Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

We're making one, everyone.

It's August 12th. I'm calling on the August 12th.

Sorry, Marjorie, throw me off. I can't even get the first sentence out.

August 12th, 2026. I'm calling the meeting to order at 6.34. We were intending to start at 6 and had to wait for quorum, so we are starting a bit late. First item is roll call.

Trustee Bardas is absent. Trustee Bozzi? Yes.

Trustee Hall and Mayor Foley.

OK. And now I will make a motion to enter attorney-client session to discuss collective bargaining negotiations and employment history of a particular individual. All in favor?

Aye. So we should be back between 7 and 7.50.

Good evening, everyone. It is 738. We appreciate your patience as we were in a session with our attorney, attorney-client guidance. At 736, I made a motion to exit attorney-client session. And the deputy mayor seconded. We all voted in favor to exit. That is for the record. We did open the public meeting. before we went into executive session and did roll call. So now we'll make a motion to return to public session at 7.38. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. It's fun, right? Aren't you so glad to be in? OK. So we have a few items of business before our usual business, before we have conversation with you. We'll come back to you. But very quickly, there are a couple A couple of things I'd like to draw out from the department reports. But otherwise, I'd like to make a motion to accept them as submitted to the department and committee reports. So I'll draw out those things and then make that motion.

On the highway side, paving on Kemble is happening next Tuesday.

We were able to use across the county, so the town of Kent

And the county trucks are going to pave that section on Tuesday, hoping it doesn't rain. It's been a challenge with that spot, because every time we get it prepped to pave, .

I wanted to, Matt, are you comfortable with me, the officer in charge? May I read your statement from your?

You can read it, or I can read it, however you want to do it.

Sometimes things are hard, and sometimes things are really beautiful, and we had a really beautiful thing happen in the village over the last couple of weeks. And Officer Jackson noted it in his monthly report, and I'd like the public to hear it. Every now and then, we're reminded that the greatest strength of our community isn't found in a budget, a program, or a government agency. It's found in the people who call this village home. I want to thank our residents, our faithful communities, our police officers, our faith community, excuse me, our police officers, our county and state partners who came together this month to help a woman facing homelessness. When resources were limited, you stepped up with compassion. You didn't ask whose responsibility it was. You simply asked, how can I help? You offered food, clothing, transportation, temporary shelter, and encouragement. What could have been a story of someone falling through the cracks became a story of hope. No one person solved this problem. No single organization had all the answers. It was the truth through the effort. Hoping one person won't solve homelessness, but it changes a life and it shows our character. Simply put, it truly takes a village. To everyone who played a role, whether your contribution was large or small, thank you. Your generosity, kindness, and willingness to help a complete stranger reminded us all of what makes this village such a special place. Jackson. I wanted to know the fire company report, since we've been having more in that flood season. The Cold Spring Fire Company does not provide routine water pump-out services. If your basement is flooded with water, don't call the fire company. The vehicle, the apparatus is not made to pump dirty water out of buildings. Pump-out responses are limited to situations involving an immediate threat to life, a significant threat to property, or other extreme emergencies. For non-emergency water removal, please contact a licensed water mitigation company or restoration company.

And what are some things I wanted to pull out? Anyone else?

Anything they wanted to make comment on from boards or committees? 100%. 100%. There's no . OK. Climate Smart Task Force, I believe, has some items there.

Yeah.

I'll give you all just kind of a brief update on things of where we're at. But we'll come to you with a preview that you'll be hearing more soon. So we saw the number of grants from our NYSERDA Climate Community Programs. One of them is about $16,000 that was going to be for the high street EV chargers. We now have EV chargers that have been installed but just not connected to power that are down by the boat club, those were free to us. So we still have $16,000 that we'll use. And we are aiming to put EV chargers for the police department and the water department to use at the highway garage. So we just need to get quotes. But that's our aim for the $16,000 at least. So that will come to you all, the contract modification. And then we have this $175,000 grant That is still a challenge to kind of get the logistics going, but ultimately it's for solar and the AP, the business department. So it's nice to see all those coming over the next few months. Deadlines that were far away are now coming closer, so it's really doing a good job. And then just the update, a little bit of my update, a little bit from the task force. We're really moving ahead with the flood grant. Yes. We have really great consultants that are doing both the analytical piece of looking at what are flood risks and what does it look like in the future and what are the solutions that we can have. And then we have another organization that will be doing a resident webinar and kind of a training. And we are thinking of doing a survey through the Climate Support Task Force to collect information from residents about their experiences. and the issues that they're seeing. And so you and Marjorie for all of the hard work and Michelle. Yeah, we have some reporting that we're working on. So yeah, I guess that's just like a little bit of a lay of the land. I'm going to have formal pieces of all soon.

Anyone else have anything?

One more update is that I had a really great meeting last week. with members of the vestry from St. Mary's, code enforcement officer Judge Jackson, and some members of the chamber to discuss events at St. Mary's. So we want St. Mary's to raise money to support its buildings, but we also have to make sure that there's required public safety and that we're meeting building codes, et cetera. So it was a super productive session.

The vestry is drafting. an application and contract. And they're going to run them past OSC Jackson and the code enforcement office to make sure it touches on all of the things that need to refer to the village for this item, for tents, permits, et cetera, et cetera. And I'd also like Lillian to have a look at that, too, and see what areas have overlapped. And I feel confident that we can address some of the pedestrian and traffic issues that have been happening around those events.

OK, so now we're moving into board business, our Chamber of Commerce. So if we could start, I have some comments. But first, just with introductions, because I've met you briefly. But go ahead.

Hi, I'm Laura Bosie, a trustee. Kathy, I'm the mayor.

Tweeps Wood, deputy mayor.

Dr. Gold, trustee.

One of our trustees out. Malia, we know.

Gina Larson, I'm the owner with my husband here of Bright Monkey Home, Bright Dolan.

Your windows are really happy. It's nice to have them in the center of Main Street. I enjoy the colors a lot. We love our new location.

So the chamber recently sent a letter asking questions and requesting an update on the paid parking program. I first want to say thank you to all of you who been communicating with us for your collegiality and cooperative tone. And I believe, sorry, Kate Voorhees, Ben Voorhees is also online representing the Main Street Committee. So thank you all of you for being collegial and being cooperative. It's so much more productive for everyone when we just talk things through and find answers. So we're grateful. The timing of your inquiries is really great because we've got great momentum following up on previous inquiries and suggestions. And I just want to recognize that we can't address all of your concerns at once, but we are committed to working with you in a reasonable manner. I am committing to meet with you once a month. I think we propose September 10th as the . And then we'll bring into those monthly meetings trustees. Andrew has particular strengths and data that I don't have. Laura has particular strengths. Everybody did. So if there are times that it makes sense to have another trustee with us, or staff. And one of the most, we'll carry the recommendations that come out of those sessions to the full board for discussion. So the goals for tonight, this isn't a public hearing. This is a conversation with the Main Street Committee. The board will decide if we take comments. And I'd like us to focus on the content of a letter. There were seven topic areas. Some of them we're already working on. And I'm going to update you on those areas. Some are going to need more consideration and discussion before implementation. And it's important to recognize that this program sort of goes hand in glove with the residential parking program on side streets. So just being cognizant that when we tweak one area, it has impacts on that program, too. So we need to be thinking of how they all fit together. I want to ask for some explanation of some of your concerns in the letter. There are things that we don't understand. It would be helpful to have feedback on so we know how to address the questions going forward. So I hope that we'll set action items for moving forward. I also want to set the expectation that our primary constituency is our residents. Main Street is one element of the village and one element that has needs. There are lots of elements that have needs. It is a very important element. It's critical to our thriving economy and our community. We're also village fiduciaries. The paid parking brings in about 5% of our general fund income, which seems small, but it has impacts broadly. That's our focus. And that's what's expected of us from residents and taxpayers. And ultimately, any code changes, anything we discuss that requires code changes. And some things will require tweaking the vehicle and traffic chapter. That will all have to go to public hearing. So there'll be a chance for everyone to be engaged in that at that time. So again, we're not going to take any final decisions tonight or solve all the issues, but we're going to talk. So first, what's in progress? Over the summer, we had an intern who did a photographic inventory catalog of all of the signs in the lower village, all the signs on Main Street. One of the things that we feel pretty strongly about is Main Street is cluttered, and it's just visual cacophony. And it's hard to see the things you need to see. She made recommendations for removal. We need to come back as a board and approve the removal of some of those signs. Some of the signs don't lead to anything anymore. So it's getting a cleaner slate to work from. So that is in process, and we'll be talking about that probably in September. This is our only meeting this month. We've been working on identifying and establishing specific residential parking area in the Lower Village. That residential parking area has existed since 2015, but it was never identified which places are for residents only. So we've been having conversations with residents and think we have narrowed down what those streets should be. The board needs to have that conversation. That's a code change. The way finding signs are in, and do you want to, we have an example to show you. Someone wants to. And maybe so.

And if you want to, and they're all wrapped up together. But I can just do it.

They're here, so as we go through the meeting, you can look at them.

Alex said don't unwrap it.

He said don't unwrap it.

I'm speaking on behalf of my design. It does not make sense. But he has a full slide deck to explain to all of us.

They're primarily designed for...

I think the best thing is that's going to be a long way off to the background. It's all right. There are two that are already that you can see. And the whole plan is online.

So you can go back and get it. But they're here. We've hit a bit of a bump getting bids for them. We want these to be really high quality and for that visual identity to carry through the village. So we're stacking posts that are high quality and heavy. And it's taking us a little time to do it. But it is in process when they're coming. And it will continue. We got permission from Metro North. Start in the train station and proceed throughout the village and be at the village. And you do a model thing? Yes. Like the price of that ?

Exactly.

And then the last update to give you is on ParkMobile. So when the signs that we have on Main Street are the signs that we got for free when we first started with ParkMobile. They're not ideal. It's what we could afford at the time. When the parking best effort to get it off the ground, we knew it would need to be modified and tweaked and We're in a good place because ParkMobile is rebranding. I've had an initial conversation with ParkMobile about making our signs, reducing the number of them, making them larger, making them cleaner, and easier to read and easier to use. So I was hoping that for today I'd have some of the mock-ups that they've done, but I haven't yet. I expect them soon. So we're working on lots of the things that Chamber and individual merchants and others have asked us to do. And it might seem from your perspective that we're not doing those things, but it's only because it's not visible on a daily basis for you all. Those things are moving forward.

So that's where we are.

I have some thoughts about what can be taken up in the short term and what need to be longer term considerations. Given where we are right now, we'd love to hear from you.

Yeah. We just want to say thank you, and we appreciate the open dialogue here. We understand the program is only two plus years new or so, and so there's absolutely going to be an evolution in everything. So we just wanted to restate the things that the chamber is asking for right now, which is some of the things that you've already addressed, which is improving the parking signage. I think we know that there are kind of multiple signs going on. It gets confusing for visitors to see what days the parking is. And we hear that, too, as store owners, too, them coming into the shops, like, did I have to pay? How do I pay? Oh, you don't have to pay today.

And we've experienced that at Village Hall, too. We have the maps in the front door, and we often open the door and say, you don't have to pay today. Nope.

And then second is reducing the parking fine. Right now, the $75, we took a survey. And we have some paperwork if you'd like us to share that with you. I know we submitted it via email. But it just seems very out of line for other municipalities in the area. So they're typically around $30, $40. $75 seems really excessive. So we're asking for that to be reduced. And maybe even consider having an incentive to reduce the ticket if it's paid within 24 hours. We've seen other towns like Greenwich, Connecticut do that. It reduces the paperwork for you having to follow up if they have a quick, easy way to pay for that. One of the third things is just enforcing the five-hour time spots. We know that residents are kind of taking up some of those spots. or people just kind of like squatting there, we're asking that we more actively ticket those areas. And perhaps we can ask villagers to utilize driveways and residential spots to leave those free for people visiting the town. There are some 15-minute spots on Main Street, but we're asking if more could be added for quick pickups and just drop off. for both merchant and villager utilization. Right now, we also have a four-hour time cap. We're asking to just remove the time limit, which just doesn't seem enough for some of the visitors to come in, wait for a table for a restaurant, to go shopping, to go enjoy the waterfront for a while, have ice cream at Moo Moo's and everything. the same per hour meter revenue, it's less hassle for people to have to move their car to a different spot. I know you might have heard different things in the past.

Yeah, that was one of the questions I think Andrew and I have talked about, and perhaps you two have had too. So the process of getting to paid parking is multi-year. Emily hasn't seen all of it. It's a pre-COVID initiative that that finally got, actually it's been talked about for decades, and it's finally been put in place. We have had a range of feedback from different kinds of merchants, some being food merchants, some being places where folks want to go in and try clothes on. We have really mixed feedback about that. And the idea that a spot is, It's an item to be consumed. For some stores, it makes sense to have turnover. For other stores, it's frustrating to have that turnover. And I feel like we have talked about this back and forth. We're certainly open to conversation, but it would be really helpful to get a better sense of where people are on that and when it is helpful and when it isn't. It is not a three-hour limit. It's a four-hour limit. And that was reached for a number of reasons. One was turnover at tables, but also discouraging people from parking for the day and then not having anybody else able to park on me. I think we'd like to understand better. Is that fair?

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, the signatories on the letter represents a variety of different businesses on Main Street, from sit-down restaurants to kind of quick shops to longer clothing stores. And so I mean, I can understand if people signed it because they agree with you overall, but maybe they had like, you know, but if this really does represent what everybody felt like, then do you feel like it represents a good, it's a good swath of?

Yeah, please.

Just say that, that revolution that we're all talking about. has changed for a lot of people, and that it's something that isn't working for maybe people who thought it was working before. So I think there is a deep consensus now that having a limit is not beneficial.

I think Kate might want to chime in, too. I don't know if you want to unmute her, but yeah, I think that's exactly it, is that beyond that people might have thought four hours was enough, but it really isn't.

Again, it was part of the experimentation. This is our best guess. Let's see how it goes. And if the feedback from Main Street is it's not working. One thing I know is that Main Street is always full on the weekends. I mean, obviously, January is something different. But even now in the spring and summer, it has been full all day, all day long. And so that's a good thing. Kate, did you have anything you wanted to add?

I think you guys are nailing it. It's a work in progress. We're feeling like three hours isn't enough. People are scrambling to get back to their cars. Four hours.

Never been three. Never been three. It's four.

Sorry. Yeah, four. It might say three on the website. We should check.

Early iterations. Early iterations were three with the opportunity to add a four. And that may be what you're thinking of. But the signage is... Here comes Kate at two. The signage is...

all four or should be all four. Yeah. So it just seems like some folks are, are getting stuck scrambling to get to their car and they're not done shopping and enjoying the village. And the consensus is that if, if they're here and they're enjoying the village and they're shopping and participating, then maybe we should just let them stay. So looking further into that would, would be awesome.

I mean, from our perspective, it's the, That someone's paying the park. It's revenue, regardless of who it is parking in the spot. So carry on. Sorry to interrupt.

Our last point was something you've already brought up. It's just that open communication and being able to meet with you monthly. You mentioned we already have a date on the calendar and everything. We can really kind of iron out these issues and come to a better plan right now.

Kate, did we... Are we solid on September 10?

I'm checking with Keita, but that works for me. And I think having these monthly meetings will be super productive, a really good opportunity for us to share what we know and try to improve things together.

Well, maybe then shifting, I do want to give an opportunity for all of you to ask questions too, but laying out parameters. It seems like from your letter, there are a couple of things that we can start talking about right away in September. And one is getting a sense of reporting and data and what's helpful. You see us as the front, but we're not the people who really make the village work. And I think sitting down with the court clerk and the accountant and the clerk to figure out what it is exactly you're looking for and how closely we can get to provide it. There's been a lot of evolution in the court since this program began. We have two new justices and a new court clerk, and she has been dragging the institution into current times or updating technology, et cetera. So we may have capabilities for reporting now that we didn't have before. I don't know. That's something we need to talk to Kelly about. So I would say that's one of the ones we can start addressing right away. Officer in Charge Jackson will be the most valuable person to you in terms of enforcement. So he is here on Fridays, so maybe we can schedule a Friday session. And then there's the longer term considerations that have code implications. You've asked about staff parking, the underlying state enabling legislation. allows for the distribution of permit to people who live on the designated street. And we have not yet found a way that that can be worked around. We have identified several areas where parking is usually an option for workers. Yeah, winter parking on the boulevard Metro North. And then of course, everything above the lights is open parking. So we don't have a lack of parking in Cold Spring. What we have a lack of is parking on Main Street. It's finite and we can't expand the number of spaces.

If I could chime in to that. Because if I could chime in, I think the original draft of our letter asked for staff parking. And then we worked really hard and talked to a lot of merchants to truly understand why, like what it's being used for. And it seems like what a lot of merchants really are struggling with is getting packages in and out of their stores.

I wondered if that was the case.

Yeah, I think that's the hardest thing. Like if you have a flower delivery or a wine delivery or at times, you know, one of your best customers is coming in from Garrison, but they work in the city during the week and it's a Friday and shoot, they just can't get that present that they need to get from the general shop. And so a solution that we've found is, well TBD, but that we'd really like to look into is adding a second 15 minute parking spot to every block. What's happening is a lot of those 15 minute spots are getting taken over by larger delivery trucks or just are being utilized. And so there's been so many times, me included, I was, you know, running to get pizza for soccer to bring back to Phillips down park and realized I couldn't find any 15 minute spot.

And I need to get pizza.

I needed to get back. And I luckily I live in the village. So I realized, OK, I can actually just go and park in my driveway on Fair Street. I am so blessed. And then I can sprint and get my pizza and then get out of here. But that's that's an anomaly. Right. We can't assume that everyone has that luxury. And so we're really hopeful that these added 15 minute spots would help. I think right now our shop Cold Spring Ceramics is towards St. Mary's right up towards 90 and there seem to be remaining spots most often available paid metered spots there. And so hopefully removing some of the spots further south would still allow for people to park a little bit further north and still pay. and it wouldn't be a detriment. I understand we'd have to restripe and we'd have to do new signage, et cetera. Hopefully the signage can go hand in hand with the signage work you're doing and restriping maybe can fold into the next round of paving that would need to happen anyway. And so in an ideal world, it all comes together.

So a couple of things. It's also a code change and it's a reduction in the number of spaces. There's the There's the scenario, I agree with you, it's often that Upper Main Street is open, but there are the scenarios when we're at capacity, right? We're not at October right now. In terms of deliveries, the officer in charge has had, and his officers have had a number of conversations with merchants to say, they dropped off, they know they've got a delivery coming, they need to get stuff out of their own cars and to shop. Let us know. call Villa Tall, call the police department, and let us know, and we'll help you. We'll put out cones for you or help traffic get around you as you're unloading. That is not ever a problem. Unless they're obviously on a call, the officers are very willing to help with that. So that should be a problem that's off the table. And I don't know if it's that people don't realize that they can call or if they're nervous to call, but that's something that we're open to doing to keep the traffic flowing. Is that correct? Yeah. We've done it before.

I love that idea, but 10 times a day, I mean, that would be such a distraction, right? If 10 different shops have to quickly run in, you know, a case of wine or grab some flowers or quickly drop off some ceramics, or I don't, I don't know that you want to solve all the problems and no answer is going to solve all the problems, but that's an option available to you.

Did you have something you wanted to add there?

I was just going to say half of what you're saying, Kate is sort of dropping off and it says our internet is,

Yeah, it's quick, it's continuous and quick under 15 minute deliveries, pickups, customers coming in to purchase something that they've, you know, they know Main Street so well, they live in the town of Phillipstown to collect, right? They're not the tourists who sort of window shopping and shopping, although they like to do that too.

So it's just- And they can pay for parking coming in from Garrison.

Right, but when it's a quick 15 minutes, I think, and there's not parking close to the shop, it gets a little bit more complicated. And so it's providing for people who currently are in Phillipstown and feel like outsiders on their own main street to enable those transactions to happen, which definitely help merchants. And then to also just help merchants have access to their, you know, their storefront when they need some deliveries, bigger deliveries. I love Gina even mentioned when she was bringing in all her furniture, you all put cones out for her and she was able to easily access her store to get set up. And that's awesome. And like, we love, love, love that you can do that. I just don't want to burden the police department with 10 calls a day.

Do we know which tickets happened for someone overstaying a 15-minute. I kept on wondering how much the 15-minute parking spaces get abused. And it does feel like, I mean, I know that we have a number of roving parking enforcement, but they have to be in a lot of places. I'm sure that they're not tracking all of the 15-minute all of the time, because then they, so Yeah, I guess I'm curious. How do you track the 15 minutes? Yeah, like how well people are following the difference.

For every 15 minutes. So if you see a car parked out there now, you're going to notice it in 15 minutes whether it's there or not. Yeah, but you have to be back there. But you don't know if it's already been there for 15 minutes. Or if it's been there for an hour. Yeah. No, you can't, actually.

That is state law.

If you observe the car there, now you have 15 minutes from when you observe that car.

Yeah, you have to go back. No, I understand.

The car has already been there for 15 minutes already.

I guess that's what I'm saying, is that it requires continual tracking, and so I was curious how much how much we're ticketing there, or how much we have the sense, or maybe you all have the sense, because your eyes are looking out on Main Street all the time.

Do you notice that people are just like, well, there's no 15 minutes on our side of the street, so it's the opposite side of the street. So it makes that problem compound with small deliveries, because there's nothing. I can't speak for everybody. I know for me, it's police parking, two spots, maybe, and then all yellow striping So I have several tickets unloading with things in my hands. I've just said, put the ticket on top of the box. And that has definitely happened. So, I mean, it's a problem. There's lots of different ways, I think, that we can get through this evolution because restriping and all of that work, we know that that's sort of down the line. One thing that I found was that There are some of the metered systems that instead of, you know, if they don't have space for a merchant parking lot, which some municipalities do, they can load from the back end. And I know that we can do it through our system because I checked. They can load credits for people. So you could like put in a code and still just be in a normal parking spot. And, you know, if each person is, each business or something like that was allotted a certain amount for themselves and they could park in an actual spot and then hopefully quickly unload rather than, you know, and then the same problem would happen. Like if you wanted to put out poems and people were parked there and they like fill there. I mean, all of these problems have more problems, right? So I don't know, there might be some piecing together as this evolves that we can, you know, think of in certain ways, especially during certain times of year, right? And we know our busy season is May to October. So. Definitely expanding. Yeah, and it's definitely, and it is expanding for sure. Like, you know, during the Christmas season, February, March, I think it's like, I mean, that's, I see it fall off.

The chaos season is September, October, November. But the Visitation is expanding through the year. You sounded like you were hopping in.

No, I'm freezing. Sorry, that was me just like my teeth shattering. Thank you. What I was thinking about was have you identified spots, 15-minute spots, or proposed 15-minute spots?

I don't think we've gotten to that level. Kate, I don't know if you have anything

I didn't, we're happy to. I think I provided you all with a diagram to help the high street conversation. So if that format is useful, we can follow that format.

I was just curious in your, since it's one of your asks, if you had identified spots or there were any, I guess what I'm trying to get at is, you know, one of the things about the parking space for everyone is that when you want to park, you want to park right in front of where you're going. And so that's often pretty difficult on Main Street, or even on the side streets where I live, where I want to park in front of my house. And sometimes I'm not able, and I have a permit. So there has to be some sort of, we have to be realistic about that. At the same time, I do think that, you know, wanting to hop in and get your bottle of wine or your pizza or whatever, it would be more convenient to just park and be able to do that. I totally agree. I just wonder, we know we're working with a finite amount of spaces. So if there's something that's been identified that we don't see, that would be helpful. Otherwise, we're all looking, as far as I know, at the same Main Street.

Absolutely. Yeah, we can get you a diagram. I think we're asking for two. I know we're asking for two per block and we're assuming the second spot is opposite the first. So on either side of each block and the specifics of that location, I think we can be deferential if shop owners can get onto the side of their block on their block. It makes it much easier to load and unload our own packages and probably for our clients as well. But I can, yeah, I'm happy to do a draft diagram for your review.

Because we also have to up obviously consider revenue well revenue but also pedestrian movement a lot of cutouts are weird because the streets are weird they're not the normal size i mean we just have a lot of kind of a lot of variables happening simultaneously it's not just like you know nicely It's not the suburb.

And tell us to give you a history of how the 15-minute spots landed where they did. This may help you for how we were thinking about it. And I want to make clear that all of this, we had multiple public hearings. We had multiple public meetings and public hearings. Some of these things you're not going to know until the program gets going. But there was extensive conversation about this at the time. The 15-minute spots, we purposely put... near crosswalks to expand the sight lines for cars to see walkers and walkers to see cars. We also, in putting it next to that, so there's the crosswalk, then there's a state mandated 20 feet on either side of the sidewalk, and a 15 minute spot. That also conveniently is about the size of a truck. Because truck deliveries are, it's It's you're thinking about getting the stuff out of the truck. We're thinking about what happens when the truck is parked and traffic needs to be moving. So there are multiple sides to this. And it did create long, the 15 minute spots did create long locations where trucks can pull in and out more easily. Is it perfect? No, but it's provided more options. Trucks are always going to be a problem because we live in an age where everything is delivered. Amazon is, you know, it's not just the Ace Indico trucks, it's the Amazon trucks, right? And that's all through the village. And we are a village that was not built in anticipation of the kind of commerce and lifestyle that we live now. So it's a challenge to make the reality on the ground that everyone's wants and needs. So I'll say I'm open to the conversation. I don't know that we can do it, but I'm open to you proposing things, certainly.

Can I ask a question on a different topic, or do we want to keep .. I think we talked about that point. Yeah, OK. Exactly. I'm curious on the improved signage, since you hear a lot from visitors. Do you hear about both Main Street and Fives

streets or particularly one or the other will make a distinction i would say it's it's everything i mean people don't know how to get where they're going um oh yeah yeah yeah um so i'll often like go out and walk out on the street and say bathrooms down there Foundry's over there. I'll say, just follow this road around. I see, but this seems weird. Or they'll start to walk down the residential road to go to Foundry.

I thought that wasn't right.

It's right. Just keep going that way.

Are you asking when people ask about parking? When people say that the parking signs are not clear about I wonder if they should be paying for it on Main Street. Are you hearing the same thing about the residential restrictions on the weekends, or is it more you're hearing about Main Street issues?

I would say both. I don't know what it is on your block.

It could be different. I think my personal experience is in mostly the Main Street that they're asking about. That's one of the things we've identified.

Yeah, I'm on a corner. It's a little different. True. That's one of the things that we think about is that we have residential parking on the end. Some folks have given feedback that it would be helpful to have more residential parking signs in the middle. Some people hate that idea. We're not going to make everybody happy, but making it clear that the whole length of Church Street is residential parking.

Yeah. I have very strong feelings on this particular topic because it seems it is curious um people i mean i i watch people look at a sign and park anyway yeah um and for that i say enjoy your ticket um i have also seen people kind of wonder well the arrow is sort of facing like sort of awkward days. So does this count as not kind of clear if that includes that? So I mean, I think there is definitely room for us to work on that. It's just figuring out how to make it so that it's more clear. But at the end of the day, I do think that there are a fair amount of people who just decide, well, I'll take my chances, which

The other thing to realize is we can put up all sorts of signs. We can't make people read them. So the block, the block from Kimball down to fair, I can't remember how many signs we counted. 26 parking signs. Park mobile and online apps are used everywhere now. Like think about where do you go that you don't pay for parking in dense areas. We can't, We can put signs there. We can't make people read them. So people are going to get tickets because they either don't see or they choose not to see. And that's just how it is. And it's going to upset people to get a ticket. I think we can have conversations about, there are several of us who are open to the conversation about reducing the ticket price for sure. The staff, the court clerk, would be delighted to not have to argue with people about, to deal with people who are upset about a $75 ticket. Marjorie spends a good deal of her time arguing with people, not arguing, but listening to people who listen, to people who care very loudly about their ticket at the door. So it's just the reality. We have to run some numbers and just see, Can we do it? What's the right amount? And when do we do it? For us, from a budgeting perspective, it would be far better to do on the budget cycle. And I thank you for recognizing that in your letter. We go into budget season in February. But know that we are open to those conversations. And I would like to work with you on, Kate and I had a discussion today on email about what comparables are. And I think maybe this is a good point for you to hop in about what we were thinking as we saw the number, saw the locations and numbers.

In terms of the presentation materials?

And comparability, yes.

Yeah. First off, I mean, I appreciate a hearty dialogue, too, and I'm open to the conversation. I think a lot of things on this, I think they fall into, I'm getting to your question, fall into sort of, I don't want to be repeating myself, but different categories of, Things we can move with and create some momentum around immediately. Other things that are more budget cycle dependent and other things that I feel need deeper exploration. I'm kind of wary about taking too many, making too many decisions without a further exploration. And so that have been suggested, like the parking fines, for instance. Yes, I think generally there's a, there's an emerging consensus that that's something that can be addressed. But I don't think you can look at that in isolation. You can't break out the parking fines from all of the other jurisdictions that you could look at where there are so many other different variables that come into play in terms of some have free parking. And the fines, whilst you may say, are lower than the $75, say, up in Beacon, They have free parking, but the fines are for if you overstay the four-hour limit. Four-hour limit, not a five-hour limit. So if you overstay that four-hour limit, first offense is $50. The second is $100. The third is $200.

Meaning that license plate.

Yeah. So if you look at it from that point of view, the fines in Beacon are actually higher than here. Because if you overstayed three times here, that would be $75. Three times $75 is less than $100. So I think that and other questions need a lot more exploration amongst all of us before we sort of come to some conclusions or conclusory actions around what may need to shift or change. And I also think for me, sort of contextualizing it within the operation of the village, The village's annual budget is $4 million. Before I was a board member, I loved going to Rhinebeck because parking is free. I was a fan of free parking. I liked that concept. But looking at the reality of the village's finances, an annual budget of $4 million, lots of needs that it has to meet, and the parking fees from the non-taxpaying portion of the budget, say $2 million, it's 10% of that budget. So that's meaningful numbers in terms of the way the village operates. So for me, that's all the paid parking revenue. So that's important to us. And so that needs to be balanced against the needs that you clearly have and want to represent. And I also feel that I had one little note here. You know, there's got to be a deeper dive into some of the dynamics that are being talked about in terms of it's not better. Understand what that looks like. I know you hear it from people and that's aggravating and challenging to deal with. But how many people is that and how does it actually, how's that reflective actually in revenues from month to month or how actually does it hit? impact your business. I think in the June 2024 letter that you included, you'd cited something about a Zoom call that Jesse was on, right? And you'd said, easy and important metrics to gather would include monitoring monthly sales revenue growth or decline, average transaction total, and total number of transactions per month. So I would, in these conversations that we may be able to have amongst ourselves, I'd like that to be part of the conversation, too, so that when the Main Street Committee says that it's not beneficial to us, that it's actually borne out in terms of, oh, there was an error on the rise here. But again, that may not necessarily always be attributable solely to the structure of farming, right? So we've got to look at it. Yeah, yeah.

Having you recognize that is a giant step forward. Because in previous iterations, and when change happens, nobody likes it. It's difficult. But there was a lot of initial sort of shock factor that parking is, you know, my sales are down 34% and it's your parking. Is it? You know, it's like we're dealing with tariffs. We're dealing with a different war then. And consumer confidence is down. You can't pin... And also people's business plan. How often are you open? And are you open at times that people can get to you? For a lot of businesses don't open, not a lot, but several businesses don't open almost at all. But they're only open on Saturday. So our parking is maybe not as much an issue as your business plan. So I think Andrew raises that. And it's not an accusation, it's just saying, You can't look at any of these things in isolation. It's a system that works together.

I think also as part of that conversation, too, is you have to look at things like the enforcement window. We have paid parking on three days of the week, 24 hours total. Other towns, Rhinebeck, Gipsy, I think, they have, and Beacon, too, you might cite lower fines, have parking regulations in force, if not throughout the week, if not throughout the whole seven days a week, certainly five days a week. So that's a very different picture in terms of the collections they're making from that particular structure versus the village, which I think is, maybe its finds are an outlier, but the village is also an outlier in terms of its size, the amount of available parking, and its popularity.

think too so yeah I think we probably could monitor you know some of the social chatter and you know I do think anecdotal like evidence is like you know valid here when we hear like I got a $75 ticket I'm never coming back to Cold Spring you know or I'm never coming back on the weekend and everything and I think that's what a lot of merchants here have heard from do you ever hear why they got the $75 ticket I mean, maybe it's, I'm sure it's like overstaying, you know, and, but sometimes you lose track of time when you're having a good time too. So $75 just seems very punitive.

I do. Yeah, there's so many layers of this. And I think all of the talking points we could dig into at length. You know, overstaying is certainly one. And members have talked about a grace period, which other towns sometimes have. So if you get to your car five minutes late, you don't have that ticket. Misreading signs is another that's being addressed. And we do have data. I mean, Kate is an example, poor George, of a shop that's open seven days a week and she has data and she's been down the last year. There are shops like mine on Upper Main, we're only open four days a week.

If I'm doing my- Your connection is sort of dropping every- Sorry, I can speak- We just got a notice on the screen that our internet connection is unstable.

I'll speak a bit more slowly because I do think some of these points that are coming up, I would hate for there to be a misconception that if a shop were only to have a better business model, then that would change the revenue streams. I do know that a lot of shops that aren't open Tuesdays and Wednesdays are not open because they cannot afford to pay people to sit in the shop that is not shopped. And so we make those decisions based on what's possible. I also know that people coming in from Garrison have stopped coming in as much because of the parking setup that they have sort of been felt. And this is coming, you know, from a few people, but one who I'm sure you all know quite well, who's elderly and is a staple of this community. They feel unwelcome. They don't come to lunch like they used to because they feel unwelcome.

And so they know that they have other places they can park.

I think it's the spirit. I think it's this, sorry, I just, I think it's the spirit that's off. So if we assume that someone isn't just being, you know, willing themselves not to read a sign or thinking that they can just park for however long and not get a ticket. And we can honestly think these people are good people who are happy to shop, whether they're part of the community or visiting and they've messed up and that's the person getting a $75 punitive ticket and it feels so bad. And then they look at the comparisons in other towns and they see that it's anomalous. And then we understand that part of it's not driven by metrics. that align us with other towns, but rather than by financial need for the village, it becomes really complicated to explain it to them. It's as if I were to have a babysitter come to my house and the going rate around here is 16 to $20 an hour. It's harsh. And I were to say, you know what, I'm only going to pay you 10 because right now that's all I can afford. I'm so sorry. It just, it doesn't, it doesn't work, you know, it doesn't work. And so I think we need to find a way for the number to be something that people can anticipate is realistic and aligned to other villages.

Can I clarify a point you've made? Sure. Where I thought you started is not where you ended, right? I thought you were describing anxiety about paying for parking, but it sounds like what you mean is anxiety about the ticket.

Well, I think for some it's both, but certainly the $75 ticket is punitive. And no matter, you know, how... Yeah, who you are and what your intention is. It's something that I do think regardless of the income that it provides for the village needs to be separated out and that metric shouldn't be a variable in making that decision.

Shouldn't be what?

A variable in determining the rate of the parking fee should not be the village's bottom line.

I'm glad that

after a little while into the program, we changed the parking rate. I think that that was the right thing to do, and I think that that was the best that we could do, recognizing that we had, like, financially, we did have to do a paid parking program. I think that was, like, very explicit, a goal of the program, but it was the best that we could do to kind of meet the visitors where they were at in terms of paying. So I think that that was right, and I... Hope that we can do things to make people feel welcome. But I think we are, you know, there's still going to be like a paid. It's going to be paid parking on Main Street.

I don't think anybody's suggesting that. Yeah. Yes. The village is also a business.

Yeah.

Right. We are also businesses. We all have to think in those ways. And we have considered all of those things that you've said. I don't and have never been under the illusion that. This equals that. There are lots of components for anything to be successful. And you just have to keep adapting as we are, like as we're all trying to do. I do hope that you all will consider, though, that feeling because this is something that we hear over and over and over. It feels unwelcome. And it does. $75 feels unwelcome. The ticket price feels like we don't want you here. And it sends that message. And just consider it. Like it's not you, it's not against anything. Like we're all trying to come up with a solution together to make what's best for everybody. We're considering all of these things. We don't think that you don't consider them. We know that you guys consider them. We know that you're working so hard to find so many solutions and you know, there's not solutions, there's trade-offs, right? So we have to keep considering those things together. And $75, one really comparative place is Camden, Maine. And I actually spoke with people in their village hall today. And they experienced sort of what we experience, that they have their normal 5,000 residents, which is more than our village of 2,000, but it's very close. And they... triple they go to 16,000 or more they're not even sure how many more during you know especially during the summer months so they have their parking program you know you start in in what would be like our little village that's the most expensive to park and then it slowly gets a little bit lower but their parking is the same they have that hey your first ticket is $25 pay it within this amount of time. If you don't, it's 50, it's 75. And then it becomes, hey, maybe you didn't know. You didn't read that sign right. You weren't paying attention. Any of those things. But you have the chance to make it right. And here it is. Do it. Get it done. And let's move on. And I think it's a really wonderful model. I do. And I think it's worth exploring and taking on those numbers and really seeing what we can do with that. Because the result is people saying that they're never coming back. And a lot of these people are local people. And they just don't come in. I hear it all day long. I don't come in on the weekend at all. I'm not even, you know, they totally bypass us. And it's important for us to be strong.

I am super open to the idea. I want to make clear that our code an increased amount. It's by 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. So the ticket is first 75, and then I admit I have this exactly right, but then you have it.

75, 100, 125.

But it's over a longer period. I'm intrigued by what you're putting forward, the idea of pay it faster for less.

Don't come to court.

Don't walk on that street.

But also recognize that It's not a system that anyone likes, but we do currently have a system that says if you feel that you are unjustly fined, you come to the justice and you make your argument and they have discretion. We set the limits, then they decide. And if you're convincing, you might get your ticket reduced by the justice. So there is a system in place. I don't I don't want to make it sound like it's I just want to make sure we're clear that it's not all or nothing. There is a system in place. And some of the things that you're suggesting may really help.

Yeah, absolutely.

I understand all those things. We're just saying that starting point of 75. And I also want to just know all of those things that you said before that, you know, tariffs, you know, this long list has compounds it. We are feeling that. And then we're feeling this on top of it. Plus, we just came out of COVID. And we still just came out of COVID for some of us. Some of us are newer and, you know, other circumstances. Some of us will never come out of that trauma. Some of us are just feeling it now. I mean, there's so many things to consider. But I also want to, economics just in general, a lot of people can't afford almost anything now. And what if you made that mistake? You came and you brought your family to Main Street and you got that ticket that you really can't afford. And maybe you just wanted to stroll for the day, whatever it is with your family. And then you get that $75 ticket. Is that person able to even come back to fight it? You still have to have the means to do all of these things. And we want to be a place that is for everyone, right? We don't want it to just be investors that are coming in. and taking over our village. We want it to be the families, the people that are supporting Little League and all the other things. And a $75 ticket, period, as your first ticket, does tell anybody that we don't want you here. And I just hope it's considered.

Can I ask a question? Example? How do people know that that's the system? Because as the mayor noted here, if you get a ticket, I assume this is the case for most places where you would get a ticket, but there is a means to address it and, you know, quote, unquote, fight it. Appeal. Thank you. I don't want to say fight. Appeal. No fighting.

Try not to fight. Problem solved.

um and so i guess what i wonder is i'm sure there's people who make mistakes i'm not you know earlier when i was asking you know this person who says that they get a 75 chicken they're like i i'm sure there's people who make mistakes i'm not arguing that i'm not questioning the goodness of people's hearts or minds when they come here i don't have time for that but what i wonder is um How does Maine tell, not Maine, but how do people there know that they can print out a ticket? So I mean, well, that would be kind of an interesting thing, right? So you get a ticket. If it's not printed on our tickets, then maybe that's something, regardless of what the end price is going to be, that they know that there is a means to address it. If they feel that it was, you know, they messed up and they don't, you know, They're very reasonable here. You just go online and you do it. You don't have to physically come back.

But people are paying those tickets, is what I'm saying. So the numbers that they're seeing, and they have it all, I mean, they're really, really comparable to us. The numbers that they're seeing is that those people are just paying for it, whether they think it was wrong or not. They're just paying it because they would rather not pay the gas that they're paying to get back to do whatever it is. And you think it's because it's a lower...

And you're incentivized because you know that the next day it will go up. So you're like, oh, I'm just going to do this.

I'm not going to fight it.

I have another day to go fight this. I mean, I think that's very interesting. I just wondered how that was articulated, how people know that and they don't know that there's an opportunity here when they get a ticket to.

I think people do know. It does.

It says right on the ticket. I mean, I don't have one in front of us right now, but it does say on the ticket how to dispute. There's a QR code. I think we've got a giant agenda after this and I very much appreciated the conversation. We could go on all night. So I think we found a lot of common ground. Do you feel like we've found a lot of common ground or some common ground anyway? I think we've found a lot of common ground. Okay. So Kate and Kata, let me know about the 10th and we'll take it from there.

Okay. That sounds great.

Okay, yeah, that's another quote. Nevermind. All good. All good. I appreciate you coming in person. I appreciate you coming in person and hanging out for the whole conversation. Have a conversation. Have a conversation.

Thank you.

Have a really good night.

Thank you. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Okay. So, person and street. We know that there is There is failed storm infrastructure. Good night. On Personage Street, the property lines on Personage Street are a little wacky. And we have a lot of private homes, roof drainage draining into our storm drainage. So we need to figure out where the property lines are. It has been bid out by Han. Good night, Matt. Thank you for staying. Thank you. It's bid out by Han. Although it is the longest, are you trying to say something to me? No. Trying to find out where we are in this. The cheapest is the cheapest by a lot, by $8,000. Is that right? Yeah. Not $7,000. The longer time frame, but much less, Matt did. asked to be on Rowan's schedule for surveying pending the board approving the acceptance of that discussion. This is, sorry, I should say that it is for the benefit of the public. It is the first step toward repairs on, necessary repairs on Parsonage Street. She's got it. Discussion? I'd like to make a motion.

Can I make a motion to accept the engineer's recommendation to accept the bid of row and land surveying ELLC, the surveying services for the Parsons Street improvement project, for $4,000 with an anticipated time frame of six weeks?

Second. All in favor? Aye. Holding our spot. Hopefully it's going to be accepted.

Next, we are closing out the transition of the court clerk from the former clerk to the current clerk. And Justice Hilbert, I wrote Costello, Justice Hilbert has let us know that he will not belabor all the issues that it had given to the court where it needs to be. But frankly, I don't know. how the court was operating with such antiquated systems, that transition has been a complete overhaul. So our ask is that consultant Kathy Costello be paid for 23.5 hours that she worked in June, and she be allocated an additional eight hours to finalize training. Court is prepared to have that taken from our budget. Kathy's guidance is more important than anything else the court could need at this time. So the June, if she's $50 an hour, the June amount is roughly $1,175. And the eight remaining hours is $400. Discussion? Hearing none, would someone like to make a motion?

I make a motion to authorize the mayor to approve payment consulting for 23 and 1 half hours worked in June and budget for an additional eight hours to finalize just court clerk training at a rate of $50 per hour.

All in favor? Aye.

OK. Next, I will probably rely on Marjorie and Andrew a bit. I want to thank Andrew for taking the time to dig in. We were close to the edge there, but you took the time to dig in and ask good questions. So the cost of all of our liability insurance is included. In this bid, we have a new layer of insurance, which is cyber security. I'm sorry, renewal. I was thinking it was new. Thank you. Renewal. That is through travelers. So that number is included in the final here, the total amount of $132,553.14, which is due in two components, two parts, two payments. I just want to that we need to protect between our buildings and our equipment, our people. So this is not a small operation. Discussion? Andrew, do you have any comments to make from your view?

There are a few questions that I went over with the underwriters and all the brokers. And they answered them all satisfactorily. The one that I think is the most important question is, The year-to-year difference is an increase in premium of about $6,000. That's primarily and that's, as Marguerite Leclerc pointed out, is partly due to a re-rate, an increase rewriting the value of the buildings with a 6% increase, I believe.

Also, you know, this is a liability, general liability insurance, and the cost of replacing anything, as any homeowner knows right now, the cost of construction has gone up astronomically. So it's cost of materials and just increased value of home. So it's inflation plus increased cost of materials, a 6%.

And that being said, the overall price has gone up $6,000. So I think that's a pretty, pretty fair price to pay.

From year to year for the year policy. That's right. And, you know, cybersecurity too, that, you know, overall that's included in the big chunk and cybersecurity went up pretty significantly, you know, $800, you know, but that's our risks are higher for everyone.

And so cost of services. And that's what I was thinking about when I said new. I was focusing on the recent issues that we are focusing on. It's a part of, it's a reality on our everyday life to protect, on our everyday operations to protect records and protect functions and all that.

Frankly, it's cost time also. And lots of time. It's lots of time. So, yeah.

I mean, maybe two pieces, maybe 50% and another 50%.

Do we have a starting resolution number?

I didn't write it down, and I promised I would. I'm sorry. I think it's 34, but please let me check. Sorry, I'm getting glared at. You don't know what my day was like.

Don't worry about it. Would you like us to work with 34? How would you like us to handle it? I think you should put it in.

No, I think you should say tentatively 34. I will renumber them.

I'm sorry. Okay. So would someone like to move tentative resolution 34? Is that what you said? I think so. I could be wrong. Yes, we do. Okay.

Resolution number tentatively 34-2026, Village of Cold Spring Board of Trustees approving the renewal of general liability insurance. The following resolution was offered by myself for adoption and seconded by me, by the mayor. Whereas the Village of Cold Spring's general liability insurance policies are due to renew on August 1st, 2026. And whereas the Village has received a renewal proposal from the New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal in the amount of $128,201.14 has received a cybersecurity liability renewal proposal from Travelers in the amount of $4,352. And whereas the total premium of the package of insurance renewals is $132,553.14 for the period of August 1, 2026 through August 1, 2027. Therefore, it is hereby resolved that the Village of Cold Spring renews the General Liability Insurance Policy through the New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal and be further resolved that the Village Clerk Treasurer is authorized and instructed to execute the plan's documents on behalf of the Village of Cold Spring on a roll call.

Can I make a slight amendment to the resolution? That the Village of Cold Spring renews the General Liability Insurance Policy through New York Municipal insurance reciprocal and travelers. We're purchasing our cyber insurance.

So that there is a paragraph that, the second paragraph, and has received a renewal proposal for travelers in the amount of $4,000.

I think it's just in the resolved section.

Oh, in the resolved part?

Yeah, in the resolved section.

And, I got it, got it. Is that amenable to the mover?

I am the second, and I am amenable to that.

So it's a roll call vote. May I ask a question first? Do we pay twice a year? Yes.

And we pay. There's another invoice that just came in today that wasn't in the packet for travelers. We pay travelers directly, so that's $4,332. That's paid off now. And that's separate. Two times that. Thank you. OK, so that's a roll call. Trustee Bardas is absent. Trustee Bosie? Trustee Hall? Yes. Trustee Woods? Aye. And Mayor Foley? Aye. Resolution is adopted 4001.

And the next item, I am delighted that The Tree Advisory Board, there were four resignations, starting with Tony and then three others, who have served a really long time and deserve some time off from that volunteer position. And we've had really excellent candidates. So the acting interim chair, Taro Ayataka, has recommended Jane Demick and Kathy Carnevale to sit on the Tree Advisory Board discussion. And then this newly constituted group will make a recommendation for chair, and we appoint the chair. Question?

Can we collapse this into a single question? Do we know the term ending?

Oh, yes. There's two different terms. Oh, you're right. There are two different terms. That's why. OK. So I make a motion to accept the recommendation of interim treaty advisory board Chair Harold Ayataka to appoint Village Resident Jane Demick to a seat on the board for a term ending 12-2026. Second. OK. And I make a motion to accept the recommendation of Interim Tree Advisory Board Chair Harold Ayataka. He's really insistent on the interim part. It's interim, interim. There. To appoint Village Resident Catherine Carnevale to sit on the board for a term ending 12-2027. Second. All in favor? Aye.

Aye. For the record, it's 12-1.

12-1. 12-1. It's the day that the village legal year starts, the day of our reorg.

OK.

Sad lady.

We have before supposed to accept the resignation of Abigail McKinney. Abigail did a fantastic job while she was here. We knew that we wouldn't have her forever, that she would go off Other fantastic things, she's headed back to grad school. So just to give you a bit of, we are concerned that this is, we're going into a time, there are a number of large applications coming in. It's been quiet for a while. Now we have a few large applications coming in. So while we search for a permanent replacement, the former board secretary, Karen Herbert, is amenable to coming in and helping us through that busy time. So between the coverage of Marjorie and Veliana and Karen, we'll get through somehow. But we need this to turn around quickly, because that's a big chunk of the daily work. And a lot of night work. Marjorie is now doing us. She did zoning board last night. Next week, she's got planning. Too much for one person.

I make a motion to accept the resignation of village of Cold Spring from our position as secretary to the planning board effective Friday, August 7th, 2026 and authorize the advertisement of the open position.

Second. All in favor? Aye.

And just to the zoning board, that is the title under civil service. OK. The moment that you have been waiting for, event coordinator, we have before us the proposal from the chamber. to host the Halloween parade between the hours of 4 and 730 on October 24. A bit of conversation about this post our meeting the other day. The chamber has traditionally gathered on St. Mary's lawn, but not fast.

I'm pretty sure I told them they had to.

So that's what I was making sure that they did. I don't know when St. Mary's will be ready with their applications, but I know that this is on the St. Mary's radar. This may evolve as St. Mary's evolves its practices. So what we are being asked to approve tonight is not what is on the lawn, but the actual parade, which we have budgeted for in terms of public safety.

Discussion? OK. Would you like to make a motion? I make the motion to approve Cold Spring Chamber of Commerce application to host the annual Halloween parade between the hours of 4 and 7.30, October 24th, 2026. Do you want me to read the rest of that, or is that part when I get from St. Mary's?

Yeah. From St. Mary's, Vaughan, Route 9D, and Main Street to Bandstand.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. I saw Halloween items in the store this weekend. Please.

Let us have the rest of our summer.

OK. Next is an approval. So this is the annual Church Street block party, which is super fun. They always do it on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, block the whole block. Lillian and I both had conversations with the officer in charge about some of his concerns about the event. A challenge in the last couple of years has not been people coming onto the street. It's people driving their cars, residents on Church Street driving their cars on the street. So what he has asked for, two things. He's put used cones in the past. This year he's going to use barriers. And he asks, Lillian, through you, that the organizers on Church Street create a documentation, I mean, a door to door or something so that everybody knows when the street is closed, that's closed for you, park ahead of time. Email was sent to Joey. You've already done it.

Asking her to do that and also asking her to reach out to the residents of Main Street who parked in that back parking lot behind the old C&E paint. Because I know through experience with the fire company, that they sometimes get forgotten about. OK, great. So Jodi has not responded back to me, but you know.

Well, so permission granted pending confirmation of communication would be my proposal. So I make a motion to approve the request submitted by Jodi Curley-Egan on behalf of the residents of Church Street to close Church Street on Sunday, September 6, 2026. 12 noon through the evening hours for the neighborhood's annual block party pending confirmation of communication regarding parking for Church Street residents themselves and Main Street residents who park on Church. Second.

And another thing.

OK. Next. Mary McAlock has painted our tunnel the first time. in June, 2023, actually it was July, 2023. It was during the storm that she was finishing. She painted it once as a donation. She repaired it after the floods as a donation. She has now repainted it a third time post the construction to repair the tunnel. And she's a working artist. We need to pay her. So she has billed us for her time. The project is complete. It looks fantastic. $3,600, and this will come out of the General Village Improvement Fund. Is this welcome? Again, would someone like to make a motion?

I make a motion. Go ahead. We approve the payment to artist Mary for the pedestrian tunnel mural repairs at the amount of $3,600.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

OK. Now on to the schedule. So I tried to make this simple. There are a couple of typos that we caught after it went out to you. But from our discussion in our last meeting, Michelle was on vacation that week. So there are a couple of things that she caught. Oh, you know what I didn't bring? I printed out the resolution from John, and I didn't bring it. Do you have it?

Yeah. You can make a motion. It is 35. I did check the numbers. So the last one was definitely 34. And this is 35.

So just to talk you through what's changed since the last time. Everything that's highlighted in bright yellow are changes. Anne pulled out genealogy research. We did do some research on the motor vehicle incident and accident report with the DMV. So $25 is proposed for that. We made the correction on the off-street parking waiver. It now says $1,000 per space. Somehow I missed the transcription of pools, hot tubs, and spas. I don't know how that happened, but now it's in under buildings. Standing board reviews. Michelle, and I agree with her, thought we should clarify that HDRB is escrow fee for public hearings only. And her recommendation in looking at these escrows was that, as costs have increased per hour of attorney time, $1,000 isn't enough for most applications. So she recommended that we bump to $2,500. Where we have left it low, or I am proposing that it is left low, is under Tree Advisory Board. It's very rare that they use a village attorney. I'm on page four.

I'm sorry that I'm not just blathering on. I've looked at the same thing.

The tree advisory board used the village attorney once last year for a takedown application where there was friction between neighbors. So it's not as often and it was a quick consultation. So my proposal is $500 for their escrow when needed on a case-by-case basis. Michelle also helped clean up some language related to water and waste. Remember, we were talking about there being people who refuse meters versus people who have meters that can't be accessed to read and need a manual read. So her recommended language was quarterly manual reads, accessible meter, and it shouldn't And then quarterly penalty for inaccessible slash outdated energy. And on those, some of them are literally built behind walls, et cetera. There is an opportunity for people to expose them again. So her recommendation was that as an incentive, we note that there will be a prorated correction once they Correct, once they fix the accessibility. How far back does the parade go?

It would be that year.

It's confirmed. It's not like it's for one year.

Oh, no, just like when you buy a house and you close out. Oh, this is, but, OK, go ahead. So this charge, we have to go and do a manual read at this house because either they have it intentionally or they bought a house that somebody blocked access to the meter. So this is to incentivize people to move forward and get them accessible to us. We charge a fee for our guys to go to those houses and do a manual read. Her suggestion is that in that year, Just like when you buy a house, you prorate your water. What you owe, the buyer and the seller make an exchange of money. Her suggestion was that happened for that year in a prorated transaction.

Sounds like it needs to say for that fiscal year.

I read it as for however many years they've been paying the quarterly penalty. That is not what's intended. So let's fix that language. Use the prorated for that.

For current fiscal year? For current fiscal year. OK. Yep. Thank you. Good catch. That makes more sense. Yes. modifications in water and wastewater, and that's it.

We do have started an inquiry with John first and Will and a little bit about what changes we need to make in the code to appropriately set performance bonds and calculation that's not determined by the crew chief all by himself. So we'll return to that. So the resolution then would be as amended in session. OK.

Resolution number 30. Nobody else had anything, right? No. OK. Resolution number 35, 2026, updating and amending the fee schedule. Following resolution was offered by for adoption and by . Tracy Woods, whereas the Village of Cold Spring previously adopted a fee schedule for the village, whereas the Village of Cold Spring fee schedule thus supports the fees associated with various village services and fines in connection with enforcement actions. And whereas the Board of Trustees in their inconvenience in July 22nd, 2026 to present a draft of the updated amendment fee, Village Fee Schedule, whereas the proposed updated and amended Village of Cold Spring Fee Schedule as amended in and is hereby resolved that the village of Colesring fee schedule attached to Exhibit A is adopted, and the fees and fines listed therein are effective to date of its resolution. Second. All in favor? Oh, it's a roll call.

Oh, it's a roll call.

Sorry.

Trustee Bardas is absent, and Trustee Bosie.

Aye. Dusty Woods.

Hi.

Thank you. The schedule is initially stopped by a vote of 4-0-0.

We'll circulate the final version tomorrow. No, Monday.

OK. Bills. Who's got the bills?

Me.

I can go grab the number. I think on the agenda, we are correct.

I don't mean go get a motion to approve bill batch number 8576.

And now to $221,206.36. Thank you. Anything notable on that batch?

Insurance. A minute.

I'll keep you adjourned. Bye. Bye.

Night.

Night, 11. Thank you, everybody.