Town Board - Regular Meeting

Uh, welcome to the town board meeting of Tuesday, December 16th, 2025. I'd like to um make a motion for the town board to come out of executive session. Second. All in favor? I I Everyone could please rise if you're able for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you all for joining us this evening. I appreciate that many of our department heads are here in person and online to give their um speed reports from our um from our uh past year and also uh it is the last town board meeting for uh council member Andreas Castillo. That's regular meeting and um so we do have a cake afterwards um for anyone who is able to stay. Um but we are going to start with a presentation. We have a couple of um actually the presentation at the end of the meeting we have to postpone. I don't know if that made it onto the agenda but we have someone is sick who is going to come present. So we will not be doing that presentation but we are starting with presentation by our business promoter Jennifer Weed who um came on in this role after uh Lauria Hillard left this summer and has been doing a fabulous job. So, Jen, if you'd like to come up and I think your presentation may be on the laptop. So, thank you for coming here this evening and uh giving us an update.

Great. Thank you. Good evening. I am Jennifer Oage and I've had the pleasure of supporting the town of Bedford as the Bedford business promoter for the last 6 months. I am a Bedford Hills resident for over 10 years, a small business owner, and I'm a me a mother of two children that are currently enrolled in the Spanish dual language program at Mount Kisco. I'm a first responder wife and a lover of our community. And tonight, I will discuss the progress and updates over the last six months in the Bedford business promoter role. The Bedford business promoter role is a role that was created to help support the local businesses and help connect the dots in our community, helping to be the bridge between the town of Bedford and the business owners. A few ways in which this position has been supported is through media, regularly attending variety of meetings and events, as well as getting to know our business owners, landlords, and more. For a few minutes tonight, I'm going to share some examples of how I've supported our community and town in this role. When starting this role, I've helped successfully support the Next Stop BIS Bedford Hills event, which was an evening celebrating five local Bedford Hills businesses that have been in Bedford Hills for over 40 years. With over 150 community members in attendance, we had an evening of Taste of Bedford Hills with all local restaurants participating. This showed the way we could highlight and lift up amazing businesses, both present and future, and the foundations that have been built in Bedford Hills, showcasing our community. In our next event, we hosted a salsa night at the Bedford Hills train station with attendance of close to a hundred people to learn how to salsa dance and enjoy the music and the community. These are important events for bringing together our local businesses and celebrating the

diversity of our community, including our vibrant Hispanic community. Part of my work is learning to has led me to learning and listening to the community as a whole. And that has brought me to bringing to regular business association meetings, nonprofits, which are vital to our town and our community to grow. Regularly attending meetings with the BIS with also the Northern Westchester Hispanic Business Summit along with attending quarterly nonprofit meetings that were hosted by the town. Making sure all these voices are heard in our community are key to our success. And I've learned more about our business and community by having a stakeholders meeting to revamp the Bedford Kona art crawl and agreed that it would be better served to be spread over three weekends instead of one. This year we wanted to give more of an opportunity to our local artists and our greater community to have opportunities to come together and enjoy our diverse hamlets. Bedford Villages was on October 4th and it was a walking arts draw with over 30 artists participating and people coming up from the city to shop and enjoy the vibrancy of our village. Bedford Hills was on October 5th and that day was selected to support the Bedford Hills Fire Department's open house. It's was a really highlighted the Bedford Hills neighborhood feeling with fire truck rides, art, food, and music in depot plaza. Katona was on October 18th with over 50 plus artists that evening and the Kona Fire Department backyard blaze was happening the same evening, creating a wonderful feeling in our hamlet. Music, food, and art was alive. Katona does several art walks over the warmer events and have a strong base of folks who participate and people from outside

our town who love to come and explore. I worked with all three hamlets to support their media presence both on social and in local calendars and newspapers. Some of the work I've been working on with our association to chambers are by supporting with media presence, ribbon cutings, and collaborating on our events. It has been a strong place to lift us all up. It helps attract new businesses to our town to see our commitment to events and exciting things happening here. Partnering with new media partners such as local influencers to highlight our events. Some of these pages have well over 100,000 followers and work to support our social media efforts across the Hamlet's Business Association's pages. supporting and partnering with our wreck and park department by supporting existing events and helping promote these events such as trunk and treats and and holiday market helping build Instagrams for example over with over 50,000 views in the last day last 90 days on discover Bedford Hills which is the Bedford Hills Business Association's Instagram page. Another way of lifting up our community is in print with ads in our local newspaper, The Recorder, Mount Kiscoco, Bedford Times, and Katona Lewisboro Times with close to over 40,000 homes receiving these papers. Again, showing we have a lot of great things happening in town. Our holiday events this year were featured. There we go. We're featured in Westchester Magazine's digital roundup for events in towns with over 50,000 subscribers. And we're also featured in Westchester Family. This is expanding our reach outside of

our town and attracting folks from the city and beyond. with a focus on Bedford Hills, supporting the dig grant facade project in Bedford Hills, working with business owners and landlords to get new signs and peing complete it with the white building. More to happen in the spring with two more buildings in town. Continuing to work with the Bedford Hills Business Association by co-sponsoring events this year and building the website and growing the Instagram so they can be self- sustaining by the end of 2026. I've been working with the Bedford Hills businesses to coordinate events on the same night such as the November event when the community shop hosted an event in the train station and the Shepard and Co. stayed open late creating a successful event in the entire downtown Hamlet, working with the 117 bypass and corridor business and 117 corridor businesses and highlighting them on social media while chatting with owners to understand everyone's needs. working in including the businesses into future Bedford Hills Business Association events and more to create a stronger community. We have received feedback from our community recently over the positive vibes that are happening in Bedford Hills and that the feeling and the energy is moving in the right direction. We have noticed that we've had successful events happening simultaneously in Bedford Hills and all the businesses are successful. Goals for 2026. Rev up is an opportunity as a community to gather as a town to celebrate the 250th signing of the Declaration of Independence. We are kicking off this celebration with a launch event on January 30th at historical hall. Working with local businesses and organizations to help promoting the amazing year-long celebration. I will continue to build on the work I've started and I'm excited to continue

to be the connector and the bridge for this community. Thank you so much for your time and looking forward for an exciting year ahead.

Thank you very much, Jen. Great job. Um, great to hear uh some of those uh statistics, those numbers related to social media exposure. I think um across the board attendance at events has been up in every every way, shape or form and it has to be in no small part to the amount of outreach and um that you've been doing and relationship building and connections with all of those groups and everyone is you know clearly supporting one another and the business associations and cross hamlets to keep it to keep it all going. It's been exponential. So congratulations. Thank you. Great.

Thank you so much. Do we have any questions from the board? Comments? I just had a comment that um the shout out that you posted regarding the holiday market. It was really fun to be in the Arpac meeting and you know the members and the staff were like yes that was so exciting and you know I think that's really a great thing that you're doing to help you know bring people in and you know I think it helps people feel really excited about the work that they're doing as well. So thank you.

Thank you. Yeah. I just wanted to make one comment also. Um, you are everywhere. You are everywhere online and in person and I really wanted to thank you for that because I think it's really important if you're doing this work to be known to people, the shop owners, the residents, and it's really appreciated. So, thank you.

Thank you. I just wanted to build off of that and say um you know I think we can see your accomplishments evidenced in just the downtown Bedford Hills area alone which is buzzing with activity and I see a lot of families actually like looking forward to going there and all the events I know are a labor of love as I've been a part of them as you know they're a lot of work um and you're building community which is everything that we've wanted and specifically empowering our local businesses it doesn't go unnoticed so thank you so much I really appreciate that

and the um a lot of people have mentioned the vibrancy in Katona, the vibrancy in Bedford Hills as well, the ability to really help lift up the businesses um the business chambers um and working with Bedford Hills Business Association in particular to make sure that they are getting fully launched. It's amazing how the Discover Bedford Hills Instagram page that really is only a year old um if that um is really, you know, getting 50,000 views on something is incredible. So that's that's great. And it's extended down the Route 117 corridor. I saw you did um some social media around the Pedigree. Um yeah,

whatever else is in We've done I've done Greenwich Orchids, which um I've done Pedigree. We've gone into Jos's on 117. So, um it is exciting to see cuz there's great shops. Bricks and Miniic just opened this weekend. That was out there. Could you imagine?

Um Bricks and Mini just opened. We just did a great one on Bedford Lighting. So, yes, getting out there and showing that all this is still in Bedford Hills is amazing. There's been a lot of connection making as well when there's an opening in a building or a building owner wants to talk to us and you about what ideas might come in and there are definitely a lot of conversations going on about other things coming. So, um, that's all very good, too. And, um, the fact that you speak Spanish has also been incredibly helpful, I will, I think, in terms of talking to store owners maybe about, you know, joining the business association or um, you know, the way that they might participate in the facade improvement program and, um, seeing you at the tree lighting talking to children in Spanish um, and seeing them light up that Mrs. Claus was talking to them in their, you know, in the language they speak at home was um adorable. So,

thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Okay. Thank you very much. And I I met with the friends of John J. Homestead this morning who are excited about coming back to Katona with the farmers market next year. So, that's another um great thing to leverage to that seems to be increasing foot traffic every Saturday. um and getting more people into Katona with that as an anchor is um a huge opportunity as well. So, while our grant funding to keep you doing this work runs out at the end of 2026, um I think everything that you were doing is really um helping everyone learn what you do and leverage, you know, all of the opportunities they have in town um to keep this going. So, that's the goal. Thank you. Just one thing.

Yeah. Can you have a little more energy? Yeah, I'll try. I'll try. I'LL TRY. ALL RIGHT. Thank you very much. Thank you so much.

Okay. We have invited the um department heads, thank you for coming everyone to come and do um a little annual report review. Um we have their annual reports, put them on the agenda. Um so we have the the written reports, but it would be great just to hear some highlights from um from each one of our leaders. We have some who are online due to uh I think there's well thank you for joining us online. I think we can start with um I think Kevin Wyn is there. Um Kevin are you there? I am trying to trying to enable my video but it doesn't work. We'll try again. All right. Well, apologies. For some reason, my video is not working, but uh thank you for the opportunity to talk about the Department of Public Works today. Unfortunately, I have the flu, so I'm not there in person. Uh but, uh happy to go over this on Zoom. So, DPW is primarily a maintenance department. We have our highway division, water division, recycling center, and sewer division. Um, all of which provide services directly to members of the community. We're very proud of our employees that make everything seamless. Um, I was thinking in one sense, the fact that we don't get calls about a lot of things, potholes for example, indicates the good work that we do and the fact that the town board gives us a good budget to maintain our roads. That's one of the most critical uh features of DPW and most timeconuming. Paving is very fast but the work that goes into it in terms of checking drainage and all other underground facilities is uh can be very timeconuming. For example, on Brett

Lane, we installed about 800 ft of drainage this year before paving it and our employees are quite skilled in doing that work. As far as major projects, we just completed a second sewer project which brought service to an area adjacent to the Katona business area, uh, Edgemont Road, Valley Road, the Terrace, Ashb, about 94 properties there, and to a part of Railroad Avenue in Beedford Hills, and lastly to Bedford Lake Apartments, uh, adjacent to Lake Marie, the apartments and condos there. The project was mostly funded by New York City because we were able to eliminate a sewer plant that was at the Bedford Lake location and connect that to our existing sewer facility. That project was just uh completed last week actually. Uh down to the wire for completion by the end of December, but done. So,

congratulations. It's huge.

And uh we also completed the Harris and Babbot Road intersection redesign. That was with a federal grant that we received. Much appreciated. And uh the scope was to evaluate and eliminate a site disc concern at the intersection because of the top of the hill and also to put a sidewalk in to the correctional facility entrance. Uh that was completed this summer and lots of positive feedback in terms of a safer intersection as well as the ability for people to walk. So we're we're proud of that project and happy to deliver it to the town. I also wanted to say it's been great to work with Andre. Sorry I can't be there to celebrate this evening, but uh it's been a pleasure and hopefully uh we stay in touch. With that, I'll take any questions.

Thank you very much, Kevin. Um great work and um feel better. Thank you. Okay, thanks a lot. All right, we'll let Kevin go back to sleep. Um and uh our town clerk, Alli Whan, is also in line. She has some child care issues, so she's also reporting in from home. Ally, are you there? Hi. Hi. Sure. You can see me now? Yep. Okay.

Thank you for letting me come on Zoom. My husband is away, so I figured I would not bust into the courtroom with two children at a nighttime hour. Um, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Ally Whan and I'm the town clerk for the town of Bedford. The town clerk's office serves as the gateway to the town of Bedford, supporting the daily operations of the town, safeguarding vital records, and providing essential services to residents and visitors. In 2025, we remained focused on modernization, accessibility, and preservation. Some of our focus included uh processing hundreds of record requests. Uh right now our number is just under 500 requests for the year. Administering a large variety of licenses and permits, supporting elections and maintaining the town's archives to ensure transparency and compliance. This year also included expanded online services and submissions, enhanced payment options. We have a new office terminal with tap to pay, Apple pay, and Google pay. And we introduce processing of online credit card authorizations for easy payments and easy service to those who need to obtain records, permits or licenses, need to pay via credit card to access those things, and need them faster than mailing paperwork or and checks. Um, and may be too far to come in or possibly work during business hours and cannot make it in. We have also worked on implementing a new townwide phone system to improve communication and resident access to the correct departments. That system is to be launched tomorrow, hopefully without a major bump in the road there. The transition of our town's do not knock registry has also gone to a digital format. This is now an online submission form that re that residents

can easily register their property online to help ensure that they are not disrupted by door-to-door solicitors. Under our town code, solicitors are required to obtain a permit through the clerk's office and soliciting without one is a violation of the town code. The digital registry has improved protection for residents. We've also continued to expand resident access, including door-to-door services, delivery of permits, delivery of accessible parking passes, and other office services if residents cannot make it in. Uh looking at 2026, we plan to further expand online forms and submissions, transition additional permits and renewals to digital formats, and collect resident email information to streamline recurring permits. Records preservation remains a priority for our office with plans to apply for a records management grant in the coming months um to support expanded preservation digit digitization of high value records and improve public access. We will continue to refine workflows, expand digital payment options, and improve communication with residents while maintaining highquality accessible in-person service. If anybody has any questions or needs, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Thank you very much, Ally. And um we have with us this evening acting um taking our minutes deputy clerk Ling Linglu, who has started um my gosh, it's already been a couple of months now. Two months. Two months. Yes. So, um that's another great addition to the clerk's office. So, thank you. All right. Thank you, Ally, and thank you, Ree, for your patience. Thank you. With your mom. All right. Take care. Great. Okay. Fantastic. Um, we can now go with um Chief of Police Alvin Padilla here.

Hello. Good evening. Uh, my presentation won't be nearly as entertaining as Allies was. No, it made it really good.

Uh, but thank you for giving me an opportunity to give a little snapshot almost an appetizer size um bit of information about police department operation um a far more comprehensive report I'll put together um for the board and uh the public to see um early February probably. Um so these numbers andor statistics are to date as fast as time is going there's still time left to this year that will affect these numbers slightly. So Town Bedford Police Department is a full-time full service police agency uh authorized 40 sworn officers. We don't currently have 40 sworn officers but we are actively working on trying to get to that level. Um the size of the community is approximately 18,000 shy of that but approximately 18,000 and roughly 40 square miles uh is the area that we cover. Uh uniformed officers of patrol provide services along approximately 161 miles of roadway throughout the town as well as assistance along uh I 684 and the Soulmill Parkway. We have a full-time full-ervice investigative division with detectives that investigate all criminal cases as well. Uh, as I mentioned before, to date, 25 uh, statistics at a glance, our calls for service were about 24,000, which is down about 5,000 calls from the previous year. Um, alarms were pretty consistent with the year before at 1365. We had 110 criminal case investigations, which is slightly down from the year before. Uh, but our arrests were up slightly at 102 total arrests u for the calendar year thus far. Overall, summones were up. Summones meaning tickets issued both combined parking and moving violations combined

were up as far as enforcement goes. Um, more so in the parking area than the moving violations. Um, we conducted 11 child safety inspection events, typically once a month. Um, slightly down. We had 13 the prior year. And our accidents had a slight dip to 324, down from 360. Uh, most notably no fatalities, though unfortunately in 2024 we did have one fatality. So, um, a few of the highlights for what what was accomplished during the year. Uh, we were recognized for the second year in a row as the safest city in New York by safewise.com. Um, which was nice to to be recognized for that.

Thank you. So although obviously that the police were recognized for that, it's a combination of the police, our elected officials and our community which makes it all safe. It's not just the services that we provide. It's the collective and we certainly acknowledge and appreciate that. Uh installation has started for three additional level two vehicle chargers for uh our growing uh electric vehicle police fleet. So that'll bring it to five total level two chargers in addition to one level three fast charger. That infrastructure um should support our EV patrol operation. Um so thank you for supporting that because uh without it we wouldn't be able to sustain uh 247 365 services utilizing in part electric vehicles. We were also able to secure $200,000 from the state to supplement our ongoing project with uh radio communication infrastructure uh improvements in addition to records management uh within the department and intermunicipal kind of cooperation with that records management system for information sharing and um kind of collaborative approach to emerging issues we're all experiencing kind of in the northern region. We also received the AAA traffic safety gold award which once again um recognition goes beyond just the enforcement efforts of the police department but also the ideas and collaboration with our traffic safety working group which has been really important in uh not only u as a conduit of information from uh the community to

give us that type of information but also um pressure in collaboration with elected government to get initiatives like paving and that type of stuff on state roads. Obviously, Commissioner Win would be uh town roads, but together uh we were rece um for our traffic safety efforts. We also started participation in the blue envelope program which provides the town's first responders with quick access to critical information about a person uh with autism or other disabilities in an emergency. Sometimes uh they may not be able to effectively communicate necessary information. and having these blue envelopes with that information readily available can give us uh necessary information to make appropriate decisions as far as of what direction we need to go to help the person in need. Um so those are just a few highlights for the department in calendar year 2025. I look forward to an opportunity to give, as I stated before, much more comprehensive visual um information about our efforts. So, thank you.

Thank you very much. Um do you have a question? Sure. First of all, thank you so much. We feel so we are comfortable with Thank you. You mentioned a large drop in the number of calls this year. I mean that's a huge drop. Do you think it's related to the immigration policies that are causing fear in this in people less?

We I don't have any information to suggest that would be the case. the numbers of, you know, the volume of calls in any given year do fluctuate up and down. It's impacted by a lot of different things. Um, without looking much deeper into the volume specifically on what types of calls represent what percentage of the 20 uh 24,000 calls. Um, I wouldn't be able to answer that effectively, but there's nothing to suggest that that is the case. Okay, thank you so much. Um, thank you. Sure.

And, um, I know that the police were on scene for the fire last Friday at the kennel and, um, rescued a lot of dogs. Got a lot of dogs out of the building, so that was very brave. Only one bite. Only one dog bite. Yes. So, good. I hope that officer is recovering. Um, and I think your new website was rolled out this year as well. Um, and a lot of community events. So, thank you very much. We did. That was kind of an ongoing roll out. Yeah.

But it seems to be uh wellreceived. If I could just correct something, I think I said it dropped 5,000. We went from 26,458 to 24,100. So it's it's a 2,000 2,000. I believe I I misspoke earlier. I might have said five, but uh more accurately, it's more around 2,000. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Okay. Um, up next, sorry, we could go with Breck and Parks. Chris Soy, Superintendent of Recreation and Parks. Thank you for joining us.

Hello. Good evening. Thanks for having me. Um, uh, and again, thanks for the opportunity to, uh, share our kind of end of year u report summary. I did have the opportunity back in October to to provide a a department update, a little a more thorough comprehensive department update um to share with the with the community. So, um I'll just take this time for the town of Bedford Recreation and Parks Department to remind everybody what we do and what we're about. Our mission statement, the department strives to enrich the lives of our residents by providing safe and welcoming parks, facility, recreation programs, and events for people of all ages. We work in partnership with our residents and in cooperation with our with other recreation ser service providers in the community in order to maximize all available resources. We are dedicated to building healthy communities and and enriching the quality of life through people, parks, and programs. Um so over the course of the past year, um we offer year-round uh recreation programming that includes programs for ages preschool through senior adults. Uh our department also maintains the operation of the three memorial parks. Uh we manage and schedule the programming at the Bedford Hills Community House as well as the Bedford Hills train station. Um we organize and facilitate a variety of community communitywide special events. Some of them including egg hunt, food truck Fridays, trifesta holiday market, and uh breakfast with Frosty. Our most recent special event. Um, we run a number of summer day camp programs that serve over 500 children ages 3 to 13 every year. Um, and one of the areas I really like to highlight is that we employ over 250 young adults uh each year every year to work in our camps, pools, and and uh park operations. Uh so we don't just offer the programming but we offer opportunities for employment and work and work experience uh for uh

the young young young folks in in the community. Um and then we also care and maintain town properties including the Bedford Village Green, the Katona Islands and town owned cemeteries among among other properties. Uh in order to accomplish this, we have a very dedicated staff. And I just like to recognize our staff um and especially the recreation staff the community will see out and about. They're running programs. They're on-site facilitating programs. They're interacting uh obviously with with the public. Um and uh they've really this past year have done done a fantastic job. Uh Kim O'Brien is our assistant superintendent of recreation and parks. We have two as of 2025 two new recreation supervisors. Gregory Pittz and DJ Goldman. Our senior support services staff, which is Rosemary Varel, our senior advocate. Our office staff, Maria Campbell and Phyllis Cohen. And then I just like to recognize our park staff that such a wonderful job of maintaining and keeping our parks and properties in great condition. Uh Tom Magna, our parks foreman, Mark Granero, our assistant park foreman. Matt Van Dornne, our fleet mechanic. John Goodman, park maintenance. Matt Halpin, park maintenance. Billy Dgo, Jeff Granero, and Jason Valvano. So, thanks for all their efforts, uh, we're able to produce all the programs and, uh, maintain all the properties. Uh, we offer over on the recreation side, we do offer over a 100 pro individual programs over the course of our four programming seasons. A couple highlights I from the 2025 in terms of new programs that we introduced. Um, we introduced a new summer youth basketball league that was wellreceived. Uh we also uh coordinated and partnered with a a an outside uh organization to put together the youth triathlon that occurred at Bedford Hills Memorial Park this past summer. Uh both focused and slated obviously for youth. Uh we also had uh Puzzle Palooa which

was a new special event which was more of an intergenerational event. we had young folks and older folks and uh young and old working together on this that that fun special event. Um so that was new for 2025. Um and then on the senior side, we did introduce a Zumba Gold program and uh we expanded our what we call our game time Mondays as part of our senior recreation program at the Bedford Hills Community House. Um, one other thing I would like to highlight in terms of we don't just run our own programs, but we support a lot of the community organizations and their facilitations of events and programs, whether it's hosted at one of our sites or parks or our facilities, or we're supporting them through um other resources uh to help um these communitywide events happen and keep this community so uh so active and uh thriving in that area. uh at the Bedford Hills Community House. This past year, we assist we worked with the Bedford Hills Elementary School Association fundraiser. We worked with the Foundation for Bedford Schools on their fundraiser and Katona Chamber of Commerce for their fundraiser. So again, these are opportunities for us to partner or in some ways partner in some other times just assist and help facilitate these great organizations um doing their work uh in the in the community. So, um, having those fundraisers come into the Bedford Hills Community House has been has been great and that was, uh, you know, new for new this year. Um, uh, in terms of our programs and event participation numbers, we have seen a good strong increase of participation, registration in our programs. Uh, some of our special events where we do require registration, some special events are just obviously open to everybody, others we do require um, registration. Uh we saw an increase in our flashlight egg hunt. Uh our fishing derby, our ladies bingo, and our

breakfast with Frosty all saw, you know, 5 to 10% increases in registration numbers. So that was good to see. Um I also just want to uh acknowledge our swim and dive programs this past summer. Obviously, our pool operations are a big part of our department. Uh there were really strong efforts and to support the swim and dive and try to revitalize some of th some of the um some of those teams. Um uh our Bedford Village swim and dive saw an increase of participation of from 39 participants to 44. Our Bedford Hills swim and dive saw an increase from 76 in 2024 to 80 in 2025. And our Katona swim and dive saw an increase from 80 in 2024 to 84 in 2025. So we like the trend we're seeing there. and we had a really good season across the board for our swim and dive teams. Um, our senior programming, uh, again continues. Uh, there's been, we had some restructuring within our department. We now have our assistant superintendent, Kim O'Brien, overseeing a lot of our senior recreation programming. So, we are, uh, continuing our senior dropin program at the Bedford Hills Community House. Um, and, uh, again, we've are looking to, uh, increase some programming there and some offerings. We did uh increase our charter bus trips this year by a couple a couple trips which was nice. We do coordinate that with Lewisboro recreation seniors and we offered um eight trips in 2025 for our senior residents. Um our home home delivered meals meals on wheels program uh we have 35 recipients on average. Those numbers change over the course of the year but on average we have 35 at any given time. Uh which means we do um uh in order to accomplish that we have 15 deliveries per week. That's five deliveries. That's a delivery a day to each of the hamlets. Um and that's how we uh we serve and we

rely on the u wonderful work of our volunteer drivers to deliver. And uh our deputy town clerk Ling continues to be a dedicated volunteer and driver for our meals on wheels program. So we're very thankful for all those efforts. Um for our senior advocate and support services um Rosemary Varel uh coordinates we had 200 we have 290 senior residents that are currently registered with our senior advocate. Uh registered seniors and their family members are provided information and resources that allows them to understand and access available regional resources such such as housing options. obtaining and paying for health aids and transport and transportation are currently the most frequently requested areas of assistance. Um, in 2025, the senior advocate organized co or organized or participated in 10 educational presentations that we held at the Bedford Hills Community House. Um, this helped educate the public and the seniors on in areas such as fire safety, accommodations for those with disabilities, free legal services for seniors, Medicare, and other areas. Um, uh, moving from our programming, the w programming and our senior services programming, uh, looking to our capital projects, some of the capital projects that we completed this year. Uh again, we oversee or this department manages the town owned cemeteries. We did cemetery repair uh stonewall repair work at Buffton Cemetery along with Miller Family Burial Ground. Um we purchased 60 new chairs for the pools at Katona and Bedford Hills. Uh we completed repair, resurfacing, and repainting of our Bedford Village tennis courts and we completed a interior and exterior repainting repairing and repainting of the Bedford Hills pool house. Um upcoming in the next year, uh in terms of capital projects, uh we'll be doing

repair and repainting of the Bedford Hills Community House main hall. Uh refinishing of the wood floors in in the main hall and activity room at the community house. Uh and one of our biggest endeavors will be the uh replacement of the Kona Memorial Park uh playground renovation project. Um uh want to acknowledge grants. uh the supervisor's office was able to secure a grant for um for a new senior bus. So, we're going to be looking to make that purchase uh hopefully um you know in in the in the very near future. Uh we'll take a little while to get our hands on it, but uh we are looking we're excited about the opportunity to purchase and receive a new a new senior bus. Um some of the improvements our department made uh we really we leaned into we have an improved new website with uh uh a new design and access to department information. Uh we're kind of leaning into that platform as a way for the community to uh access our information and understand what we do. Uh we want to keep it uh you know full of information updated so no one everyone uh the community can feel confident that when they're going to it they're getting the most up-to-date most accurate information and uh it's been a staffwide uh effort and um definitely want to thank the staff that I work with for for the improvements that we made and again with we mentioned with the business with Jen and the business promoter uh the use of social platforms uh we again we are um have been using but we've been uh increasing our usage and our kind of effective communication through through social media. So that's uh that's been um uh you know accomplished this year and we've just as mentioned before we have definitely seen some benefit with increased participation increased awareness of our of our programs. So going into next year, we definitely uh as a area of emphasis uh community engagement. We

want to make sure we're reaching out. Um we're uh everyone in this community would understands what we do, how we do it, how to access um and if they have any questions, they know they can come come and ask. So uh but we're going to be making efforts. So, keep an eye out for uh surveys and and and initiatives that we'll put out there to to garner community feedback and uh help uh inform and improve our services.

Awesome. Thank you very much. Um yeah. Okay. Wow, these are really good. No, I'm not surprised. Um it's been a really tremendous year. Thank you. Um, and we really have incredible teams um, supporting all of these department heads. Um, so we'll keep going. We don't have to do the whole report because we do have it in writing. Um, so if you want to go quicker and do high level, that's okay, too. But thank you, Chris. That was thorough and and very good. Um, tax receiver Melanie Krebs, do you want to come up? Um, thank you very much. Mine will be much briefer.

Okay.

I'll just take a minute or two to give a brief overview of what the tax receivers's office does and what we've done for the past year. Our office is responsible for collecting all property taxes in the town of Bedford, including for the town itself, the school districts, special districts, and Westchester County, covering just under 6,000 taxable parcels. We handle three separate collections each year, which means we process and maintain records for nearly 18,000 tax payments annually. Uh residents can pay taxes penalty-free by April 30th for county, town, and special districts. And by September 30th and January 31st for the two school tax installments. After those dates, our office is responsible for applying penalties and when necessary, filing tax leads. Our goal is to make paying taxes as simple as convenient as possible. Residents are welcome to pay in person at our office where there are five days a week and we always enjoy the opportunity to see our residents face to face. Uh we also offer an online portal through the town website um where residents can use a payments or credit cards just to make things easier. And we also have other useful tools on there as well including tax status and payments going back as far as 15 years. Um, clear and timely communication is a priority for us. Uh, one way we support that is through our electronic notification system. Uh, residents who sign up still receive their paper bills, which everyone wants to get, but um, they also get helpful email reminders. Um, right now we have about 1,700 taxpayers enrolled, which is a 7% increase from last year. In addition to providing helpful reminders, the system gives us a reliable way to reach out to residents if we have issues with tax payments or returned mail. It's just helpful to have a point of contact. Um, looking ahead, we're hoping to use this system to send additional reports, uh, including year-end tax statements that, uh, residents can use for filing their income taxes. Um, if anyone needs help

enrolling in the head system or any questions at all, you know, they can reach out. I'm happy to help. So, thank you. Great. Thank you very much. Um Harry, do you want to go next in line with uh tax and assessment? It's a theme.

Good evening. Good evening.

Um the assessor's office consists of me, Harold Girdlestone, the town assessor, and Tatiana Guamman, our assessment tax aid. And primarily our office is responsible for assessing all real property in the town for taxation purposes. Um for the 20 uh June 1st 2025 tenative assessment role, the assessor's office processed and reviewed approximately 100 building permits thanks to Al and his staff. over 500 exemption applications and forms, 250 or so ownership changes through deeds or whatnot, six splits, merges, and lot line adjustments, and over 300 assessment changes. Uh for 2025, there was 191 grievances filed, a little uh up from last year, the year prior to that. uh honor for agree honor before a grievance day which is the third Tuesday in June and that's the last day to file a grievance the 2025 final assessment role was filed on September 15th and subsequently 88 small claims were filed and 3 33 tax certiaries uh in the town of Bedford going forward for 2026 our office will be mailing exemption renewal applications by early February to all owners required to annually refile That's like the lowincome senior exemption, volunteer ambulance workers under 20 years, the A nonprofits and clergy and whatnot. Again, the exemption filing deadline is May 1st. Very important date. Also, postcards will be mailed in March. That's something that the last few years we're doing to all residential owners, informing them of various exemptions that they may be eligible for. and that would give them a time to apply by May 1st. All new owners or firsttime Star applicants must register for the Star

credit check with the Department of Tax and Finance. Please note, STAR exemption renewal applications are no longer required and that the New York State Department of Tax and Finance will be determining and verifying your STAR exemption eligibility. So, you don't have to come in. They work with us. If there's any problems, if you're contacted by them or for or by our office, please respond timely because there may be some issue. But you don't have to come in for STAR anymore. But you do have to register on the state website if you're a new owner or the first time participant. If you have any questions for any of these things, exemptions or assessments, always call our office. Myself or Tatiana will be more than happy to help you. We are here for you. I think that's for all our departments. We're here for everyone. So, if you have a problem, call us. And uh uh lastly, I'd like to thank the town board for your continued support in our office. It's been very appreciated. Uh thank you. And Andre for the last few number of years, I'd like to thank you for your service as councilman on the town of Bedford, and I wish you all the best of luck in all your future endeavors.

THANK YOU SO MUCH. OKAY, AL, while you're up, you want to come on up? Mhm.

Okay, Alberto Sraco, building department. Thank you. How is everybody? Um, good. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Well, I have an overview for the 2025 annual report for the building department. Okay. High level. You don't have to read the whole thing. No, I won't. I'll just give you

Well, I'll give you an overview, but uh just snapshots of it. But an introduction, the Beford Building Department is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the New York State Building Code as well as the Beford Town Code ordinances. The building department staff assists persons in all aspects of land use and guides them through the building process. Uh this we have a very well-trained staff that does a great job in doing this. This includes working with individuals looking for information on specific properties, responding to code questions, handling sensitive enforcement issues, guidance through the approval process of the variance boards uh and commissions and and permit issuance. Our goal is to provide a positive experience for all who use our services while adhering to state and town codes. Um this basically is like the police chief had said, it's not a full year, it's through November. Um, so we don't have all the numbers. So I'll give you a brief list as far as administrating and um, uh, doing plan review. We did for all our different permits, which include building permits for additions, renovations, mechanical, plumbing, electrical, tree. There's so many different types that we use that we uh, deal with. We did over 1,200 close to,300 permits. Uh we did over 2,300 inspections through the air. Our inspectors um code enforcement had uh written and verbal complaints. Uh over 200 um over over 150 violations. Uh we had over 15 stop work orders. Our part-time uh fire inspector conducted around 300 fire inspections um which also include operating permits. uh our part we have a part-time uh summer intern and part-time office system. We're able to scan many building department files into our computer

system. Um we did close to 700 f requests. I mean uh the entire staff has been training on phase two of our municip 5 program which is city squared which we're pushing to go out any day now. We're working on some cheat sheets uh to help the public. So that will uh help us uh make it a little easier for them and it's it's going to be a transition, but it's going to really uh help expedite things and make things easier for the public. So that's our goal always. Um and uh oh, we also have our maintenance department. Real quick, our we have a a maintenance uh crew of three gentlemen that keep our buildings uh in great shape. They maintain all our buildings which include the police department, townhouse, our 425 Cherry Street community house, uh 21 Park Avenue, the maintenance garage there and their offices, um the Bedford Hills Post Office. So, uh and we do many different projects that we handle through there. Whatever happens, uh uh day-to-day uh maintenance with plumbing and electrical, we handle that also. So, that's it.

Thank you. extremely busy department. Thank you to your staff for um it definitely permits are still up. Um they have been since CO, right? And so Oh yeah, they really shot up. A lot of uh a lot of permits come through your through your department. So and we appreciate the help from the board and we are looking forward to Munic City squared uh launching for the public to be able to submit um permits online. And Andreas, nothing but the best to you. It was a pleasure. That's great.

Thank you. Okay. Planning department. We're getting there. Thank you for being here, Jessica. Um, and again, high level. I know you have a long report. Um, very busy department as well. I can speak very quickly. Um, yes, thank you for the opportunity to speak. The planning department does oversee a very wide range of different types of land use and development approvals for the town of Bedford. Um, we have the planning board, wetlands control commission, and historic building preservation commission within the department. Um, I also oversee the town engineer as well as our town environmental consultant. Um, and basically, uh, we look to process a lot of the applications for site plans, steep slopes, um, subdivisions, and then the special permits, um, as well as the individual permits that are issued both by HBPC and our wetlands control commission. Um we particularly are interactive with nearly every department but we do spend a majority of time with building with um assessor and DPW and our legal department uh to get a lot of projects done. Um the numbers in the planning department are not as um exciting or severe as those of the building department or the police department. Um but we do respond to over one-third of all the building permits that come in. U my department does review them and check them for various um elements that are handled within the planning department. Um so we did approve 48 projects last year from the planning board. Um including notable projects like the Maple A uh cell tower, WOI's Bar and Grill, um the Edgemont apartment building as well as bricks and mini figs. As you heard the business promoter mentioned, the wetlands control commission approved nine projects and 39 additional ones are through an administrative permit which is issued by our town environmental consultant and the historic building preservation commission granted six approvals. Um obviously the most important project that we achieved in 2025 was the adoption of our new comprehensive plan Bedford together. So I do thank the board for all of your support and participation in that um as it is a huge obviously goal and effort to set forth

any of the planning preservation and development needs that we look forward to in the next 15 years. Um the planning department will continue to work on various grants that we have open including our downtown improvement grant. Um we will be looking to close out however the uh his um Hudson River Valley Greenway grant which was just for design documents. Uh but we'll take that into 2026 into the next phase which is to apply for two separate grant applications into the transportation alternatives program which is a federal grant program um to look at construction of phase one and then look at designing phase two which would take us from Harris road uh north to Katona so that at the end of the day we will actually connect um by multi-use trail the hamlets of Katona and Bedford Hills. So that's very exciting. I know that's like a three decade long project um to be realized. Um again, we're working um obviously in Municity to get that up and running for the public. Um we work continuously with developers um whether they are large land owners or individual homeowners on various projects that they have uh coming up. And um in 2026, we'll be looking to start the hazard mitigation plan update um which is to look and basically see our assessed um risk or vulnerabilities for the town and then um eventually adopt that plan. And um primarily we'll continue to look and implement any other um recommendations from the Bedford together comprehensive plan. You know, focus really on Hamlet vitality, sustainability, transportation alternatives um and other housing um growing needs um to diversify our stock as our population continues to grow and need housing in different way shapes and forms. Um so yes, we are very busy in 2025. We don't anticipate slowing down in 2026. Um and best of luck of course. Thank you so much for all your support during the comprehensive plan process from the very beginning days uh through to the end. So I appreciate that.

Thank you very much and congratulations. The comprehensive plan process was very um thorough and um took a long time but um really very happy with the outcome and great job. Thank you. Thank you. Um okay comproller. Hello. Thank you for being here. Good. Absolutely. Good evening. Good evening. Um, last but hopefully not least. Um, I'll be brief. Don't worry. By 11:30, I'll have you home tonight. That's right. Thank you. We want to go through line by line.

Uh, first I want to thank uh, Councilman Castillo um, for all your work. Uh, when I started two years ago, I know you came to visit me and shared your initiatives and you were very welcoming. So, that's something that, you know, we don't forget um, when people do that. So, want to say thank you for all your work. Um just a little bit about um the department. Uh my name is Brian Connealy. I serve as the controller, the budget officer, and the parking administrator. Um a little bit about what we do, you know, we do the all the financial operations. We pretty much work with all the departments and all their initiatives. So we may not be the lead, but we provide a supporting role in most what everybody does. Um, you know, the financials are a big part, the budget are a big part, um, all the financial operations, all the payments. We do payroll in house. So, that's kind of what looks like what we do in in our office. We have a uh a senior bookkeeper, a senior office assistant, and two senior account clerks. In addition, we have a person tonight that is going to be appointed. So, we're excited about that. That's later on in the agenda. And uh ju just a little bit about what we do. Um I mentioned the the financial audits. Um every year we're audited externally um by a CPA firm and we typically have received the um nonmodified opinion which is the highest level of assurance. Uh very few comment. So you know the town is in great fiscal shape as we mention every year in our report. Uh budget management is another big thing we do. We work with the the board very closely and all the departments in preparing the budget. You know, we recently adopted the budget for 2026. That's a you know, a big part of what I

do with the town. Um here in in my role as the parking lot administrator, um that was like a learning experience for me coming on. Um I didn't have prior experience and you know was was quick learn jumping in. We had a lot of projects to complete. We did the pay by phone application. Um made some improvements. Some of the the closing parts of that is we added wireless networks in the commuter launch this year, right? To improve if there's any cellular connection issues. Um we we improve some signage. There's also some more signage coming that um we work with the planner on. So that'll be a big benefit. Um, every year we have financial compliance disclosures that we have to do with their bonding and everything. So, I work on that. We also updated a new procurement policy this year. Um, in addition to the policy, we streamlined some of the processes to try to make things a little bit easier for all the departments. In the procure policy, we also adopted the green New York. So we're looking for opportunities to again, you know, be a little more work green with their purchases. Uh Mark mentioned that last meeting. Mark Field King. Um the American just a few more American Rescue Plan. Um that's a you know big $1.8 million grant we got. Um I dealt with a lot of compliance in that um and compliance with other grants that we have just to make sure we're following all the rules. similar with the Thrive grant. Yep.

And so, yeah, so next is the Thrive grant. Um, that was a federal grant we got starting in the fourth quarter of October of um 2024 to uh help with drug abuse and uh um drug-free communities. So, in that role, um the supervisor is the uh I believe you're the lead investigator in that and I'm the um the AO. I'm actually forgetting what that acronym means, but uh right

I took a pretty active role in that or we did together in managing that and working with the Thrive committee and the Thrive coordinator. So that that was a lot of new work that we did in 25 um again working on uh insurance. One thing for insurance we did uh and I also work with their town clerk with insurance is uh we also put out for a proposal competitive pricing our insurance. We achieved big savings on both the workers comp and the general liability part and uh we work together closely in um you know all the requirements for insurance um continued management of our our capital plan or 10-year capital plan and all the projects that come up and the financing. We closed on a bond last month um for 25. We we're going to again very soon be looking at our capital plan for January to approve the new projects and go through everything. Um I help again with the town clerk manage the um the IT for the town. Um one big thing is you know cyber security. So we rolled out training classes online for for cyber and in addition to that we're doing an inerson training um this Friday. So just a continued commitment to to IT and security and we'll be very soon rolling out the final multiffactor authentication requirement um soon. That you know is the last piece of that.

Great. Um so that's all. Thank you very much. Very busy department. Much appreciated and yes, those federal grants are very um ownorous, but we appreciate the opportunity to have them. So, thank you. Um and I see that Tanya or our personnel director is also online. Sorry, Tanya, I didn't see you earlier. Um and please be brie. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Well, first and foremost, I wanted to say happy holidays town board.

And second, you know, Andres, it has been an absolute pleasure working with you and through the years um from the day I started to present, you've been very kind, very helpful when needed and I truly appreciate the service that you've been providing to the town. Um, I also wanted to say to Jennifer, I thought that was, you know, for someone who is not a resident of the town. I thought that that was a really nice presentation and I found it very interesting. Oh, she is a resident. No, she's not. I'm not. You're not a resident. Got it. Yeah. I actually I I you know, I was really enjoying getting into all the pictures and everything. So, I thought it was lovely. Thank you.

So, I just wanted to let you know that. Um, as you all know, I am sort of like um behind the scenes kind of a person. Um, in human resources, I deal with everybody in the town and I've really enjoyed working with, you know, the staff, department heads, and, you know, I provide a a wide array of services. I handle all the civil service responsibilities and reporting, staffing. I work hand in hand with Brian and his crew on all the payroll um to make ensure everybody you know gets put in properly and like Chris said we had actually 300 plus seasonal employees that were in this past seasons and it was successful. Um hard work but we got them in and we have two great recreation supervisors to assist with that. Um, you know, I handle all the personnel files, the file management. I also handle all of the employee benefits and as you all know, we're in, you know, open enrollment season. So, everything from medical, dental, vision, FSA, the retirement system, and uh, you know, if anybody's interested in deferred comp, things like that. Safety training and compliance. I am the safety training and compliance facilitator and we work with Nimber who handles you know all of our safety um and training and webinars and things like that. Um from when I started till now I think we started out with maybe half and now we're at pretty much almost like 99%. So, I'm very proud of the fact that everyone has pretty much um you know been in compliance and I know I sort of bug people towards the end of the year but everybody's been gracious and then another thing that I handle is the DOT compliance which is working with uh we have an outside company fully services and also with the the drivers with the CDL managing uh making sure

that we are in compliance with all the safety trainings and last but not least is workers comp and as the chief mentioned you know someone you know I handle all the injuries and uh you know get that paperwork starting and then also work with Nimmer on that. So I try to um you know be there when people need me in terms of any things with benefits, questions, babies, uh marriages, divorces, sickness, things like that. Thank you Tanya. Thank you for being there for everyone. It's a lot. It's a lot of different moving parts and a lot of paperwork. So, thank you very much and thank you for um helping us manage, you know, the civil service process which is um it can be arduous.

It's complicated. Um in the incoming year, you know, we're just going to try to fill we has, as you know, quite a bit of retirements trying to fill some of the departments and some have been a little bit harder to fill than others. And, you know, with the help of you, Ellen and and Stephanie have been pretty much instrumental in just trying to help navigate some of this. and it's really appreciated um to get some things sort of moving and hopefully in the next coming year um you know we will fill this with a new regime of you know employees who will come and stay because I will say it is a a true blessing to see that most of the people who have retired have been here 20 plus years so that says something

you know and thank you well thank you very much appreciated

for your report and for your support of our fabulous staff and thank Thank you to all the department heads so much. I want to give another round of applause to everyone to you and your staff. Um, and thank you for, you know, bearing with us. But I think it's really great to have a endofear report uh all in one uh one sort of fell swoop so that people can really hear all of the tremendous things that you do for our community and the services you provide. So, thank you and please pass along the thanks to your um departments. Um, we have it looks like a long agenda. It's not that long. So we will uh move through it and um then we will have a little party. Uh I'll move to the consent agenda. We have a request by controller Connealy to approve abstract of claims and praise paid priors in the amount of 1,684,964.88. Number two, the acceptance of monthly reports. Number three, we have a request to accept a resolution approving a storm water maintenance and easement agreement for for um 240 to 260 J Street at the Harvey School. Number four, we have a request to award snow removal services um from December 10th, 2025 through December 9th, 2026. Uh number five, we have a request from DPW Commissioner Wind to approve snow and ice removal for the county on Greenwich Road and Stamford Road per the IMA for the period of October 1st, 2025 to September 30th, 2030. Um we have a request number six uh for the board to approve the proposed taxers settlement for Foxfield Holdings LLC, the town refund of $0. And number seven, we have request for the board to approve a proposed tax or shiiority settlement for JG Bedford LLC Village Green um with town refunds of $6,811 and for 3 to 7 court road uh refunds of $3,686. Still on the consent agenda, number

eight, we have request from DPW Commissioner Win to award the 2026 2027 town facilities refuge carting bid to Interstate Waste. Um and number nine, we request to accept notification of employment of Marshall Webster for the position of MEO effective uh December 8th, 2025. Do we have um a motion to approve these nine items on the consent agenda? So moved. Second. All in favor?

I these uh items are approved. Under old business, we have a request to authorize supervisor to sign an agreement with Naerta to extend the timeline for the 321 building upgrade work from January 2027 to January 2028. This is a $457,000 grant to help pay for insulation and heating and cooling uh in this building. We are underway with an architect designing those and going out to bid for a contractor to do the insulation work. and it is taking longer than the grant um window had previously identified. So um do we have a motion to approve to extend that contract? So move second.

Any questions? Um all in favor? I. Under new business, we have a request uh by Controller Connealy for approval to close the offices to the public early on Friday, December 19th for an employee training for cyber security, followed by uh an end of year meeting and lunch. Um so the proposal is to close the building at 11:00 a.m. at 425 Cherry Street um so that that training can take place and um the townhouse building closing at 100 p.m. Do we have a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. All in favor? I.

I. Motion carries. I'd also just like to propose that we close the offices to the public on December 24th at noon uh at 4:25 and 3:21. Anyone who's not taken a vacation day would still continue to work, but I don't think there's going to be enough people here to serve the public um because a lot of people are taking the, you know, a half day. So, um, do we have a motion to approve closing the town offices to the public, uh, at noon on December 24th? So, move. Any questions, discussion? All in favor? Second. Oh, wait. Sorry. Second. Okay. Second. Now, any discussion? No. All in favor? I.

I. Okay. Motion carries. Thank you. Um, we have a request by the town clerk to adopt a resolution authoring the sale authorizing the sale of plots in Buckton Cemetery. Um, just one clarification. And it's a one is a a bench plot and then one is an upright plot. There was one one misnomer on the uh uh on one of the deeds, but one is an upright, right? Um headstone plot and one is a bench bench plot. Correct. Um Okay. They're not. So that's indicated that's indicated in the deeds. Okay. Fantastic. Um do we have a motion to approve? So moved.

Second. Uh any discussion? I think was this the first I think. No, this is not the this is not the cremation. This is the And it it's cremation plaza in Buckton. In Buckton. Okay. Correct. Yeah. All right. Um but not the other cemetery. Not Chai Chester. Right. Not Chai Chester. It's Buckton. Right. Okay. Any questions? All in favor? I I. Motion carries. Uh, we have a request to approve the appointment of Angelica McGovern as the senior office assistant in the finance department effective on December 8th, 2025. Angelica has been working part-time um for a little while and is doing a great job. Um, do we have a motion to approve? So move.

Second. Um, any questions? All in favor? Motion carries. Um, we have some committee appointments. We have a request to approve appoint Marina Kubachek as the chair and um, reappoint as a member to the conservation board. Um, I guess we'll do these one by one. Do we have a motion to approve? So move. All in favor? Second. Second. Sorry. Second. All in favor. I'm in a hurry to get cake. I want some cake. All in favor? I I. Um, I'll make a motion to appoint Andrew Chintz as chair and member of the Kona Historic District Advisory Commission as a reappoint. Um, do we have a second? Second. All in favor?

I. Uh, I'll make a motion to appoint Margaret Browning as member of the Recreation and Parks Advisory Committee um as a reappoint. Do we have a second? Second. All in favor? I I motion carries and I'll make a motion to appoint Fiona Mitchell as um to reappoint her as a member and make her the chair of the uh wetlands control commission and to reappoint Annne Paul as a member of the wetlands control commission. Do a second. Second. Um all in favor? I

I um we have uh the request to notice a resignation of Bob Worthemer from the town housing committee and to approve the following appointments to the town housing committee. Um Zachary Nathansson as a full member uh Andrew Chintz and Mark Levesque as as reappoints um and Julie Stern as member and chair. Do we have a motion or was it did I make the motion? Can I hear it? All right, I make the motion. Second. Um, all in favor? I I motion carries. So, um, we have been busy obviously

taking applications and doing interviews of all of these committee members. It's been really great to hear their input about, um, how the work of the committees, the way that the town could better support these committees, and um, to thank them really for all the work that they're doing. So really excited to have all of these people who are joining or re getting reappointed and um really have a renewed sense of what's going on in all of these committees um and how we can help support. So thank you all to all the new members or the reappointed members for their service in advance. Um it's really a true um service to the community to serve on these um these committees and boards. Um and then we have um one more item. We've had a request to review our current commercial parking law. There's been um a lot of resident concern about a large vehicle that's been parking um on the town in the town right of way and um we've been asked to sort of consider whether there is something that we can do um to not have such large vehicles parked on the street. um the current law um you know we don't have a proposed change to the law but um wanted to bring it up as a potential opportunity. Our current law just to open up the discussion um and see if what the board thinks about this. We have um commercial vehicles are not allowed to be parked in the right of way unless they are providing a service to a nearby um building or house. Um commercial law in that case is defined as really um has to bear advertising carry tools or equipment has to have commercial plates or other in DCF commercial use or design. It doesn't really um specify

size. Um it cannot and vehicles over 20 ft cannot be permitted in the the commuter lots. Um so that is um not really applicable. I mean it is applicable to large vehicles but they have to be commercial in nature um but not those that are not commercial in nature. The other law that we have is related to our sort of our local truck routes, which prohibits um vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating in excess of 10,000 lbs to really use our roads unless they're going directly to a delivery um to and from. Um, so a 10,000 pound vehicle would not be allowed um to be parked regularly on our town roads under this law. But this also defines this as a commercial vehicle, which would mean it was utilized in conducting business for a profit. Does not apply to um large vehicles that are over 10,000 pounds that are not being used um for a profit. The other um thing that residents have um who were concerned about this have asked me to look up with respect to large vehicles was um whether a motor home um or an RV or that size vehicle could be regulated. What I found that that um you know other towns have done in our area is to specifically restrict with respect to street parking. A lot of towns have laws regarding RVs on people's property or boats and where they can go on residential properties. Um but with respect to parking them on the streets, I saw that Croin on Hudson has a law um prohibiting boats, motor homes, camper trailers,

campers, or recreational vehicles on roadways, streets, highways, or public rights of way um for any longer than 3 hours within the village. Um I'm not sure how that might help if someone's moving it every 3 hours to a different street. Um if that could really be enforced. Um I think Ardsley has one where they don't allow any uh campers, automobile trailers, house cars, boat trailers, campers, motor homes, or other recreational vehicles um for sleeping any vehicle for living sleeping purposes unless there's a permit given for that. Um and then I found sort of more broadly in other places the prohibition on living in a vehicle while parked on the street. Um, just in talking to the police department about that, I'm not sure how you if someone isn't there overnight, how you show that they're living in it. Um, we have an overnight parking law, so large vehicles cannot be parked on our streets after between 11:00 p.m. and 7 a.m., I think, is the law. Um, so you wouldn't really have the habitation rule. So, just thoughts. Um, I think there are some community members here who've sent emails in asking the town to consider an update to the law. Um, we could look into whether prohibiting, you know, RVs over a certain size on our town roads um is something that we could do. Um, again, there may be people who have visitors who have an RV that want to come stay and then they would have to figure out where to put it. Um, so that that's the hard part about addressing um I guess the problem is there's a certain problem right now that residents want addressed, but it's um one vehicle and

it's hard to pass a town law across the board to address one problem because you might not actually solve the problem. it just might move to a different place. Um, any thoughts?

Yeah. So, I don't think that this one problem is what we really need to be solving because I think if you look at the streets in Bedford, there are a lot of streets that are actually quite narrow. So, if we allow this even for the 3 hours, I think we're going to have problems of emergency vehicle access, uh, people not being able to get out of their driveways, driveways being blocked. I looked at other towns. A lot of what they allow is parking these recreational vehicles on private property um, in commuter lots or whatever kind of lots you have. some of them prohibit it in these lots, but I think we allow it in lots or if we did allow that, that might alleviate the problem. Um, it's just that the nature of our roads on some streets, it's it would be very dangerous. And since we seem to allow it for however many hours, and even if a person did want to move it around, it it presents a dangerous situation. If we already have a law that prohibits vehicles in excess of£10,000 and it just says it has to be for vehicles conducting business for a profit. Would removing that potentially be a way to say any very large vehicle over 10,000 pounds um you know would have to would not be allowed to be parked in the street or moving through. We could change it to not have to be related to conducting business for a profit. Could be one way to get those larger vehicles,

right? It wouldn't it wouldn't be under the commercial vehicle section, right? We could add an additional restriction on non-commercial vehicles over 10,000 pounds on Right. parked on town roadways. Yeah. And the only issue I see with that, I'm so class B vehicles are less than 10,000 pounds. So, that's what I'm wondering like how many wouldn't encompass all of what we're hoping to encompass. Unfortunately, I also think that we're trying to address multiple problems.

Right. So, there's the oversized vehicle, there's the parking, the long-term, and the fact that someone's living in the vehicle. Clearly, there's a crisis there. No one's living in a vehicle on the street, you know, in the winter here because things are going well for that individual. So, you know, part of this is that problem which we're not going to solve regardless of how many, you know, motor vehicle parking legislative moves we make because this person has a crisis and that crisis is going to reveal itself wherever they are. Um, and then you've addressed this person living in a large vehicle. What happens when they get a station wagon? Let me tell you, I was here in the 70s and we had quite a number of those characters here. Um, and there are probably people here that we don't know who are doing that as well. So, I I don't want to be hastily I think that this is a huge concern for sure. I don't mean to min minimize, but I think we need to pick it apart and decide, you know, which problems we're trying to solve and what's the best solution for each of those problems. And I I I just wanted to say that

well the first problems I would like to solve is the access and the traffic safety and letting people have access to their property because I think that might actually be the easiest one to solve and allowing the person to be on town property with their vehicle but in a way that's safe for residents. And I don't I don't I'm not arguing with that, but I just think right now we have one problem. So whatever legislative move we make right now is addressing one problem. I don't know that that's the way you make laws. Like you say, oh, we've got this one problem. How are we going to fix it when like it's not a pervasive problem that I'm aware of?

It does not address it in our law. No. And you're right. You're not that's not wrong. Um but there is no um there is no provision regarding safety and access in our law in particular. Although the police said that if there were actually a problem with safety and access they could require a car to a vehicle to move. Um that has not been the case in this particular situation. Um, I think it's it's one that we have to um, you know, if someone would like to propose what the change might be to our current law to make sure that oversized vehicle parking is not, you know, I'm sure if you know, if anyone has a large um, oversized vehicle in front of their property um, parked for four hours at a time, it's not going to be something that they want um in most cases. It's not generally a problem um like it is right now and there are lots of efforts being made to help this person get help and move along and and hopefully that will be resolved um very quickly.

Uh it has taken some time though because there are no laws that this person is breaking. Um, my two cents is um that I question whether we can find like a one-sizefits-all here. You know, to Tom's point, you know, RVs, cuz I think the vehicle in question is an RV, correct?

So, you know, to your point, they can be as small as 1,000 lbs. They can reach like 6,000 8,000. So perhaps by weight um doesn't make fully it doesn't make uh full sense to me but I like the idea of perhaps having some restrictions on right ofways um and then having like a permit opportunity that if you know really kind of examining this on a case by case basis and cuz I do want to hear from the person that has this vehicle which I don't know if we heard from that person at all. I don't want to put them on the spot. Yeah, it's a long story but um we have a question from um someone on Zoom. I'd love to hear from some of the neighbors um who've been reaching out to us about this. Um

and then we we should, you know, go back and draw up a proposal if um we want to put one forward and have a public hearing on it. That's kind of how it goes. But I wanted to just get the conversation going today and and then move along. So Graham, hello. Thank you for joining us.

Hey, thanks for um thanks for the discussion. I really appreciate it and definitely understand this is a really sensitive situation. And so again, just really appreciate the board taking the time to um take some time to to consider a lot of options here. Um what about the idea of just I think Andre, you were alluding to it a little bit, like strictly prohibiting RVs from really narrow streets in the hamlet like Edgear Road where this RV is consistently parked.

Um I'm consistently having to look, hey, is this person at the end of my driveway? Am I going to be able to back out safely? Um, at the corner of Edgemont Valley Road, they were parked for a long period of time today and I had to move my car over so another car could get around. It's just I think maybe if we look at it on a street by street basis, maybe that's something to consider. Okay. Or is that too is that too nuanced?

Thank you. No, I think we can we can consider that. It's um but again it's it's hard to legislate around one car, you know, like um so I think we'd have to consider um and and I guess what you're saying is because it's a large vehicle, we're not talking about and this person is not living in this vehicle on your street. I mean, they're parking it there and then taking I'm not I'm not sure. They they they park and they don't leave. So, I think they couldn't. Okay. But they they can't stay overnight because that's um prohibited.

Yeah, they leave they leave at night, but um yeah, it's it's a it's a tricky situation. I get it. But I definitely think they're in there during the day, unfortunately. Okay. So, I think we could So, the the main issue is that it's large and it's obstructive um to drive around. And that may be one of the main issues we could look at in terms of um where that's where that's an issue. We can talk to the police about that. Um yeah, and I don't know if we single out RVs or if it's if you need a stipulation for non-commercial just non-commercial vehicles that are or oversized or oversized non-commercial. Yeah. Right.

And and I like the comparable policies from you know municipalities that are of you know Arsley the Croon Hudson. I would advise us to borrow. Um but as I said case by case basis obviously this is the one incident that has come before us but to um you know I I I think I I I also heard Stephanie's point of you know I want to make sure that this person has other options right whether you know a feasible option to park elsewhere. Um, and there may be cases that are difficult to assess and we might just need to not say like everyone that asks for a permit to park their vehicle will get a permit, but that they have an opportunity to make their case to the town without it becoming uh bureaucratically complicated.

Yes, thank you. Um, yeah. Can I just go back to one thing? It sounds like there is a safety issue because if people are having trouble driving through their neighborhood and they're having trouble yielding to other vehicles and getting around this vehicle, that's a safety problem. It sounds like they they can't see where other vehicles are coming. If I'm envisioning the area properly, it does sound like a safety problem or that in other cases there could be a potential safety problem. That's a great point, Bobby. Line of sight is probably minimized. I'm just thinking now in pedestrian areas

where you could typically see over and around an SUV, a small Ford F350 under 10,000 corners having problems. Something that large could potentially, you know, interfere with a child that is walking on a sidewalk or trying to cross the street and you don't have the ability to see around the corner making that right turn around. Let's just say Edgemon or coming off of Katona Avenue. I mean, that that's a great point. So in similar to how we prohibit commercial vehicles, it says in our law it shall it shall not be permitted to park a commercial vehicle or industrial vehicle. And I don't know how we define vehicle

say can we define it? I don't think this would as an indust but I think it's probably why don't we work on this and come back with a proposal um to consider how maybe something this large could be considered um prohibited because of its size. Um and we can bring up a proposal at our next meeting and if um if we like it we can ask for a public hearing and get get feedback from everybody in the community. We do have a question. Uh Dom, hey folks. Hi.

Similar to Graham, thank you guys so much for for talking about this and for bringing it up. Um I think two points I wanted to make. One is um the obstruction, the idea of the obstruction. Um the vehicle is often parked at the corner of Edgemont and Parkway, which is blocking a stop sign. Y um that most people ignore anyway. Um especially in the mornings, we get a lot of shortcut traffic coming from the north um to the south down to Valley Road. And um you know that whole stretch really from Valley Edge um over to Parkway um is you know our children cross the street there to go to the bus stop,

right?

Um there's children out playing all the time in the front yards. um whether the whether you know whether there's snow or not. Um the vehicle was idling for several several hours the other day um with exhaust um coming up the walkway. Um those are definite safety concerns, especially when they're blocking street signs and stop signs. Um, the other thing I wanted to bring up was there was a time, I believe it was late summer or maybe the fall where the multiple vehicles um that this person owns were permitted to park um it seemed like full-time down in the sort of ancillary parking lot um east of the Katona train station. And I understand just from, you know, talking in the neighborhood that they were issued some kind of permit to be able to stay there whether it was all day or overnight. And I'm just curious like that, you know, that seemed like a a pretty good solution. And I'm just curious why there was a permit granted and then the permit was not allowed to be renewed.

Well, that's not a permanent solution either. So, we've been working on trying to find a a way for this person to move along. Um, and it's a long story. Um, so, uh, have had a ton of help from legislator Pierce who's here in working with the county and trying to, um, really work on this problem. Um, and it's complicated, but, um, I don't want to go into it now. I think we are still working towards a solution and the police are um you know ticketing when the laws are being broken when there is obstruction of things like stop signs they should be you know issuing tickets I know they have been on certain occasions and we do have an anti- idling law that should be enforced um if anyone's you know driveways blocked that could be a tow um you know and I know that the neighbors have been patient and we are we have been really trying to um make sure that the laws are enforced first um but it is a very sensitive situation. this person does um you know not have anywhere else to go and so we are trying to um connect them with services and um and help um and but we will um look into at our next meeting proposing um how we might amend the law so that that size of a vehicle um cannot be um you know obstructing roads and and doing that. So we will um you know if we can put that forward um we will we just need to probably look at some other laws and see what the appropriate language would be and then bring it back at our next meeting. So thank you all for your input.

Thanks guys.

Um we will keep this conversation going. So, okay. Um, so we are not having our presentation by the open space committee due to a um another person with the flu I think and so we will um do we have any other public comments? Okay. Um any well I guess my board member announcements is to say Andreas Castillo has served um very well for four years on the town board and um we want to just extend our gratitude to you for your service and your commitment um your passion for so many um worthwhile projects and uh overall for people and for the health and wellness of all people. um you have really, you know, made sure that all residents have a voice um especially um those residents who identify as Hispanic. You've really tried to make sure that people are heard and find out about information and things. Um I remember, you know, you've done so many great projects with a health fair with a great committee of people that worked on that or um been involved um with our pride events and some of our multicultural events. uh served on the building health committee that resulted in the implementation of the landlord registry updated law. Uh the exploration with the community preservation fund and the open space committee on that issue. Um advocating for affordable housing and collaborating with um Blue Mountain on their um seminar and and making sure that people knew about that and could come to that. um establishing Bedford Hispanic Bunidos and working with um that group to ensure you know hopefully we will continue to have a strong collaborative relationship with that group. um helping to bring the Hispanic Business Summit twice to Bedford Hills, which was, you know, by far a packed room um of totally passionate business owners from the Hispanic community and with some great

panels of speakers involved in that um and and many other townwide initiatives that you've been involved in like the comprehensive plan and a lot of our townwide um economic Bedford economic alliance efforts. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all of um what you have brought to this board and to our community and um I wish you on behalf of everyone all the best in your um future endeavors. So, thank you. Thank you. Oh, I did have a speech, but I you know I know we all want to eat cake, so so I'm gonna try to keep it uh brief. Um good evening everyone. Um, what can I say? It has truly been the honor of my life to serve as a town board member uh these last four years. When I reflect on everything um that has taken to get me to this point, I can't help but to first acknowledge my parents who aren't here today. Um they work in the taxi business. They're very busy, but they're here with me in spirit uh always. Um their names are Rodul Fo Castillo and Mariel Kintana. They they made the bold decision to immigrate to the US from Peru, that's where I'm from, about 26 years ago. And I just want to say that it's thanks to their determination and sacrifice that I had the privilege of growing up in northern Westchester and also obtaining an education and all those opportunities that come with it. And all that simply would not have been possible in our home country. I'm a proud graduate of the Bedford Central School District, which empowered me to attend Princeton University where I became the first in my family to graduate from college. While I initially dreamed of becoming a health care professional, which clearly is not what's happening right now, uh it was during the CO 19 pandemic that I experienced a radical shift in where I believed uh my work in advocacy could

best serve our community. Many people have asked me why I decided to run for office in the first place. And the answer is quite simple. At the peak of the pandemic, when the challenges that my patients had been experiencing were not only entrenched in structural inequities, um, but also like a matter of life or death, I knew that I could no longer sit back and work in a broken system. I had to become the change that I was looking for. So from that moment that I ran for office at the age of 25 to my last few weeks here as a first term council member, I have been serving our town with this very ambitious goal of creating a model of local government that advances the quality of life for all residents. And Ellen, to your point, um to leave no one behind. I take that very seriously. I made this my mission because I was fully aware that there are entire groups of people that have never been represented on this town board. And above all, because of the love I have for the people of Bedford, the difference it can make in the lives of current and future generations. Mine just being one of many examples, and this town's capacity to serve as a beacon for local progress. Looking back at our accomplishments these last four years, I can truly say that we have gone above and beyond to fulfill this goal that we had laid out from the very beginning. I'm going to list some of the things that Ellen mentioned, but I might skip through because I want to definitely get to that cake. Um, you know, we're among the top three clean energy communities in New York State, and I largely attribute that to our town board, but also our partnership uh with Bedford 2030. I see Majayoro here. uh our director of energy and sustainability, Mark Tielking, uh whom I had the pleasure of working with on the building health and performance committee. We promoted public health, as Alan mentioned, by uh hosting our town's very first uh community health fair, which was attended by over 300 people

from across uh the school district. Uh we also secured a $625,000 grant from the federal government uh to uh support mental health and the prevention of drug abuse among students in our local schools. Some things that weren't mentioned, uh we've empowered Bedford youth by creating a changemakers program and supporting recruitment for the Westchester Youth Alliance. And that essentially helps teens to find their uh voice, build community, and develop their own advocacy projects. Uh, I also uh collaborated with Assembly Member Chris Berdick to secure a $300,000 grant from the state government to promote equitable access to college education um at Foxling High School where you know our guidance counselors can only do so much and really important to have that additional support. Uh again, as Ellen mentioned, we launched Bedford Eispanos Unidos. And for the folks in the room that aren't too familiar with that, it's our essentially a committee um townwide committee that's dedicated to unifying and empowering our Hispanic uh residents through cultural programs, professional networking opportunities, and civic engagement. And also within the uh county's Hispanic Advisory Board, we completed a needs assessment uh for this growing population. And that hasn't been done in over 20 years. um is really important because it will inform equitable uh policies and resources at the county level. Uh we've been revitalizing our local economy thanks to the downtown improvement grant, the hiring of our wonderful town business promoter, the establishment of of the Bedford Hills Business Association, uh and the promotion of resources for minority and womenowned businesses. And lastly, we've been fostering uh the social, political, and infrastructural conditions that are needed to advance affordability in Bedford. I think that's our most pressing issue. We're doing that with the passage of the town's comprehensive plan and also the recent uh affordable housing forum uh hosted by Blue Mountain Housing. Thank you, Julie, for your partnership. Um and this, I believe, will promote awareness and consensus uh to address what doesn't have to be a very controversial and

divisive issue. I think it's something we all care about. Uh and so you can expect a lot of great policies on affordable housing to be coming in uh first quarter of 2026 and I'll certainly be involved in that um hopefully through our housing committee and u just you know being a council member ameritus I don't know what I'm going to call myself um you know I'll definitely be involved uh in so many different ways and as you probably noticed through this long list of achievements I've been using this pronoun we because nothing in government is ever accomplished alone. I think that's one of the biggest lessons I learned. I owe every single one of these achievements to to the support of my town board colleagues, Alan, Bobby, Tom, and Stephanie. Our part our partners in the county and state government. I acknowledge Erica Pierce, our wonderful county legislator. Our staff uh with with us right here on the right side um that works around the clock to implement our policies while keeping the town running. and our residents who actively volunteer their time and expertise on boards, commissions, and committees, and they work alongside us to create um progress and innovation for our most pressing issues. I would be remiss if I didn't thank and acknowledge my fiance, Bruno, who not only knocked on hundreds of doors when I ran uh for office, but also patiently waits for me at home during the many times that my public commitments take up uh most of my schedule, especially in the evening. and I imagine he's very happy to know that I'll be able to spend a lot more time with him moving forward. As for where uh this journey will take me next, the path is promising but not yet fully solidified, in May I'll be graduating from Colombia School of International and Public Affairs with a master's degree in public administration, specializing in urban social policy, leadership, innovation, and design. Although the next few months will be largely devoted to finishing my studies and finding my next role, what I can promise you is that I will remain actively involved in building on the

progress we've made in Bedford for as long as I possibly can. I am also not discounting a future run for office, so you may see me again on a ballot in the near future. I'm really sorry, Bruno. I know I said I would spend more time with you, but you know how much this means to me. In closing, I wish our incoming town board member, Miji Oreo, the very best of luck as she embarks on her journey as an elected official. I wish all of you a happy and healthy holiday season and start to the new year. New new new year. And as I usually like to say in Spanish, and this is a phrase I use quite often, which means in the spirit of the people, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the honor of serving for giving me the honor of serving our beautiful town and for the progress that we will continue to make for many years to come. Thank you so much. Lovely. Thank you. This meeting is adjourned and uh everyone please join us. Um we have a little cake in the back and um