Town Board - Regular Meeting

September 8, 2026. And I would like recording in progress, I would like to make a motion to have the board go into an executive session for the purpose of discussing potential litigation matters and contract issues.

Second.

All in favor? Aye.

Okay, we'll be back in half an hour.

Welcome to the town board meeting of September 8th, 2026. If you could please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I would like to make a motion that the board come out of executive session. Second. All in favor? Aye. And town attorney will be preparing minutes of that session for a vote that the board took on the request. Okay, I, before we start. The 25th anniversary 9, 11 is coming up on Friday and former deputy clerk Nina Kellogg sent me what was read. On September 19th, 2001 at the town board meeting, I will try to read it. So, John didn't and was the supervisor at the time and showed tremendous leadership and she had told me that he had worked with all the different emergency agencies to assist with mutual aid from New York City. Everyone pitched in from all the town departments and showed tremendous leadership. So John Dinan wrote the following remarks, but they were read on the 19th by Deputy Supervisor Lee Roberts as John had been called away on a family emergency. I'd like to have a moment of silence in memory of those families who have suffered, the dead, the missing, those in continuing rescue efforts. As a result of the terrorist event created by those who have mistaken civility and gentility for a lack of conviction, purpose, and resolve by this nation and its people. The reading of this statement was followed by a moment of silence. Mrs. Roberts continued to read Mr. Denon's statement. Our nation, state, and town have unalterably changed as a result of last Tuesday's events. But I firmly believe that we will ultimately be stronger from it. Mrs. Roberts extended the thanks of the town of Bedford to those individuals in the town's police force. Our fire departments are ambulance for highway people and everyone else who works so calmly and diligently in a moment of crisis. And we also join in sympathy for those families who have been so severely touched by this tragedy. So, I would like residents to invite residents to take a moment this Friday. Remember. The events that we shall never forget. The Bedford Fire Department every year makes their way over to the Bedford Village Memorial Park where there's a memorial. The four residents who passed from Bedford, their names are there. They usually leave the firehouse around 8.45 in the morning so that the ceremonies take place during the time that this occurred. Okay, I did it. We are going to start with the public hearing. We have a local law extending the moratorium on the battery energy storage systems for another 6 months while the committee finalizes the model ordinance that work has been underway for some time. We would like to move at Madam clerk. We noticed to the hearing on the battery energy storage moratorium. Yes. Thank you. I'd like to make a motion that we open the public hearing. So move all in favor. My motion carries. Are there any comments on the moratorium extension from the public?

No, 1 on there.

I'll just note that the committee is meeting again, I think, in 2 weeks, we're meeting with the Westchester business council about battery energy storage systems in the county. We've had a lot of meetings with the fire departments and attended a lot of seminars with and others. So we're really getting close to a proposed ordinance for the town that works with our. our zoning and our requirements for potential siting of anything like this.

Okay, if there are no further comments, I'd like to move. We close the public hearing 2nd all in favor.

Hi. Hi. And do you have a motion to, um, I guess adopt the resolution in the packet regarding is there a resolution?

No, it's just the proposed local law in the packet. And there'll be a resolution approving the local, uh, extend the further extending the moratorium. Okay.

So moved 2nd.

All in favor motion carries. Okay. Um, we have a, another public hearing scheduled, um, to amend town code chapter 52.1 article 1, the Bedford energy code and Clark has been noticed. Yes, in the recorder. Okay, thank you. This is mostly to make updates based on the state code. Fire code updates, building and fire code updates that were made as of December 31st, 2025. Do we have, I guess I'll make a motion to open the public hearing. 2nd, all in favor. Are there any comments? Anyone on.

And the local law adds some required affidavits relating to the relating to compliance with the energy code. So when people are making application to the building department that there are requirements for certain affidavits, and that'll now be in the town energy code. Those were existing, they were previously required by the building department. Now they're required by local law just so that there's no confusion on that issue.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. There being no public comments, I'd like to make a motion to close the public hearing 2nd on favor. And then, um, I guess I'll make a motion to adopt the amended. Chapter 52.1, but for energy code 2nd. Any comments discussion favor carries. Okay, we have a presentation. We have Gretchen Menzies here to give a presentation about the upcoming annual Westchester Book Festival. Come on up Gretchen to the microphone so that everyone on Zoom can hear you. It's recorded for posterity and Eileen Sullivan, come on up too.

All right.

Sure. So I'm Gretchen Menzies from the Katona Reading Room, and Eileen and I are here to talk about the Westchester Book Festival, which is Saturday, November 7th. It's our second annual book festival, and it takes place all through town, as well as the Katona Library and the Katona Presbyterian Church. This year, we've basically tripled the amount of authors that we're having. They're incredible. I'm going to read you a quick list because it's too exciting for me. Pemi Aguda, Ada Calhoun, Madeline Cash, Adam Dalva, Fernand Diaz, Anand Giridhas. I knew I was going to make that. Anyway, Anand, he's amazing. Malcolm Gladwell, Perrin Ireland, Elizabeth Colbert, Megan LaBreeze, Wadza Moody, David McCluskey, David Nassau, Leah Newman, Noah Oppenheim, Priya Parker, David Pogue, Kevin Powers, Maria Semple, and Nafisa Thompson Spires, with topics spanning their first novels, technology, the environment, Oprah's book list, veterans and PTSD, conflict resolution, popular fiction, spy novels, and more. It's really an incredible range of authors and topics and We're so lucky to have these people coming to this town. These are people who kind of usually get thousands of people, and we're begging them to come here for 100 and 200 people. So the tickets sell out fast. But they are available now if you go to westchesterbookfest.org. And we also invite any businesses to participate by either decorating their businesses or having their own local authors there. We have... extra, like I have a food truck coming to the reading room, we'll have signings all day, and the talks are really from 10 in the morning until 6. So it just gives town this fabulous opportunity to talk about books, to have important conversations, to really engage in this community of bookish people. And it last year was stunning. I mean, I cannot tell you like the smiles on people's faces and how very kind of a glow the town was. And it just was such a great day. So with three times the amount of people this year, it will be even better. If anybody wants to find out anything else, you can go to westchesterbookfest.org. You can email. Eileen is also on the Chamber, which is a big player. The town has been very supportive of it. But if you need an email, try info at katonachamber.org.

if anybody has questions or needs to reach out that is all wow what what an impressive list of authors um i have a lot of reading to do that's not that i know i'm like the stats we have six books still well one came out today we've got more coming out before the festival so yeah

The one that came out today is Priya Parker's The Art of Fighting. Every single person should read it because it's really about how you can't run a close organization unless you have some conflict to create change and discussion. And it's so good.

So good.

Great. Well, thank you so much. I do have a question before you sit down. Are there still tickets available for the larger events? Because I learned my lesson last year. I did not get my tickets very early. And then I was closed out of some events, which I was very happy to see, but also not very happy to see. So this year when the email came out, because I had signed up then for the email list, I bought my tickets on the first day. Very smart. It was very smart. I was very excited. I bought tickets for my son and for some friends. And I just felt, I was like, so excited. So are there still tickets available? The only one that is sold out. Are you having the overflow rooms if you need?

We're not having the overflow room this year. It's weird. like it it created it was very expensive okay um and people weren't in the room with the authors so the Presbyterian church actually fits twice the amount of people okay so that's a we put the authors that we thought would sell out fastest at the church yeah there's bigger rooms there so that kind of like solved that problem um the only one that is totally sold out is the Malcolm Gladwell

There are two others on the brink of selling.

Yeah, no, I got my tickets for that one. But you can get them soon because some of them also have like six tickets left.

They're close to. I have a couple of random questions. Sure. one of them is super random, which is like, where do these people stay? Do they just come in for the day because- Some of them are staying. The board of the Westchester- Well, because where do we have people stay in our towns? Yeah.

That's a challenge.

Are you offering a room?

It is a challenge. And they, if they're staying, a lot of them are local or local enough. So they're from Brooklyn, New York. So they kind of come up and then go home. Or they stay, the board who runs the book festival, they're all publishing people and they all live up here.

Perfect.

So a lot of them are staying with people.

So it's also highlighting that we have all this talent right here. The other thing is, oftentimes, like, when you have this kind of caliber of people coming to a school, a community, etc., there's, like, a master class. And I'm just curious if there's anything that might be happening for any of our school kids or high school kids in particular. Are they...

just taking advantage of the festival in and of itself we hope they'll get tickets but we also need 99 volunteers and the high school kids would be totally appropriate for that because it's right yeah i actually regret your chances Yeah, so she's been, Eileen's been talking to the high school. They get their volunteer credits, but also then are meeting these incredible people. I mean, what an experience.

I was just trying to figure that out.

Yeah, but we need like 100 volunteers to run the thing.

So we would love some responsible. I'm not Bobby. You won't. I didn't get my tickets yet so I was just wondering if you need to get on and for Malcolm I can volunteer yeah you can volunteer all right info at katonachamber.org got it yeah thank you what's the minimum age for volunteers that actually it's so funny um I just got that question and I'm not quite sure I'm going to ask 16.

I think 16 would be appropriate I would like yeah that's like usually when they try to get their volunteer hours anyway great yeah okay yeah because it is a responsibility

fantastic thank you thank you so much look forward to you know how exciting this is and how it really brings the whole you know really the whole town alive there were even things in Bedford Village last year at least people were going over there from you know visiting town and getting to you know 1,200 people. Okay. Well, I hear we're getting 1,000 people to the farmer's market on Saturdays, so we can do it. We can handle it.

Just whether you guys have parking plans. Wait, go back to the microphone, please. Thank you. You shouldn't be the one asking.

It's not 1,200 at one time.

Yeah, that's true.

Okay. I mean, Ellen and I had corresponded about this in the beginning. It's 300 at a time. Well, 300 people, probably half the cars, because at least two people come together. We have ample parking. We're just augmenting the parking signs and signage.

Yes, the signage is important. And even putting it on your website so people know in advance. It's on there.

And I think it's even in the ticket information. Right.

Fantastic. Great. Well, please keep us informed if there's anything that you need in the way of town resources. Parking lots are open. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we will move on to, we have a presentation by Ted Fink to recommend policy changes for the town work to consider regarding wildlife corridor protection. And Ted is online and our director of planning, Jessica Youngblood is also here. This is, well, I'll let, this is all teed up by our fabulous conservation board that got a grant back in 2021. to map wildlife corridors and to draft legislation to present to the town board. So we are we are here we are we are at the day the culmination of this grant opportunity. So I want to thank Simon Skolnick, who put this all in action in motion many years ago. And also Marina Kubitschek, who's our chair of the Conservation Board for bringing us to this point. And all right, Ted, thank you for joining us. Take it away.

Hi, Ellen. Yes, and thank you for having me. So first of all, I just want to thank you for putting your trust in me to help out on this project. But I also have to give thanks to Jessica, to Simon and Marina as well, and to everybody else that participated in the project because of all the time and effort that they made to make sure that the final result would meet the town's needs. So I'm glad we're at this point and that we're ready to turn this out over to the town board so you can consider this and determine whether or not you want to go further with it in terms of making additional changes. But it's up to you at this point. So just to give a little bit of background, very quickly, the overall proposal came in a number of years ago from the Conservation Board to the DEC for they called a wildlife corridor overlay zoning district draft ordinance and that's a mouthful but this was a effort by the state to map important wildlife corridors that the state thought would be better for meeting wildlife needs both in the town as well as outside of the town and to link these all together and it It really, it was composed of two different phases. So phase one was completed by Manus River Gorge staff. They actually went out there in the field They surveyed areas where specified wildlife movements occurred. They looked for these as what they called linkages between so many of the open space areas that you have in Bedford and the surrounding towns. And so these are areas that they identified as basically throughways for wildlife to be able to move among all the various uses that exist within in the developed areas in the town of Bedford. And so the idea by the state was to try and find a community that would be open to the idea of preserving the most important corridors that are being used by wildlife and to use this as a model that could be used statewide. So the proposal went out, I applied to the proposal, and the rest really happened pretty quickly. So phase two was the work that I completed, and this all occurred while the comprehensive plan was being prepared. I wasn't really sure what was going to happen with the comprehensive plan at the end of the day and how it would treat this whole project. But as we went through this and our discussions between Jessica, Simon, Marina, and myself, it seemed as if it would fit very nicely in the comprehensive plan. Because one of the recommendations that had been made in the comprehensive plan was to explore changes to the conservation subdivision development regulations. And what the comprehensive plan said is to more readily facilitate such development types. So when I saw that, it seemed as if the conservation subdivision development rules that the town had were really in need of a refresh, that they had been prepared probably back sometime in the 1980s. This was prior to there being a lot of changes that were made to New York State's planning and zoning enabling laws for towns. And so a lot of the the new enabling laws that the state enacted provided much greater flexibility to planning boards to enable them to do a whole bunch of things that would help conservation and streamline the subdivision review and approval process and so forth. So we looked at that as an opportunity to be able to do something a little bit different It would not be specific to an overlay zoning district, which is a very specific type of zoning district, but that it would benefit the town as a whole if we put our focus on rewriting the rules for conservation subdivision development so that they were responsive to the comprehensive plan recommendation. And so, just as a little bit of background, when I got into this thing, I had already prepared wildlife friendly sort of provisions in zoning laws and other communities in Hudson Valley. But as part of this, the state wanted to see identification and research of what other communities around the nation had done in this regard. And so I went along and identified 34 other communities. that had done some sort of wildlife friendly zoning or other regulations that would apply. And there was also a webinar presented by the American Planning Association because apparently the state of Florida, they've done quite a lot of work with wildlife corridors and how to preserve the wildlife corridors and so forth throughout the state. And so I attended that and learned quite a bit more. Basically, we explored the various development types that could facilitate conservation subdivision development. I did an analysis of the zoning and the subdivision regulations to see how could we make this better and bring it up to date. Um, and so, uh, draft was prepared. Uh, it was consistent with the, with the rules of, uh, that had been developed in so many other, uh, actually dozens of municipalities throughout New York state now, um, that have. given a priority to conservation subdivision development through basically a set of illustrations and other guidance that is installed in the actual zoning regulations so that you can clearly visualize how the conservation subdivision development process works. And so these included the wildlife corridors as an area to be identified as part of the subdivision approval process along with other features that could be used by wildlife but also would conserve those areas such as steep slopes and scenic view sheds and other features that if they were preserved as part of a subdivision approval that both the future subdivision residents and the town as a whole could enjoy. And so one of the things, and you know, working on the community preservation plan back in 2024 with the town board, one thing that really became evident as I worked through all of the many decades of planning in Bedford is the importance of open space. And so this is a process that really favors open space preservation while accommodating development. And so you get a little bit of development, you get a little bit of subdivision, not any change in the actual number of lots so it's it's considered a density neutral tool that allows for the subdivision density that is specified in the zoning law to to be followed so there's no diminution of the number of lots that a developer or a landowner, if they wanted to subdivide their property, would be entitled to. But it also allows a way for being able to come up with a design that identifies those important resources that may be present on a site, including if it would have any wildlife quarters there. And so, That was all put together in a four-step design process that became part of the draft that you have before you now. So, in addition to this subdivision design process, one of the things which I also did was to take a look at you know, how can we make this more user friendly? And so some of what we came up with, especially Jessica and myself, was spelling out exactly what the process would be for going through a subdivision, conservation subdivision development process. And there's two sets of regulations and the zoning is one, the subdivision is another. And in Bedford, it's a rather unique one where the town board is also involved with the approval of a special use permit that would allow the use of the conservation subdivision tool. So it seemed as if it was important to create a whole set of new procedures here for how the process works, who do you go to first, what are the various steps that have to be taken in order to get a new subdivision approved if it were to be a conservation subdivision. And so those were all included in there. We had some provisions that govern how the conservation lands will be preserved over time. There's some additional limitations on how the conservation lands would be used because there was a fairly generous allowance for actually using the conservation lands for active recreation. And one of the features of the conservation subdivision process from the New York State enabling laws is that these are open space lands that would preserve nature and would preserve scenic areas and that sort of thing. So we included in there a checklist and that would be as an appendix to the subdivision rules where there's a series of questions that would be asked during the review of a proposed subdivision so that they could be answered in terms of how responsive, a new subdivision plan would be for review by the planning board. And that's pretty much what we did in a short summary of it. There were two other separate draft local laws that were also prepared because the state had wanted to see not only something like a conservation subdivision rules, but they also wanted to see other possible ways that the town could take some actions that would assist in wildlife corridor movements And the number one that came up over and over again was, is there a way to be able to take the town's fencing rules and be able to amend those so that there could be some accommodation for the type of fences that people use so they didn't interfere with and block potential pathways that wildlife are already using in the town. And all it would take would be one or two new fences to do that. So we looked at some wildlife friendly fencing designs that could be integrated into the zoning lawn. And so I developed some illustrations for those and those were included in there. And then the lighting regulations were also something that appeared to be in need of some updating. That hadn't been done in a while. And in particular, the comprehensive plan had recommended that the dark sky lighting recommendations from the dark sky organization, it's a not-for-profit organization of lighting engineers, that these sorts of things be included within that. So there's another, a third separate draft local law that would revise some of the lighting specifications that are in the zoning as well. And so all three of those are basically the outcome of what we worked on over the last last couple of years now and so the only other thing that I would like to do if you can give me permission would be to show you actually what the wildlife corridor area looks like that the Mayanis River Gorge people came up with because it's I think it it does show properties throughout the town it shows the areas that are conserved and it shows how these narrow pathways throughout the town actually link together a lot of the existing open space areas that are already protected within Bedford and within the surrounding communities. So if you can give me that. Yes. Yeah, I see. I've got it. Okay. So here we go. All right. Can you see this okay? Is it large enough? I can certainly zoom in.

Please zoom in a little.

I will. Let me just explain just quickly where the wildlife corridor is because it's fairly light. It's this gray area. These are the wildlife corridors. The blue areas, of course, are your reservoirs. It does show properties that have conservation easements. These are the very light blue, the county parks, the DP lands. private preserves, town properties, and so forth. But the key one to zero in on are the gray areas. So let me just zero in here. So the map is actually fairly specific. I'm just zooming into a random area here. But it's specific to the parcel boundaries for parcels throughout the town. And the wildlife corridor areas, some of them are fairly broad like this, but some of them are also very narrow and they go pass through only certain properties here and there. And so as you move around the town, you can see that these pathways follow many different corridors within Bedford. They don't meet, you know, lots of properties exist without any wildlife borders on them. But the idea was when Minas went out to survey wildlife movements, they identified key species to be able to identify where these species travel within the community. And they were so-called, I think they were bobcats. They were, well, I think there were three species. I don't remember exactly what they were. Probably Marina and Simon would be able to recall that. They did a fairly rigorous scientific study to identify these areas, and they were able to find and identify specific movements within the town as identified in these corridors. And I can certainly move to any part of the town if you'd like to see a specific area. But otherwise, this is the map that had been prepared. And this map is actually referred to as one of those resources that would be used in developing a plan for a conservation subdivision development. So, that's pretty much what I have on this. I'd be happy to turn it over to Jessica if you have anything you want to add to this or answer any questions.

Yeah, thank you so much. Well, I'd love to open it up to the board if you have any questions based on what we've heard so far. I mean, we could hear from Jessica. um first just to give us some more context i guess my question was um just looking at the map is the proposed um like lighting ordinance or fence ordinance dependent upon these corridors or it would just be a um sort of an overhaul of like the lighting ordinance everywhere or would it be only in these corridors

yes good question so for the lighting that would apply town way for the fencing that would be specific to the wildlife corridors so if someone came into the building department to apply for a permit the first thing to do would be to look at that map to see whether or not the property in question is within a wildlife corridor, in which case there would be certain guidelines in place that would apply to a fence permit that would be granted to a landowner. And the idea was to have a wildlife friendly fencing and essentially that would mean fencing that's designed in a way where small wildlife could get under the fence. And of course, you know, the town already has regulations in place for the height of fences and the guideline would be for a lesser height in those areas.

Okay.

So that wildlife, you know, the larger wildlife, the deer and so forth, will be able to jump over the fence.

Thank you.

Can I ask a follow-up question? Yeah, please. Yeah, maybe. Mr. Frick, thank you for the presentation. This might be addressed or geared towards Jessica. I noticed the color temperature on the proposed amended law was 2,700 to 3,000 Kelvin, which I appreciate, Jessica, as you know, for my planning board days. But Mr. Frick, to what you just said, this would be a town-wide law. How does it affect areas, like with a lot of car dealerships, this came up a lot, that we balance things like light pollution versus security, where they usually like a color temperature of 5,000, 4,500, 3,700. Would we then just need a variance? Would that be in the site plan approval? I'm just looking into things like that.

Yeah, we actually thought about a couple of those things as we were going through this and the way it's currently drafted is more in the suggestive manner of, you know, should be because that's a similar policy that we follow with the planning board, although it's not a specific regulation. So, you know, I think in that regard, member Cotigliano, it's a little bit built in with the discretion in those cases, like a car dealership or whatnot or something in a more commercial corridor where there could be a very good reason. why that 27 to 3000 degree kelvin threshold may need to be slightly altered okay and it wouldn't trigger yeah it's built in with a little bit of flexibility for those specific circumstances perfect okay that sounds good okay other oh i guess um jessica is there anything else to add just with respect to some of these proposed um policies sure um i mean ted did a great job going through um the the changes or some of the policy changes that you know have come out of this and some of the pivot points that we've done and i think just for the town for to consider there you know are certainly three sets of um you know policy recommendations or draft laws in front of you um but certainly all are consistent with a comprehensive plan um there's just obviously it's you know time and space for maybe prioritizing some over the other But really, all of these are things that have either been discussed in this group. They might have been discussed during the process. Certain things are discussed with respective boards or commission members as they want to continuously update the regulations that they oversee. So I think there's a good culminating factor in a lot of these. that really bring very specific um you know changes or um you know thoughts have been going on for a while into kind of one document so i think for the town board um you're left with a really great jumping off point into sort of the next steps or or any priorities that you want to take moving forward um you know we certainly have a lot of things going on Simultaneously, as you know, that some of these changes could really make great benefit to, you know, as we consider the long term strategies, planning and conservation needs for the town. But overall, the, the idea really between a lot of this, I think, is to help with predictability to help really clearly define a process to obviously be consistent with our comprehensive plan. um but also to make sure that we are still prioritizing the balance of conservation with development um you know we see that all the time so this would be really to bring a lot of things into more modern standard um and i think to be a bit more proactive as we think about the long-term potential development that could come down the pipe for the town um so that we're ready to handle it in the most appropriate way great thank you um

Awesome. Yeah, thank you. I think these are very interesting things for us to consider. I am You know, personally would love for us to dive more deeply at a future work session into the conservation development proposed changes. Um, that sounds. To me, like, that process could be a lot clearer about how you can achieve a conservation development as opposed to just a standard. Development or subdivision, and I'm interested in learning how we could try to. make it easier to either require it or more favorably encourage that kind of project if someone is looking at a large parcel that has a lot of the valuable ecological benefits which a wildlife corridor shows that it does. Right now, it's sort of a, there's like a big burden on the developer to prove that they should be able to get a conservation subdivision, where I think, you know, I think a lot of people would think, wow, we want conservation subdivision. So how can we make that path clear for them to get to that point, instead of making it hard? Sort of like, you know, four acres zoning or You know, preserving a lot of land and building differently sounds like, you know, sounds like a lot of people would want to see the doing it differently and conserving a lot of land. So I would like to figure out how we can make that. If not the default, at least a very clear path for how we get there. So. I would love to propose that we take this up the work session about future date and dig into the details of how this is different from what. we currently have and how we might move it forward to affect large property development in the future.

Any other comments, questions? I just want to, first of all, thank the Conservation Board and Ted for all of this work. I think it's really exciting to see, as you said, Ted, some of the measures and recommendations in the comprehensive plan tied with potential policy. That's fantastic. I agree with Jessica that we should prioritize something and start there, but there's a lot of good stuff here to look at over time and agree that the conservation subdivision law in a work session is a great idea. I've never hadn't seen that map before. So I'm so excited by that map. And I guess a question I have for the conservation board is how can we share that with the community? I'm just looking at that map and I feel like people would be so excited to know what parts of our town have wildlife corridors. Does my property have a wildlife corridor? And I just think it would be a great thing to share and way to engage the community in conservation, community science, right in your own backyard.

Come on up, Marina.

if the town board is amenable i think the easiest way is to post it on the town website sure yeah yeah um did we need to officially adopt it in any way um i think that you admit you guys have mentioned that at one point not really we can

Yeah, Jessica, if I may, it may just serve right now as a, as a resource document that can be available. But we certainly, if we move forward with any changes, for example, our conservation subdivision, our development regulations, and it were included, then that we would need to kind of. Envelope that as part of any local law that we change, but I think absolutely we can post it for now as a, as a resource document, get people time to look at it, you know, ask questions. And I think something that I would like to ask if they wouldn't mind doing is fixing the coloration just a little bit. So that's clear to read. I think that would just be helpful to the general public when they're trying to identify the property and go through what some of those layers might be. But that's a minor change, but certainly we're in it. Yes, we can, we can put that on the website.

Wonderful. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Yeah, we have a page full of, like, maps and things that it could go on there as a resource. So thank you, Mitch. It's a good idea. And I'm sure it will inform, you know, other land use things, you know, as a resource. So that's good.

Great. Any other questions?

No. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ted and Jessica. Thank you, Conservation Ward, for all of this work. And we will... Pick up the discussion of conservation subdivision at another meeting and try to move that forward as our as our 1st consideration. So, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Have a good night.

Okay, we will move on to the consent agenda. I'm looking at the wrong page. Okay, we have a request by Comptroller Keneally to approve the abstract of claims and paid priors in the amount of 1,700,000 and 1701,480 dollars and 8 cents. We have a request to approve a memorandum of understanding or writing the blue collar Teamsters collective bargaining agreement with the town of Bedford to approve that. MOU. Number three, we have a request from DPW Commissioner Wynne to award a purchase of local screenings dirt road material from Lawton Adams Construction Corps for $20 picked up and $31.40 delivered per cubic yard. And number four, I'm striking from the consent agenda. We dealt with that issue in executive session. Do we have a motion to approve these three items on the consent agenda?

Motion to approve.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Under old business, we have a resolution re, approving a license agreement with the West County Westchester for rehabilitation of the Greenwich road bridge. This license agreement will enable the county. I believe it to start a project. Is it in the spring spring of 2027, 2027 to use a portion of the Bedford village memorial park mostly. the road that goes up behind to the paddle courts and the pool. So not really the main driveway to the park, to put a temporary bridge over the Mayanis River so they can rehabilitate and rebuild the bridge over the Mayanis River on Greenwich Road. This has been a long time in the making and was originally proposed to close Greenwich Road and reroute people who lived on the other side of the bridge. And fix it, and that was unacceptable. We have a lot of residents who live over there and that would have been a huge burden. We even know just from like, a tree being down recently that that is that really would have impact a lot of people. So we've worked with the county. They also wanted to go through too many neighbors property on neighbor's property and things like that. So. This is a very good use of this small part of the park for temporary public purpose. I think it's a really good agreement to let them use part of the park to get this job done and not overburden residents with other solutions for getting this done. I will make the motion that we approve the license agreement. Second. Any discussion? Okay, all in favor motion carries.

Under new business, we actually supervisor, there was a resolution that was drafted so that I apologize. There's a resolution that was sorry adopting the resolution. That's part of the agenda.

So, right. So we'll amend the motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the license agreement with the county. For the bridge. So we have a 2nd, 2nd, all in favor. Okay. Thank you. Under new business, we have a request by the police chief to purchase 2 hybrid police vehicles. So, the 1st, 1 is a hybrid Toyota Prius prime for a parking enforcement vehicle. This is to replace the very old parking enforcement vehicle that we have. I think it is also a Prius. So. Including equipment, labor and uplift for a total cost not to exceed 40,000 dollars. It is the current.

I think it's a previous prime though. Is it.

This is being replaced by my previous price.

So that's partially electric.

Yes, hybrid. Thank you. So, do we have a motion to approve the purchase of the priest prime? So moved 2nd, any discussion. This is also part of the police department's capital line for replacement vehicles, I believe. Is it part of the regular or is it a parking? Is there also a separate parking vehicle capital line? Or is this part of the regular replacement vehicles separate? This is parking enforcement separate from the own. Okay. So, but this is capital proof of the capital plan for replacement vehicle for parking enforcement that we approved for this year. So that's already improved. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Second, we have the 2027 hybrid Ford F-150 police vehicle, which is, I don't know if it's a plug-in, but it's definitely a hybrid. Including equipment, labor and uplift for total cost on to exceed 78,000 dollars. This would be out of the replacement vehicle capital budget. I tried to get an answer today, but I don't know what vehicle this is. It's not a regular patrol vehicle, which is what we usually use in the. Replacement line is the chief on. I think he said, what way? So I tried to get an answer, but he said, what way?

Yeah. Could we table this to the next meeting? Because I have some questions about this one.

Okay. Whether it's replacement.

There are a couple of questions. Yeah. I don't know what this one... I'm a little unsure what this one is for. Okay.

Yeah. I think it...

Also, 1 of the documents shows that there is an outfit, but there's no quote for what that would be. Okay. Or details. So there were, I just, I personally have some questions about. The vehicle, I want to appreciate if we could.

Table till the next. Yes. Yeah. So we will table is still the next meeting to get the answers to those questions. All right number. To our new business, we have notification of retirement for Matthew health and parks ground paper keeper in the parks department effective September 18th, 2026. and I believe is on to speak to Matt service to the town. Hi, Chris.

Hi, I'm supervisor in town board members. Thanks for just giving the opportunity to recognize that happen who. was retiring, as it says, effective September 18th. Matt was a over 20 year and 20 year employee of the town park department during my tenure here, which has been seven of those years. Matt was always extremely enthusiastic, energetic, committed to his work, always showed up. I often wanted him to take some vacation time, but he never seemed to do that. So very, very committed employee. And I just want to thank him for his tenure with the town and wish him the best of luck in retirement.

Thank you. Thank you. Yes, we greatly appreciate Matt's service. So good to see him around town and him and his dog. So walk by the townhouse. But yes, we thank him for his 20 plus years of service. Do we have a motion to approve? So moved. Second, any comments?

Yeah, I saw this. I was just like. He's been here for ever when you said it was 20 plus, I thought it was more. I could not believe it because you said he wasn't taking any days. I thought he would just work here forever.

All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. And now we have a request. Thank you, Chris. Now we have a request to approve the appointment of AJ Argo for the position of Parks Groundkeeper in the Parks Department pending pre-employment clearance effective on or about September 14, 2026. Do we have a motion to approve?

So moved.

Second. Any comments? All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Okay. We have a request by Town Board Member Carriotto to adopt a resolution which we would forward to the state regarding conditions on State Route 172 and the need for repaving by New York State. Would you like to?

Yes, so this is something that we've been working on, I would say, for the better half of a year, the road conditions have just gotten to a point where, you know, this kind of resolution is, I think, necessary. Um, we've been working with the state. Uh, we continue to work with the state. I know supervisor and commissioner Kevin when we're out with the state last Monday, myself and commissioner Kevin wouldn't speak almost daily about this. Um, so we thought it was pertinent and timely to have this resolution. So I will read the resolution and this will get sent up to the state.

Yeah. And I mean, I think. We know this road is not on their paving list for next year, which has already been determined based on funding available. So. A formal resolution from the board is 1 thing that I think they always like to see and the state legislators like to see to try to push our project up to the front of the line. but also to push for more state funding for roads in general so that there can be more roads on the paving list because you know doing five major projects a year throughout our um entire

region 8 is um not enough yeah yeah and and i was able to page to the 2021 you know conditions of the roads report throughout the state and it's it's local to us but it's a little bit like you had mentioned supervisor it's a bigger issue i'm sorry did you see whether uh the 2025

CONDITIONS WERE PUBLISHED YET?

I DID NOT GET THEM FROM KEVIN.

I SAW 2021 AND THEN THEY GO BACK. I WAS LOOKING A FEW MONTHS AGO AND I DIDN'T SEE IT PUBLISHED YET.

AND THAT'S WHERE WE WERE ABLE TO GET THE GRADE FROM ON THAT REPORT. THAT'S AN INTERESTING REPORT. BUT IT'S VERY DETAILED. I GIVE THE STATE A LOT OF CREDIT FOR ALL THE INFORMATION THEY GATHER. AND ELLEN AND I SPOKE ABOUT THAT. AND SO DID KEVIN. SO LET ME READ THIS. I'LL MAKE IT QUICK. WHEREAS AS ELECTED OFFICIALS IN THE TOWN OF BENFORD, We have the responsibility to protect the health and safety of our residents and those passing through our town. And whereas the three quarter mile stretch section of 172 from Fox Lane to the entrance of Sunnyfield Farm was originally established as a part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York. And whereas the state of this stretch of roads is rated in the most recently publicly available 2021 pavement conditions report from the New York State Department of Transportation, NYSDOT, as having good slash seven. However, over the last five years, proliferation of potholes, ruts and subpar patchwork resulted in increased unsafe conditions, damage to motor vehicles, dangerous road conditions, motor vehicles driving on the shoulder potentially endangering themselves and cyclists. And whereas the particular stretch of Route 172 acts as a main thoroughfare from the school buses entering and exiting the Fox Lane middle school and high school campuses twice daily transporting students. And whereas it has been more than 14 years since New York State has paved this road, and for some portion maintenance has not been performed in as much as 20 years. And whereas patching and repairing, albeit the intentions were good this year, has exacerbated the problems on Route 172 in this stretch. And whereas there is a history of numerous requests from the town residents, the town supervisor, the Department of Public Works, to repave the above-mentioned length of Route 172 between the Fox Lane Road and entrance to Sunnyfield Farm, with particular concerns between Fox Lane and Clark Road as the roadbed has deteriorated, causing unsafe driving conditions. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the town, the Bedford Town Board implore Governor Hochul, New York State Department of Transportation and our elected officials in all ability to do everything in their power to improve safety and address the unacceptable conditions of the New York State Route 172 roadbed between Fox Lane and the entrance of Sunnyfield Farm and be it resolved the Bedford Town Board hereby requests that the entire portion of New York State Route 172 roadbed between Fox Lane and the entrance to Sunnyfield Farm be paved at this time.

Okay. The only comment I wanted to make was if you keep an eye out as soon as that 2025 report comes out, it really should come out anytime now because, you know, they might have downgraded the rating. And as soon as they do, I would update this resolution and send it back out.

so it's funny you mentioned that bobby when i looked at because they go back four years from the 2020 when you've looked at them yeah they were seven consistently for five years and i you know i'm on that side of town and that's why i had to put it it diminished in the last four years so we could adopt the resolution with the understanding that we'll be updated to include the 2025 data regarding the condition and we can update perfect this board when we do that um so We have motion to adopt the resolution so move. Okay, well, we have to finish the motion. Let's finish the motion. Do we have a second? Okay now it's on the on the table and we would be happy to hear from someone on this. Kevin. Is online Kevin.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Yes. Thank you guys for all that you do and thank you for bringing up this resolution. 172 has been a major issue in our community as all of, you know, for a long time, and it's become unsustainable and frankly, it's been embarrassing to our community. The state of disrepair it is in. And given that repair is probably what is needed, I would propose, if you think appropriate as part of the resolution, not only talk about repaving, but structurally repairing this part of the road. Bedford contributes tremendous state dollars to the state coffers, and I think it is imperative that we start to address the traffic issues in and around the village. thank you for raising this resolution and bringing this to our state leaders attention i hope they use it to actually get this addressed once and for all thank you thank you

We are talking to them regularly about repair. That would be a more immediate solution. But they have been out twice to repair this road this year and tell us they've put 40 tons of material down. But it just lifts up again. And with the winter, we're sure it's just going to keep lifting up and creating more potholes. So we're asking for a different kind of repair, something that maybe uses what's called a drag box and to sort of remove some of the material there and do small patches of paving on the more serious parts short of, because we know repaving is a major, major thing that requires more like state assembly and Senate, you know, requests and approval and all of that. So this is to get the ball rolling on the repaving request, but we are, Constantly trying to get the repair moving forward and trying to figure out how we can get on the list for repairs because they do repairs a lot all over the place lately. They've had a lot of culverts that they're dealing with because of all the extra storm water. There's a lot of flooding. There's a lot of a lot of things they've been working on. So. They keep saying, yeah, we're coming, we're coming back to assess, we're coming back to assess. They finally did last Monday and came back to assess and are considering some possible repairs. So we can add repair to the resolution, but hopefully we'll be getting a solution before that. You know, and I think the other thing is, is that they do take note of resident complaints. They keep track of them. They. You know, throughout region 8, they said they're way ahead on complaints this year on all the state. So, they're, you know, they're hearing it and I think they need to keep hearing from residents as well. Because, you know, I think the can show that data to. Say, you know, there are more things that need to be addressed than we have funding for and that's, you know, that's where it trees up to the state. To go into the governor's budget, and that, you know, to advocate for that. So that is. Something that residents can do as well as to call 1,800 pothole or send an email to the and complain about the conditions that we want to see fixed.

Clayton Rose, Metro Village resident. Echoing Kevin's comments, thank you very much for trying as hard as you've been trying. I know it must be very frustrating for everyone involved in the process. I had two questions. Is the 2021 report that's going to be updated in 2025, is that like the origin of the assessment for 172? Or like, why do we, why do we care about what happened in 2021?

So what happens is every 4 years, they do an assessment of the grading of every road throughout the state. It's extremely detailed and that can back up the complaints that we make. So we go to them and we say, look. This has been the condition of the road for X amount of years, and you are the one who said so. It's in your report. So we use that to back up what we've been saying, and we can say it has been deteriorating. Then in the resolution, say, that I wrote for 117, where we finally got a response and they're finally working on it, what I did was I – took their standards and I wrote it into the resolution and we used it in the argument we made and we said, this is what you say you want to do to avoid these costs and this kind of work in the long run. And we are already say 10 years over what you say you want to do. And this is how this has been downgraded over time. And this is what it shows in the course of your reports over the last 15 years. So it's actually helpful. Yes. Okay. Yes.

Very good.

Especially if they downgrade it this time, which everybody, I mean, I can't imagine they wouldn't.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you. That's helpful. And I'm not a big petition person, but would it be helpful to do something like that?

So the DOT is limited by the resources that they have. Yeah. I think registering complaints to them you know whether it's having a lot of people call that number and submitting their concerns or sure sending them a petition or something it you don't think it's i i you know ultimately there needs to be a serious effort on the on the part of You know, but it needs to be the New York state budget that is increased. So I'm talking to the Western Westchester municipal officials association about doing a joint letter. You know, asking for more funding for state roads, Kevin wins on what camp? Well, which has something to do with officials, but they are pushing for more funding for state roads and frankly, more of a plan. Not just more money, but we do this. They do this assessment. They know the conditions of the roads. You know, here in Bedford, we have our roads on a cycle, so we know that every, at least every 15 years, every road is is paved is supposed to get repaid. Of course, there's that's reassessed if it's not needs to get moved around as we get closer to the date, because it's deteriorated quicker, or it's still holding in there and something else needs, you know, we have limited funds too, but. We plan to repave them every 15 years. There's no, I don't know what the state's plan seems totally reactive. Yeah.

And, you know, is is the reason that the cohorts might be also not in great shape is because they haven't got they haven't been addressed. Right. It's just kind of the spiral.

Right. And perhaps, you know, I'm not sure how the funding is allocated to the different regions. But Westchester has a lot of roads, a lot of traffic goes through Westchester, the roads deteriorate, maybe faster than originally anticipated, but there has not been a significant increase in funding for state roads from. In the budget in the state budget for a very long time, and clearly we're falling behind on getting those capital improvements made. So. I think we have to all keep advocating to our elected officials in Albany to the governor to as well. To keep pushing for a better solution to this problem.

Thank you.

So, all right and this is, you know, drive to other communities, you know, it's not like their state roads are great and ours are the only ones. There's a lot of problems. Okay, so do we want to wait for the 2025 data or just assume we'll stick it in there, hold it for a couple of weeks? We'll revise it. Okay. All right. So any other comments? All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Okay. We will forward that to Harkin, Chris Burdick, Governor Hochul, DOT, and we can amend it and send it again when we have the 2025 table. Okay. Sorry, I lost my face again. Thank you. Okay. We have a request to appoint a new member to the bed for town housing committee. Stan Sandland who we have interviewed and applied and could provide a lot of good help to that group. Do we have a motion to approve? So moved 2nd. All in favor and I just want to say that this term is to replace Bill O'Neill who resigned this summer after having too much on his plate. But I just want to say, thank you to Bill for his service to the committee, his, his work as a architect and someone who knows a lot about building was helpful to the housing committee and some of the projects that they've been working on. So, thank you Bill O'Neill. Next, we have a request to appointments tomorrow to the board of assessment review effective on September 30th through September 30th. 2031 5 year term. So, Mr. Morrow has spent over 30 years reviewing financial data and interpreting that information in an objective and balanced way. We interviewed him and believe that he would do a good job on the board of assessment review. And he will be basically stepping into the seat. Patsy Morton has held for, I believe the past 5 years and we want to thank Patsy for her. diligence and dedication and service to the town of Bedford on the Board of Assessment Review. Do we have a motion to approve Mr. Mauro on the Board of Assessment Review?

So moved. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Okay. We have a request from the Town Clerk to approve the Bedford Village Shine Bright event and co-sponsorship on Friday, December 4th, 2026. Pretty much the same requests that they've made in years past. Same requests and same resources. Same resources and same co-sponsorship amount. Do we have a motion to approve?

So move.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. And we have a request from the Chabad of Bedford to co-sponsor and approve the Bedford Village menorah lighting on Sunday, December 6th.

And so, again, same resources, same event.

Thank you motion to approve.

So moved 2nd favor I motion carries. Okay. Do you have any other public comments?

Not online. Okay.

And board member announcements.

I just wanted to mention that the Veterans Advisory Committee meets on Wednesdays. They're meeting tomorrow at 630 at the American Legion and there is usually a speaker and it is not only for veterans in town or committee members. It's open to the public and the meetings are actually really interesting. So I encourage people to come if you have any interest at all. Thank you.

I just want to thank the Recreation and Parks Department for a fabulous pool season. The pools are now officially closed. It was kind of a long season because Labor Day was late, Memorial Day was kind of early, but they did a great job and With all the camp staff, cool staff, everybody wrapped it up and we should have Chris. So I back here soon to give her work on the wrap up of the summer season and feedback from the community and things like that. So, but great job on all of that. And they are now gearing up for the on the 19th at Bedford village memorial park. And they have announced the Try Hamlet Challenge, which we hope that community members will get their Hamlet competitive spirit on and join a team from their Hamlet to compete in a variety of events. I'm sure high stakes. Very. Kickball, tug of war, cornhole. I'm not sure, but there are, I think, t-shirts involved. So it should be a really good time. And yeah, it'll be a lot of fun. And thanks to all the community organizations that showed up for the Bedford Music Festival and all the residents who came. I think there were, at one point, they counted like 500 children running around at the Bedford Music Festival. It was a lot of fun. I think about 1,600 people attended and it was a great event. So I saw Blue Path and Thrive, The Recorder, the Inclusive Initiative, Zen Zone and Wellness. Tent also was there very busy meeting with people community center in Westchester. So it was really nice to see a lot of community groups. A lot of residents come out for. That was great. Our art mural committee is very busy working on reviewing artist submissions for the Bedford Hills art mural. We had mentioned before we had 47 submissions and they all did their homework very diligently to look through all of them. And we're narrowing it down and talking to some artists. We should have more information soon, but hopefully our goal is to get that mural done in October. So we're moving very rapidly towards that. Towards that, and we have already approved a work session for next Tuesday evening to look at some of the proposed legislation that we've been talking about sign ordinance and maybe the wildlife orders. We could talk about that. So that'll just be a work session. No, no votes. No business just, but we will, we have noticed it so that we can all meet and talk about that here next Tuesday. I think that's everything on my list for the week. Anyone else?

Okay, there being no further business, this meeting is adjourned.