Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone who's joining us online and in the room. This is a special meeting of the Board of Trustees. We are calling to order at 7 PM on the nose. May I have a roll call, please?

Trustee Bardas is absent. Trustee Bosie?

Here.

Trustee Gall? Here. Deputy Mayor Phillips-Woods is with us remotely.

Hi, I'm here. Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, it's roll call.

Okay, I'm here.

Thank you.

Yes.

And Mayor Foley is here. Hi. Any announcements? Just that we're having a meeting. Okay. Nothing different. Here we are.

So next week is the start of our twice a week food scraps, which I think we'll send out in an announcement. through email, but just FYI, but it's Tuesdays and Thursdays at Campbell Avenue.

I walked past two people who I don't know on the sidewalk raving about the fact that they'd do that another day.

Oh, good. So great to know. Well, a month from today, a month from the 20th is Community Day being held at Dockside Park from 4 o'clock to 8 p.m. And if anybody wants to volunteer, It's eventscoldspring at gmail.com. We posted about it on the website today. Always volunteers. And we're still looking for treatment members for one more week.

Thank you. So we have joining us tonight Rich D'Andrea, who is the engineer for the Carney Group. And Rich, I just would like to give a little background here. This is not a usual request. Our code is silent on requests for traffic counters. But as you and I discussed, our community has had a number of cameras put in place related to large developments over the last year. One by Parks, one by Protect the Highlands. And then the DOT was here very recently in the Lower Village. And it does make people uncomfortable when cameras suddenly go up and we don't know why. So, A, I appreciate you informing us, asking us, and sending us a map with detailed locations. So if you could talk the board through your proposal, and we will, I wanted to address your question, Mr. Pugh. This is a meeting called quickly because we wanted to make sure that the public knew that this had come to the Village Board for question. It was noticed within 24 hours, which is the requirement under the open meetings law. So I hope that satisfies your question. Rich, go ahead.

Sure. Good evening. Just to introduce myself, Rich D'Andrea, Collier's Engineering and Design. We've been retained by Kearney Development Group for a project they're looking at developing to a traffic impact study. And the first step along that process is to collect traffic data. And I'm going to share my screen so you can see where we're looking to collect that data. Just give me one second. Just let me know you got that.

Oh, yeah. There we go. Perfect.

So there's essentially seven locations that we're looking to collect traffic volume data, and it'll include pedestrian counts, bicycle data for people traveling through those intersections. On this map that you see here, which was provided to the mayor, The we identified several locations or the specific locations where the camera equipment that we use to collect this data will be placed up at the intersection of Main Street and 9D. We would place it attached to the traffic signal pole that's there in that location. And then the other six locations are on signs at the various intersections. I'll show you the camera equipment in a minute. When we place these, they'll be on the backsides of the signs. The signs won't be blocked or anything like that. And the equipment is generally self-standing, but we typically attach them to something in the area just for security purposes. So the camera equipment, and this is a bit of a different installation than you'll ultimately see, looks like like this it's uh the main equipment's at the bottom this base that you see here this one they attached higher but is a self-standing base so when for the installations that you'll see that we'll put out there this will be on the ground um and then strapped to whatever sign or the signal pole in this case you'll see this was likely a bigger intersection this this camera um was extended probably in excess of 20 feet tall. The cameras that we place for these locations, cause they're smaller, uh, tighter intersections probably would be between 10 and 12 feet high. Um, the camera equipment, the camera itself is just a small, um, head camera. It gives us 360 view of the entire intersection. And just so you can see it close up, this is another picture of what you'll see kind of at the ground. There's a small box where the recording and the data collection gets done. And then the other base of it and the pole and the strapping. The camera's do collect video, but other than what gets transmitted to us, it doesn't get shared anywhere. From that video, there is a proprietary software that Miovision, who has these cameras, uses to break down the video data into turning movement, traffic volumes, pedestrian counts, and bicycle counts. Um, and that data comes to us as well. And that data ultimately becomes the basis for our, our traffic study. Um, that's, uh, you know, there's no other, there's no other like personal information. There's no reading of, uh, like license plates or anything like that. So there's no other personal information that can, could be collected from these. In fact, when you look at the videos, they're actually pretty granular videos. So you couldn't even, I can't even read license plate information or personal information off of them. Um, so, uh, I think that's the general overview. I'm happy to answer any questions you have. We could look at the locations, whatever, whatever you want to talk about.

Oh, he's now that, um, Officer in Charge Jackson has reviewed these. He is fine with the locations. He was actually very happy to be informed ahead of time where they're going to be. As I said, normally we aren't informed. And so there are two in the village right now that we don't know who they belong to. And we don't know who is liable for them. So it is something we appreciate that you let us know in advance. He's fine with the locations. Our Highway Crew Chief had Only one bit of feedback with which I agree, which is at the end of Rock Street on Main, there's a notation in the box that says, camera attached to West Point Foundry Reserve sign on west side of road or adjacent tree. And we both say no on the tree.

Okay. That's absolutely fine.

We're pretty protective of our public trees. Understood. Okay. Any other questions for board members?

No.

Sure first what's the time period that they'll be up.

That was the one thing I forgot to mention, so we are looking to do these the data collection we're doing going to do a Saturday and a weekday. So we would like to do this Saturday so you'll likely see the cameras go out either. Friday evening or very early Saturday morning, and they'll be there through the day on Saturday. And then depending on schedule, we may leave them there until the Tuesday of next week, which is when we would do the data collection for the weekday. It's possible that we may put them out Friday, pick them up Saturday evening, because we have other locations to count, put them out again Monday evening, and then pick them up Tuesday after the data collection is complete. So sometime between Saturday and Tuesday is what we're looking at.

Right. That's helpful. So it's a short amount of time. Observation or other information. So we require this traffic study as part of, it's in our code as part of the development of that parcel. So it makes sense that you're doing this traffic study, what the village already decided is required. And then just to note, I didn't go back and look at what it says in the code recently. And so just to make you aware, Rich, that there may be something specific that we expect from that traffic study. So just a flag to you.

Completely understood. I think The key thing here, and speaking with Carney Realty, us and them wanted to get the data collection done now while schools are still in session before things potentially change for the summer because traffic does wane over the summer. And then the details of the actual traffic study after that would be, you know, coordinated.

I would actually say something quite the opposite. And this board will not be reviewing traffic data. It will help to form an application that goes before our planning board, zoning board, HGRB, et cetera. Cold Spring is, we are two different places during different seasons and different days of the week. We have very high density in the warm weather on the weekends, sort of Friday to Sunday, and that looks very different than a Monday afternoon. You mentioned that you were interested in understanding what the neighborhood looks like on a school day, but I would encourage that you, at some point, ask to come back and make sure you're capturing a Saturday or a Sunday in a You mentioned Saturday. This Saturday. This Saturday, yes. But we're early in the season. Or in the fall. We're early in the spring right now. In the fall, cold spring is bananas on the weekend. So I would say it will be very hard for you to draw conclusions from two days of data collection in May.

I... I don't, I don't disagree. Um, and I think that we would probably do that. We would probably come back in, in the fall to like, like you're suggesting I've been to cold spring myself to see, you know, experienced what it's like on those days. So I know it can be significantly different, uh, situation. Um, but again, I think the weekday is always important to understand what has happened during school. The Saturday, uh, This Saturday will give us a baseline, and then we can always come back in the fall and do additional data collection to understand what the difference is.

And we'll go through the same process of you letting us know, reviewing the map, having the conversation.

Thank you. Hi, Rich. My name is Trustee Hall. First off, thanks for the courtesy of sending in a request to do the traffic study. I think that helps keep nerves calm. Just a In terms of a general context, is this a typical study for this type of thing? I mean, this is your livelihood, but just to sort of orient us a little bit to what's going on here, is this something that would typically happen when one is considering developing a site and also a traffic impact study? What could that look like? What kind of things would that include or cover?

Yes. So definitely very typical for any development, really of any size, regardless of small, large. Typically, we do traffic studies for all different types of development. So this is a very typical undertaking. As far as what it will cover, we're going to be looking at several things. We'll be looking at just general traffic flow, capacity of the roadways and how they're operating today, how they'll operate in the future with the development. um we'll be looking at pedestrian traffic um how the project might contribute to pedestrian traffic are there are there certain accommodations that need to be made to accommodate that same thing with bicycle traffic um uh And there's parking along some of these roadways, or most of them, that we'll have to consider. I know you have, I'm not sure if it's a daycare or a Montessori school, kind of right at the intersection at Kemble and the boulevard there. How that operates, and especially considering the proximity to where the site is, that'll be something that we take a look at. So there's a whole number of things that we're looking at that go into the traffic study.

Okay, thank you. Second question, just on privacy concerns, you mentioned the data collection. I didn't quite follow the processes. There's a video image record, and then that information is drawn off that and converted in that box on the post. But then what happens to that collected video information? Can you see faces on it or that type of thing?

You can't really see faces. You can see, you know, persons and you can see vehicles i couldn't make out a like if i was i was walking by in the video i would know it was me but i couldn't tell otherwise who it might be like i can't see your i wouldn't be able to see your face to know who it is um it's just too pixelated to be able to see that um the data collection is again it's a cat if it is a video and we do get the videos um but The data collection itself is through an algorithm that Myovision, the company that provides these cameras, owns. We send the video to Myovision. Myovision does the breakdown and provides back a data file, which then we can summarize into the data that we need. But it's really just numbers at that point.

Right. So then what happens to that original video material? Is that retained or destroyed at some particular point?

The video stays in our possession. It doesn't go anywhere else.

And there's no other agreements to share any of that information or data with other sources?

No. I mean, the only thing I could say is if there was like a FOIL request, I guess, to the town, it could potentially be, or to the village, it could potentially be FOILable. But I guess, you know, again, you really can't make out that in any personal information from that video.

Why would it be FOILable if it's not our document?

Well, it becomes part of the village's records as part of the approval.

Yes, once it's in the public record as part of your reviews.

I mean, again, I'm not an attorney, but maybe the videos wouldn't be foilable. I'm not really sure. But the data that comes out of it certainly is part of our study that becomes part of the record.

But your company, in conjunction with Kearney Realty, own that data, is that correct?

Yeah. Okay.

And is there any opportunity to share that data, to make it available?

to the village the data that we get like the the volume data the pedestrian data the bicycle data will be actually an appendix of our study so that data itself becomes public information like the numbers of people that are going through an intersection in the car walking through an intersection that's becomes public information ultimately okay that's good and then final question you just mentioned that you may put a camera up on a

Saturday and leave it, you may leave it or you may take it down. But if you leave it and then you left it, I'm going to run it again on Wednesday. Can you assure us that it won't be running between that time from Saturday? Yeah.

So if we do leave it there, what will happen is. there's um in each box there's a data card as you can imagine right the data card will get pulled so that we can pull the data and then they'll be reinstalled on uh on monday evening or tuesday very early tuesday morning when we do the data collection for the weekday and does it run from midnight to midnight the count no uh it'll do so we specified specific hours um I think we did do a 12-hour data collection at a couple of them. So we'll do 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. basically at a couple locations. And then some of the other ones we specified just during the morning and afternoon peak periods that are kind of your typical commuter hours.

Okay. The one thing I would ask is that you, I will give you your team the number of the duty phone for our on-duty officers. If you could let, the officer in charge has been copied on emails. If you could let them know when you're coming and make sure that the vehicles are clearly marked with the company name and that your crews have something that identifies them on their gear, on their outfits.

Understood.

Okay. Let's ask you the 7 p.m. for commuting hours. Do you think that covers enough to be still somewhat active? You're a commuter.

I haven't commuted in a while. I leave before 7 a.m. It's common for folks to get home after 7. If you're trying to catch commuters that go to the city, the commute is long. Understood. I think...

Yeah, I think I mean, we can look at the hours and we can we can because we're doing video and we're not out there yet, we can modify them. I think typically I understand what you're saying about, you know, the commute from the city can be long and people coming home, coming home or leaving before seven or coming home after seven. But typically, the highest peak, which is what we're going to analyze in our study, the peaking of the traffic, is going to occur still between that 7 to 9 period in the morning and the 4 to 6 period in the afternoon. So ultimately, we can collect data beyond that, but ultimately, I'm pretty sure what we're going to analyze is going to be that highest peak time.

This is your business. I'm not a traffic engineer, but just knowing the village, four to six is not peak commuting. People are not getting home. The bulk of people are coming home probably six to eight, particularly if you're trying to capture pedestrian, you know, train traffic and cars going up and down Maine from the train station. Four to six is, I think, really early for the village. Yeah.

Yeah, again, we'll take that into consideration. We can extend our hours. It's not a significant undertaking to do that.

Great. Thank you for being considerate of our local patterns. Other questions from the board?

I just want to clarify, Rich, that

when you say we are the only ones that have the videos, are you referring to Collier or Collier and your client who, who actually gets to look at those videos?

Colliers.

Just Colliers.

Yeah. I mean, we, we've never, we don't, we don't share the video with anybody.

You turn the data over to your client.

The, the, the broken down data, the, the numbers that come out of it. Yes.

Okay, good. All right. And, and, um, is that notarized in any way? The data?

When you say notarized, what do you mean?

Does it, I mean, you just make a, you give a report. When it becomes part of your report, is it a sworn statement, I guess?

When the application comes in, everything that comes with the application is a sworn statement. Okay.

Right. And the study itself is ultimately signed. In this case, I'll probably be the one to sign it, signed by a professional engineer, which I am. You know, we are kind of taking on liability of whatever we put into that study, too.

Your license that gets stamped on the data.

Yes. And I just want to state on the record that there's insurance that's turned in and we have a certificate of insurance where the village is named as certificate holder.

OK, well, I would like to make a motion to approve with two modifications. One is the removal of the possibility of a tree as rock as being one of the mounts. And the second is that you will be considering shifting evening commuting hours.

Yes.

Okay, so I make the motion to approve the request as modified. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Good luck. I'll make a motion to adjourn. All in favor? Aye.

Thanks, Marjorie. Thank you.