Town Council - Regular Meeting

How are you?

Okay. So, we're so good with it.

I have cataracts and I think I think I'm going to have to have an operation.

You know what the good news is? Bango. Welcome everybody to the Ry Town Council meeting of May 14th, 2026. Please rise and join me for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Please remain standing. Oh Lord, bless this assemblage. Grant us the wisdom to make every decision fair-minded in the best interest for all its residents. Amen. Please call the role. Council person Debbie Freriedman here. Council person Pamela Jathy. Yes. Here. Council person Brandy Sier present. Council person Thomas Nardy here and supervisor Gary Zergman present. Um adoption of minutes. We have two meetings. One is the meeting of April the 16th and the other is the special meeting of May 4th. Uh we'll take both of them together unless there are any additions or corrections. May I have a motion and a second?

So move second. All in favor?

I. Next item is the continuation of the public hearing pursuant to the eminent domain procedure law regarding the South Barry Avenue bridge uh over Otter Creek. This matter um was brought to a successful conclusion. Uh we completed the purchase of the small strip of land uh necessary to do the bridge replacement and therefore it is no longer necessary to go forward with the eminent domain proceeding and therefore I will request a motion and a second to close the public hearing.

So moved. A second. All in favor?

I I the public hearing is closed. Um we have several taxerts. Um the first one is 745 East Boston Post Road. Um who's going to present on this? Is it uh Jeff or is it our assessor? Okay. Uh, hi, I'm Jeff Binder, town attorney. Uh first one is 745 East Boston Post Road. Uh this is a small uh office building in the village of Mamarin. And the the refunds are very minor, relatively very minor, about 4,000, little under $5,000 to the school district, 2,700 uh from the village, and the town is dimminimous.

Any questions? If not, I have a motion and a second. Make the motion. Second. For the role, please. Council person Freriedman. Yes. Council person Jaffy. Yes. Council person Sier. Yes. Council person Nardy. Yes. And supervisor Zerman. Yes. Second one is uh

Yes. This is 555 Boston Post Road. Uh the refunds from the school district are a little bit more robust than the prior one. About 40,000 $41,000. Uh this covers from 2020 through 2025. Um and the refunds from the the village are uh about just over $18,000. Uh the building is a it's a uh it's another small office building with an AV of about $1.6 million. So Jeff, just to confirm, the school the school district and the village of America are all aware of these.

Yes, we've gone over them uh several times as well as um during our regular meetings. Our regular start meetings. Our regular start meetings. Sorry. Okay. Any questions or comments? The the only question I have it's f five years. I thought we had I thought we had changed it to like three years to go back. I thought we had changed that. Or maybe I'm wrong on that. No, I mean if a cases sort of is lingering, it can go back as many years. There's no there's no limit. We try we

we try to nip them in the bud. We try to resolve them early if we can. I know that because this it's been unusual that because the other one's only been like a couple years or you know two or three years and it's kind of you'll see on the next one what it is. But what what you're referring to is they have four years to uh submit a note of issue to the court. If they don't submit the note of issue basically saying they're ready for trial then it gets dismissed. That's what the period is. And once the note of issue is uh filed with the court,

then it's up to the court and the and the two parties to bring it forward. So it could stay on. I remember when uh when I first became supervisor, they had which was in 2016, they had stuff going back 10 years. Yeah. So, um, we're, as Jeff said, we're trying to get the early as early as possible, but no, sometimes the petitioner doesn't always cooperate. We can't come to to, uh, that's that's the only real I mean, that's the only reason why I'm questioning because all the other ones have only been a few years. It's been it's been unusual that go back five years. That's the only reason.

Yeah. Um, you you'll see a variety of years at issue coming before you throughout the year. Um, I can't say that there aren't going to be cases coming forward that have more, but there'll be more coming forward that have fewer years of issue. So, I I I have just a general question. I notice in both cases these are commercial buildings and the corrective assessment in both cases is lower than it was the prior year. Is there some trend in commercial real estate in that area or this is commercial office space? Yeah. So vacancies have clicked up a little bit and um

it's the rates haven't gone down. So our cap rates are kind of trickling up a little bit. So right now there's some changes to the market. So we we to get the the reductions down a little bit, we had to do something for the 2025 year that might have been a little bit more than we had to do for the 24 year or the 23 year. So that's the reason why. And these these are both very similar office buildings and you can see their AVs kind of ended up roughly around 1.1ish one point right around there. So they're very similar properties uh right on Boston Post Road. It just seemed like when the these values came out 2020 so it was right around COVID and then obviously things changed. So

thank you.

So generally there's two ways to value properties in taxer context. One is recent sales which is can be a uh you know an excellent indicator of value and another one is income approach and how the office building is doing with its cash flow and tenencies. So they so a lot of the the building owners they come to us and they sometimes plea poverty and vacancy and expenses. And so thankfully Charlie and Gordon in our in our assessment department they you know they really dig in and look under the hood for you know legitimate expenses. And

so this is where the P&L statements come in handles when you do this. Yeah. income. We we call them income and expense statements. Yeah. We require that they submit them to us, but we check them and crossch checkck them as to similar properties. And Dan and I also use databases uh to look at to look at properties when we first get a case to orient ourselves to see, you know, recent sales. All right. Sales are really appropriate for residential dwellings more so than office buildings or retail because they're so different. Y right. You're going to do a basically discounted cash flow analysis to see that's the way you value real estate.

That's one of them. Commercial real estate. So capitalist. Does it seem like from this these two building there's a little bit of a I mean it's consistent I guess with what's been going on in the country commercial buildings are it was rough co it co was really rough on commercial real estate I as you know tremendous vacancies and and now it's four years later it's still these are the cases we're dealing with now right

no I understand So it's happening in uh people got used to I mean it's a tremendous issue I think in Manhattan real estate with frankly people getting used to working at home. Interestingly some of the the office buildings that are like onesie twoosies single offices you know those actually didn't do so badly during co People didn't really want to stay home every day, so they went into, you know, a solo office. Anyway, uh then you want me to go on the next property? Not till we vote on this one. That's right. Motion and second, please.

I'll make the motion. Second. Call the roll. Council person Freriedman. Yes. Council person Jaffy. Yes. Council person Sier. Yes. Council person. Yes. And supervisor. Yes. And now the third one third one's in Portchester. It's just one year at issue. One year, Tommy. Okay. And they're uh Yeah, but how much?

Thanks to the the great negotiating skills of uh Dan Tartalia and uh along with the help of uh Charlie Zaba and staff. Uh there's no refunds from the school district, no refunds from the village, and a hefty $835 refund from the town of Ry. I would recommend we approve that settlement. It's a the VAV on this is uh 6 point is 5.3. Motion in a second, please. Second. Council Person Freriedman. Yes. Council person Jaffy.

Yep. Council Person Sier. Yes. Council Person. Yes. And Supervisor Zuckerman. Yes. Well, those are all the resolutions. Yep. Reports. Charlie, I think you have to leave. No, he wasn't. I got to go, but we're moving so fast. You can go. It's okay.

Um, Crawford Park. Oh, that's good. Okay, you're up. Okay. So, this is um from January to

April's um versus uh 2025 and 2026 for Crawford Park. On the left side is the gross from 2025 and 2026. And on the right is for any municipality or school events that were waved for 2025 and 2026. This is how many events we currently have had. Um this is the breakdown from January all the way to April. of private events, any concerts we've had, and any um municipality or wave um events that we've had and also with the programs. And on May 3rd, we had um the Westchester Phil Harmonic here, which was the last winter concert that we had. And then after that, we will have our summer card concerts that will begin on July 9th, which would be every Thursday at 700 p.m. And then in approximately two weeks or so, we will have the Eco Fest here at Crawford. And that concludes my report. Thanks. Any questions?

I have a question. The first slide when you have the private events and then the municipal events, right? So, are we finding that you know people have come to us asking like the municipal and the ones on the right hand side and they haven't been able to utilize the park because it's been used for a private event where we're not having conflicts like that where people want. The conflicts will begin in June and July because everybody's trying to graduate and have graduation parties. Okay. So, right now it's kind of more available. Okay.

So, we try to utilize the space and some people are flexible, but during the summer that's when it's a little more harder for people. So even though we might have the tent outside, we have the pavilion, okay, and the mansion. If we don't get them to come here, we'll tell them that we also have Righttown Park, right, with the pavilions if they'd like to do that. And most of them will say it's fine or they'll switch the date if they can't work with the date that they requested. But during this time period, we're not finding that like it's been booked for a private event and then the schools or somebody else is coming in to use it and they can't get access.

Schools when they do their functions, it's mostly like from 8 to 3:00 Monday through Thursday. It's rare that they will do a Saturday. Okay. And mostly private events or weekends, right? Okay. All right. Thank you. I'm curious. I'm looking at the the 26 compared to the 25 private events and there's substantially more money. But if you go to the next slide, the number of events are roughly the same, right? So what accounts for the difference?

This year most people want non-event hours. So they come in, they have their decorator, their caterer come and set up prior to the actual event. So they consume time. Some of them want to use our Chavari chairs. So it does take, you know, account to they're spending more money per event is what it comes down to. Okay. Thank you. So we saw last month I think we had kind of like a dip in events and this month we're right very up. So it does even out

during the winter, January, February, March, it's always slow. Once April, it's more nicer outside. People want to have events. And then middle of May, it just full gear with events. Takes off. Now that your team is looking after Rytown Park year-over-year, um this is the first year, but you're seeing gains there as well.

Yeah, a lot more. Well, I guess we're more transparent with the clients as well, asking them, you know, you need to submit your information. We you want to pay. Okay. Well, this is how we're doing it now. If you're going to pay, you got to pay credit card or check,

no cash, you know. Um, if they want something, we have we tell them in advance. If you want someone to come in prior to our staff to decorate, set up an arch or have a DJ to set themselves up, that requires time. If you want our equipment out and our staff, you know, you got to pay for it. And most of them are understanding now that we've had a year in, the clients are like, "Okay, this is how we're doing things now." So, they are more understanding now than they were the first year. I realize those reports probably go to the park commission, but it'd be interesting to see if you do similar how your team, I'm sure, is making a huge success of it there. So, well, um, starting from May on it, it is picking up. April this year was slower compared to last year, but it is um we have more events.

It is growing. Yeah. Cool. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Rick, do you have anything? Not really. Look how nice everything looks. I was just going to say that the lawn looks unbelievable. It's gorgeous. Thank you. Well, I I have a report involving this gentleman. I was require him standing up. sitting reading something and my wife said, "Mandy, there are people in my backyard. People in our backyards." So, I went out and I was pleased to see

I was pleased to see Vic and the young man, what's the young man's name? Jonathan.

Jonathan. And they were checking out the Guin grave site which uh you know I walked over there for the first time. A friend of mine came by after we met in the backyard and said, "What's that about?" And I said, "You know, I've never actually walked over there." And it is interesting. And the the grave the graves are not in good shape. I don't know if that's anything to be. They're very old. A lot of them are knocked over. I don't know if that's something that at some point

have to stand up. Yeah. I apologize for making you stand up. Today was nice. You have a nice tan. Say how hard it was. Okay. I I had brought up uh I think last year sometime last year that the two other cemeteries besides the AfricanAmerican cemetery need work that the stones are tipped over especially the Gedney because the Gedney is seen by students and parents every day they walk by it. But the Gon cemetery is in bad shape also. Yes.

And it just happens to be in Ry's backyard. It just happens. How many people do you know who have a cemetery in their backyard? It's not in my backyard. No, it's kind of is. It's right in front of your way there is going by his house and then going through his backyard. No. Is there an easement? I have to do a little That may be a charge. Oh, there's an emergency thing. There's an easement. That may be a money maker. And what about And then we also have what is it the Stewart that's up that's got the rope around? Yes. And that has there's only one marker that's up. It's a baby marker that's up against a tree. Only one that's left.

I had said to Randy, I will get somebody over there to clean that area up and maybe there is a buried marker or two. Yeah, it's so it's it's a shame, but you know, the cemeteries are so old, especially that one because it's roped off and it's marked at that as that, but uh there's no visible headstones whether they're buried or it's not even bigger than this room. No, it's tiny. Yeah, it's very very small. Yes. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was going to say while we force you to stand. So, the work is continuing a pace on the bath house at Right Town Park. Oh, yes. Um, do you have any pictures?

No. It's going to be a surprise for Sunday. I was going to say there um Yeah, today it's virtually finished here. Yeah, I'm so excited. Today, all the partition stalls uh went up. The cabin uh cabinets are up. Um they're waiting on all really minor things. I mean, if you look at a corner, there's a little there's a metal stripping that runs, let's say, the length of your they on the corners. The piece that fits there is what they're waiting for. It looks amazing.

Oh, it does. really really I tell you what, the friends had hired somebody to do work on the tower building and even though the the inside of the tower building needs a ton of work, tower building looks really nice. Really does. The wall looks amazing. The wall, the new wall is amazing. They kept the art deco to it. Yes. I, you know, I took a ride. I met Charlie. Charlie picked me up. We went and took a ride a couple weeks ago. Yeah. because I unfortunately I haven't been able to get down there and uh it it was amaz they did such a nice job on that wall. I was really I was really pleased with that.

Yes. No, they it's and there we have an engineer and an architect looking at the other wall for the friends. Um the engineer is going to have a uh study on if you look at the other side of the parking lot where the wall is old. uh there is a stone wall underneath it and they have to determine whether they can build on top of that stone or pull that out. So that's what they're waiting for on that side. I I haven't had a conversation with the architect since that started which I'm talking about two weeks. I haven't had a conversation in two weeks. Did they give you a timeline as to when that would be finished? That's

they're waiting on the engineers study. They're giving you time on when that will be done. That's what we're talking about engineers here. You know, I think you're keeping it busy.

Just just some other work. Um I don't know how many of you have used the beach. There's a pipe that comes out and in low tide you can see the pipe. Well, that pipe had broken up pretty bad. Um to whereas it was really a danger to anybody that would step near it. Uh today the people that are West Morland uh contractors are doing the beach, the sand, moving the sand and are doing a tremendous job. Today they pulled out the two pieces of pipe which are concrete with, you know, mesh inside of it. Well, those two pieces of concrete are attached to a steel pipe. They so they they had to be added to it and they weren't secured. So, that's why they separated and broke, but they put a new uh culvert in. They're going to be back tomorrow to cement it more, but it's going to be safe for everybody and uh better drainage for our pipe. So, a lot of work going on there. That's why I spend a lot of time there.

Thank you, thank you, Vic. John,

yes. Before I get into these numbers, I just want to go over a couple highlights which indicate a positive trend to me. Um, number one, Carl and her team collected nearly $35 million dollars this month, which is mostly county and c county and town taxes. Um, we in turn are investing that money in a local government investment program for about 3.5 3.6%. So, we're getting as much in there as we can. Um, on 526, we're going to have to transfer 20 million of that over to the county. And in October, the rest of it goes over to the county also.

I wish we could for as long as we can, Gary. So, getting back to the fact that we've collected so much money, Carla and her team, what's happening is we have less of a current receivable for county and town taxes this year than last year. So, we're better by about 2.5 million in current taxes receive, current county taxes receive, which is really a positive trend. Second thing I see which is really positive is the fact at the end of April we had to pay out $700,000 of school taxes which were obligated to. Last year we had to pay out at this time about 1.7 million. So what that indicates to me is that current taxes are being collected at a higher rate than in previous years. Why? I know Carla has gotten a lot more efficient in her department and um I think that we're being a we're making sure that people are paying what they're obligated to pay. So I think that sends a message to everybody that pay up. So I think that's a really positive trend. Any questions on that?

Okay, good. All right. Oh, the report's not up. Okay. Is the report up behind you? behind you. All right. Oh, there it is. Okay. I don't understand why why we can't put it on the screen. So, there's our current rece.

John, I have a directive for you. Directive for the next meeting. Get a laser pointer.

So, here's our current receivable. Again, a lot better than last year. Again, I see the trend as a really positive trend. We're collecting current taxes a lot quicker than prior years. Okay. So, secondly, when we get into the interre Okay. Again, we've last month this was about 80. So literally we've collected more INREM monies about 250,000 of additional INREM monies just hard work. Um and at the same point in time what happens is with these interimm properties is that once they're in okay pe those those people are not paying their current taxes. So what ends up happening is we've collected at 250 but the additional leans for this month have gone up by about 80. So it's a positive flow of about last month that was about 1.8 million 10 $10,000. This month it's 1643. So we're making progress there. We've made a debt in it by about $170,000 which is really good. So, and again, if you see the numbers, the numbers are what happened here.

We have it here, too.

All right. I guess you can't see it there. Something happened, but you can see it over here. Okay. So, again, very positive. Both current taxes and interre taxes are being collected. Anything happen? I don't remember. Let's push the right. Sorry, John's almost done. I'm almost we so you get the people can see it up on that screen and we we have it on our our computer.

So again, positive trends with the interm and the lean properties. Last month we at 80 total in lean. This month we're 73. We're collecting it. Just working hard on it. We collected a lot of money last month. And in addition, there's another collection which happened today which isn't in here. So there's another collection. So overall, if you can see what's going on here,

there we go. Total receivables this year relative to last year were down by about 1.7 million. So again, collections are really, really, really ramping up and Carl is and her team are really efficient at it. Sure. So, I lost it. We got that. I lost the lean summary.

No, I don't know.

There's a link over here. Oh, no. We don't want the lean summary. Pull that. Not that one. Not that one. No. Close it. We want the uh this one. No, I don't want that one either. Close that off. We want inrem. Yeah. Oh, good. Our updates are complete. This one.

Yeah, that's it. All right, great. Okay, so here's our INREM schedule. Again, Carla and I go through this every day. You know, we beat it up pretty good. So again, the trend shows that we're down from last month. We've collected about 250, but again, at the same point in time, what happens is additional leans go against those properties that are in REM. So there's a net positive of about $170,000 in REM compared to last year, last month. Any questions?

So right now, three bell places uh is off. Yeah, they they're off. So you only have seven properties left that are in ramp. Is that correct? Yes. Yes. Yeah. And Jeff Jeff, all of all of the the petitions have been served on these.

Okay. And and and the redemption date is when?

End of June. Okay. I'm sorry. You said what was the number? Seven. There's eight on the list, but they said one was just paid today. You're looking at schedule C. Randy terrain. Terrain. That's what I just sent you today. Yeah, I just spoke to I'm speaking to all the owners here. Mhm. So, we're get to rain a bill this month. We did already. Yeah.

Just for So, the the the 2021 and 2024 has been resolved. Is that what you were ones? Because I see schedule C. You said okay. Schedule C. you were has eight, but I'm told one of them was resolved. Is that right? Correct. Okay. Yes. So, and are 2024 and 2021 still in play? No, not really. They're they're in court, Randy. They're in court. The one from Yeah, they're Yeah,

you're talking about 335 Westchester Avenue, that's KFC, right? Right. Right. But that's KFC. Okay. So, does that mean they're not in active cases? No, they're being Jeff talking of being prosecuted. We're right. Nine nine cases are being prosecuted. Yes, we're pursuing those. Yeah, that's all. I was just I heard seven and seven as they redeem as they pay off. Right.

Randy, the reason I said seven is because these are the new petitions that were just filed. The other ones are trying to be resolved. The two, the one from the the cell tower, that's a cell tower located on top of the housing authority and the other one is the Knights of Columbus. And those are we're trying to reach resolution on those. They're pending cases, right? Like all pending cases, we're attempting to resolve them. Right. But the other ones the other ones have not really though have not been in court yet. Process has been served. Process has been served. But

sorry for being a lawyer and trying to understand. There's no yet there's not yet a return on it. And one of the eight in schedule D. I'm sorry. Did you say one of the eight in schedule C has been resolved? That's right. Bell Place third from the bottom. Bell Place. Okay. And Willow Street. Do we just know what's going on since that's such a big number? No. 217. Yes. that that will probably get resolved when well it's both of those to the court itself right because both of those are the same owner 10 and seven

and I'm sorry so just remind me when we say inremel eligible I take it that means no proceeding has been commenced correct and we have a policy about holding off on that until they've been delinquent for a certain period of time the law under the law which we should follow which we should follow which we do follow

a lean a lean is filed when a property is one year in a rears lean gets filed in with west county subsequently 18 months must pass in addition before you can file an INR petition is that 1 + 6 or 1 plus 18 It's 1 year plus 18. 1 plus 18. 1 plus 18. It used to be 24 months. It used to be 24 months. Now it's 18 months.

So the that 18month period will come about in July of this year. So that's why it is in rena eligible. And Jeff will start the petition process in July and set a redemption date. Okay. Any question on the other properties? We're all good. I have a question on the next page when we get to the next page. That is the next screen. The list. No, the page after that one. Oh, the list.

When you get to list. Yes. When we scroll down in the first section of that page to one, two, three, four, about five, six from the bottom of the first section, the town of Ry is on the list for $11,000. That shouldn't be. So, didn't look good to me when I kind of scrolled down. I'm like, John and I have had this discussion. the town of Rye. That's probably a property that we took in rent and own. It needs to come off and needs to come off. I've taken everything else off. I'll take that one.

It's the It's the page below that one. If you scroll to the next page in the document where there's just a long list, it's not on that page. refresh this one. Okay. Yeah, that's which I didn't want to show. Okay. Well, that way you got a question like that doesn't look good. Why is the town of Bry on this with the lean against it and money owed? Yeah, that's it. He sent three. That's that 11567. He sent three reports. We'll look at it. Okay.

We'll talk. I'll talk to you about that. took it off. Yeah. I don't know why that had to refresh yours. Probably we took title to it. Yeah. That we took title something to the property. Okay. Okay. And then we would then owe the taxes on that. I mean, how does that work? The taxes if we own the property, we shouldn't be do we invoice ourselves?

We we only pay town only for properties that we we own for the solar. So, I'm not sure what this 11,000 I'd have to look at it. I'd have to go back and look at it. It could be a combination of a group of them. Um, just noticed that the town is on the list and not the list we want to be on. Yeah. No, it shouldn't be on there. The town is exempt from real estate taxes, so it should not be on, right? Anyway, any anyway, so I don't know why it's on there.

All right, we'll take care. Thank you for looking into it. Thank you for bringing it up. Anything else? No, no good. How are you doing? Are you happy you took this job? Of course. Of course. Great people. I mean, can't beat the people and the work's been an education, that's for sure. You know, it's it's different. I come from private so uh a little bit different but uh well numbers are numbers exactly but I haven't had to track in I haven't had to learn what INREM is to learn right so it's a little bit different but it's it's been a blast good all right thank you John

thank you update complete I guess I'll leave it like this you need computer um Carl Carla, receiver of taxes. Do you have anything you would like to add?

Yes. You said I haven't, but I wanted to say hi, Carla Pley, receiver taxes. Um, we've been busy in our office this week. We sent out delinquent letters to any residents that did not pay the 2026 county and town tax bills that were due April 30th. Um, it's really important to pay that because as of now there's a penalty on it. Um, we also sent out pre-lean letters that were mailed to any residents that have open taxes from 2025. Any delinquent taxes not paid by July 31st of 2026 will be filed as leans with the Westchester County Clerk's Office. Um the village of Portchester and the village of Ryberrook taxes will be in the mail the first week of June and are due by June 30th. That's it basically.

Thank you. Any questions of Carla? Everything's going smoothly. Everything's going smoothly. Yes. Okay. Good. I just Carl I just had a quick question. Could you just I'm sure just my own stupidity. The page that says reinstated and refunds payments in the report. That's not my report, but Oh, okay. It is. I apologize. Which one? Well, what are you talking about? And I'll see I'm looking at page 23. Okay. I don't know what he's looking at. to you.

It says reinstated checks and there's some most of the is that from Antonio? Um numbers are it's black and some are red and I don't receive this report. No, it's it's on the tax collection report. It looks like well looks like maybe not. Maybe Carlos might end up at on 21 with her name at the bottom. Put my name this one, right? It's like this. No, no, no. Keep going. Scroll down. Keep going. Long. It's past that. Debbie, here.

It's page 23. Here's a report. I don't understand it. But don't you understand about it? Show me what you're not understanding. So I What? What is it? What does it purport to say? What is a black number and what is a red number? You're looking at the one that has the notes on the side of of bank returns or overpayments.

Yeah. I just I just think that's what Antonio does so he knows what's happening. Um they either say bank return the SC the 6,000 was scanned into the wrong account so they had to do a transfer. The 15,95186 was not scanned so they had to rescan it. The O fail the ones that say 427 those are online payments. 23 page 23. sometimes. Does that make sense?

Uh, do you Why don't you explain it? Okay. Um, for instance, the refunded overpayments u under that uh coral logic is uh it's abbreviated. It's a tax servicing agency for banks with mortgage you that hold the mortgages and sometimes coral logic pays it out of their escrow account and sometime the owner pays it or sometimes at the closing the title company will pay it so they received um an additional payment so they had to get refunded. So even it shows that the money went into the bank but then it was considered an

overpayment and it depends. It depends on who we get the check from first. So if the resident gives us check first, they're going to get the refund. Coral Logic usually waits till the end of the month to pay um for their mortgages. So that's why he's saying there's these overpayments at this point. It's just normal course of business. It's It's normal. Yes. Um there's vouchers that happen

and they get they get refunded. Yes. So Camille Linen um was a bank return and then scanned wrong. So that's what that one was. Okay. Bank return means that we return money to the bank or that that the bank No, the bank returned it. It's called a bounce check. The bank check it's a bounce check. That's what I got initially, but then Right. Okay, that's fine. Account for this. It's a bounce check and then they do get charged $20 for their bounce.

Yeah. Yeah, that's okay. Great. Thanks. Sure. papers. All I want to know is why I don't have it here. I don't have those. You tell me where mine is. I don't know either. Let me see. Where are we? Tax collection. There it is. How'd you find it? Go under tax collections. I did. Yeah, but there's two separate reports. Did you Did you find it? Here they are. Yeah, but I only have That's what I'm sure you understood it also. It doesn't matter. Yeah, I don't see which one has the um my thing is

I think it's the top pages spreadsheet even though I know it now. I just lost the whole thing. Tom, you probably refreshed it so they downloaded it and then have an older version versus if we redownloaded it right before the meeting. Yeah, I you know I get it. I get the situation. You have

attorney. Yeah. Town attorney could receive her taxes just attorney. The clerk and the town attorney. for the next town attorney. Do you have anything um besides the interims?

All right, your report is submitted. Do you have anything else to add at this point? Yeah, I'd like to congratulate council person Jaffy um on uh a special project she did with her group. What should I could you explain it better? Um I am currently enrolled in my master's of library and information science and this semester took information systems and my fin my final project with a group we had to report on um an agency company um iteration of either information security or preservation and it had to be related to something that one of us in the group does for a living or adjacent to a living. So, we asked Hope if we could do a report on the town of Ry Clerk's office and their information preservation, giving that town history goes back to 1600s. And the clerk oversees documents that range anywhere from, as you see in her reports, modern day, back to the sear early 1700s. So, we put together about a 40page report, thanks to Hope and her team, filled with all sorts of information and gorgeous documents that Hope scanned and sent to us. Um, sent it into the professor, got kudos and a perfect score. So, I I thank Hope and her team for all their help with that project. And now Hope and her team are enshrouded in Sunni Buffalo history. Basically, town of Ry is so rich in history and we have so many people that stop by. They they relish in looking at our minutes and uh all the genealogy and

and you have no clue maps and the at that famous uh assessment tax role which was uh found in a basement at 10 Pearl Street going back to 1799. So it's it's just uh we have a lot of treasures. Lot of treasures. Can you monetize that report in terms of doing money like uh for grants. Well, we did get grants to have uh a lot of the information scanned and uh we have Can you build on that based on her research? Possibly. I mean, there are a couple action items that we could possibly get grants towards. So,

she put together such wonderful notes and she's a pro. I'm happy to share it, but it does show how many iterations of preservation the clerk's office does on everything. So, not only do we have the paper documents, but then we have the laser fee, then it's brought to the cloud, and then it's sent to the county and to the state, and then eventually the state will tell us when it's fine to get rid of the paper. And you just have no clue how much iteration of documentation this clerk's office protects and enshrines and then brings to its timely and very safe and protected end.

So making sure that everyone's personal information is very well protected. Yeah. And we have to follow Oh, the New York State Archives uh gives us a it's LGS1. It's a a what we have to go by to let us know what what documents are permanent, what documents could be uh disposed of in six years. It's a big book of everything that we we have.

So, actually just triggered a question in my mind. Um, I've been talking a lot with a friend of mine who is the official historian of the town of Pelum. And he has been very active this year in particular relating to the uh what is it? What is it the 250th anniversary of the constitution and um you know a lot of actually there was a fairly famous important battle in Pelum on Glover Field. Um as the

I remember that I was there as our as Washington was retreating up and going through white plains being chased but keeping one step ahead of the British. But you mentioned all the work that you've been doing and the resource you have. I was So does the town has the town ever had an official town historian as does Bellum. Yes, we do. We have to have one by law. And we that we do. Who is that person? Greg Hamilton.

He was appointed. Greg Hamilton. And so I think he's a port he's a I think he it became a conflict of interest and he's the towns really I don't think he could be I could be wrong. And is he active in that role? I think so. He's active in a lot of roles. He's a very engaged, involved person and he loves the community. And Debbie, he just

a couple of months ago he finished a history of the town together with Dan Breakwood and it's published on our website and was submitted to the Association of Towns for their 250th anniversary volume. Be interested. If you want, we can get press out on that. I think it'd be really interesting for the local Sure. media. When was it? Probably about a month ago, maybe two months ago. Okay. The Portchester Historical Society also has a fairly active group.

Um, and of which he's a part. I don't know who's chairing that, if he chairs that or if somebody else does, but they're, you know, they do things throughout the year, various events, and um so again, preserving history. Um Greg has stopped by several times just to make sure we're doing everything right. We did secure a grant once to have 180 uh microfilm rolls converted and then scanned and and and digitized it. We have a lot of history. Yeah. And I didn't realize that Nick Mecca had been a town historian prior to this report.

Yes. He he could tell you anything. I sent a lot I sent a lot of people to him to he came on board when we had a flood down in the basement at 10 Pearl Street and he found that assessment tax rolled up and he uh sent it out secured a grant to have it uh put in a a frame and scrubbed a little and and um freeze dried. Yeah, freeze-dried. That's right. Freeze dried. Yeah. Would it be appropriate to post your Sunni Buffalo report on the clerk's office on the website under the clerk's department.

I can ask my my group cohort, but I'm sure they would be thrilled. I mean, I have to thank Hope for all the work and the time she spent. The feedback was even that the professor was very impressed by the amount of interplay. How happy we are. You even spoke to the town quirk. So funny. Well, I think it might be a decent idea at some point to invite the town historian to come to a meeting, tell us, talk about what he's up to in that capacity. Maybe maybe

maybe July. I I I I will tell you that the town historian of Pelum is posting stuff about what he's doing on social media at least once a week now. Um part of that relates to the 250th anniversary. I don't know were there any important battles in the town of Ry? Yes, in the village of Amarin near where you live. Where? Um up on the hill. What's um I've forgotten the name of the hill, but there was a battle there.

And then we do have one of the most historic sites in Westchester, if not New York. And there are a lot of stories to be told out of the African-American cemetery as well. But yeah, it might be fun to invite Greg for July or something to go with a cesquis centennial or whatnot. Debbie, even people from the city of Right come to visit us. Paul Hicks made arrangements that he came and and they're they're just amazed by the map that we have in your office of 1797, I think,

of the town of Bry. That's another document that Nick found in the basement on Temporal Street. Do you think it might be something that um Chance would be interested in taking some of that information and putting it out onto social media to coincide with the national anniversary? I think he would love to do that. He is so gung-ho. He's amazing. Well, he'll he'll be uh our administrative aid will be has started to work virtually a little bit this week and um he'll be in the office starting Monday. He graduates Bingmpington tomorrow. Go Bearcats. So, Bearcats. Bearcats.

Bearcats. We were the Colonials when some of us went to Bingmpington, but they are now the Bearcats. I like colonials. That's a great name. It is a great name, but I guess Bearcats are cooler. More fierce. More fierce. But the Colonials won. We never won. Well, not Bingington, but but the the real But they won. The real colonials won. Yes. I think it has more to do with the perception of being a colonizer. Possibly. No. The colonials were colonized as opposed to colonizers. There was a Sunni movement. And we're getting off track here, but when agenda

but when um they started rising through the NCAA to make cooler mascots. So when Bingmpington actually had a winning basketball team, we ended up becoming something cooler than the Colonials. Okay, there you go. Debbie, you brought up an interesting thing. Let's let's move on with the agenda. It's not on the agenda, but I know you have a presentation. What's that?

What am I talking about? I am promoting the uh uh Rytown Parks annual community conversation is coming up this Sunday. It's uh uh under the pavilions. It is an annual event. It will be the May meeting of the Rytown Park Commission. Um I encourage everyone who is interested, anyone who has anything to say, please come and participate. I would also tell you that the Soul Riders half marathon is going on at the beginning part of that event and therefore we have a we've published on social media on our website um a map um guiding people from Oakland Beach to Milton Road and onto Dearbornne Avenue and then Ry police will be stationed at the intersection of Forest Avenue and Dearbornne Avenue so that everyone can cross safely and get to the park. And I'm very pleased to announce that at the end of this annual community conversation, we will have a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of the interior of the 1925 bath house.

And that'll be at noon. That will be 11:30. It's theoretically 11:30. People see how supervisor Zuckerman runs the meeting. That one tends to get chatty. That's not his fault. The the 11:30 has been publicized as the time for the ribbon cutting. So, just putting it out there if people are coming to We're going to have a regular meeting first and we will try to get through the agenda as quickly as possible.

Terrific. And then I just want to uh give a little bit of attention to the pride c town's pride celebration which this will be the sixth annual pride celebration. This is held at Rytown Park. Um this year the pride celebration is co-sponsored not only with Ry Pride who has been our partner every step of the way but also now the city of Ry. So, we're delighted we have a program that starts at 3 pm with um an art and pride fair followed by musical performances at 5:00 pm, a flag ceremony at 6, a mini parade uh at 6:30, and then an afterparty on the lawn until sunset. And we'll have food trucks and fabulous puppets and lots of fun things to do. So, please come.

I'll be there.

We have one more thing, don't we? I think this I think that's it. We talked about Echo Fest Echo Fest earlier, right? Is it repeat the date, please, for Echo Fest? May 30th. 10 to 4 Crawford right behind the mansion. Okay, easy. Yeah, I don't think I have echo fest here. It was in the park report.

Okay, you guys are repeating anyway. Worth repeating. And as the supervisor's ardent wish, we will be doing a butterfly release at Echo Fest this year. That should be very nice. As well as a special activity where we invite our young parkgoers to help us plant milkweed to create a new butterfly garden on the park grounds. And we got special dispensation from the state to release. Yes. Yes, we did. Get that. Well, no. They usually will only allow 50, but Pam was persuasive and got to let us 100. Yeah. Pennsylvania butterfly release.

So, it's it's strictly controlled. Why? Because they're pollinators and you don't want them to um I guess overpop populate an area because then it diminishes their population if that makes sense. So, there may not be enough they need enough pollinators to sustain the amount of butterflies that you release. Only in New York and probably every other highly liberal state. Yes. Oddly enough, we are not allowed to use butterflies from Florida. Go figure. Really? Really?

Yeah. Why are they invasive? I believe it it has something to do with um pollutants. Okay. Pollutants and like Yeah, basically butterflies are pollutants. Not pollutants, but what is it called? When as as Randy just said, invasive species, but like there are different bacteria and contaminants that may come that you don't want to bring from a swamplake state into a northern state. Native native species. Native species are good. Nothing wrong with swamplike states.

If there is, are there anything else? Any comments from the council? Nope. No. Then may I have a motion? The next meetings are June 11th and July 9th. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I. We are ajourned.