Town Board - Regular Meeting

Yeah, it's on the email from the 13th. No.

They did that paving today on a solar project in Surrey. The front part of that driveway they were supposed to do a while ago, they finally did that today.

right how i hit you a little bit so the water wouldn't run down off of you still gets caught when this is daughter saying that did they do that or no it's fire level when i pitch back i was there i know you guys get help she screamed but she was loud as i said the rhyme maybe even proud

Let me know. We're ready. Thank you.

I'm calling to meeting the order. Attendance, please.

Supervisor Holdridge? Here. Councilmember Becker? Here. Councilmember Casares? Here. Councilmember Courtney? Here. Councilmember Gently is absent. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please stay standing just in recognition since we just had Memorial Day of all the people who served the country and made the ultimate sacrifice.

Thank you.

Did everybody review the minutes from the 13th? Yes. Are there any questions, debate points, suggestions? Nope. Seeing none, is there a motion to accept the minutes? I'll make the motion.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Summary bills, the town will be paying bills in the amount of $229,043.68. All right, is there a motion to open the public hearing on the Town of Chester 2027 CDBG application?

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

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Did anybody sign up to speak? All right, is there anybody who would like to speak on this? I'm just gonna read what we have from the engineers so far on the project that we are planning. So this would be the third year in a row that we are applying for grant funding. Unfortunately, due to the map for this specific grant, the only thing in the whole town of Chester that falls under the jurisdiction that you would be able to get grant money for is Carpenter Community Park. That is what we are going for again. Basically, this is from the engineer, the Carpenter Park parking lot rehabilitation project, which would consist of the repaving of the parking area, installation of new ADA spaces and signage and general pedestrian system striping layout in parentheses crosswalks. and general striping for the parking lot. The parking area is approximately 30,000 square feet. We cannot include Vidala Road in this from the intersection with Walnut Street to the converted parking area as that is considered a road improvement. He's going to be shooting somewhere between $125,000 and $275,000. Are there any questions or comments from the public? So seeing none, is there anything from the town board?

Yeah, straightforward. This is something we'll get a grant for this year. That'll be for next year.

So the way these work, so we've been, just for example we were uh we were awarded a grant back our first grant for cdbg back in 2024 we are now just start we now just started like we did the bid this year that so it's it's like a it's like a two-year turnaround time like by the time you get like an 18 month before you actually get the funds to do it right so we we we may know it once we apply for this grant we might know at the end of this year or the beginning of next year it just gives you time to plan oh yeah oh yeah and they're they're coming up with a full uh you know engineer report slash project scope in the meantime but we need to do this in order to be able to apply yep to get the grant yeah giuseppe do you have any questions nope i'm good bob good all right um is there a motion to close the public hearing i'll make the motion i'll second it all those in favor aye aye Is there a motion to approve of the scope that the engineer has so far written out? I'll make the motion. Is there a second?

I'll second it.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Oh, yeah. Well, I have two resolutions I need to read for this, so bear with me. okay so this is an authorizing resolution it's a formality that we need to do in order to be able to apply all right the town of chester is hereby submitting its application for consideration under the fy 2027 orange cdbg urban county consortium community development program and the chief elected official or executive offer officer is hereby authorized to submit this application for the sorry carpenter park parking lot rehabilitation project as described in the proposal. Input from citizens and groups have been received and considered and an application has been prepared, which addresses their community concerns. They further certify that they have bred and understood the Orange CDBG urban county consortium community development guidelines for the FY2027 program year and have met all of its applicable requirements and that the information contained in the application is accurate and true to the best of their knowledge. If awarded CDBG funds, the municipality shall implement the activities in a manner to ensure compliance with the applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations. Are there any questions or debate points? Is there a motion to authorize me to sign? I'll make the motion. Is there a second?

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. And then the other one, fair housing resolution. Town of Chester supports the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination by direct providers of housing, such as landlords and real estate companies, as well as entities such as municipalities, banks, and or other lending institutions and homeowners insurance companies whose discriminatory practices make housing unavailable to persons because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, nationality, familial status, or disability. This municipality further objects to discrimination in the sale, rental, leasing, financing, or of housing or land to be used for construction of housing or in the provision of brokerage services because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, nationality, or disability as prohibited by Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Therefore, the municipal council does hereby approve the following resolution. Be resolved that within available resources, the municipality will assist all persons who feel they have been discriminated against under one of the aforementioned categories to seek equity under federal laws by filing a complaint with the New York State Human Rights Law and US Department of Housing and Urban Development as appropriate. Be it further resolved that the municipality shall publicize this resolution and through this publicity shall cause owners of real estate developers and builders to become aware of their respective responsibilities and rights under the federal fair housing law. be it further resolved that the municipality will at a minimum include but not be limited to one the printing and publicizing of this resolution a fair housing public notice and other applicable fair housing information through local media community contacts and placement on the municipal website and in social media to distribution of posters flyers and other any other means which will bring attention to those affected the knowledge of their respective responsibilities and rights concerning fair housing. Is there a motion to approve this resolution? I'll make the motion. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. All right. Public comment. So we have Monica first.

Good evening, Supervisor Holdridge and members of the board. My name is Monica Twarog and I'm here on behalf of IPA Power, the developer behind the proposed Hamiltonian energy storage project. I want to make sure we're all operating from the same premise tonight. A ban on battery storage technology does not approve or reject any specific project or location. It eliminates the process by which any applicant could ever earn that scrutiny. The town spent nearly two years drafting a siting ordinance designed to protect residents through rigorous public review. Tonight's proposal replaces that work with a blanket prohibition. Those are very different things and I think that distinction deserves to be a part of this conversation. The regional grid need is real. NYSO has a projected transmission security deficit exceeding 600 megawatts in the lower Hudson Valley by 2030. The Sugarloaf substation sits directly at the center of that problem. Battery storage directly addresses it. On the topic of safety, I understand the concern and I want to address Warwick directly. That incident was traced to a known manufacturing defect in a system returned to service without a required certificate of compliance. Failures that your drafted signing ordinance makes structurally impossible. Independent engineering review, mandatory commissioning approval, and automatic fire department notification are requirements, not recommendations. Air monitoring following the incident confirmed no public health impact and no offsite contamination. The safety protocols held even when the operator did not. If the board believes the signing ordinance needs to be stronger, we urge you to make it stronger. A ban is not a more cautious version of the law. It is an abandonment of it. Whether this vote goes our way or not, IPA is committed to this community. We're asking for the opportunity to be held to the highest possible standard and to prove through your own process that this project deserves to be built here. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Brian Ross.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Brian Ross. I've been attending the last few meetings. I just had a couple of questions and I needed some clarifications that perhaps you can help me with tonight. And as I'm speaking, I'll try to keep it within the three minutes, but it's very low attendance. Perhaps I get an extra minute or two. If I say anything that's inaccurate, or inappropriate or anything, please stop me and say that's not correct in this way that I won't carry on with something that's totally wrong. When I was at the last meeting regarding the IPA power presentation, it was a lot to absorb in a short period of time. What I did absorb was that supposedly if it worked out, the town would receive about $282,000 a year from them. In addition, they would also develop approximately 150 jobs. However, the dangers of the IPA power presentation was certainly strong, very strong from the people that came up. So it is a very tough call regarding that. What I did a little research is that this morning by my home, there was a problem with the solar farm. Now, we have a solar farm that's approximately 200 yards from my home. And as you go closer to it, there are houses that are within 20 yards of the solar farm. So I looked at some information regarding a solar farm. And here were the downside, ecosystem disruption, soil degeneration, hazardous materials that are panels that can be toxic because they're heavy metals, disposable problems because they have a lifespan, the aesthetics of it, which is horrible, and they also can trigger fuel fires because of faculty wiring and the vegetation that grows that could cause, depending on the climate, could cause problems. There are a lot of solar farms in this area. And while that is okay, And the other one of the higher power presentation is denied basically forever is just something I did question a bit. Is it dangerous? Yes. Would I want to buy my house at this point? No. However, to totally dismiss it to me is not the right approach, but that's just my opinion. Okay. In addition, the revenue that it could bring into the town could actually help the town. It can help with budget crisis. It can help with revenue. It can help with job growth. As you know, job growth is vital to any kind of community. The more jobs we have and the high paying jobs and union jobs, better off everybody is, particularly since we still have about eight percent of the population in Chester living at or above the poverty level jobs. Those jobs could be unbelievably welcome to them. Now, I did look at the budget. not the budget i did look at the audited financial statement that was just out about may 9th on page 8 of that it did state that the town last year received additional revenues most of it from the sale of sugarloaf now that was put into the obviously the town general pot and i'm not sure how it was used but i'm making the assumption it may have been used to keep the taxes at a reasonable level raising taxes at a rate that it was is unsustainable especially for seniors like myself who basically live on a fixed income. That is not easy to do regardless of how much money you have, how much savings you have, and how much income you have. It is a challenge that I didn't realize how hard it is until actually living through it. You have to be careful with everything. So it's something where to negate that totally may be not so good, all right? Secondly, and this you can jump in, I'm not certain why in the agenda, certain items on the agenda are voted on with an IRNA of small dollar amounts, while other items on the agenda, which are gigantic, are not seen to be voted on. For an example, in the May 13th, You voted on a $170 class fee for one of the accounting departments to go to a seminar. The town should pay for that. They shouldn't have to vote on that. It should be an automatic. You got to pay for it. And also the refund request for the $115 for the resident who couldn't attend the bingo cruise. All right. I mean, is that going to matter to anybody? It is what it is. The previous one, there was also money that you voted on, which was small dollar amounts. One was a $220 refund to the two Statue of Liberty trip guests. Individuals can't make the trip. I don't even know why you approved that. They couldn't do it, but you gave it to them anyway. That's tough luck. They couldn't do the trip. Why shouldn't the town pay that? And it was also some small dollar amounts.

The town didn't pay for anything. They paid for a ticket to be able to go on the trip, and then they couldn't go back anymore.

But did you reimburse the money?

To the people? Yeah, so we gave them back their money that they paid.

Okay, it was just the way it read. It read that they couldn't make it. Yeah, no, no, no. That would be like me going to getting tickets to Sugarloaf and saying, I can't make it, and then going to Sugarloaf on my money back. We didn't pay for anybody to go. Okay, great. I'm glad you interrupted me, and I'm straight on that. That's great. So...

but yet there was no vote on the bills. So I can explain that. In the past, before we had a comptroller and all the different things that come with having a comptroller, we did have to individually vote on the bills and such. But now that we have a comptroller, the laws are a little bit different. He goes through the bills, and then I approve the bills by signing them off. And then this board only needs to be notified of the bills. The board can always audit the bills at any point and bring something up at any point, but there doesn't need to be a vote on the bills anymore.

And we actually receive an email with a list of all the bills that are being paid that we review.

Yes.

OK, that I would not know because it just says here that you paid the bills.

It is the law that we have to notify both the board and the public, like with it being on the agenda. So that's why that's there.

I mean, I'm not expecting to to show itemized on every single bill here. I mean, that would be ridiculous. But, you know, when you're paying out over a million dollars, including tonight's worth of bills, And then there's special ones for $115. You start questioning, like, why are these itemized and these are not? Basically, government is weird sometimes, and this is just how it is with bureaucracy. But I assure you, we're doing everything to the letter of the law. I'm sure you are. And thirdly and lastly, I did receive, as you know, in my earlier meetings, I was really upset about the amount of the fines for false alarms. So I did some more research into it. And basically, by what can I do, I asked people, is this a fair amount for a false alarm? I don't know that many people in the town, to be honest with you. But the people I did speak to, they all said it was much too high. And that includes my son, who would say pay it no matter what, because that's him. He's a lawyer, and all he wants is to follow the law, and that's that. But he even said that's a little too high. But I did get the $100 summons, the fine. I did pay it. I did get a receipt for it. However, I thought there was an opportunity there. It's too high. It actually wasn't fair. I didn't deserve it. The alarm went off because my dog was running after a rabbit. I went upstairs. I got the phone. I finally reached the alarm company. The alarm company canceled the call. The police came anyway. And on the ticket, it said try to cancel. So the police had the opportunity to either come or not come.

I'm just going to interrupt because you gave me the opportunity to. I just wanted to let you know that we've had some discussions about that. I actually reached out to the fire district and the police department and such, and there's been some discussions behind the scenes on that. I'm waiting to hear back from some other town board members about it. I just want to let you know that it's not being ignored. It's still being discussed.

I'm sure it's not. I understand because I do trust that you're going to eventually at least reconsider that. It's not going to help me. But again, $100 is $100. $100 to somebody, it changes. Again, it goes back to seniors. I would have got that ticket. I'm 76. I would have got that ticket whether it was 76, 86, or 96. It didn't matter. It just was uncalled for in that particular instance. Because I could have been 86, walked out there with a walker or a cane, and I'm still going to get a summons for $100? It just seems... There are ways of doing that where it didn't have to be like that. You could expand the time between one alarm and the next. Now I'm under real pressure. Now I have a date where I got the second summons, and now I got to worry for six months. If I get another one, it's $200. God forbid that it's a trip on the stairs going up from my basement, and I can't get to the phone in time, that's $200. Then it could be $300. Then it could be $400. And then I can go to jail. That's what it says. So I'm being dramatic about it because it bothered me. If I'm wrong, I'm on.

I think it's a good effect. The drama is, I think it's very good. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And then Ryan.

I don't know that I could follow that act with the same amount of emotion. A little over six weeks ago, members of the community foundation approached Brandon and asked for some support watering plants that they were planning on putting out on the main stretch there. The feedback that we got after a little bit of time was that there was not full support of the town board to pursue it with the highway department and that it was not at that moment likely that the town would be able to help with watering these plants. The community foundation went ahead and planted some of what they have. They did planters on the ground throughout the community and they've been watering them this weekend. They got plenty of rain, so it wasn't an issue. But there are still a bunch of hanging planters that we would like to put up, but definitely need support in taking care of. Giuseppe joined us at our last community foundation meeting and stated full support for getting whoever from either the parks department or some other department at the town to help take care of these plants once we put them in. Yes, I did. thank you um the the community foundation just we we want to get some sort of official word before we go out people donate the flowers and donate their time in order to get it all up and so before they go and do it we just we're asking if it's possible to get some sort of formal support to know that uh we'll definitely have the town there to help take care of them Yeah, that's it. Prompting the continued conversation.

Yeah, I'm still in favor of the Parks Department helping out with the watering of the plants.

Great. I think that's where Giuseppe was at as well. Correct. Good.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And I was in favor from the get-go because that's our business improvement district. So we're going to call it that and we're going to treat it as such. I'm going to do sidewalks and that. I think we do have to have a little skin in the game as far as that goes. And I don't think that's a big ask.

Great. Thank you so much. That sounds like a majority and we really appreciate that. Thank you.

All right, is there anybody else that would like to speak tonight in person? Seeing none, is there anything online?

Okay, anything else?

All right, we'll move on to reports just as soon as I'm done with this. Well, we'll start with the town clerk. Does the town clerk have any reports?

do actually so two reports one of which has to do with the water districts um this is provided to the town board on a quarterly basis now it it explains the revenue and consumption of each of the water districts i'll quickly read that uh walton lake had a consumption of two million nine hundred sixty one thousand with revenue totals of $29,610. Surrey had $3,159,000 and their revenue was $31,590. Lake Hill Farms was $6,659,000 and their revenue was $66,590. Sugarloaf Hills has Consumption of $2,513,000 for a total revenue of $25,130, and field crest had $547,000 for $5,470. So what used to be reported semiannually is now being reported quarterly to the board. I wanted to follow up, as I mentioned in a former meeting, I did attend the New York State Town Clerks Association Conference, and there were certain things that were discussed there that I think are very important and need to be addressed by the town board, some of which is a little bit in advance of that requirement but it will be coming so I thought I would just give some information about it. So that conference brings together over 900 town clerks from the state of New York and there is a lot of robust education and this year there was no exception to that. many topics that were discussed range from the freedom of information to open meetings law to games of chance along with social media policy artificial intelligence and human trafficking so there was much to be learned in that three-day conference but two of the topics of most notable concern center around recently enacted legislation that affects local government First, Section 1109 of the Ag and Markets Law, which was amended and became effective in December of last year, It affects the licensing of dogs in the state of New York, and the law now provides for the voluntary contribution to the local animal shelter contracted by town. So in our town, it would be Warwick Valley Humane Society. So our provider or vendor who provides the licensing program is in the process of working on those forms. We expect them to be available possibly in June. That was the target date. And so all licenses going forward for any residents who own dogs in the town on their license form, they will have an option to make a donation to the Warwick Valley Humane Society. So this is over and above their licensing fee. And If they should decide to do so, that monies will be set aside in a special fund separate from any revenue funds of the town. And on an annual basis, that money would be turned over to the Warwick Valley Humane Society. So it's not an option for us to do. It is an option obviously for the public, but it does give them an opportunity to make donations when they renew their renew or purchase a new dog license. So it's pretty straightforward, and as soon as it becomes ready by the vendor, we will start to utilize those forms. The more involved law that was passed has to do with Title II of the American with Disabilities Act, the ADA. So the Department of Justice's final rule updating has specific requirements about how to ensure that web content and mobile applications are accessible to people with disabilities. This rule sets a specific technical standard that state and local governments must follow to meet their existing obligations under Title II of the ADA for web and mobile app accessibility. Needless to say, it's quite involved and it will take the work of our IT, our webmaster, myself, and anyone who will be utilizing our social media platforms in order to engage the public that may have disabilities. So this initiative will be started in the next few months. And there is a deadline. It was postponed somewhat. Originally, it was meant to go into effect this April, but it has been extended to April of 2028. And I think we'll need that time to get it ready. for public consumption, but it is something that we will be working on going forward. And I will keep the board updated on that as soon as I have that information.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

All right. I'll add in two reports then. We have the Chester Conservation Advisory Council. They had their fourth repair cafe back in April 25th. They welcomed 82 residents, and there was a four-hour period. A total of 19 people, including 12 repair coaches, four CAC members, and three community residents volunteered. The skills that made this latest Repair Cafe event a resounding success included sewing, sewing machine repair, Jesus, sharpening, lamp repair, mechanical and electrical repairs, fixing jewelry, gluing, and digital repairs, support for the repair coaches, including readers, registration, photography, creating posters and displays, engaging with the public with conversation, conservation information, answering questions, as well as conducting exit interviews. Statistics. There was 82 residents that requested 170 repairs. A whopping 36 people attending were first timers to any repair cafe. 44% of attendees who had either never even heard of a repair cafe concept before this event and or never attended one as well. Oh, that was 44% of the total. One local gentlemen saw the sign, came in, we showed him around. He liked what he saw and volunteered to help with the next events, which was nice to hear. Of the 170 items that were requested, 76 sharpening jobs in knives, scissors, gardening tools, 17 lamp repairs, 24 sewing repairs, three sewing machine repairs, 20 electrical slash mechanical repairs, 22 jewelry repairs, six gluing repairs, and two computer slash digital repairs. Of the 170 that were brought in, 158 were successfully repaired, leaving it with a 93% success rate. 12 items, 7% were not able to be repaired for assorted reasons, including motor shorted out, needs a new zipper, damage beyond repair, glass not safe to repair, gears stripped, bent, control arms, control board failure, needs silver solder, and among other things bottom line it was a success in repairing 158 items that are now reusable instead of in the landfill and there is a lot more information in the rest of the report but i will leave it at that i just wanted to thank the conservation advisory council and all those who helped make that event a success it's been quite successful since we started this back in 24. All right. Some of you may have seen my posts earlier, and I know the board members have gotten my email, but you might not have seen it yet. It came in a couple hours ago. The company that's been contracted by the DOT to pave the rest of 17M from the Route 94 intersection, which is basically McDonald's, CVS, and the two gas stations, all the way down to the end of goshen that is now going to be happening it should start on june 8th so expect obviously traffic but hopefully they did not give a timeline but there is now a light at the end of the tunnel for the the paving of the rest of that road so i think that's pretty good news And I'm sure most of you already know, probably because your commutes were already disrupted in the last couple of days slash week. But there is ongoing work at the intersection of Kings Highway, Leone Lane, and LaRue Road. That is a county DPW project. They're reconfiguring the intersection and removing the concrete dividers at the Leone Lane end of the intersection. So please continue to expect some delays, but they're making good time. They expect it to be done by the end of next week, so I imagine that timeline will be kept or possibly bleed into the next week, depending on any sort of delays or weather. But it's moving along, so it's a pretty quick project, thankfully. I've been speaking to the highway department. They have seen a very low turnout for weekend brush disposal. In the past, they have offered Saturday every month for weekend brush disposal during most of the year. They are going to be cutting that down due to just the very, very low turnout. They don't believe that it's worth paying the overtime and scheduling somebody on a weekend when no one's coming. So from now on, from here on out for the rest of this year at least, there are only going to be two more weekend brush disposal opportunities on June 13th and November 14th. That's June 13th and November 14th. They're going to see how this goes and reassess at the end of the year to see if we should keep it next year like that where there will only be like two to four opportunities or maybe do every other month or go back to every month. But they want to see how this goes.

Can I just ask a question? Did they – and maybe I missed it. Did they put out anything to say – when they're doing it, because I know in the past, talking to residents, there were a lot of people that were interested in having that and it was a complaint, so I know it probably came about. I'm not the only one that was hearing it, I'm sure. But okay, it was posted and whatnot.

Yep. All right. And then I wanted to congratulate Kiwanis on another successful 5K. I wasn't able to make it this year due to a wedding, but I heard it went very well. I ran in your place. Oh yeah? How did you do? I came in first. Oh really? I don't know. I didn't see him go by. I'm still running. What are you talking about? I do want to congratulate somebody I do know that ran, Deputy Clerk Michelle Ruiz. So congratulations to her. And I believe her son ran.

Yes, he was fourth in his age group. I thought it was third. I believe it was fourth.

Oh, okay. Well, regardless, congratulations to both of them and anybody else who ran. Good job. And then I also wanna congratulate the Sugarloaf Chamber of Commerce on another successful spring festival. Unfortunately, it was raining again, and unfortunately I wasn't able to attend this year for the same reason, but I heard it went well. In the last month, just some highlights from me. I volunteered at the congregate dining a couple times. That's always a wonderful event for those who want to come and enjoy a meal with some people at the senior center. Thank you to Orange County for working with us on that. I was working with Congressman Ryan's office on some mailbox issues that are pervasive in the Sugarloaf area. So I'm continuing to do that. Although the USPS is much more difficult to reach nowadays, I have been targeting multiple grants with the grant writer and Senator Skoufis' office and some residents in Chester about all the playgrounds in town, mainly Carpenter and the Commons, but also Oak Street. So the board will be informed of that as that goes on, but we are are targeting some grants which could be helpful to making those places better and then suggestion sheets have been posted at all except for pulverin at this point the pulverin park should be receiving it soon these sheets basically they're not actually suggestion seats but basically it's an informational sheet where it gives the information to be able to contact the parks department if you have a suggestion about that park um or a complaint of some sort uh so be on the lookout for those uh do we have anything in place for the follow-up on that because the worst thing we do is ask for a suggestion and nobody's no it's like it's like if i believe it's the phone number and also the email yeah yeah so people That'd be the worst thing to do all that. It goes right to Michelle and Kristen. So they're on it. Um, and then, uh, parks, uh, all the signs have now by now received their, uh, rules and their new updated rules signs. And, uh, Joe McKernan is continuing to restore all the signs in town. Uh, the only one left is, uh, the police sign at this point. Uh, but that is on hold because he has a high volume of orders right now, but that is the last one that he needs to do. So he'll be doing that. as soon as he can. And then by then, we will have a complete set of beautiful signs. I don't know if anybody's noticed them, but he's been doing this for the last probably six to nine months. I think he started with the town hall sign in Knapp's View, and they are really wonderful. So thank you to Joe. And that's it for me. We'll start with Councilman Courtney.

i really don't have anything just i was at the kawanas run on saturday helping out and then at the memorial day memorial um i know councilman cassara and becker both were there and linda was also there um and then just we're we're rocking and rolling on contracts very good deputy supervisor okay uh excuse me at the greens of chester the water main installed this winter will be chlorinated on monday

from the entrance of Whispering Hills through the pump station and onto one street with completed homes. After two consecutive days of passing bacteria samples, they will be able to activate that new main and assuming once the building inspector does his approvals and the water department gets a meter put in, there'll be people moving in very soon. Also at sewer pump station 3A, a new pump manifold has been installed. this week and they ran into an actual issue today with a 10-inch valve just outside the building that had been shut off for this work. They were unable to open it, but they were thankfully able to dig down and get that valve back opened up and it's back in operation. So that put the plant back in operation and not on bypass. At Wall Lake Estates, the new pump skid has been installed. and the old pressure tanks there have been taken offline and in the future they hope to have them removed. A new control panel is scheduled for next week, so hopefully they can get that done. At Sugarloaf, the water district adjustments had to be made to the proposal went to the health department for the location of the new well our engineer was submitted submitting a new location and once that update is done the health department will give approval uh chris is currently getting pricing from well drillers to get that work done and he also has to get the hydro geologist to give him some numbers on the 72-hour pump test Also a solar company that placed the power connections for their project that they did solar by Surrey, by Vivian Drive have been paved and I'll check on the entrance to make sure they did it as per what we had requested. Also, there's been a bunch of emails going around about the trees at the Carpenter Field Park. I did have an opportunity to take a look at them. I know one resident complained about a limb falling off a tree that's basically alive, but we have one tree I feel is going to be very important for us to take care of as soon as possible. It's a cherry tree. It's basically four trees in one. It's about 90% dead. It's actually in a section where there's an entrance off of Maple Avenue into the park.

So it's- Is that included in the trees that Michelle, you guys were looking at?

Yeah, they're looking at that. So I think from a discussion I had with Kristen right now, she's also reaching out to tree companies to get additional pricing and making sure that a prevailing wage is part of that. and if and she's getting prices individually on the tree so we can get what we need done now and i think that's our priority not so much to treat it we're getting to complain on but this is a tree i feel is a safety concern for us because of the entrance of the park being there all from april so once we get numbers i think we should really considered doing something with that tree.

I thought it was the opinion of the Parks and Rec Department to wait until after the season is over.

Well, this is my opinion.

I understand that. I just wanted to speak your mind. Okay.

Okay, understood. I just feel it's important that we consider that.

That's fine. Throw in my two cents, and if we're going to do that, I don't know if it'll be... There'll be, I don't know if there's a cost savings to doing it all at once, because you're going to have to come out and mobilize and do it. Now you're going to come out, take down a tree. I agree, because you caught me today on it, that we should take down and have them come back out again.

Well, the concern is also the access to the other locations, to one tree where the person is complaining. The access is very difficult from the park side of the... you know, where the tree is located, it's actually hanging over a fence line of a residence and gaining access to that residence to get the work done is going to be complicated. And the cost is going to be complicated because if you have to use additional equipment such as a crane and everything like that, it's going to greatly increase the cost. And I don't think that our highway department has the time right now to be able to handle all of what needs to be cleaned up.

I understand. I'm just saying we're going to look to get a company to do it and then come out and mobilize. I think we would be more cost effective if we just bit the bullet and did it all at once as opposed to having to come out. But that same issue with that tree is still going to exist if we just do one tree now or four trees.

I'm just looking at the safety concern for the people more than the other ones are. inconvenient you know they have to be taken care of in the future they can possibly wait but i i but my outlook i feel that the big charity is there let's ask the question uh well we'll get the numbers further i agree because i think we may i mean the number we're seeing right now to take all three of them it was like about twelve thousand dollars which i think is reasonable but he is a you know I don't know that he's able to do the prevailing wage part of this, which may increase that cost. And some of the other companies that can do the prevailing wage may be much higher. So we may not have the funds to do any of it, but I would like to consider to getting the main one done.

I think we got like 60,000 in the Parkland fund, but we also have the electrical issue too.

So there's a lot of things. And as far as electrical goes, I know we're looking at, replacing those lights or doing something with that. In discussion with Kristen, she felt that with what's going on with the parks now and the actual age of some of the groups that are using the park, more than likely they would not need the lights that often this year as they had had in the past but they may need it in the future so we may not have to rush and get into this project that quickly we have to and by the time we go through all the steps to get lights and everything else and the whole proposal we may not get it done this year anyway.

I found a grant that has a deadline of July 31st for that.

For application?

Yeah. So the applications due July 31st, meaning we're probably not going to hear back on the actual award decision much later than that. So if it can wait to replace those, that's actually good because we have some time.

And it gives more time to feel it out. And the only other option we really have that we can get done right away would be the control panel for what we need you know the control panel needs to be changed and then the lights so it's something i don't think we should rush through take our time get it done right yeah and she said there's a possibility we really don't need we'll get by this year without those when are the baseball and softball um seasons they run through october november that's that's the only time those ball fields are used there is from march 8th through

Okay, that's fine. Okay, good. Okay.

That's it for me. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilman Cassara.

okay um it was mentioned earlier that I attended the Sugarloaf Community Foundation meeting and two things were just brought to my attention um the digital speed detectors that going into the Hamlet are not working properly yes we have somebody look at that yeah a couple of years I've been working on it okay that's good and the second thing was is that we were in discussion about the future paving of that road through the Hamlet and my understanding is that the county is going to be responsible doing that right okay but there seems to be quite a few obstacles that are in the way of that paving that are like railroad ties and in the parking areas that probably the highway department maybe could help us move that i'm already yeah i've been in contact with a lot of the residents out there and we are

having the highway department and the engineering firm look at the right away maps. And I've asked the residents to send me a list of addresses that want to work with the town to see where the railroad ties should and should not be per property. So they should be there. I'm waiting on their list of addresses basically right now so they can go out there and look at it and see if they can move the railroad ties to make the paving job easier and makes the snow plowing in the future easier. Okay. Yeah.

and then also possibly with uh depending on monies or grants that we come through that there might be more curbing possibly in the future curbing what do you mean more belgian block curbing connecting uh one end to the other or any missing parts yeah i mean that would be that would be another grant probably because you have to imagine the amount of belgian block curbing that uh sidewalks that we got

you've seen it obviously, that was $400,000 worth. And so just to get that little amounts on both ends. So we would definitely wanna seek more grant funding if we wanna do more of that in the future.

I just want to make sure that everything is thought about in the process, which wherever comes first, whether the paving comes first, which probably will before any new curbs go in, that we have to make sure that any alignment that needs to be done in the future is seen now and not problematic later if the paving is done first.

I don't think we're anywhere near getting any new money for more sidewalks anytime soon.

I think we're gonna have to concentrate on sewer issues right now.

We have issues coming up.

In the future. Yes. That's something to consider. So when we do the paving, we have to make sure that anything that might come to us money-wise, that we're gonna do curbs there in the future. that we have to take in consideration now, the paving, how everything's going to align so this way we don't mess anything up in the future. Do we have to do the paving right now? I mean, that road is...

The paving needs to be done. What's it called? The county wants to get it done. And it's their... We're getting a free paving from them, so we're kind of at their... I'm ashamed we can't push that back because the road's not that bad. Right. That's what was originally discussed, but with... We want to do the stamping. The sidewalk and the pedestrian improvement project isn't technically complete yet. We need to do the stamping of the walkways. They are going to be working on the pocket park at the intersection of Pine Hill Road and Kings Highway. They should already be. If not, they're going to start soon. and then one or two other minor things. But basically, we can't do the stamping of the walkway until we get this paving done, because the paving will completely ruin the stamping. And I know they also want to do more aesthetic projects, like coloring the walkways, not like the raised crosswalks, but the painted, striped walkways, doing some aesthetic you know, like colorings like, you know, we had the students do the coloring on the crosswalks. Yes. And everything. And I know that they also want to work on lighting in the in the hamlet. So there's things that just this this paving needs to get done before we start anything else. So That's what's happening. The county DPW said that they would like to get the paving done this summer at some point. So they're going to let us know ahead of time as much as possible before. But right now, yes, we are being proactive and trying to work with the residents on the railroad ties and the right of way.

Yeah, because parking is an issue as well up there.

Was that it, Councilman? That was it. I'm done.

Thank you.

we're trying to make sure is that we make a curve available for when they paid so it's clear where things where the road ends and where the grass or the sidewalk or whatever there's yes what is the next step that you need a list of addresses where the highway department

Yeah, I let Nick, Richard, and Jeff know that they need to provide to us addresses and contact information for the properties so I can have the engineer and the highway department meet them out there and show them you're good where you're at or you need to move it back a couple inches or a couple feet or wherever they have it if you want more space for parking in front of your shop or your property. Yeah. Because if you have it all aligned, then the county said they're not going to promise anything, but they're going to do their best to pave shoulder to shoulder as much as possible. Yes. That they're going to try. They're not obligated to, but they said that they're going to try. So the most that we can do, we're going to do. I'm going to try to twist their arm to do it. That's exactly what's going to happen. Yeah, so... All right. Any other reports or announcements? Seeing none, we have regular business. Deputy Clerk Heidi Schmidt requests to attend the NYALGRO annual conference. It's from June 7th to 9th. There's no cost due to scholarship award. Are there any questions or debate points?

No.

Seeing none, is there a motion to approve?

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

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. linda you'll let heidi know i'll be going with her good all right five wood road sewer addition plan um the property is requesting approval of their plan to connect their sewer system to the district i had the building inspector uh email the board um it was brought to my attention that you know i'm not sure whether or not we are ready to actually take action on this. But I just wanted to give, I know Tom said he had a few words on this. I just wanted to, the reason why I'm saying what I'm saying is because I'm not sure if Liz needs to whip up some sort of agreement between the property owner and the town in terms of their plan and such before we give final approval. But go ahead.

okay so this project is something that's been going on for a while this resident has had problems for many years and he's thought about you know having this hookup done he's finally you know wanting to get it done i actually had talked with jamie down the mood in the basin and i told him that you know this project has to come before us for approval uh i know there needs to be a written agreement we could either do this through brian Brian Nugent, who is the Muda Basin attorney and is familiar with all the aspects of this. But there's going to be a pump associated with this and everything else that's going to stay private to that homeowner, unlike many of the other situations at Sugarloaf where the town of Chester is responsible for the pumps and everything else. So this being that they're coming in without paying into the sewer district in the past, they're gonna be required to do everything themselves and they'll maintain their own equipment in the future. And that has to be written into that contract and that's something possibly Brian could work with Brian Smith and make sure that everything's in there that we need that Liz may not know about.

Okay.

And this has, I believe Andrew stated- It has to be a written agreement before we can basically sign off on it.

But as of right now, the plans have basically the sign off of the building inspector and our engineer and the MUDA.

and the highway departm originally they wanted to the roadway in a long dis want you to go directly a the impact on the roadwa changed in a new plan tha a final written agreement approval of all of our se all good.

We have the ca helping one of our consti

Moodle Basin doesn't have an issue with it. And it's just a matter of designating that contract to make sure it has everything in it that Moodle had discussed with them.

Could you reach out to Liz and Brian and figure out who should be doing this?

I'll reach out to Liz and see what her thoughts are.

Yeah. If Brian Nugent's the better person to do it, then let's just have him do it.

I'll reach out to Liz and see what her thoughts are. Cool. Thank you, Tom. And I'm not sure how busy she is, so it might be a blessing to her. She's always busy. I'm sure Brian's always busy too.

And who's doing the inspections to make sure that connection is done correctly? Is that the engineer or who's doing that?

They have an engineer that's, these are engineered plans, so it's going to be up to their engineer to confirm that this is built.

They have somebody going out in the field and checking?

Okay. If we sign off on this agreement, it's going to be up to them through their engineer to certify to us that this has been installed to our specifications.

As long as somebody's doing an inspection, that's fine.

Anytime it's done through an engineer, anything septic, it's up to that engineer to confirm it. Okay. because he's putting a seal on it.

All right, resolution to set public hearing for amendments to draft comprehensive plan and zoning local law on June 24th. I have a resolution that I need to read. Resolution to amend the draft comprehensive plan and introductory law number 10 of 2020. That should be 2026. Not number 10. I guess it's a carryover. Disregard that. Oh, is it supposed to be 2025? Okay. Because it's from last year.

Yes.

Yeah. Okay. So it's introductory local law 10 of 2025. Okay. Whereas the town of Chester has undergone a multi-year comprehensive planning process, which includes the development of a draft comprehensive plan, correspondence, zoning amendments, and related environmental review. And whereas town board formally introduced the draft comprehensive plan and introductory law number 10 of 2025 on July 23rd, 2025. And whereas a duly noticed public hearing was held on October 22nd, 2025 together with a 10 day written comment period. And whereas the draft comprehensive plan and zoning amendments were referred to the town of Chester Planning Board in Orange County Department of Planning, and whereas upon receipts and review of oral and written public comment, the comments of the town of Chester Planning Board and the comments of the Orange County Department of Planning. The town board wishes to make the, I'm sorry, to make amendments to the comprehensive plan and zoning amendments and now therefore be resolved that the draft comprehensive plan is revised as per the red line annexed here too and made a part hereof And be it further resolved that section two of the introductory local law 10 is hereby amended as per the red line annex here too and made a part hereof. And be it further resolved that a public hearing shall be held on June 24th, 2026 at 6.45 PM or as soon thereafter as may be heard in town hall located at 1786 Kings Highway, Chester, New York, 10918. The town clerk is directed to cause notice to be published in the official newspaper at least 10 days in advance of the hearing. Be it further resolved that the proposed amendments shall be referred to an Orange County Department of Planning pursuant to general municipal law 239M and to the town of Chester planning board. So the moment we've all been waiting for is here. The comprehensive plan and zoning amendments have been amended since last year's public hearing. We've had to go, the reason why it's taken so long is because we had our engineer, I'm sorry, well, our engineering service, yes, but also our attorney go through line by line, every written comments, which there were many, to review and change as needed. There's been some meetings what's it called, work sessions between now and then with the town board members to go through specific items. There's been some hangups. We had to, well, we didn't have to, but we chose to retain special counsel for the religious use question, which we had a lot of members of the public come in on. Their memo, along with every other document possible related to the comprehensive plan and the zoning amendments are going to be available online. as soon as possible so everybody can review them, the updated plan and every supporting documentation possible. And yeah, we will have a public hearing on the 24th. I won't say what I was gonna say, but basically Liz foresees that we will need to do a subsequent review work session the day after which would be the 25th uh and in response to any further comments that we will receive at that public hearing or before that public hearing i'm hopeful that there won't be too much and we could just pass it on the 24th that's what i was going to say earlier now this is going to kill me um but uh liz foresees that we will not be able to pass it on the 24th So she foresees we will do another town work session on the 25th, and then she foresees that we should be able to pass everything on July 8th. And that will be passing the comprehensive plan, the zoning amendments, and we will be lifting the moratoriums that we have on the books. So the building moratorium will be lifted after nearly two years or two and a quarter years of having it so yeah um are there any questions or debate points or such about this resolution um and setting the public hearing no i'm good no i'm good let's get it done is there a motion to uh pass the resolution and set the public hearing uh as written i'll make the motion i'll second all those in favor aye aye wonderful Senior Center Mobile DMV Unit. This was a misspoke, misspeak by me. Linda, do you wanna just quickly explain?

sure um i've been asking the mobile dmv unit to come back to our senior center because it is a great service that is available to not only the seniors but the residents and they could just it's convenient it being at the senior center They're agreeable to do so, but they're no longer able to utilize the generator that is available at the senior center for that purpose. You know, I mean, obviously it's there for other reasons, but the DMV mobile unit could utilize the generator, but they tell me now that they cannot. And what they are requiring for us to do is provide a 50 amp service that they can hook up to the exterior. So through Rotolo, our generally contracted electrician for the town, we received a quote for $1,333.37 to install a 50 amp service. outlet at the senior center so that is the request for approval so we can continue to provide this service to the residents all right are there any questions debate points I just have a question um I think the service is great I just want to know in the past when we've had it we had did we have a good turnout a lot of people coming yes I believe so I think approximately number of people? I don't know.

50 people come 100?

Probably not 100. But I do recall there might have been a line, Chris, I think you might have been at one of them. No.

30, 40 people. Yeah.

I mean, I want to say there's been granted, you know, there's times when the DMV office is backed up and so people are happy to utilize this. There may be other times when DMV is more available. So it's hard to predict, but I just think that over time it's definitely a plus. I know Monroe basically has that pretty much every month yeah i know work does it too in june i would love to have you know a more frequent yeah uh service provided by them yeah dmv has become a little bit more complicated up there too in goshen because now you have to make an appointment my daughter spent about five hours up there the other day right well if you have a 10 o'clock appointment she was there for five hours right and with the enhanced id um you know it's there's a lot going on

Okay, I just wanted to see the number of people that do show up, whether it's worth spending the money or not. If you get two people, then... Oh, no, no. There's definitely more than two people. But if you get quite a few, if it's quite a bit, then the $1,300 is worth it. The complications that are going on in Goshen right now, this may be something that people are... But it's limited what they could do at the unit.

It's almost... It's pretty... Most services are available at the unit.

Yeah.

Most services.

All right, are there any other questions or debate points? No. Is there a motion to approve the request? I'll make the motion.

I'll second it.

All those in favor? Aye. All right, is there a motion to head an executive session for personnel and contract negotiations? I'll make that motion. I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. There will be new business on the way out. All right, is there a motion to come out of executive session?

I'll make the motion.

I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. The Orange County Bicycle Club Tour de Goshen is happening again. We did this last year and I believe the year before. I'm not really sure. I can't remember at this point. Formality, they just want to, they needed approval for their route, which some of it goes through Goshen. I'm sorry, Chester, the chief looked it over and is okay with everything. Are there any questions or debate points? No.

They should be providing insurance too. No.

yes that's so it's subject to that yes is there a motion to approve the request subject to their provision of insurance i'll make the motion second all those in favor aye are you going to reach out to me All right. And then we got a request from the Parks and Rec Department to advertise for our fireworks events on July 11th.

Public service announcement.

Yes. On the billboard. Are there any questions or debate points?

No. Who are you working with on this? Is this artwork that was previously done and it's the same thing going up or it's altered because of the date? Okay. And you're working through Matt or somebody else? Okay, very good.

Are there any other questions or debate points? No. Is there a motion to approve the PSA? I'll make the motion. Second. All those in favor? Aye. All right. Are there any other new business tonight? Is there any public comment? Nothing on mine? Is there a motion to adjourn at 8.33 and not 9? I'll make the motion. Second. All those in favor? Aye. We're adjourned at 8.33.