Town Board - Regular Meeting

Good. Okay. I'd like to call regular meeting number 15 of 2026 of the town board to order and ask the clerk to read the roll.

Councilman Degatti. Here. Councilman Kilmer.

Here.

Councilman Garcia.

Here.

Councilwoman Deal. Here. Supervisor Marston.

Here. Tonight's invocation will be led by Cornerstone member Calvin Kern. And the pledge recited by Councilman Kilmer. Please rise.

Lord God, thank you for giving us life and breath, giving us our bodies, our minds, our hearts, our emotions for creating us. The way you have, and I pray, I pray tonight, Lord, that all of us would be in tune to what you want for Grand Island, for decisions that are made. Lord, I pray, I pray that you would speak directly, give wisdom, discernment, and unity. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.

I believe in the flag, the United States, and to the power which stands for nation, for God, for the people, and for the team just as well.

Next is public comments, and this is regarding agenda items only that do not pertain to a public hearing. So if there's anything on the agenda that is not a public hearing that you would like to speak on, please come to the mic. Okay, hearing none. Next, we'll begin with the public hearings. Number one, special use permit applications for Jennifer Kilmer, 2101 Fixed Road, Home Occupation Bakery. That one has been, we still going to have that? Okay. I'll ask the clerk to read the pertinent part of the law.

Notices hereby given that a public hearing will be held on August 24th to consider an application by Jennifer Klima 2101 Fix Road for authorization by the town board for a permit for special use for a home occupation bakery located at 2101 Fix Road. All interested persons may attend at said time and place and be heard thereon.

I'd even like to speak on this matter.

Good evening. I'm Jen Klima. I'm the owner of Jen's Cookie Jar and the Cookie Cottage on Fixed Road. If you've ever been to any Grand Island events like the Trunk or Treat, Middle School Family Fun Night, National Night Out, you might be familiar with us already. We recently went in front of the zoning board regarding our Cookie Cottage out front that was approved. The variances were approved on that. In that process, we realized that we needed to apply for the special use permit. So that's why we're here today. Just kind of cross our T's and dot our I's and make sure we're above board on everything.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else like to speak on this matter? Okay. I declare the public hearing closed. I understand that we are still waiting on planning board input. So motion is in order to table this till the next meeting or the next one of those, the next planning board meeting. Okay.

Second.

So the third meeting in September would be the next one we could possibly have their comment and act on this, correct? It's the 21st of September. Well, we don't necessarily have to put a date on it. We can table it. Okay. Got it.

Okay. I don't think she doesn't realize what happened. I don't know. I don't know if I've heard anybody tell them in the tables.

It was tabled. They were able to discuss the answer point. So next week, if we attend, they can have a discussion. Yes. And then they would issue a positive report.

The 14th. Okay. Thank you. So guest motion to table.

Second.

Motion and second.

However you want to write it. Are you good? I think so.

Okay. For a second time, would anybody like to come up to the mic and comment on this a lot? It's about e-bikes and e-scooters and things of that nature. Yeah, there is none right now. No, we don't have a lot of them. Yeah. So we're adding them into the components. Yeah.

So it's expanding to include e-bikes and e-scooters and things of that nature.

Okay. Declare the public hearing closed. Town Board, what's your pleasure?

I would like to make a motion to approve the law, adding the recommendation one and two from the planning board, which would be removing snowmobile vehicles and remove the private property section. I would not want to add three, four, and five as they're regulated by other means. Our town parks are done by signage. Speed limit's done by the speed limit. And the last part was just a statement. Second.

Motion second. Any discussion? I guess my discussion would be the latest version of the law pretty much emulates what you just said. Correct.

Okay. I just want to make sure that we comply with those.

Okay. Any more discussion?

I'll just say make sure we make sure You know, one thing is saying arts, although we need to make that decision. How will you sign?

So, and based, so I was involved from the beginning, this came from GIPD and the schools requesting that we get something in place. There are other towns that are doing that. So I would hope that our PD uses it appropriately since it's something they were very adamant about getting.

were also part of that the formation of absolutely okay any more discussion roll call garcia hi kilmer hi dagati hi deal hi marston hi uh public hearing number three increase and improvement of facilities of the town of grand island and solid sewer district emergency digester improvements 2026. I'll ask the clerk to read the pertinent part of the roll.

Ordered that a meeting of the town board of the town of Grand Island will be held on August 24th to consider the increase in improvement of facilities, the consolidated sewer district, emergency digester improvements, and to hear all persons interested in the subject thereof.

Would anybody like to come to the mic and speak on this issue? Please come up, give us your name. For a second time, would anybody like to come up and speak regarding this sewer improvement? All right, with that, I'll declare the public hearing closed. So, I have a document. Excuse me one sec.

Okay. Okay.

So engineering department has determined this is a type two action. So there's no, nothing in question, right? That's correct. Okay. On the secret side. So motion to accept the resolution.

Second.

Motion second. Any discussion? Wish we didn't have to, but we got to.

Absolutely.

Great. Roll call.

Gatti? Aye. Garcia?

Aye.

Kilmer? Aye. Diehl? Aye. Meyers?

Aye. Next up is minutes. Approved the minutes of workshop meeting number 20, August 3rd, 2026. Yeah, but I forgot.

Didn't we already talk about that? There's a resolution. It's a type 2. It's a type 2.

I checked with Peter on that. Sorry, we crossed our signals.

Oh, I see.

It was written kind of strangely how he did it.

Well, this is too big. The resolution. It's fine. The resolution is fine. The resolution is just determining that it's a type 2 action. It's confirming it's a type 2 action, so.

It's fine to adopt the draft.

It's perfectly fine to adopt the draft resolution confirming his rationale as to why it's a type 2. But it's a type 2 action. It's already determined not to be something since an issue of significance. No further environmental review is required. So he's put together a draft resolution for you memorializing his rationale for that determination. So it's fine to adopt the resolution we just drafted.

I'll make a motion to adjourn.

Okay.

Second.

Motion and second. Any discussion?

I'd just like to put on the record that I think a lot of our residents don't even understand how much we pull our hair out in the water and waste water treatment plant. Um, The fact that the wastewater treatment plant alone is a $5 million unexpected cost. No one anticipated this. So sometimes when we pass resolutions for large sums of money, Because we want to, because we have.

Things break when you don't fix it.

What's that?

So things break when you don't fix it.

Everything we have is at that aging mark. Our water treatment plant has aged out. Our triple water treatment plant is aging out. And we got a lot of bills heading our way.

Yep. Okay. Roll call.

Dugatti. Aye. Kilmer. Aye. Garcia. Aye. Diehl. Aye. Marst.

Aye.

Okay.

Moving on. Next minutes. Approve the minutes of workshop meeting number 20, August 3rd, 2026. Approve the minutes of regular meeting number 14, August 3rd, 2026. Approve the minutes of workshop meeting number 21, August 11th, 2020. So moved.

Second.

Motion second. Any discussion? Roll call.

Garcia?

Aye.

Diehl? Aye. Degatti?

Aye.

Gilmer? Aye. Meyers?

Aye. Next is the consent agenda, which includes building permits issued July 2026, Golden Age Center facility usage June 2026. Meeting minutes, Economic Development Advisory Board, July 9th, 2026. Meeting minutes, Board of Architecture Review, July 21st, 2026. Motion to approve them as submitted. So moved.

Second.

Motion second. Discussion? Roll call.

Garcia?

Aye.

Diehl? Aye. Dugatti? Aye. Kilmer? Aye. Meyerson?

Aye. Next, from my office, this is on behalf of the Parks and Rec Advisory Board. Prompted by comparisons of recreation costs associated with property subdivision and surrounding communities, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board suggested that recreation fees collected by the town be raised. The recommended changes are single-family lot subdivision changes from $500 to $750 per subdivision or per lot. multifamily structure changes from 750 dollars per unit to one thousand dollars per dwelling i would request a motion to adopt these changes in our town fee schedule upon approval second motion second any discussion Thank you for doing that work. Parks and Rec Advisory Board, they did a very thorough look around to see what was consistent with other communities in our area. Roll call.

Diehl. Aye. Garcia. Aye. Degatti. Aye. Kilmer. Aye. Meyers.

Aye. Next, this is kind of from engineering. I would entertain a motion to authorize the Grand Island Town Engineering Department to prepare the bid packages and advertise for bids for all utility hookups for the Veterans Park splash pad, including sewer and water. Final approval of the winning bids will be authorized by the town board prior to the commencement of any work being completed.

So moved.

Second.

Motion and second. Any discussion? Roll call.

Garcia?

Aye.

Diehl? Aye. Dugatti? Aye. Kilmer?

No.

Marston?

Aye. Next from the Zonta Club. We have a couple of things here. First of all, I'll read what I have. Zonta Club of Grand Island is seeking approval to put orange bows around the trees surrounding Town Hall on Saturday, November 14th, 2026 through Sunday, November 29th, 2026 for the Zonta International 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence. The orange bows lighting in the gazebo was very meaningful last year. To offer that again would be appreciated. At the November 16th town board meeting, we will be. will be our annual proclamation for the 16 Days of Activism. Zonta is seeking approval to utilize Town Hall Lobby on that evening, 6 p.m., 745, at 745 p.m., for community members and businesses to pick up orange ribbons for the Orange Bee Island. Zonta Club is also seeking approval to use the Commons Gazebo as a pickup location for their annual mum sale, Saturday, September 12th at 2026 at 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., which includes set cleanup time. In the past, we have provided folding tables for their plants. It would be appreciated to offer table usage to them again this year. An updated certificate of insurance will be provided prior to the MUM event. I have an application here, multiple applications, I think they all do. They all seem to be filled out appropriately. So motion to grant their wishes.

So moved. Second.

Aye.

Motion and second. Any discussion?

I just want to draw attention to the orange ribbons because we get comments every year about those because when people talk about displaying ribbons, you think some pretty bow. These are actual warning tape and it's on purpose because this is serious and they're trying to draw attention and warn people. Zonta does a really good job of advocating for safety of girls and women and That's why you see those orange tags and every one of them is a different length and that is to represent all the different ways. So everything's individualized, right? I just wanted to draw attention to that because I used to get calls, you know, maybe we could give them some pretty orange ribbons, but that's not the point of this.

Thank you for that. Did we vote? No, we didn't.

Roll call?

Tagati? Aye. Garcia? Aye. Kilmer? Aye. Diehl? Aye. Marston?

Aye. Next, communications from other town officials, Department of Engineering and Water Resources, Robert H. Westphal, Veterans Park Access Improvements, Change Order No. 2, Job No. N-66-2021. honorable town board in response to the town's request for a proposal for the installation of an additional 1,287 plus or minus linear feet of asphalt path along the western boundary of the park's athletic fields. LJ Quigliano II Incorporated has provided a formal quotation to perform the work. The attached proposal includes all the work to install the additional path for the plans developed by the engineering department. The town previously held the hearing to extend the bonding limit for the project that included this amount, so financing is in place. We hereby recommend the town authorize change order number two to the Veterans Park Access Improvements Project to the sum of $75,000.

So moved.

Second.

Motion second. Any discussion? Roll call.

Garcia? Aye. Degate? Aye. Kilmer? Aye. Diehl? Aye. Marston?

Aye. Next, award bid HVAC maintenance contract. We sent out a request for proposals for the HVAC maintenance work at various town-owned buildings and received the following response for... for year one of the two-year contract. It looks like they went through a couple different vendors. We have reviewed the proposals and recommend the award to J.M. Mechanical of Western New York LLC in the amount of $24,700 for one year of the contract. Motion to accept their second. Motion second.

This is a new contractor, right? I believe it's a new one.

I believe it's a new one.

Yeah, definitely.

Yep. Roll call.

Tagani? Aye. Diehl? Aye. Kilmer? Aye. Garcia?

Aye.

Marston?

Aye. Next, authorized supervisor to sign contract street lighting maintenance and emergency services. On August 18, 2026, we received bids for the street lighting maintenance and emergency service contract. We received three responses. Two responses were no bid, not interested at this time. Third bid was provided by Power and Construction Group. We have reviewed power and construction groups bid and recommend the town board authorize the town supervisor to sign a two-year contract October 2026 through September 2028 for the streetlight maintenance and emergency service contract with power and construction group. Motion to authorize the supervisor to sign.

So moved.

Second.

Motion second. Any discussion? We're all called.

Garcia?

Aye.

Diehl? Aye. Dugatti?

Aye.

Kilmer? Aye. Meyerston?

Aye. So next is from the engineering department is refuse and garbage, District 1 garbage collections.

I do not believe that I have this part missing in my packet.

Oh, no, I have it. It's in the back.

It's out of order.

Okay. On August 12th, 2026, bids were received for the above reference project. Contract A serves approximately 7,740 dwelling units. Contract B is for the town facilities. Both contracts will be five-year contracts term with the option to renew. We reviewed the bids and recommend the award of contract A to modern disposal service for the residential collection, including the following options year one cost. Item one, weekly garbage pickup, bi-weekly recycling. Option 1.1 for 267.72 for dwelling unit. I didn't to make the cycle pickup weekly. So let me just to stop right there. Do we not make a decision yet? Are we just approving the price list? Does anyone know?

I think we need to figure out now.

Okay. So nobody really. So I'll finish reading. Weekly pickup, we won't do that. Makeup recycle pickup weekly for 34.68 per dwelling unit. Item three, off the tire vent, option 3.2 for $3,000. Extras, additional trash cart from Modern at $90.60 a cart. Additional recycle cart at Modern at $90.60 a cart. Sticker program, if acceptable. Contract B to Casella Waste Management of New York for the town facilities collection and disposal in the amount of $20,909.04 for year one. So what are we doing with this?

I think we all agree that weekly recycling, biweekly, do we agree to that? I mean, these are the kind of things that we talked about pretty much in depth when we went to put stuff out to bid. We wanted to leak the garbage pickup, weekly recycling, and we didn't mind going to monthly bulk pickup, but five items instead of one, if it's monthly or one large item weekly. So I don't know where all this falls because it's not, Just pregnant?

Well, no. The only real question is the bi-weekly recycling. Right. I'll pay the extra $36. $34 for the bi-weekly recycling.

No, it's $34 for weekly.

It's an additional.

So I think the premise behind us adopting this tonight is so that these vendors can start to mobilize to get their assets in order, in order to service by January 1. I don't know that bi-weekly or weekly changes their asset acquisition list.

You're still going to be recycling pant mothers. Correct.

How often you pick it up or not.

So I think this is here now in case so that they can understand that we have made a commitment to them and they can start getting their appropriate stuff put together.

So that being said, do we want to authorize them to be our designated trash disposal people?

Absolutely.

Do it that way, and then... Let's just say contract A, modern disposal, contract B, because I'll always...

Correct. Does that make sense?

Yes, like award the bid, and then... Correct.

Fine, two minutes. Details to follow. Okay. Tom, are you okay with that? I don't know.

We have a lot more discussion. We went round and round on that last time.

What are we going to do? I hated the idea, but I guess... Maybe one thing I would say, we should reach out to them and say, well, we tried biweekly for a year because we've got other things we would have to do.

We tried biweekly for a year and we get a bunch of negative feedback from residents.

Could we tell them, well, in 2027, we're going to go biweekly. 2028 side, we want to go. Will you want that price with the 3468 plus whatever the portfolio is?

So I'd be willing to give it a whirl. So to your comment, I'd love to take the ride for a year, as long as we know that we can increase it in year two.

So we'll accept item number one for contract A. That looks like, right?

Yes, option 1.1. 2772.

And the extras and item three is also part of it.

So the gentleman from Moderns here, would you like to speak with him? Yes. Well, can you answer the question I just asked about if we...

Just for the record, can you can you give your name to the record?

Yes. Yeah. Derek Veenhoff, CEO of Modern Disposal. Your question, sir.

So if, if this year, we say we're going to proceed, and we're going to do biweekly recycling, and we get the reaction that I suspect we may get from some of our residents in year two, if we wanted to go to weekly, could we just whatever the 3468 plus whatever the escalator is,

I'm not against that. It would be the matter of time.

Right.

Sufficient notice. Not December 31st. Yes.

What time frame do you want if we decide to opt in on that?

Well, by August.

Three months? You need six months.

We would prefer a year, but that would be a problem, right? If you wanted to go. Yeah.

And when we start our budget process, it's pretty much a year or so. I told you by July 1st, would that be fair?

Sure. And again, we're trying to hastily do this because we understand you need to acquire assets and all that stuff. Otherwise, it would bog down another cycle, right? Yep. Any more questions?

That's all I would have said. It's just all something across the board. Okay. Right. Right. Okay.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. So we had that clear. Yeah. And the motion.

Have you good with it?

Well, state the motion. Okay.

The tire too. The $3,000 tire. And I don't know. I don't throw on tires anymore.

So, I don't know what the need would be. Can't answer the entire budget.

As the supervisor said, let's reserve the right on item three to discuss. And we don't have to do it right this minute. This thing is about getting carts to people's houses. We can add a tire event, I suspect.

Well, they're right there if you want to ask.

How much time do you need for a tire event?

Okay.

That's fair. Beautiful. That's fair. All right.

Do we know that we got to the point where somebody gets an extra vital thing? I assume they're going to have to pay us. We pay them or do we pay them directly? Modern directly?

Well, there is, here's a number of costs.

Right. Do residents order that directly with you or through us.

I'll get through the municipality.

Municipality would take the order, collect the fee, and then pay them off.

Yeah. I'll leave it with them.

We would coordinate with the town to ensure that their unit count, that the residents would be able to contact you directly through an email that could be forwarded to our group. We will take the order, town consent. We can work through that detail. But typically, The fees get paid directly to the town. The town pays us with a card. Coordination of, we can figure that out.

Like I said, we don't want to be in the government.

I guess the question is, how many tires do we give you for $3,000?

I think the plan was a dumpster. We were going to stage a dumpster. Or a dry van and whatever came in.

I was just going to discuss putting one at the highway garage for a period of time until the residence is available.

I think there was an annual limit per unit. Typically, we say four tires per unit annually is typical so that we're not taking everybody else's tires from Western New York. Not that anybody would do that.

I guess I'm a super user.

So little things. Okay. Anything else? Thanks again. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks for being available. All right. So how do you want this to look?

Bench. There's no motion.

No motion on the table. So I'd make a motion to adopt Modern's proposal with biweekly recycling.

um and other points in this uh proposal to be determined does that make sense i mean we don't really have to decide anything besides that we reserve the right to uh go back to weekly recycling and we reserve the right to identify when there's going to be a tire a tire uh mission a tire time

It's too many words.

Will you be accepting the extras?

OK. We do have an option.

And then you want the counter to be as well.

Yeah. Teddy, can you read that back or not really?

If you can't, that doesn't exist. No, it's contract date of modern disposal with item number one and the extras. And item number two and three would be subject to a six-month and a three-month notification to engage back to recycling weekly. Nice job. And hopefully this is working so I can take all this.

I'll make that motion. I'll make that motion.

Well, then we can. Okay. We have Marston deal.

Any more discussion?

Roll call.

Well, we can break. Okay. Then I have to amend the motion. So I amend the motion to include contract B to Casella Waste Management of Western New York for the town facilities collection disposal in the amount of $20,909.04 for one year. There you go. Any more discussion? There you go. There's only for one year or two.

So we have to re-bid this next year.

Okay.

It says for one year.

It's a one-year award.

Oh, for the town. B is a one-year award.

Do you have this, Pappy?

This says 12 contracts in five years. No, read the bottom. That's the price. Oh, the price is for one year.

But the 12 contracts will be five-year contracts with the option to renew.

So is their price going to be $40,000 next year?

No. Oh, yeah.

But then why is it safe for one year? And then say for one year plus cola? Why isn't it? Why doesn't have that in there?

It says from year one, there's a difference between.

All right. I'm reading it differently. I just want to go with on company meetings. Right.

Yeah, the motion is correct.

We done?

Roll call.

Marston? Aye. Diehl? Aye. Dugatti? Aye. Kilmer? Aye. Garcia?

Aye. Ouch. Thanks, gentlemen. Thank you. Next in town accountant, Corinne Franz. Budget amendment transfer. Highway vehicle to police. As per workshop E3 2026, the board agreed that the highway vehicle will be purchased from the police department for $20,000. Your approval is requested for the following budget amendment transfers for 2026. And all the pluses and minuses are listed on your page. So motion to approve as submitted.

So moved. Second.

Motion second. Any discussion?

It's a great deal.

I think it's a good cost-saving measure and everybody works out.

Thank you.

Roll call.

Garcia.

Aye.

Kilmer.

Aye. Dugatti. Aye. Diehl. Aye. Marston.

Aye. Next is a budget amendment. It's a donation to the Grand Island Police Department. Pinnacle Island LLC kindly donated funds that were raised from their golf tournament to the town for the benefit of the police department. The town greatly appreciates this generous donation. Your approval is requested for the following budget amendment for 2026.

It looks like a $2,000 donation.

Motion to accept their donation with gratitude.

Second.

Motion second. Any discussion?

deal with every year, and that's a wonderful thing for us.

Sure is.

We'll call.

Garcia? Aye. Diehl? Aye. Degatti? Aye. Kilmer? Aye. Marst?

Aye. Next, in the Code Enforcement Office, Special Use Permit Renewal, KC Davis, 136 Riverdale Drive, Home Occupation Bakery.

It looks like the site has been inspected, the uses are unchanged, and the fees have been paid.

Motion to reapprove.

Second.

Motion second. Any discussion? Roll call.

Diehl? Aye. Garcia?

Aye.

Tagati? Aye. Kilmer? Aye. Meyers?

Aye. Next, a part-time hire. It is my recommendation to the town board to authorize the appointment of the... The interview candidate listed below for the effective start date of this meeting. Subject to the completion of pre-employment approval process, the official start date will be determined upon the completion of the onboarding process. And the applicant is Gregory Butcher, court enforcement officer, part-time, non-union, at a rate of $26.90 an hour. Motion to authorize that.

Second. Second.

Motion second, any discussion?

So if people don't understand, we have the person that had this position resigned. It's not a new position. We're filling an opposite.

And we're getting a pretty good bang for our buck. Talented individual.

There's people out there when we hire, they act like I keep hiring people. This is a replacement.

Okay, anything else? Roll call. Did we roll call that?

Deal. Aye. Tegadi? Aye. Kilmer? Aye. Garcia?

Aye.

Marston?

Aye. Next, from Senior Water Plant Treatment Plant Operator Cody Clark, 2025 Annual Water Quality Report. The Town of Grand Island's 2025 Annual Water Quality Report will be available at the following URL is posted on your page. It's www.grandisland.gov slash document center slash view slash 4413 slash 2025 annual water quality report. If you'd like a hard copy of this report, please contact the Water Department by phone, area code 716-773-9641, by mail at G. Cody Clark, Senior Water Plant Operator at the Town of Grand Island, 2255 Baseline Road, Grand Island, New York, 14072, or by email, gcclark at grand-island.newyork.us. No further action is required. Okay, flip the page over. From the town assessor, Jill M. Murphy, Campgrounds of America, request to split parcel 410 Lang Boulevard, SBL 23.00-3-6.11. This would be a request for parcel subdivision. Parcel size 14.21 acres.

And to tell engineering code enforcement officers moment spending.

should just go to the planning board yeah it did is there a recommendation from the language okay to recreation group it. So motion to approve as written so second motion second discussion.

Okay, so is that a residential use? Okay, so we are asking for recommendations. Motion to accept and recommend that we collect direct fees.

So moved. New rec fees. New rec fees. Correct. You already have a motion on the table. OK. Deal. Dugatti deal. New rec fees.

That's kind of messy. OK. Motion second. Any discussion? Roll call.

Dugatti. Aye. Deal. Aye. Kilmer. Aye. Garcia.

Aye.

Marston.

Aye. Next, Communications General, American Cancer Society Relay for Life, date approvals. Relay for Life, Grand Island, has decorated the town commons with football ribbons on May and June as part of the Paint the Town football to show support for cancer survivors for almost 20 years. We respectfully ask your permission to decorate the town commons on May 8th or paint the town purple if possible. We would also like to use town hall parking lot that day for our Krispy Kreme donut pre-sale pickup day. Relay for Life of Grand Island also, with your permission, would like to host our annual Relay for Life event on Saturday, June 5th, 2027 in the Town Commons. The event will include food vendors, crafters, along with key elements of Relay for Life, our survivor dinner, basket raffle, kids zone, luminaries, ceremony, and entertainment. We understand that there is an event process and we are fully prepared to start working through it once we know that our event date and location is acceptable to the town board. We appreciate the town's continued support of Relay for Life of Grand Island. If you have any questions or concerns, you can reach out to me at phone number, Lynn Dengie, co-chair of Relay for Life. Motion to grant her request.

Second.

Motion second. Any discussion?

Don't say that. They've had bad luck.

They have, but they're troopers. Roll call.

Hilmer. Aye. Diehl. Aye. Dugatti.

Aye.

Garcia.

Aye.

Marst.

Aye. Next up, this is interesting, the report of the audit committee with the brand new software.

All right. I make a motion to pay the bills referencing docket numbers 153465 through 153571 from the highway fund, $145,780.48. Did I say highway? I said, that's general from the general fund. I apologize. From the highway fund, $76,203.76. From the sewer fund, $68,010.10. From the water fund, $28,383.96. From Capital Projects, $923,021.67. From the Lighting Districts, $171.50. For a total of $1,241,571.47. Second. Motion and second. Any discussion? Roll call.

Garcia? Aye. Diehl? Aye. Degatti? Aye. Kilmer? Aye. Marston?

Aye. Next up is public comments, and this is a point where you can come to the mic, give us your name, and speak about anything in the town that you'd like to talk about.

Sherry Kern, 2905 Staley. My husband and I were coming down Staley at seven o'clock today in the evening. And for the first time in several weeks, I saw a police officer by the radio station There's no activity at 7 o'clock at night that compares to 4.30 or 5 o'clock in the morning and whatever. And so I guess we're requesting again that the police force, I know it's not the greatest time, but that's when the most, like between, wouldn't you say 4.30, 5 o'clock in the evening? when they're letting out, it's probably between 4.30 and 5 o'clock in the evening. It would be good if somebody could look at the shifts and the shift changes at the pharmaceutical companies because it's directly related to that. Both when they start the shifts and when they end their shifts. That would be very appreciated because it's silly to have a policeman there when we know So it was a trooper. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, Jennifer Chin, East River Road. This is kind of an add-on to the emergency digester improvements that we're going to be paying for for a number of years. I was just curious if... anything has been put in place or if you can put in place the type of maintenance and proactive work on the sewer systems to help mitigate us running into the need for emergency work on the sewers in the future. That's it. It would be wonderful if we didn't have to have little surprise, $5 million. as needed for something that we could have avoided with a little bit of proactivity thanks thank you michael smitana 3475 sandy beach road this is an add-on

to the Title 18, Section 241 and 242 of the Civil Rights Laws of Color of Law. On the 18th, I came in here into the town hall and reported to Sherry and Kelly that at 7 o'clock in the morning, I had the police out of their vehicles in front of my house at 7 a.m., They were with a civilian. He had an orange vest on. And they're standing there with their cell phones surveying my house while I'm on the porch staring at me, not saying a word. Okay? So this goes all the way back to the library when they promised to shoot me during the vote last November. Then they denied me urgent care of the police over here back in January, which is a hate crime. OK, and I asked you about Denise Miranda with the Human Rights Division, with the civil rights. I haven't got a word of anybody, but I do got the answer because at seven o'clock in the morning, they're over there menacing me with their cell phones.

Not saying a word. And he's got a gun on him.

And I got a guy with the DHS behind me, Edward Pion. Remember, they had the spotlight on my house with cameras. So I'm reporting this and getting this on the record because if they get me with some unrelated thing and shoot me on the side of the road or run me off the road, this is a public record and I'm making it here today. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Jim Daigler, Staley Road. I'm going to read some notes here. Take the advice of my mentor to be careful and not say something I shouldn't say. I sent an email to the board this morning regarding my final cut at this Seeker issue for the best law. And I think in there I laid out, if you don't agree with everything, you have to agree with the bullets that I put in there about the things that did not happen, especially related to, say, the full environmental assessment form being incomplete and not including the key element of that form. I think the, uh, and I, and I, I tried to, uh, show how, when following seeker, the way it's written and the intent of it, that, uh, through that comparison document to show the difference between the initial law and the final law. And when you look at that, you can see pretty clearly what the difference is. And it all goes to mitigating the obvious impacts that were not addressed in the process. I also want to point out that 900 residents responded to a survey designed to determine the community's values and to establish objectives that would support those values as expressed in the comprehensive plan. Comprehensive plan development process determined that natural resources are our biggest asset. In support of the comprehensive plan, the recommendations included that the town adopt environmental practices and policies that promote the conservation of birds, wildlife, and wildlife habitat. The reason I'm standing here today is probably because of a project that was permitted about seven years ago, a solar farm at Whitehaven and Alvin, where the seeker process determined there would be no wetland impacts. However, somewhere between four and five acres of jurisdictional wetland were uprooted and dozed over. So I've been closely monitoring since then how the town board addresses Seeker. And you know where I'm coming from is it doesn't happen. I listed a bunch of projects there with a significant amount of unmitigated habitat destruction, unmitigated. I foiled recently a landscape plan for what I call deforestation on Whitehaven Road. And there is no landscape plan. no plan whatsoever to try to account for all those old mature trees that were cut down and ground up. So the town board I'm saying has failed to adhere to the will of the people here to preserve this environment as written in the comprehensive plan because the seeker process is not properly followed. I live on Staley Road and I think about Seeker a lot. I spent 46 years using it in my business. And I think about that plant down at the end of Staley Road. And I wonder why or what would happen if an actual Seeker process had been followed that identified the traffic impacts that would be imposed by those expansions. And at least if I was involved at all, I'd be mouthing off about the impact created by that development that was approved by the town without any mitigation of the tremendous increase in the amount of traffic on that road that is now being addressed by the town taxpayer instead of some benefit that should have been obtained from the people who caused the conflict. In the future, I think meeting the obligation and the commitment to the people and the will of the people is that meeting that obligation will require an environmentally accountable and duty-driven town government that will change the way secret is applied on land development projects in this town. the secret process for this law provides a representative example of how not to do it. And the main issues and problems were listed in my email. I'd be very interested in anyone, including any attorneys to tell me that I'm wrong by citing specific regulatory language or court decisions and so on. Um, I'm hoping that the next time this comes up, this secret process, that I'm going to be happy that it's done properly. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, good evening. Dan Allerary, West River. I'm just wondering how you're making out with that deficit you got going on with sewer water and garbage. Isn't there a deficit? So I've seen the workshop meetings. I don't know if I understand exactly what you're trying to say. Talking about raising the tax cap.

We're still going through budget process to see where and when we can cut.

There's a sewer deficit, right? There's always a sewer deficit. Right. Always. Why should you raise a tax cap for people that are non-sewer? It doesn't make sense.

It doesn't make sense, and it can't go that way.

I can't believe all the development. When I went to vote at the school, I cut through Tracy Lane. That goes all the way to Whitehaven now. You know, I can't believe with all this development, where's the tax money going? I don't understand it. And also, aside from that, I have a question regarding vehicle parking on the side of roads. Is a vehicle allowed to block half the lane of a road? Like when people have parties and such? I know it's awkward, but it's not a Q&A. You can make your public statement. Yeah, you can make statements. You'll have an opportunity to respond.

Oh, I see. Yeah, yeah.

Well, I find vehicles parking halfway in the roadway. What road?

West River.

West River. You know, there's eight miles of river there. There's four overlooks. People stop and walk their dogs and such. They don't want to go to the overlook. I don't know why. Like when there's parties, vehicles park on both sides of the road. Like the other day, they were blocking mailboxes and parked in front of fire hydrants. And on another occasion, I almost got in an accident in front of my house because my lane was clear and some car tried to scoot in through there. So I think there should be something in place to prevent blocking a roadway. The police were notified. They didn't do anything.

Okay. I'll notify them again. Thanks. Okay.

okay if nothing else uh from the board councilman kilmer um i'll start with i think between now and the next time we meet different ceos yellow school buses so i think the school date started september 3rd i'm not sure but um so keep keeping out for school buses The question asked about sewers. If you're not on sewer, you're not paying sewers. So if you're on a septic system, you're not paying a sewer tax. So only the user can pay sewers. So that was the question that you weren't sure of. Your taxes aren't going up if you're on septic. The other ones were Seeker, Mr. David. I think there might be one attorney that disagrees. We said, I'd like to find one attorney that doesn't agree.

Did we just clarify that it's not me?

No, no, no. No, no. I'm just, I'm, I'm just saying I was reading the emails back and forth, and that's what makes it problematic for town board members is we're supposed to have our subject matter experts that advise us. And then we have really great professionals within the community. and we get conflicting opinions on how we're managing our program. And it's really difficult for me because I love Mr. Daigler. And then we have our attorney for the best law. I'm just trying to say, I'm trying to answer some of your questions. We do try to address it, but the problem is we're getting conflicting opinions. As a non lawyer, I'm getting conflicting ideas on how to proceed forward. And it's very frustrating, because I try to listen to people who pay a lot of money to and I try to listen to good advice. So that is what it was. I guess I'd be watch out for the kids. That's it for me.

Nelson Garcia was a lot.

A lot going on. To your point, you did watch a workshop. We have a lot of challenges with our budget on that sewer issue. Dan answered it appropriately. With that said, I can't answer your questions other than it concerns us all, and we're working very hard to minimize the impact on our community. I think the challenge we have, we're big enough to need all of these things, but we're not big enough pay for all of these things we're not small enough to deny any of these things so we get into a real challenge and to miss chin's point about preventive maintenance i think previous boards were skipping the preventive maintenance so they didn't have to raise the taxes uh in the hopes of saving that money for something else so as usual we're in a we're in a pickle But we are working as best as we can. And we're all affected. We're all homeowners here too. And anything that happens will affect us all. And to your point about West River, if you go on our website, you can click on the advisory boards. There is a traffic safety advisory board. And if you want to send them an email or come to one of their meetings and have a discussion, Maybe they can propose some sort of change in the way the rules are, but currently people can park on the side of the road. It's a weird thing. But landscape trailers and things like that do need that type of access. They shouldn't be blocking mailboxes and they shouldn't be blocking fire hydrants. That's a danger issue, but I think it's appropriate for maybe you send a message and they could take a look at what maybe could be changed. Thank you.

Councilwoman Diehl?

School is starting. We are in need of a crossing guard, so if anyone's interested or knows someone, if you can help us get the word out. It is posted as part-time, but in talking to some of the guards, we may be able to open that up to a full-time position. We lost a really good guard. She had some family obligations to take care of, and she's going to be missed. As Councilman Garcia noted, the condition, the planning of some of our infrastructure, we are working toward trying to find solutions to that. In two weeks, we will kick off our energy performance group is coming in. It will be outside firm and they will look at all of those mechanics and all of the pieces at both wastewater and water and ways that we can improve the efficiency of those things that are deteriorating the best plan of action to correct it. And all that information is going to be put together to actually lay out a capital plan, be it one year, three year, five year, 10 year, so that we are on track for preventive maintenance and for keeping everything fresh We deal with a lot of sins of the past, maybe where some things might have been overlooked. It can be hard to stand up and say we have to raise taxes in order to take care of infrastructure, but that's the tough spot. We sit in and we're going to do the very best we can with it. We're continuing to look at the budget and find areas that we can tighten up or cut out without creating hardships for youth or taking things that are needed away. I said that well enough. I'm speaking sort of on behalf of the board here. But we are moving forward and looking at possibly new things that will bring us solutions to some old problems.

Councilor Ndegade.

I'll do a little bit of both and piggyback on that because I think the water meters was an example of us picking up the pieces for something that had just flat out been ignored. And we took the heat for it, but it had to happen. On the other hand, sewer is a bit more complicated because for the Pat Littleway, I'm 16 of a 10-year-old around consent, at least 12. So during the course of those 16 years we've been putting between one and $2 million into improvements to the sewer system, but not improvements into the plan, those have been basically exclusively to deal with. stormwater infiltrating sewer system and preventing discharges, but none of that money has gone to. taking care of the routine maintenance of the plant and even this digester was it's it's one of many ticking time bombs and it stinks to have to be the ones to say we're going to have to at some point whether it's the five of us in the next board somebody's going to have to bite a bullet here and fix things the right way because all we do is slap band-aids on everything and it is not sustainable um That's the reality of it. It's Oliveri, correct? And just with respect to the houses, I think one thing that gets lost is it doesn't matter how many houses there are on Penn Island. The levy is the levy. For every house that gets built, it'll reduce your tax rate a little bit, but it will not result in any more money being collected by the town. So that makes it difficult because since 2012, we've been operating on a 2% tax cap. I think we all know that all of our costs at home have gone up Maybe more than 2% a year over that time. We're stuck trying to continue to operate within the confines of a 2% tax cap that, frankly, isn't realistic. And I actually just read an article that I probably should have shared with you guys the other day, analyzing the number of municipalities, and they broke it down by cities, towns, counties, and school districts, And the percentage that have had to break the tax cap since 2019. And the moral of the story was that since 2019, it has increased exponentially. The number of other municipalities that have finally had to do it and wave the white flag and said, we can't do it. We can't ignore problems for the sake of saying we stayed under the tax cap any longer. So... It stinks. We're working hard, but sometimes there just isn't an alternative. Frankly, we got lucky with the garbage contract because it came in relatively close to what we're paying and we were expecting a much bigger problem. Bosses have tried to work through union negotiations. We've got a lot going on and none of it's going to save us anything. I promise you that. So that's it.

I'm going to take the high run.

Can you say something nice? Because it sounds like the four of us have done nothing.

Yeah, I'm going to take the high run and say go Bills.

How's that? Sounds great.

Motion is in order to adjourn tonight's meeting at 922. Motion second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? That carries. Please rise. Tonight we'll observe a moment of silence in memory of Cheryl Zito, Hubert Sharp, Donald Hammond, and Mary Weeks.