Committees - Regular Meeting

Um, okay. Um, I don't see prob on. Um, but. There's not here either. Oh, there he is. Joe.

All right.

We don't have problems. So. I don't know if there's anything to update on very flood hazard mitigation.

Update for that I just met with North fairy this morning. We have 30% plans in hand from L. K. McLean. And I'm working with the ferry companies to finalize their comments and that will be the last go around on the design documents. After the drawings are finished, we have to complete the BCA, which is the FEMA requirement for the grant. And then the project will be closed up.

And then, I guess, at some point we'll do a presentation.

That'll be, I guess we can wait till the very end, or we can do a presentation to the board and the public. Once the plans. And the scope are finalized, they're mostly. Result now we had a few meetings with and the ferry companies already to. Go over specifically what scope items were concerned. So, we're really in the final stages of. of that right now.

Okay, good. So you'll let me know when to put it on the agenda.

Yes. Okay.

All right. Jen Mezziano, we'll go to you just in case you've got a time constraint.

Great. Thank you so much. Just following up on the ferry project, Prob let us know that there is a FEMA grant program available right now, but it's on an extremely tight turnaround with a deadline of May 22nd. Jo, please let me know if you think the design and the BCA and environmental reviews can be ready basically a month from now. If not, I think we should continue to discuss the projects and the capital funding needs and prepare for other future hazard mitigation funding that'll be coming down.

Do we need all of those things to be done for the application in May, Jen?

The design and the BCA are essential. The environmental review, I haven't seen any of the design plans, and so I don't know what the environmental review requirements are, but we would need to be prepared to address those as well.

That seems unlikely to me that we would be able to achieve all of that in one month. But I understood that that grant application did not require those planning things to be resolved. It was just that that funding mechanism would not pay for planning. So did I misunderstand that?

The funding mechanism does not pay for planning. But when you read through this guidance, they make it clear. that they want to support quote unquote shovel ready projects, meaning projects that are ready to move to construction. So the design plans would help us to make that case. The benefit cost analysis, the BCA, that's essential in order to apply.

Okay. So maybe we can have a discussion offline about whether Joe Trumpey, We have the resources to complete this and then I can report back to the town board about whether this is. Joe Trumpey, possible and then. Joe Trumpey, They can decide whether. Joe Trumpey, We pursue this.

Caroline Miller, got it, and thank you Joe i'm. We do anticipate that other hazard mitigation funding opportunities will come out, either in relation to recently presidentially declared disasters, which would release funding to the region, or next year's BRIC FEMA nationwide competition. I'm definitely in favor of slow and steady wins the race. Rushing to get an application in can be risky. So I would look forward to following up with you to talk about feasibility on the current timeline and next steps generally. So, okay. So thanks, Joe. Um, onto my report, um, in terms of grant development, um, other than that FEMA opportunity, um, I know we've been speaking about the New York state plays grant for playgrounds. Um, and the, I believe the tot lot was the priority for the town, uh, but that the lease issue was, uh, still pending? Do we know if the lease has been executed?

It has not. I just bumped the school again last week to say, hey, we need to get this finalized. And the superintendent thought that their legal counsel had looked at it and gotten back to us. So he was going to push.

Okay. The deadline for this is June 15th. So maybe this is another thing that me, Joe, and Ken can connect on offline if we think it's going to move forward. We should get the application moving and pull together all the technical information while the lease is moving forward as well.

um if you can get me whatever resolutions we need we have a meeting may 18th and so that would be well we'd also would have a june meeting as well so we've got time never mind okay okay sorry keep going

I'm just making myself a note. Okay. In terms of grant administration, we have approval for our 2024 household hazardous waste request. I've been working with Andrew. I'm sorry, not Andrew. Amber Wilson to pull together the contract documents for that. So that's moving forward. It's a modest amount of about $8,000 that will be reimbursed to the town for household hazardous waste collection events. The DEC, the food waste recycling grant that was awarded, unfortunately had to be declined as the partnership for composting of the food waste is no longer in effect. So we submitted the declination letter to the DEC. They got back to us and expressed willingness to work with us on any future projects that might emerge in the food waste recycling realm. On the fresh pond project, we have the Suffolk County, we have two grants supporting that. One is from Suffolk County for $65,000. The other is from New York State for $260,000. Both contracts have now been circulated for town review and approval. And once the town approves both, they can be signed and routed back to their respective agencies. And I'll be happy to support that process or help get answers for any follow-up questions.

I'm going to interrupt you for just a second, Jennifer. I see that Prob has joined us. Oh, great. Maybe we can just go over. what we went over initially with him and get him on his way.

My apologies, team. I had a last meeting run over. So my apologies for jumping on late.

No worries. So Joe had given us a little mini update on where things stood.

Yes. Hey, Prad. Nice to meet you here. We received the 30% design documents from LK McLean, the contracted consultant, and I met with the North Ferry engineers this morning to discuss a few modifications to the design. And so we're working to finalize those comments, and then we'll be able to complete the design portion of the project. We'll be on to the BCA task next.

Awesome. That's amazing news. Thank you for that update, Joe.

Rob, do you have anything on your side?

side um in terms of the period of performance extension request that's it's still being reviewed with fema um you know it's on dishes leadership's radar and we can continue to follow up on it um but i think you know um due to the partial government shutdown um that that has been delayed so you know we'll keep tracking that and monitoring that um and as soon as we get that approval letter or determination letter you know i'll share with the town and we'll coordinate a contract amendment um so you know what that means for the town is that submit the request dishes up until March 31st, 26. So just keep that in mind. If you do provide anything beyond that, you know, I can always review it, provide feedback, but I won't be able to process it until we get that formal approval. And then the dishes town contract amendment processed.

It's good to see what we are last year in person.

They were waiting. You're breaking up from pattern on the time extension request. Can you hear me all right now?

Yeah, keep going. You were going in and out, but hopefully you'll stay.

My apologies for the connection. In other terms, grant administration-wise, the quarterly progress report was received by the town. So thank you for that. And no concerns with that. Lastly, if there's any reimbursements waiting for DISHES review, please submit that and I'll review and process that accordingly. And then I did already flag this on Jen and Joe's radar, but DISHES has, posted the funding opportunity for building resilient infrastructure for communities for the BRIC program. The application deadline is May 22nd via FEMA GO. So just wanted to, you know, put that back on the radar. And then the next steps, I think now that we're almost done with the design adjustments as soon as, you know, the vendor and Joe are ready, we can kind of coordinate on the BCA review and update and get that in place. And then, you know, that can be kind of used for any future HMA funding opportunities, which would include BRIC, so. Good.

That's cool. Before you got on, Joe was on top of that, so good.

Perfect, perfect. Any questions or assistance needed from me, team?

Not that I can think of. No.

No. Well, that's all I had on the agenda. So thank you so much. And I believe our next monthly check-in is scheduled in May.

May 12th.

May 12th.

Perfect. Yeah.

All right. But yeah, if anything comes up in the interim, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Okay, great. Thank you.

Thank you. Just regarding that, I never hear much about Southbury. This long board is still contributing. We're still working with them in this project. I hear some comments lightly about Northbury, but I don't hear much about South.

They've been more passive about the design process, I would say, but they're actively participating. I just spoke to a Brit earlier in the week.

Can I just get a debrief from Jen? Jen Messiano is still on?

Yes.

Yeah, we're just gonna go. Can you give me the one on one on Rick?

BRIC is the National FEMA Competition. The name has changed over the years, but it's essentially a hazard mitigation grant program that's open to all states. It tends to be highly competitive. As you might imagine, there are many areas of the country that are dealing with very serious hazards. So those that are dealing with wildfire or major floods and what have you, tend to score high and tend to have a lot of projects in the pipeline. So qualifying for it is very similar to qualifying for a hazard mitigation grant that's authorized through other means, which is like presidentially declared disasters trigger direct funding to the region in which the disaster was announced. So you're competing against a smaller number of other applicants and submitting projects that respond to state defined priorities. under the national competition this year, the BRIC program, which by the way stands for Building Resilience Infrastructure and Communities. Their priority this year is to fund not planning projects and not design projects. They're really looking for implementation projects this time around. So that's very, very high level, but it funds infrastructure and construction projects that deliver immediate measurable risk reduction of public infrastructure and communities vulnerable to natural hazards. And again, they're primarily focusing on projects that are ready for implementation at the time of the application.

Was that the May 20th deadline?

That's the May 22 deadline. And I'll just add to that, that the funding cap per award is $20 million. And the matching share is 25% local.

Do you do something like that to raise the roads?

If we thought that was a, we have anything that'd be ready for that. I don't think we'd have local roads.

Yeah.

I don't know, we'd have design plans that would be ready to support that.

Yeah, qualifying for hazard mitigation funds, and Prob can correct me if I'm wrong, it's not a quick process. There is a lot of pre-planning involved. It's very engineering heavy. Personally, I've worked on another road raising project that took, you know, about, it was a partially funded, or I should say phased funded project under the hazard mitigation program where we applied for engineering support and evaluation that was supported and carried out in coordination with dishes. And then once the design plans were complete, then we sort of converted it into a capital project application. But that's a few years in the making. And the reason for that is you want to make sure that your design is taking into account the hazard mitigation principles that are important for FEMA, and you also need a benefit cost analysis, which is basically an analysis that demonstrates that your project will produce benefits that are in excess of the cost of the project itself. You want a benefit cost ratio of at least a one, but much north of one is preferred. So you want to show that the damages that you'll be avoiding through the project, damages being road closures, property damage, things like that, you want to show tangible benefits well in excess of the cost of the project.

Okay. Thank you. Sure.

Yeah, I think Jennifer covered everything there, but yeah, really, you know, for a road elevation, it would be, you know, any detours, the bigger the detour and the more traffic that road kind of intakes on a daily count, you know, that would all be converted into like an economic benefit. You know, what is the avoided loss of this road closed? So those things are that would be taken into account. And yeah, unfortunately, in the past, there has been phased projects awarded under the BRIC program, but this year's Notice of Funding Opportunity has declared that there are no phased projects. It'll be only shovel-ready projects, and they really want to make sure that you have done the permitting and looked at what needs to be in place for this project to be seen through. And I guess the last point I'll make on it is that yeah and also has to be included in the local hazard mitigation plan already uh that is a prerequisite for hma applications and um there's also additional points if the town has never been select or the you know the sub applicant which would be the town in this case has never been selected for a brick award in the past so there are additional points kind of factored in for that um and then the more kind of legwork you have done like if it's conceptual design, preliminary design, or you have final design ready, there's more points that'll be allocated to that. Okay.

Rob, one follow-up question for you. In this instance, and Chief, correct me if I'm wrong, The roadway elevation is needed mainly to preserve ingress and egress for a community that would otherwise be isolated. There's only one way in and one way out on this one road. So it's not so much an issue of a detour as it is making sure folks can get in, emergency services can get in, and emergency services can get back out.

That's a good point. In kind of instances like that, that is a bit of a unique circumstance that we don't see too often. But in scenarios like that, you know, if there is a road that, and I'm kind of thinking of it like in any VCA that I've seen in the past, if the road there is no detour, right? Like if you can't get out of that area, then you put the maximum amount of time, which in the past we've used, like, I think about 24 hours as a detour time. So that kind of really shows the damage there or the avoided loss. But that is a good question to think about. If emergency services are impacted, you know, what would be the reasonable time that they can restart or figure out an alternate route, whether that be through air or anything else. Yeah, no, that's a good question.

A good example that we might look to is, and I don't want to take up too much time here, but Long Beach Road in the Santa Smith town, kind of a similar situation where it's an egress concern for public safety. So there's certainly precedent here on Long Island for projects like that. So, but we can, we can all talk more offline about that.

Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. I've seen like, there's also, it'll be the road elevation. And then I've also seen projects kind of implement other nature-based solutions as well, maybe like seagrass plantings and et cetera, to kind of assist with the wave attenuation and, Yeah, unfortunately, a pretty quick turnaround on this current application, so.

Oh, yeah, I don't think this one would be ready for BRIC, but, you know, to the point of needing to, you know, have a long runway to design a project, we would look to, you know, plan for something a year out from now if the town decides to proceed with a road raising project. And I believe it is in the plan, the draft plan, right, Chief? Mm-hmm.

I mean, reviewing that area, but we're years out from that, quite frankly. We don't have any design work done. We have some elevation work done, but we don't have true roadway design work. I think our next step would be trying to get federal funding to support engineering work and design work like we've done with North Ferry. I mean, I would say we're probably more suited for that than we are for doing any work.

I don't even know that the project warrants that. You know, we have an understanding now that the scale of.

It depends on what portion you're talking about. I'm not talking about the second causeway. I'm talking about the lead up to that. We've already concluded that that's a wash over road. And it's designed by the feds to be a wash over road. Exactly right. So but but the lead up on the first causeway to that area and low-lying approaches to that area could use design work for a possible elevation project.

Yes, but the BCA is potentially not advantageous to us when you consider that these neighborhoods are, for the most part, sparsely populated. And really, the issue is not economic in terms of access, it's emergency only. And at the cost that we're considering for infrastructure upgrades, you're more likely to consider equipment changes or alternative access to help in these extremely unique and small scale.

But Joe, this goes back to my thing. We're so far from a brick project.

it's not even a thought no i would say because we still haven't concluded it's a strategy means to do it or the best strategy the town needs to choose a strategy whether they want to pursue this from an infrastructure approach or from an emergency services angle with a piece of equipment yeah

That's a great point. The only other kind of item that I'll leave is on the benefit cost analysis. You know, there's different methodologies. One is like, you know, historical damages and other is professional expected damages. for historical damages, unfortunately, if there was any loss of life due to delayed emergency services, that would be something that you could be putting in a historic damage event. And the value for that has gone up in the past few years. I believe it's about 13 million, but that's something that I would have to kind of confirm. So I hate to bring that up, but unfortunately, if that is something that has happened in the town due to delayed emergency services, that is something that you could, kind of reference because, you know, the value of life, that is the highest value there over, you know, any economic benefits of road detours, et cetera.

Unfortunately, I don't think we've had any loss of life.

Which is a good thing. Yes, exactly.

That's very funny. Yeah.

So more to come. And then, yeah, I'll be around if any other hazard mitigation questions are related. I appreciate the conversation and the thought-provoking questions provided today by the town.

Thank you.

Have a great day, team. Thanks, you too.

So, Jen, if you want to continue on your grant administration.

I can probably leave it there for now. No other major updates for the group. I'm happy to answer any questions. Oh, actually, you know what? I will give you one other update. Back in February and March, I spoke with Shelby Mundy regarding New York State records management grants. We also conferred with New York State Archives about the status and the town's readiness to proceed with a grant application. Ultimately, it was decided that we would plan towards an application in 2026, which would give the town clerk time to perform a records inventory and develop a records management plan that to prioritize projects moving forward. And so I'll stay in touch with Shelby, you know, to keep that conversation moving in anticipation of another funding round later this year slash early 2027. And I'll leave my update there for now. And unless anybody has any other questions.

So that would be a 2026 or 2027 application?

2027. Okay.

And what's the deadline usually for that?

It's usually in March.

Thank you. Thank you.

um hazard mitigation plan update yeah just a brief update on that uh joe myself and jen um baresky went up to uh fres and had a meeting and and just because it ties into the conversation of brick brick is driving now the hazard mitigation So they're hoping that even though we might not have one completed and in place by this May, I forgot what you said, 22nd deadline, that because we have one in the queue that the feds are going to recognize that plan in the queue because they won't give you the BRIC money unless you have a standing hazard mitigation plan, of which we have the prior one and we're in the process of the new one. But our hazard mitigation process is going very well. We met with Tetra Tech, who was the company that the county subcontracted to do the plan. And I felt that our community was very responsive and that we're in a very good place. So our draft document went to the state for review. We'll have another look at it publicly or with the town board to look at that draft document. And then once after the state reviews and says, yes, largely this looks good, we can make subtle changes. And then we should be in pretty good place. So that's what we want to miss anything.

Just that they were very impressed with our performance so far. Emphasis on the.

Good Thank you. Next on the agenda is the top lot playground grant funding. So we had applied for the dollar amount was. for CDBG grant money last, before December last year. It was $105,000. So we put in for $105,000. Ken isn't here today, but he's been working with the group and looking, trying to figure out how much it's going to cost. And so it sounds like the cost of this could be closer to, I think I had written down $250,000, but I think Oh, 500,000. Yeah. I didn't like that, but I think there was a range.

I didn't like that. So I came up with 200.

I thought there was maybe a range, but anyways, so we have a possibility of asking for an increase in our CDBG money. So both Ken has spoken to them as well as Barbara Bloom to work on increasing it from 105,000 to, I think it's 190, 4,000, because we want to just be under the 200,000 dollar limit, because if we go over 200,000 or into 200,000, it puts us in a different category. We should make it harder. But so we need to get the lease agreement from the school before. So we can give them that. There's a tie in for us having rights to that property. So we'll see how that goes. And then we do have to look at applying to New York state parks for additional funding.

Brian, give you any timeline.

No, I'll reach out to him again and just tell him that we do need it sooner rather than later. We're going to have a June 15th deadline. But I'd also like to get it to the county 1st, because. To keep us moving on getting that increase, because it usually is like March April time period where they will, they get their HUD funding and then they can lock us into what our funding is. I have that start to look at.

Just from a management perspective, who is the driver of that pot lot grant? Is it Ken?

Mm-hmm.

Okay. Because I always like to fall back on Jen Messiano as much as possible to be the grant driver, and we give her the support paperwork. Um, even with the county, because I think she's honestly better suited than most of us, including myself. So, like, when we do our police stuff, we, we try to rely on. Her and her husband to do a lot of the stuff and then we support it with with requested documents. I do feel like sometimes we have it backwards even with Barbara. I'm not diminishing the work that Barbara does, but. That's really not her role to be driving a grant. It should be Ken and or Jim Messiano because I think we're just far better suited. We can support with documents, but I'd much rather see it that way than have reliance on Barbara for that because that shouldn't be her role.

Yeah, I know Ken started the ball rolling and talked to Rosemary first.

Even with the point of contact with the county, it should be somebody different.

I'll be happy to talk with Ken and pick up on that. That would be great.

Maybe push a little forward, Jen? Sure. Thanks.

Is there any objection by the committee to changing the price point on the CBTG ask?

I think it would only be limited by our, or the match if there is match.

That's what I'm trying to do something with the state funding. So that the state and the county could be the match for each other. And then there is a group out there that I think is willing to do some fundraising. We're trying to get this because I don't want to try and find anything in next year's budget.

Yeah, no, the more funding we can find the better. Yeah.

I would you know just wearing another hat that I wear in a community with the Lions Club I think we could be a considerable funder for that as as we look at projects going forward that could support through charitable donations a large portion of that so I don't know how that plays in but I think we kind of gotta decide where we're at on it but Joe would price point Because your price point was $500,000 for a soup-to-nuts thing, right?

So we're hoping that we'll apply for almost $200,000 here. The state award could potentially subsidize a substantial portion of this, and the community and or the town would... would fill in any gaps.

Is that scalable so that it could be broken into pieces if need be, depending on the funding sources?

Not particularly.

You'd have to do the 500 or nothing?

Not totally the 500 or nothing. There's some limits to the scalability, certainly reducing the project scope. But at some point, the effort doesn't become worthwhile if the outcome is so much smaller. Does that make sense?

No, I would say, let me just simplify it for me. If the matting, right? The matting costs $200,000 and we would have mat the whole park. Yes. Could we do that as a piece? Let's mat the whole park and then have plans for structures within the matting so that when we had the money for the structures, we could add those pieces.

Yes. I don't think we're at that stage yet. That's the kind of breakdown I was looking for. Yes. I don't think we're at that stage because we have... Outside funding opportunities that are not we haven't finished exploring it so there's no there's no need to establish what you know the absolute bare minimum project would be at this time.

And I think they're going to increase from 105 to 194. Could help us in future years, because if they, we've over the years gone from 13,000 dollar asks to where we are over 100,000 and. We may want to do something with housing in another year or 2 and so. Having having the county used to us asking for a larger problem. Yes, that's a good thing.

Some of those other expenses also are upfront capital costs, but they reduce the ongoing maintenance costs. For instance, having the rubberized surface reduces thousands of dollars in ongoing maintenance, replacing the natural surface. So there are decisions like that that can be approached once we understand what the budget constraints are.

Like for me, the struggle for me always is the timeline. Like, I never feel like we have a clear perspective of when will we have the state money, when will we have the private money, when will we have town money. To say, let's go, we're going to hope to start this project in September. Like, I just feel like we leave it all up in the air vaguely, and we don't know really where we're going.

Oh, well, Jen, maybe you can fill in some gaps on how the state parks. Program works, but for the CB CD BG money. We have to put that request in now. It's actually, it's actually already in so we're available in September because available in September. So we've already made that request for discussion today is just whether the committee supports increasing the number we've already requested from that. So, what number from 105 to 194. Right? I'm support of the 194.

yes so there you go so we've already put in that request for that project just that we won't find out until roughly september right um we'll find out sooner than that okay but we have the june 15th deadline for the new york state parks application we have to get that in and then when does that return yes i say jen when would we hear on that one they haven't specified um but i would say

before by the end of the year with the June deadline, they typically take about six months.

So what I would say is The CDBG money is available to us at the end of September. That's possibly when we would be in the window of knowing for the state funding. But let's just say that goes to the end of the year. That makes this a 2027 construction project to finalize scope, contract with the vendors, shore up any outside match or funding requirements. So we'd have one year to do that. But frankly, I think that's a pretty appropriate time.

I think it's pretty fair. Just when we go back to the community to ask for support and funding, how much are we asking for and what's the total cost?

That's why we need to better understand what the outside funding sources are. I think we would know that by this summer, by the end of this summer.

We won't know the state part.

don't want to we don't know the state part but we would uh be well positioned with the cb cdbg get the money to engage the community i think if you have this you have i think the standing to go to the community and say we have meaningful funding and so you do what can you do okay and and we can um we can be confident that it's executable in 2027. So if you're going to the community, you're not asking for a donation with an open-ended schedule that they would see real results in a meaningful amount of time.

So that timeline was good. It's good. It's good. Yeah.

I have one more update. I went through the guidance here, and they're actually saying that they plan to announce awards no earlier than August 3rd. So that's actually a bit earlier than they normally would commit to.

Oh, that's good. Let's speed up your timeline.

Yes. Yes, because I know that. You know, I'm involved with some of the community side of it, and I think by September. We would be able to say, you know, at least the lions club could say, yes, we could support this project at this level.

What is the application? June 15th. Correct.

Great.

Yes, thank you.

Next is setting up a waterway schedule similar to the equipment reserve fund. So we have a schedule that we look at every year during budget season at the town board level. And anytime that Ken has different equipment requests. And so what I want to do is we're starting to, in the 2026 budget year, put money back into the waterways fund The way the budget had been structured, starting in Jerry's administration got continued for a couple of years. Was nothing was going in there and we weren't really taking and we weren't taking anything out, but nothing was going in. So next year this year, we will have money going in. So what I want to do is. Start to schedule out our marine assets. So bulk heading at town landings, if there's any town, you know, docs need replacement. So, I wanted to just get the committee's take on how do you feel about. Going down that path, I think it's, I think it's a good idea.

I see what they did. Yeah, I'll see Christina. Yes. Marine assets.

Yeah, you have a listing of all of the marine assets, like a schedule of the updates.

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay. So then we can marry those 2.

Can I join in that conversation too? I had a recent meeting preseason with our marine patrol officers and then I followed up with Joe and the highway superintendent, Ken Lewis, to discuss. I'd really like to get on a schedule of update as a small town, our town landing should be Good pristine. It's a public safety portion for fire services when they're trying to draft water. Frankly, that's one of our primary water reserves for fires. And then just as landing. So I asked the Marine Patrol officers what their two priorities would be so that we could start to plan that. And I mentioned those priorities to Ken and they had said Congdon Road. which we did some work there, but it could use an enhancement. Ramps. Ramps and tar kettle, because I'd really like to get on a schedule that we address a ramp a year so that we, you know, and look, they're gonna be at different level costs. So maybe if it's a high, let's just say it's a $200,000 ramp versus $100,000 ramp, we may skip a year, swap them, or know that we have that coming, like we do with the Equipment Reserve Fund, right? So I just think that it would make sense for us to use that model in full support of that, but also start to look at our town landings as, Real assets to the community and that that they'd be well, well maintained for fire service and for community use and that we try to hit the, the, the most used ones. 1st, right to make sure they're in good shape and then we can move to next. And Joe, I think you were supportive of that. And absolutely. And so was I always superintendent.

I think those are really important priorities. I would want to discuss more about. How the waterways fund would be accessed and those decisions be made because. At the at the moment, those decisions are internal. They are in Congress. Historically, they've been conversations between myself or John Cronin and the highway superintendent. And it's a little bit of an iterative process between. what assets are important, what assets need improvement, and what funding is available to support that. And we have often approached the town board on a given budget year saying to include 50,000, 75,000 for a particular project, but then something unexpected happens and that money gets reassigned to not a different, category, but a different asset. We have a bulkhead failure. And so there is great advantage to having that those funds available at the discretion of the decision makers, like the highway superintendent. My concern about moving to the waterways fund is that that has largely been my perception that there's no clear path to how you access those funds, that they have been used sometimes for large bulkhead projects, but there have been other requests that have been denied simply because the prevailing Sentiment of the board.

That's what the supervisor is saying. She wants to delineate or clear up. That usage, right? Isn't that part of this goal?

Well, like, and I support that. I think that this is a great mechanism. So long as it's clear the approval process for it. You know, one of the advantages of the highway superintendent spending. Highway road repair money is that they have the decision making ability on which road gets paid. And I think that that's important. So long as you're trusting the people in office, but that's kind of how. You know, that's kind of how the system works, but we have been in situations as a town where. We've asked for equipment and. it's been rejected or and I want from, you know, my vantage point, I want to make sure that if we're going through the work of evaluating the assets, scheduling the repairs, that it's somewhat of a perfunctory process and not subject to

um the whims of politicians yeah election election cycles and um look Joe I mean like I'll be more Frank I mean I've sat in these meetings before and the look doesn't look right during a tight fiscal year but it's got nothing to do with the budgetary line it's money in reserve that can only be used for this function So, when they choose not to use it, it makes no logical sense.

But the waterways fund is a great example. I know that it's quite flush. But there's no path to accessing it.

Right now, I still think it's going to go out to ref.

No, because the waterways fund is a different fund. It's not like the reserve. The equipment reserve fund is actually a designated reserve fund. And so it needs to have. So, then don't make it that no, no, no, we're keeping it as the water raised fund. It's just, I've started to create like, this year we originally budgeted schedules that we were going to put in 72,000 dollars from rounding 72,000 dollars. We've already had to transfer 18,500. we've had to correct the. The allocation this year, because we were covering the bulk heading, I think at silver beach. so we'll only add $54,000 in the 2026 year.

Are we using the waterways funds to pay for other bulkhead like South Silver Beach? Is that where the funding's been coming from?

Yeah, that's where that extra $18,500 had to come from was coming out of waterways.

I see.

And so that was approved as a budget transfer earlier this year.

So, is that the mechanism a budget transfer? That's the administrative mechanism we're talking about.

Yeah. So, for this year, we're putting like, the morning fees are going in both storage fees go in during how the waitlist goes in condensate dockage goes in and dredging. And doc permits go in, and then the things that are coming out are, we've got the clerk for the, we've got the clerk in the. Town clerk's office who administers like overseas, you know. The morning steps we've got some waterways management is the online morning fee and then the things that are coming out are. Like, buoys and lifelines, like boat equipment and then we did. Jettison bulkheads. So, like, that was 88,500, but then when we got the quote, and it was up another 18,500, so I have to fix that number. So there's like, these are the different things. So we do a budget transfer. So then it does go into. You know, public works, you know. Commissioner public works, so he knows I've got the money now so that I can execute on.

Yeah. So you also have a budget line for. Okay, is there a separate budget line in the budget for the commission of public works?

Oh, that's it. That is the line. So he used to.

Right, so are you tax funding a budget line? We also have a waterways fund.

No, we're not tax funding that. We're saying that that is, like, these are all the ins, these are all the outs. And so whatever the delta is, that's where they're going to come from in some years, come from the waterways monies. or it's going to create waterways monies because we're not doing anything super big this year. But then the next year, we may have a bulkhead replacement that costs us $300,000. It's going to help smooth. Because years ago, it wasn't quite clear how it was being done. And so it's taken a few years to watch this process.

A little confused, though. Is there a tax-based budget line for docks and bulkheads?

No.

It's going to be funded with this only funded from this slide.

Right?

Okay. Yeah, because what ended up happening, I think, was under Jerry's administration. We did used to have a tax line that was funded. And then when he was trying to look ways to save on budget money, he's like, oh, we're going to take that out of waterways. And so he ended up saving a chunk of money from the tax funded portion. But then the waterways took a hit. And so we haven't done anything. It's been zero based for waterways. And, but, you know, there were some things that were being considered, like, 100% of the Bay Constable salaries. And so we're not going to, you know, now that's not being funded by waterways. Not that it ever really was because we weren't taking money out of waterways, but we weren't putting money in either. So I can, like, clean this spreadsheet up and give it all to you.

I just hope that that fund can carry the needs without a tax infusion.

That's why, like, so for this year, Last year, we just allocated, like, all of these, you know, all of these revenues coming in are going to go to all of these expenses and that's what was done for the past couple of years. But it didn't make sense. It was like, okay, in order to fund 100% of bakehouse full salaries. We had an excess of 89,000, you know, like, so technically, they constantly salaries were being partially funded by taxpayers.

The fund is pretty much funded by moorings, right? So they're not the only people that use a town landing. In fact, they might not use it at all. If we do a pedal landing at Bootlegger's Alley and they're on the other side, they may never use that. There's other tax people that use that. And this is what the philosophical where I disagreed with Jerry when he was covering Bay Constables or Marine Patrol out because there's so many other users that use it. It shouldn't all rest on the backs of the mooring people. Right, and that's all waterfront activities. There's a bulkhead that needs repair in North Silver Beach. You know, why is somebody hasn't worried to go down?

I know you can go to school. They don't use a school.

I understand that. But, but, but you can't, you can't. Cover all of our waterways on the backs of the people that use mornings.

That's a decision that I don't know. I don't know if there's enough money there to carry it in. That's all revenue, where the revenue goes. But my bigger concern would be, does it have enough to sustain our needs? Because our capital plans consistently fail when we line up a schedule and then we don't stick to the schedule. Agreed.

That's where I'm going ultimately, Joe, is the reason why I'm saying a tax infusion is because there should be some... Oh, because you're worried about having to change the mooring fees if they're the... Then we're going to have to bump up the mooring fees because we need to do an important fire landing, right? And so, you know, all of a sudden theirs keep going up and it's unfair to them, those people that have mooring, to cover all of the apparatus on the water because they have a mooring. So, it's philosophical. I understand.

Yeah, no, and I'm just trying to create something more where we're actually structures being a fund that will actually be able to.

Pay for some of these things, so we did add some other funding sources into the waterways this last budget. We added all the dredging and doc permit fees go into the waterways. um concrete concrete dockage goes in there and then the boat storage fees and the boat storage fees are big too that one in there too so those all go in there it's a broader base it's not just the more how about the funds um the access to the funds how would that

That's going to be a budget because it's the waterways fund isn't a reserve fund. It is just a separate waterways fund. So the access is done at budget time. Oh, so for this year, we did, we said, okay, we're budgeting for these monies coming in and then we're also paying for the things that I started to say 1 of which was.

I see, so even when we were requesting projects for tax based. Tax based funded projects, it was always a pitch to the town board just happened at budget season. Well, well, in advance. And so my primary concern is that we, that that process doesn't really get inhibited. Like, we had seen with the, um. you know, with like the use of the boat or the purchase of the boat where the project was presented and then there was confusion about whether this was a type of purchase that was allowable. You know, my main priority is having a relatively straightforward path towards identifying and scheduling a project to be worked on and then having the funds to support it because the lead time and the preparation is so long for permitting and construction that it's different than just buying something, a fixed product. So when those get disrupted, it becomes a multi-year shakeup where we've had to skip projects. And this would actually help another problem that we had when we were tax basing and having these smaller amounts of money. We were sort of self capital planning by By rolling it over year to year until we got to do it, we'd sneak a small project in knowing that we had to roll over 40,000 to next year so that we could do the larger project. So so that would be a huge improvement. So long as the funds are accessible.

Yeah, I mean, they're, they're accessible. It's still going at all. Like, any spending has to be temporary approved. So, whether or not, we're taking it out of the reserve fund, or were you taking using waterways money? Like, we're going to transfer if we said, like, say, the workbook comes back on here. Like. This, I think this is just a hangover since it's not a hangover.

It'll probably be back on as a proposal from the highway superintendent when he comes back in a 5 year plan.

Yeah. So. Like, if we decide we're going to move money to cover that, it's still going to require town board approval to do a budget transfer for waterways to that. I mean, so it still will always be subject to.

We'll just have better earmarking. It's going to there's going to be no change on the funding allocation. You're not going to see what you would like to do.

I'm not, I'm not suggesting that anybody needs a blank check. We've always had, we've always had a sort of a pitch period where. We come in and say, this is what's up for, uh, you know, for replacement. This is what we think it's going to cost. So, so that that's not my. My concern, my concern is adding making the waterways fund. The more robust equipment reserve fund, you know, with with. permissive referendum periods with requiring a vote at that moment, that approach is is more appropriate for purchasing a soft asset like that, like a piece of machinery, because the lead times are shorter. But for infrastructure planning, we need more certainty to prepare because we're so much more heavily invested in the process a year ahead of time for permitting that if we change our decisions, it becomes really ineffective.

I think, I think this will be better because it makes it clearer and that, like, I'll get this cleaned up and you and I can sit down and, like, actually look at the marine assets and what we're going to try and schedule out to see what it looks like. But I think it will make it clearer for everyone to be able to say, oh, okay, we do have the money to do this. Like, last year when we approved, whatever the purchase was from the equipment reserve fund.

Like, yes.

Yeah, we're walking for a trailer back in November, December. It's like, okay, if we take this money out, like, yes, you can see we've got a path that we will have money for future projects or future equipment purchases. So same thing here.

The small, the other priorities that you were discussing, Chief, about ramps and things, they've been spread out over At least 3, maybe 4 public works line items is the intention to. Draw all of those things from the waterways fund or. Will we will clarify what will be still tax base and what's what will then become out of. Becoming from the waterways fund, like the, uh. You know, there's like, town landings, maintenance line items for a couple 1000 dollars. There's, um. Are we going to segregate within some of the marine expenses?

We can take a look at that. I'm not sure which line ramps are coming out of. I think Meg's going to try and pull up the budget. Because we had boat equipment being definitely a waterways, buoys and lifelines, the jetties and bulkheads, town landings. I guess town landings is really 1490, 417. So, it's in the, oh, yeah, a fund if you go to the 1490. so. Like, we can take a look to see whether or not we're we're. Budgeting and pulling from the right lines. Like, I feel like now that I'm seeing town landings on here, we, like, we've got it covered.

Some of those are different in concept, like, some are. Some are consumables and maintenance and some are. Assets.

So, we do have a little bit of maintenance in here and then we've got the bigger things.

So, is the intention to put everything marine related marine related even consumables like both fuel and things out of the didn't have both feeling here. Okay, so it would just be at for asset planning.

Yeah, we have a little bit about maintenance and a little bit of boat equipment. Because we're only using, like, 5 weeks of the big constables, because 5 weeks of their time is.

Getting the waterways, I tax base or boat fuel and boat equipment and salary. So.

So this would be a purely asset based fund, not.

I don't know if we're going to go to that level right now. I think she's going to take a look at it.

It's right now. It's predominantly asset based, but there is a little bit of maintenance, like, 5 weeks of a constables and their longevity boat equipment 5 weeks of that maintenance 5 weeks of that. But there's nothing in here for boat fuel. And I feel like to start, it's like just kind of pulls it together in a way that people can understand it better.

Well, I think it'd also be helpful if we had the schedule of, you know, we're going to do this town landing. We anticipate it to be this expensive. And then in two years, we're going to do this one. We expect like, you know, this is the expense, the same way we do with the equipment so that people can look long-term at and how it, and understand when we do, I think it has to be something.

Yeah. I think it gives Joe what he's looking for. If he knows two years out, we're going to do talk kettle, say he can start doing planning with the DEC or whoever he has to do, do the design work. so that when that budget cycle comes around yep we're on a schedule it's the next scheduled thing and it's not coming up against okay well you know hold off yes but that's that's totally right capital planning without the capital

Is pointless. Yeah. Yeah. Which is basically with you item building reserve creation. Like, we, that would be the skipping over work, but it's not here. But that would be the next thing is like, okay. We've got the equipment reserve fund, which we're good there. We're like, now we're working on the waterways and marine assets. so we also need to start working on doing a building reserve fund and like i think you've got that schedule as well if we can start to look at okay what what does it look like we need in order to do the big things and that's going to be tax funded like and even the equipment reserve fund we put in 110 000 a year in the budget to um you know give that fund balance Like, what do we need in order to do the same thing for building reserve?

Right. What are large anticipated repairs? Like, do we need a new roof on town hall? Are we expecting a boiler to blow? Like, what's the length expectancy of some of the bigger equipment we have that runs the buildings? That kind of thing. If we have to open a wall to fix what's happening, how much of a project do we anticipate that being? So we can kind of plan it accordingly so that we don't end up with a situation like, to use goat hill because that was one of those things where it just got kicked down down the road nobody wanted to deal with it so then once we actually started dealing with some of the what we thought were smaller problems it turned out that they were much larger problems than anticipated and had to be dealt with there really wasn't an option to just ignore it so if we can start planning for some of those situations like we know that there are some problems with some of these buildings that are going to be cans of worms and so we need to start planning on how we're going to handle them Um, so I think that coming up with a reserve fund, and maybe some kind of timeline on when things are going to need to get addressed is important.

Yeah. So, I think we do the waterways marine assets 1st, Joe, and then, like, after we're done with that. start to look at the building reserve. Because I think we did look at this probably eight years ago or so. And at that point in time, just looking at depreciating buildings and things like that, I think we needed a million dollars a year if we were going to have funds enough to replace things. But that was looking at a 30-year timeline.

Yeah, this will align nicely with the master plan.

That's what I was thinking. Yeah.

I wouldn't dismiss the work that the board does with Ken's second hat of commissioner of public works. You have a fund line that covers needs. I don't know if it's $40,000 or $50,000 and if a boiler goes. My take always is don't overcomplicate it to a level. Because if a boiler goes now, I don't want the public to think that we don't have the money to do that. We have the money to fix a boiler. you know if a roof failed buy the money to fix a roof like i i just we we do have a tax base line that has money in it amber you'll know what that number is a lot better than i will and that we work to do repairs out of that i'm not allowed to mention goat hill so i don't so i i would say that that that ended up being like you said compounding projects opened up and it was unexpected but um But in general, I think that operationally we've been able to. Meet our repair needs as they become available. So, I, if you had to tweak it a little bit, I mean, I think part of my concern too is as.

We go through budget season and budget season, we keep cutting budgets, cutting, but I was going to say, and we don't have the question. So that's where this is coming because people need a realistic understanding of what it's going to cost when through falls in, you know, and I feel like, you know. people look at the budget and think, well, that's not designated for anything specific. It's just contingency or what if this happens. And it's like, well, here's the list of all the things that can go wrong. And when we're anticipating that they happen because they have a life expectancy of so many years. It doesn't have to be to that detail, but like more the big ticket money items. So it's like.

You need defendable numbers.

You need defendable numbers. I mean, you know, you walk into town hall and you look up and you're like, that doesn't look so good. And you know, probably isn't. So, but it's, you know, things that we need to plan for budget for town hall, you know.

And other buildings, like the 70,000, I got taken down to 50,000. Right.

Right.

So that we're getting 45,000.

Right.

That's what I thought. I thought it was around 40,000. Yeah. So, and that might, you know, at the end of the year, when. When last year it was over 100, which I know it was right. We're in trouble if it's only 40,000, right? Exactly. So that's where, you know, that's where this is coming because I'm, like, looking out there.

I'm like, okay, so we start opening up the walls to figure out why the doors don't work anymore. We're going to have to do some major repairs. It's going to definitely blow the 40,000 out of the water.

Yeah. And then also where we have the buckets, it's raining inside. But we've got the facility master plan.

We have a facility master plan. Hopefully that will guide us in this direction, but just a separate building. That's the, yeah, exactly. We can have 2 separate buildings.

Yeah, but siding in the hallway will be fine. Next was capital request form for 2026. so we've got a little bit of a late start getting those out, but I think we're still like, have time to review them at this committee level before we make recommendations up to the town board late in the summer for capital planning needs. Christina, when did you say to get those back by?

So they were sent April, May 15 as a submission deadline. uh discuss with this group june 23rd so far we have received i believe four uh and i think pd get there is that right no i have a i have some prepared remarks in that regard

Do you want them for today or do you want them?

Well, I can go through it relatively.

We're going to go through all of them together.

No, no, no. I just wanted to like a preload of some of the things. So look, I think that we've done a very good job from the town's perspective and the PD's perspective in doing capital planning. So we've completed, and I would tell you that, our radio interoperability plan what was completed now we've purchased those radios and waiting for a south hole to make this switch over to the county so we're in good shape we've added tablets to the police car so that we can do more work in the vehicles and and less having to come into the station and stay out on patrol um we we implemented our taser program right so we pulled that from capital planning and we now have that as a budget item Because it's, it's like a, a 1 lease thing where we, at least the taste was in 5 years when they're. At a service, then we go back to another lease. The other thing we've done is we have a robust in car camera program for inside our vehicles. But what I would say to you is that coming and I'm going to come more prepared at the next meeting would be our body worn camera program. And I just wanted to take on it a little bit. We've been talking about this for well over five years now. It was part of our police reform plan. We're probably one of the last agencies on the East End that doesn't have a body worn camera program. And it's something that we have to complete, right? So that'll put us in a much better place. We're sitting on a new patrol vessel. We don't own any of our vessels. That is another one that we have to look when we're looking out by the years that that remains. And we've had that before this committee for a while. A big thing that obviously I probably won't see completed or I know I won't see completed in my career is the ADA compliance at headquarters. We've done $50,000 in design plans for that. And I know you're looking at all the buildings and the infrastructure, but it's something that really has to get pushed to the top. Still not at the level of body worn cameras, much easier to take off, but ADA compliance in a senior community is really important. um and then the last thing i'll have on my list is um a camera project we want to do on the crescent beach right put license plate readers down there and have some cameras especially during the hiking season it's our busiest location on the island So what I would say is that we've done a really good job at ticking off projects, but we still have some projects to do. But body-worn cameras is probably the highest. With that said, we've asked Congressman Lillota for funding on that. And we've also looked at law enforcement tech grant opportunities. So we're looking for outside funding. But it's something that we're going to really have to push forward looking into the 2027 budget as we get to that. So I just wanted to, wasn't too bad, two minutes preamble. So for me, there's nothing for me to really resubmit. Most of these have been submitted as projects, all of them have. And so they're submitted. ADA, I mean, we've had a design plan. We've given number plans. We've met with the town board, Joe, right? We've pushed numbers up there, too. I don't know what else to submit from my perspective. I mean, really, it should come from the Commissioner of Public Works for the most part, right? But I don't know what else to submit in that regard. So if you want me to submit something...

I don't care.

I can do it very easily like a weird segway. It's like, who submits the request form for a new town hall, you know, right? Right. Right. So, Joe, we don't really talk about projects at that scale. Right?

This is a lot of scale project that we've had many public discussions on. We've shown blueprints or not blueprints, but design plans, maybe the external and internal board.

Then this decision, somebody has to introduce that as to keep it on the plate.

I. We'll do it, Christina. Great idea. So I will add add the stuff that we've done. I'll add our proposed numbers. And I'll keep to keep it on the list. Honestly, John, it'll take me 10 minutes.

John Potter, We already we already done anything i'm just gonna buckle it up that's an interesting discussion about processes like you know this does a public works, Commissioner, put in for projects like the you know Ram island road racing when these projects that become. Very large scale. We haven't really done forms. For they've really just been discussed at the board level during budget.

Like, for me, I would like to think they're a capital planning quest, like a world racing. That would be more of a hazard. That's an infrastructure.

Thanks for the building small and Westmoreland road. Right? We've been talking about that forever. Ken promised me the highway superintendent. Ken Lewis promised me.

that's that's all the priced item that he should present that this year he does that with his own budget though for instance that's not a capital this form should represent capital plan projects requests uh because there's a there's a line item for that right capital right so it's only projects that would go in that does the police department's ada project go into that

I think that's where we, we look at the building reserve fund line, you know, that schedule that we're going to create and put something like that in because it's not just the. Funding that we get taxpayer funding, but also we add in grants and things like that. So, if we're looking at something, be like, okay, if we really want this to happen, then. In 2029, then we need to start backing up into 2027 how we're going to bring Jen in. Like, what opportunities do we have? Go in that direction. So I think that like that, I think those bigger ones would fall on that schedule. Whereas a new vehicle for, you know, the building department. You know, assessors went on to our capital planning, you know, capital request form.

Like your ADA, my take is just because it does direct impact on. Our operation, I just assume submit.

Is this the building and infrastructure reserve fund?

Yes, that would definitely be better.

All right, Joe, I mean, I get your point and we could present the whole asset mitigation plan as a capital project. Yeah.

The distinction, I think, is whether it goes in that capital planning line item or not. If not, then it shouldn't get a form.

Ultimately, if we did do some big infrastructure thing, it would go through that line.

Is that how they've typically been done?

Yeah, I mean, it should be.

It should be. Yeah.

Yeah, if we want to be a grown up town.

So, I think kind of got a lot of forms to fill out.

And again, it doesn't even.

It's going to be a multi year thing, so I don't think can use to fill out a form for that. We're going to make sure that the building and infrastructure. Reserve fund, right? That's what we're going to schedule it in here.

That's public works.

Yeah.

In the review of the buildings will that be incorporated into the right? So, so.

Yeah, the ADA for justice court for. You know, things like operations need to happen here. We'll go through that. And then if we finally get to a year where we actually are. Pulling the trigger on something, then it will end up on their budget line. But it will be a transfer, like, if we established a fund, or we've got grant funding coming in.

Yeah. Right. Okay.

Um, the last 1 meeting dates just got like, the transition from Federico to here and miss meetings. Like, we, we've already established our meeting dates.

Okay. Yeah. You are there. So I wasn't sure. Yeah, I was like, looking at this, I think it was like, the next meeting is.

Well, that's everything make a motion to. Oh, if any, any public is that PM.

No, thanks. It's always good listening, and have yourselves a nice afternoon, and stay warm. It's chilly out there.

Pam, did you get my special thanks on that document that you forwarded?

I certainly did, Chief. I'm glad it was of help to you, and if you want to reach out to that man, I do have his contact number.

Okay, yeah, no, that was good, and that got pushed in, and Joe got a chance to look at it, too, so it always helps.

Terrific. I'm always glad to be of help. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, make a motion to close the capital plan. Second. All in favor? Aye.