Town Board - Regular Meeting

Okay. All set. Okay. Yep.

Like to call regular meeting number 18 of the town board to order of 2025 and have the clerk read the role. Councilman Daddy here. Councilman Bolo here. Councilman Kilmer here. Councilman Garcia here, Supervisor Meerson here. Uh, tonight's invocation will be read by Bible Presbyterian Church, Reverend Kevin Bakus, and uh, the Councilman Hatti will lead us in the pledge. Please rise.

Please join me in a word of prayer. Father, we come before you this evening. It is more than a formality. We are grateful for the safety, security, peace that you have given us as a community. We're grateful for those that you have given us to serve in every part of our community. But as we gather together tonight with these who are who are coming to look out for the good and well-being of the people of this town, we pray that you would attend and that you would bless in this meeting, its deliberations and hear workshops and throughout the week the the work that's done we pray would be for the well-being of this community and for your honor. For we ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.

Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

Uh next up is uh public comments and that is on agenda items only. So, if there's something on the agenda that you'd like to speak on, please come give us your name and you have three minutes. Hi, Rick Johnston Havenwood Lane. Uh, I came to speak about the CLCPA, New York State Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which fits, I see, with an agenda item, consent agenda three of supporting Nick Langworthy's Energy Choice Act. I don't know if we've voiced a an opinion to Hokll and to state government, but I think we should communicate that Grand Island is against the CLCPA. There is not a lot of detail on backup and how it's going to be executed. It's going to drive electric cost up. It's to ban natural gas, which is what this federal item is uh related to. Hopefully, this will pass and protect us, but I don't know if we've taken any position, if we've talked to any other communities, but we should do everything we can to try to stop this. That's my opinion.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Any other public comments at this time? Okay. Uh, moving on. Next uh minutes. Approve the minutes of workshop meeting number 26, October 6, 2025. And approve the minutes of regular meeting number 17, October 6, 2025. So moved. Second. Motion second. Any discussion? Roll call. Datti. Hi. Bolita. I. Kilmer. I. Garcia. I. Marston.

Hi. Uh, next up is a consent agenda. I'm going to do items one and two first and then we'll go to three. Uh so meeting minutes of zoning board of appeals September 4th, 2025 and building permits issued September 2025. Motion to approve. Second. Motion second. Any discussion? Roll call. Digatti. Hi. Kilmer. Hi. Bolita. Hi. Garcia. Hi. Marston.

Hi. Uh, next up is this resolution to support Congressman Nick Langworthy Energy Choice Act and in opposition to governmentmandated natural gas bans. Um, I would like to make a motion to uh adopt this as written. So move. Second.

Motion second. Any discussion? Um, I'll just say quickly that back when um, uh, town supervisor Whitney was here and then I sat in several meetings with New York State, they were discussing with us to try and make Grand Island into a pilot community to go 100% electric. Uh there was we had probably 10 hours of meetings in total and at the end of the meetings they basically offered us a favorable in interest rate to replace our equipment which was not as favorable as we can get on our own. Number one. Number two they said that we would likely being our our our climate would also need to have a uh two systems. one which would be all electric and one which would be all gas which really didn't make a whole lot of sense because now you're just splitting it. Uh him and I just said thanks for thanks for coming. Appreciate your input. No thank you. So I I think this when I saw this resolution came across I thought it was very important that our town supports this because it um electric simply doesn't work in our climate just yet.

Absolutely. My choice. Okay. Roll call. Lolita I Garcia I Datti hi I Kilmer I Marston I uh communications from the town board town of Grand Island Parks areas greenways space and facilities naming policy Councilman Datti. So I'll make a motion to adopt the naming policy that's included in the agenda.

Second motion second. Any discussion? Tom, this has been a bit of a project for you. Appreciate you giving it the parks and recck advisory board and the rest. But it just formalizes. We get a lot of requests for this kind of stuff and it's done somewhat haphazardly. So, this will help streamline the process and make it easy. I think it's consistency. Uh, roll call. Digatti. Hi. Garcia. Hi. Belita. Hi. Kilmer. Hi. Marston. Hi. Next. Uh, from Councilman Jose Garcia. uh check presentation traffic control box art project.

I don't know if this is by way of motion or anything, but we have Sophie Meyer here who is one of the wonderful artists that uh took on the challenge of decorating our traffic control box and hers is at the corner of Grand Island Boulevard and White Haven Road. If you haven't seen it, it's beautiful. I don't know if Miss Van Norman is here. I don't think she is, but Kim Van Norman, another resident, um did it at the corner of White Haven and Baseline. So although we don't necessarily have your check, we'd still like you to come up and take a picture with the town board and accept my promise that you'll be getting your check for winning the award. Checks in the mail.

Come on, politician. I make real promise. Jen, you're on the board. Get a big check. Big check. part of the economic development action still. Yep, we got it. Thank you.

Communications from other town officials. Highway Superintendent Richard W. Crawford authorized supervisor to sign Erie County 2025 to 2028 intermunicipal snow removal and ice control agreement. Um 20 25 to 2028 m municipal snow and ice removal has been adopted by Erie County legislature for that same time period. A motion is ordered for the town supervisor to sign and set set under the seal of the town of Grand Island the attached agreement for that the 2025 to 2028 intermissionable snow removal ice control agreement.

So move second motion second. Any discussion? Anybody describe that what what that means? Yeah. means with probably the reimbursement from the county to the town for snow removal. So we we plow a lot of county roads. Yes. And it's they're basically it's our contract with them that they're going to pay us back for doing their road work. Roll call. Garcia. I. Kilmer. Hi. Datti. Hi. Bita. Hi. Marston. Hi. Next. Town attorney Peter Godfrey. Actually this isn't you though is it? This is solar.

So, uh, local law intro number four of 2025, amend chapter 407-1655-1 of the town code, solar energy facilities. Uh, we'd like to refer this to Erie County Department of Environmental and Planning, our planning board, our architectural advisory board, and we would like to set a public hearing for agricultural advisory board. Yes. That's what it says here. Uh, agricultural. Yeah, agricultural advisory board. It's something we should add CAB to because they get very sensitive about not being in a loop on stuff. I have no problem with that. Okay. I have no problem with that. We can add CAD to that as well.

We do that by way of a single motion. All of those. Sure. So, move. And we we we What's the date for the public hearing? November. November 3rd. November 3rd. November 3rd. Okay. And set the public hearing for November 3rd. So move for all of those motions. Okay. A motion for everything. Anybody like to second everything? Yes. But should you be also be adopting the resolution with the there's a resolution the packet determing that it's a type one action where a lead agency with the referral to the county. There's a time the first page of this is the resolution.

Yeah. We need to adopt that resolution. Should we wait till the planning board weighs in or I'm having a hard time hearing Tom and you're adding the public hearing and if you don't mind Bridget is talking I can't I just the Bridget we can't hear you. Okay. Right. Can you guys hear me now? Fix it. cell phone microphone.

For clarity, Bridget is our solar and battery storage attorney. Can you guys hear me? Richard, if you can hear me, could you call my cell phone? I'll put you on speaker. adopt this and begin the secret process. She's got to Yes. Okay. I mean, we need to adopt this resolution. All right. So, I'll add to the motion that we start the secret process that does this. Yes. Yeah.

How about you make the motion you'd like to hear? Well, let's start by just adopting the resolution as drafted in the pack. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Daddy. Hi. Kilmer. Hi. Bolita. Hi. Garcia. Hi. Marston. Hi. Um, so we have Bridget online. Do we still need her? Can you hear her? Bridget, can you hear us? Okay. Thank you. Let's make a motion. Correct. Thank you.

I'll make the motion to refer this to planning board, the agricultural review board, the conservation board, and with one other board, county planning. Erie County Planning. And set a public hearing for November 3rd at 8 p.m. Yes. At 8 p.m. Got it. Yep. Second. Motion. Second. Any more interesting discussion? Okay. Roll call. Garcia. Hi. Kilmer. Hi. Daddy. Hi. Belita. Hi. Marston. Hi. Thank you. Hang on. We got another one. You two up yet? Wait. We still It's the same.

The next one's the battery one. That was the amendment to the solar. Okay. So we have to start the seeker process with this one too. Let's adopt the resolution and then refer it to whatever boards incentive. Make a motion to adopt the resolution as written. So second okay motion second. Any discussion roll call. Garcia. IT. Hi Bolita. Hi Kilmer. Hi Marston. Hi. You guys are having a lot of fun. So I'll let you continue. I make a motion to refer this to the planning board, the agriculture review board, the conservation board, and to set a public hearing for November 3rd at 8 p.m.

and the and to the Erie County. How about the planning board? Did we get that one? Yeah, that was in there. Okay, I'll in the resolution. Second. Did you second it, Pete? Yeah, I second. Any discussion? Garcia. Garcia Marston. Roll call. Garcia. Hi. Marston. Hi. Tagatti. Hi. Bolita. Hi. Kilman. Hi. This third one. Also the storage one. That was the story. It wasn't for I have three. Excuse me. Oh, maybe I got three. Cop. You got three. You're somebody slipped. One. Um. Bless you.

Next up, item three. Uh, Gunrete subdivision phase five. Uh, a road dedication. B accept easements. So, um we had some discussion about this in workshop and we all agreed that we should probably put together a another workshop uh sometime middle of next week at some point. So, is the developer here? You are. Uh we'd like to talk to you about your schedule and set it all up so we can all meet at once and we can get all on the same page here and go forward. Okay.

Is there a question with the question with what's the question? So, there's just a bunch of other pieces that we're not sure on what's going with it, what's not going with it, so we can figure out if we got to read the new site plan and all the other stuff. So, we just wanted to get we want to put all the pieces out there and figure out where everything's at so we can adopt it. Okay. Uh, so we're going to set a workshop up just for you next week. Okay. It's going to be it's going to be dedicated so we can get all these problems behind us so we can quit going back and forth. All right. What's next? Uh we're going to it'll be two weeks, but we're going to meet with you next week if you're available. Yes.

So before you leave, maybe uh I'll get your your email. We'll share we'll share some dates and we'll set it up. Okay. So with that motion to table. So move.

Second. I have a so moved and a second. Okay. Any more discussion? Roll call. Garcia. Hi. Kilmer. Hi. Daddy. Hi. Bolita. Hi. Marston.

I um Okay. Next in. Department of Engineering and Water Resources. Robert H. Westfall. Award material bid 2025-2026 community block development grant golden age center drainage. Uh honorable town board. The town highway department requested bids for the materials necessary for the community block development grant project to improve Golden Age Center drainage. Uh the following bids were received. We hereby request the town board authorize the purchase of the Golden Age Center drainage project materials from KN&S Contractor Supply in the amount of $6,950.84.

So move second. Motion second discussion. Uh this may this has a little bit to do with what we were talking about earlier as far as the golf course drainage and all that. The Nike base we're trying to do a little bit of a a one fell swoop there and do fix a lot of the drainage problems. Roll call. Kilmer. Hi. Daddy. Hi. Valita. Hi. Garcia. Hi. Marston.

Hi. Uh next EV charging station. uh ZEV infrastructure grant execution job number M-69-2021 please uh attach please find the agreement for the zero emissions vehicle ZEV infrastructure grant D01- Z I-2022-0000134 to be executed and a New York statewide financial systems portal. Uh the product involves the installation of two dualport EV charging stations at town hall for public use. The current uh total project cost is $63,000. The New York State DEEC has awarded $50,148 through the ZEB infrastructure grant. Balance of the project cost will be paid for by the town of Grand Island. We hereby request the town board authorize the supervisor to execute the grant agreement in the NY uh SFS portal.

Where's the additional 13 on what? Um probably the uh the buildings and grounds for this building. Yeah, we always have this year we haveund. Yeah. 50 whatever thousand in that line for town hall improvements that could theoretically come out of the tech fund. There's lots of Yeah. Yeah. There's the tech fund could help us out there for sure. This thing's been pro Jen Bainy was on the board. There's nothing submitted the application. So there's 2025 money left to do. Right. What? There's 2025 money left to do that. I don't know. We have money allocated next year.

We'll talk about it tomorrow during budget. That's right. That's right. So, do they have a motion? No. Does anybody like to motion it? I'll make I'll make a motion. Okay. Second. Second. Any more discussion? We good? Yeah. Okay. Roll call. Gilmer. I. Datti. Hi. Bolita. Hi. Garcia. I. Marston.

I. Next. Code enforcement office. Special use permit renewal. Robin Shipman 2020 fix road bed and breakfast site has been inspected um and everything seems to be uh unchanged. The fees have been paid. Motion to renew. So moved. Second. Motion second. Any discussion? Roll call. Kilmer. I Datti. Hi, Bolita. Hi, Garcia. I Marston,

I uh fellow Bible Fellowship Center, local law number 3, 2022, reszoning SPL 51.13-3-12.1 1136 Baseline Road, R1D to R1A. Refer to the planning board and set public hearing. Um, so Peter, if you can guide us on this a little bit. This is a zoning change, but basically it's staying as a church and they are building a cemetery. We need to do secret and all other stuff on this or depends how much impact there is. Yeah. I don't know enough about the project.

Okay. Likely. Yes. Is this the short form? The short form is attached. Uh, let me see. The little map. How do we spot resing on this? Is it Is it close enough? Is that why? So, a church can be in any zone, a cemetery camp. So, that's basically why they're looking for a zoning church. I I would I don't It depends how you want to look at it, but it's a cemetery. Okay. I think the traffic impact's going to be pretty low and the noise should be pretty low as well. So,

yeah, the only part there, huh? Sorry. Um, he didn't hear what he said. He didn't even hear what you said. The the the question is is to to refer to the planning board instead of public correct for November 3rd as well. So move. That doesn't second. Motion second. Well, any discussion? Any more discussion? Did you add set a public hearing? Is it good? We'll set the public hearing for November 3rd at 8:00 p.m. You're getting good at this. Making sure there was a date. Wait till the date changes. Roll call. Garcia. I. Datt. Hi, Bolita.

Hi. Kilmer. Hi. Marston, hi. Uh, next. Special use permit application. B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B Bible Fellowship Center Incorporated 1136 Baseline Road Cemetery referred to a planning board and set public hearing. Uh what is going on there? They need a special use permit. Same thing. No, they need a special use permit. They need a special use permit. So, I guess we're doing all those things again, right? So, the motion is to refer to the planning board and set the public hearing. Does that need to go to the county rating or is that a local thing? The uh first one does but it doesn't require specific. Okay.

The second one does not. It's simply it's a local. Correct. Okay. Bob should take care of Okay. All right. I make a motion to refer the special use permit for the Bible fellowship to the planning board and to set a public hearing for November 3rd at 8 p.m. Second. Nice. Any more discussion? Roll call. Garcia. Hi. Datti. Hi. Bolita. Hi. Kilmer. Hi. Marston.

Hi. Uh, next. Senior wastewater treatment plant operator Timy Burns. Um, town board. I hereby request that the town board promote Ryan Ayes to the position of sewer maintenance worker in the wastewater department at the starting rate of 2354 per hour as shown in the ASME contract. This title change was included in the 2025 budget. Mr. Ayes holds the required CDL certification for the position. I'm requested that the effective date of the appointment be October 20th, 2025. So move. Second. Motion second. Any discussion?

Roll call. Garcia. Hi. Kilmer. Hi. Tagatti. Hi. Bolita. Hi. Marston. Hi. Uh the next is from the planning board is just a little bit of feedback on the uh property maintenance law. By the way, we didn't get much time to discuss that downstairs that pretty much highlighted their their uh planning board meeting. They've been they've come to light and realized the relevance of having this law and they are going to dig through a few pieces here and see if they can help us make it any better. So I no action is required there just a report back. Uh, next report of the out of committee.

Like to make a motion to pay the bills from the following funds. From the general fund, uh, $636,262.94 from the highway fund, $249,89725. From the sewer fund, $104,6723 from the water fund, $163,740.84 84 the capital fund $92,25782 and from lighting districts $417 for a total of1,247,248.

Second motion second. Any discussion? Roll call. Garcia. I. Kilmer. Hi. Daddy. Hi. Belita. Hi. Marston. Hi. Uh the unfinished business part is the same as the piece we talked about earlier. Just leave that. Yeah. So, we'll we'll get with them later and set that up hopefully resolved.

Yep. Yep. Uh next up is public comments. This is when you can come to the mic. Uh give us your name and you have three minutes to talk about anything in the town that seems to be an issue to you. Explain it to the board. Paula Shook, I um have 12 pages here of comments about this upcoming Meguire Town Community Center. I'd like to read some of them to the board. Here is the hard truth. The town does not need to waste our money on this nonsense. If some people think it's a great idea, form a corporation and buy it yourself. We have plenty of basketball courts and meeting space on the islands. Unfortunately, they are in the schools. The school district thinks these facilities belong to them, not the taxpayers. When the taxpayers approved of building the high school, it was promised that the community would have use of it and it was not being used for school purposes. The promises vaporized. Staley is an issue the town should address. Unfortunately, the town paid a consultant to do a recreation plan when these resources could have been used to evaluate infrastructure adequacy and carrying capacity for current and future development. While the town has issues with the adequacy of roads, sewer, water, and drainage, I see no effort to assess and plan to identify and fund improvements. Capital improvement plans are necessary. New York state, including Niagara and Erie County, pay some of the highest real estate taxes in the country. Calling them affordable is an uninformed statement. New York's property tax rate ranking. Multiple financial and real estate organizations have ranked New York's real estate taxes among the highest nationally using metrics such as effective tax rate and medium annual tax. I live on Staley Road. We have a growing traffic problem there and my home is going to be affected if this plan goes through. There's a paper

street right on there. The traffic already backs up. There's no place for anybody to walk and you're expecting kids to ride their bikes to a town center. Come on. 10 million. We've been asking for four years to get our road fixed. Four years. Yet you can magically pull 10 million out of your P for a bond. There's more to this and I'm going to write letters. I'm going to get people to write letters because it's wrong. That's my opinion. Thank you. Would anybody else like to come up and speak?

I do, sir. Hello everyone, ladies and gentlemen. Ma'am, I agree with you 100%. My name is Chris Bushka. I live at 2728 Love Road and I just have a few notes, but I am referring to the Tribune Sentinel article. There's not just one article, there's two. One was a nice editorial by Mr. Kilmer. Thank you very much. I agree with you a lot on your page six article, but referring to page one and 13 about the comm center, it's $10 million for 75 acres. Oh, Joyce, uh, $10 million. Let's buy it. But we're also taking commercial property off the tax roles. That's one thing that wasn't mentioned. What are we going to replace this with on the tax base? Absolutely nothing. Because as this nice lady said above, we have facilities at the school. We not only have facilities at the school, we also have a multiple of of uh parks and playgrounds for kids to use. So who is this targeted for? That's my question. This shouldn't be brought up to taxpayers ever. And not only that, we recently had a recent assessment. Whether you fought it and got it down a little bit, it still went up. So, what are we doing with this extra money? Is this where this $10 million is coming from? The schools are already taking advantage of this because the people voted yes for this, although I voted no. Um, they voted yes for this. So, there's all this extra money coming into the schools. Where's that going to go to? We also have the old Nike base that's already off the tax rolls. So, that's all I really have to say. Excuse me. I apologize for being a little fidgety and nervous. Was making great jam today,

but I appreciate it. I'll thank you for allowing me to speak my mind as an American. Yep. You Sherry Karn, Staley Road. I would like to thank Councilman Kilmore for mentioning Staley Road in your article that we have been fighting it for a long time. My husband and I had breakfast with some friends that also live on the island and they were talking about it, asking us about it and one of their question was why would you put a facility like this the the uh recreational center in an area where we don't have bike paths on Staley Road and an an ement road from Staley Road which already we can't ride our bikes and is dangerous and to have young people or whatever ages Why would you take away um opportunity for an area businessman who already has a pickle ball court on the island and as this gentleman said, not only are we dealing with higher water bills because of the meters, we're dealing with an excess assessment increase. Ours alone went up $1,900. And although 120 per 400,000 might not sound a lot, but because our houses have gone up in the assessment, it's going to be more than that. And and I don't know about anybody else, but I'm not making more money than I did three years ago. So I am opposed to it um for those many reasons. Okay.

Thank you. Uh, hearing nobody else from the board. Councilman Kilmer.

Uh, well, first of all, just so people understand, when we do a reassessment, there is no more money for the school board, for the county, or for the town. When we do a reassessment, we don't get more money. The end number stays the same. The pain is just distributed differently. So, I'm understands that. Um, the, uh, Halloween's coming up. Be careful. Uh, watch out for trick-or-treaters. Uh, be safe. Thank you. Pretty much the same thing. Halloween's coming up. I believe the supervisor will make announcement on the times, but, uh, we got to make sure we're paying attention.

Um, follow the rule. Keep your lights on if you're giving. If you're not, keep them off. And, um, Have a great Halloween, Councilman Bolita. Yeah, just echo Dan and Jose. Um, be safe out there. Watch out for kids. Uh, guess Pete's going to announce the town. On a more serious note, apparently we did not vote to make beggar night uh legal, but I don't think it's illegal to knock on someone's door the day before I'll give you can. Um, and another more serious note, the Buffalo Bills need your prayers now more than ever Bills. Councilman Deay, you're gonna cover Monday, too. You're gonna cover Monday. I'm sorry. You're gonna cover Monday. Yeah.

Okay. I guess I'll just echo what Dan said. I think that's the biggest takeaway of the reassessment that we keep kind of seeing rearing its ugly head is whether it's us to school, it doesn't matter. It does not result in a penny more coming into the town than it was before. It just divies up how it was paid. I'll explain it to you after the meeting. There there is literally not a we, believe me, we were just downstairs for an hour before this meeting talking about how we might have to break the tax cap next year because the reassessment did not increase our levy. It would have been great if it did because we wouldn't be having that conversation, but it didn't.

Um, and with respect to the Meguire thing, you could preach to us all you want, but guess what? We kicked this one to you guys. We could have voted to approve it and done it on our own, but we didn't think that was the right thing to do. So, we decided making it a referendum and getting it to the community to decide would be the way it should happen. So, you can write me all the letters you want. Guess what? My vote counts the same as any one of yours. So, go Bills. Is that all you got? Yep. Sounds angry. I'm not angry, but that's that's the way this one's going now.

All right. Um, so let's let's start with Halloween. Uh, that will be from 5 to 8 on 10:31. So, again, be careful. All the kids will be out walking around. Uh it seems like it always rains at night and vis visibility is low. Let's keep an eye out. Um secondly, um the the uh town has put together a question and answer period, for lack of a better word, uh next Monday at 7 o'clock at the Golden Age Center to have to answer questions regarding this uh this uh referendum that is on the ballot. Tom Tom is right. I'll say it a little bit uh softer. It is it is up to you. It is really not up to us. The voting uh we all have one vote. You all have one vote. That's just the way it is. So, if you want to learn about the project and ask questions and get honest answers, feel free to come by. Um it's not going to be a debate. It's just going to be a question and answer. So, hopefully people that are uh not informed can come there and learn what's going on. Um Chris.

Yes, sir. Yeah. You live down the road. I'm going to be down for some of that jam. I hope so. You're my neighbor. Yeah. So, you you're my neighbor, by the way. Um so, uh with that, go Bills. And uh motion is in order to adjourn tonight's meeting at uh my phone is underwater. 8:40. So, moved. Second. Motion second. All those in favor say I.

Opposed? That carries? Please rise. Tonight we'll observe a moment of silence in memory of Alan Williams, Melvin Lobbit, James McGra, Kathleen Mentor. We're journ We're all out of science, so come on up.