Mayor and Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

I'd like to make a motion to open the work session of the Village Board of Trustees. Second. All in favor? Aye. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Please be seated. First up this evening, we have Assistant Chief David Nice reporting on the fire department, please. You can go to the podium. We don't have a microphone over here. Thanks. It's been a while. Yeah. And the stenographer is going to need to transcribe from the microphone. Got you. Clear to speak directly into it.

All right. So David Nice representing the Marine Corps Fire Department. You guys have our monthly report. If you have any questions on that, I can entertain those. The biggest plus for us is that we are 138 calls behind last year. Not often you celebrate being behind. We celebrate being behind in this case. If there are no questions on the report, I have a few items that I'd like to bring up one the other day you may have noticed or you may have noticed over the last month that the siren was not operating properly it has since been fixed what had happened was the system that's in place here in the firehouse has a few components one of those components had gone bad and it just it's been fixed so now that when Southwelltown dispatches us It can dispatch properly either general tones or rescue tones and there's a timer involved now so that rescue tones do not go off between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. Again, that timer had not been functioning and one of the modules hadn't been functioning. It is now functioning properly. So should be moving forward, okay. Along with that, 9-11 this year, it is being requested by the South Old Town Chief Council that in recognition of the 25th anniversary, they would like all of the departments on the East End to have their sirens go off at specific times, like when the Trade Tower was hit, when the North Tower was hit, when the South Tower was hit, when the Pentagon was hit, when the South Tower collapsed, Flight 93 crashing in Pennsylvania, and the North Tower collapsing. They do a 10-second blast of the siren at each one of those times on that morning on 9-11. We're intending to participate in that. I just wanted to give everyone a heads up. We can let the public know in advance so that... People don't think we're going to get real worried. So that's the intent for that on that morning. The second one is for your treasurer. We're trying to redo the HVAC systems in both this house and the Flint Street Station. Our warden, Mike Reed, who's head of the buildings and grounds, made a valiant effort to try and get people to respond to our requests for the work to be done. He got one person to respond, has written a letter that he gave to us last night that I'd like to give to Adam, showing that he made a good faith effort to get other quotes, was not able to get them. The intent is to do a mini split system for this room, the chief's office. and I believe that's it in here, and then do the Flint Street Station at a separate one. So if it's okay, I'll give that to Adam on my way out. The other one is last night at our wardens meeting, Trustee Brennan has been working with Munson to finalize numbers on that fire boat. The wardens last night voted to move ahead with the adjusted specs and we would request that the village enter into a contract with Munson so they can begin fabrication of that boat. And we will continue to, as Patrick has done, we'll continue to fundraise towards it. But we're looking forward because there's a year and a half turnaround time. We'd like to get it going.

Glad to know the decision's been made and we can get going on it.

Absolutely. The other one is I have an application for membership that I need the clerk to sign. So I'll do that on my way out. And then the last one. is a silly one, the speed hump that's on Fifth Street. Some members of our substation are concerned that that engine over there is a fairly low engine. They're concerned that it may not make it over that speed hump. I haven't checked it out as of yet. I intend to get on and see if it looks like it's questionable. If so, we may come back to you and say, you know, we have an engine that's going to have some difficulty getting there in an emergency. They may have to reroute. It was brought to my attention and Chief Wayne asked me to bring it up to you guys today while I'm here.

I have one other because I went to the warden's meeting last night because of Halloween parade. Would you just shortly update the board about the ambulance discussion that you're going to pursue? The charging of the ambulances?

Yeah, we're starting to look into charging insurance companies for ambulance transports where the person has insurance. Other districts do it. municipal departments do it we're in the preliminary stages um i just actually sue is just getting off the phone with somebody who manages this for other departments and districts um the other two chiefs and myself are gonna have a discussion with him first and then there's likely to be a presentation by this person to the next warden's meeting to see where we can do this it will likely mean some sort of agreement between because we can't collect money obviously the village does so it'd be some sort of understanding that we can offset some costs but also if you work out into the future, we are eventually gonna go to paid or partially paid, that this may be a way to offset upcoming costs into the future.

That'd be fantastic. I had mentioned before that South Hampton Village was entering into one of these contracts. Yes. I know it's established and they're having some success with it.

Yeah, so we're in the very preliminary stages of it just to figure out where the pitfalls might be. And obviously for the community, we wanna keep this as free rescue squad for as long as possible, but we have, by last count, I think 22 EMTs, and we're doing nearly 1,000 calls, so that math doesn't, it works for a year or so, but after that, it's a pretty high burnout rate. Yeah, it certainly is.

I appreciate it, and congratulations again on a big, successful Chicken barbecue. Thank you. I know we had our highest ticket seller. Unfortunately, not with us any longer. He was missed, but many of us raised a glass to him that night.

Absolutely. All right.

Chief, did I see you responding to a call on Front Street an hour ago?

Yeah, there was a CO alarm, and it's situation normal.

Well, we appreciate you getting here for this earlier meeting. Of course. I just want to remind you that we need to work together on the fire department budget in advance of December. Yes. So I know it's only August, but as we head into the fall, we want to make sure we get our requests to Adam Absolutely. Before the end of the year?

Yes, and want to, again, revamp and encourage the board to accept our capital budget because moving forward, that's becoming increasingly important to us on an annual basis, not just now.

Any discussion that we need to have as a board is giving the fire department so you have access to Clark's Beach, so you don't have the scenario of having to cut the chains to get in?

Yeah. I was going to talk to the sewer department separately if it's possible to move those boulders slightly so we could launch our inflatable down there. We were there for a water rescue lap. Days are running together last weekend. And we ended up not having to launch, but we would have had to carry the inflatable quite a distance, and it would be nice if we could get those moves so we could at least back down in there. They had some difficulty with the key. I haven't gone to check to make sure that that key works. So they did cut the chain, and it's one length shorter than it had been.

All right. Well, if you want to coordinate with Jenna, she can assist on that. And then lastly, I know we'd sent a reminder to the fire department in regards to the Suffolk County Water Authority new pipeline. I hope maybe the department will consider, if nobody's going to speak this evening, to send a letter to the county in support of that. I know water pressure is an issue here and folks are concerned.

Yes.

i don't think any of us can make tonight but i spoke to 30 about potentially putting together some sort of letter in support of and we would uh we'd get that to you as soon as possible fantastic thank you sir thank you uh with that i would like to uh welcome sarah phillips of first and south restaurant the greenport business business owners association to speak on maritime festival which uh you and uh your cohort are hosting together with seaport museum

thank you again for that oh you're welcome cohorts there's four of us um i had to put in an amendment to my original application to utilize the park for friday night for the land and sea gala and i believe that is the reason that i am here correct unless there's other specifics you want me to get into yes and then what was the final decision on the closure or not of carpenter street No final decision. That was for the collective group to decide on.

If you could just speak to the request for that as well, because that was another addition.

Sure. So the additional asks are for the Friday night use of the park, which was already inclusive in the original application, was Friday night with Saturday and Sunday, packaging the whole festival as a weekend. And Saturday and Sunday, the closure for the festival streets is a request from both Greenport Harbor Brewing and Little Creek Oysters, as that street midday kind of naturally blocks itself off just due to walking traffic. I did speak with officer Latham and the chief yesterday at their event in the park. And they were saying not closing it off in the mornings would be helpful because there's a route there that uses the delivery trucks use. but doing something later. So I was assuming maybe 11 or 12 until four or five, whatever was convenient both for the police department, fire department, and would be helpful with village approval.

Great. And then I just want to thank you for taking the time to walk me through Mitchell Park and what you were looking to do with the setup for this gala and festival tent throughout the weekend. For the benefit of the public, the tent would be placed within the dances in the park seating area and that step down and depending on where you are, step down or stepped up. area along with some borders and funnels for folks to line up for that and then be utilized over the course of the weekend. How would you call it? Sort of the headquarters tent over the weekend?

Yeah, well it would provide weather resistance. It would be shade. It would be a place for us to host the other events that happen throughout the weekend and give people a centralized location within Mitchell Park. um one of the other reasons that it's important to host the gala in the footprint of the business district is because the business district is what takes the brunt of maritime festival both for residents and businesses and so this used to be the people's party used to be a celebration that happened behind the museum it kind of outgrew that space we had held it at Greenport yacht and shipbuilding company for years, but there's a transitioning happening there. And right now they're quite busy with their actual work. So getting them to clear the yard for us to put up a one night event there would be an extreme ask of Steve Clark and what he has going on there. So the quickest shift would be to bring this back into downtown Greenport on Friday nights. People can attend by foot. People can come and go as they please to other businesses. It is laid out within a timeline for the day. Thursday night it would be, or Thursday morning it would be erected. Friday could be inspected by our building inspectors for safety, load in, and management then throughout the weekend from the team that we've hired to run the festival.

Great. And then I know you also, of course, before doing it with me, walked in with Rick from the Marine and Parks Group and resolved some issues with that, which is fantastic.

I walked with the Parks Group twice this week. I worked with the installation team that I worked with when we used to host the gala at Clark's Shipyard. And I pretty much coordinated with every group that's affiliated with Maritime Festival.

for any of the rundown on their saturday or sunday events so whether it be within the water or on land everybody is in communications on how the weekend will get run you guys have done a great job communicating with everybody want to thank you for that event you hosted over at the little creek annex the other evening for the benefit of the public and business owners that was wonderful

Yeah, it's great getting everybody together in the same room. And a lot of people met for the first time, which is really important because when you're working in a festival of this size, not everybody sees what everybody else is doing. And so having a centralized location rather than just an email address makes a really big difference in a community.

Yeah, and lastly, before I turn it over to the rest of the board for any questions, just for the benefit of the public, as many folks may not be aware, the Land and Sea Gala has been hosted over at St. Harbor, just outside of Village Lines. in the town of Southhold for the past couple of seasons, which has been a wonderful gift to them, to the museum. But I know we've heard a lot of comments from the business community that they would very much like to see it back in the downtown district. So I think this is a wonderful opportunity to bring it back and centralize everything over the course of the weekend.

It would be an excellent compromise. I mean, the museum also had moved the gala to be a week or two prior to the festival. So the people that are here for the festival aren't necessarily a part of that or the people that are participating or the community that's participating. Having it on the Friday night just kind of wraps the whole weekend together. It's also a really nice night to celebrate the village, to celebrate our fire department, to celebrate Eastern Long Island Hospital, to like put everybody again in the same room together so that we can look at each other shake hands and appreciate the work that we've done here all the things that dave nice just talked about like a thousand calls for 22 emts that's crazy they should be there we should be celebrating them and doing this within the footprint of the village makes it much easier for anyone who's a working member of this community to attend even if it's just to come by and say hi it it makes it feasible yes thank you and glad we got joe corso out of retirement to help with the parade too

Trustee Julia, do you have any questions for Sarah?

Sarah, I'm just curious. After the fact, is there any way that you can collect some metrics on the attendance at the festival for locals who live here versus visitors? Because I know the festival is really geared towards the bid and the businesses, correct?

From what perspective? From your perspective or from the festival or the museum's perspective? Who's gearing the festival?

Well, this festival is not in support of the museum this year, correct?

15% of the proceeds do go to the museum. Absolutely. And we're working with them in tandem where they brought the regatta back. Because we've taken over the festival, the museum has been able to create a community rowing program. They've brought the regatta back on Saturday. They'll be doing a regatta celebration Saturday night. So this has enabled them to do things that are more within their purview and things that benefit their membership and the museum itself. So we're completely working in tandem.

That's my question, thank you.

Of course. And that was a very thoughtful summary that you guys put together and shared with the village board in regards to how you're managing expenses and ultimately proceeds.

Yeah.

Trustee Lilly?

So I was gonna ask a question you kind of just answered, but 15% of the proceeds of the gala and the whole weekend. The whole weekend. So the gala included.

Yeah, like the museum will be selling our maritime t-shirts at their table. Like that's how closely we're working together because we need each other to do this. The same way that I need to be here with everyone for me to do this.

And then the rest of the proceeds minus all your costs.

Minus all the costs. Then everything is in a separate account that's the whole Fast Fund account for Greenport Maritime Festival specifically. And so those funds.

Carry over for.

can carry over till next year and hopefully they can do some maritime programming throughout the year that's really our goal is to be able to help with downtown Greenport whatever the effects are or the before and after of a maritime festival and how we keep that voice existing year-round now that we've created this digital platform for it people can know the date immediately for next year people can see what time X Y or Z is there's a lot of I was kind of calling it like the Bermuda Triangle of communication because between the museum, the village, and the bid, there wasn't a centralized location that was just Maritime Festival. Everybody had a little bit of it in their pocket. And so now it has one home place that residents, visitors, anyone can actually access and see year-round. So it gives us more opportunity to show what Greenport is, what our working quarter front is year-round.

And I was just going to ask about, in terms of the park and the tent, the pie-eating contest, the hot sauce competition, and oyster shucking, and I'm sure you've thought about this, but just logistics of getting people in and out, and not like... the people like doing the work.

Participants?

Yeah, participants and or like trucks or stuff you need, just like logistics of that, which I'm sure you've thought about. I'm just, as I'm seeing it, I think these are exciting. Like I really miss the chowder contest. So I'm glad you're bringing stuff like that back. But just like having it in the park and thinking about like loading, unloading, stuff like that.

Yeah. So I've walked the park several times and met with a lot of the different committees that work here, the tree committee, the marina, the dock masters, etc. Of course, logistics is basically all I'm doing right now. I'm just walking in circles around this village, making sure that I'm touching base with every person that's gonna have a touch base for any of these events. The chowder contest does still exist. It happens in October, and Port does it for the museum, and they'll be doing it again this year in October. They've come on as a sponsor for this to help promote that. So again, going back to that backbone of the website, here's something that now we can make more public for everyone to understand and see goes on here. um the oyster contest the hot sauce contest the pining contest were all things that we created that are festival-like are something that should be within our festival but were created specifically with the brick and mortar businesses in mind to help encourage people to see what we have to offer here not just bring in outside vendors to showcase Greenport, but to truly showcase what we have here. And all of those events will have a community member and a sponsored member, and we've brought those people together, and they're all familiar with the village, so it'll be easier for Load In and Load Out. We have a couple different exit plans, a couple different entrance plans, and it's nothing really outside the purview of what happens at the festival every year. It's just one more thing instead of one less thing.

Gotcha. And then I guess the last question is about the gala and the tent. You said people could come and go, but there is going to be some kind of perimeter of keeping alcohol inside and making sure people have tickets and that type of thing.

Absolutely. There's a security tent, like a check-in tent, and anyone that's in the park will have access to the park as per usual. That was something that the dockmaster and the harbormaster wanted to make sure of. there will be all sorts of lovely coastal planting barricades and walls and other things that we can use to delineate between where this event is happening and what is going on in downtown Green Board in general. We've always hired security. I've never done any event without security. I just find that to be a necessary part of it. It doesn't matter if it's an accident that happens or if it's something that's purposeful. It's a necessary part of hosting something of this size.

Thank you.

My pleasure.

Sarah, I'm not going to ask any questions. I'm just going to compliment you and the group. You've done a lot of work. I've been watching it from the beginning, as you know. I think that you've been the most informative group of people on any event that's been presented in the village of Greenport in the past. And I think it grows a long way to bringing the community, the residents, and all the organizations together within the village. And it is. It's a community effort, and I really applaud you for it. Thank you.

It's been really invigorating doing it. It's really fun being involved again. For anyone that doesn't know, I was on the board for six years with the museum, and I had run just the Friday night. So I felt that I had the experience and the hands-on ability to take the festival over and kind of bring it to the top for everyone. So now everyone knows how the festival runs, not just a smaller group of people and everyone's asking questions from the sidelines. Now we're all involved, and everyone can do this together and celebrate it together.

Thank you.

Deputy Mayor?

I'll just echo Trustee Phillips. I think the planning has been really impressive, and I think you and your team, your collaborators are doing a great job, so I'm looking forward to it. The event, the communication has been excellent. Thank you. So it's very exciting. I just have one question about the closure on Parker Street. What's the limitations of the closure you're asking for?

It's just really... I guess the Chase parking lot through Greenport Shipbuilding. I'm not exactly sure how the police department would want to handle it and what closure would work for them with emergency vehicles. So I didn't put in a specific map with that request because I don't have the logistics on that. Everything else that I've requested, I've done the walking. This just was kind of brought to me a day ago. So I would love to walk that with Groton and Latham on Tuesday when we have our meeting or with one of yourselves. It just depends on who's coming with me.

I'll plan to come with you Tuesday. Great, yeah. Because I want to make sure I get that to the fire department correctly because that area always concerns them because of the access to that neighborhood.

Right. That's why I think if we do it, we can do it with an amendment and then just make sure we're not setting up vendors or anything there for this first year. We would leave it just for those businesses to have access and have like festival vibes, safety for children, just a passing through. And then if that's successful next year, we may ask for that to become something that's more part of the festival. But I think we need to work through that before we try to just shut down a new road and add something onto this in a way that could escape us. I would rather,

play it close to the best and make sure that we have everything lined up yeah we can move this forward and approve the amended application and the closure on carpenter subject to confirmation of working with each the fire department and the police department great i would love that whatever you guys need me to do i just wanted to make sure that i was timely and could get you on to your next meeting Great, thank you so much, appreciate it.

And I just wanted to say, Julia, thank you so much for all of your service. You have been volunteering with this village, well, voted in volunteering, but for a very long time, and I really do appreciate it, and I see you in the village all the time at night when I'm also here, keeping your eyes and ears on it, so thank you, and you'll be missed. Thanks, appreciate it.

Next up, Ms. Hall.

okay good afternoon everybody uh first up on my report is a list of announcements updates and reminders uh village hall will be closed on monday september 7th in observance of labor day Deer management, so every year the village has a deer management or hunting program. We are accepting applications right now through September 25th, so the application is on the website. You can also come to Village Hall to pick up an application. The board has, for the last two seasons, adopted something new where we award 15 permits for deer hunting season. It's first come, first serve. There is a system in place where they hang up their tags so that each other, they know who's in the designated area. So again, 15 permits are available, so please apply if you are interested. Hunting season runs from October 1st, 2026 through January 31st, 2027. Next up is a recommendation. So I am recommending, this is the first of the series of Village election announcements and updates. So as you may be aware, in 2025, there is a section on the Village website where a bunch of information will be loaded for both voters. community residents, and possible candidates. So that has not gone live yet, but my first in the series of updates about the voter, I'm sorry, about the village election, which is March 2025. I am recommending that the board votes to no longer offer voter registration days. So in the state of New York, villages offer two voter registration days. One is during the week, and one is on a Saturday. the reason for this is it's a pretty brian please correct me if i'm misspeaking at any point for this so the voter registration days is nothing different about voting in the village election so that's the first thing that everyone should understand these voter registration days are historically a i guess a courtesy that villages will offer to their residents This paperwork gets submitted to the County Board of Elections. So there is no separate registration to vote in the Village of Greenport election. So if you are already registered, you are registered to vote in the Village election. What I found is this, these two voter registration days, they just, contributed to confusion. Many people called to ask if they needed to register just to vote in our village election, which they don't. Those were the only calls that I received No one actually came to use these two days. So we staffed the Village Hall to offer this service and no one took advantage of it. With that said, there are voter registration forms always in Village Hall. So at any point in time, a person can come pick up a voter registration form. I will mail it for you if you don't want to mail it for yourself at Village Hall. There are many advances on how you can register to vote in comparison to when this law, I believe, was enacted. You can register to vote in New York State online. So I don't see the purpose in offering this date, these two days anymore, so I am recommending that this board vote to no longer offer these days. Does anybody have any questions? I feel like this...

um may startle people but so what would the difference be and just a point of clarification um next election is march of 2027. yes um what would the difference be between showing up tomorrow to register to vote versus on this special registration day nothing i would give you the same exact paper it's the county board of elections voter registration form that i provide at village hall so there's no difference So effectively every day is voter registration day at Village Hall is what you're saying?

Correct. Every single day is voter registration day at Village Hall.

Any other questions from anybody else? No?

So I do hope that the board supports it. I think this is something that is antiquated and we no longer need to do it. I strongly believe that it's contributing to confusion about our election. And I think that doing away with this, with the combination of being able to register to vote online and the fact that every day is voter registration day at Village Hall, there for anybody to come and take any day that we are open.

Well, that would be a good thing to add on. I know you're updating the website for this upcoming election and coming off a very problematic election that three of us were involved in several years ago you got a lot of accolades as we shared again in the recent village newsletter by the new york conference of mayors on the more recent election that you administered and it was you know the talk amongst mayors and attorneys for villages throughout the state and the website you put together so um thank you and uh uh certainly makes sense if we're going to celebrate every day being registration day

yes thank you so much i appreciate that so the resolution was written by our village attorneys it is here for the board to review if you have any questions i'm happy to answer the next resolution that i have is for a new hire to get us through the remainder of the season we lose a lot of our dock hands by labor day they go back to college or school or what have you so this is to get us through the end of the season rick has asked that we hire Phoenix Semolowski. I'm sorry Phoenix, I did not say your last name properly. Next up are just a few public assembly application notes that I want to point out. We've unfortunately had to cancel Dances in the Park for two days. These are really popular bands and we received a lot of requests to reschedule. The Dances in the Park Committee is requesting two additional dates in September. So if the board approves, we will have Dances in the Park until September 21st. So the two bans that were canceled due to rain, one is Noise and one is Jean Casey. Again, we did hear a lot of requests to try to get them back on the calendar. I think the weather would be perfect still in September to continue this on. Another important note is that we are going to shift the time up a little bit. So for these rescheduled dates, we would like to host from 6 to 8 p.m. So this is Monday, September 14th, and Monday, September 21st from 6 to 8 p.m. The next public assembly application is for the annual Halloween parade and celebration. This is co-sponsored by the Village of Greenport, the Fire Department, the Greenport Bid, Floyd Memorial Library, and the Greenport Rotary. So the celebration will take place on Halloween this year. I did update, Mary Beth, Trustee Phillips, I did update the resolution. Yeah, I assumed you would. Okay, so the Chief Grattan, there is a conflict with the fire department, so the application requested an 11 a.m. start, I believe, for the parade. Chief Grattan responded and asked that we push it back until 11.30. Next up is a public assembly application. The Rotary has two fundraisers or two fundraiser days a year. So they submitted their public assembly application for the Halloween celebration at the Mini Train. So that would be on October 30th and October 31st. On the 30th, they would like the mini train open from 5 to 10 p.m., and then on October 31st from 4 to 10.30 p.m. They do a really, really good job setting up the mini train. You think? It's like the Griswold family's Halloween spectacle. It's spectacular, if I can say so myself. So I love it. It reminds me of my childhood. Just that train being there, I think it's amazing. If you're into that sort of thing, please support them. And then finally, Sarah gave us a great synopsis of the updates for Maritime Festival. So this resolution, this is an amendment, as mentioned earlier. So their application was actually passed in February. So there was a tent application submitted for the Land and Sea Gala on Friday, as Sarah mentioned. our building inspector this is a part of the tent application he does have to go out to inspect the tent the tent will be erected on thursday and then inspected by building inspector on friday morning the road closure is on here i didn't want to interrupt the conversation earlier but As with all other public assembly applications, the chief is aware of the request for the road closure. I didn't get any feedback on that or any issues with it. From what I understand from, I think Jenna, Mike, were you a part of that conversation? On Monday. On Monday. Our road crew supervisor, Mike Flora, said that that area is kind of closed already. Carpenter Street so it ends up closing down exactly for the purpose but traffic back there so it's not officially closed in prior maritime festivals but it ends up happening that way anyway so again I didn't get any amendment request from the chief. We do have a meeting on Tuesday with Sarah Sue from the fire department. So if you would like to attend, we'll be at Village Hall at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, having a meeting of the minds and just hashing out details for Maritime Festival. And that concludes my report. Does anybody have any questions? Can I just ask about Halloween?

So mini railroad runs until 5 and then Rotary has... Lily, can you just make sure your microphone is on? I'm just asking about the mini railroad on Halloween.

It won't be opening until the 5 p.m. on October 30th, but on the 31st they're going to be opening at 4 o'clock.

But on the Halloween parade one it says many railroad rides until 5 p.m. on the 31st?

No, no, no. It's the festival goes until 5 p.m.

So The festival activities as part of the application that Trustee Phillips submitted, I believe all of those activities in the business district, is that what you're saying? Those end at 5 p.m.? Those end at 5 p.m.

The way this is written, it says many railroad rides until 5 p.m.

I'll correct that for you. I just thought that was confusing me.

And also you need to put in here that the parade will be starting at 11.30 a.m. And since the change that the lineup, floyd memorial will start at 11. correct okay any other questions for clerk hall

I just wanted to make mention, it's been wonderful to see how great the transition's been since Deputy Clerk Jean Marie retired, JC stepped up in the position, and then hiring Yon, and the full-time position over there as well. Yon, for anybody that doesn't know him, interned for us for three summers, graduated from NYU and is now working in the clerk's office. And it's been so great to see having somebody who speaks Spanish fluently to be able to engage with residents and even other office staff on different items that we need assistance with. Whether it's the treasurer's office on billing or the building department, etc, etc. So congratulations. Thank you. Great work everybody's doing.

Thank you.

With that, I will turn it over to Treasurer Brodigan. Thank you, Mayor. He's working to keep taxes low.

Good afternoon. Starting off a short report today. Starting off with my resolutions. My first two resolutions are to approve wage increases for our two meter readers. One's a part-time, one's a full-time. Both play an important role in keeping our utility billing accurate and on schedule. I believe these increases are appropriate recognition for the work that they perform and the responsibility they carry. The board has been filled in with specifics. Those are my first two. My third resolution pertains to the financial audit of the Business Improvement District. This board did pass a resolution in June, I believe, to authorize Colin Andonowski to conduct an audit for the Business Improvement District. At that time, the village had gotten two quotes for that work. of which Colin and Danowski was cheaper. The price that Colin and Danowski originally proposed was based off of financial documents that were provided to them at the time. However, after that resolution was passed, the village was supplied with additional financial documentation that ended up expanding the scope of work. And therefore, Colin and Danowski needed to revise their quote. Once revised, the other audit firm, Clifton, Larson, Allen, ended up becoming cheaper. So this resolution is to rescind the previous audit resolution and to award the audit to Clifton, Larson, Allen. My final resolution is a budget modification to appropriate funds to cover work completed by Preservation Studios. Current expenses for this project are $19,950. This project is estimated to come in at $28,500, and $25,000 of that is reimbursable upon completion. I did speak with the administrator, and I believe the midterm report was submitted, so we're about halfway through. Moving on. Utility billing is on time. Significant collections. Rent collected in July 2026, $69,744.46. And property taxes collected through July 2026 was $1,322,417.66. That's about 90%. Delocancy letters will be going out in September for those remaining 10%.

Are we a little behind on where we've been in past years? I feel like we've been over 90% at this point.

It depends on the year. I mean, realistically speaking, we're right on track. Significant payments we did make 2 payments to the depository trust company related to 2024 bonding 1 for 90,000 dollars and 1 for 69,700 dollars. We made a payment for 13,079 dollars to consulting that was regarding the engineering services for the wastewater treatment plant sewer pump installation. I hear that's going well. We did make our quarterly disbursement to the Business Improvement District for $27,345.40. The next two significant payments are related to our Records Retention Grant, which are reimbursable. Mark Stephens and Barbara Warren, each receiving $22,725. We made a payment to PS Sidewalks Holdings regarding the work done on Front and Main Street sidewalks for $78,738. That is also reimbursable through CDBG funding. And lastly, $156,551.48 to McMahon Price Agency regarding the Village's semi-annual insurance payment. It's for general liability, commercial property, auto and motor vehicle, etc., Just one talking point, I do want to briefly touch on the status of the paid parking right now. As of mid-August 26, which was Monday when I ran these numbers, we've netted approximately $172,000 in parking revenue. If we look at the pace we're currently running and using the 2025 seasonal pattern to estimate September and October, I think a reasonable projection now is about $235,000 for the year. To put the impact of paid parking revenue into perspective, our property tax revenue is about $1.465 million. If we do end up generating this $235,000 in parking revenue this year, that's a significant amount of money relative to our property tax base. If we didn't have parking revenue and had to make up the entire amount through property taxes, we would need to increase the property tax levy by approximately 16% to generate the same amount of revenue. Now, the effect on the residence property tax bill would vary based on the property's assessed value, but using the average, about $195 a year per residential property. I think it's an important way to look at the success of the paid parking program. It's generated a substantial amount of revenue without putting the burden on property taxes.

Remind me, if I recall correctly, the original budgeted amount for this year that the Board approved was $165,000?

It was $165,000. It was a budgetary estimate because we didn't have the historical data at the time. But as we're expanding on paid parking significantly, we had to estimate the revenue on the information we had at the time. Next year's projections we're expecting to be much more on track.

Any questions on that from anybody?

And all the signage is in place now?

Yeah, they've added even more signage.

That concludes my report. That revenue is 13% of our tax revenue? 16.

16. Yeah.

Thank you. Any questions from anybody else for the treasurer?

I have a question. The Stevens and Warren payment for the archiving work? Are those just working as individuals or is that a corporate?

They're independent contractors. Yeah, they're independent contractors that were recommended to us by the grant agency. That's just how they work?

They do this for a living, right? Yes.

They do. They do it for a living. They are highly recommended by the New York State Archives because of their ability to they have a high percentage of actually getting the grant money for municipalities or they do fire departments. I'm going to talk to you about that at a later date. They do fire departments. They do libraries. They do all over the state of New York. So this is their...

this is their this is the couple you might have seen in village hall for months who are living in a camper over at the campground they do the whole trussing up and down the stairs and yeah from start to going into this storage unit etc yeah they did a fantastic job they did they did um so yeah this is um their profession and they

the cost is 100% reimbursable. It was a part of the grant submission.

Correct. I believe we're just waiting on their final report to disperse the final payment to them. This is the second to last payment for them. Great. Thank you.

And they've been, I do want to just point out one more thing. They've been incredibly just flexible with us. Yes. They've changed invoices based on the money that we have available. So I do just want to point that out that they've been, really incredible to work with in that way as well. So we were able to complete the project and order the supplies that we need. They've amended each of their invoices actually to just float within the money that we actually have from the state so that we don't have to dig into village money to pay them.

The reimbursement is tiered and they've been very accommodating because realistically their work was completed already and they're withholding sending the final invoice until we receive the reimbursements. So they've been very flexible with receiving payment, which we're grateful for.

Great. Thank you. With that, I'm going to pivot and ask our ZBA chair, John Saladino, to please approach the podium and speak briefly on the zba i'm sorry i lost my place four tenths rule thank you so much we had you on the agenda last month and i know that didn't work out due to some timing considerations appreciate you being here today in this abbreviated meeting before uh all of us get over to the suffolk county water authority public hearing thank you sir

You're welcome. My name is John Saladino, and I live on 6th Street in Green Forest. I had sent a letter, because of a recent application the zoning board had had, a question about a portion of our code came up, the four-tenths rule. Previously, There was a zoning board interpretation, I can't give you the date, that defined the four-tenths rule as it applied only to unimproved properties. The code, in the letter that I sent the board, the code is quoted. It set up a question of what's written in the code and what the interpretation a previous zoning board had made. That zoning board had decided that, and it was prior to my tenure on the zoning board, perhaps it was Doug Moore, perhaps Trustee Phillips was the chairman, I don't remember. I remember being at the meeting. And the zoning board at that time had decided that the four tenths rule would only apply to unimproved properties. Our code was never changed. A previous applicant, a recent applicant, their lawyer brought up, well, if the village had wanted to keep that interpretation, they would have changed the code. our code was changed the zoning code was changed in 2023 i think as a member of the code committee as a member of the code committee a good portion of our zoning code wasn't addressed. There were certain things that were important to certain members. There were certain things that were mandated by the mayor and the village board that be addressed. And a lot of the stuff fell by the wayside. I would, in my estimation, 50% of the zoning code wasn't addressed in the new code. An example, sign code. Never even talked about it. This, we never talked about it. But, The interpretation is how that portion of the code should be applied. The fact that it wasn't changed in 2023 doesn't make it any less than being in effect. So that's to address that. as far as my recollection i i remember what i remember the other members of the zoning board weren't at that meeting or didn't remember being at that meeting but to say well there's no record of it but we had and i don't want to cast any shade here but there were members of the administration at that time that would kind of like recalcitrant that you know the law didn't really in their mind apply they're supposed to be a ledger that that all zoning interpretations are entered into and that didn't happen for whatever reason for whatever reason so to say like well we have no record of it so it didn't happen what we do have is 20 years of past practice two previous village administrators And they were both the head of the building department at the time. They applied that principle to how that portion of the code would be applied. So you don't have a written record of it. I chose not to go back through 20 years of minutes. A lawyer for a recent applicant said, well, I couldn't find it, so it doesn't exist. Which is not necessarily the truth, but we do have 20 years of past practice. So anybody that's negotiated a contract knows that neutrals, arbitrators, administrative law judge do take past practice into a narrative, into consideration. I hesitate because I don't want to... I've had numerous conversations with the building inspector. This comes up all the time. What do we do here? How do we apply this? Do we do it with this? Do we do it with that? In my opinion, it was always follow what the interpretation was. My opinion is when the zoning board makes an interpretation, that becomes the language of the code. Because it wasn't changed, doesn't make it not happen. Because it wasn't entered into some kind of ledger, doesn't make it that it didn't happen.

So to be clear, you're making the recommendation as you did in the letter to make the change, as did the building department and Council Stolar. Would you like to apply on this issue? I mean, we're not we're not considering anything at this exact moment, but is there anything else?

I agree with John that this just needs to be cleaned up. It's been viewed one way, interpreted a different way, and now we have a decision that goes the other way. Let's clean it up in the court.

Brian offered a suggestion to change from unimproved, which was the original interpretation, to undeveloped, I believe.

Whatever, maybe it's a vacant lot that has not been previously developed.

and just to just to to to give it some context as the as the zoning board would see it we uh first and foremost it it allows the village the building department and the zoning board another level of oversight it just just kind of gives them a little bit of oversight to to and and uh originally if you if you look back historically the law came into effect to allow smaller cottages on smaller pieces of property what can happen is obviously what can happen is is that that in addition to a property again, a recent application that a 1,200 square foot house that added a 1,200 or 1,300 square foot addition, 35 foot tall, effectively made a 2,400 square foot house into what could be a 6,500 square foot house. As of right, the neighbors didn't have the right to opine about it because The zoning board didn't take the issue up. It didn't come before the zoning board. It compromises open suburban semi-rural aesthetics. Neighbors often argue that formulas allow massive multi-story maxed out homes to cast permanent shadows if we're talking about loss of sunlight, visual crowding. Proximity allowing reduced side yards. You make them unreasonably close to a property line. I mean, forget about the loopholes. We all know contractors do what contractors do, architects do what architects do. It's what they do, and you know, A law that was intended to help smaller property owners, you know, you can weaponize the mass and build something that's perhaps inappropriate for that particular lot. And there's lax oversight. The 410 calculation provides relief as of right. And neighbors lose. So when it's as of right, there's nobody that has any say, like, well, you really can't do that. Neighbors lose their primary platform to come and voice their opinion about a particular project. Sitting on the zoning board, anybody that's ever sat on any zoning board knows that, you know, sometimes their concerns are legitimate and sometimes it's just not. But those legitimate concerns should be addressed. They should be listened to.

John, can I interrupt? I want to ask you a question about that point. Are you suggesting that the

the lack of opportunity for a neighbor to voice your opinion is different for a property that's already been developed as opposed to a lot that is going to be developed a neighbor that's a neighbor that's that's that lives adjacent to or across the street from a property that's already improved and it's pre-existing non-conforming now you can take that piece of and perhaps doesn't that particular property, and then add onto it and not have to comply with a combined side yard setback. In our code, it's 25 feet. You can increase the size of that addition and make it perhaps not inappropriate, but perhaps overbearing to some neighbors. They lose... houses that are close to the property line. Now you add an addition to a pre-existing non-conforming house, and instead of having a 15 foot setback, you have a 10 foot setback. It could be overpowering as far as light, as far as proximity to your neighbors. You lose You lose tree canopy because now you're cutting down trees that would normally shield another piece of property. Stormwater runoff. You lose ground absorption by that extra five feet that the person is allowed to build this extension onto their property. But all those factors are true of a lot that is currently undeveloped and then becomes developed and takes advantage of the 410th Street. That's true, but also... the building department has the right and also exempting other things that might come into play, lot coverage and front yard, rear yard setbacks. When someone can develop a piece of property, on a smaller lot, they're building that, like I said, the law was originally enacted to allow smaller development on smaller lots. Do we have lot coverage standards? Yes, we do. So could that smaller lot have a smaller house on it that might also infringe on a neighbor's view or sunlight and stuff? Perhaps. But, again, the reason for this letter, the reason for the concern, is that because of a recent application, we saw what could happen when... I hesitate. this because because I don't want to single out I think they're to say you're looking the goal is to clean up an issue that's been an issue and reflect it in the code properly exactly if if you guys are the legislators if you want it to go the way it reads in the code now and not consider that previous interpretation by all means do that just i'm sure it's a one sentence addition by you that Brian could write. If you want to make it, if you want it to comply with that previous interpretation, again, it's a one sentence deal. This law will only apply to undeveloped properties. I mean, it's as easy as that. It takes, and also the other thing, you know, it says, the code says that it's, When it comes to single and separate, now it creates a problem of, have you owned this piece of property since the code was initiated in 1965? Now it calls for title searches and stuff like that. It would just make it easier if you guys decided, do we want it to be the way it reads in the code now? or do we want it to read the way a previous zoning board interpreted that portion of the code it seems like and it's something that it might sound benign to the audience but it is something that that is important that comes up often that comes up a lot so it's up to you the only other thing and and thinking about it that i that i might suggest with that portion of the code that you might consider is that portion of the code also says that if you do build a house on that property, on that undersized lot, and comply with the 410 rule, it can only be a one-family house. We also have a portion of our code that says anybody that owns a one-family house can, as of right, turn it into a two-family house. There's a conflict there. Because under the four tenths rule, a one family house built on that property, if you want to build a two family house or develop, put a two family house there becomes a use variance, which we all know is. So there's kind of like a conflict there.

I would appreciate if you and Brian can chat separately and make a recommendation on how to correct that as well if it needs to be done.

Well, Brian would know the conflict in the code. He would have to come up with something that would make both of them work and not eliminate one. But I would ask you to consider this. Can I ask another question?

Sure. Is it your position that it's in the public's interest to not extend the benefit of the 410th rule to properties that are already developed, that they don't need the relief provided by the 410th rule?

I think the village would be better served if My opinion, the village would be better served if the four-tenths rule applied to unimproved properties. That's my opinion. I think the village would be better served. Applicants, I think the building department would be better served. I think the village would be better served. As far as property owners, I don't know. They always have the right to ask for relief. A combined side yard setback is 25 feet. Under the four tenths rule, it might be 20 feet. We consider them all the time. It's not that big a deal. But it gives a level of oversight to the building department and to the zoning board and to the building inspector that right now it's up in the air.

Can I quickly ask a question? There aren't really a ton of unimproved buildable lots in the village, correct?

No, that's not true. There are homes with double lots. We see them all the time. Prior to 1975, the standard building lot was 5,000 square feet. In 1975, the village board, for whatever reason, raised it to 7,500 square feet. So there are a lot of lots in the village. There are a lot of homes on double lots. Do I know how many? No. Does it come up? It's come up in front of the zoning board that I serve on more than a few times.

Thank you. Can I just jump in a couple of things? In terms of responding as John was just responding, one of the reasons for not permitting the four tenths rule and giving the benefit is if you allow the smaller properties, which would be bought at most likely a lesser price by speculators, by developers, by builders, they're going to look to build as large building and dwelling as they can, which is great, great for them. But it does have a potential negative consequence to the village in that these smaller lots, which were previously the lots that would sell for less, may not now be available to people that we also want to see come in. It potentially kills diversity in-house. where you have the ability to have smaller lots, maintain the smaller homes. Maintain the smaller homes based on the regular regulations rather than giving them the benefit of the worth. It allows for those first time home buyers, people who want to stay in the community and maybe see they can make a lot more money by not doing it. It allows for that kind of housing, those people to stay and those people to buy in the community. I'm not really following your argument there. You're saying it's biased towards the speculator? If I'm a developer and I see a house that I know has a beneficial zoning regulation that allows me to build a bigger house on a smaller lot, just the nature of the small lot and probably the existing smaller house at that time would allow me to spend less money on that house in my purchase. So that when I then build something, I can build it much bigger and make more profit. And that's going to put those properties, where it's now being interpreted the way it is, going to put those properties into the situation where you're going to have bigger homes. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does eliminate the smaller homes and the people from coming in and buying first time homes. Because you're losing the more reasonable properties to, I don't want to say over development, but larger homes that now sell for a significant amount more.

We see it all the time with additions to pre-existing non-conforming homes. The neighbors' concern is, especially when they build out the back, doubling the size of their home, the neighbors, their concerns are, you know, I'm losing. Now, instead of looking at somebody's yard, which Instead of looking at somebody's yard, I'm looking at a wall that's 10 feet away from my living room window. We see it all the time. I'm sure you guys will debate this. I'm sure there's people in the audience that might have an opinion about this.

Yeah, we're not voting on anything tonight. Tonight is to give you the benefit of sharing what you put in the letter. We've also received something from a community member. This will obviously continue with the board discussion.

Whatever you decide. We don't get paid by the application, so if we lose a couple applications because you choose to keep the wording the way it is, we're fine. Thank you, thanks for listening. Thank you, John.

I have other questions for Brian, but I think we could do it in an advice of counsel concerning this matter, legal advice. Yeah, I'm thinking this too, yeah.

Speaking of which, we are almost at 410 and we also have executive session that we need to go into for suppressing labor matters. So I am going to make a motion that we close the public portion of the meeting in order to go into executive session for labor matters. And then Jenna will speak at the next meeting on her administrative report. Is there a second?

Second. Quick discussion. Legal advice in connection with labor matters.

Yes. Just a quick discussion before we close. because we're not going to hear Jenna's report. I just want to make a comment on Jenna Adams and Candace's reports. They're obviously really important to us to get all this information. The reports are great. Jenna has a particularly extensive report this month that we're not going to get to go over right now. But it's also really important to the public because I think if the public looks at these reports that were put together for our meeting, they'll see the quantity and variety of things that are across your desks, and that all the different things the village is working on. Absolutely. I really appreciate the work that goes into the reports, and I know we don't always get enough time to delve into them publicly.

Thank you. Board of order. Board of order. Thank you. Board of order. Do you have to take some comment here?

We're not this evening.

Why didn't you tell us in the beginning? We sat here for an hour and a half. Why didn't you tell us that?

Okay, but we're not... So two things. We're not discussing any proposed resolution in regards to the four tenths rule. We have what you said. We'll be glad when we schedule another meeting to talk about it. Mike, if you'd like to approach the podium very briefly, we'll give you three minutes. We've got to get into executive session.

Thank you, I appreciate that. I would also like to comment on something that's on your agenda for your board discussion.

Guys, we're not going to be able to do this. We have to go into executive session. I would be glad to welcome you back next week.

Okay, Michael Osinski, 307 Clinton Street. Thanks for the exemption. All I want to say is, you know, we were here at the last meeting a month ago. The same thing. Our application is stalled, and we don't know why. The mayor said he would arrange a meeting with the lawyer and the clerk, but that's never happened. So we've got another month that's passed. We don't know what's wrong. We replied to the lawyer's objections. We haven't heard anything back in over a month. Fall is coming. It's getting colder. I can tell because I'm in the water every day. And I'd like to get some response about what is wrong with the reply that we sent to the lawyer six, seven weeks ago.

There was an email sent, as I noted in an earlier email today, to your counsel yesterday.

I don't want my counsel involved. Don't hire my lawyer for me. I don't want to pay him for this.

You told the village that you were represented by counsel.

I did not say that. okay we'll regroup with council i just want to talk to you what the problem is that's all i want to resolve this is a simple matter of some drawings that we resubmitted you know there's some question about a the interim i will be glad to forward exactly what was sent to your council i don't want my council involved i don't want you making me pay for council thank you uh with that uh public session we cannot do this tonight i'll be glad to have you next week

We've got to go into executive session. We have to get over. I'm sorry, the public meeting is closed, guys. We've got to get over.

We have a resolution on the floor.

All in favor?

You're welcome to set it down. There is a motion to go into executive session.

Thank you.

All in favor?

Aye.

Motion carries.

Chair.