(1) Town Board - Regular Meeting

board meeting of Wednesday, January 28th, 2026. Would you be kind enough to join me in the pledge of allegiance, please?

I pledge allegiance 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 very much. Uh for the folks at home watching tonight, thank you all. Um a special thank you uh tonight uh for all the folks uh who work during this storm. We have our highway superintendent Theresa Burke with us and for the staff uh clearing. A very special thank you to County Executive uh Sereno for issuing a travel ban. Um, now bands are not generally popular, but they can sometimes be very effective. And in the period of the storm, which turned out to be a real storm and not a a bad prediction, um there were very few car accidents. Why does that matter? Obviously, the safety of all those individuals in the car accidents um is of the utmost importance. Secondary to that is that uh power outages. One of the leading causes of power outages is an accident, car accident to the pole. And if you recall on January 1st, about 1,500 customers in town woke up on New Year's Day with something that was not so new to them, which is a power outage in the middle of uh the winter time. So for all of you who heeded the warnings, thank you very much. ship makes uh our lives easier. The first responders, the crews working, the roads obviously don't want to compete with uh folks and have folks get stranded and some of us get calls uh throughout the day and night on power outages and you know try to assist with triaging that. So again, thanks

everyone and uh hopefully we won't be talking about another big storm uh at our next meeting, but uh if so, um there's a very good I'll put on the web website there's a very good rundown from the county uh emergency management of steps uh you might consider taking uh to prepare. Uh, one of the things I'm pushing a lot this winter is, uh, with this big storm, because we haven't had one in a while, is take a look at some roofs that you have to to just make sure that they could handle another 10 or 15 inches. I know we're not engineers, not our engineers here tonight. Um, but if you think you've got a structure that maybe uh warrants attention before the next storm comes, um, you know, your your plow person or your hardware store may have a roof rake uh to consider. Okay. Uh, that's enough out of me. Um, let's get to uh for the folks at home. Here's uh what we have uh we'll be discussing uh tonight at our meeting um water district formation. So uh last year we approved a task order having our engineer prepare a preliminary engineering report detailing uh the potential for creating water districts, new additional water districts throughout uh the community that are currently being served and need to be served. aka um uh the traditional neighborhood district in particular. Um we have our engineer here with us to talk to us about a potential next step and in part because of number two which is you heard me say at the last meeting an update to the sewer district. We were successful in obtaining a grant uh for over $2.5 million

um to be put towards the extension of the sewer through uh district sewer district number one that we formed about a year and change ago. 51 parcels mostly commercial right here up and down Route 9. And um so we are now in a position uh we believe to consider moving forward. We have talked with the village about uh what their plans are and whether or not they might phase in their expansion and whether or not there's enough demand between us and their projects um to do so. Uh so we have our engineer Brandy Nelson here to talk about that and I think Brandy you have a few slides less than the reports that I've put in the packet but just know the packet has everything. Um finalize employee health care programs. We spoke uh for a little bit at our last meeting um about um some of the options that may or may not exist um with the healthc care uh plans. Uh folks, I'm sure you've been reading about it in the news and the town of Red Hook is no exception. Um our existing plan increases 15 I think 8% um the plan. So uh we did take a look at we keep trying to narrow down alternatives. Um, it doesn't look like, at least from my opinion, we'll have enough time to consider an alternative except for to extend the current plan that we have, but we may have identified at least one that we can take a look at during the course of this year and see if that might work for uh the employees and also work for uh our pocketbook aka your pocketbook as the town uh taxpayers. Um, then we have our discussion um the association of towns. I think I mentioned to you we have continuing ed as your elected officials. Um and uh the

association of towns which is all 952 I think it is towns in uh the state of New York. Um we convene each year and uh we uh set a platform and we review the priorities of the platform to make sure that we uh concur with them and when we have comments on uh any one or two um we share that as well um with the association of towns. Um, reorg spoke last meeting about um reaching out as our in our liaison capacity identifying additional vacancies that we may not be aware of. The goal would be if we could um at some point next week send out an email blast to the community to I to list off where the vacancies are to try to get um solicitations and then we'll refer them to the chairs of those uh particular committees and boards um so they can discuss with them what's involved and and their level of interest. So uh it's the second meeting of the month. We always uh report out on the board and committee reports. We have a couple of duplicates because we cancelled our December 30th uh meeting and I think we have one item of correspondence as well. With that being said, announcements. I don't have any announcements except to say thank you to all the volunteers who did an amazing job. If you're uh remembering the weather Saturday, it was frigid. We thought nobody would attend the repair cafe at the community center. And boy, was I wrong. I couldn't find a parking spot. Um so many volunteers, uh so many um repairs made and uh you know, items that were reused and recycled. So,

thanks again to the committee. And um just a reminder, probably in the next few weeks, we'll have nailed down those other uh town events, heat, so on and so forth, the dates. We'll get that out to you um as quickly as as we can. Okay. Uh any announcements? Anybody else? No. No. No. Okay. Um public comments. Would anybody like to make some public comments? Okay. Bonnie, would you be kind enough to just say your name for the record? Sure. Bonnie Day.

Exhausted. Pages 217 through 221 of tonight's board packet includes the comprehensive overview from John Hune regarding the manpower maintenance improvement repairs and possible relocation of the septic and leech fields at the St. Mary's site. The public might recall when the site was acquired, excuse me, we were told it wouldn't cost anything. All of the items John mentioned his report have have associated costs and there have been many change work orders and other expenses associated but that site a site not currently accessible or to or used by the public. Now take those same items and apply them to a riverside park while also adding in staffing security and loss of tax revenue. While the board has not provided any financial plan to the public, likely because you don't have one, we are smart enough to realize the costs will be substantial, far exceeding St. Margaret's. And that's in on top of hundreds of thousands already spent on legal and planning fees and any potential purchase amount. The irresponsibility and short-sightedness of the eminent domain action is stunning. I can only hope that those of you who continue to pursue this without public support reflect on the damage you're doing and have the clarity of thought to re-examine your decision and change course. That would be a better story for you to write for yourselves. Please, I'm not I'm not beyond begging to stop this. It's heartbreaking and it's very unpopular. Thank you.

Any other public comments

Roxan Fisher Barry Town? I am here to address the January 22nd article in the Daily Catch titled Boat Club sues town a new saying new zoning laws still fall short of required environmental review. This latest lawsuit is a serious matter and it deserves our full attention as it continues a longstanding dispute that has already cost our town dearly. Let me be clear. This is not a frivolous lawsuit. The new article 78 petition has been assigned to Justice Maria Rosa, the very same judge who in August 2025 struck down the town's previous zoning amendments for failure to comply with Seeker. In that ruling, she found that the town had improperly segmented its environmental review and failed to take the required hard look at potential impacts of a riverfront park. The new local laws B and C passed in December appeared to simply rearrange the same provisions. The town still claimed no significant environmental impacts despite the towning board planning the town planning board identifying multiple inconsistencies with the LWRP. Supervisor McKeon has repeatedly stated that the only public private partnership he would consider requires full town acquisition of the boat club property, but that property is not for sale. Meanwhile, during mediation sessions tied to the ongoing federal civil lawsuit, the boat club has presented multiple viable options for shared

community access and use. Options that respect its 70 plus years of responsible stewardship on the Hudson River. And as I stated at the last meeting, I updated my concerns about potential waste of taxpayer funds to the New York State Controllers's Office. A representative from that office called and encouraged me to continue bringing forward any instances of suspected fraud, waste, or abuse in local government spending. This external oversight should remind us all how seriously these expenditures are viewed beyond beyond our town borders. We deserve transparent, collaborative governance, not endless, costly litigation driven by a single vision that overrides court directives and community dialogue. The council members who voted in favor of the eminent domain acquisition have the power to resend that vote and end this case immediately, sparing our town further expense and division. I urge the town board to engage in genuine negotiations with the boat club and explore the cooperative alternatives already on the table. Let's prioritize solutions that benefit all residents, preserve our history, and avoid further division and expense. Thank you.

Thank you, Rox. Anyone else like to make some public comments before we get started? Lisa, you can back up to say your name for

Lisa. According to the minutes from January 13th, there was no executive or attorney client session that evening. Yet, the very next day, Robert gave a statement regarding the boat club to the Daily Freeman, which read, "A negotiated statement I'm hopeful will happen within the next several weeks." My first question is is did Robert inform his colleagues, all of whom have equal standing on this board, that he was going to make that announcement? Were any of you told in advance? If not, what does that tell you about the level of respect he has for you? And if not, it's indicative of what we've suspected is sole decision-making at our expense, while also flouting New York State town law, which prohibits a supervisor from acting alone to settle or direct litigation. Within days of that statement, the Vote Club filed a new article 78 petition challenging local laws B and C. And in response to that, Robert told the Daily Catch, "I indicated to the public months ago to expect more frivolous lawsuits." Well, that certainly doesn't square with a settlement being imminent. The announcement to the Freeman appears to be nothing more than a setup to blame the boat club when you come up empty-handed. You knew there was no settlement pending. And if you were so preient months ago as to predict more lawsuits, why did the board, including Bill and Jacob, not put in the work necessary to take the hard look, as noted in the August court decision? The only things frivolous are your unbridled zeal in pursuing this property, continued wasteful spending, and wanting disregard for public sentiment. Bill and Jacob, when do you finally say enough is enough? And how do you sit there meeting after meeting and allow this to only get worse and more costly and not speak up and take any action

when your usefulness to the man you now flank ends? How do you intend to repair your reputations and interactions with the community and your neighbors? And by the way, the new seating arrangement speaks volumes and is perhaps more symbolic than the closed shades that I talked about last time. Christina, you also made the daily catch, but rest assured, you are doing exactly what so many have been begging for from this town board, questioning and open dialogue. Thank you for being our voice and asking the questions we cannot get answered. Do not allow anyone to silence you or leave you out of vital conversations. You and Ken are a breath of fresh air, and your input and contributions amplify the silence from others.

Thank you, Would anybody else like to make some public comments? Okay, hearing none. Let's um dive in, shall we? We have with us uh Brandy Nelson from Thai and Bond. Brandy, as I mentioned earlier, has worked with us and Aaron from your firm on uh both the creation of the sub district number one, which is in place, and also to help us understand um potential areas of the town that are either already being serviced by the village through some formal or informal agreements. Um the village would like to formalize some of those someday. Um and also obviously now that it's looking like we may be moving forward hopefully expeditiously and creating the uh sewer infrastructure that these businesses desperately need. Um we we'll need to have the other half of that uh equation which is the water infrastructure as well. Right. So with that being said, why don't I go to I think you had condensed the two reports.

Yeah, just to give an overview. I wasn't sure how much discussion you all wanted, but I Okay, just pulled some of the key graphics out of the um out of the report. Is that Yeah, that's that's fine. I haven't. Okay.

Yep. So, good evening. I'm Brandy Nelson with my bond. Um and over the last few years we've been working with the board with regard to um really this starts with um questions around land use and and growth and development in the town that the town's been setting the stage for over the last you know 15 years to two decades. So just real quickly I'll touch upon some of that background information. Um I know it's out of order for your agenda but I I thought the sewer sort of informs the water. So, I was going to just touch upon where we are with the sewer. Um, and then I threw in a few slides um showing the water service areas um areas in the town that uh currently have water service from the village exclusively from the village. There are other water districts in the area and I'll just touch upon those when we get to the um to the one slide. And then just briefly where we are in the water district formation process based on the preliminary engineering report um draft that we put out to this board back in I want to say late 2024. Um so so just in the context of why we're talking about water and sewer districts um the the town created um traditional neighborhood development TND zoning along the Route 9 corridor south of the village um in 2011. And that was after um undertaking uh a number of efforts to evaluate um land uh use and preservation goals for the town um and to really focus on uh creating what was essentially an extension of the village through that Route 9 corridor where

there are businesses. Um what has um been discovered over time and I know Christina has good insights into it from her time on the planning board is that to achieve the density and the growth that the town had envisioned in that TND zoning you really need to have sewer and water service. And so you know this board recognizes that um a portion of the red area in the center is the commercial uh TND zone. a portion of that is served water currently and has for many many years, many decades been served water um through the villages water distribution system. Um in this graphic um on on the left side of the image, there's a residential um portion of the traditional neighborhood development. Yeah, thank you. I don't have a pointer. um that is where the tradition um neighborhood is located and um that area is also served village water. Um however that is a private water district that is managed by the Duchess County uh water and wastewater authority. Um and then uh the brown area to the right of the red is a second residential um portion of the traditional neighborhood development that is undeveloped land right now. uh combination open space and agricultural land. And then the purple area to the south is the office industrial um neighborhood uh traditional neighborhood area. And um that is also mostly undeveloped land. Um so we we used the um uh red, purple, and um brown area to the right of the red as sort of the focus area in looking at district formation. recognizing that the tradition neighborhood um uh already has both sewer and water available to it.

And um while we were looking at the district formation, um the town also had an opportunity um to engage in a process with the New York State Health Department and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to undertake um a drinking water source protection plan. And this was um about an 18month effort with um stakeholders throughout the town. Um there are three primary consumers of water um from uh community sources here in the town. Um and those are um the the town in its water district which draws water from wells um near the recreation park. It's the village um who also has a water um source and distribution system um with some of their wells that are are here to the east of town hall um on uh village property off firehouse lane and it is um Bard College um which has a surface water intake in the sockill u they draw and treat surface water and they distribute that to the um the student population there um the uh bark college the town and the village are all interconnected for emergency purposes. So when the state approached the town about doing a source water protection plan, they said, "Listen, you've got these three interconnected systems. We should help you assess their interrelated nature, um the the potential threats to the water supply um and help you frame up steps you can take moving forward. Um I have been going back and forth since like the formal um draft has been prepared uh answering a few questions with um DO and DEEC. Last I heard from them was October of 2025. Um they were working on getting they have to send it up the chain through the state to get it approved. They were working on that process. I just reached

out to them this morning. Um they are still working on a draft. So, um, unfortunately, they have a lot of great maps, um, about sort of, uh, large scale views of the whole town, where water resources are located. Um, I'm we're not allowed to put those out in public until that document is final. So, um, as soon as that's available, hopefully that should be in the coming weeks. um that will be additional information that you guys can have for context in terms of the discussion around um water district creation and the importance of water district creation. So so that's all the background information. Um so uh so then in in 2022 um in response to some of the development pressures that were being experienced in the uh TND corridor again on Route 9 south of the village. Um we undertook some steps that are consistent with the um state DEEC, state health department and um New York State environmental uh facilities corporation which is um a portion of the state government that can make funding available to municipalities for infrastructure projects. We undertook a process um you know after discussing with this board of uh completing a preliminary engineering report which basically determined the need for sewer service and evaluated alternatives um their associated costs and then made recommendations on a preferred alternative. So, the preliminary engineering um report uh identified the uh the TND uh neighborhoods that are um along the Route 9 corridor as the potential area to be provided sewer service. And in the alternatives assessment, um we looked at the town having their

own sewer plant versus the town connecting to the villages sewer plant. there's a significant move in New York State to really drive communities to do shared services. Um and in looking at both that as well as um the costs for the district, um our recommendation was to do a a shared um uh sewer uh uh service with the village where the village would create additional capacity at their sewer plant and the town would create a collection system that's consistent with the design requirements that the village has in place um for their sewer collection system. So um that was the the preferred alternative that came out of the preliminary engineering report. Once that preliminary engineering report is completed, then you move forward with district formation and the engineering step for that is to create what's called a map plan and report. So that's a um more simplified uh it it takes portions of the preliminary engineers report focuses only on the preferred alternative uh describes the boundary of the um sewer area. That's the map. Um provides a um uh plan that includes uh information regarding the concept for the layout of the improvements within the district. Um restates the costs associated with that. Um calculates um user costs associated with the district formation and then compiles all that information into a report. So it's just it's a formal uh process called map plan and report um that then was used to create to um complete the legal portion of the district formation um which was creating a sewer local law um entering into an IMA uh an intermunicipal agreement with the village for um sewer capacity um and

then um having a series of votes that were taken by this board to um advance that forward. That all has to go up to the controllers's office where it I think it was for some time. Um it came back um and was approved. And then once we have an approved district, so you now have uh Red Hook Sewer District number one. Once you have an approved district, then you can put in applications to EFC to seek funding and take advantage of grant applications, things like that. So that's since the district formation, we've been focusing on identifying um funding opportunities for um the construction of the actual sewer system. So the next steps as far as sewer would be to um move forward with I I just had done a blown up um version of the map in case people were like I can't see what what parcel. Um do you want to come back to next steps for sewer? You want to do water first?

No, no. Okay. Um would be to actually do we've done only conceptual level design. So there's um a detailed design for the sewer that needs to be undertaken. Um there's things like survey and geotechnical and an archaeological and all the details that need to be um had. Um there's permitting that needs to be once the design is completed, the permitting needs to be approved through um the health department and the department of environmental conservation. Um there are funding applications that need to be um entered into with the environmental facilities corporation. So there's a a number of things that need to happen. Um all of that sort of culminates in bidding documents. Then there is um bidding to a contractor and then construction. So we have a we have a lot of things to do over a timeline. Um we are working right now to put an actual timeline together and then we'd like to come back in excuse me in a month or so and we can run through that in a little bit more detail. Okay. That's sewer. You're all 100% good there, right? Um just a larger um view of the sewer district parcels just for purposes of discussion on water. All right. I apologize. From this distance, it's hard to see the yellow. Um but um the image on the right portion of the screen um is the boundaries of the town of of Red Hook. Um this image is taken out of the preliminary engineering report that we put together for the water system. Um and it shows um in the center uh the the boundaries of the village and then coming out from the village in all four cardinal directions um are yellow lines and those represent um parcels that were considered and evaluated for purposes of water district formation. Um so as we started to

explore um which portions of the TND needed water, what we came to realize was there are a number of parcels surrounding the village that are in the town that um also are receiving water from the village. The village has an obligation to provide water to its uh residents but not necessarily to town residents again unless a district is formed. So in looking at where do we need water districts, uh we wanted to um become aware and informed of the fact that there are other areas in the town um that are that are receiving water from the village but have not um uh that do not have a district about them. Okay. Um in the preliminary engineering report um we also looked at um high level information from the village about the capacity of their system to um continue to support the town's use and and growth associated with the town. Um and um we looked at um uh some of the particulars of which parcel specifically. And I've got another um image in in here that we can just maybe scroll to. There we go. That's a little better. Okay. So, I apologize that this is like before we were looking north um was page up, but because the the view fits better in a rectangle, I rotated this 90°. So, north is page uh page right and um in this image, this is a parcel map um of the town. Um the village is in the center. Um the parcels that are in green are parcels that are currently receiving water service from the village, but they are located in the town. Um so they are already getting water. There's already some degree of water infrastructure. Um they have individual services. They're

individually metered. um the village is building them for for water use. Um the parcels that are in red are parcels that we said, "Hey, it kind of makes sense to if we're going to form a district to think about whether or not these parcels also get included primarily because of adjacencies." So you can see um the Willow Park subdivision, which is the bottom of the page there. Um there are several parcels that are not connected, but they're sandwiched in between parcels that are connected. the transmission main already runs along their frontage so wouldn't be much via an individual service connection to connect. So we thought if we're going to do that we should consider those parcels as well. It's a little bit of a different story for um the green and red um polygons that are located on the left side of the screen. Um, those red polygons are the ones that are not currently served but are also in the TNDC or the TND um, office industrial. So again, thinking we already have a sewer district in those areas. We should have sewer and water. Um, that's the rationale for the geometry um of that area.

Um, can can I point at the screen here? Yeah. Okay. So, the one thing that's a little bit hard to see on the screen here, there is a purple outline and there's a blue outline. Um, this purple outline area is the Glenn um Pond Drive. No, what is that? Glen Ridge Glenn Ridge Drive.

Glenn Ridge Drive area. That um neighborhood is served village water currently. that was that was done about 25 years ago, I think, when the um development was put in. Um we they do have service, but that's not in the TND. So, if we were going to do a water district that's coincident with the sewer district, it would not include those units. So, I just wanted to to point that out. All right. So um in terms of next step so we had said okay board you've got all these four areas of the four cardinal directions do we want to create one district do we want to create multiple districts um do we want to focus just on a district associated with where the sewer service is going to occur so that we've got this sort of logical pairing of sewer and water in those areas and sort of readies it for development. That's when last year this process went on hold um while we're waiting to bring the sewer up closer to reality. So um with some of the um movement on the sewer process in terms of funding and the villages process um you know it's appropriate I think for us to start thinking about the water service again. Um, and so where we're at is we'd be looking to you all for some direction about moving to preparing a map plan and report um for a district or districts depending on what the board wants or if you have questions and you need us to go back and get additional information for you um we could certainly um do that as well.

Thank you. That's a lot. All that in the context of we need to develop the map plan and report so we can apply for a grant for the water district and grant season will be upon us before we know it. How much time will you think you will I mean I guess it depends on what kind of guidance we give you. Um but do you have some sense of how long it will take? I'm trying to remember how long it took to get the to create the district to for you to do the map. ME planning report is um not a tremendously lengthy process. Um we have a a little bit more coordination we have to do with the village but you know I would say you know 6 to 8 weeks or so to put that together for you.

Yeah, but we're still waiting on inputs from some interested folks with vacant parcels and all that. So it's there's there's some okay 6 to 8 weeks or a couple months puts us in April. We need to start thinking about those grants in May. Really the deadline in June, right? T typically uh well, so it depends on which programs, but the CFAs are typically opening sometime in May and the the last few years they've been due the very end of July. But the EFC financing window, that's May. It's different. Yeah. I don't remember that one off the top of my head, but um

yeah, it's May. And so we'd want to be in a position, we want to do our EFC financing for the sewer and maybe position to uh get on the IUP, right? Yes, that's correct. Um I have a number of comments, but I'd like to go through the the draft report. The draft report. Okay, we can bounce to the draft report. Um where would you like to question?

Well I think high level I mean that was helpful as like an overview. I think for me when I start looking at this I need to understand in its totality the all of the existing conditions and the condition of those existing conditions. Um, so understanding that this is a this is a preliminary report, um, I I mean I'd like to just go through each section. I don't know if anybody else has any comments, but I have my notes sort of sort of organized by section. Okay. Um, so let's do it. So in section two, okay, hang on. Let me let me just scroll there. Okay.

Um, so we it's noted. So, tradition at Red Hook subdivision is um served by the Will Village village water department and is a separate Duchess County wastewater authority um and is operated and maintained by that authority.

That's great. So there's in in kind of looking into this in preparation for this meeting, it became apparent to me actually in a conversation talking to um to to Sabonas trying to understand what their what their perspective was on on these new utilities coming their way. There's many different districts that are all intertwined in the system. So, we've got we've got town water um we've got uh county water districts and then we have village water districts and then we have village water that spills out into the town which is primarily what this is looking at. Um, but as an example, Savona's is just now because they didn't know that this was even on the table has has invested a significant amount of money in connecting to public water and the easiest way for them to connect is to go back into the neighborhood behind them,

which is not part of this study. So my request would be when we see the next draft of this if we can in its totality understand county, town, village, all of this intersects together. And it's even related back to last last um the earlier meeting a couple weeks ago when we were looking at the water tank and who that's served by and what you know this has many many broad implications in the town even in terms of like what is the potential um future development of not only the TNDCC but other residential areas that are served served by other districts is is really the big picture of what needs to be looked at when we're investing in these systems because if we're even solving problems of of of um affordable housing and density issues, it's all related. Um, so what I would what I would propose is that when we see the next draft of this, we understand all of the public water and sewer systems within the town, no matter who's controlling them.

Um, okay. I mean, the more information the better. No, no dispute there. But just recognizing that we don't have a lot of information. We the any information we've asked for a lot of information from the village it's their water or private water system um as it relates to south of um you know the movie theater there. Yeah. Well, there's the information's available. Well, so I think we have to think about that. So the the um the town does not have readily accessible in in any great detail that I can think of.

A comprehensive list of all the water systems, right? Because there are private water systems as well. We don't have visibility into that because we don't have any authority there. I don't I can't think of a resource that like this. This is what I would do. I I know there's a database that just like lists names, but it's sometimes even hard to understand like where the address is because the contact address could be an LLC in New York City or something. So, yeah. So, it would be that might be tricky. Um I understand. I mean, I've looked into it myself and and I know that you're right. It's like a lot of times you're digging a couple levels.

There's not like I can't go to like New York State Department of Health, give me a map of all the water systems for for valid reasons, right? there are security concerns and things like that. The county, we can probably talk to county GIS and get the like the GIS blocks that show like where they've got things in Red Hook. Um

I think it goes back so so it's understanding like the totality of the existing conditions in order to even answer the question like the proposed sewer district or water districts are are they are they what best serves the community need all the information to understand all the existing parts. And so in a very basic conversation um recently one of the properties Savonas as I mentioned is is in the the water district that is being proposed but they're actually connected to a totally different system. And so that's something that we should know and we should like I mean we need to look at broadly what what exists. And then the second part of it is understanding the condition of those existing conditions like with everything that's with that is within the map like what is the condition of of those water distribution systems? Are the pipes about to break? Like what does that look like? And how are we um

so some of that information may not be available to the town where the town is not currently the owner of that system. So um we can we can sort of have anecdotal knowledge but um even some of the systems we would have to do foyer requests for all that information of of other municipal entities like the county and the

understood but I think for as a starting point and and my comments are kind of organized by sections. So that was my section two. Section three, there's a number of existing water distribution systems that are mentioned. Willow Park, um Kenneth and E, Evelyn Anderson subdivision. Um I think this is a this is a draft. The the um the site plans are are mentioned there in appendix C, but I don't doesn't look like that got that got added yet. Um, but like having a consistent nomenclature of what we're referring to would be really important for this so that we're not just referring to like you know the east district or whatever. Like if we're going to use a name like let's let's give them all um uh names on the map so that we can reference the site plan, the original document. Knowing what um if it was built in 1958 helps versus 2000. So um notating that on the plan was something that I that I found out I was struggling with. Um so if we could do that going forward that would be very helpful.

We should be able to provide some of that data you know from the village how long they've been providing water say to V willow park and other places that's that's established information and you can use that the aging of that information to to kind of project forward. So, um, as I said before, we did. Yeah. You know, a mile of a water man break costs a million dollars. If the water man doesn't belong to us and it belongs to the village and they're providing water to a town resident, I don't believe they have a legal obligation if that break if that main were to break

to replace it. And I think part of this whole conversation, Christina, is to make sure that town residents who are getting water are in a system that's uh fully protected and so that the the requirements are being met. And I I think you know we can you you know you know how long they've been providing water down to Willow Park. You know how long they've been providing water to some of the other locations. And I think you could put that in a in a chart. Yeah, I think we we spoke we spoke of of this at our meeting a year ago whatever that Willow Park was 5060s error that there we thought there might be some infrastructure replacement and we spoke about the the Glen Ridge uh development there was about 20 years I think u Brandy that development um so there were very different uh infrastructure characteristics one might need you attention way before the other. Um, but you know, just going back uh Christina, a couple things to keep in mind. When we form a town district, whether it's water or sewer, it must be supported by the entities within those districts. And so uh one of the things I would suggest is because we did approve uh the task order to not only develop this preliminary engineering report but the map planning report and we certainly can um include more information, more detail and more updates because I think what you mentioned was an update to what what maybe uh was happening on the ground uh when this report was established. Um, but I think it's very important right now that we uh because the water is behind the sewer, right? And we need these folks to be supportive of it or else a water district is not going to be

created and it's going to be a challenge because some of them are already being serviced under agreements. Um, some of them are not. Um and so we're going to have to work with the village u um and the and the p private property owners to establish. Now, there's no pressing need for, at least as far as I can see it, for certainly Glen Ridge, there's no pressing need. They're being serviced fine. They're being charged double. Frankly, I think the village should pay for the replacement of any distribution if they're charging water users double. That's the whole point of charging them double, I believe. Um, and then when it comes to Willow Park, they've been charging double for decades and decades. So in theory, some of that money should be going towards the infrastructure and distribution. So uh I'm in no hurry to burden um uh you know our efforts here with other water districts. What I do recognize, and again, this is just my opinion, is that we need to make sure that we're supplying water to the parcels that need water, that we're creating this water district so we can make the types of arrangements that they need. And when it comes to sewer and water, a lot of times they will go to uh one location um to get it, but they'll prepare themselves for uh another uh option in the future if it's available. So, I want to make sure that we uh keep moving with the essentially TND, but it's really the sewer district number one to create a water district number two in this case. um so that we can get started on that and get some grants for that. So I I would like us to take some time maybe you can you can give us a detailed list

of things you'd like to see added to the preliminary engineering report but I would like us to to get going with the math plan and report for at least um and perhaps no more than uh a water district number two. And then you know some someday down the road we can look at three four and five and all that. um

is part of as part of district formation to Christina's point we have well no preliminary engineer report looks at alternatives right but but um the map planning report we look at the infrastructure the age of the infrastructure the likely replacement cost that comes out in the map planning report in an effort to sort of focus our time and energy

you know we had said look you've got these four areas how do we want to approach them do want to approach them as sort of like what is coincident with the sewer district focus there now recognize you've got more to do later there's you know Willow Park we've looked for the plans they don't exist you know we can find like standard details we don't want to go out and do a bunch of test fits like

no but even knowing when just identifying like I'm I I think the next draft of this report is just it's it's tweaks to it and and additional information that is going to make it clearer for us and for the public. I mean, I certainly agree that that the people that have been paying 2x for their water don't actually have any formal protections, and I completely agree with the notion of creating formalizing the water district and the benefits that that has. I'm not um I'm not disputing that at all. Um but I think that there's a level of logic that we need to look at understanding that that once the water district is created that that it's it's not a mandatory the intent is not that that you're that you have to join it. If you have a well and you happen to be in the water district now you have options right? No, you have to be

it's mandatory and if we don't get enough votes, it's all it all goes down the I I misunderstood that from the also a good portion.

It's important for the public to understand that in New York State only cities and villages are required to provide potable water to their residents, not in towns. And if you look at growth, um town red oak is a good example. you have a village and then there was planned growth around that village to essentially expand the village. Um but what didn't go with that was that requirement to provide water. And so you know I think logically and organically this happens probably all over where you have a town and you have a village core and things develop around that. there's grow there's natural growth called sprawl but some of it's just organic

and um the people that are not in the village don't have that protection and they're paying a lot more for their water and no guarantee that if the pipes burst um that the village will be required by law to have to fix it. Uh I mean there's let's put this there's some moral prerogative on that but I I I would say that I've been discussing this with my engineering colleagues even in other firms because it's it's not there's no legal requirement that we are aware of. What what there is though is um the health department can say you must continue to provide the service right you have historically provided the service you must continue to they go to court

make the the necessary repairs. There's also if you have a storage tank, you don't want to lose all your storage. So, you know, you would out of necessity patch the whole

But I guess my point about this the development of this water district and any additional ones is the idea that they're really just an expansion of something that's a pre-existing condition that the state has put on villages. And you know, if you you know, Tivoli is different because there's a different name and a different zip code. But everybody I've ever spoken to who talks about Red Hook does not know the distinction between the town and the village. It's all one Red Hook. And that seems um logical in many ways when you drive to the four corners and you go in other directions. Yeah, there's a sign that says, you know, you're in the town or you're what, but it's not um obvious. And so as developments, especially residential developments were were developed, you know, there had to be ways to provide them water. And at some point there are rules in the county, am I right, Brandy, that density of housing, you can't put wells in.

Yeah. I mean, there there are practicalities of sewer, septic, and well separation that limit your density. So that's why I worry about communities that are getting water that they don't have that protection. And you know, it can't just be like, oh, it's broken and I'm just going to drill a well now. You might not be able to.

Well, so that that is that's sort of the correlary and the reason why I mentioned the drinking water source protection plan. So, um the VA vast majority of people in the town of Red Hook get their water from wells, whether you're on a community system or an individual well. And the aquifer here um is notable um beneath the sock hill and it extends you know even to this area um beneath town hall and a little bit further south. So protection of that resource given your grally soils is really really critical um and over time you know the waste water um from septic system will leech down into the groundwater and can deteriorate the water quality. So that's that's what came out of that exercise with the health department and the DEC for the source protection plan. So, it's all sort of part and parcel of protecting your water resource.

Right. And this is the only area, this area to your left or south that is not fully serviced with central water.

That's correct. And so that's why, and it's coincident with the sewer district, that's why it's imperative that we get going with this because we need to be able to demonstrate, especially to those land owners that either need um to uh redevelop their properties or to develop their properties to protect their water to protect. We need to get going with this because this stuff doesn't happen overnight as we know. Well, I think I think I agree with I completely agree with you and I mean I've spoken in support of of water and sewer in the in the TND for for years actually. Um and I'm very supportive of it in general, but I think that I I need to understand more of the existing conditions before we get into any of the details that are in these maps and understanding where these where these boundaries are. Um because I mean a starting point would be like what is the capacity at the village if this is dependent on the village's existing system then then what does that look like and in the report I know that that's pending but that's like a key piece of information because like we might want to reverse engineer into whatever that capacity is and say like all right it like do we want to prioritize the TNDC because that's been really um really inhibited in its growth and then where what capacity do we have and that that then will inform some of these other fringe districts and what that looks like. But that to me is like a very important starting point.

We do now have that information. However, I just want to caution the town board that you have no jurisdiction over um sharing of water. It is their resource. Um, and so what I'd suggest is that um, what normally happens when an entity wants water from another entity is that the the the entity that needs the water says, I estimate I need this much water. Um, hey village, can you give us this much water? So there's a it's a negotiation. It's not just a like we get to take whatever we want and we can have unfettered growth, you know, because the village has water. I I would not think that they would just say yes, take all the water. Maybe at 2x, I don't know. But um but um this board already has entered into an IMA for the sewer district with a request for capacity of 50,000 gallons. So I think that's like a that is based on water usage and projections of growth in the TNT. And that number was vetted through the sewer process. It was negotiated with the with the village. So So we know that that amount is probable, right? Beyond that, we'd have to open up new discussions with the village. So it's a little bit of a chicken in the egg.

And and that and that makes sense. I think I'd like to see that documentation. I think that that's a key that's that's a keystone of of developing the the schematic. Um, and I think also like I mentioned the the contextual information around this area is part of that story because if we find ourselves in a negotiation with the village and there's a capacity issue or there's a reason that that we're disagreeing about what that connection is, there are other possibilities like like Savonas has connected to another to to a um county system. So that already exists and that's that's within the context of what we're looking at. That's part of

we're familiar with that system and we've been in discussions with you know at least I've been in discussions with so it's not an ideal for them. So they're looking for alternatives. Um but it should it's part of the story. So I would like to see like all of that being being being being documented graphically so that we can have those those discussions um clearly.

So I guess my question is can we do both of those things? Can we make can we add infill for lack of a better term to your preliminary engineering report? And can we start can we at least begin the process or do do we know that amongst ourselves that the priority for us from a time sensitivity is the district that is coincident with the sewer district. Is that something? Because I I think if we don't get this done in time for grant season, we're going to regret it. Um it's going to be very important and we need to have those conversations with the village and your M plan and report can reflect the the options that you spoke about Christina which is like can we get the water from somewhere else?

It's just I mean this is not this is not a lot of information. This is just like tweaking what you have right. I think you could prepare it for a little more complicated than you're alluding to, but I can see if the county can give us information. That's my biggest. I understand asking for a for a comprehensive totality of all of it is is a big is a big ask, but I think that there's there's probably somewhere in the middle with information that's reasonable for you to foil or for you to get off of paral access or any other resource and and have a significant jump in the level of context from this report. Call the county. Go ahead.

Okay. So, with that being said, I'll go back to my question. Can we do both? Can we entertain um embellishing, improving and whatever? And can we also get started on the map planning report? Can we reach a consensus perhaps that we want to get started on the map planning report for the water district that is coincident with the sewer district so we can go to the property owners in the sewer district and tell them two things. One is we've received the grant as we promised you we wouldn't move forward until we got a grant. We've gotten a grant. That grant by the way requires that we work with the village because it's an IMG. It's a grant that I think we had some influence over the grant design perhaps uh municipalities like ours. Um and we need to form a water district. And here's why. It's going to have very different implications for perhaps your property versus your neighbor's property. But if you look at the big picture for the 51 parcels, it's important um that we uh establish it so that we can figure out how to provide water. And by the way, the sooner we do that, the sooner we have this option to work with the village to formalize some of those agreements. We can also do a lot of on the ground proofing which I think really needs to be done. To to your questions, uh Christine, I will tell you the very first capital project I did was the sidewalk project. Maybe you all remember the stop the sidewalk signs. Um, we did that project and on the ground, boy, we had the plans from the village. Here's where the water lines are. Damned if we didn't open up some of the ground to put the sidewalk and the water line was 12 ft off. So, um, these are all the things

that we'll be able to accomplish as we go ahead and we design extension of existing water lines um, there as well. But I want to make sure that we are in a position to talk to these property owners about both of these things at the same time. Get started on we can always we can always make a turn, right? And we can always pivot in a different direction, but I'm afraid we're going to be late for what we need. Was it something you can prepare for our our next meeting? Which thing? The map planning report. No, not the map. The embellishment. the embellishments to the report like finalizing the report.

The next meeting is in two weeks. Probably not in two weeks, just if we have to boil something. But but but I think in terms of like if you want to have a more comprehensive view of like all the water districts, I think I can get from the county um where their county districts are. We've got where the town's water district number one is. The village has already given us what parcels they're serving in their water system. Um, the only other thing we don't have, we don't have any of Bar Colleg's water system mapped. I don't know that they have that available. But there is information that you have that I don't think was able to be put yet in this in this draft. In terms of like the villages capacity and stuff like that. Yeah.

Well, no, in terms of like the the appendices, I don't think we're quite finished in this version, but they're they're referenced. It seems like you were in the middle of of working through that, but that that's all sitting in a file. It just needs to be compiled. That piece is super easy. Yeah, we can definitely and I think for the purposes of the conversation we're having, we're looking primarily at the TND, like the sewer district one to one. I think it'd be good to have the extra information, but like starting with that section,

I mean, I agree with you that I I I agree with you that that I would I would prioritize that in in terms of utilities, but I think that the context of the overall the overall area, it it may not even be the context of the TND. It's like the context of the those other those other neighborhoods is really important that um so to me it's all of it. I don't think we can I think we should move forward as quickly as we can. I don't think we should miss the grants. I think we can we can do this but there's there's more um more information that we need um in my opinion before we can really even have an intelligent discussion about it.

Some of that I think um I don't know if the board has the draft drinking water source protection plan. I think there was a version that was circulated, but but perhaps Christina should have a copy of that that she can read through so that she's up to speed because that that does have some I mean the whole point of that plan is to assess the town regionally um and emphasize the shared uses and and I think a lot of what you're looking for is in that report. Okay. Um and would give you good background information on that process and that was sort of like free services that the town got. So, you know, we don't want to necessarily like duplicate that. So, I think I think if you could read that that that would help you have more credential information.

And that I was on that that group on that. And one thing I would also add is that that report also shows where the risks are correct to our drinking water throughout the town. Yeah.

So, you can look at that map and they have little, you know, um pointers that say, you know, this is a risk cuz this is where, you know, there was oil containers. You know, there's all kinds of different things, but it it helps to see that map if you were to think about, oh, if I wanted to start my own water uh department and drill my own wells, is that even possible given what's in that area? I'm I'm fine with adding any information uh Christina that you think would be fine to analyze uh holistically. I don't believe it's possible for us to understand and get the kind of detail that would um change um any any desire um on my part. Um I just want to make sure that we have water to go with the sewer. We've worked so hard to create the sewer district. Um, and you know, the more that we have these other types of connections that you refer to, the the less appetite there'll be for creating a water district. And we will only be in a position of um uh having certain parcels have water. Um there's there's only one area that needs to be addressed now and I'm I don't want to regret having asked you to look at these other village water districts because they wanted to formalize them now and and have that slow us down.

We can do both simultaneously. That's not for us. Can can we do that board? Because I I really I I'm very apprehensive. I'm very nervous about the fact that we're quite a bit behind on water and sewer. And in part, Christina, we didn't move forward with water because we didn't know if we were going to have sewer. And so, it didn't make sense to to try to, you know, move forward with water. But here we are. And no, let's let's let's get the information. Let's decide on the districts. Let's move forward. Let's get the grants. I mean, it's but I um Yeah.

All right. So, I'm going to I'm going to make a motion that we do both of those things. Christina, I hope you're okay with that. that we both ask the engineer to compile more data to include in the preliminary engineering report which is the the background information for the um map plan and report but I'm I'm also going to because we did approve the task order a year ago something like that well over the on the water district a long time ago a long time ago to prepare

to prepare the map planning report but I'm going to also Um I put forward a a motion that we ask you to prepare or start to do the work related to um a water district number two that is coincident with the with the exception I think there's like one parcel there at the bottom there. Right. There was something about uh not being in the zoning district. Correct. Right. A little Yeah. There's one parcel that has split zoning and we would uh we had when we looked at the per we mapped it based on parcels rather than zoning. So we would make that adjustment would affect one. It was a tiny little thing. It's like a a finger of land that comes down to me road.

Okay. And then we and then to start the work and then we come back in two weeks and we go well this was a mistake. So you're saying are you saying that you want her to move forward with alternative three and the additional information?

No, I'm saying that I want to move forward with just a map plan and report for water district number two, which is just um coincident with the same 51 parcels of land that are the sewer district. and let's figure out the rest of the stuff later because one of the things that you have to understand just how complicated this is going to be Christina is that you're going to have people if you ever decide to do more more folks in that district or to do a couple districts you're going to have people in other parts of the town basically voting on whether or not water gets created in a different part of town and that's just it's hard enough as it is as you know we had to inst institute a moratorum on the sewer because we didn't want more sewer connections and then there wouldn't be the desire to have a sewer district and you'd end up with sort of developed parcels and not developed parcels as so we're at that place um and I I I want to keep this ball moving

so are you saying are you saying you want her to move forward with a plan that has the water district that is that matches the sewer district that we know that makes sense and then we're going debate the rest of it and get the rest of the information and figure that out. I agree with you. Okay. Okay. Great. And to also provide the supplemental information for the finalizing water source plan at least draft to Christina just recognizing we can't Yep.

the Department of Health won't allow us to share that. Okay. Um very good. And then with that motion, I would also like to add um uh to appropriate the funding for that uh task order um from ARPA. So if you recall um we had $500 and something,000 in ARPA um that we have assigned for the sewer district formation. We for formed the sewer district. Now we're looking at design and all that stuff. Um, I'd like us to uh take a look at assigning $40,000 of that based upon the task order and some legal that'll be associated with um creating the water district because we need to do that as well. Um so 40 out of the it's now $545,000 that's left in ARS

that we have to spend this year. Yep. That we have to spend this year. So it makes sense to spend the money down. create the water district, design it. Um, so that's my motion. all three of those things to um to provide the supplemental information to get started with the uh map plan and report and to and 40,000 you're saying you want to earmark 40,000 of in in engineering fees

engineering for engineering and legal so that the water district can be created just like the sewer district was created and then we it may be a little more than 40 but I think we message to the sewer district. We thought we'd have about a half a million. Do we have an estimate on soft costs for for legal and engineering? We have the task. It's a step-wise process. So, we provided um a task order back in early 2024 for the map plan and report and preliminary engineering for water district formation. Okay. Assuming one district, there's approximately 30 grand

30 grand in engineering. And then did we have an estimate for legal? uh don't have an exact estimate for legal. We do have our attorney here, Chris, do you remember how much it was for the initial part of um water district formation? Again, this this can be adjusted as the year goes on, but I just want to appropriate enough money that we can get started with this. So, that's and those are hourly. Those are just hourly. They're not, you know, taskbased.

Yeah. But Chris, could you give an estimate what you think the the ballpark is? Um, you know, Kristen, I would have to back I would have to go back and look at what it what you know what what the what the last one was. Uh, because these tend to be different depending on what the process is. It's not I mean, you know, that's that's a reasonable budget for, you know, the preliminary proceedings. Um, you know, again, depending on, you know, what's involved and what we end up having to do. Okay. really really the process you know most of this work is the engineers as you can see right

u because the peer um you know provides the foundation for the NPR and so we get involved looking at the NPR for um compliance with the requirements that we need for statutory approvals and and in particular um we would probably be looking at uh making sure that the things that for example the controller would be looking at in in evaluating whether they're going to approve it. We'd be looking to try to make sure we have that information, you know, in the report that gets created. So, we look at that sort of thing and then, you know, obviously we create the resolutions and so forth and the notices and so forth that are required uh for the process part of the document. Um, you know, and I would say that the, you know, the controllers's application is probably a big part of that. If we go through a controllers's application, which I guess we would have to assume here, um then that's a you know that's more than where a controller application is not required, you know.

Yeah, exactly. That's a heavy lift. Chris, I would never encourage you to bill more. Um but I just want to remind you this is very different than the sewer district where there were no existing agreements. we are going to have to navigate through the waters, pun intended, because there are existing agreements and we need to make sure if we're going to get the support of those property owners that those agreements are not better than what you know would would occur in the water district. And so, um, there's going to be a lot of reviewing of those agreements and, um, figuring out how how to handle them. Mhm. Right. Understood.

Okay. All right. I I I'm in agreement with it. I think that it's I'd like to have an estimate. I understand it's hourly. Um Right. I'd like to have an estimate from both legal and engineering to on the totality of what what's expected. Well, that you can't you can't estimate the totality because you don't know how far the process is going to go. But we could get a rough estimate. We already have a task for we've already approved the task. I think I think we can make assumptions and get an estimate. And I think that that's that's a reasonable ask.

So let's uh Chris, if you want to take a look between now and then. Um but for tonight, the request is to appropriate $40,000 of the ARPA money towards formation of the water district and then we can adjust as needed as transpires because if it doesn't make it through the permissive period, then it's a very different number. And I think that's where it's going to be a lot of work between now and and then. So Chris, if you could develop maybe just a rough We won't hold you to it. Maybe we will hold you to it. Well, but again, I mean, are you talking about implementation or are you talking about district creation proceedings? Just district creation. District. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. All right. Uh, so I've made that motion. Could I get a second? Does anybody I will second it as the water guy. Is the water back and sewer good? And sewer back. Okay. Um, further discussion. I think we've got quite a bit, but anybody else? No. Let's do it. Um, all in favor? Christina? I I myself. Randy, thank you very much. Um before you leave,

um the other thing we need to attend to, I know that you and Teresa are here. Um is um trying to coalesce around because we have this prime equipment and the shed and all of that stuff. I understand that you all are if mother nature allows you some time to meet to to try and come up with some options for us to consider as as far as locating um where where that equipment will go in the shed and we'll maybe cover some of the options for the salt shed. Again, I'm thinking grand season, what's possible and maybe, you know, have some discussions this spring about what the options are for salt sheds. Can I sit down with Teresa and we'll go through some options. We had done that with the um master planning exercise adding the brine building is is like an additional thing. We we've plotted it on the two primary options for the master plan, but I have not had a chance to sit down with

on that yet. You know, it would be great, Christine, you have a lot of experience with site plans both in your role on the planning board. You you did too but when you were on the plan as long as but also you know your projects that you do be great if maybe if you were interested in participating because we want to rethink reinvision the the campus here. Um we've got a lot of changes that you know may be coming down the pike. Um if you want to join in with that would be really great. Um, okay.

Uh, what else? Is that Is that it for Is that it for Brandy? She can. Do we have anything more for you, Brandy? Or I didn't see anything on the agenda, but I'm happy to stick around if that's helpful. No, I think No, no, no. Please make your way. You have a long drive. Thank you very much for all your help and um look forward to getting more updates on that. Great. Thank you guys. Have a good evening. Okay. Um where are we at?

Let me get to Oh, employee healthcare. Okay. So, we did get some more input on the various options. Um, I promise to share those options with the uh union um as well as the comparison that um our broker made. Um I did call around to try and get some sense of who accepts United Healthcare. Um our broker said everyone, but I didn't see all that many met. um as covering the the it seems like the coverage is somewhat comparable. We have to find out on a person byperson basis though whether or not their providers are um accepting United Healthcare. All to say that you know we we need to do this a little earlier in the year in order to be in a better position and we probably would benefit. I think if the United Health was coming in here aggressively pricing, we'd probably be in a better position to find out how they're doing, who's accepting them, who's switching over to them. Um, I also heard yesterday, I think it's the Trump administration's uh limiting their uh Medicare Advantage plans. They're very well known for um those plans. And if they're limiting the pricing that they can charge on those plans, then that's likely to mean perhaps that they'll shift, you know, additional pricing to other plans that they offer. All that to say, I think our broker advised us, you know, just keep in the back of your head, even though they're coming in with really good pricing, um that that doesn't necessarily mean that the next year will be good pricing. But that said, MVP, who we've had very great success with,

15.8%. I mean, it's untenable in a in a cap world and will um one of the legislative priorities we'll discuss briefly tonight from AOT deals with healthcare costs associated with that. Um, but I just wanted to make a suggestion that we continue with the plan unless anyone has uh a desire. Well, that's a feedback that we got, right? Was not for United Healthcare. It was for was not for MVP was preferred.

True. But I mean, we do have to be mindful. These are the taxpayer dollars. So, when you get an increase that's onethird of the increase of the other, you know, it's you have to at least explore and see what the implications are. we didn't get enough information to, you know, uh, feel comfortable switching, but I think we should keep it on our radar for the first half of 2026 and trying to get more information and see if in fact it's the comparable coverage at a better price and whether or not um, our employees are able to continue with their providers and if a switch were made. We used to be with CDPHP. Um there were some concerns about you know uh going down to the city for um special operations. Then they expanded the coverage down there hospital for special surgery. I'm not sure where they are now but these are all the things that we want to drill down a little bit more before we go ahead and switch. So um that's my recommendation. I don't know what others have to say. Any any thoughts? Well, also, I mean, Albony Med is a major provider up here, and if you have a serious medical issue, you're you're probably going to end up at Alb Med or Westchester Med. I mean, that's in in reality in terms of able to get there for a really serious thing. That's where the biggest specialists are for those things. And the fact that they're not servicing Albany Med concerns me.

Well, I know St. Peters is there. you know, we have these weird cities that have two hospitals basically side by side. Um, Kingston used to have it. Um, Gypsy has it. Um, but yeah, more more specifics that we we'd want to know. The hospitals are changing. You know, what's happening now? They're becoming

Yeah. My wife works for Columbia Memorial Medical Center and they're changing that hospital to become, you know, u more of an emergency care and doing outpatient stuff in separate locations because it's all around the available. So, unfortunately, it's all changing. One day, we might do universal healthcare and then we won't have to figure this all out. Wouldn't that be great? Um, okay. So, a motion to continue with the existing uh MVP silver 8. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Jacob. Any further discussion? If not, all in favor? Christina. I. William.

Hi. Myself. Hi. Thank you very much.

Let's go to uh legislative priorities. Well, a highway super is here. Um, can we jump around since it's 9:00 and just go to um a part of the highway department report. I want to go back to the van issue. Uh, Teresa, I see that um you gave us some input um some feedback on a couple of the EV van options. Um, some of them are not being manufactured. Again, um, I didn't have a lot of time, neither did you, I'm sure, given the storm to look, but there are plenty of EV options, um, van options. um some of which address the concerns that you outlined uh whether it's range um the Chevy bright drop which they're no longer going to make but they have made them for three years and we'll continue to service them a concern of yours. So, um, from my perspective,

yeah, we need a van. Yeah. If you are telling me that it won't be approved unless it's an EV van, you can do that. I'm telling you that from my perspective to purchase an EV van at this point in time when they're being discontinued, when they're already 2 years old, when you're going to have to depend on these companies that are discontinuing them or suspending them for parts, when we've had our van for 25 years and we've bandated it together, totally a prerogative.

So, I gave you the options on both. I told you I'm fine with either, but I am not making that decision based on the fact that it is an electric ban. If the town board wishes to make that decision with all of the questions around the future of the EV vans, then you may

what what would you suggest? Uh, is there like what I don't I don't know the history here to know why we landed at an EV van. We landed at an EV van because the town proposed in their um purchasing order that if there was an electric alternative for a vehicle that that would be our first choice. Starting two years ago, we did research on electric vans. As we brought these vans to the town board, they started discontinuing them. So here we are at the moment where we have the funding, we have the need, and we have the information. So the information is I researched the vans. I went out to the vans. There's a limited amount of new vans being produced and they're being discontinued. Range is part of it. Um, which I put

and I have a question about that actually. I mean, I I understand range an anxiety with a with electric vehicles. How often is the van that you have now going to Albany? Because you give that example and I'd like to know cuz you know, so we we have trucks and they are serviced in Albany and there are part centers in Albany. When you need to drop off a plow truck, you have somebody following you, right? So, they can use a pickup or they can use the van. If they're going to Albany in electric van, do you want to take the potential risk that on their way back they're going to stop somewhere to charge up the van because they don't think they have enough range?

I understand that, but that doesn't answer my question, which is how often have you taken that because it's an old van. Has that van gone to Albany and back in in a year? This particular van has not gone to Albany and back because it's an old van. So, we're using the pickup trucks. Okay. If we had a van that was um dependable, we could use it more often. Yeah. Again, I I I'd be happy to set aside some time to help and to send you like there's a whole slew of vans. We have the bands right in front of you if you want to say. We we just an EV van.

We already did that though and now we're back here having the same debate. We already did that at a at a previous I'm not debating Robert. My my um report said my recommendation Yeah. If your recommendation is different from mine and you hold the funding, Yeah. I don't have a choice in that. I was just telling you my recommendation and giving you all of the information. Yeah. The decision is yours. It is not mine with this due to your purchasing policy and due to your insistence on having more electric vehicles. Understood.

Yeah. Again, um I I would just say we haven't looked at all the options. I I started to mention the the Chevy Bright Drop which has a range of 270 miles. these e-printers that Mercedes makes, which you can get for $63,000 brand new, that tons of contractors are using these days. Did you research them on um the OS Mini Bid?

I I didn't research them on the OS mini bit, but I'm just saying that there are electric options and the fact that it's being discontinued. I understand that, you know, fossil fuel cars are discontinued as well. As long as the manufacturers, in this case, the big three are following the current administration and and backpedaling, pun intended, on uh the board's wish. I I think we have already communicated we'd like to do an EV. I'd like to take Well, what? Well, hang on. Hang on. Let me finish. We have there's funding available from the state if we get one and we need to apply for that by February 27th for that rebate.

You told me that the funding was being used by the wreck park. No, no, no. Oh, you mean the the e Yes. The rebate for $7,500. The van has to be purchased and registered to the town by the 28th of February. 27. Yeah. Um purchased and registered. I I don't remember that detail, but that that I talked to the dealer. That's fine. Um Okay. Well, that's something that we we should we should So, that'll reduce the cost by $7,500. $7,500, which is not I'm not I'm not here arguing for or against. Yeah. I I I did my research. You've done your research. Yeah. I'd like You have the funding.

I have the need for us. We need a van. Yeah. If the town board decides that they would rather fund an EV van, I cannot override that because I'm only making a recommendation. I I think you did make that determination previously. Well, I wasn't I wasn't part of that determination. You weren't on the you weren't on the board. I mean, I just have questions like is there is there a middle of the road that we can work this out? Is it is it is a hybrid an option? Yeah. I mean, what what would

Yeah. So, you're you're saying that that your your concern is that these vans are being discontinued because for some reason they're not good. They're just they're not it's this isn't working out in the in the market. EV vans are like like they're not taking off. They're they're disappearing. Is that that's pretty much what the dealers have indicated to me that they're not popular. They are going to develop hybrids in the future as an alternative to the full EV van. So are the option the best options right now if we were just van shopping would be would be conventional

combustion engine combustion engine gas van or or is there is there any other utility vans come in two choices right now EV

or traditional um I have brought both to the board And since the last time we talked about this and you gave the approval to go out to bid, this is all new information. It just came up during the bid process. During the bid process, it just came up that the van that we want to purchase is only available in a 2024 and a 2025, and they've discontinued the 2026s. Also, the forts, the bright drop that we researched a year ago and were ready to purchase was discontinued before we could even ask the board to approve the funding. So, right now, we are here with choices, traditional or EV. They're there. You don't have to go shopping for other types of vans right now unless you decide to reject these bids and do a different bid process, a different um perhaps financial threshold because we could go to the local Chevy dealer and buy something off their lot if we were a private entity, but as a municipal entity, we have to go through a bidding process. So right now the van that we chose both traditional and EV is on the New York State OS mini bid. There's a 2025 on there and in the notation it was this is the only one we have. It might be gone before you decide that you're going to purchase it. So again, I've given you my recommendation. I'm not insisting that you buy a traditional van. I'm giving you this information. if you want to do the research because we used to have a purchasing department. I would bring my need to the purchaser and the purchaser would say, "Teresa, I'm going to call

all of the state entities and I'm going to call all the dealers and I'm going to get the best deal. How about this? How about this? How about this?" We no longer have that. I do the research. If you want to take over and do the research and come back in a timely fashion with bids and vans that you think are best for me, then fine, less work for me. But I've been working on this for 2 years now. And every time I go for an AV van, I run into what I consider a roadblock. So we have the vans available that I gave you the information. I could just say, "Okay, you won." Is the 20 The one that you're that you're suggesting is 2026 Ram ProMaster Super High Top. Is that one of these?

No. Pages. No, it's not. You'd have to go back out and get that again. And explain how does that relate to the February deadline? No, just for eBay. For the eBay, the state has incentives. So, um, for for the and yeah, go ahead. If you approve the bid today and I say to these dealers, okay, you've got the lowest bid, we want that van, but we need it on the lot in order to get that $7,500 discount. We may not get it in time because it has to be transferred, registered, and all that other stuff. The 2025 is not used though, right? That's No, those are all new vans.

All new vans. They just have they're just new. What I'm saying is like if that's your preference, but I want to know that that's your preference.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, we we haven't been shy about saying that that you we've been saying for years that whenever there's an electric option, whether it's the landscaping, we we had this transformative first in the state, you know, demonstration about electric landscaping equipment, you know, a few years back. when there's an option and a and a viable option. And just because it's been discontinued, so has the F-150 that we bought for the building department a few years ago been discontinued. It's worked out amazingly well for them. It's no maintenance. Um hybrids are really uh don't shoot me, but they're not a great option for people. I know people get get excited about the hybrid option, but you have all the maintenance costs associated with with um you know a fossil fuel vehicle. Um and if in in the uh list of what's likely to catch fire, uh least likely is an electric vehicle. Um second least likely is a fossil fuel vehicle. Most likely is actually a hybrid vehicle. Um anyway, I I think we've we've covered this and we've got the solar, we've got the charging stations, we have spoken about wanting to convert as much of the of the fleet as possible when the technology is is there. I mean, I would also say, Teresa, I just again, I didn't have a lot of time, but I mean, I'm seeing 24s that are used going for 29,000 or 30,000. Maybe you want to consider getting one that's gently used and and putting, you know, the extra 30 or 40 grand towards something else. Just a thought.

Used is not a consideration. No. Okay. Okay. Um then I So, we're here tonight to either accept the bid or reject the bid in favor of a traditional fuel vehicle. So, if you want to accept the lowest bidder, you have the information in front of you, you can do that tonight. If you want to reject it and go in a different direction, then you can do that as well.

There are four bids. Now, there's a potential that you would have to say, "We'll take the lowest bidder, but if it's not available, we'll take the next lowest bidder. It's all New York State OS contract. It's seamless. You don't need to have um anything else added to it. And it's as simple as me uh reaching out to these people who have responded. There's probably 20 dealers and these are the four responses we got in the amount of time that we requested. So, it's pretty straightforward. Okay.

Well, since you've done the work, you got the bids, the worst thing that could happen is they could come back to you and say, "We don't have them anymore." That doesn't And if we got stuck having to go to a conventional uh you know, gasoline engine van, we're not stuck with the February 27th or 28th for the rebate. So, if it was me, and I I mean, this is what I'm going to propose is you've got the bids for the EVs and see if we can get them. You know, we're not talking about a lot of time here. Um, and if they come back to you and say, "Well, sorry, we sold it or whatever," then come back to us and tell us.

That's fine, but we would need you to approve the purchase because we'll make the motion right now. Okay.

I'll second that motion. And again, you know, I I I have a lot of experience with electric vehicles and the reliability. This is a cargo van. I think you you've mentioned that it it gets used from time to time. It needs to hold stuff and take people um to locations where you're doing work. Um but it's not a uh you know it's not a dump truck that needs to uh you know do various uh activities and and be used for those. Yeah. So I think I think a battery operated van will will do us just fine. They come with warranties and uh I think that is the direction that um this town wants to move forward to is a cleaner no exhaust future. My second with my discussion sorry any more discussion on this?

What what is your motion though? What what is the it's it's that we made a motion to accept but sorry your motion to accept all of them to accept the means for the EVs most lowest responsible bid on the EVs and if by chance Teresa reaches back to them and they say oh sorry we sold it we don't have it come back to us and we can have that conversation but given the fact that our van is 25 years old I don't think a couple more weeks is going to make the difference and especially since a rebate expiration is that is looming. Let's see if we can do it.

Why wouldn't we go to the next Why wouldn't we go to the next lowest then? I don't understand if if that isn't there. Why wouldn't we make the motion to go to the lowest or the next lowest if that's not available then? The lowest available. The lowest available available. Yeah, I think that's the the right verb. The lowest available. Yeah, that's fine. And that's my motion. I'm seconding that motion. further discussion

further. But my discussion would be that I I if this doesn't work out. It sounds like we need a van and I would support a conventional vehicle. I don't think it's it's it's unreasonable and I'm I'm a little uncomfortable that you're uncomfortable with you feel like you're forced into having an EV van. This is your business of of running the the highways. I don't I don't really fully understand the the pros and cons of it, but um so you pick your battles. This is this is a a a low lift, say for an electric vehicle.

It it's it's adequate. It's not crucial that this be um a gas or a diesel vehicle because it doesn't involve hydraulics and power and towing and plowing and all that kind of stuff. So, I have worked with the board in the past researching many many different versions of um electric vehicles for the highway department's use and this is probably besides a forklift the first one that came out as um appropriate. The only problem that I have is the fact that they're starting to discontinue them. But if we get eight years out of it, which is the expected life,

um, before you have to start replacing stuff and the town is willing to invest in that, you know, and take that chance, that's up to them. If it were something that were critical for me to have a gas powered or a diesel powered, there'd be another conversation. And you brought that conversation to us in the past, if I recall, and you made a good business argument for it.

And I'm totally aware of, you know, electric vehicles and their advantages and and all of that stuff. It's it's a wonderful thing and I'm not against that. Just making it clear that you know in this particular situation when I have gone through the process things keep dropping off. If you're comfortable with that I'm fine because ultimately the funding comes from the board. Yeah. The board giveth and the board taketh away. Right. We all we all agree the same. Um okay. Further discussion. Further discussion. If she can't get them, let's have another conversation and figure out getting her van. Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you for all the work and preparing these materials. Appreciate that. Okay. Uh we got a motion, a second. All in favor? J. Christina. I thank you very much. Thank you, Teresa. You're welcome. All right, let's jump back in order, shall we? legislative priority. Did we do we cover this with Randy? Yes. Okay. Did you want to talk about the um shared service agreement while I'm here because I'm going to leave in a few minutes. Oh, no. Okay. Just we have an existing one with the county.

No, we don't. That was a draft as well. It was um not uh signed by the county. Okay. And it wasn't circulated to the other towns. Okay. So, this is um the reiteration of that. It's been updated two years later now and it's been recirculated. They've been working on it. So, Chris has been working on it because it's very different than the one a couple of years ago, right? It expands well beyond emergency situations and includes things like infrastructure paving and things like that which which honestly it's done on a handshake now with with the towns who are allowed to do that.

The town of Red Hook has um intermunicable agreements with each of the surrounding towns that are formalized. But this would enable you to go outside of those to have cost-saving measures, right? Cuz someone might have a PA that doesn't isn't close by to you. So, I just wanted to make that clear that there is no um current uh uh contract with the county. Okay. This is the um new version that they're circulating for everybody to put their comments in and then hopefully get somewhere with it. But it comes from the county um to all the towns.

And you anticipate that if this got approved then you would be sharing like services with the county on or

when when you have the most important thing is emergency services. If you don't have an intermunicipal agreement with another town and you go and help another town, FEMA may not reimburse you for the time that you put in to help that other town. So that's the number one issue. Um number two is that towns in the past have very been very used to um sharing equipment and with the men in them of course um on handshake and then it gets very messy with liabilities and things like that. So they're trying to have sort of a blanket so you don't have to have individual

and the county would like to share in that as well. We're just town to town. We don't really have a formal agreement with the county. So it just makes sense. Yeah. I'm shivering because I'm a little cold right now. You're not scared. Sorry. So what I'm hearing from you is that it you support the agreement as Absolutely. Do you have any concerns about county um has done it with their towns and county? Yeah. So this is through the um uh Duchess County Association of Highway Superintendent. They meet every month and the county comes to that meeting and uh they brought it up several times and the county is the one who's taking the initiative to get all the towns together to make this agreement.

Is this the reason it didn't get done last time and it was just a draft because there were questions or objections by other towns? No, the county kind of dropped the ball. Okay. On bringing it forward. They got sidetracked. So, um they picked it back up again. And to follow up with Jacob, I mean, I read it. I read what you what was said. I mean, I would just want to make sure that my Iowa superintendent is comfortable with all the terms, notwithstanding liability, which are legal issues, but I mean, just in terms of like what you're willing to share, how you're willing to share it, under what circumstances, if you're comfortable with it, then I I'm okay.

Yeah. And my understanding is that it's completely voluntary. you don't you don't you you're under no obligation to say oh I want to share your paper you know I can say no I I don't want to I don't have to same as you do with the surrounding towns but I know that if something happened in the town of Red Hook

and if it touched Milin and Pine Plains and Reinbeck and we're all in the middle of a big say ice storm and Clinton wasn't affected and and Pleasant Valley wasn't affected that they could come up and help us clear our roads and then get reimbursed by FEMA through the declaration process. If you don't have a formal insurance uh policy in place uh contract whatever agreement then FEMA will give you a hard time with that. So looking at

but I will just note Teresa that this agreement unlike the other one is not limited to emergencies at all. It's any situation whatsoever and Let me just make a couple of notes. And there are very different provisions in this agreement than there were in the other one. It's like a different person drafted it. Yeah. Now, I'm just going to ask you if you know who is responsible for drafting it and who is taking the comments because you forward one draft that had somebody else's comments on it, one of the towns. Um, so I'm just wondering where where this is in the process and and I think before the board takes an action on this, we need to understand where this particular agreement is.

Absolutely. And I'm not expecting anybody to take any action until this is thoroughly vetted. Yeah. And um I did in the email that I attached it to the clean copy that was requested um by the supervisor say that this is initiated um by the county. It comes from the county and the comments go back to the county. Comes out of Bob's office. Yes. Okay.

So, Chris comes out of Bob's office. So, maybe we can, you know, uh send our thoughts um you and Teresa can discuss comments and share with the board and and uh send our thinking about it to Bob at the appropriate time. Yeah, I just saw that you had it on the end of the agenda for the discussion and if we've talked about it now then I can leave. Very good. All right, we're going to have to start bringing quotes to town board meetings. Thank you Teresa very much.

Okay. Um we're back at Legislative Priorities Association of Towns. Um Okay. Now, I'm not going to read through all of these. I will just list them. Um maybe make a summary what summary on the first. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, there's a there's the titles, right? Um, and if you all want to chime in on any one particular one with some comments, can we go through numerically? Why don't we do Yeah, why don't we do this for the benefit of Christina? Yeah. And can we when next time? There are a number of these that have been on this every year since I've been on the board. Repeat offense. Yeah. Well, I mean, there are things that AOT and repeat wish list. Yeah. And I think that we all are in agreement that you know we want to preserve home rule all these things. There are some new ones on here and in fact there are 14 on this in my recollection and normally 10 normally 10 or 11. So used to be the top 10.

So you know obviously the ones that if you because you probably have been doing this longer than everybody here if just say like which ones are the repeat offenders and then which ones are new and why are they? Yeah. Well that would be helpful. I don't know that I can always answer why they're helpful. They have their own board. Yeah. Um and so they um Yeah. Okay.

Number one, preserve preserve and support home rule. Obviously, we talk about the importance of home rule. You hear me at Nauseium talk about how we can't determine our own speed limits in this town, which is absurd on our town roads, not on county or state, but on town roads. um as one example. Um this is this is about as softball as you get and it's always on there. Um number two, maintain and increase aid and incentives to municipalities and temporary municipal assistance funding. So AIM is something that municipalities get each and every year. the TMA, that's a temporary thing that was instituted supposed to be two years. And then the governor's a budget presentation the other day. And I want to just be careful to say when the governor has a budget, that doesn't necessarily mean cuz I'll be talking about highway funding and all of that. That doesn't necessarily mean that that's the number that gets adopted. That is like when I introduce a budget and you all get to weigh in on that. Um the legislature gets to weigh in on per budget. Um as well um there's been an extension proposed in the governor's budget of the TMA which is another $50 million. Um but there is no change in the amounts right now from what we got last year to this year in AIM. and aim is this generic like, hey, small municipality, you need assistance paying your bills and and we're not going to tell you what to to do with those monies. So, that's that's resolution number two. Any questions or concerns about that? Um, number three, support highway, bridge, and transportation funding. Um, and then talk about the the various amounts. There used to be just a couple of programs. CHIPS being the first one.

Then Pave New York came along. Bridge New York's been around for a while. As a reminder, we were the recipient. We applied for a Bridge of New York um funding for um the Aspen Wallbridge. uh as as an example. Um this is uh a uh a resolution to uh support um additional funding uh maintain and support additional funding for these various programs, some of which were supposed to be temporary, but as you know, most uh programs once instituted don't end up being temporary. POP being one of those, Bayar potholes um and EWR being two recent programs. The funding um for those various programs, just FYI, CHIPS was last year at $688 million proposed to be the same EWR 100 million paid 150 bridge New York 200 million pop 100 million uh Maruselli which is combined with chips is another 39.7 for a total of 688 for with chips. So, this is another keep, please keep supporting um local funding. Um the infrastructure investment and jobs act, nobody talks about that anymore, but that was a Biden initiative um is responsible for a lot of those federal dollars. Okay. Uh number four, new. Okay. So, seeing as a lot of money has been put towards water and sewer and yet it's still not enough, um there's talk of wanting to create a dedicated funding program for a municipal water and sewer infrastructure.

Um much like what uh CHIPS is for highway um which was created says in the resolution back in 1981. This is long overdue. Long overdue that there be some dedicated funding and there always is funding for water and sewer, but it would be nice to have that uh formalized. Um they talk about um how there was a one state a one state one house budget of $100 million towards this. You know, $100 million doesn't go as far as you think it does with 952 townships.

Okay. Stop me if you want. Uh, increase the salary cap for retired public officials returning to public service. Um, I don't know where that came from. No worries. Um,

right now there's a cap if somebody a public u servant wants to go back into government work in New York State of $35 a salary cap that they can make. And so recognizing that there sometimes can be a shortage of people um to work in these um jobs like to increase the cap. Their recommendation is $65,000, which is quite a jump. I don't see that happening, but um although it's been $35,000 for 15 years at least. Yeah, true.

I mean, I don't have a problem with it. I just wonder how realistic it is to Well, maybe they're thinking it would be another 15 or 20 years. So, build it in. Quite possible. Maybe it's some anchoring to try to pull the number up higher even if they don't get the target goal, right? But remember, anybody who like does this and then comes back, then they get accused of double dipping, right, Bill? I mean, that's Yeah.

Okay. Um, okay. Uh, resolution number six. Boy, this is something, you know, my colleagues at Supervisors and Mayors Association of which I'm the head of for the last couple of years um feel very passionate about this one which is civil service. It it just the whole process makes it really difficult for the folks at home if we want to hire somebody and it's a a position that requires testing. The county civil service has to offer a test. You wait to see how long that test is. You hire somebody provisionally. Then they must score in the top three. If they don't score in the the top three, then you have to rationalize why you're not choosing them. Sometimes those tests don't happen for a long time and somebody has changed their life around based upon working there and you have this fantastic employee but maybe they're not great at tests and so um it's just a good example of how it makes it hard for us. Now, you know, the the intent, I'm sure, is good, which is to make sure that qualified people. It is um you know, a challenge to find in these small districts qualified people. You know, when you look at, you know, how small some of these villages are, whatever, to find really qualified and talented people. But when you do and then um you know you have you're subject to these um very precarious rules. I'm kind of surprised this doesn't include more regular testing as a part of this like trying to encourage that to happen. It accounts for if you hire someone who's not a test within 9 months. It feels a little bit I don't know. It's strange to me that you wouldn't have test more

regularly than that but well they sometimes will go a year and change easily without offering a test. I think it's surprising that that's not a part of making this more efficient to have testing occur more more frequently and they'll tell you well there aren't enough candidate. They wait they wait to see that there's enough demand for the jobs because they don't want to offer a test if there are no jobs. On the other hand, you know, it's a catch. Well, the the other thing about these I have a lot of experience 25 years to the federal government and for the state in dealing with this issue is that many of these ta these tests

are um if you score in the top three other municipalities can pick you pick you off too and offer you more money. So the the test doesn't equate to the amount of money you make. It just makes that you're qualified. So say one municipality is paying a little less. Well, you're on that list and then the next door neighbor municipality, you know, so that the problem with the test is it's not really for you. It's for everybody and then it makes it much more difficult, you know, when you're vying for the same resource.

Yeah. Which is why I think offering it more frequently will help increase the pool of people who are eligible for these positions. And that'd be something that I would and I would I would sort of like to push AOT to incorporate that into the recommendations. More frequent more frequent tests. I think that would help address the problem trying to I think we can submit that suggestion even writing. I mean I don't know that I need to get up Wednesday morning and say that is fine.

It's not profound enough. No offense but we could just send that email more frequent more frequent testing. Right. and they will say to you, okay, but we need to know that there's another demand. Okay, resolution number six. Okay, got it. Uh, number seven, IDAs and pilot agreements. You know, at first blush, this is a no-brainer. Of course, local municipalities should be able to determine whether or not a pilot is approved because it has the local impact to the tax base, but that is a little bit

Is this a new one? Is this one that's been around? This one's I think it's fairly new this one. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, you know, this is something we hear a lot and it's coming up again now because we're going to I'm letting you know now the folks who are doing the Champlain Express, right? That is that nice big fat wire coming from Canada down the Hudson River to New York City bringing power there. And I think they're going to come in to all our river front towns and they're going to say, "We want a pilot agreement." I know they are because they're calling to make appointments. And so, um, you know, there there's that that's a a real world example that we may be facing sometime this year. Um, so food for thought for you, but it does get complicated when you have many municipalities involved and some may want to approve a pilot, some may not. And like with like the Champlain example, what do you do in this situation if the local has to sign off on it? Will any projects get done in that case? you end up being in this situation, right? Like in Midtown Manhattan where the little house is kept and they build the skyscrapers around it. I don't know. Um, you know, economic development, right? This is this is all part and parcel of it.

I mean, it feels in line with the home rule piece, right? It's sort of allowing municipalities to self-determine. Yeah. these sort of you know agreements. Yeah. Um I think there's pros and cons to any any individual municipality whenever it affects other municipalities but things are regional obviously. I don't feel so strongly about this that I would would dispute it. Yeah. Dispute it or you know encourage you to go push it in some.

It's just this may be an oversimplification of what needs to be a very specific I mean with the champagne which we will be talking about later this year. You know I heard someone say well that doesn't benefit us. It's taking the power from Canada to New York City but it's all clean power and that sort of does benefit us when you think in terms of New York which is transitioning to a much cleaner grid um than you see in in some states. I think they have gotten rid of their last coal plant. Um it's in the process. um you know, we all benefit from that. So, yeah. Okay. Um nothing except maybe it's just not that simple, right? But we're we're we're good with it. Reforming equities in a real property tax cap form.

This sounds every year.

It's every year, but I mean there's different suggestions on how to reform it. In this case, they want um exemptions. And uh you know, for the folks at home, you know that the tax cap, the amount that we can levy is 2% or the lower of the inflation or it's an adjusted and there's growth. You're going to hear me talk, you have heard me talk previously, but you're going to hear me talk in particular this year about growth because we get a growth factor. So we're a community, the town of Red Mark growth, right? We're growing. That allows us more base, more that we can spend, more that we can invest in the community. We're seeing a real stagnation in the villages. There's no growth to their their tax base. and and that that's becoming problematic when you think in terms of their package plant, you know, that's $20 million or whatever. Um these are these are some real structural um things. So, um then we talk about EMS, another thing we're going to be talking about more this year. Certainly in my role uh heading up the supervisors and mayor association I can tell you we've been very involved in trying to figure out um what's going to happen with EMS will be declared an essential service whether Albany will provide support whether the county will finally do a plan and they'll get money for that plan so on and so forth. This resolution asks for exempting a lot of these things from the tax cap um calculation um because they are separate districts and yet we have to factor in. So, you heard me say during budget season this year that we were spending a lot of our cap

limit um and this was only the second year that we actually raised taxes in the last 10 with our cap limit on uh Tivoli Firehouse uh project um and raising that capital budget line. Um otherwise, I think it was just a 1.2% increase townwide. At least that's what the local bills show. So this is about reforming the cap so that there are more uh exemptions out of that calculation. Um and everybody's focused on I don't want it to be on my line. The county doesn't want their you know if it's a BMS they don't want to you know they don't want to be responsible for it on their line. But at the end of the day, it's all the same set of taxpayers and uh we need to provide those those services. Any questions about eight before we go into nine? New local revenue source eval? Okay. Uh and evaluating mandates um real property taxes to fund services and operations, limited sources, blah blah blah. This is hotel and motel tax. Who wants to touch this one? It went so well in Ryback. Should local municipalities have the right to implement a local hotel or hotel tax is really what the resolution says. separate and apart from whether it's a good idea.

How about that? It's the same sort of thing with like the home rule thing, right? It's like letting you run municipality. Yeah. Exactly. I don't know. So maybe you should do it, but Yeah. Maybe it makes sense in some places, right? Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, there are places with a lot of lodging. I think we know which mun municipality we're talking about was encountering this question. Um, and then there's a municipality like ours that doesn't have enough lobbying.

Um, yeah, local municipality should get a share of the tax, right? I mean, if that's whether it's a new tax, whatever, but they should get to self-govern, right? Um, statewide grant clearing house for local governments. Um, they're act it's new and I have to say I'm not sure that this one's 100% fair. I mean it's true it' be nice if all of it were consolidated but in July when we are rushing to get in all those grant applications for the consolidated funding application season. The title reflects that there already has been an effort to um reagregate a bunch of those grants not all of them. So there's been improvements. I mean, sure, it'd be great if there was only I mean, I know Ann would be very happy if there were one way to get online and do the grant administration stuff. Um, so I think this is important, but I do want to recognize the government, the state has made some strides in the right direction here. uh increase competitive bidding thresholds under general municipal law. You you spoke about $35,000 and uh for salary and how many years ago that was. I don't know how many years it's been $35,000 for this, Chris. It's probably been since I was in grammar school, right? It's been a long time. Um,

and this resolution has been every year since we've been doing this. It's been a while. Yeah. So, you know, it's important to go out to do the competitive bids to make sure that the taxpayer is getting the best possible deal. On the other hand, a lot of work goes into sometimes depending upon the project. And um this has not been indexed for inflation and I don't know how many and don't get me started on prevailing wage. Well, I mean they've added of course additional options for other kinds of bidding, but for construction contracts, right,

where the the bidding process is is pretty complex. Um I I think that it would serve the municipality all of the municipalities if this were a little more rational for today's market. Right. I mean the resolution references 15. It would allow you to do RFPs for example rather than going through a full bid process. I know. And what a pain that is. and something goes wrong and you have to redo it and then you miss your timeline and then you end up spending more money.

Well, I mean, of course, there's a reason for it. It's just that the threshold is is the question, right? There's no question that it's it's helpful for the municipality. Totally. Um, but at what level is the question, right? Okay. I don't have a problem with 11. Anybody? No. No.

Um, 12 is interesting. modernize public notice requirements. Um, new and this goes back to how our societyy's changing for better or for worse. We used to read the printed paper. Um, that's a requirement that we publicize in the printed paper. I mean, I can't I don't know how many friends you have that read. the Gypsy Journal will find out when we're having a public hearing on something. Um, more importantly, we have our delivery system that tells people we're having a a public hearing. They see it on the website. Um, it's a changing, you know, time. And so it seems ridiculous. Nobody's walking around, no offense to the photo, uh, with a Gypsy journal reading it every day to see if we're having the public.

So, I would support this. Does this need to be modified? Do you have any suggestions? I just want to say also there's just some some of these public notice requirements are so Byzantine and arcane like you have to post a little postit in on the bulletin board in the office uh where nobody ever goes I mean who ever goes to that building you know it just it's kind of ridiculous

I I will just I will just point out that this resolution starts with where as every other sentence so that too has been around for quite a All right. Um, any questions on that? All right, we're getting there. Support ways to reduce municipal health benefit costs. So, one of the things that we can do is uh aggregate, right? And that's really what it's suggesting is that we have a greater ability to aggregate and to pull our resources. Um we've done that in the past when it came to energy with community choice aggregation. Um many people may not know that we were one of the founding members back in the 80s New York municipal nightmare. Um, we have New York class, which is a a vehicle that we use for what essentially is a a money market fund, if you will, um, which uh has an aggregation of uh, municipalities for um, holding uh, funds, you know, before they're expended. Um, so this is just an extension of that. I mean, whatever we can do to get better pricing because as I will remind you, the taxpayers at home watching this, um, this is now my 10th 11th year. When I first started, the premium increase was 21% that year, 15% the next, 15% the next, 9% after that, 8, and then it went to six, and then it went to eight, I think you get the gist. And here we are this year at 15

something. So, when we're talking about a 2% cap and we're talking about what our taxes are um versus what they were 10 years ago, we're pretty proud of the fact that you're paying less in taxes given that kind of drive um over the last decade. We need to do something. So, um doesn't hurt to have one more avenue. I just don't know that necessarily it's going to make that big a difference, but you won't know until you try. Anything else? Any thoughts on that? Last but not least, requiring comprehensive utility and telecommunications inventory reporting to local assessors. Chris, did you read this one? Chris, are you there? Did we lose you? Sorry, my audio was off. I read them all last time. I'm not going to say I read them all this time.

Okay. Um,

so I mean I would take a look at this one and you might know how much information we are getting versus how much they are suggesting we get. Um, it is a challenge to know whether or not these providers are quote unquote providing us with the kind of information to make sure that they are being assessed appropriately. I mean, I know some of the changes go through um our various boards, planning boards, you know, upgrade telecommunication and so on so forth, but la this is a lot. Okay. I mean, of course, yes, you should provide us with all this information if you're a utility. Okay. Any questions? So, since we just have really like one one comment on resolution number six, otherwise I'll be there waving my little paddle.

Okay. And that one town that has like 47 people in red house. They get up every time they look like the smallest town in 40. It's the only one that sort of objects to many of these things and I understand. Good for them.

Good luck. Then you look at for caven that's 500,000 or something. Um okay la got to keep moving folks before it gets too late. Um can we quickly um do we have any updates on on more uh vacancies? Um, were you able to reach out to some of your respective boards or committees? Bill, you are to my left. Did you have any?

Well, there are two boards that have no vacancies. The water board and the ZBA, but they do have some people who expired at the end of last year who wish to remain. I hope the people didn't expire. No, they they wish they didn't expire. There's uh but they wish to remain on those boards and um with the support of the chair and so which ones are the So for the water district it is um so water district has no water board has no vacancies. No. So no vacancies if if as Hank wants them to be reappointed

Larry Greg Michael and Jerry all said yes and Jerry and Hank the chair and the vice chair are one year even though they have multiple year appointments that's a one-year appointment and each of them has said that they would stay on for one more year in that in those respective positions. Okay.

Well, we discussed not appointing people until the community gets to know what they openings are. But if you've already heard from the chair that they want to appoint there are no vacancies to that board then you know maybe we could entertain that. But I want to make sure that we come up with a list as we normally do and send it out and say hey here's have you ever thought about joining a committee or a board. Here's where we have vaccine. The other one ZBA Ross Gould who expired he was the only member um he said he would be interested in staying on and it's with the concurrence of Kate the chair. There is a vacancy for the alter the an alternate position but uh we had two vacancies this past year. We filled one of them with Susan Grover.

You still should put it out. Um okay you know okay that there's an alternate. Yeah, we absolutely should. So I'd like to get Ross I'd like to get Ross for your appointment. Right. Cuz there you're going to face in a quarum. Yes. Ex. That's exactly right. Although just as a reminder folks, if you're new on the board, if somebody is not appointed and their term has ended, there's still a holdover.

So they still are in full effect in full force to go ahead and and um and vote. Okay. um until until such time as they are replaced in that position. So, uh I'd like to make a motion to reappoint Ross for the five-year term because also don't reme don't forget that his term he came in just last year. So, he was filling a vacancy that only had I think one year left on its term, I think.

Okay. Something's wrong here, though. So he cannot be a 2030. He's got to be a 2020 n then. Yeah. Then there must be a sequential problem. Has to be a typo there somewhere. Yeah, cuz we have 26. Would George be a 29 instead of a 30? Well, we have 226. Well, no, alternate 26. Your appointment. Okay. I think George George's number is the problem.

Oh. I just remembered that when we filled the position with Ross, it was a it was a vacancy that only had like a year or something left on it. I don't I'd have to get some old versions of this. Well, if his if his 25 would have been expiring last year, so that that would reflect that. I think we're I think that George's is the one that's a mistake. or unless the alternate the alternate wouldn't be that just the Yeah. Well, we can't change.

Well, if it's a 5-year appointment and his and it expired in 2025, which we know that it did, then his would it would go to 2030. We know that George's. No, I'm talking about Ross. Ross's. Yeah. So, George could not have been a 30. All right. So, you're making a motion to reappoint Ross Schools for the 5-year appointment ending in 23rd. At the suggestion of the chair. Yeah. Is there a second for that motion? I'll second that. Thank you. Thank you, Christine. Any further discussion? If not, all in favor? I I

I um And what did you want to do with the water board? you want. So, it's Larry Carr, Greg, Michael, and Jerry. Jerry, and their theirs are all two-year appointment term ending 2027. Okay. But Jerry and Hank to reup as a one-year. Okay. Is that your motion? Yeah, it's my motion. Okay, I'll second that. Thank you. Any further discussion? All in favor? Hi. Hi. Thank you. Did you have any others, Bill? No, I'm just waiting to hear.

We're back on vacancies. Okay. Um, Jacob, did you have a chance to chime in with any Um, I think that most of them are in good shape. I'll have some people who've been attending housing committee meetings to to recommend for those vacancies. Um, I think the rest of the town's got a lot of them. It does. Yeah. There have been there's been some turnover and some people who've been attending meetings for a long time without a formal appointment. They just participated and hadn't you know wanted to join formally but I've convinced a few of them to submit materials. So I think we have a good group to fill some of the vacancies. There's still going to be a few that aren't. We've had some people who've attended a few meetings here and there but not regularly. A few people who've attended

more recently but I haven't heard that they want to join formally. So um yeah. So that's one where I have I have a a list of I think three people right now that I'll circulate materials for for people who've been attending really putting a lot of work into. Um but other than that one I think the committees that I attend I haven't confirmed with all of them but looking over the list everybody who's included the the committees I go to are other than that one are full and regularly attended by every on the list. So everybody's full. Yeah. So I can I can confirm that on the next next time we talk about it. Everything else is in good shape. Can we can we understand what's happening here with the terms in the CAC? Speaking of fold,

why they're offset? Just there's got to be some typos on this. Do you I don't know. I mean, no typo. Well, something's gone a miss cuz we have two 206s and we have seven 2025. I can only tell you that nothing I haven't changed anything. Yeah. No, I know. Whatever's been going on, something's been something's going on. Um, so let's do a little drilling down on that, Jacob. Also, and if you can come back and if you find yourself in the same position that Bill is with um the CIC, you know, but let's see if we can get

to this term situation. That doesn't seem right. Seems like there should be at least two or three of them together. But yeah, there's there's there's an issue with design review committee too because Chris Gilbert's listed twice. Uh well, he's a member. So the way that this works uh typically Christina, they are listed twice in the chair position and then as a member because the membership, yeah, chairs are just for the year. So everybody needs to be reup each year if they're going to be the chair or if it's going to be swapped. So yeah, that's why the shares are always listed twice. Okay. Um,

anything to report on that one yet, Christina? Tackle that next. I could probably do ethics tonight because the only one to reappoint would be Brenda, who I know is going to be continuing and continuing as a chair with this board, the other members of the ethics board. Um, so I would make a motion to reappoint Brenda LC to the ethics board for a term ending in 20 2030 and then also reappoint her as a chair with the term ending in 2026. Okay, I'll second that. Yeah. And by the way, they did a great job. I don't know if I told you that they did a really nice job with their um training session here. Great. They were both fun and informative. I heard there were a lot of questions.

Yeah, it was Yeah, good. I think they did a wonderful job and really appreciate that. Yeah. And we had a second training last night that we recorded and we'll have the video for that available on the website once it's there was some like technical stuff we're going to cut out of like getting the screen to share up. But other than that, the materials will be available available on the website and I'll share it with Teresa too cuz I know she asked for it. Okay. Um motion and a second. All in favor? I I

LC make sure I pronounce uh Greenway and Trails. You'll get back to us on that one. Uh right Christina were you any any more besides design or be able let's say able to rehab you for No that's the only one that that um that I'm lean to but the um this St. Mary's committee keeps St. Margaret's committee keeps coming up. Um, yeah, we need to That was That was a committee. I don't see it on the list.

It was a committee years ago and literally the committee would meet with a building that was uninhabitable and half of the committee done. It literally Well, I mean, that's not a reason to not have a committee. What do you mean? But the the point is they had nothing to work with because there was no commitment to do anything with the building. So okay,

the outside was made structurally sound. A lot of work has been done. Now what the inside has been repaired, I would say the best uh uh description of it. Um and so now we're very close. It's literally just the door. It's literally the back door needs some work. They don't want to do they have to leave the doors open. They don't want to leave the doors open to make this one little change in minus 5° weather. So the building is very close to being in place and now we can constitute a committee figure out how to have this cultural arts which is how it was envisioned um and then who should be a part of it and come up with a plan for its use. So, it' be great to get started with that soon because we are finally after and this happens often times. We bought our Wreck Park West property in 2007, I remember, for those here and involved in that process, but we didn't actually work on it until 2011, 19, right? 2019. Um, so it does happen that way. Um, so yeah, we should we should think about that because historic there's arts. We got to think about arts. I know Juliet Harrison has asked, you know, she'd like to be involved with that. She was involved in the Red Hook can the artist network maybe before your time. Was it?

No, you mean the things that they put outside with the artwork in them? Well, the No, the little No, the AR boxes. No, sorry. It was an acronym. Brett Hook canless the community arts network and there were a whole bunch of community artists. Carrie Fura headed that. She's the one who did the paintings that are in my office. How does one establish a a a committee? You make a motion to We make a motion to establish but we want to give some thought to like who should be on it, how many all of that stuff before we constitute it. But I'd like

Well, I mean, but if we can Didn't you just say that the idea was to identify the vacancies and go out and and look for for interest? So, but in this case, we probably want to have like a bit of a mission statement to understand like who are we looking for, what are we asking and is it a good match and what are we asking them to do?

And I think to me like having a St. Margaret's committee on its own feels a little bit shortsighted. I would prefer to see something that looks either at historic properties or it looks at some other charge. If we're looking at arts, maybe that's a separate committee. But thinking about what we're actually asking them to do, having a committee that's focused on just one building feels a little bit of overkill in some ways if we're thinking about it as, you know, what are we asking the group to do? Maybe I'm the one who thinks that, but you know, I I would look for, you know, maybe we acquire other like like maybe there's a church that we end up acquiring and we need to like care for that and that's something or like I know we cemetery committee things like that, right? We are caring for a church in the cemetery right now and those are things that I think the same group could be considering.

What is the what is the um the red church cemetery committee charged with? That is mostly maintenance right now. But I think that's a good that's a good segue to what Jacob's talking about because this is Rev 250, 250th anniversary. So, one of the things we're talking about is opening up the Red Church, which is an amazing building to the community so they can appreciate. There are a lot of pre-revolutionary about 13. Somebody says 14,

something like that. there. Um, so yeah, there's a again cultural arts kind of a an event. So we want to create some events around that so people can experience these buildings and St. Margaret's Red Church, Elorf, um, the list goes on and on. Of course, they're amazing places along the waterfront as well and historic homes. Well, it seems to me like see Margaret's was significantly invested in. That's right. At the I mean that's that's a major task. Like I mean maybe there's a way to to establish it as like that's that's a focus that's going to take some effort to like getting that building going, utilizing it. Well, I Yeah, I mean, maybe the two of you could like come up with some ideas on on how to uh begin the process of putting together a committee to address the cultural arts needs and how St. Margaret's will play a role and also programming. You know, we were able to make it accessible on the bottom floor but not yet on the top floor. Would we look to rent out some spaces maybe to historical or other nonforprofit, you know,

because I think we I think the library used it for some summer programming. We had Yes, we had the library there, but it was out on the porch. Um we had we had another artist network um do uh basically gallery show and in fact there was a painting of St. Margaret's that's here in this building as a as a memorial to that. Um, so I think, yeah, now's the time to start putting our head together and figuring out how to form that so that it's like with the water in the sewer that it's concurrent with the hey, it's finally available. We can do some instead of wasting 14 years of people's time parking for that building recently to parking is

all done, which is all done. We can now we can now have people there and there's parking there. So, um, it'd be great to see it, you know, flourish. It it it was actually quite popular when it was used by the art artist network and it was a a real good programming that was done by uh the library and all abilities and those folks too outside. So, but I'm sure it can be used for so many things. Um, just a quick question on red church. I know in New York, you know, cemeteries are private. When they get abandoned, the law says that municipalities have to take them over. Were we forced to take the church? Is that

Well, I don't know. But did but the cemetery itself though we that was wasn't that was that the situation for Red Cemetery?

Yes. And I you know I would just the the legal term is abandoned. I would hate to use the term abandoned for these dedicated volunteers who by the way took it to the hundth year of their association. um you know, yes, they just were not capable of, you know, a lot of them had sort of aged out of, you know, being able to physically do some of the stuff that they were doing for the um and and needed our assistance and it was, you know, not what you have on your bingo card to inherit a red church in the cemetery, but they're very happy with the way it's being maintained and I think that's something that we should be very grateful for. John and and Twim and you know very talented people in that area. Um

yeah I mean it's a gift. I look at it as a gift. It's a burden but it's a gift. It's I mean look at that place but it's not one you can expect to come along. It's spectacular. And they've done such great work you know lifting the stones you know or when some desecrated some of you know they went. Yeah. So, what are you looking for with with St. Margaret's?

Maybe maybe since you two got a conversation started, maybe you guys can put your heads together and we can see about like what like a mission statement maybe for it so that St. Margaret's can have it's either a St. Margaret's committee or maybe it's a cultural arts committee and then St. Margaret's programming is a part of that if you want a broader do we have any materials from the time of the purchase of that property the acquisition of that property to to say sort of like what can and can't be done can and what was stated around the time is like the vision maybe there's not that

the vision isn't so much that um but yes there are in fact Chris is on there are deed restrictions and so on and so forth from back then um things that we can't do like we can't sell it to you know, for example, or Safeway. Um, it would be good to have that as like a starting point. Yeah. Yeah. And you you should have, Jacob, the deed restrictions, but also the um state funding agreements which extend for many years, right? Um and and impose some limitations on the facility. So, um you should be aware of those as well,

right? Often times when you get historic preservation monies from the state, they put on there basically a 23-year covenant on what you can and cannot do. Um, so no skyscraper behind the red church. Keep it. And I'll call out call out Paula for being just the the star on managing that process. um you know when it was neat renovated last time around right for the exterior work. Absolutely. For stabilizing the building for managing that you know that process involving the grants. Yes. Absolutely. Process and historical you know reverence. Yeah. Sure.

So maybe we can get that connected. Sure. Talk about that. Bring it up. I don't have any bandwidth left for that. you guys that you would wouldn't mind. Um, and I'm very excited about having that ready. Um, okay. Uh, do I have anything? No, except uh on energy. Uh, just want to point out there's another vacancy there. We have Paul Fletcher Hill listed. He's his term has expired the uh on energy and he has relocated perhaps temporarily perhaps not. He's not going to be this year.

He's not going to be reappointed this year and if he looks at the weather forecast for this weekend he may not come back. Um so if we could uh and I believe he sent in a resignation but it doesn't matter at this point. His term is expired. So we should list that as vacancy. So we compile the vacancies. We know that there's at least one more on energy. Um okay. I think that's there is one more on planning because Brent Kavalic on the alternate despite my best efforts to convince him as an alternate he's he's so there's two.

Yeah. So we would either have to have we spoken with well we'll leave we'll leave that to the chair to figure all that stuff out. So there's at least a vacancy for an alternate and a vacancy for 2028. Okay. Um and that's all we have so far for that. But we let's identify I'll I'll work with um Diana and this list and Kathleen to identify vacancies that we know of so we can fill that out maybe at our next meeting. Okay. Uh let's quickly go to board and committee reports after 10. Like I said the shortest agenda is always the longest meetings.

You know maybe you shouldn't say that now. That's just how it is. Maybe we should six years in. Okay. Um I think we we went over the highway stuff on the report. Yep. So why don't we put through what's the next thing on Okay. building and zoning. Uh so we have two reports. Um that's the month of December. Who's giving building and zoning? Oh Christina, could you report out please? Uh just on this Well, uh sure. This wasn't sent directly to me, so Oh, sorry. It's up on the screen now. No, I have it in front of you. Yeah. Yeah.

But I mean, I'm literally That's a good point. I'm reading it, but I we need to We need to make sure the Yes. Right. Right. Right. So, I I don't really have anything more to report than what is shown here. Okay. We normally read it out, but So, the first page usually um Yeah. Monthly report December 2025 24 permits 86 inspections 24 COS two complaints and a revenue of 14,108. Thank you. And we will not ask you to we have a January report and there's January. Oh, what you want to go over? Didn't they have a year end? Yeah, they did have a year end.

Yeah, I think it's the next one. There's three. Yeah. So, January 2026, 13 permits, um, inspections are pending, 17 cos, zero complaints, and a revenue of $5,411. And then the annual 2025 424 permits um 1108 inspections 339 cos 13 complaints and a revenue of 144,126.

Very good. Thank you very much. So I'm sure I'll be showing you some charts uh when it comes uh time to present the annual financial report. talk about once again. Correl um even though can it was on my watch. It was on It was on your watch. Yes. Please report out on dogs. Yes, it was on your watch.

It was on my watch. Um, I do want to say that it looks like there's a lot, but basically all of them except for two individual ones, all related to the same unfortunate incident that happened in the village and it involved somebody who was not from Red Hook. Um, I'm not going to air Dirty Laundry, but I will just say that it was an unusual and unlikely to happen again soon situation involving six dogs. and uh our dog control officer did a stellar job dealing with this complicated situation um and having to deal with the police and uh we were able to get five of them. One stayed with the owner and we were able to get five adopted out. So, um, and I I did, you know, I'll talk to Kenny about it when he's when he's back, but, um, the the two that were not related, one was the the one near the laundromat, and the other one was the one on 17 Chamberlain. So, all these all this work that was being done had to do with this group of dogs. And, um, there's a lot of work on her part. Well, when you're talking to Kenny, we need to figure out how to deal with these because we never really envisioned a multiple dog situation like this when we determined our fees and our sharing arrangements. And God bless Patricia for handling this. And you know, I'm glad that we do have Ryan Beck close by to do the share service with the facilities, but

but just getting them transported down to the kennel. I mean, six dogs, you know, right? Puppies are easy to to adopt out. They're cute and they're lovely. And these were apparently really nice dogs, but it was just an unfortunate situation. We've had a couple in the past involving two dogs because a lot of people have two dogs, so that's not uncommon, you know. Uh but this was really six is uh and it really had seven. It was really seven, but

yeah. But really what it had to do with is that one of the dogs got pregnant. He got pregnant and had the a litter and the person who owned the dog and was trying to get that litter adopted out without much success. And then there was a an unfortunate tragic series of events that happened that let them get loose. Um, and uh, you know, and I a shout out to the Red Hook Village Police Department because they were the first responders and they worked uh, very hard to help get those dogs contained and picked up and and transported, which, you know, doing one or two dogs is is a lot. Six is another thing alto together. So, um,

okay. But that's what it is. And have you been following this new facility that has PCA? The one in Duchess. Yeah. Well, no, they they have one in what town is it? They just opened the other day. Shoot. I don't know. I mean, I know Duchess got a big grant for their SPCA, $250,000 to increase the size of the kennels. Okay. But they lo but part of our problem with the six dogs is that they lost their vet and so, right, they wouldn't take them. they wouldn't take them and then they disperse

and which we would have to pay for. And so if you look on that line, it says conference call that I had with her about doing an adoption contract. We formulated our own contract so we could adopt the dogs out directly uh under you know so the the silver lining of this was that we put together a program council closely to craft an adoption uh contract. Right. Yep. Not on my bingo card. Not on yours either, right? The laws of probability say that's not likely to happen again soon.

Just like this wasn't going to be a long meeting. Uh Red Hook Town Board monthly police report. Uh we only have November's um and um I only have one page, two pages, one page. So yeah, they don't want us to put the details of the addresses and I and I understand that. I mean actually if you see this but uh there were 122 incident uh calls that they got uh they issued 25 tickets um moving violations and they made three arrests in November and I'm sure we'll be getting the December one soon for next meeting.

Who's who's doing what? I thought you were You're doing wreck. I'm doing wreck. I'm so glad I'm doing wreck. Okay. Um,

we were talking about the dog park again. Um, by the way, you should know people are advocating for yet another dog park. Some people don't know where we have our dog park, our joint rhythm. Some people want more of central location. village would be nice if you know there was a place for dogs. Most people walk most people walk their dogs through our new Cookingham trails and enjoy that. Um so just know that there'll be more discussion in the future about that. We talk about the maintenance of the dog park. Um and uh just a reminder for folks that park was about to be shut down and we took over the maintenance of it. So there is at least that option that exists. Um a lot of this is maintenance stuff. It's winter time. So they are talking about you know specific um items in the maintenance. They have revised their guidelines for the playground. Um counselors um and that's included here. Tennis and pickle ball. Um one of the few things that is still ongoing. You've heard me talk about how we need more in this community in the wintertime indoors for people young and old. Um, but one of the things that we are still able to benefit from is um something I was able to negotiate with the state at Eddie Parker to have indoor pickle ball. So that's continuing um this winter time as well. Um, but other than that, there's really not a lot of formalized recreation going on. This is all maintenance stuff. Yeah, that's that's what I got for recreation. Um, and there's, if you want to know about some summer programs and

attendance, 224 kids attended the program, which is really important and vital to this community that people have options and free options to participate in the community. All right. Just real quick question. Yes. You said that hopefully soon we'll have the schedule of events like cleanup day and other things. Yeah. You'll have the date for when the registration for summer. Oh god. Boy, you're well ahead of the game there. That's not till. Well, no. We did it. It seems to happen every time we do the day for the re uh for the shredding. We make sure there's no Yeah. double booking. Yeah. Gotcha.

Cuz it's really popular. Yeah. Sure. Sure. Okay. Um more maintenance stuff in this next report from Park and I'm not going to bore you all with that. You can read about it. Um uh Oh, right. Comp plan. Jacob, that would be you, right?

Yeah. So, um we have the newsletter from the comp plan steering committee. Um I went to a meeting last night and they talked about a lot of the progress that's happened so far, which is you'll see on the front here, including the visioning workshop that occurred in October. Um there's a lot of like the planning and analysis of trends and things like that that are included you know prior to that happening. Um where we are right now on the second page ongoing and upcoming opportunities. Um things that we would encourage community members to consider doing if they haven't done so yet is to participate in this first round of soliciting feedback. Um which includes the visioning survey. Links are available on the website. There's version in English and version in Spanish. And then there are kitchen table conversations that are happening um on a ongoing basis and those are being those are small gatherings um sort of like the visioning workshop collecting ideas, goals, priorities for Red Hook. Um so those are going to be happening you know over the next few you know over the coming weeks. Um there's going to be a second round of workshops coming up. There's going to be more communication from the committee. Uh but I think the newsletter gives a good overview of where things have been so far and then you know ways to participate in the immediate you know future. So more to come.

Great. We encourage everybody to participate. We're very excited to hear what you'd like to see for the next 20 years in your community or so um and how we can incorporate that into the plan. All right. Uh who will speak for the trees?

Tree preservation commission. Um so at last week's meeting, it's a list of the things that were discussed. Um there's work happening for the tree inventory protocol. Um trying to make it user friendly for the people that will be doing the inventory, members of the committee and volunteers. Um information about the Arbor Day celebration scheduled for Saturday, April 25th. um could be working with local organizations to join and celebrate the town of Reduk's 20th year. This is Tree City. So, there's there's work happening ahead of that, but um this is officially the 20th year. So, there'll be new signs and everything like that going up to celebrate that. Um the books for the 2026 Middle School poster contest winners have been ordered. So, the winners will be receiving those soon if not already. Um and then a few things specifically about trees, right? So, um the trees on Pitcher Lane, Buds Corners Road, Whales Back Road, and Wreck Park West have been pruned, weeded, and remulched. New signs have been installed. Um for the spring tree planting, um there's discussion of various planting sites including Buds Corner Road, Pitcher Lane, and Recre Park West. So, sort of filling in where where existing plantings have happened.

Um and then there was discussion about an interest in installing a bench at Wreck Park West. Um so, they've been doing a lot of work in doing plantings in that park. um and working with the Rec Park Commission on some of the site design for that. So, um they're going to be gauging interest, you know, from the Rec Park Commission to talk about what that might look like as far as bench options, ways to install it, requirements, cost, where that'll come from. So, um yeah, that's uh everything and somebody will make sure that's consistent with the adopted plan for park.

Yeah. And I think that's part of going to the park commission is to work on you know, so the plan that's why every time there's been the suggestion for a planting in in that market, it's been in collaboration. Yeah. And and must we put them in cement? Must we?

I don't I don't know that. I mean, it seems sort of a presupposed thing as part of their conversation, but I don't I know maybe that's a thing I can go back to them and ask their alternatives to having a concrete pad. I know that um they were talking about another bench that was more recently installed that had something like that and sort of like oh you know I know the I think John had an idea like how to source that it seemed like it sort of fell in line with installing a bench but uh yeah

well I just you know all these things are great a bench honoring somebody and tree honoring somebody but you know they they also influence the site plan and so you know you you don't want to you don't want to do something that take out later or something. And I think I don't know that this one's intended to be like a a bench for somebody necessarily. It's more for for the public, right? As they're accessing the park to have a place to sit further into the park. Makes sense. Trail. Okay. Um Ethics made their training fun.

Can you make water boarding fun? Well, when you're thirsty and you want nice glass of water. Um, how are you going out on well one? That's Well, the issue with well one, fortunately, it's stable. It's just not stable at a level we wanted to. Um, they're not there's no fluctuations. It's just it it was they were both rehabbed about three years ago and well, number one is having a relapse, if you will. Um and part of this goes back to the NOT issue for uh bid

bid limits. So um my understanding from the last meeting a couple weeks ago with the water department was that Dan Valentine who works at time bond who's the engineer for our water department is doing putting was putting it out for bid. Um there are really only two companies that do this kind of work that have done this work for the town in the past. And um you know they'll get

Yeah. I mean they'll get it rehabbed and then and then we'll know when they do all the things that they do to rehab it. If we still have a problem with went well one, then we'll know immediately that we have to drill either there is a third well that was drilled a long time ago that was really a test well, but it's there. Yeah. Okay. That could either be rehabbed or we'll drill back. What are they supposed to be pumping at?

They pump generally at about close to 100 gallons a minute. They can actually do up to 200. Um but they they have a they regulate um because of um the mechanics of knowing when the pressure in the tank reaches certain levels and certain heights. And one of the things that we approved at the last meeting was the contract for them to have a they've been using a 2-way radio and they're going to go to cellular so it reports back so they can remotely change it. what they did in the past, they were always doing about 150. Uh they they cut it back to 100 because it still was fine. So it's not an issue um of how much it's maintaining that level. And so you know you for the it's probably been the last four months that well one has been about 45. Um it's functional but that's not optimal. Um, and you know, certainly they know that well, and they try to increase it, it won't go up. Well, number two, if they wanted to jack it back up to 150, it would go. That's not an issue. So, that's where we are. Hoping that they get it done and we'll know soon. You know, other than that, I mean, the water that's coming out of our wells is exceptional,

right? Hey, didn't we have uh December, right? Did we have a a POS? Um uh let's see if I wasn't No, I don't think they didn't give us the Yeah, they did. It was due by It was due by the end of December. Yeah. Yeah. But was it in the January? I thought they There was a discussion was at the meeting that they were done, but for some reason they did not have It's done in the January report. We don't we don't have the Yeah, I'll have I'll have it from in the February meeting. Listen, they would have let us know. I feel like we'd have that information if it were. Yeah. Trouble find you. Um I think you found any public water. Sure. Yeah.

Systems in Duchess County have it. I was going to say I mean almost all of them have some. We've had none which is a really a good thing. Um changing that too. Okay. He's he's been right. He's been saying some of these meanings are lawyer. We never have PES. Yeah. Those are good. Yeah, they are good things. As long as we don't open like a teflon a factory to make teflon coatings nearby. I I I feel comfortable we're not opening a teflon factory because that's one of the big

we better make sure. Now now you got me wondering about our zoning whether or not we just when you think you've got enough protections in place. Um guess what folks? There's the piece of correspondence which was that draft agreement which um our attorney has already started working on um as it relates to shared services with the county. And just as a reminder, we have lots of shared services agreements with the county for pure and for this for that. Um, I imagine we'll have this on the next maybe meeting or two. We're waiting. There's 22 townships and eight cities and villages in the county. So, there's going to be a lot of comments from a lot of attorneys, which makes for muddled soup. Um, but yeah, this should come back in maybe a couple minutes. this back up. With that being said, um folks, uh take it easy out there. Um you know, keep an eye on your neighbors. You know, I saw a neighbor of mine who I won't disclose name or age, but I was concerned that he was shoveling this afternoon and how much he was shoveling. Well, before we close out, I mean, we haven't had in either of these meetings an update on the boat club or as you what you call waterfront

waterfront waterfront park. Yeah. Maybe um did you want to go with We don't have an attorney client uh session uh scheduled. We don't have an attorney um to be present to discuss the legal matters but we could you know schedule one for the next meeting or I mean is there is there is there any update on we don't discuss matters that are under negotiation or uh that are subject to litigation in public we don't we've been council not to do so as much as we may like to

so in in order to kind of recap on where we are with that. What would be the what would be the process? Um, I think it might make sense to have an attorney client session. Um, we might have some something back at their next meeting. So, let's let's hope we do something to discuss. Well, I mean, I think if we if we do or if we don't, maybe it would be a good time to just to to regroup and if it's if it's So, you're saying to go into executive session and have a a discussion? Go into attorney. There's very different um circumstances when you can go under one or the other. And by the way, there's new guidance on some of this stuff. So, yeah. So, what does that mean? Can you explain what that means?

To go into attorney client, you would need to have an attorney there and you would need to be asking legal advice about matters. Yeah, that's the room or in private. In private private private in the room with the attorney as part of the of the meeting. Yeah, we we we make a motion to go into training client attorney. We go into the back. Um what's the difference between that and an executive session? Oh, I'll send you all that stuff. I'm surprised they didn't newly elected. I learned lots, but not not they're supposed to have given you that at all. The the newly elected training. I'm surprised you didn't get that.

Um okay. Yeah, I'll send you all that information so you know all the different circumstances and and the latest updates. Right, Chris? issues there. Yes, that's right. There was a a recent I don't think there's anything really new there, but it's just reiterating all the best practices and all the requirements and they're uh basically was reminding folks who are involved in public authorities about their responsibilities and how executive session works. But it's certainly helpful um for anybody who's uh needs to understand these things. Yeah, about the open meeting law. So

yeah, Chris, if you have something that is fairly concise to share with our our new and I would just share that recent recent publication that that was useful. Um, you have that. Yes. Yeah, I I I do. I think you sent that to me. I'm surprised it's not concise, but that's, you know, it is what it is. Written by lawyers. It's not going to be concise. That was what they intended to share with board. So that's their training resource, right? Yeah. Okay.

Thank you very much. And again, um, thank you all for joining us. Please take it easy out there. Hopefully, we'll get lucky uh with this storm uh that's coming up the coast. Um, but uh do do read about winter prep uh guidance. Um, it can save lives. It certainly can help uh folks stay warm, keep their property safe, and so on and so forth. With that being said, I'd like to make a motion that we close tonight's meeting. Second. Okay. All in favor? I I Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you all. Have a good night.