Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. This is our July 8th, 2026 Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting. I'm calling to order at 6.05. I may have a roll call, please, Claire.

Trustee Bardas? Aye. Trustee Bosie?

Here.

Trustee Hall? Here. Deputy Mayor Woods? Here. Mayor Foley? Here.

We're joined this evening by the Village Attorney, John Furst. We'd like to make a motion to enter the attorney-client session for the purpose of discussion on litigation and proposed acquisition of real estate where disclosure would substantially affect value. Okay. All in favor? Aye. And just so that folks know process for this evening, we are having a session with John. We will be coming out of that session to enter public session, to propose entering executive session. We've got a bunch of topics tonight. It's going to be a little while, maybe 7.15 or 7.30 before we're back out again. So with that, I'll ask the public to leave the room, and we'll take folks who've joined us online off. It's 6.06. It's 6.06. Mr. Kew, if we could ask you to leave the room, please.

I have to go.

That's going to be all, right? Michelle needs to stay. So it's Jane, so that you're entirely welcome to stay, but just so that you're informed, this could be to 7.15 or 7.30. So if you would rather relax at home, you're welcome to do that. You can stay in the room, but you can stay out in the hallway. But if you don't want to be sitting in the lobby, I'd be more comfortable. Okay.

That was on the agenda. We can do it. Michelle? Yes. Hi.

Just making sure it's you.

Do you all see us? If she wants to be seen, make sure to click on her.

Yeah.

All right. Here you go.

Thank you.

Thank you, Audrey. Thank you. Thank you.

into the engineering estimate that we got this afternoon into the war a few minutes ago regarding the rock wall um i don't think i draw thank you so i asked michelle to join us for this session so that uh as we have should we should we be recording it says no oh that's not an executive session Hey, good evening to everyone who has been waiting. I make a motion to reopen the public session at 7.21 PM. Second. All in favor? Aye. And ask the clerk to record that it's 7.19. I made the motion to exit attorney-client privilege session. Deputy Mayor Wood seconded, and we all voted unanimously to come out of that session. Going to be frustrating for those of you who are online, but we are now going into executive session to discuss personnel matter, employment history of a particular person. So we will, again, be shutting off the recording, shutting off Zoom, going into session. And we will then come back out again when we're done for the public portion of the meeting. So I make a motion to enter executive session for the purpose of discussing the employment history of a particular person or person.

Second. All in favor? Aye.

And in terms of timing, I would say potentially half an hour for folks. For now, we're going to shut off. And Michelle is going to stay on for a portion of the, they are accounted to staying with us, not a member of the public.

So at 8.54, we're calling back into order the public portion of this meeting.

At 8.51, I made a motion to exit Executive Session. Deputy Mayor Wood seconded. We voted unanimously to come out. We are now returning to our regular agenda. We apologize for the long wait. We have done roll call. We have three open session announcements. very quickly so that everyone's clear. We are not in a water shortage, clearly, after all of those days of rain. All of those days of rain brought what is referred to as turbidity. It's cloudiness or haziness in the water caused by suspended particles like sediment, algae, and microbes. Normally, these are kept under control with our treatment process. The treatment process is overwhelmed by the storm. And so we are currently asking people to conserve. We're working from our tanks out there. We can see the usage drop off after having called for water conservation this morning. So thank you to everyone who is cooperating. And the backup trucks did come today and fill the tanks up another 15 feet. And that is continuing to work on stabilizing process so we can get back to producing our own potable water. But the emergency is in place until it's rescinded by this board. OK. Opportunity to add or modify an agenda item. I would like to make a motion to add a proposal for geotechnical engineering services on one terrace.

Second.

In favor?

Aye.

Unless there is anything that the board would like to discuss in particular, I'm going to make a motion to accept the Village Department and Standing Board that committee's reports as submitted. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. No report from the mayor. Reports from trustees? OK. Moving on to board business. This will sort of serve as my report. First item is update on the July 6 storm. I want to first recognize our roadways and facilities crew. for getting us ready fast for the rain that came, coming in, getting the pump set up, and getting sandbags in place, et cetera, making sandbagging materials available to the public. Trustee Bosie and Trustee Hall, who, with me, cleared debris in preparation for anticipated high flows in Back Brook. It was a hot day to do it, and I was grateful for everyone who came in and pulled together some field observations as we go into our meetings with Fuss and O'Neill. I'm going to document this in a letter to them. But we did see, we did observe a great number of private drainage systems draining into Batbrook, and those flows need to be calculated as part of the larger picture of the watershed. And we also saw quite a lot of yard debris, even pulled a couple of Christmas trees. So the village needs to, as part of our conversations with Fuss O'Neill in that process, come up with some very clear guidance about what responsibility belongs to whom. But I would say that back is the responsibility of all of us. And we all have a responsibility to protect ourselves and our neighbors from flooding, and to remove debris when we see it, if it's in locations that we can access, and definitely not dump. So next steps are September, do we have a schedule yet with the bus millennial?

I don't think we have a schedule yet, right? No, and so they'll do a workshop, but then we'll also organize for a public session to look at some of the strategies and ask for feedback. Did you say a walk shop? Yeah, and I think I got a walk out in the woods and learn about it with the consulting team.

Some of the stuff we saw the other day is very much worthy of a walk, of a walk.

One of the things I'd like to see is somebody go, somebody from Highway to Parliament, somebody has to check it on a regular basis. If there's stuff thrown in there, then the property owner or somebody is going to have to be responsible for. But either way, it needs to be kept clean and it needs to be done on a regular basis. If we can't do what the guys we got, maybe we should consider maybe doing an RFP for somebody else to do it.

Tony, thank you. As I mentioned the other day, that is normally part of scheduled maintenance. Bugsy has had...

He's overwhelmed.

He has had We've had staffing issues in the last six months. He has not been able to get to all the things. So it is normally something that he does on a regular basis, but he does twice a year. I agree that we need longer term planning. A lack of the highway department doing the job.

I know they're very busy with the jobs they have. But we, as a village, we need to get someone down. We need to get somebody in there to do it so we're not out there. So it doesn't come up on us. If we get some freak storm to come in or something like that, I mean, you guys did a phenomenal job down there cleaning this stuff up.

I don't think it's always a matter of what the highway department may or may not be doing. It's the nature of the drainage basin. It's the intensity of the storm. It's the water. There are so many factors that go in to creating any specific outcome that to try and point or to try and attribute it to one specific factor is not really getting to what the problem really is.

And that's the purpose. The factor being it needs to be maintained and needs to be looked at on a regular basis.

Yep. And engineering and it needs code modifications and also we do what we need to do when there's an emergency to prepare for what's coming down the pike within hours and we made that happen. And I'm very pleased that Consideration of the cold spring fire companies request those church street. Oh, you want to go back. Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. I skipped house which is relevant. Yes, picking up high department. We have one of the summer laborers that have been outstanding. He would very much like to come on full time. Bugsy would like very much for him to come full time. Several of us saw him in the field this weekend and support Bugsy's request. So would someone like to make a motion related to Douglas Brickhouse?

I'll make a motion to accept the recommendation of Railway Communities Department crew chief, Robert Downey's recommendation to offer seasonal labor employee Elizabeth has the vacant full time permanent labor position for ways and abilities at a rate of $25 40 hours a week, but the six months probationary period effective immediately.

We're changing the Yeah, but immediately immediately second favor. Opposed. Okay, next is consideration of cold spring fire companies request to close Church Street. From the rear edge of the firehouse, this is an annual event for the Junior Fire Academy graduation. They do their ceremony, and then they have a barbecue and bubble machine out front. Officer in charge has reviewed the request and given it the OK. Any discussion? I cannot attend this year. Can anyone attend in my stead? Thank you. Deputy Mayor Woods will attend. Does someone like to make a motion?

I will make a motion to approve the Cold Spring Fire Company's request to close Church Street on Friday, July 31st, 2026 from 3.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. to accommodate the Junior Fire Academy graduation ceremony and barbecue.

Second.

Okay, the next item relates to the... chain-link fence behind the wastewater department. It was damaged in the FEMA storm. We got an approved amount from FEMA to replace the section that was damaged directly in the storm. But we got many, many, many bids on this RFP. And we're actually able to do the whole length of the fence. It really does need to be done. on has recommended that we accept WBE Fence Company's base bid for chain link fence replacement at wastewater treatment plant. And again, this is covered by FEMA recover money discussion.

I'll make a motion to accept the recommendation WBE Fence Company Inc. based big proposal for a chain link fence replacement at the wastewater treatment plant. For a total amount of $16,800, inclusive of labor, materials, equipment necessary to complete the project as directed by the engineer, and it is covered by the funds that we received.

OK. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Next item is acceptance of the resignation of Todd Seekircher from the Cold Spring Historic District. Todd is spending more time in California and so is to step down from his place and thank him for his service. So I will make a motion that combines the acceptance of the resignation of Todd Seekircher and authorizes the clerk to advertise the HDRB vacancy. It's OK. I think that the one item that came off. Did it say schedule on your? No. So that was tabled. But just to let you know, we are working on that. And we are making progress in terms of formatting and making it more just laying out that we're working on it. That's something that we need to do. It'll be on the 22nd agenda. We need to have work with the building department to pass this. OK. I believe that the request for the photography shoot has withdrawn, Andrew.

Right.

Happy about having to pay fees. update on interrelated items just I had asked you all last week about reaching out the residents west of one terrorists to seek guidance on resident parking location of resident parking. has been difficult to get together with people because of summer, but I have had email feedback and so far. i'll type all this up when the time comes, but just it's people are coalescing around market, including the four. currently three, potentially four off-street spots on Market, Fish, and North as good locations for resident park.

Sorry? What's the ad hoc community we're talking about?

Yeah, I mean, we haven't been able to actually get together, so I've done it all via email, and I'm happy to share out.

No, that's all right.

It's not an ad hoc. You're just seeking feedback from residents. Right. Yes. All right.

Correct. We had talked about it initially as an ad hoc committee, an ad hoc group to give feedback, but we were not able to come together as a group. So instead, we are simply got feedback. It all has to come forward as a proposal to the board for approval anyway, so there's no decisions being made by this ad hoc committee. consolidated parking signage and metering on the metered portion of Main Street. Just to let you know, I had a really successful call with ParkMobile. They are doing rebranding right now anyway, and so are very open to redesigning our signs. They're putting together some samples to send to us to look at. We will want feedback from the public on it, but it seems that Now's a good time in terms of flexibility on their part. So that is moving forward. The wayfinding signage is in production. And Bugsy is waiting for one more quote on the posts for the wayfinding signage. The designer had spec'd a sort of a meatier post for the wayfinding signage. And we're just waiting for one more quote on that. That's all I have on that. Payment of bills.

Make a motion to approve prior year batch fiscal year 2526 number 8530 in the amount of $20,538.81. And the current year batch fiscal year 2627 batch number 8531 in the amount of $182,929.97. Okay. I don't, I'm not sure where I put it.

put it, but Michelle had notes of the big items that were in that batch.

Payroll. June had three biweekly payroll dates. That's right.

And our insurance .

OK. Minutes. from this morning's meeting since it wasn't recorded. Okay.

So we are making a motion to accept the minutes of the third meeting.

No, wait, 11 a.m. meeting. So I have made a motion to accept. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Thank you.