh agent to bring someone to your hops, right? They don't pay that anymore. So now every buyer has to sign a form saying the buyer's broker happens to go there and has to tell them how much they expect to get on this. And somebody has to pay that. Either the seller's going to pay it or you're going to pay it. The buyer's going to pay it. That can be up to 2%. Now, what I'm finding is that 99% of sellers say, heck with this, we'll pay that 2%. It's still happening. They're paying that 2%. Still, 2% or whatever it is, 3% and that. But they could get hit with that. They could get hit with a flood insurance. They could get hit with points from the bank. They could get hit with a bank attorney. They can get hit with a rate lock. fee or rate lock extension fee. So I didn't even put those down here on this here, but here's some of the fees that they can get hit with real quick. They're going to pay an application fee to the bank, at least 500 appraisal fee of 500. They're going to pay a title insurance fee of 2000. They're going to pay a mortgage tax. Okay. So this is another tax now. They're going to pay a mortgage tax of $3,465. They're going to pay a miscellaneous fee of FedEx documents and so on and so forth, about $750. They have to pay years of taxes basically up front on their closing. They have to pay a buyer's attorney that's charging approximately $1,500 now. You have to have an attorney, and we live in an attorney section, so you must have an attorney. And the homeowner's insurance you have to pay is about $1,200, and a home inspection is about $750. So a buyer, when they come to the house, they're going to put down $50,000, and they're going to pay approximately $20,665. could float a little bit in the direction so now they have to come up with seventy thousand six hundred and sixty five dollars it's a lot of money it's a lot of money for especially a young person if they're gonna have that much cash and they can go on from there uh now the pdr tax on a five hundred thousand dollar house is true it's gonna be three hundred uh three thousand dollars doesn't sound like much but when you're paying seventy thousand six hundred and sixty five now you're gonna pay seventy three thousand six hundred and sixty five that's a lot of money it's an extra so it sounds like a piddly sum in that uh so i think it's important to know that and i just want to talk about a mortgage payment this is what people are faced with i just i have to ask just because we have a lot you don't have that you don't have that many i knew you were going to say this i said this to tom so I'll be done in just a minute or two, but I want everyone, I just want the public to understand this. You have a mortgage payment on a $500,000 house with a 10% down of $2,844, taxes of 833, insurance of 100, and a PMI, private mortgage insurance, if you have a credit rating between 7 and 720, of $329 for a total monthly payment of $4,100 a month. That's what a young person or somebody was going to pay. who has only 10% to put down in the house. If they can load a bigger budget, then that can get reduced down. It's a lot of money. $4,000.

That's the mortgage amount?

What? That's the mortgage amount. That's what they're going to pay. $4,000.

You'll give us a copy of all that too, Don?

Yeah, I'll have all this. I can document stuff like that. I'll get rid of all that. The other thing is... I just find, I would have rather that it seems that we're piecemealing this a little bit to see, I think we should, before, if you were to vote on this tonight, I don't know if you're gonna vote on this tonight. You are. So you're gonna vote on this tonight, but the public doesn't see what properties you wanna buy.

so by law the plan has to be adopted more than 60 days but we couldn't see that in advance and was that there the number item six tonight where it shows does that plan have the the properties listed yeah and that was on the website the board has to adopt it more than 60 days in advance of the referendum so can we so that's going to be introduced and it's going to be uploaded and the public will have enough time between now and over

to review the plan before they can vote on the referendum.

I just thought the board though might be interested in seeing and going over that a little bit and making sure that these are the pieces of property and how much they may possibly cost and so on and so forth. It's an important factor. You're going to get $200,000 in the course of a year. It's not a lot of money to get to buy properties in that. I don't know what's on there. I put together a plan in 2015.

We actually took a lot from that plan. And we took a lot from that. And that was on there tonight.

I checked. I didn't see that. It's there now. Was that uploaded tonight?

I uploaded it. couple hours ago.

Yes. Yeah, I see.

Yeah, I only had it late this afternoon. Yeah, sorry. Being introduced today.

No, I know. But I just thought it would be nice to have a little discussion on that before.

We had a lot to do to get together. We spent a lot of time getting together in the last month or two with the advisory board.

By law, we're supposed to publish documents within 24 hours of a meeting and so on and so forth. That was the...

Unfortunately, we didn't have that time to post it in time.

No, I want to be clear. The document hasn't been introduced. Right. So...

You'll still have time to talk about it. But you're going to vote on something that's affected by the document.

No, but you're going to vote on this. Remember, there's two pieces we're talking about tonight. There's the tax, and then there's the project plan. The tax is what is the subject of the public hearing, the implementation of the tax. The plan is being introduced tonight. Kristen, our planner, is here to discuss that. And that document is what has been published. i knew i didn't see it but that document has to be adopted 60 days before the referendum so so that the public can as you said to express that concern by law we have to publish we have to have that adopted more than 60 days if we do not actually if you read the the draft local law if that is not in place more than 60 days this law is of even if we voted on it tonight is of no force in effect

Okay, thank you for your time.

The only thing that's going to happen is we're trying to put it out for a referendum. As a board, we have to leave it up to the public to have their opportunity to speak on what they want.

I also just want to let the public know we're governed by Town Law 64-L, which is the state's legislating authority for this. As part of that, any property we want to buy, we have to have a public hearing, any property.

And to further clarify, the document that we, the community preservation plan is not being voted on tonight. It's being introduced tonight. So in fact, that document is being, introduced tonight and posted for the public viewing a full month in advance before we vote on it. So there will be plenty of time for the public to review it before we vote on that plan as a board. And then, what is it, four months in advance for the public to vote on it on the transfer tax as a referendum.

Okay.

Thank you for your time. Thank you, John.

Thank you for the information.

All right. We have Lisa Moriarty.

Actually, a lot of

right away in february of 27. just to restate the question the question was when would it go into effect february 1st all right we have no one else written down for the public hearing uh for this would you like to speak yes please yeah i just have a question uh if the referendum is approved does the board have the right

Let's say real estate, the average price of the house in Chester goes up from $500,000 to $700,000, as an example. Does the board have the right to increase the exemption to protect some of the sellers of the home and dealing with the buyers?

The exemption, the $100,000 and $50,000 figures are in the state legislation. So that would be a state, we would have to get amended by the state legislature.

So that should be a little bit of a problem as the price is steeped right for the buyer as well as itself. Just something to keep in mind.

Is there anybody else who'd like to speak at the public hearing today on this subject? Is there anything online?

No.

Is there a motion to close the public hearing?

I'll make a motion.

Is there a second? I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Are there any comments or debate points about the local law?

I think the only comment I have before we vote on this is a lot of things have been referenced over to Warwick and how much property they've saved. And Don had just given us a number of about 2,700 acres here in Chester. I just want to do a comparison that The town of Warwick is over a hundred square miles and they've saved about 5,500 acres. The town of Chester is 25 square miles. So we're a quarter of the size of Warwick. So with what we've saved, we've actually exceeded, with Goose Pond and everything else, all those properties, we've actually exceeded what Warwick's done already without having a PDR. Just a point I wanted to make.

So I just want to be clear that this is not establishing a PDR program that is available to you. What it is doing is establishing a funding mechanism. You certainly have the legislative authority to, and often that would follow as a PDR program. It also, you can use funding for other sources, other things that are related to some of the costs, for example, conservation easements and appraisals, things like that. You can use the funds for that.

Thank you.

yeah um i'd like to just say something uh actually it kind of goes into what tom is saying the the size difference between us and warwick to me uh every property saved here in my opinion means exponentially more to the residents here because of our small size So as a 29-year-old who is on the hunt for a house, one of those young families that was referenced, I will be more than happy to pay a few extra to preserve the character of our town, the town that I grew up in, the town that I would like to raise my family in one day. I'd be happy to pay that extra. And I think the majority of people, if they were educated about what this plan means and what this fund means and what it can do for community for generations to come, I believe the majority of people my age, younger or a little bit older, would say the same thing. I think the I know The residents of the town have been asking for this for almost a decade now. The town board, those who came before us, who are sitting on here today, and those who are currently sitting here, fought for many years with and against the state legislators to get it passed and the governor's office and we finally managed to get it done last year i believe it's our responsibility and our duty to give the ability for the public to vote on this in this november's election and i believe the rest of the board should vote aye in favor of sending this to the referendum, passing the local law, and allowing the referendum to happen so the public can have its say on whether or not it would like to preserve its community's future or let it go as it's been going. Is there any other debate points or questions from the board members before Liz does her thing?

No.

I just want to say,

you kind of already said it, but what we're voting on tonight is to give the public the opportunity to vote on this legislation. We're not voting to enact the legislation tonight.

Just so that's all. It would be subject to the mandatory referendum. And just to be clear, the fund and the project plan can exist in the absence of the tax. you would have to find alternate sources of funding. So if a resident came up and said, it's really important, I'm going to donate money, you would have a place to receive that donation. So the fund and the plan will exist independently. Just again, this is intended to serve as a funding mechanism that's authorized by state law. Whereas the town of Chester possesses a rich heritage of scenic agricultural and natural resources, the preservation of which is vital to the future economic success and quality of life of the community. To further the objective of preserving the natural scenic and historic treasures, the town board of the town of Chester find it necessary to establish a dedicated fund for their conservation. The town has established a community preservation fund pursuant to town law section 64L. and now seeks to implement a transfer tax in the amount of 0.75% on real estate transfers within the town of Chester as authorized by New York state tax law, article 31A4. Whereas introductory local law four of 2026 was introduced before the town board on June 24th, 2026. And whereas a duly noticed public hearing was held on July 22nd, 2026. And now therefore be it resolved after hearing and considering public comment, introductory local law four 2026 entitled a local law imposing a three quarters of 1%, 0.75% real estate transfer tax on the conveyance of interest in real property in the town with the revenues derived from this tax to be deposited in the town of Chester Community Preservation Fund for the purposes of preserving the natural scenic and historic treasures within the town is hereby adopted subject to mandatory referendum. Be it further resolved that the town clerk shall cause the proposition as set forth in section four of introductory local law four of 2026 to be transmitted to the board of elections for the November 3rd, 2026 general election. And be it further resolved that upon approval by referendum, the town clerk shall assign this local law the next successive local law number and file the same with the secretary of state.

So it's not gonna get a number tonight.

Is there a motion to pass the local law as written? I'll make that motion. And I will second. Roll call vote, please.

Supervisor Holdridge?

Aye.

Councilmember Becker?

Aye.

Councilmember Cassaro?

Aye.

Councilmember Diffley?

Aye. Passes unanimously, thank you. So there will be a referendum. There will be a referendum on the ballot in November. I urge the public, if they care about the future of this community, to vote yes on the referendum. All right. Public hearing on introductory local law number five of 2026. This will put another referendum on the ballot to change the highway superintendent position from elected to appointed at the start of 2028. meaning um i've explained this i'll explain this again currently there is an election uh happening this year for the highway superintendent to fill out the rest of the term left by our previous highway superintendent that means it is a one-year term that person who wins in this november will serve for a one-year term in the year 2027. If this local law is not passed and there is no referendum, there will be another election next year for a three-year term.

Yeah, well, three because of the given year election.

So there will be another election next year for a three-year term for a highway superintendent. If this local law passes tonight and a referendum is put on the ballot this year, and if that referendum is passed to make the position appointed, there will be no election next year. The town board will have the ability to interview candidates for the position and appoint that person at the start of 2028. And that is that. So is there a motion to open up the, did you have to say something before?

I just wanted to add two things. The local law also just two other things, both of which are subject to mandatory referendum. The first is it provides that that office, again, if this passes a mandatory referendum, that they do not need to be a resident of the town of Chester provided they live in Orange County. And this is to broaden the pool of folks who would be eligible to serve that position rather than just right now your highway superintendent has to be a resident of the town of Chester and an elector of the town of Chester. The second thing it does is change the term to two years.

Thank you. I was going to say that as well about the resident versus non-resident situation uh it is the belief of the majority of this board that uh by making this an appointed position we can like liz said broaden the pool and make the position more about the merits of what it means to hold that position of highway superintendent and get the most qualified person into the role rather than it being decided via popularity contest by an election So that is some of the thought process that's gone into this. Is there a motion to open the public hearing?

I'll make the motion.

Is there a second? I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Bill Giler, first.

Just real quick, I don't want to take a little more time. Bill Giler, 17 Springsport. Just in favor of the... appointment position. Being in the DPW for some 28 years now, not in the town of Chester, but elsewhere, and a superintendent for 22 years, I was never in agreement with a voided position. You have people coming in and out, in and out, different people. The town board, public mostly doesn't know, has no control over an elected highway superintendent. He can pretty much or she can pretty much do as they want. They give the town board a number for a budget. The town board approves that number. The superintendent could do what they want, whatever work they want to do, whatever they want to buy, whoever they want to hire, they can do. So now this opportunity to push the control to the board, everything would be controlled by the board. Highway superintendent would be controlled by the board. They'll do what. with board elects for him to do, he or she to do. So I think it's a real smart move for the town in protection of having better control over your budget, having better control over manpower. Hopefully going to civil service to where you already get a pool of people that are tested for the position, that would help. Again, not being strictly from the town, but it opens it up to anybody that took a test in Orange County to be approved for that position. um other than that that's really it is you know i think on the town's part it's a real good move thank you thank you bill if anybody had any questions about it feel free to ask thank you sir thank you are there any other that he was the only one that signed up to speak on this you signed up to speak during regular public comments did you want to speak on this then please

Good evening, everyone. I'm Brian Ross. I've been to a number of meetings here at the town council. Before I begin on what I was about to speak about, I wanted to thank the town board, Supervisor Holdridge for their assistance. So we were trying to get a traffic light installed at the corner of Academy Avenue and where State Road 94 intersects, a very dangerous intersection. um i did meet with the town board of the village of chester and they unanimously approved a resolution and immediately sent it up to the traffic control up in poughkeepsie and i followed that up with a a letter from myself a petition from the businesses in question who really want this light and of course the letter of support that uh the town board gave so i want to thank them for that okay now tonight i'm sitting and listening and uh this again has to do with the the difference in my opinion between an appointment and an election and to me there's a big difference okay in this i didn't know too much about what a highway superintendent does really didn't matter to me as long as the roads were good and everything was working okay they're doing a good job and from 1971 up to may 2nd 2025 i couldn't find one problem that happened between the town or problems and any of the constituents things are running smoothly then of course the incident happened on May the 2nd and at that point of course it was through process there was a conviction on March the 29th and now the previous Highway Superintendent was fired And an interim was trying to be appointed and was not. And Keith Meyer, the foreman, kind of run the whole show. I did speak to Keith Foreman the other day. I did congratulate him on the job he's been doing. He did help with getting our grass cut, which we've been trying to get. And he accomplished that in record time. In my opinion, and this is my opinion, when a position that pays $80,000 is up for an appointment, the voters are left out. The voters have no say. The voters are the one that actually pay the taxes that pay the 80,000, but they don't have any input into who gets chosen. There's been no problems in this position for all this time. we're talking like 55 years now and I understand I understand that you want to have control over expenses that I understand but the town voters have done a great job in who they've elected in fact some of the elected highway superintendents have been lauded for their tremendous work they've done in making Chester a much better town to live in because of their policies. They don't set any policies. They follow the policies of the board and the town superintendent. That's what they're supposed to do. that's in their job description that's what i'm led to believe if i'm incorrect then i'm incorrect but that's how i read it again this is just my opinion when voters are left out of selection process there are times where the selection process for an appointment becomes skewered sometimes it leads to favoritism, sometimes it leads to which party is in control. That takes everything out of the voters. Why are we here for? If it's working, then make the adjustments and make the town, the highway superintendent more accountable right now.

When it's elected, you can't make it in the Mark County.

But you've passed the law making this an appointed position. So maybe I don't understand the process that well, which is very possible. However, all these years, it's run smoothly. One incident, which is a horrible incident, changed everything.

Can I give you a piece of information? Yes. So right now, the people that we could possibly have that work, most of your former superintendents have been people that have worked in the highway department. So they've moved through the ranks and they came up and they became a highway superintendent. So they grew up and they work within the system. Right now, the people that are within the system, many of them don't live within the town. So that excludes them. from the position. So that's a difficulty right now for us putting somebody in a position at the town highway department.

To my knowledge, we only actually have two people in the whole highway department that actually live in the town of Chester.

But why can't they be elected? Why does it have to be?

Because they have to be a resident. If it's an elected position, they have to be a resident.

Okay. So there's a difficulty there. And it also sets a guideline of what type of person you want running the highway club, somebody with experience.

That's a whole different argument. I don't want to sit here and go through a whole argument regarding that. It's really a different issue, to be quite honest with you, about qualifications for the highway superintendent as opposed to qualifications for any of the positions. This is not the time or the place for me to do that. My point I'm trying to make is the fact for 55 years, it ran okay. I understand that they do their own budget. I understand they do, and I know you understand you wanna get control, but in ran okay. When you take the position out of the voters and put it into appointment and who knows two, three years down the road, this is a whole different board and they think totally different. Now, what are you gonna do? You're gonna revert back? When the voters vote, somebody wins and somebody loses. Pure and simple, regardless. You can take or you can make any revisions you like to make it fit what you need. You run the town, make it work, but at least let the voters vote. That's my whole point being here. Let the voters vote for the particular person that they want. They're entitled to vote. Otherwise, what's the point? We can make any position different. But this was a working position up to this. Was there anything before this? I couldn't find anything. I couldn't find an article in a newspaper. I couldn't find an editorial. I couldn't find anything negative about this position. then all of a sudden it's now becomes an appointed position.

So I just want to make it clear that this local law, we're not enacting it becoming an appointed position. I understand that. I just want to make it clear for the public. This local law will put a referendum on the ballot for the people

to vote on whether or not they want I I understand that again I just want to make clear to the public yeah that this is going to allow the people to vote on whether or not it should be appointed or elected moving forward okay I I understand your positions you want to have control over budget and you should you know money is important but I also understand the voters and to take just one more minute of time is I I just asked a few people what do you think And I asked, of all people, my chiropractor, Dr. Kelly. You all probably know Dr. Kelly. He's a great chiropractor from the village. And I just asked him, what do you think? First words out of his mouth, let the voters vote. And then it's fair. Nobody complains.

everyone's okay they might not like the results but at least they got a chance to do something thank you thank you thank you um all right do we have if you if you don't mind i'd like to just make the comment sure that i agree with you let the voters vote and that's what we're voting on tonight to let the voters decide

whether this is an appointed or elected office so we are letting the voters vote no i i understand that i just wanted to again this is my opinion and i'll probably be outvoted in the regular election six thousand to one which is fine okay all right thank you ryan

First, I just want to say, the voters are not left out. Elect a town board that you trust. They make lots of other decisions. Include this as one of those decisions. I think there's four clear reasons that this should be an appointed position. One, you want someone who's good at the job, not someone who's good at running for office. Plying roads, fixing equipment, it takes an actual skill. We don't care who's better at campaigning. We want someone who has those hard skills. Number two, it is easier to hold this person accountable if it is an appointed position. When it's an elected position, we wait for the next election to do something about a failing superintendent unless they commit a heinous crime. You don't have to wait years to fix a bad situation. Number three, less disruption. when it's an elected position, you can't plan decade long or multiple year long roadmaps of plans because your superintendent position might change at the next election. So this just creates a situation where you can you can plan more clearly in the long term. And then the last one is just, there is less opportunity for, I think, some of the foul play in politics, especially in a position like this that does a lot of hiring, has the opportunity to make decisions about what projects get done where. If it is appointed, there is not someone who is out there trying to convince the electorate to select them. Instead, they are just responding to their boss, the town board.

And I just want to add to that one point about how there is a situation where if there is a failing superintendent, and in which case, unless there is a heinous crime that's committed, a criminal act, that from my personal experience, not only did we have to wait for a, well, not to put it that way, but let me rephrase this. A criminal act was committed, alleged at the time. We had to wait another year and a half before anything could be done about that so if it's an appointed position this board will have the ability to make a correction much sooner in a situation like that rather than wait for the justice system which i believe every american knows by now uh is very slow slow moving at best uh so i just want to put that out there is there anybody else who'd like to speak on yes

Richard Logan Patterson Sugarloaf. Being a resident here, I consider myself still a newbie, but it's been 45 years that I've lived here. It hasn't been perfect. There's been problems. Most people who don't pay attention to it don't know those problems. I do recall a time, I can't tell you the date, that it was appointed, and at one point it was switched over to elected. However, my opinion of the process is that we are the people who elect or hire a group of people who hopefully we can trust to do our work. And we wanna hire you to do the whole town, not just a piece of it. Well, you can't tell the highway superintendent, no, we don't want that, we want this. Because we as the public can talk to five people and try to convince you, we'd like this, not that. You have a highway superintendent who's protected because he's elected. I've had more than one say, well, this is the way it's going to be. I don't care what you think. They make an independent decision. And that's not what we're asking. We hired you to make the decisions the best you can for the people. All the decisions. You imagine the police department and this department, the highway department is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, expenditure, if I'm not mistaken. It's certainly one of the biggest. And you have no control of it. That means we, the people, have no control of it because one superintendent, when we were talking about a particular type of curbing, not in my lifetime, you're going to get, well, who the heck is he to make that decision? It should be made decision and we hire a group of people to make that decision. And I like to see it go back to an appointed position so that we can vote you guys in or out because we like what you're doing or maybe don't like what you're doing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Richard.

Thank you. I would also just like to add to that. Besides the election in 2021, I'm not sure to the degree of how many actual competitive elections there has been in this town for that position specifically. So the thought of having the people choose or decide a lot of the time there really isn't a choice, specifically with that position, if there's no competitive election for that position. In my opinion, and I believe in the other opinions of some of the board members up here, giving that ability for the people that public elects being the board members giving us the ability to make that decision for you and opening it up to a pool of people who we will hopefully base on the merits appoint the right person i think that's a better choice that the people is taking to make that decision about who is best for the position is it going to be a popularity contest where In many cases, only one person is literally running on the ballot, or is it going to be a pool of three to five to 12 people that the people that are already elected by the public is going to make for them? Are there any other public comments for this? Yes, Bill.

I could just maybe recommend to the board that you review this position every year rather than every two years.

I believe that's already decided with the law that has been drafted. It's in the law. Yeah. It can always be amended in the future, but it's two years in the law right now. And there's somebody online, Michelle, for this.

Not so. There was a problem around 1977, more or less, with a problem with a highway supervisor. Elected does not hire the most qualified person. appointed position will pick the better candidate. Voters do not have a clue as to the better candidate as witnessed in the past primary election. That's all I have.

Thank you. Is there anybody else for this hearing? Seeing none, is there a motion to close the public hearing?

I'll make the motion. Can I just make a comment?

Sure. Well, hold on. Can you rescind your motion?

I'll rescind it.

Giuseppe?

Yeah. This position has always, and I think should always stay elected. Should be up to the voters. We talk about control. I don't think we should have, as a board, control of one person. What we need to do is have better relationship with the superintendent. We have liaisons here on the board to the highway department. that person should have a good relationship with whoever the superintendent is. I know sometimes the superintendents don't have the best attitudes of getting work done, they argue, but we have to be able to try to put our differences apart and work together. Then we gotta build relationships with the superintendent, not take away the vote from the people. That's all I got to say.

I'll say for me, I've always had a good relationship with everybody who's been in that position that I've known and sometimes work doesn't get done.

I think there's only one other thing that's been missed during this entire thing is

benefits of $43,000 a year. So 80 with 43. So it's quite a salary for a part-time job as a position that is put in place where we choose the person that's going to be a full-time job with a full-time salary. And you'll have a full-time person to do the job accordingly to what the people who elected all the board members here, along with You know, the people who will see this person do the work and questions can come to us to get things done that we can't get done now.

To add to that, as an elected official who I go around bragging about how I work this full time, and I continue to say that I work this full time, I work this 24-7, that's a choice. By the law, I do not need to work this full time. I do not need to work this 40 hours a week. I need to work it 50, 60 hours a week sometimes. But I choose to because that's what I believe it deserves, the responsibility deserves. What Tom is saying, an elected official does not need to work full time. That highway superintendent position is not a required full time position. If we were to make an appointed position, we can set the standards, we can set the guidelines, we can make it so anybody who we hire, we're hiring at a 40 hour work week. We're hiring like this is your salary, this is what you're working. There is no ifs, ands, or buts about it. So that's my last comment on that.

is there a motion to close the public hearing i'll make the motion is there a second awesome all those in favor all right all right liz whereas the town of chester desires to eliminate the elected position of superintendent of highways and replace it with an appointed position of superintendent of highways By doing so, the town board anticipates that it will be able to assert greater oversight and accountability in the operation function and responsibility of upkeep and maintenance of the town's highways, attract a wider applicant pool for the position of appointed superintendent of highways and minimize the risk of vacancies and ensured continuity and leadership. Whereas introductory local law five of 2026 entitled a local law to change the office of highway superintendent from an elected office to an appointed office was introduced on June 24th, 2026. And whereas a duly noticed public hearing was held on July 22nd, 2026. Now therefore be it resolved that introductory local law five of 2026 entitled a local law to change the office of highway superintendent from an elected office to an appointed office is hereby adopted subject to mandatory referendum. And be it further resolved that the town clerk shall cause the proposition as set forth in said introductory local law five of 2026 to be transmitted to the Board of Elections for the November 3rd, 2026 general election. And be it further resolved that on approval of said referendum, the town clerk shall assign this local law the next successive local law number and file the same with the New York Secretary of State.

Is there a motion to pass the local law number five, introductory local law number five as stated?

I'll make the motion.

I'll second. Roll call vote, please.

Supervisor Holdridge?

Aye.

Councilmember Becker? Aye. Councilmember Cassaro?

No.

Councilmember Diffley? Aye.

Passes 3-0-1. There will be a referendum on the ballot in November. Thank you. All right, moving forward, we have public comment. I have three people written down, I would ask that they keep their comments to a very brief amount of time as we are very late. And my bet that we were gonna be out here before nine is now crushed. So, Richard, please.

Two things. One, a couple months ago, Brandy, you asked me about, and this wasn't on my intended list, about a contribution I made for a Sugarloaf I want to officially say, yes, we're building all these parks and the new, let's transfer that little bit of money into the big park fund to fund all the stuff that you're doing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Richard.

The second thing is the water. There's been a debate, different comments about taxing opposed to charging an individual for water use. And my feeling is that nobody should be subsidizing my water use and I shouldn't be subsidizing anybody else's water. And I don't know how the taxes work. Is it just, you know, this is what combined the water it costs us to pump and provide and we're going to take a certain percentage of it and it's going to be paid by the user and a certain percent we're going to throw on the tax. Taxes are strange because you can't debate them. They are what they are. And if I'm paying for taxes for somebody else, like when I had the theater, well, I was in the water district, but it had a well. Was I paying on a several million dollar building water for some guy behind me to irrigate his- Not if you weren't in a district. Huh? But I'm in the district. But not if you were part in- I was in the district. but i wasn't using the the theater is in the water district it's in the water it's in the water district and even there's a tap connecting this you were paying it yeah then i was paying on a two million dollar i mean i paid nearly two million dollars in taxes in the 20 years that means i was paying for the guy behind me the water is gone well really okay um and by the same token my property my commercial property now is higher than the typical house. Why? Because there's three buildings on my property. And also because I use my property for things like the event we did last weekend, I irrigate. I irrigate nearly two acres of property. So I use more. Does that mean the guy down the street that's conservative, he's paying for that? All right. The thing is this, that like the electric bill, Electric bills high, we all bitch about our electric bills. Okay. But you know that if your electric bills high, you turn that little dial down air conditioning, you turn it down, and your electric bill come down. Well, if I complain about my water bill, well, do I really need to take a 20 minute shower with that big spray head? That's a luxury, you pay for luxury. That's what it is. It's a luxury. And so if you don't want to pay that much money, but you have a control, In reality, you can go down to the basement or wherever it is, and there's this valve. You could turn it completely off, and if you're only paying for usage, your water bill goes away. It's not practical. We all need water. But you crack it a little bit. You don't need to fill the bathtub to the top. Your toilet's leaking. Fix it. You can adjust your water bill, but if it's taxed, and especially if you're paying for the guy down the block, you have absolutely no control, and if you don't pay your water bill, you get on the naughty list, and I don't want to be on the naughty list. So I suggest you continue. I know there's contribution, controversy on it. I fully agree with you, sir.

Thank you, Richard. Ryan.

I wanted to follow up on something from the June 24th meeting. Before the board voted to award another project to Consorti, I asked Councilman Cassara for your professional opinion on the quality and completion of the sidewalk project in Sugarloaf. And at the time, you said you hadn't reviewed any documentation on the work, but that you would have done things differently and that you'd vote to move forward based on the engineer's recommendation. You closed by saying that you'd look into it and that you'd follow up and find out how was the completion, how was the quality. It's been a month, so I just wanted to follow up and see what you found and if there's something you could share about the quality and completion of the consortium project in Sugarloaf.

I'll tell you this much. So when you read the big documents, right, there's two sections in the big documents. One's quality assurance and it should be quality control, right? So who has to do the quality assurance, quality control? It's usually the engineer that we hire, right? So that person went out and did a report that whatever he saw witnessed that was done correctly. So that's how the work is done. So he signed off that the work was done correctly. If whoever disagrees with it could come up and state their argument, what was done different. So if you're referencing to the color of the sidewalk that was not done correctly, that's something that should be brought up.

So I'm not referencing anything. I am not an engineer. I haven't read the engineering documents. And I know that you have professional background in construction and engineering. And you're on the town board. So that was right asked for you to I was hoping that you would do so that's what's in the big guy got documents.

So if if john quinan said that the sidewalks were done correctly, we have to agree with him that the sidewalks are done correctly.

You agree with them and they were done correctly.

i don't know because i wasn't there i didn't select the color of the sidewalk i wasn't there during the mixing of the concrete or the pour so i can't tell you i don't even know what the color was supposed to be What was it supposed to be? It was supposed to be a shade of gray, right? You can't get a shade of gray when concrete is already gray. You can't execute that. It's impossible. Because I tried to do, wait, hold on, let me finish. I poured concrete for over 20 years, right? I would never pick a shade of gray for a concrete finish because concrete is already gray. You're never going to get it.

So again, I was not making any assumption that any of it was done incorrectly. I do not have a background in this and had asked that you do a follow-up and summarize it. You said you would look into it.

I don't even know the color of it. What's supposed to be? What's the color supposed to be? Does anybody on this board know what the color of that sidewalk was supposed to be?

Again, that's why I was asking you because you have a background.

I have the background, but the colors is not... How would we find out what it was supposed to be? You have to go to the documents.

I thought that's what you were doing.

No, I reviewed the bid documents.

Thank you.

You're not hearing me. The quality insurance and quality control. That's what was supposed to be done. So that means that the engineer that we hired didn't do his job, basically. Right? So then who's supposed to report back what the color was, whether it was satisfied or not?

So that means it wasn't satisfied. I'm just going to bring it back in because this isn't supposed to be back and forth. I can assure the public.

Well, I'm trying to answer Ryan's question is that instead of getting attacked about a project that I never will receive.

I don't think any attacks.

it is you said it on the june 24th you attacked me and now you're attacking me again on a specific project that i had no involvement in i was not even on the board at that time i offered my help last time i said the next project that comes around that i'll do inspections on myself on my own time and i won't even charge anybody for

All right. Would you like me to go inspect the A.D. walkways at Carpenter Park? I'm going to bring it back in because this isn't supposed to be a back and forth anymore. It's gone on too long. Elizabeth Baradzan.

so I just want to commend the town board for the excellent maintenance that's been done at Knapp's view one of our beautiful scenic open spaces that we do have in our town the species sensitive mowing schedule that we established has really helped maintain the beauty of the place and also the paths that the parks and rec do. It has created this welcoming space that is clearly being enjoyed by people and also the wildlife. On July 9th, the Chester Conservation Advisory Council, in partnership with Orange County Audubon, hosted their second annual Birds in Bloom Walk at the Knapp's View. And we had 16 birders and nature enthusiasts who came and they were treated with seeing the purple martins that were in the gourd and also the boblinks. We welcomed several participants that came before, so they came all the way back from Westchester and other places, while there were other people who had never been to Knapp's View, even though they have driven by it a million times. So everyone appreciated it and was really excited to see the birds, the wildlife, and the butterflies up close. As the walk ended, I also noticed that there were many other things happening there. There was two wedding photography events happening, There was family photos being taken, there were people picnicking, there were people doing exercise walking, people walking their dogs, just enjoying the evening there. So it's a wonderful reminder that this special place serves many purposes while continuing to provide that valuable habitat for wildlife as well, so living with both. So I want to thank you for your continued stewardship of Knapp's View. It has really become that place where we all can enjoy it. people and wildlife. So thank you so much for all of the work that you've done. And Linda, I can give you the letter that I have. On a second note, Sugarloaf Community Foundation has resurrected the Sugarloaf News, something that was written many, many, many years ago. We had members from the Community Foundation write articles. So this is our first edition. It is our summer edition. We plan to produce them four times a year. And so I'd like to give them out to the board members that are here, everybody who is here. There's some great articles in here, even about real estate and the libraries and all this wonderful thing. So I'm just going to hand this out to the board members and thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other public comment? Yes.

Thanks.

Dylan Skriloff. I just wanted to ask, I noticed that the crosswalks in downtown Sugarloaf were painted.

Yes.

So I was just curious why that took like an extra six months and is that project now officially completed?

So they were originally painted. They obviously faded over time. When we heard that the work on the bypass was gonna get done, I wanted to make sure that we had, that the crosswalks were visible because we knew we were gonna get even more traffic than usual through the Hamlet. So I had asked them ahead of time But the company took its time getting out there. So it took a while for them to get out there. I couldn't control them. It's a private company. So I asked them. They didn't get out until they got out. The project is not over. In August, we believe in August, the Orange County is going to come through and pay Kings Highway for free. That's the last time that they're gonna do it for free. And they're gonna pave over everything, obviously. At that point, once it's paved and done, we are going to be able to finally have Consorti come in and do the stamping, the pattern stamping on the two raised crosswalks. repaint all the lines, the chevrons, the slow text on the road and everything, repaint all that, and then also add a regular painted crosswalk near Sugarloaf Square and Cancun Inn. Not a raised crosswalk, just a regular painted on the road crosswalk. Once that is all completed, then officially the project will finally be complete. It's just unfortunately with timing from Consorti, which is a private company that I do not have control over, and Orange County, which is coming in to do a free paving. We have been waiting, so.

I'm glad I asked.

Yes.

I was just curious, Councilman Becker, you have been voting against the preservation fund resolution.

Well, there was nothing I was voting against. It was more I was trying to bring information to people in regards to it that as much as we'll collect money it's for my thought process, it's it's creating another tax on top of attacks. You know, we're taxed to death now and we're creating another tax. Um, as a board member, I'm against tax, but I'm not against letting a referendum go through and allow people to make their own decision. So it takes it away. That decision decision gets taken out of my hands and it's done by the residents.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Is there any other public comment tonight?

Hey, just going back to that crosswalk comment, right? We decided on the pattern and the color, right?

Yes.

Okay. So the color is supposed to be terracotta, right? What I did ahead of time is ask for a sample. You know what was told back to me? There are no samples available. So how am I going to compare that to what gets done on the field if I can't get a sample beforehand?

Just to clarify.

So what should happen then? Should I get blamed for that too?

We're not going to do this. Just to clarify, there were digital samples provided to the board members. There were no physical samples provided to the board members. They didn't have any. Jeff, you have one last public comment. Yes. That they are, according to, I had spoken to the police department. They said that they finally got them working. They're calibrating the system now. Once they are calibrated, they, yes. Yes, now they are working, they are being calibrated. Hopefully by the end of this week, they will be completely accurate. But as far as I understand from Sergeant Vitale, they are working and flashing and doing what they're supposed to be doing. All right, is there any other public comment right now? Seeing none, I'm going to move forward. I'm going to ask for a motion to move up Agenda item number 15 to the top of the agenda because we have a person here who has been waiting very patiently to be able to leave. Is there a second to my motion?

I'll second it.

Is there, let's call it all those in favor? Aye. All right. So community preservation plan, local law introduction. Kristen, please step right up to talk about the plan. Yes. So as previously discussed, this is the plan that outlines the properties that we are interested in protecting, using PDR on, various historical properties, farming properties, open spaces, such and such. Kristen, please take it away.

Yes, no problem. So this plan that you have up for you is essentially a roadmap for how to use a community preservation fund that you've all put it on. basically this plan is the roadmap of how to use those funds nothing that fund cannot be spent on anything that is not addressed in this plan so the main objective the highest priority for land preservation in this plan is the preservation of farmland that is the main objective of the fund that is the main objective of this plan the other priorities for preservation that the plan also discusses is establishment of additional parks preservation of land that has exceptional scenic value preservation of wetlands in further connecting those spaces. any of these property owners to do anything. There's nothing in this plan that says these individual properties are no longer able to be developed in the manner it was shown in the case today. That's just not the case. What this plan essentially says is if these plans come before the planning board for development or if they go up for sale, there are options that the town has to use the funds that you've collected to implement any one of several preservation tools. And those tools include transfer development rights. It includes property purchased by the town, like you did in the case of Nassview. It includes conservation easements, which the town could hold, or another land conservation like the Richmond Land Trust could ultimately hold. It includes funding for things like the implementation of the conservation easement for fees and transfer fees and things like that. And there's several options, but that's all this plan really does is it's kind of a toolbox and it lays out various tools that this town, that the town could use for these properties because the town believes that these properties have conservation value and the plan kind of identifies what that conservation value is. So I think that that's important too. Many people know what tax lot 1-1-1 is. So there is a map so you can see the green properties on the map are properties that are currently conserved either by means of or by ownership by this town or by Orange County or the New York City Land Trust or by New York State, either PIFC or New York State Parkland or Orange County in the case of the area of Eichel and Muir Lake, Orange County owns a lot of that. So you see those green areas there and then the green or yellow properties that are owned by other agencies just for that reason for connectivity purposes for obviously buffering upstate Parkland provide preservation of trails one of the main objectives I'll step back what the committee did was they took a look at a lot of plans that are already in place, Orange County comprehensive plans, plans that were done by the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, Orange County Land Trust, Open Space Institute, and looked at a lot of the recommendations that those plans made. So we're not reinventing the wheel, we weren't kind of going so that the town can kind of double down on the recommendations of those plans and kind of, again, open up the toolbox so that the town could use those tools for those parcels that are recommended for preservation. Are there any questions? I mean, that's kind of what this is in a nutshell. I don't want to go over the plans individually. I think that you kind of get the idea. The plan kind of breaks it down, but I don't think that anyone really wants to get into it in that level of detail. But if anyone has any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

So I've sent the updated plan, the final draft to the board members today. This is just an introduction. This will be voted on two meetings from now, right? Two meetings? Yeah. So there's plenty of time for you guys to go over it and send us your questions to Kristen and I. This plan was not just developed by Kristen, our planner from Lincoln Tully. This plan was developed by the Community Preservation Fund Advisory Board that we set up a couple of meetings ago, which include two farmers and others, a zoning board member on the village board, preservation collective member, and a attorney who actually does do land use stuff. So I think it's a good team that's put this together, the advisory board members and our planner. I also attended the meetings and I think it's a pretty solid plan. I know a speaker earlier had suggested or had implied that there wasn't too much property to preserve or to go after, I would beg to differ. If you guys look at this map, which will be available online, hopefully, you'll see a very large swath of the town that we are trying to target to protect, to preserve. to purchase development rights, open space, historical properties, water sources, what have you. So please go online and educate yourself before you make your final opinions about this sort of thing. I think it's a very well-constructed plan.

Just one parcel on here that's labeled, it's on Great Court Road, it's Johnson's Farm. It's being developed right now with solar. It's going to be where the 17M circle is. There's a parcel there that shows the barn and everything. And that parcel, half of that parcel is actually going to be solar off of Gray Court Road.

So I would just offer Councilman Becker that one of the things with the fund, if the parcel is not identified in the plan, we we then have fund monies we can tap into fund monies and maybe and I want to be clear and repeat what Kristen said for the public is that the plan does not provide any restrictions it does not it's not a taking it's not it does not restrict the property owner's current rights that's um I'm just saying it's a Target it's a Target property but it's already been

It's all going to be solar.

If they're going to continue to farm a portion of it, then I think this would still apply. Solar, obviously, is probably as

not enough to cover it um so I think that it's still important to keep at least if there's another half of it that's still continue to be farmed um and there are still options that the town can use to you know transfer the rice can continue to keep a farmer on that land and continue to

If you adopt every three years, every three.

Well, the first it's first three years. And then I think after that, it's every five years.

So no, I believe it's that's the minimum. So you can reevaluate as appropriate. It's like your comprehensive plan. It's designed to be a living, breathing document.

Very good. All right. If there are no other questions or comments from the board members, see, see none.

Nope. Okay.

Yes, please do your thing.

Thank you.

thank you kristen okay have a good night perfect thank you where is the town of chester i'm gonna i've said this already with the with the tax but um where the town of chester possesses a rich heritage of scenic agricultural natural resources i'm gonna skip it because it's nine o'clock at night but um whereas as required by town law section 64-l the plan provides a detailed evaluation of all available land use alternatives of development rights, scenic and conservation easement. Said evaluation is as specific as practical as to each parcel selected for inclusion in such plan. Such plan establishes the priorities for preservation and include the preservation of farmland as its highest priority. Funds from the community preservation fund may only be extended for projects which have been included in such plan. Such plan shall be updated not less than once every five years is hereby introduced be it further resolved that copies of the said force that interrupt your local law be laid upon the desk of each member of the board and be it further resolved that the town board hereby declares lead agency and further declares that this action is an unlisted action under the state environmental quality review act and be it further resolved that the town board incorporates the materials considered as part of its seeker review for the 2026 comprehensive plan and zoning amendments local law 6 of The public hearing shall be held on August 26th, 2026. That's the date, Linda. At 6.45 p.m. or soon thereafter as may be heard in town hall located at 1786 Kings Highway, Chester, New York.

It's August 26th.

August 26th. Be it further resolved that the town clerk shall cause to be published public notice in the initial newspaper as is required by law.

All right. Are there any debate points or questions on this?

No.

Seeing none, I will make a motion to introduce the local law for the community preservation plan. Is there a second to my motion? Second. All those in favor?

Aye.

All right. Is there a motion to move up agenda item 16? As I see, there are others here who would like to go home, probably. This is the road closure requests for the Community Foundation Car Show and the discussion around Best Buddies. Is there a second to my motion to move this up to the top of the agenda? Sure, second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye. All right. So everybody received the email from the chief who met with the representatives. If you guys want to step up. um for the car show uh he has no problem with it it seems uh however there's two questions regarding on the board side of things uh the closing of uh or the usage i believe of creamery pond road uh for through traffic and then the best buddies bicycle tour that also runs through uh the um this section of town and such, but do you wanna give your perspective on this?

Yeah, so what we're trying to do, given Turetsky, king's highway bypass from i think it's eight to ten yeah eight to ten or eight thirty to ten something like that right and then we are going to close just the king's highway portion from um 10 to 2 30 exactly yes and what we're trying to do is we're trying to minimize destruction

So my personal opinion on this is that this bike tour is not native to Chester. It's not originating from Chester. I believe we should give deference to a community group that is trying to make a Chester event happen and ask that the bicycle tour either work with or work around the event that we are trying to hold here in Chester. I don't think that's too much to ask. they are not from chester so that's that's my opinion on that did we previously give them an agreement that we would we have not agreed to their event this year yet uh we have agreed to their events in the past and they've always worked out very well and that's fine um i think we haven't agreed to their event for this year yet it's unfortunately on the same day uh i think we go back i think in my opinion i would like to pass this road closer excuse me, request tonight for this car show, and then go back to Best Buddies and say, hey, we have another event happening in your route. Can you work with them or work around them? And let that be what it is.

When you coordinate that before you vote on something, kind of force in the hand.

I mean, that's kind of my philosophy is that I don't want, I want to give the deference to our local group. They kind of need to know.

But the bike tour also brings things to Sugarloaf also, doesn't it? Nothing against any project, no? Doesn't bring anything in? They're just going through. They're not stopping in.

Okay.

Okay.

that's my thought process i'm open to other suggestions but i'm just i'm trying to get information that's all yeah are there any other comments from the board do you i mean do we know the route that the bike tour is supposed to take i believe yeah they sent it ahead of time so is there a viable option for them to just you know go around i mean they could use the bypass

They also, the chief also mentioned in his email, everybody can reference that they have also done events with other communities, having their own events going on at the same time in the past, where they've had to work either with or around.

And they have their own security and everything. The bike has their own security.

They have their own volunteers and security, yes.

um so that that's that's where i'm at on this yeah there's really other issue i think i did talk to the chief in reference to some of the cost associated with officers and stuff he says it usually works out where they use officers that are already on duty and they try not to do overtime and stuff so i'm satisfied with that but i just want to be cautious of that in the future that we don't overwhelm because of previous costs that we've already had for the police department with the uh than going on in the industrial park. So we've already expended quite a bit of money. So that was a concern I had, but it didn't seem to be an issue for him.

And he also asked us to bring volunteers as well. We committed that we'd get volunteers to be able to help.

Yeah, because that benefits the cost to the town on a whole. That's why I appreciate that.

Are there any other thoughts on this?

I'm good.

All right, seeing none, I'm gonna offer a motion to grant the road request, I'm sorry, the road closure request to the Sheridan Community Foundation for the car show on October 3rd from 10 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. with the knowledge that I will be working with the representatives here and the police department to figure out the issues with Best Buddy and any sort of situation with Cranberry Pond Road. Yeah, are there any questions? Is there a second to my motion?

Yes, second.

There's a second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Very good.

Thank you. Good luck.

Absolutely. All right, I'm gonna suggest that we, I know myself, the comptroller and the town clerk, we're gonna give half-year reports tonight, but being that it's past my bedtime, I'm gonna suggest that we skip it for now and do it at the next meeting. Is that okay with the comptroller and the town clerk?

Yes.

Yes? Very good, okay. um is were there any other like do or die reports that needed to be said at this point or are we all good councilman we're good can i just make a couple of announcements yes so belleville's farm stand is on the 25th

at 3 59 Gibson Hill from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. so please go out and support them their proceeds benefit ALS United great great great in New York after many changes freedom fest will be held also on that date over at the Thomas full park so that's always something have finally been reported for the month of June at 25,387.50 from the County of Orange.

All right. Very good. Thank you. All right. Back to regular business or for the first time regular business. Budget amendments remove the purchase of a single axle at $310,000. Everybody received the email on this. Are there any questions or debate points?

I think I just had one question. To get the double axle, he was looking for like $60,000. We don't have anything in a budget anywhere else that would allow that truck to be purchased this year?

It wasn't $60,000.

It was roughly $300,000.

I thought they already budgeted for a single axle, and they're not going for a single axle. They wanted a double axle.

with one vehicle yes okay so what we're doing is is the highway department has made the decision that they need this other vehicle yeah which is more important so what they're what they want to do is remove that from this year's budget right put the money that was budgeted save it right put it in a reserve It's going to cost about $60,000 more than what was budgeted for the original vehicle. So what we can do is in next year's budget, we either will tax for the $60,000 or we'll figure out if we have extra money.

Then you'll play fund balance from that point.

You're not going to try to use fund balance. Right. We can figure out how to raise the extra $60,000 for this other truck. That's all.

I was just questioning whether there was funds balance from this year.

That could potentially be an issue. I think the issue came down to because we talked about purchase making the purchase this year. Yeah, there aren't any trucks available.

Oh, they're not available.

That was that was the issue. So we had the discussion with the highway department about making the purchase this year. I thought it would be a good idea at least to put in the purchase order and make the encumbrance this year in order to be able to then move it into our H fund and kind of work out paying it. That way we would get a cheaper rate because it would actually have been cheaper if we had gotten it this year. But there's no way to purchase it this year.

By the time you order it, you're not going to get it until next year.

You can't even order it. That's the problem.

That's why we need to put it in the reserve.

There's no ability to order.

Perfect, thank you for the explanation. Very good, thank you.

Thank you.

All right, so is there a motion to first remove the budget amount of $310,000 from the DA-5130.200 account?

Yeah, I'll make the motion.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Is there a subsequent motion to place that same amount in an equipment reserve line in the DA fund for the purchase of a tandem dump truck?

I'll make the motion. I'll second it.

All those in favor? Aye. All right. There's a PSA request to place a graphic on our billboard for the 5K that's happening on October 3rd. They'd like to start advertising it around Labor Day. No, it's right before. It's 8.30 to 10, and then the next event is 10 to 2.30. But it's usually over by 9.30, I want to say. Are there any questions or debate points on this? Seeing none, is there a motion to accept the PSA requests?

Sure, I'll make that motion.

Is there a second? I'll second. All those in favor?

Aye. I'll abstain.

All right, Orange County, Town of Chester assessor services contract for 2027 to 2029. As the board members will know, we've been, for the better part of this year, in negotiations with Orange County to continue our services with them for the assessor's office. For those of you who do not understand, Orange County provides the assessor and two of the assistants in our assessor's office. We contract out with them to provide that service. The contract has been fully negotiated to the liking, I believe, of all the board members here. One assistant. No, two.

From Orange County.

Yes. Actually, maximum three, but we only have two right now. But in this new contract, it'll only be two. So payments for each year will be $250,800, $262,000. And then in the third year, $275,900. Are there any questions or debate points on this? Seeing none, is there a motion to accept the contract and authorize me to sign it tomorrow morning?

So we don't have a part-time with that also. We have a full-time, part-time, so we're getting a second part-time.

So if I just, I'm just going to pull it up.

I thought that was a thought process.

It was what we had all agreed to.

OK. All right, one full-timer, two part-timers.

Yes. So the assessor is full-time, and then the two assistants or whatever are two part-timers. Yes.

Could you have just said there was two?

Yeah, I said two assistants. I didn't specify part-timers. But yes, they are both part-timers.

Very good. Thank you. Yes.

I'll make this motion.

All right, there's a motion and is there a second?

I'll second it.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you. All right, resolution to accept the amended state law for voluntary animal shelter contributions pursuant to New York State agriculture and markets law 109. Everybody should receive the email from Linda. This is basically a formality handed down to us by the states. It allows them to get more contributions, I think, or it mandates more contributions.

No, it just allows a voluntary... uh contribution to be made through the uh renewal or licensing of dogs in the state of new york so it will appear on a license form but people can separately donate but the resolution um identifies warwick valley humane society as the organization that it would benefit because we they are our animal providers so it's definitive in the resolution all right are there any questions or debate points i'm good is there a motion to pass the resolution as written i'll make the motion is there a second i'll second all those in favor aye aye

Highway Department requests to accept a $15,926.64 bid from Seal Coat USA for line striping of 20.1 miles of road. It is the lowest bid by around $6,000.

or so somewhere around there um are there any questions or debate points from the members i actually have a quick question um i'm gonna be honest with you i was a little surprised that the highway department didn't have the equipment to strike lines anyway is that has it always been contracted out yes okay that's it

Is there any other debate points or questions?

No.

Is there a motion to accept the request?

I'll make the motion. I'll second it.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Maybe perhaps that's something that we bring up with them at budget time. budget amendments, various parks, repairs, and fireworks related amendments, shifting things around to make sure everything gets paid on time and in an orderly fashion. Are there any questions or debate points on the amendments that were presented to us by the comptroller?

No.

All right, seeing none, is there a motion to accept them?

I'll make the motion.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

All those in favor? Aye. uh sugarloaf square meter and valve replacement everybody received the email from chris on this situation uh basically we have two options presented uh to us we have an option where we pay tam fourteen thousand dollars to do an insertion valve uh procedure where they will uh be able to do their work and only have to uh issue a two-day boil water notice to the Wood Road area, or we do not pay them to do that, but their consequence is the water department will have to do the two-day boil water notice for basically half of the Sugar Wolf Water District. That is the choice that we have before us according to the water department.

Yeah, I did talk to Chris about this and the location. The reason for the valve is so that when they shut down, they're not shutting down an extremely large amount of people. So it's more a convenience thing for those residents. So do we want to expend the extra money for the convenience or do we want to have this done in-house where, again, it's going to create a situation where people are going to be out of water for an extended period of time and they'll also be inconvenienced with a boil water notice for two. for two days, possibly three if the test doesn't come back properly.

The 14,000 will come out of the water district itself. It'll be taxed back to them.

Basically, it's a benefit to that district not to be inconvenienced. That's where the cost is. If we're in favor of spending that extra money for that convenience, that's what it's all about.

Can I ask, it's Wood Road alone, versus 50% of the district would be affected?

Well, it would also go, the way the valve, or the lack of the valve being there, would include across Kings Highway, Pewter Circle, and everything over on that side of the roadway also. So it broadens the area greatly, and it's only because There are not enough valves in the system. They did not put three valves in each intersection. They've only put sporadic valves in, the same as they did at the Wall Lake Estates. And they've corrected that over the last few years where they've installed more. So I think there's something they need to look forward to in the future is installing more valves here and scheduling it and deal with the issue. But in this particular case, the reason they're putting the valve in is to replace another three-inch valve that has failed to repair a meter that is failing.

Rock at a hard place. What do the board members think?

I'm not sure I completely understand what the, so there needs to be a valve replaced so that the meter can be repaired or replaced.

Yeah, there has to be a valve replaced on that, but that's different than the valve we're changing. That's a three-inch valve. This is a six-inch valve.

So our options for this six-inch valve is so that we can shut one side of the main off in order to replace the three-inch valve.

With the six-inch valve in place, we'll be shutting down basically two residences.

Mm-hmm.

during the change of these three-inch valves. If we don't have this six-inch valve inserted, then we're going to probably drop off half of the development and inconvenience them for a period of four to six hours during the repair, and then they'll be on a boil water notice for two days.

As opposed to two residues or something?

They have to do two consecutive

Linda's asking how many residences would be a convenience. You said two residences?

Two residences for, if we go to change, if they insert the six-inch valve, in order to replace the three-inch valve, only two people will be out of water. During the process of inserting this valve, nobody will be out of water, as far as I know. There may be a shutdown time to do the valve, but I'm pretty sure it should not... It shouldn't affect... Bacteria sampling, because if they're doing this valve correctly, it's chlorinated, there should be no issue with bacteria getting in the middle.

So the installation of the insertion valve would not require a boil water notice afterwards?

It should not.

That's, I guess things could happen, but the reason for using an insertion valve, part of that reason is...

If they do it right, they shouldn't have to have a boil water notice.

Okay. It'll be, just for... From where you insert the valve, say south of that valve is going to have to flow water for the next two days.

Yep.

Versus a whole development doing a water leak.

Which they just did.

Yes. Giuseppe, do you have any thoughts?

I'm okay with option A. If we have the money, let's do the insertion valve. and this way not not 50 of the district it will be affected because no matter what you're going to have to have a two-day water notice because often being spend the money to spend the money yeah if we we have the money in that district we should yeah that's that's going to be my this isn't a budgeted expense

this is not a budgeted expense but it'll come out of that uh fund it won't it won't affect the rest of the town it'll affect uh the sugar wolf yeah we'll find the money there will be money for it but it's not a it's this but there wasn't an expense budget for at the beginning of the year and this is obviously chris had mentioned something about using a line where it uh was for the new wells and we really don't want to touch that because we want to continue on with the new wells so that had to be left alone

I think it's $50,000 or something there, so he's got to find it in other places. Okay.

Do you want to speak on it? If you guys are going to vote tonight to spend the $40,000, my suggestion would be at the same time you make the vote to put the $40,000.

accounts later but just to say that the controller's you know direction for the um for for identifying the accounts yeah that's right but it'll be an appropriation of fund balance so if you guys can just appropriate that money at the same time you improve the expense it'll make it easier for me okay thank you any other questions or debate points no i'm good nope

all right is there a motion to appropriate fourteen thousand dollars from the sugarloaf water district fund balance uh to uh pay for the insertion valve uh procedure uh for the sugarloaf square meter and valve replacement project i'll make that motion is there a second second all those in favor aye aye all right water department education request joe is trying to get uh his grade b license it's 775 dollars for the class um and it's going to be taking place between the 21st and the 25th of september at suny courtland i don't believe this uh um includes like a room board so there's gonna be a little bit more than 775 dollars uh is everybody yeah the request said that they'd be uh reimbursements for yes as usual yeah so uh we'll see more afterwards but we never really know until then are there any questions or debate points i think he has to book into the class now to get in so yes we can take care of the rest now yeah i think this is a positive thing he brings us another operator that's you know

that gets us in a better place with the town of Chester. And we'll always have two operators. If one happens to leave, we'll always have a 2B license, which was required for Lake Hill Farms.

Yep. Absolutely.

Okay.

All right. Is there a motion to accept the education request? I'll make that motion. Is there a second? I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. All right. I made a mistake here. This is not a resignation. This is a retirement, not a resignation. So I'd like to make that noted for the minutes. Richard Perez is retiring effective January 8th. So he handed us in his his paper here on July 8th. So yeah, I just want to, I'm just, I'm going to, He just wanted to thank us for allowing him the opportunity to serve the people of Chester. He's truly grateful for all the friendships he's developed over the past 20 years. And for all the officers I've been able to work with, past and present, I appreciate the guidance and leadership I've received from you, to which I'm grateful for. It has been a privilege to serve this community. The town of Chester will always have a place in my heart. But he will obviously be working between now and January 8th. Are there any questions or debate points?

No, no.

All right, is there a motion to accept the resignation? I'm sorry, the retirement?

I'll make the motion. I'll second it.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. We'll obviously do something nice for him later on, closer to his actual retirement date. All right, Andrew Contarino, our building inspector is unfortunately has put in his resignation paper. He's gonna be taking a job at a different town. Unfortunately, we could not keep him. That will be effective August 4th. Are there any questions or debate points on that?

Yeah, just wish him good luck in his future.

Yes, absolutely. All right, seeing none, is there a motion to accept his resignation? I'll make the motion. Is there a second?

I'll second.

All those in favor? Aye. Andrew, you will be missed. Thank you for everything that you've done. I will say Andrew had come in at a time where we were in transition from everything before 2024, and those were some dark times for the building department. We were hundreds and hundreds of permits and inspections behind. The office was a complete uh disaster in my opinion uh in terms of the organization and everything and andrew uh came in and really worked with uh melissa and um kayla and kayla who came in with andrew basically on the same day uh to write the ship and he really did over the uh the last couple years so thank you to andrew and i also echo tom uh in uh wishing you well In the meantime, we will be most likely contracting with our engineering office to provide somebody to fill the role of the building inspector, and we will be looking for replacements in the meantime. for a full-time building inspector uh all right everybody received the email that i forwarded from michelle uh for naps view we've talked about this at previous meetings there's a well cap there uh that we should cover um to protect the well cap but also to protect our liability to make sure no one gets the injured on the well cap or damage it in any way. She found two options. One was 409, one was 442. I personally like the look of the 409 better and it's less money. Are there any questions or debate points on it?

Now this is crazy. This fake rock to cover this, it will be fixed in some way?

Yes, there's anchors that go into the ground. Yeah.

They're not going to run into a well casing. You're going to run into a fake rock.

Well, I think the fake rock will be a little bit more visible. A little bit cheaper to replace. Yes. Are there any questions or debate points?

Is the fake rock made out of PVC? Plastic?

Michelle?

I don't know.

I believe it is. I can look it up right now if you want.

Just curious, Chris. It all depends if it's plastic or wood.

No, it's definitely not wood. It's definitely not styrofoam. It's definitely not styrofoam. It's not made out of rock.

It's got to be PVC, definitely.

Yeah, it's plastic.

Yeah, it's plastic.

Okay, are there any other scrutinizing questions about my fake rock? Seeing none, is there a motion to accept the $409 fake rock from Home Depot? Sure. All right, I know it's trivial, but it matters, all right? Is there a second to the motion here? I'll second. Thank you, Giuseppe. All right, is there, what's it called? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. make it easy on you. Clearly.

936 and 9.

Resolution to canvass the building inspector civil service list and advertise for a building inspector through the town clerk's office, setting the pay scale at $80,000 to $95,000. Are there any questions or debate points on this?

No.

Will you first canvass the civil service advertising we would like to do it at the same time well get the let's one let's confirm if there's a list well that's what we would why because i think if there is if there's a list you cannot go if there's a list you have to can you have to okay never mind okay very good do one first yes okay

Julie has already reached out. So we're waiting for the list. We have to pass this resolution and officially canvass it. Hopefully they do another test. Doubtful.

Or advertise if there is any.

In the events that the list is expired or exhausted or there is no list, whatever. Is there a motion?

I'll make that motion.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

All those in favor? Aye. right new business uh the uh terms on the conservation advisory council some of them had expired uh with the exception of simon i believe so we can strike simon from this uh thing here uh the others aaron uh will a bill uh james or jim uh susannah and martine all need to be reappointed uh are there any questions or debate points no no Seeing none, is there a motion to appoint the previously stated individuals to their next term on the Conservation Advisory Council?

I'll make a motion.

Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you. Is there any other new business?

Oh, yes, yes.

What do we need to do for that? What is the wording for it? Advertise?

Yes. Motion to, this is for Linda, this is for the confidential clerk to the justices. We need to either canvass, I believe it's advertising. I don't believe it's civil service, but on confidentiality. advertise for that and i think the supervisor you wanted to subject to uh confirmation from the labor attorney yeah did you get that as i rambled all right are there any questions or debate points no nope nope all right seeing none is there a motion to pass the uh

the uh motion can you can we can you state it again because just for the public yeah because it wasn't i don't think it was really so just to explain steven's right uh to explain there is a clerk in the um in the court uh court justice's offices that is out right now. We need to have somebody there to replace her for the time being. And with hope, this person will be trained over the next so many months or year to replace that person in the event that they no longer continue with their position in the office.

So is it considered a temporary position?

No, we still have a spot. I believe we still have a spot on our roster.

We're going to confirm everything with the labor attorney before we make the determination of the actual title, whether it's temporary, part-time, full-time, or whatever. But we're going to confirm everything with the labor attorney first.

So is the position confidential clerk? Because I thought the position was court clerk that's currently on the roster.

I have to confirm. because of the meeting. We want to lay out your authorization to advertise and or campus.

Subject to our.

Subject to, because of timing of the meeting. For the correct title. We will.

We will get all that.

We will get all that. So what it's, what it's authorizing you to do is do that without losing, I think, losing three weeks. Yep. I get that. All right.

Yeah.

All right, is there a motion to accept the request by the court justices to advertise for a position once we confirm everything with the labor attorney?

I'll make that motion.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Is there any other new business tonight? Seeing none, is there any public comment tonight? Yes.

Just that.

It's a fake rock. It's exactly what it sounds like. It's a plastic rock. The Parks Advisory Board had gone over the issue of a well cap, an exposed well cap at Nassview. And they were concerned that it could be damaged. or somebody could damage themselves on it. So in the interest of protecting our town property and a water source and the interest of protecting people who may or may not be sleigh riding or doing other activities on Napsview, we wanted to install a fake rock to be aesthetically pleasing but also protective of the property.

I think the cherry tree removal at the Chester Park is more important.

i don't know if it's yeah maybe we're in the right section or maybe it's something that's only offered online but yes all right are there any other public comments tonight yes we should pay the company to repair do not need to be against more residents with lots of water by having town repair pay the money that is why we pay our taxes and water choices

You'll be happy to know that we fulfilled your request. Hopefully you've seen that. Are there any other comments, Michelle?

No.

That was it?

Yes.

Gentlemen, do you have something?

I would hope in the future, maybe we could start to have the department head the meeting between Warder and Highway. That's a- To help answer questions and speed things along.

That's a- It's not in the contract.

Yeah, it's a union thing. All right, are there any other comments? Seeing none, is there a motion to adjourn? I'll make that motion. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Have a nice night.