Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. This is uh the village board forward workshop of 15 2026 to order a roll callis. here. Trusty Boosezy here. Trusty Hall here. Trusty Woods here. Mayor Foley here.

Okay, moving on to announcements. Um, the next yard waste yard waste pickup is next week. Put it out Wednesday night for pick up on Thursday. Um, the next phase of the public visioning process for the Marathon site starts the last week of April. There are daytime and evening sessions. Youth tales are on the village website and social media and will be in mails. Reminder that this event is not sponsored by the village. It is run and paid for by the property owner. The consulting planner um is working for the developer, not for the village. Um it's a visioning process. It does not supersede um the public planning process. Any application for a plan um will need to be referred to the villages planning zoning and HDRB boards for review. So there will be ample opportunity for public comment and participation, but this is just the first step. Um, just letting the board know, we have a a Halloween intern coming. The seniors spend the last three weeks of their senior year out in the world seeing what it's like to go to work. Um, and

as a young woman who is interested in government, she's going to be with us for three weeks in May. I'm very excited to find things for her to do. We have thoughts. Is that 20 hours? 20 hours a week. There particular projects that you think might be helpful. No. Is that a what? It's not paid, right? No. And you have one landscape. I need gardeners.

Um actually Buzzy had one one year in highway and who wanted to go into that field and um Drift King had two interns. we were interested in doing me mechanical engineering. Okay. Um opportunity to add to or modify the agenda. The clerk has requested two additions. One is the acceptance of the March 2024 monthly report from the clerk. We're not able to submit it in time. Um and the second is discussion to reschedule our May monthly meeting because we'll be at Nikon. I would make a motion to add those. So justice click just to be clear

for the justice book for the court. the justice court report. So, and made Andrew made a motion. Laura second it. All in favor?

I So, tonight is a working session of the village board. It's not a public hearing, not a public comment session. You are welcoming welcome to stay and observe, but we're not going to be opening the floor to comment. Um, the oral portion of the public hearing on the budget closed at the end of last week's meeting. The written portion closed last night at 5:00 pm. There will be no more comment to economic village budget. The first portion of our board meeting is board business which will occur in open session and then the second is an executive session to discuss employment history visa v the budget as well as current litigation with the villages council. That portion will be closed to the public. Um when it's time and we're at that portion of the meeting, I'll make the motion to enter executive session. Um, okay. So, the first let's let's knock out the two that we added. Um, we could I ask that we since James is on that item.

All right. James Everly. Yeah, we can do we can do that first. Okay. So, you know, I I wrote Everly and couldn't remember. Yeah. We're going to switch up a little bit and start with the climate smart task force. James Everly is with us. So, we'll let Laura do introductions. And we have one person waiting to come in if we want to hold on for one second while we admit that person. Thank you. Uh, it's in the um it's in the board packet. Yeah. But I mean, who is this? I don't know. Is that a name? Your call. You're the clerk. Okay.

Okay.

Um uh so I think as the board and many people know, we have been looking at um EV chargers for quite a while. Um and uh a constraint that we have is old infrastructure that is underground and limited space in our dense historic village. And so, um, I came across, um, this company, Bolt Post, that has polemounted chargers, which address a lot of those constraints because there's no trenching. They're up in the air. Um, so we I've been working with uh, James and others at Bolt Post on a proposal. Um, and really interestingly, it's part of a NAERTA pilot project funded NAERTA funded pilot project in New York State where post is partnering with other municipalities. Um so uh and and just to preview it, we'll go through it in more detail. The site that we're looking at is um the lot on New Street that the village owns. Um so James um uh thank you so much for being here. Um we're glad to have you and um invite you to just really briefly tell us about volt um and how your chargers work um about this NAERTA uh grant and then if you can walk through the proposal briefly and and also explain the differences of the responsibilities of what post and the responsibilities of the village.

I I can I can um as well. Sure. No, thank you for having me. Um, I'll share a very quick uh presentation because I think seeing it visually um helps. So bear with me while I work this with Zoom. I'm assuming that everybody can see this. Okay. Yeah, definitely.

Great. Um, so Vault Post was uh founded just over five years ago. Um we're a missiondriven company with the aim of democratizing access to e to EV charging. Um around not just the US but European countries. Um a lot of drivers do not have access to private garages. Therefore they either struggle to charge their electric vehicle or they simply don't buy one at all to begin with. So, Vaultpost was really uh pleased to be able to launch last year the Voltost Air. It mounts 10 foot on almost any pole. Could be a metal street light, could be a concrete street light, could be a wooden pole. The driver activates the charger through a simple QR code and then the cable automatically lowers down to an ADA compliant height which is 48 in off the ground. There's then a button on the on the cable which then extends the cable. There's about 25 ft of of cable at the max, which means you could then plug into any wherever the port is on your vehicle. The driver charges their vehicle. Once they unplug, the cable automatically retracts back up into its housing. Um, for anyone that is interested, there's um quite a cool video from a YouTuber called Mike the Carge Geek who visited one of our deployments at the

Henry Ford Museum uh in Michigan where he tested it out in 4° in the snow and it still works. Uh, a lot of engineering has gone into the cable and and the the mechanism. Uh the cable's actually made of a uh special polymer that means it's flexible even in the cold. By mounting 10T up the pole, it was uh came about through work in the city of LA. Basically putting it 10T on the pole minimizes vandalism, minimizes other things like flooding, issues with snow. It's not going to get buried in snow. um it's not going to be hit by a vehicle or a snow plow. The NERDA project that was mentioned fully funds the charger. So it covers the hardware and the installation cost. Um as part of this project, we are deploying um 13 dualport chargers across New York State. Um, we we've installed one at the maid bush terminal in Brooklyn. We've installed two curbside locations in Glenn's Falls. And we're currently working um with yourselves as well as um Saratoga Springs and one other whose name escapes me. Um, as part of this installation, we also cover all ongoing operations and maintenance, um, including driver support. Um, for those that are interested, um, all

of our chargers are, uh, Build America by America compliant. They're actually manufactured up the road in Connecticut. So, it's supporting American jobs, American businesses. Um, I won't spend a long time on this, but our team, um, you know, has worked really hard and last year we got a lot of recognition from, um, some fairly prestigious organizations, which was a great reflection for the team. Uh we currently have projects in New York obviously uh Connecticut. Uh we're at various stages of deploying across Connecticut. Um we've just done some deployments in Michigan with a few more um come in the coming weeks. We have a pro project in Massachusetts uh which also involves one of our partners in Zipcar. And we've just won a project with uh COM Ed in Illinois and Pepco in DC. Um and I I promise that would be a short presentation and I I'll turn it over to you guys for any questions.

Do we um do you want to ask general questions or do you want to see the Should we put the site plan up and just walk through the site first? I think that would be helpful. Okay, great. Um do you have that, James? available to put up um the site plan. I can do if you give me a minute. Um I have to join on Zoom first. So it's probably faster if you do it and then maybe if anyone has any anyone from the board has any initial questions I can as well. I I've got one thing, a couple things to say which is um

James, thanks very much for inviting us into this exciting program and also you Laura because I know you spent a lot of time over the last two or three years a lot of heavy lifting and um hard searching and application for getting us this far. Um James, my question to you is what what's if you can turn us what's the driver's experience? How does the the app work? And if someone wants to go charge their car, what what's that experience like? What do they do? Sure. Um, so basically, uh, what one of our founders used to work for Samsung, did a lot of their product design, um, led all of their user experience, uh, things like the smartwatch and things. So, we're very driven around a positive and simple user experience. There's a QR code um on a sticker on a little sign that goes at normal level on the poll. You scan that QR code and then you can pay straight away through Apple Pay, Google Pay. That commences the session. Cable lowers down. You plug in, charge, unplug, it retracts. Um if users prefer um to record um their details and their charging session information, you know, they're going to use it more than once, then they can download our app um which is even simpler because obviously you then store your uh payment information in the app and whenever you want to start a session, you just scan the QR code, the the app launches, you click start and and it charges Um so we we sort of have two defaults which is you know not everybody wants to download an app. So, in that case, if you just scan the QR code, you'll get taken to a payment page and you'll have

the option of Apple or Google Pay or you could enter a credit card. Um, and then after the session, you'll forgotten or you can then choose to download um the Volpost app which is on, you know, all of the the standard online stores in which case, you know, you don't have to go through that process each time. Thank you. When you said um ongoing maintenance including driver support, what did you mean by driver support?

So there is a phone line uh phone number that they can ring. Um uh I've tried to do this, it doesn't work or um whatever their issue might be. figure this out. Yeah, it's driver support and there's a a human on the other end of the phone to help guide them. And is that all the time if I started charging at 2 in the morning? Is someone there?

Yes, there's um there's UA try again. There's USbased uh call call people um from sort of normal business hours. Um, and then there's uh a secondary call center that covers the outer hours. So even in even at 2 a.m. um someone should answer the phone. So I see that as a real plus with this because they're not calling the village clerk to ask for help with the the EV charger. Um and it's one fewer piece of technology we need to manage. That's that's impressive. Yeah. Thank you.

Well, it is it's pretty common for EV chargers to have a phone number. you hope that you don't have to use it. Um, but it's good that it's there. Um, but I also I think that the fact that that bolt post will take care of the maintenance is is is a big deal. I mean, we I think we don't want to take on the or and and and frankly the ownership of this. I think we are part of the pilot and we're really excited about it, but um uh we appreciate that B post is kind of doing the heavy lifting on it.

Yeah, I agree. jobs. If if I'm driving say from Danbury and I'm looking for a charging spot, will it will it show up on whatever I might be looking at or how how do people find the

uh very good question and we uh recently signed a partnership with a company called Eco Movement and basically they take all of our charger location data and then They share it with Google Maps, uh the Tesla app, uh Plug Share, um and any of the other um main ones. So, it may not be live today because it's it takes a few weeks for uh Google Maps to update everything, but within the next day or week, all of our chargers will be on Google Maps and others.

And what is the You may have said this and I missed it. What is the speed of this charger like on in the scale of like there three roughly three speeds? Fast, slower, and Yeah. Yeah. No. Good question and and I didn't cover it so you didn't miss it. Um it's a 9.6 kW charger which is classed as a level two charger. Okay.

Um it's one of those um speeds where it works well as a destination charger or an overnight type charger. um two hours of charge, you know, would give you 18 kilowatt hours, which you know is probably around 60 to 70 miles of range depending on the vehicle. Um so even just two hours is is a nice amount of charge. Excellent.

Right. Yeah. Um I have I'm um I can show my screen and show the the site plan if um Okay, great. Okay, see if that works. Okay, it's large. Um so this is the um the site plan that we were given. So again, this is the location on New Street. like you can't see my um cursor just tiny tiny bit see it uh no um but you know you can see the dot yeah

dots and then also this is quite technical um but this is the site so it's um uh on the the kind of away from the water side close to the road. Oh, sorry. It still it loads very slowly. You can see the red dot. So, that's where um there would be importantly there would there needs to be a new poll um a new utility pole that's added on and it would be in that site. The cross street is market that we're looking at new and market.

Yeah. Yep. So, the water is on your left side, the river is on your left side and and market. Um and and it would be two spaces. I think there's a good photo that's here. Um clarify first. Yes. Um and and I was saying it's important to make the distinction between volt role and our role. So voltost would um own the uh would own the utility poll.

Okay. And just for members of the public who haven't been with us for previous discussions, um, Central Hudson is not keen on they refuse to allow that on their poll. And so this was the creative solution from Bost. Um, and we hope that that something I mean we hope there are lots of things that change about Central Hudson, but that's in this context. Um, we hope that something that changes. I mean, I think you get a real sense of how what a reduced visual impact it is

um on an existing poll that someone's already looking at. Um so, this is our compromise to get to that. And hopefully if the board decides I don't think we're ready to make a decision tonight, but if the board decides um to go in this direction, hopefully we set a precedent and more folks pick up on the the fact that it's a good thing. Yeah, please.

It it and it may just be worth highlighting that it's um it's a utility style pole. Um it's not exactly the same. It is smaller, not as tall. Um but in essence, it is a wooden pole. So, uh you know, calling it a utility pole is a fair description, but it it's more like utility pole light. Um because it is a it is a smaller version. That's right. James, is there like an overhead tie in then to an approximate? Yeah, it's the one that you can see there tie into.

Yeah. Is something the um the small cell um carriers have done for years is install these poles and then connect overhead to the nearby utility poles. Uh the pole itself can actually be installed in an hour. Um it can be that quick. Um and because there's no trenching, you know, there's minimal disruption. Um but yeah,

so it sounds like from your what you're describing, it would need to be on the northern side of the lot, closer to the street side. It couldn't be deeper in the lot. Um we I met on site with um their partner who does these installations and um we felt like that was it made the most sense there because not only because it's close to that that existing pole and it was the right um kind of angle. Yep. But also because um I think you had brought this up um snow removal pushes the like and and you want the pole to be close to the parking spaces. So it was the the spot that made the most sense for a number of

It's also visible for somebody looking for Yeah. Um so we've talked before about the fact this this lot um has historically been rented to um Hudson Hudson House correct and that lease is up for renewal and ready for renegotiation. I did contact Regina Bay who is the owner of Hudson House and she is jazzed about the idea of having it. So that's a plus. Great. What else do we need to to cover this evening with while we have James with us?

I got two questions. What is the cost to drivers doing this? James can I don't know if you could hear that. What's the What's the cost to drivers? Yep. Um, it's it's a good question. It is determined in part by the the rate that Central Hudson sets and then obviously we have to add an operating margin on top. Um, I can follow up with uh Laura because apologies, I don't have the figure um off the top of my head, but it

I mean I know that for Connecticut it's around 36 to 39 cents per kilowatt hour. So provided the C the central Hudson rate isn't um more than you know the Eversource and UI rate that they have in Connecticut they will be similar to that but if you look what's the um the kilowatts used on the average charge there is no average

so so typically I mean it depends on the use case um you could see cars taking 20, 30, 40 kilowatt hours. Um, but around, you know, if you're around that sort of 39 cent per kilowatt hour mark, it's a it's a very competitive level two rate.

And also I so I downloaded your app just to check it out. Um, I also have EVs. Uh, and so I'm looking at the Glenn's Falls and there it's 25 cents per kilowatt hour plus tax, a 49 cent connection fee, and then there's an an idling fee um, which is So that's what it would be for Cold Spring. Again, provided Central Hudson isn't too different from uh, Glenn's Falls. I'm not sure if Glenn's Falls is a different utility. I think it's nice. Yeah. Um I thought of something else which is we were talking about it on the other site that there would be like there's a penalty charge that incurs if you that's the idol fee. That's the idol fee.

Yeah. Um I got a few more questions. What what is the cost to the village for doing this if any and are we going to be getting revenue from this? So um we will not there is no cost because they will own the they are the their grant is paying for the installation and they will own and maintain the unit. Um but in exchange we get no revenue. So um so we are are and we under under other examples like other sites that we've looked at we would have owned it we would have set the price and then we would have collected this is going to cost it's going to cost the village nothing nothing we we

nothing we're not going to make any money on it we won't make any money but still it's but from my perspective it means there's less work for village staff there's le you know like we are part of we're providing a service but we're not involved in the um kind of the operation or the risk of I seen one of the contracts, I'm not sure if it was from these guys about a software cost and a installation cost. That's another Oh, okay. $16,000 plus $7,000 for software charges or something, right? All right. So, we're not going that direction. Fine. Yeah. Yeah.

So, if I may, you're you're absolutely you're you're absolutely right and it it's frustrating because in some of our conversations that I've been leading our Connecticut project, you have conversations and they say other companies have offered us free charges and we again also have a a grant that we won in in Connecticut and everything is genuinely free. There are some companies that offer free charges and then say, "Well, you need to cover the the network fee, the service fee, the software fee. There's no hidden fee with this project. It is 100% no cost to uh Cold Spring. And I would also say that if it is successful, we get good utilization, we monitor it over a year, you know, we may look to see if there's other sites that we might be able to do. we would be open to a potential future revenue share. Um the main thing to is to start with something collect the utilization data um and then see how we can improve it um you know and and how the town might benefit too. I

mean this is this is the beauty of being part of a pilot project. Um and the the challenge with the path we were on originally with buying the chargers was we were buying a technology a clearly a rapidly evolving technology at a moment in time and we'd be stuck with it. So the to me among the benefits of being part of this project is that you know people companies like the bolt post is going to be thinking about what to do next better. Um and if we're already in the we're already in the stream of w with them and have an established relationship there's the opportunity to benefit from that as well.

If it's not costing us I'm all about it. If it's free it's for me as they say. All right. Um well what what else do we need? Are there other particular things? What is the material? You said it's wood the pole like a like a standard telephone pole. Yes. A utility pole just a bit smaller and there are some more details in this site plan with dimensions.

So what do you see as next steps? Um I think from our perspective you know we have um a village attorney that's reviewing that post trade agreement. I think the village board needs to consider it as well based on what you've heard and then the one action my understanding from you James is the one thing that needs to be signed for us to participate is um uh is that host site agreement. Um though there is actually I think the installer had asked me about a building permit. So, we have to figure out if we go forward um what form they fill out for a building permit. Um that should be simple. So, they don't have to do it at all. Okay, great.

Um so, I I think that's I think that's the one decision that we have is is that is that signing and so we could add it to a future board agenda final decision.

And do you what is the timeline that you are working with James? Um so we have installations happening um almost like as we speak. Obviously not at this hour. Um we're we're keen we're keen to progress with you guys. The sooner the better. Um there's no hard deadline. Um, as such, if you said, you know, the board doesn't meet for another six months, then that that would be challenging. But, you know, we're we're happy to just we meet a lot. When we done

um but as soon the sooner you can get the site host agreement signed, you know, the better. we have to submit that to NAERDA um along with the design that you shared um because we have like a milestone based project and one of the milestones is the plan and the site host agreement um and then you know we can move as quickly as you can um if you need several weeks um to to process it that's understandable that's fine. Again, we we we we're can be guided by you, but the sooner the better from our perspective. Great. Thank you. Any other questions?

I think we can wrap it up pretty quick. We just got to have a meeting about um the Hudson House using the lot and get get that lease part squared away. But but otherwise, that that that should be quick, right? We we own the property right now. It is our lot. It is leased to Hudson House. The lease is up for renewal and needs new negotiation. Oh, yeah. But the the lease, it doesn't hold us back from proceeding with this because it's on property.

Um, and Regina is open to the inclusion of an EV charger in the space. So, I think we can we can bake this in um as we renegotiate that lease. Okay. Very good. Awesome. Well, thank you. Thanks, James. Yeah, I really appreciate your time. Yeah, James. No problem. Thank you. Have a good night. Good night. Um well, let's keep the theme and talk about utility poles. Um we do have a a code chapter chapter 90 that is um it requires village approval for the installation of utility new utility folds village property

in the village period. So, um, do you need a copy of the chapter, the short one? No. Just stick a hole that way.

Yeah. Um, so, uh, there there were um, markout requests for six East Belvadier, just how it came on our radar. We contacted the property owner. um he provided um a site plan which you have in your packet. You'll recall that in June 2025, East Belvadier was declared a public street by use by resolution of this board. Um and so we do have planned um public water upgrades on that road. So my concern with this location was making sure that we didn't interfere with what is being looked at by the water and wastewater department um and by the engineers. So um we sent the site plan over and Paul Bulpachelli um visited the site and I'm looking for his recommendation as it at the time of this visit. The proposed utility pole location was staked approximately 15 feet from the edge of the road and approximately 27 feet from the painted location of the sanitary sewer line. If the pole is installed as it is marked, there should be adequate space between the existing sanitary sewer and the utility pole to construct a possible future water main along the south side of East Belvadier. Furthermore, at this time, we do not believe the proposed utility pole location would impact future drainage improvements.

I got a silly question. Okay. Why do we need a pole? He's adding a service, a new house, new structure. Isn't there electric there already? I'm not an electrical engineer. Uh Con determined that it needed a pole. I would push for underground service. Less wires up in the air, the better. Um yeah, you don't do that for a single connection though. That's like a That's a big picture. No, you do for issue. I did I did it in my building. You just put put all put it on the ground goes in and is that something that it's less stuff up in the air you got to worry about. I don't know how storms and everything.

I don't know how central Hudson would feel about it. I mean I'd love to get wires underground if we had the opportunity especially on a new installation. That's that's just a thought. Well what do others think about that? Would you like to raise that possibility with central Hudson? Well it would be the who who's this is for this guy's paying for it for his house. Right. He is the developer of the property and he'll be selling it. Well, then I think having it underground would be a good start. It's It's number six. I have to be Yeah, I know. I know where the house is. I thought there was electric on the street already, but Well, there is electric on the street, but I guess for demand reasons.

Well, maybe maybe it's on the other side and he's got to cross over to get all right. This this is a motion process that's in motion and it is tied into the completion of the construction. It is in motion. We are in session again next week. Um so it's not a vast amount of time if we want to pause and ask and ask that question. I mean it's it's a drop it's a drop it's a drop in the bucket in terms of overhead lines in the village. They're everywhere. So I don't want to hold this guy up for a drive of overhead lines was explored and why we have the pole. Yeah. So it's going to be his poll,

right? Not a public poll. The central Hudson pole on his property. What? Do what? If he can't do it underground, a poll. I don't know that he can't do it underground. He's asking to do a standard poll. If he can't, then it's let him do it. I don't know that he can't. But the point is this person is in process and wanting to move forward. So for us to pause and ask to put it ask him if he'd be willing to put it underground. No, it would be the only buried line on the street. I think once you put a pole in belongs to Central Hudson though, right? Yeah. Correct. But the point is it will be the only buried line on that. It's not the other polls go away. Once you put a pole in, the pole becomes property of Central Hudson. Correct. Correct.

Okay. I mean, I'm not pushing for underground. I just thought it was it was possible. If the guy wants to do it, let him let him put a pole in. Other feedback. I don't think we could do that and not every other time that there was a request saying that they have to put it underground, right? Like if they're the higher cost doing it, then it's a then that's a policy decision of I mean, how often does this come up? Uh it's come up twice in the last year with the new poll on Main Street. I think you're correct about the larger point is ide an ideal world we'd want to bury all power lines and that's something we could and that is I will say that is something that central Hudson is super resistant I mean from from an aesthetic point of view

it's amazing and thinking about wind you know and dealing with storms it's an amazing idea Hudson worries about getting to their wires so it's a it's a whole it's kind of a whole cultural shift and not something that the village can we cannot afford to put the ground put the wires underground no no It would be the cone. We're talking about the broader picture of the rest of the village. This this is at his expense. Okay. So, it sounds like we're coalesing around. Yes. Yeah. To the poll. Okay. Someone like to make a motion. Uh motion to put this poll away. Okay. So, on my agenda is that

I'll make a motion. Uh I'll make a motion. Please. You need to reward the I'll make a motion to um install to allow for the installation of a pole on East Belvadier Street for chapter 90 of the village code. Second. All in favor? I um we added in um acceptance of the court report for March 2026. Think someone like to make a motion on that item. So, we'll just add it to the record from the from the March meeting.

I make a motion to add the village port clerk report from March 2020 to the record. Second. All in favor?

I. Next item before we roll into budget, we've done the utility poll. We've done climate smart is rescheduling the monthly meeting. Next, the monthly meeting is May 15th. Um, four of us are at Nikcom. So, um, question is, do we have a preference for holding it on the 8th or the 22nd? I would first ask you as the clerk who prepares for the monthly meeting. Um, is a week after um, easier for you in terms of getting all the reports in, etc., everyone getting their reports to you? I think it's better to do it the week before the 8th

and then there'll be a free week and right we usually do them our regular meetings are at the second Wednesday of looking at April the second Wednesday of the month and then uh fourth Wednesday it's May May 13th sorry I was looking for April so you're suggesting doing it on May 6th is that this that's the that's the first Wednesday. Yes. Okay. I'll just say I'm tentative or I may be revoked or wherever anybody can go. How are people?

The the reason I I the only reason it matters is for bill payment. So we have a meeting next week uh if you vote vote on the budget otherwise we'll have a meeting the next week to vote on the budget. The budget has to be accepted by the first of the month before the first of the month. So we need to pay bills. We haven't we're doing those next month next week. So that will be the 22nd and then

that's a good amount of time in between uh the 22nd. Then we don't have to do them the next week because that meeting's tentative and we could do them on the 8th if everybody's available. six. The six I am available on the six. Okay. Otherwise, we would have to wait another two weeks and that's a long time to wait for bills. Yes, we can't wait that long to build. I'm flexible either way, but just one point to note is May the 7th's an important filing date or the vote that we took last week, May 7th. Oh, right. Well, it may be useful to have it may be useful to have a a meeting that night in regardless. Okay. Yeah,

we can discuss. We'll discuss that in session with John. Okay. Um, how about you? Uh, should be fine. Good for May 6th. I'm good. You okay? I'll do my best. Thank you.

Okay. So, now we move on to our last item for the evening, which is continued discussion on tenative budget. Michelle is not able to be here tonight. Um she did provide some notes um for us and we have some items personnel to discuss in executive session. But this is a reminder we closed the the public comment period last night at 5. We made that vote last week. We received oral comments from three residents and additional written comments from one of them. Um, most of the questions asked could be answered in the publicly available sensitive budget packet schedules, but there are three items I'd like to address for the record. First, related to the audit. Um, the village's fiscal year 2025 audit was presented in public session by our auditor EFPR group on March 11th. EFPR gave the village a quote an unmodified opinion for our overall fiscal condition. The presenter from EFPR commented that unmodified is the best opinion that we can give meaning it's their highest ranking. Um sometimes accounting speak isn't exciting. Um there are technical aspects and language around auditing and one cannot take one statement out of context and deduce that applies to an entire budget. So translation EFPR had an accounting had accounting recommendations for the water fund but overall the fiscal state of our village is sound. East Belvadier. We just mentioned that um after many years of contested legal status which created um liability for the village, East Belvadier was declared a public road by use in a public session in June 2025, making possible village funding for necessary public water infrastructure improvements. Um, regarding bonding for purchase of two parcels on Lake Surprise Road, a commentator questioned the price that the village paid to acquire two critical parcels for the dam repair on Lake Surprise Road. There are many

underappraised parcels in Philipstown, which have a market value far greater than the assessed value, especially in this tight real estate market. Uh, Lake Surprise Road acquisition is no standard real estate transaction. We're buying the security of our water supply as well as the safety of residents and invest in investments downstream from the dam. So with that, let's have a look at um general front. Michelle did some some moving of things around in the general front. Let me just get that folder to uh and and part in part that was um in response to public comment. She has included the grant funding and projects for both the village hall roof and the EV the char the purchase of the EV charger for the police department. the EV,

I'm sorry, ED, the ED, the vehicle. So now there there is revenue and expense for those items. Um she we've worked with Will, Angelo, and Bugsy to try to get a a tighter definition of what CHIPS funding we can achieve this year. um for paving some of the the the cost of Mountain and Fishkill Road, the costs are higher than um originally estimated, which you can explain. We're two year, three years past or three years past the original um estimates that we gave to FEMA. Um, so we have to cover some of those costs and Will and Michelle went through and determined which ones are CHIPS eligible so we can use some of our CHIPS money for that. Um, those costs for the FEMA recovery project. In theory, we can go back and ask FEMA for more. Um, I don't given the state of FEMA. I don't I don't know if that's a realistic possibility, but um, it it is an option. Um and so that that leaves that sort of takes a chunk of chips and we have a smaller pool to work with. We still have a lot of chips money however um and uh working with Phil with Phil I'm sorry with will um prioritized taking out to bid the following on which I am willing to take comment. uh Rock Street for um the intersection of Kemble and Maine beyond the small damage area. That intersection needs work generally. um made from the light high street

um chestnut chestnut street where it wise off and goes around um the apartments there. So those are Bugsy's proposed and prioritized projects for paving. Am I missing one? They're called Chestnut Street. Fair Street. Oh, and Fair Street. Yeah, the Fair Street. Yeah, this end of this

this end of Bear Street. Thank you. Yep. Between um the intersection and sort of midway up. We do have a larger um future pro capital project on Fair Street that needs more engineering. Um so this will just be a partial repair to get that end of the street in better condition for the season. Kathleen, did you say two sections of Main Street or one? Two sections of Main Street. One. And again, this all depends on what the bids come back. Remember everything is higher. The alcohol of cost of asphalt is higher. Um the cost of fuel is higher. So last year we got a lot done for us for for a really great amount of money. We'll have to see what the numbers come back. Yeah.

But given what we have to work with after Fishkill and Maine, these were the recommendations from Bugsy. So the main street pieces are the the more expansive intersection of Kemble Garden and Maine. Oh, great. I just had to think of the the the crosswalk needs for it. It's cheaper to bid it out as part of the larger project. Yeah. Obviously, right now we've got that um metal plate there. Yeah.

Um to protect the new the new grit grate while the concrete's set. So, what I would propose is having Pazella come back and pave that immediate area and then the larger intersection bid out with the larger project. It'll be cheaper than paying Pisella to do that small piece. And he also just doesn't I mean it would be a it wouldn't be a smooth production in the way. He's not not a paper, he's a he's an excavator. And then the other piece of Maine is from the light down to High Street, particularly on the south side. Um, Main Street is a Main Street and Fair are concrete

um, streets underneath and the concrete is pretty widely exposed on the south side. Thank you. I think there will be I mean, if we can get it all done, it'd be great. But yeah, my one question is um, what's the section between those two that's not getting paid and is there any rationale for for doing the whole money? Yeah, right now. Um, it's from from it'd be all the way up from Joseph's Jewelers from Joseph's Jewelers to Cozy Corner. Is that the name of Diner now? So, it's not a small stretch, it's a big stretch. And I have the same impulse always that I'm like, well, we're there just do it. Yeah. Um but we have to look at we have to balance out condition

condition road conditions there versus other places and other places that have been that have been waiting for improvement. So I would love to do the whole strip of Maine but I think you know places like Rock Street's been waiting a long time and has big holes. Yeah. Um, so if we had endless if we had endless amount of money, so keep keep your fingers crossed on the bid. Okay.

Um, so my point was she adjusted she adjusted the numbers for paving in the budget based on those conversations. Um, is there anything else? I want to make sure that the paving for the firehouse and the the firehouse pad and the uh area behind the parking garage where the police cars are stored. I want to make sure that that got included. I think it did, but I need to ask Michelle to confirm. Is there anything else that anybody general funds or or water and sewer items? I got two things. anything with shared services with that with that paving. With which thing with paving

um the county bids out paving and so does Philipstown. We piggybacked it's it's kind of shared services. We piggybacked last year on a county contract which is huge with Clove which is one of the reasons we were able to because they've got a huge contract with the county. So we were able to get the county's really great pricing. So, it's not the county crew coming out and doing the work, but it's the county's procured contractor. They follow the same. It's a state state bid. Um, and the county's already vetted them. So, we're kind of optimizing their procurement policy.

Then, as far as priorities would go, I would go with whatever um Mr. Downey says. Those are the Yeah. Yeah. He's he's got he's he's out there. He's the one on the ground. Yeah. Yeah, he's got boots on the ground as they say. Those were those were his locations. He had originally wanted to do parrot and pine, but on inspection with Will on site, there's more drainage involvement. Um, that is more expensive and is not chips eligible. So that's that's one we have to plan for a little more.

And pine that's where the funeral home is. Pine Parrot and Parrot and Pine. Okay. Well, if there's nothing else on funds, I will make a motion to enter executive session. Are we good on those topics? So, um I would like to make a motion to enter executive session for the purpose of discussing employment history of particular individuals and discussing current litigation with our attorney. So, if you're joining us online, we're going to say good night. Thank you for Thank you for coming in. Except for John. You have to stay and we'll need to ask the public to leave the room. public and the press and the

especially the press. Thank you. Um at 9:07 p.m. I made a motion to exit executive session. Andrew Hall seconded. We all voted in favor to exit. And now I make a motion to adjurnn. Second. In favor. I I thank you, Marie. Still cold.