(1) Town Board - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everyone. This is the Red Hook Town Board meeting of Wednesday, June 24, 2026. May I kindly ask you to join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? 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. Happy summer, right? We're a couple days into the season. I think I have the calendar right, although you wake up in the morning and you're not quite sure which season it is. Right. So that's me anyway. Okay. If you'd be kind enough to pan to the big screen please. We'll let the folks know at home what we'll be discussing and then you can decide how long you want to hang with us. We have a resolution to reject bids on the Aspen Wall Bridge. As you know, we received a couple of grants to redo the bridge on Aspen Wall, and we went out, we let bids. We had only two returned, one of which apparently had errors in it, and the engineers for that project are recommending that we re-bid on that. So we'll be discussing that. Number one, continued discussion on the sewer district, and in particular, our EFC grant award. Just reminding folks, we went out to, we applied for, EFC has two grant programs, WEA and IMG, Intermunicipal Grants. The Village went out for a WEA. They were not successful. We went out for IMG. We were successful. We've had some calls with EFC since then. And so has the Village, and EFC is encouraging us to reapply with the village so that there's a potential for awarding enough grant money so that the project can be financed and succeed. And so we have our engineers here to talk about that as well. We've got some extensions to their professional services agreement and then the sewer system design So there's a rather significant proposal from them to do the design of the sewer system for the TND. And a reminder to the folks at home, we have some ARPA money, believe it or not, years later that we still haven't spent that we earmarked quite some time ago for this specific purpose and we actually have to spend it before the end of the year and so here we are at that juncture where we need to GO AHEAD AND DO SO. WE HAVE A VERY BRIEF DISCUSSION ABOUT THE WATER DISTRICT. I THINK YOU PROVIDED A MAP. I THINK THAT'S KIND OF ALL WE HAVE TO DO ON THAT ONE. MAYBE THERE'S MORE QUESTIONS. AND THEN WE'RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT SOME MORE GRANT OPPORTUNITIES, JUST A LITTLE BIT OF FOLLOW-UP, MAYBE A COUPLE QUESTIONS FOR YOU, BRANDY, AND SEE IF THE BOARD HAS ANY INITIAL INDICATIONS OF WHERE WE WANT TO BE FOR THE CFA'S later in July. We've talked for several months now about these applications for the surplus water district parcels. And we agreed at our last meeting that we would, in fact, refer it to the CPF Advisory Board. And so we have the application to do so. And then last but not least, We are going to go into attorney client session and we are going to discuss the very first community solar farm. So if you recall, we built a two megawatt, not we the town, but we collaborated with a solar developer and some comment for a two megawatt community solar farm co-located on the village which is in the town, just to confuse matters even more. At the time, it was not possible for local governments to own and operate and take advantage of incentives for a two megawatt system. Subsequently, at least for a short period of time, the IRA, President Biden's IRA, allowed for municipalities to do so, which is what we've done with our Cookingham solar project. But what we did do is put a purchase option in that project contract, and it's an option at year seven. once all the tax incentives have been exhausted. And so that's approaching. So we're going to go into attorney-client session and discuss some of the legal issues surrounding it and then decide if we want to at least explore the purchase of that system and what the benefits might be. Then we're going to do department, board, and committee reports, and some correspondence. So a couple of quick announcements. We have two Eagle Scouts that will be honored this weekend. Robert , who, as you may recall from last year, he and his dad and some other volunteers built a new and extended baseball shed in our rec park. and so he will be honored as well as uh will and agnes will's project was the well at ferncliff forest will you may recall was a celebrated hero having participated in save someone's life a couple of years ago that's what i have for announcements except to say we have been busy morning, noon, and night getting ready for the Oriole Mills Pool at Camp Rising Sun, which will open on Friday. We have a schedule being up in the morning, as well as the rules for the pool. And just, folks, as a reminder, the pool is available free of use for town residents only, and you can bring a guest. We have adult times, lap times, we have open times and you can take a look at that all on our website as well as directions to the facility. We've all been working very hard and I want to thank obviously our rec staff and Conway who does our HR here in town to prepare for that. Fingers crossed we'll get some good weather this summer, and we thank you in advance for your patience. This is the first time we've done this, but we're really happy to be able to offer this for our residents.

Robert, before we get into the first agenda item. Please. I know at the last meeting we talked about, we had the home share letter from the housing committee. Yes. And we've invited some friends from the housing committee to be here tonight to present and speak with us, so it's on the agenda, but I just wanted to raise it, that discussion.

That's right, we did have it on the agenda last time they were here, and maybe they could talk to us a little bit about it before we get started on all of the engineering stuff. With that being said, it is time for some public comments. Would anybody like to make some public comments? If you'd be kind enough, Elliot, to come up to the microphone and state your name, please. Thank you.

or is this good enough?

Well, I think you need to get pretty close, Elliot, and just only because you're new here, we just remind folks we have a three-minute limit, which was established well before we were in this office.

I understand. I'm Elliot Schriftman. My wife and I live in Redd are coming on three years. She reads the Daily Catch. and said to me, it's time for you to volunteer your services to the town in connection with the boat club dispute. I see the vitriolic remarks leveled towards you. I don't like it. People can disagree, but we should resolve our differences cordially and professionally and with decency. Why am I here? Why did she volunteer? I'm a nationally recognized arbitrator and mediator. I'm a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators. For 11 years, I did Major League Baseball. I'm written into about 100 labor contracts. I served the hotel and casino industry for 31 years. I served also as a mediator in a multitude of industries, whether it's engineering, architecture, school, police. And just a month ago, I was able to successfully resolve through mediation a dispute with a major casino near a racetrack with which you're familiar upstate. I like this town. People have been nice to me, Ms. Cochran, people in the building department, my neighbors, everyone. I'd like to see if I can make a difference. I get $4,000 for walking in the room. I'll do it for nothing, just to be able to put back to the town. If you want me, great. I'll leave some cards. If not, I suggest you some other mediator and try to resolve because whether the boat club people are here or not, maybe they're watching this. They can reach out for me. I'll leave cards with you. And if you're interested, I urge you to. TRY TO RESOLVE THIS FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL OF THE TOWN CITIZENS. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THANK YOU. ROXANNE, WOULD YOU BE KIND ENOUGH TO JUST STATE YOUR NAME, EVEN THOUGH WE KNOW IT?

MY NAME IS ROXANNE FISHER, AND I LIVE IN BARRYTOWN. AND I COULD NOT HAVE A MORE PERFECT INTRODUCTION FOR THE STATEMENT THAT I'M READING TONIGHT. SO I AM HERE TONIGHT TO URGE THE BOARD TO PAUSE AND FUNDAMENTALLY RETHINK its approach to the Red Hook Boat Club. The Daily Catch this Monday recently recapped this multi-year eminent domain dispute, exposing a glaring contradiction. Publicly, Supervisor McKeon states the town remains open to a settlement. Yet, inside the negotiating room, the reality is completely different. During three months of federal magistrate mandated negotiations, The town's position was rigidly unyielding. The town must own the property, period. But the boat club is not and has never been for sale. Forcing a condition you know is a non-starter isn't negotiating a settlement, it's orchestrating an impasse. The financial stakes of this highly rigid skyrocketing costs had to burn through 280,000 in taxpayer funds. Now expensive depositions and full-scale discovery for a federal trial are looming right over us. Continuing down this adversarial path will cost taxpayers hundreds more, hundreds of thousands more, for a battle we don't even need to fight. Supervisor McKean asserts there's no other option besides total town ownership to get waterfront access. But that is not how Red Hook operates. We are a community built on successful public-private partnerships. Look right outside at our rec park. The Red Hook rec park pool is owned and operated by a private corporation, not the town. Yet by partnering with our public library, they offer free daily pass access to residents along with reduced membership fees. The private entity bears the overhead and liability. Our residents reap the benefits. Just last month, this board explored and completed a similar limited partnership with Camp Rising Sun for summer pool access. We did the exact same thing with the Winnikee Land Trust for the Sawkill project. The town didn't need to seize all 335 acres and own that land to secure public trails. We used a conservation easement. We achieved a community goal without heavy-handed government acquisition. We have the blueprints for cooperation right here in our own backyard. The Boat Club came to the table in good faith and offered viable pathways for a public-private partnership, gaining the public access the town desires while protecting property rights and saving taxpayers from a looming fiscal disaster. With new board members who ran on a platform opposed to this taking, it is time for a course correction. I ask the board to drop the absolute requirement of full ownership, return to the table, and look seriously at a true partnership. Let's solve this like neighbors, not adversaries.

Thank you. Thank you, . Would anybody else like to make some comments before we get started on the agenda? Yes. Okay. Oh, Roland. If you'd be kind enough to state your name for the record, please.

Roland Page, Red Hook. Mr. Supervisor, I take exception of the way you talked, walked away on the last meeting when I started to speak, and you left the meeting. You are disrespectful to those who have an opinion that is not lockstep in agreement with you i started to i approached the town board with observations relative to the town history relating to uh carried out before before you got here and you carried forth by my your not carried out by your administration. Then I moved to the actions under your leadership which resulted in Red Hook Town Actions less than necessary or beneficial for the town residents. Mr. Supervisor, you are the director. My way or the highway. You gotta get out of that role. You are squandering Red Hook taxpayer funds for substantial legal fees without full town board approval. I'm looking at two ends of the board. In my opinion, you are holding so... You are going to feed your greedy ego with the arrogance... Arrogant... expense, excessive expense of town residents. I believe that compassion and consideration for others is not in your vocabulary.

Thank you, Will. Anybody else like to make some comment? Okay. So why don't we, housing committee, there are four of you. Three. Three and a half. Three and a half. Well, let's start with the half. No. Sure. Come talk to us about the home share. Of course.

Happy to. Members of the board, nice to see you. Jacob, thank you for getting us on the agenda. My name is David Sokol. I've been the chair of the housing committee since December. not exactly a member, but an enthusiastic participant or observer for about two, two and a half years prior to that. I wanted to speak to you tonight specifically about the Home Share Program and maybe finding a way to have it take root here. There is one example, there's only one example of this program outside of New York City, and that is in Ulster County. And they have, they've set an excellent example for us. The Ulster County program was actually founded by the suggestion of the Woodstock Housing Committee, so that there's a parallel origin story here. Started in Woodstock, it's supported by the family of Woodstock, and then about 18 months into its life as a Woodstock organization, expanded to the county. It is a high-touch, highly mediated, and multi-dimensional program. This is not a replacement for a digital matching service or simply a community cork board that you might find at the grocery store. These are incredibly deliberate and highly vetted pairings between homeowners who have space to let and home seekers who may not be able to afford housing at a market rate. And once the matches are made, what happens is that the rent that exchanges hands is normally done at below market rates in exchange for tasks. What the Ulster County program has done for us, but has pioneered for us, is it has created a model which limits legal liability for the program itself. but provides a constant presence to both homeowners and home seekers, both during the matching and then during occupancy. To wit, just to show how much of a high-tech program this is, in their three, four years of existence, they have made 16 long-term pairings. So this is not a silver bullet for all of our housing problems. But I will say that the director of that program, who has met with the housing committee, has cited a $3,000 per unit cost. which is actually half of the national home share average. There are about 45 of these programs throughout America currently and a much more successful and widespread program in Canada. Compare that to the per unit ground up cost of new affordable housing and the difference is staggering. What home share can do is basically create housing from the physical plant that we have instead of trying to foster something out of the ground. It is more immediate, it is cheaper, and I'll reuse the word multidimensional. These pairings are often intergenerational or they match people who need help they may have ambulatory issues they may just want the age in place versus you know with people who can provide that help so you know there is uh there are lots of sustainability dimensions here about the demographic sustainability of the town the demographic spread of the town the loneliness epidemic And also just making better use of the infrastructure that we have so we can talk about the benefits of this program from a bird's eye view and not just from the perspective of a homeowner and a home seeker. The packet that was submitted was rather granular. It provided a roadmap for what a pilot program here can be. who would spearhead it, and the volunteer networks and other nonprofit and municipal networks that they could leverage to make it happen. There are aspects of that proposal that almost look like a job description. There are two aspects of that proposal that I want to bring up. One has to do with the very fundamental programming, so it's programmatic, let's say. We've proposed something like this to you, an investment of money and in time, as well as publicity, in part because our research has shown that it would be difficult to cultivate this out of a completely volunteer basis currently. We have done our due diligence, maybe not A plus, but I'll say A minus, about the bandwidth that's available. with our local nonprofits, and we don't believe it's there. We also know from Family Woodstock that the funds that have made the Ulster County program possible are not necessarily available to us anymore. Federal funding, even Office of Aging funds that help seed that program in Ulster County, those programs are currently not active. So this is a little bit of a swing, asking you to make this investment. It comes, I was doing math with my fingers, it comes out to maybe a $28 per hour, 10 hour a week position, with some big goals. I'd say that that hourly rate is comparable, maybe a little more competitive than a handful of job postings you'd see at Bard. and also would not necessarily require education like an MSW. In fact, someone with a social work background might actually be a little counterproductive for this program at this initial phase because an MSW might confuse the program with provision of wraparound services, whereas what we're trying to do here is lay down a social and administrative groundwork in this program. The other point that I wanted to make is this is not programmatic. It's a little bit more philosophical for the housing committee. In our existence for four or five years, we have circled around ideas. We've presented kind of big, somewhat ambiguous concepts to you. And I think we would like this proposal to represent a new threshold. We would like to try a new approach with the board. which is to submit much more focused and nicely detailed proposals so that we can really flesh out the board's opinion about the public reception to such a program. You will see other things in coming months, other proposals. And also, we can also get granular feedback about whether a program is even tenable, let alone potentially nicely received publicly. So we have been talking about Home Share, we've been following Home Share ever since it was really piloted in Canada. So I would say that we're pretty fluent in our proposal, but also the program in general. So we'd be happy to field any questions about it, either now or in the days to come.

Well, you're here, so let's take advantage of you while you're here. Sure. I might have to ask some of my compadres to join. Some of the other fraction? Yeah. Yeah, to come up. So logistically, if you want to tell just for the public watching how it works, you know, interested in who typically are these individuals, are they people moving to the community, or are they people that are typically already in the community?

So typically, home share programs tap into a pool of long-time homeowners. And this is typical. Who is to say what our future could hold? But typically, it taps into a pool of homeowners who are aging in place. who either want to age in place or maybe have a little bit of golden handcuffs, as it were, in this housing market. And either, you know, they often, these homeowners have, either have incredible foresight about, you know, the elder chapters of their lives, or they have experienced some kind of milestone, a divorce, a death, which makes them more amenable to the program. I don't actually have hard data for you about how these homeowners would divide into people who have experience renting out space versus those who are all new landlords. But anecdotally, it's a super majority of homeowners who have never engaged in the marketplace before. So it's new existing housing stock and new landlords, as it were.

So if I have an extra bedroom and I want to rent it out. Explain how that works.

Yeah, so you would be vetted. A home share program would vet you in two ways. First, as a potential home sharer, what are your habits? What kind of roommate, effectively, are you looking for? Are you willing to charge below market rents? And if so, would you be looking to do so in exchange for tasks? There are rare occasions in which no rent is exchanged and it's simply tasks. I will say too that that is another legal liability that the Ulster County folks have figured out. That program is not getting involved in property insurance.

And this is managed by, you're proposing it's managed by somebody that the town would employ?

Yes. The equivalent to that person is a woman named Janice LaMotta, who is the program director for this, but she is effectively paid by the family at Woodstock, rather than a municipality, so this is a little bit of a sideways. What does she operate out of? She operates out of family Woodstock offices. She works about a 30-hour work week, but she's also in the field. And a handful of volunteers, some of whom rotate in and out, do report to her. So just to finish your question, Christina, is that you would undergo an intake, both as a human being but also as a property. Your bedroom would take a look wee. would take a look at the bedroom, you know, and get a sense of, is there an ensuite bath? Are there maybe corollary structures outside that could be of use? Is there space in the kitchen that could be shared?

So kind of similar to like an exchange student? Yeah, very much so. Where like AFS or Rotary would vet the homeowner and say, all right, you're suited for this and you have the space and then... and then you get gas and somebody comes to sleep.

And yeah, that maybe 90 minute, two hour intake is matched by a similar intake of a home seeker, including background checks, which cost all of $35. we might want to rethink that just a little bit because we do have a home seeker population here that may not have much financial history. You know, graduate students at Bard in particular, none of whom are guaranteed housing. But, you know, just for the purposes of simplicity, you know, a background check is not an insurmountable barrier. But does say that, you know, the intake is done on that side as well. And beyond that, there is a there is a period of sort of supervised courtship, actually culminating in a two-week trial. This is how Ulster County runs it, culminates in a two-week trial period, a two-week sleepover party, as it were, and then both parties can either agree or not agree to continue or to make it permanent. So yeah, just to go back to your question, Robert, the homeowner pool typically skews older. They may have, you know, these folks may have, you know, entered a community at an earlier point in their lives. They needed those bedrooms. They don't necessarily need those bedrooms anymore.

They have no idea what you're talking about.

And, you know, home seekers, you know, range in all kinds. There was a Bard student who was placed by a family of Woodstock, by the Ulster County program. You know, folks, those folks range from you know, students to, you know, actually, you know, home seekers who are very close demographically to the homeowner, but have something to offer, even if it's companionship.

Hudson River Housing, one of these agencies, have they thought about maybe...

Very interested in the home share program. They actually dispatched one of their representatives to sit with us the night that Janice came to talk with us in detail about this. they do not have the manpower, at least not currently. But yes, we try to loop in HRH whenever we can. Make sure that we're not requiring resources that they may already have that seems unnecessarily duplicative.

i had craigslist flashbacks when you started discussing this because i does anybody remember craigslist right i mean that's what so much of craigslist was was housing you know looking for whatever so this is that sort of thing with a little bit more of supervision and trying to you know, assure a better outcome or increase the odds of a good outcome. Exactly. But anything that brings people together, you know, and certainly utilizes existing inventory, I think we need to investigate, yeah.

Yeah, I wondered, you know, whether I could sell this to you as, you know, possibility to maybe get certain properties out of arrears but every time I research that it's just that that's not that's not a good promise to make you know that so many planets would have to align you know to get to you know to make that promise but there but the benefits are you know are you know there are multiple benefits and And in a way, there could be municipal benefits, too, because there may be more people in town using the infrastructure that they have, and that might actually defer the need for the municipality to invest in more infrastructure for development beyond what we already have.

Just a brief comment. Trish Danzig, Housing Committee member, Board of Associate Review, local... What did I say?

You said associated. Your assessment. We have to be nice to you.

Just the one point that I want to make is that I see every day folks struggling to hang on to their homes. Their home may be paid off but they still have to pay taxes and they still have to live in this community and we are all watching houses fall down around them because they can't afford everything that home ownership requires. It seems to me to be an opportunity to kill a bunch of birds, with all due respect, proverbial birds, with one stone.

Just part of a multi-prong approach, for sure. You know, you mentioned Ulster County, and I have literally two seconds today not working, and it was to see that Jen Metzger, who I've known for quite some time, did a ribbon cutting for a project that was proposed in 2023, and it's all built. They did the ribbon cutting. Does that sound familiar, 2023? Ruffco, Cookingham? Right? We should be doing a ribbon cutting now, instead we're waiting on zoning. So we need to get that aspect going too. This program sounds like something we should definitely explore. I don't know what you all think what, I mean, you know, obviously there's some concerns about when you put people together. I have one quick question.

You do background checks on the people who are the seekers. But do you do them on the homeowners side? Both sides.

Yeah. I think the way that Janice explained it to us, that the background check on maybe the homeowners is maybe not as official. Why not? If a homeowner has three liens on a property, that may not be a match you want to foster. I would say that's the bigger point, I think, is that whereas Ulster County has provided a great model for us to emulate, we don't have to go for it step by step. We can come up with our own scenario planning and design the program accordingly. Lots of golden handcuffs out there.

Lots of intergenerational stuff. I think had a question.

So what's been your experience with the reaction of the public when you bring up this possible arrangement for their towers?

I've had to do this little spiel because there is a question of, well, is this a matchmaking service? Well, what do you mean? What do you mean it's high touch? So it requires some explanation. but I've only heard positivity about it and also there's been media coverage of both the Ulster County program there was a fantastic feature article in Chronogram a few months ago about it and then national media coverage of the home share concept in general has been very positive and I think that kind of boils down to that these are highly mediated relationships. They're not just, you know, random pairings. You've done it a fraction of the cost of, you know, of new construction, which, you know, is, you know, can in some markets be $600 a square foot.

It's impossible to build an affordable post-it without a lot of subsidy, you know. More questions before... move on to engineering. Danny, anything? Thank you very much. All three and a half of you. I'm not going to ask, do they have to? That'll come out in the chat that we run on all four of you. We're proposing this.

Yeah, I'm happy to really talk to you any time about how this could play out. and some of the scenarios that we have envisioned, things that we could embrace. Keep bringing ideas. We will.

That's what we want from the settings. We want ideas. We've got several in the works. Thank you. Thanks, David. Thank you all. Okay, engineers. Who's going to lead the discussion on EFC and... the concept of doing something unfathomable, which is saying thanks for the two and a half million, but now we want to apply for a lot more.

I can get started.

Okay, Brandy, could you?

So just, I'll stand up and speak for the record. So for the record, I'm Brandy Nelson with Ty and Bond. I'm here tonight with my colleague, Aaron Moore. I'm the town of Red Hooks from day to day engineer and Erin specializes in wastewater treatment systems so if there are any specific sewer related questions she's available to discuss them and she's worked with a number of communities around New York State both on the design and the financing side of things and has some very analogous experience with a similar town-village joint system that we are working on currently with Billerton and Northeast here in Dutchess County. Anything else I should add? And so where we are with the EFC financing, I WENT BACK AND I TOOK A LOOK AT THE RECORD. AND ALL OF THIS STARTED BACK IN 2024 WHEN THE TOWN BOARD DECIDED TO MOVE FORWARD WITH HAVING US PREPARE A PRELIMINARY ENGINEERING REPORT AND DO THE DISTRICT FORMATION. AND IN JUNE OF 2024, WE MADE AN APPLICATION TO EFC UNDER THE INTERMUNICIPAL PROGRAM. AND IN THAT APPLICATION, We applied for financing and grant funding for about $6.5 million. And that was for two components. That was for a 50,000 gallon module at the village resource treatment plant. That would be paid towards the village's sewer upgrade project. And $4.5 million or thereabouts for collection system improvements in the TND. That 50,000 gallon module was from our preliminary engineering report. And at the time when we made the application, the village was still going through their process trying to decide how big of a system they were going to construct. And so we didn't have clear information from the village at that point in time. The 2024 application was made in June of 2024. We got a notice I believe in December of 2024 saying we were not successful. And so subsequently when the program opened again in 2025, we resubmitted and we do what is called cloning the application. So we resubmit the same application. The cloning gives us an opportunity to update information. And at the time the village was still not a hundred percent sure if they were going to do fifty thousand hundred thousand three hundred thousand They were working through some of those things so again recognizing that the application still allocated a portion of the grant to The village and a portion to the town and following up with the FC appeared to meet all of their grant funding requirements That application in December of 2025, the town received an award letter saying that the ESC was happy to provide a grant towards the project in the amount of just about $2.5 million and the town would be eligible for financing for the rest of the project funding costs. Separately the village now at this point in time had decided that they were going to move forward with a project still ranging from somewhere between a hundred thousand and three hundred thousand gallons at their sewer plant, but they were applying for grants and funding opportunities specifically related to their portion of the plant upgrade and their expansion of their collection system.

We received a call in A couple months ago?

I think it was like March or so.

Yeah, has it been that long, three months ago? In the spring of this year, the EFC said at that point in time, the village had applied for a WIA. We had applied for a WIA and an IMG. And that in the spirit of the intermunicipal grant process, even though our Our application was for an upgrade of the plant, the villages plant, and the towns, which is an inter-municipal part, that if we reapplied for the whole project, the villages $19 million project and the towns $6.5 million project, that whole project could be considered for the IMG funding. The IMG funding is more favorable than the WIA funding that the Village had applied for individually. The WIA funding will provide a grant of up to 25% of the project costs. The IMG will provide a grant of up to 40% of the project costs. So it would be more favorable in terms of total project grant funding. However, to do that, we need to decline the current application of the six and a half million dollars and replace it with a new application for the total cost of the villages project and the towns project. Does that make sense?

Twenty something million. Twenty five million?

So to be perfectly fair, we do not have the exact numbers yet, but the round numbers are $19 million for the village and $6.5 million for the town.

So you're saying in December we were awarded the grant. You said we received a letter. A letter of award. Just for clarity, so we were awarded a grant. Correct.

for six? 2.56 million. 2.56 million.

40% of the six and a half, yeah.

Yep. And that grant is essentially no longer viable?

What we're being told is we need to withdraw our, we need to rescind our interest in that grant.

If we want to apply.

Just the clarity.

If we want to apply.

No, I understand. So, I mean, I understand that there's, Essentially, there's more money available if we work with the village. And that, I mean, that's logical. But if we didn't, the grant would be rescinded. They haven't told us that.

We haven't officially received that information, but that's our understanding.

That's not what I heard on the call, but at this point it's sort of semantics because what we do understand is that the village is not able to move forward. Because even though they told us for the longest time that they had their plan of financing, Turns out that it's not enough. Even if they receive the WIA for 25% of their portion, it's not enough to make the project pencil out. So EFC came to us and said, well, there are a couple of things that I should add. After we received the award, the village was told that they couldn't apply for IMG because you're only going to have one application for this joint project, which doesn't say anything about that in the guidelines.

So we blocked the village by applying as the town, essentially.

I don't know that I would characterize it that way because there's nothing there, there's nothing there in the program guidelines to tell you that afterwards they said, oh, by the way, there can only be one application for IMG. We never understood that to be the case. We always thought they could apply, but they decided not to apply for IMG. They were going to do, we did IMG. They were not successful. We were successful. I think the point is how do we get the ball across the finish line?

The important thing is that the plant upgrade occur and over the last two and a half years, the, Plant upgrade is the most critical thing to have. If there's no plant upgrade, there's nothing for the town to connect to.

I don't disagree with that, but it's pretty wild that there would be a grant awarded and then taken away. So I think it's important to understand... They didn't take it away.

They're not taking it away. They're not taking it away. What they've said was the reality is our portion is to put shovels in the ground up to where the plant is. But if the plant... And a portion.

And a small portion. It's important to say, and a portion of the plant. But that was only $50,000. That's the intermunicipal. Look, we could talk till we're blue in the face, but they have... There's bad news and good news. The bad news is we don't know what would happen if we were to say, sorry, we're not going to reapply. We're sticking with the $2.5 million. The good news is that they're strongly urging us to apply for the entirety of the project, and that will produce $9, $10 million instead of $2.5. So... Again, you know, we could spend a lot of time trying to look in the crystal ball to see what would happen, but I think the important thing is we need to get going and who's going to do that application. And my understanding is that Monday night's meeting with the Village has agreed to us doing the application for the entire project, which makes me feel more comfortable that it'll get done. So... When's the application due?

The 27th of July.

July 27th. So it's not hard, but again, we need to get information from them. We do have calls coming up, regular calls, including one this week, to get updated information. One of the things that EFC did say is that we could update our estimate for the project. Now, since we applied, We also have determined to use the ARPA money and so on and so forth. So while the cost may go up a little bit, we also have some money that we're already applying to the design services, which we'll be talking about in a minute.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's important, and Aaron may want to chime in here, what we haven't to date had and what we're hoping to get this week when we meet with the village's engineer is just clarity on where they are with their design process and their cost estimate, because we've only been working in these round numbers. And the town is basically buying a piece of the plant, a piece that gives you the capacity that you need. And so we need to understand how much they're planning on building and what our share is, because you guys already have an inter-municipal agreement to do a proportional cost share. And so we have yet to get those detailed numbers, and that's what we're hoping to get. That then will help inform the new grant application.

With the WEA grant application that they got denied for, provide you a lot of the information you need for the grant if we were to do a whole?

No, because just recently the village engaged Delaware now to design the whole 300,000. And so we have not gotten a new update from them since that point in time. So that, I understand the difference. I don't know if you want to add any more to your conversation.

Erin Moore from Ty and Bon. In regard to this topic, the village's engineer, which is Delaware, has been very forthcoming in understanding this issue and understanding the timeline. So I think there is a level of schedule here. The town has had, the requirements to apply have this engineering report, preliminary engineering report. The town has had a preliminary engineering report for since 2024. The village has not been prepared with one. as a document to apply and it's mid-July. So we'll, if they, no. No, mid-July is when the engineer has said that the PER would be ready to give. Yes, so we, so if the town finds it acceptable to reapply, what we would do is every single thing, And then as soon as that budget's ready, be able to prepare that. But that's very similar to how this process has been through the years as far as even trying to understand the quantity of the town's portion. I don't know if it's bad timing or definitely sometimes, you know, you're asked to do something very quickly. I haven't been part of the villages process so I can't say but it's been very challenging to just their timeline seems to be not hitting in having this information enough time to apply for these grants and so probably their engineer is very used to fielding engineers emails from us asking for this information and they're trying to be as And we've communicated with the village all throughout all of this grant procedure, or we would have not a number to plug into any of these applications, so the village has been very aware we've been doing this.

Well, they wrote a letter of recommendation.

And they wrote a letter of recommendation.

For our IMG, so the idea that somehow, you know.

Nope. So they're working with us very closely, answering all emails, but they're not expecting to have their final costs.

So I just need to back up. So we applied for a grant. We got awarded in December. When did we find out that that grant was not viable?

You keep making declarative statements that we keep suggesting to you. We haven't been told that we won't be awarded the two and a half million dollars. We've been encouraged instead to apply for the whole thing because that will make the project the project viable because we can't have...

But do we have to make a decision to rescind the grant?

We do if we... They will not take, again, they will not take two applications. They won't take two applications from us. They won't take an application from us and from the village. They have this hard and fast rule, which is not in their program documents, I might add, where they will not accept two applications related to the same...

So we have to make a decision whether we have enough time to redo the grant application together with the village and get more money, but the deadline is the next month.

So to that end, Now that I'm hearing Aaron say that they're not ready until mid-July, I would suggest we wait all the way until our July 24th meeting. What is that date? 23rd? Meeting before we go ahead and make a rescission on the grant. Because then we will know we were all finished.

I agree with that. Yeah, I agree with that.

And then we got all the information from them.

But I think...

But we proceed as if we will.

We do want to proceed with teeing the application up because you guys have already done all the work on your end and part of our meeting with the village this week is to get what they already have. To Aaron's point, we want to get it queued up as much as possible.

I do remember what it was like when you were doing the PDR for us and how long it took and the feedback you needed to get from external parties and how long that took, I guess my question is, is Delaware providing you a sense of, they say mid-July, but I mean, I knew what it looked like when you did the PER for us, and I knew how long it took. I also knew how long it took to do both applications, because I was one of the people who reviewed them. And I'm on the time issue. I'm a little concerned. that you haven't been given a firm date from Delaware or even shared, they haven't even shared with you necessarily what they've done to date to make an assessment of whether you think we can meet that deadline or not.

So with all of our requests, we have the previous version of the PER. Right. So they shared that with us. Okay. Absolutely. We asked for, there's certain documents we have from the town. their resolution, their environmental seeker resolutions right away provide, there's a drop box now so we can get that information. So they really have been forthcoming. I have a feeling the mid-July date is possibly a village meeting date where they'll approve that, accept that PER and then it's available. And so that, from a municipal standpoint, that makes sense. We certainly can't get it before But the previous version gives us enough to describe the narrative as the comprehensive project versus just the town project. So there's a tremendous amount we can do other than a budget sheet. But as long as both communities have bonding resolutions, which they do, Good, check. That doesn't need to be redone. Environmental documentation, done. SHPO documentation, already done. So those are some of the longer weeks. And all of that is addressed by both communities, and they've been very forthcoming with sharing that. So I think everyone on all styles of Red Hook know this is very urgent to do this. And I agree. I think it's very unusual the level of,

intervention intervention the time frame is viable yes absolutely yes i also do recall with the last one because whenever they have those their dates you know whatever their date is is their date that you guys had built in time because i reviewed a lot you know both times when we got denied and when we got approved I remember even just for technical reasons of submitting the electronic application, which is cumbersome in and of itself, you guys have also had to build in time to make sure that there's no glitch in Albany, there's no issue so that you can submit it the way they require it. You know, we don't have an internet crash or some other issue that makes it difficult to do. So I just, you know, there are a number of my recollection of going through this with you guys. was there are components and times and making sure that, I remember when you sent the email, they received it, it was like the day before it was due, and I was like, whoosh.

We generally try not to wait until 4 p.m. on the day it's due to submit it, so yeah. I don't doubt that we've got the goodwill of the village in terms of moving this forward, it's just that the timing will be tight, and with regard to applications, we can only have one of this type of application.

So can you just summarize the logistics? So you need to wait on Delaware Engineering, which is the engineer of the village. And they're going to, in the meantime, you're going to do as much as you can do on your end. And then you're going to get information from Delaware on July. The week in July, hopefully. Third week in July?

If I can interject, that's not going to be the first month we're going to get information. We're meeting again this week and next week, so we're going to get information as the weeks unfold.

I feel like the only information we'll be missing is the budget information. And so from our perspective, we have an Excel sheet built to understand how we're going to plug these numbers together. And I've been, again, communicating with the village engineers saying, What are you escalating to your construction date? So we are ready to plug in as soon as that information is available.

So by our next meeting, which is what, July?

14th. No.

Our meeting.

9th. 9th. Do I have that right? No, no, no.

It's later because of the second week.

14th and 20th.

By July 14th. 13th, something like that, yeah. What would you expect that is done, and what would you expect that's still outstanding?

Let's be conservative. Even sooner than that, we could prepare and share with the town and the village. The draft application end, you do attachments to it now ahead of time, so you can download the documents. Sometimes that's the big concern on the day of is the bandwidth literally like the bandwidth for the website. And so we could see all the attachments, all the completed applications, every form, see that we're able to get review comments back. And I believe, being conservative, the budget sheet would be the only thing that would be yet to be done.

So tell me the process of like how, I mean, This is not something I'm familiar with, so forgive me. So you're going to submit, and then you're going to get comments back, and then you're going to have to revise? No, I submit to you all. To you, to us.

Yeah, so Phil was our liaison for the last time. The application itself is only about seven or eight pages. It's relatively straightforward, but there's a tremendous amount of things. You have to attach financial information for the town, and legal information, and bonding resolutions. the PRs and a whole bunch of things. So we worked with Bill last time just to have a second set of eyes on it. So we tried to do that the week before.

So if we were going to, so at our July 14th meeting, would we need to take action?

I don't know that, I mean, if everything's ready, great. Otherwise, we wait until the second meeting and we're all set. our IMA they're happy with that they've reviewed obviously reviewed our application because they you know sent us the award letter they've reviewed the we application from the village what's changed now is that the system is under a consent order so what that does is their application which crazy world where you get more points. Right, if your house is on fire, somebody pays attention. So, you know, a lot of the work has already been done. Just as long as we get what we need.

Well, I mean, my concern is, like, when would we get the information? When would it be complete? Or when would it be 80% complete and then we have time to review it? Like, I'm trying to understand how the logistics work because it seems really really jammed, so I think it's...

It's not that much information that you see on the application.

I would say today it's 70% complete.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think by the time we get to your meeting on the 14th, assuming the board, or excuse me, assuming the village has provided us or is close to providing us, we're probably going to be 90% complete. It's a couple additional attachments.

It only takes an hour or two to review the application. It's not that lengthy.

But the state does require a PER that's approved.

Correct.

We have ours as approved, but they don't have theirs that's approved, and that's a requirement for the application, and that's the concern that I have, knowing what we went through to do ours. Well, it's very different for town and village, so that's just...

Yes, because the village is... There's different municipal laws, so... public notice you would have needed to go through the district formation, the village doesn't need to do that.

They don't have to do any of that. So on timeline, in July, we have a meeting on the 14th. And because July is a weird month.

The 22nd is the next one.

So it's the week, so we don't have two weeks in between. So I understand the urgency. 19 million that the village needs. That is to get it up to the 300,000 gallons per day.

So the village's project is two components, just like the town's project is two components. There's a treatment plant part and there's a collection system part. And so that's what we don't have. We don't have the breakdown in their budget for what's the collection system versus what's the plan. What we do know is the town's portion was going to be two and a half million for the town's portion of the plant.

And that's 50,000 gallons?

Correct.

So does the 300,000 gallon include the 50,000?

Yes.

Okay, does the village, is some of that funding going to be for the affordable housing that's going in on Cook and Ann East?

I think we need the details out of the PER, but our understanding around the complexity the village has faced in trying to decide how big of a plant to design for is understanding which housing developers are ready to, you know, start their projects and need that capacity and is the school involved and, you know, is the town ready to go? So there have been a lot of moving parts that the villages had to juggle.

My concern is, you know, what transpired with the sewage plant the last year or two with the issues, obviously, with the affluent running down the stream, that's got to end. And I'm hoping that the amount of funding that this is is going to resolve and have a healthy working system.

As the supervisor said, we heard that the village is under a consent order because of those issues. That's a DEC order that says you must fix this. Right, I understand. And that's the reason why they will now have a higher scoring to do a repair because the state is behind trying to help them finance the repairs.

This is a different system as you know, it's a member system.

Obviously the past engineer put together a system that wasn't properly sized or functioning properly.

Yeah, I can't.

Anyway, so that's my concern.

It's a lot of money going into it, and I'm hoping that it's going to... Well, this is the only way it's going to get fixed is if we get something else in place, right? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? No. So is that a course of action and we'll just take it meeting by meeting and we'll update, you'll update us and those meetings will be prepared.

So we already cloned your last application to have carried over the additional information and then Aaron's been in contact with Robert Flores from Delaware Engineering just trying to pull the other information data inputs that we need for a complete application.

Okay. So certainly on that 20... We keep saying different numbers. 22nd. I was wrong. 22nd. And it's due on the 27th. Right. Yeah. So we'll be prepared to know on the 22nd what happens on the 14th. Great. Good night. Okay. Okay. I never thought we would ever be in a position to say thanks for two and a half million, but no thanks. But, you know, we'll make lemonade out of these lemons, right? Yes. Okay. Let's, while you're here, let's talk turkey, let's talk money. So we have an agreement to extend your services, professional services agreement. each year to extend it. One is, so this is just to extend it to December 2026. Of course, we'll be back in a matter of months trying to extend that one. This is an extension of your 2021 agreement. No resolution. which was the term period of your initial 21 agreement. So now it would be amended from 23 to 26. Any questions before we entertain resolution number? 30. Thank you very much, Deanna.

Can you explain task four?

Wait, hang on one second. Yeah. We're not there yet. We're not there yet. That's the next agenda item. Okay. Yeah. Right now, we're just extending our professional services agreement with that.

What is Exhibit D?

Oh, I sent that to you. So Exhibit D is the part of the...

It was the original term of the agreement. And then in 2024, we amended it to extend it to the end of 2025. So we're now extending it for another year.

Yeah.

Okay.

So that's all it is, is that it's the one page of their professional services agreement, which speaks to the term of the agreement, which has expired, so we're extending it. That's what Exhibit D is termed. Ninety pages long.

That's all.

Yeah, that's all. It could be a quiz. Yeah. I didn't send that along. So Resolution 30, may we entertain that, or do we want to discuss more on that? Who would like to move? I'll make that motion. Okay, thank you, William. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Jacob. Further discussion? If not, all in favor, any? Aye. William? Aye. Myself, aye. Jacob? Aye. Christina? Aye. Thank you. Okay, that's 30. Now, let's move on down the road. How old am I? Resolution 31. Okay, so, Christina, let's get into the other question.

Yeah, this is the one I had questions on. So in the scope of work, there were four items, tasks one through four. And then on one of the later pages, there was task five.

So here is highlighted one through four at the beginning, and then here is task That's five, funding and grant application, which is separated out from the other four. And do you want to speak to why it's separated out from the other four? Because we didn't cover this in the first conversation, which we should.

So that's an error on my part. I forgot to add it to page one of our proposal task. or excuse me, CHAS 5 grant funding and application support. So as part of our services as we move forward with design of the sewer collection system, we have and will continue to have engagement with EFC and other funding entities to try and secure additional grant funds and to support the financing activities that occur with EFC. during the financial funding portion there's a funding application that has to be prepared for ESC so this is an hourly services task that on the fee section has an hourly service limit and we would bill hourly in fact most of that is work that the town does or that the attorney does but there are elements technical elements that we need to support the town with, and then this will also... And does that, and is part of that...

This is sponsored by the village because, you know, as part of our IMA, we're paying for the system design work they're doing for the plant itself. We're only reapplying because they don't have their funding in place. So this is something that we would look to them to pay for. Yeah, go ahead.

That was my question. So how does that, how does that... Yeah, how does that intersect with the village?

Our IMA speaks to that, that we will cooperate and cost share and all of that stuff. So this is really to include them in the IMG grant. So this is for their...

Okay, and I understand that, and that makes sense that that's a $10,000 line item, which is... That's a max, right? Yeah. The other part that I didn't understand was in the first paragraph of the first page.

First page. Let me go over there while you're... Uh-huh.

So... Yeah, first paragraph, so the reference to construction fee services, can you explain how that would be? Yeah. how that would be dealt with.

Yeah, so at this point in time, because we don't have the details of the village's design, we don't know the timing or the specifics or even the EFC financing requirements for construction-based services. So typically we, and the construction-based services can be rolled into your EFC financing, so it can be paid that way rather than paying upfront and out of pocket and allocating those dollars now. construction phase is probably several years down the road and so typically when we put these together we do not put the construction phase services in now in the early design phase we would wait until construction is imminent and then we know the details and we know how much coordination we're having to do with the village because it will be joint in in terms of the construction phase activities so we'll have worked that out and would provide an amendment so you would provide an amendment that would be not to exceed based on the duration of the construction and all of those things, yeah.

And that would be EFC or whatever funded? It would be funded through your EFC, yeah, yeah. This is ARPA money for the design, so this is not, yeah.

And what's left in our ARPA?

Just a tiny bit more than that for this, yeah.

So your firm in Delaware are going to have boots on the ground watching this whole process?

Once it moves to construction, yes.

And if it fails down the road, is that a liability on your farm or Delaware?

It gets very complicated, and all the parties end up having to come to some sort of resolution.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that should be stated. If this is not sized properly and it fails down the road... Are we talking about the plants? Yes.

Okay, so I mean, we're going to be responsible for designing the portion of the collection system in the town. Delaware Engineering is designing the plant. The town is contributing proportionally to the cost of that design. Again, that was the... So in terms of... So first of all, it's important that we have good communication and close coordination. And we are already working with them on, you know, here's our flow, here are our peaks, things like that. And so responsibility in terms of design will lie where we designed. So our responsibility will lie with the collection system. Theirs will lie with the treatment plan.

Yeah. I just feel if it fails down the road, and hopefully it doesn't, that your firm would get over a libel.

Well, but you're saying that the plant is Delaware. The plant is Delaware.

They're not doing the plant. They're just doing the plant. I understand. Somebody needs to be liable.

You're going to spend $26 million? Let's be honest about it. There's the design and then there's the operation. You need all the pieces to work together. Those plants don't just run themselves. They need to have qualified operators who are working on them. Those are all really important things. The village is well aware of that. I think they put in a lot of controls to make sure that the outcome moving forward is much more positive.

So are you consulting at all in the plant, or that's completely under Delaware?

We are not consulting, no. Basically, we are saying, where do you want us to design to? And then there is a point, and that will be the point of exchange responsibility. We'll design up to point X, and everything beyond X will be Delaware, and we'll be everything forward of X.

Well, I think we should look at having a second pair of eyes, maybe from your personal view of the work, the design work that they do for the plant. Now, that may not be sufficient for...

There are many levels of jurisdiction. The county has jurisdiction and the state has jurisdiction. So there's a lot of... Yeah, there'll be a new state's permit and Dutchess County will be looking at it as well.

Yeah.

mean can you speak at all to like how just in general because I think it's it's I mean obviously like Kenny pointed out there's there's concerns about the plant the plant a lot of things didn't go right and I understand like this has really nothing to do with you but like high level when when when this was getting approved And at that point, I was involved with EDC, and there was a lot of discussion about it. And it was a very unique system because it's pressurized. And it's not a conventional sewer system, right?

In terms of it's a sewer system? Yes. Well, this is actually Erin's area of technical expertise. So any of those questions, I'm sure she could field for you.

Erin, could you come to the mic? Yeah.

I mean, this is the, like, I think that it just needs to be clear, like, Taibon has not been part of what, so we read the papers like you read the papers. So it's really challenging. I can tell you my observed understanding, and it could be wrong. Because I'm reading, I read things that are wrong all the Today I ran a whole bunch of wrong things.

Yeah, exactly.

So did I. Yeah. So there were two collection systems feeding the plant. One was a step system where the solids are maintained in the septic tanks and then pumped. And the other was the housing facility there, which was a conventional collection system. So solids are conveyed to the plant. My understanding, some other engineers smiling down on me. My understanding is that the village acquired as part of this overall piece of the treatment facility that was built for the housing that was already there. And that was made to accept combined traditional sanitary sewage that has solids in the liquids. And very soon after that acquisition, that component failed. And I don't know about why, if it was operation or not, I really have no clue. But it did not function is my understanding. And then that combined sewage that had solids contained then was directed towards the second treatment facility, and that was not intended. So that is my understanding, and that combined influence that the plant was not prepared for And also sizing was not prepared for, was very challenging for it to address. But I truly am reciting what I've written in papers. But that influence, in any case, two different styles of influence directed to a facility not designed for that style of influence. Personally, in my professional career, I have experienced that in other places where a facility designed to accept one style of influence. They connected something else, and every time a pump went off, the dissolved oxygen, sorry, now I gotta, I don't know how else to explain it, would crash because it wasn't made to accept that type of influence. So again, just telling tales.

And I'm just saying, I think it's, my question is based on the, I feel like there should be some kind of handshake between the systems and maybe that's a peer review of, of the, of the plant. But, um, uh, you know, I mean, I understand, you know, from, from a design point of view where, where, where your services end and the responsibility of the next engineer goes from there. And that, I mean, that makes sense, but the whole system has to act as a whole. And it has been plagued with issues. And so if we're going to invest in the system and expand upon it...

The only thing I can comment is that now the technology, I don't believe... Come a little closer to the microphone, sir, because I can't hear you. My understanding from what I've seen of the preliminary reviews is that this was... Combining two different styles of things is challenging. The village is looking at a MBR membrane bioreactor, very common... very high quality effluent style of wastewater treatment, very known technologies, many of them in Dutchess County. So there's not like this, I completely get the frugality of trying to take something that was there and combine it with a new thing. And I admire that approach. I, from especially small community, trying to be as cost effective as possible. But what I'm seeing proposed now is not going that track. It's we're doing an MBR. MBR is a very known treatment style. It's out there. The Dutchess County Department of Health is super familiar with it. Obviously, the state DEC is very familiar with it. It's a very known treatment style.

So this new corridor that's coming down Route 9 South, Is that going to be solids and affluent going, or is it just?

Just the affluent, just the liquid.

So each, what was it, 41 parcels? 51. 51 parcels. So each 51 parcels is going to have a septic tank where solids remain and only affluent go into the system.

That's correct. And to Aaron's point about the villages now, their engineers changing the technology to something that's more known and well established, the other feedback we've gotten from the village's engineer is that through trial and error they've also discovered they need a certain style of septic tank and they need a certain style of sewer effluent pump and they're providing all those specifications to us for our design because they found that some things work better so I think you know the intention here is to put forward the system that operates the best that has you know that is most cost effective but also has longevity and that is uniform both in the village and in the town so that when they go forward with operation and maintenance, there's no surprise components or different components in the town versus the village. And that's all we've been working that out with the villages.

So Delaware is designing a system that's going to continue taking the village solid and affluent together?

No. No. The only, my understanding, again, is the only component that had that?

I thought there was pumps in the tanks that chewed up the solid.

No, that's not how it works.

Okay.

The only component, again, of my understanding that accepted solids was the existing housing facility. Is there a name? It's Anderson Commons. Anderson Commons. Red Oak Commons. Red Oak Commons, sorry. Red Oak Commons has had a traditional system that had solids and just your, what's it called, gray water?

Ridgefield.

You know, together. So that was that set source that I was speaking of. How this works is that the solids remain in the septic tank and the effluent style pumps just through in like small sips, you know, it's just the clear level. So that's the middle of the septic tank. So septic tank, you've got your floating scum layer. So that's your fats and oils and grease. They combine almost like a mat at the top of the tank. And then there's generally a clear level in between. And the solids that build up and actually, you know, go through anaerobic digestion, and that's how a septic tank's great. A municipal solid system, you have to be dealing with solids every moment. Solids in, solids out. A septic tank allows for degradation of those solids, which is why you need to pump your septic tank every three to five years, and sometimes an older person living alone, seven years, or even more. So you get all the advantage of that. It just takes little sips out of the center of that clear and sends that, not big, municipal pump station pumps it all the way to the ground.

We're not doing that.

We're just taking little sips out of the middle of that clear section and sending them into the force main with all the other contributors. So any lessons learned that they've learned, we're gonna take and they're sharing with us. So they're extending the same style system. So our details, our information will be very consistent So we really got a system that's...

So what I would suggest, because this is a pretty large investment for the town, that we should consider a proposal from Ty and Bond for a peer review of the plan. so that there's that overlap, because that's a very important part of our system. And I think that it's not to say that there's any doubt in Delaware engineering, but I think that when you have different teams working together, it's very important that there's a mesh and there's an understanding of all the components.

I understand the reason of cutting it off at a point, but I think that... That's what I started to say earlier, that it makes perfect sense that we were engaging their services. They obviously have somebody at their firm who is able to look over, and maybe they'll catch something that...

Are you suggesting a separate scope of work? Yes, I'm suggesting that you propose a separate scope of work for a peer review of the entirety of the system.

We absolutely could prepare that.

Wait, when you say the entirety of the system?

No, no, no, you're right. I should clarify. Yeah, yeah. for the part that is going to serve the town, the wastewater plant, and that expansion of that plant that's going to serve the new users for the part that you're designing. Okay, yeah.

Totally. And that doesn't need to be done between now and July. So that's something that's going to be done.

Right. And so if you give us a proposal, then we can decide whether that's an investment that we want to make.

Yeah.

I would prefer to have them use their time now to get this application . There's nothing to review right now.

This is next year. This is next year. We have to find out that . We're not going to spend money peer reviewing something that we don't even know is going to get off the ground or in this case, under the ground.

But it's something we do. It's something that comes up regularly. That's very capable. Most engineers end up doing that at some point.

I mean, I have other concerns that I won't bring up because I know the urgency of getting this application in. And those concerns can be answered down the road. Okay. Okay.

Good. We don't want to be here too, too late tonight because we've got a lot of things to address as far as ramp anyway. Any other questions on the task order for this, for the design?

If I may just point out, I just want to make it clear. So this is for design. It includes field work, right? So it would be our intent to begin the field work. So there's survey and geotechnical. So I'm not sure what... Mechanism you want to use for communication, but we'll want to make sure that you know it's only 51 We're happy to help you with that, but we want to just make sure that we want to make sure everybody knows that You know where we're starting to design Aaron's got a team that actually has to like get in people's basements and see where the sewer is Going out of their house, so it sounds like we have time to communicate We're gonna be here like all of July, but yeah we actually really want to work very closely with the town board because I

Businesses, I'm sure, you know, I've got a great friendly team. Come on, come look at our electric panel and sewer pipe heading out. I can show you where my septic tank is. But there are a few homeowners as well. And so we would really look to not only communicate by paper, but maybe if, you know, someone who wants to join our team and say, help us go to some of these appointments. make everyone in the town feel comfortable, especially residential, single family residential, that yes, we're looking at your basement.

That's part of it.

Pretty substantial part.

All of that, you know, that preliminary work though can start right now, so. But, yeah, we definitely want volunteers to go come and be since. It's very exciting.

We're going to partner you with the housing committee because when you're going in the basement, they're going to be going in the bedrooms.

I was looking for our teammates right now.

Nobody's going to say no to them.

Excellent. Perfect. We've got our volunteers.

Okay. Thank you for your time. Resolution. We're done with Aaron. More questions. More questions. If not, we do have resolution number 31. Well, I'm excited to design this. So let's get going. We've got to get going. This is taking too long. Three years for the planning grant, and we decided to fund it ourselves. We got an IMG grant. Now it's like the village is still not ready. let's get this going okay no you should clap you should clap i i really don't like seeing another county cut a ribbon on a project that we should be cutting a ribbon on too at the same time um okay number 31 i'll move the resolution number 31 would anybody like to second I'll second. Thank you, Christina. Further discussion? If not, all in favor? Aye. Okay. I think that was five ayes, including myself, Deanna. Thank you very much. Thank you both. Don't go anywhere, Brandy. Actually, Erin, don't go anywhere.

I was trying to get her. It's okay.

Water District, did we want to cover that just for one second?

Erin doesn't have to do that. I can help you. What? Yeah, so I just wanted to follow up from our last meeting and just make sure this was heading in the direction that you wanted it to head in, Christina. So the areas, this is with relationship to the preliminary engineering report for the water district formation. This is not holding us up on doing the map plan and report for the water district that will be the same as the sewer district. This is just so we can finalize the water preliminary engineering report. It will be a document that you can use in reference to consider other water-related activities in the future, but the polygons, so the straight-sided shapes, are what we received from the county in terms of the extent of districts, or we received from the town's water district number one for water service areas. The yellow is what is in properties in the town that are served by Village Water. The blue circles are other public water supplies of size that are serving, you know, multiple residents or the Bard campus, for instance, the Messina campus. we don't have regular shapes that show the extent of what their system is. So I think this gives us at least an idea of where they are.

No, this is helpful. My only question was in terms of the legend. I totally understand the circles and where it gets muddy, where you don't know the boundaries, but DC, WWA is... Dutchess County Water and Waste Water. So when we have the town's water district... Yeah.

Is that... Oh, you want a different color. Yes, that's true.

That's a fair point. Okay. And then also, so when you say study area in yellow... Are all of those served by village water?

In yellow, all of those parcels are served by, and those are the parcels that we uphold whatever plans are available in either the village's records, the town's records, or the county health department records, and have also done some degree of investigation Again, what's available in the public record on agreements between the village and whatever entity maybe first extended the water service to that area.

But they all have water currently served by the village. Correct. Okay.

Okay. That's what we have for water.

So with that, we'll wrap up the PR and put that over to you guys next week.

Okay. I think Aaron likes it.

I'm ready to shuffle off the bubble. Wait, no, I should be skipping down the yellow. Yeah, I think so.

Would it be all right if I left you? Thank you.

All wonderful company.

Thank you. Because we know you're going straight home to continue to work on the application.

Yes, sir.

Absolutely.

See you all soon. Thank you.

Okay, can we jump around a little bit?

Absolutely. You guys just tell me what you want to do.

Okay, you ready? This is going to be like rapid fire. So the town board members jumped in if there are things you've been thinking about on the grant side. That bridge. Well, let's step back for a second. So there are a couple things that we know that we at least want to explore. The first thing is we've been talking about studying the delivery of all services. We talked about some of the services that are being challenged right now. That's a local government efficiency grant. We know for sure that's a February grant. Unless we find something else related to delivery of services between now and then, we can worry about that later. We've also talked about comprehensive grant programs like the New York State Downtown Revitalization and New York Forward. And, you know, while years ago we used to maybe think that we were too small to get a DRI, now that you see places like the Village of Catskill getting it. And for the folks at home, this is a state-funded program where you can get $10 million or $4.5 million for many projects in your community, all to enhance your economic viability. Due in November. And so the question is, and this would be something we'd like to do in concert with the village, because some of these projects may be village related. So it could be the redevelopment of the gas station, which has to become a priority of this community if we were going to assist those businesses on the other three corners. The pedestrian bridge crossing from Cookingham into Rec Park redevelopment or whatever we would call it. Christina, you could help me in branding. In talking to Todd Barrett about some of those buildings which he's about to sell, you know, about trying to restore some of those storefronts and facades of those buildings which is also a popular thing under these programs because there are some corners like the pizza corner and so on and so forth where they're covered up by vinyl.

In the village?

In the village, yeah. In the village, so you'd be able to restore it to its historic character. These are the types of things that often you can find in the DRI or New York Forward application. That said, here we are in late June. I'm wondering how realistic it is we'll get something like that from the village, with the village, multiple projects by November, given the other stuff that we have.

So I have not separately had any conversations with the Regional Economic Development Council about DRI or New York Forward. Have any of the board members?

I've had a little bit.

OK. Did they give you any framework? Because I did look up, and I'm happy to share with the board, just the general framework for each program. And I think that maybe can help us make a decision.

We did, I circulated that with the board on a couple of occasions so that they know the DRI program, some examples.

And there was a little bit of compare and contrast in some of that programmatic information about the DRI versus New York Forward. And generally speaking, it has to do with the magnitude of the dollar value of projects that are sort of ready to go to help revitalize a community. Exactly.

And given the fact that we don't have a developer lined up, for example, for the corner to redevelop the gas station, shouldn't you know, that materialize. I'm thinking that we should start working on this, but it may not be realistic to get something put forward by November.

For November. I sort of think your sense of that is correct, but if it is something you would think about in 27, having like a joint task force that works together to sort of bring that to life is probably a good, you know, next step. I think so.

Okay, could we go to some of the things that we know we want to accomplish, which is that pedestrian bridge? So in advance of that, doing a DRI or a New York Forward, we still should go ahead and try and get some funding. We already have an application we could clone, if you want to say, to OPE.

OPE, RHP, yeah.

RHP, local synonyms to parks.

Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, yeah.

So what's the maximum on that? Do we recall for that?

I did not bring that one. I am so sorry.

I think we did 300,000 last time. Is that right? I think we can do more, though. But we got funding immediately for the design. That was Greenway. Right. And we can. And Brandy's firm's working on that. We're not ready yet. We can go back to Greenway for a quarter of a mill. to do construction.

Yeah.

Okay.

But we might want to... That's a drop in the bucket for a bridge.

Well, yeah, it's going to be a seven-figure thing.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I've seen some of the proposed surfacings and other things.

Right, right. I did look at OPHP. I don't see a lot of, like, really strong trails. You know, they've got parks and facilities, but, you know, this, we always call this a trail linkage.

Okay. Well, when I met with Schumer's person, they were excited about maybe doing Sheryl's, but they also change their themes each year, what they get excited about.

Did they mention they've got a funding opportunity coming up with an upcoming budget round?

That's already passed for this year. We would be talking for next year. But we need, you know, to get a million dollars. We could ask for a million. Okay. So, yes, no, let's look at the max that we could get from OP, RHP to see if it's worth trying for that now or not. The chart says 875.

875.

Oh, you've got it in front of you.

But how much do they have statewide again? 26 million, 28.75 million. Which really isn't a lot for that department.

It's up to 50% of eligible project cost. Yeah.

I don't know. I doubt it, but I don't know for sure.

And if we're not, if our design's not ready, maybe that's going to not help us.

Okay.

Could we go to Salt Shed for a second? Now, W, I know you're not there yet, right?

I don't think WQIP has money for salt shed reconstruction. In fact, Bill and I had a meeting this week with the folks that help us with the drinking water source protection plan and asked if they could make an inquiry to see if there are any other funding sources to help us rebuild the salt shed. That's a bad trade.

It is. What's the status of the funding for the brine?

So you have that contract. It's basically on hold until we decide how the brine building relates to the salt shed.

And what's the deadline for using that money?

There's not a deadline per se.

That's for the equipment, though. That's all it funds is the physical equipment. Where it goes is really the issue.

I'm not so sure that's the case. I thought I read something about that.

It's the equipment and the infrastructure upgrade, so we knew we needed to extend the water and sewer. But it won't cover a shelter for it, and you just need a small shelter for it.

You know, I'm not 100% sure about that, but let me... I thought I read something.

Yeah, if you want to check and let me know, that'd be fine. My recollection in having conversation with the state when we did the contract was...

I think that initially was the case.

So what was the answer?

The answer is we don't think, but I want to...

In terms of the deadline for the funding. No, no, no, there's no deadline for the funding.

No, no, no, we just have to figure out where that structure is that's going to house the equipment.

So if we bought Brian equipment in 2050, we would have money for it? Well, I mean, I don't think it's going to last that long.

Usually, the grants are for a period of two, three, or five years. And they'll let you get extensions.

And then you ask for extensions and so on and so forth. Yeah. I don't know that it's unlimited. It will be limited until before that expires, do you think?

Well, I mean, initially, this wasn't. This is sort of mushroomed a little bit. Because initially, we had just envisioned a small standalone conditioned structure that would house it, but recognizing the poor condition that the salt shed is and the need to have the salt shed to create the brine, there is some interrelated characteristics there.

So is it going to be like a combination building?

Well, I mean, Christina and I have looked at it together with Teresa and, you know, Teresa's team would like the brine equipment to be very adjacent to the salt shed and so we were talking about can we Could we actually just build a little structure off one side of the salt shed?

So basically the previous idea was tear down the entire building and start over. And as we looked at it, we think it would be viable to repair it and then also build off of it to give the highway department more storage and the brine equipment within the same structure. Is that all going to be done before winter?

I doubt it. I mean that's, I think we're pushing up against timelines now that it's June, right? So I did talk to our structural department. They'd like to come back out and look at that building because they looked at it about six years ago and it hasn't gotten better. And then we would need to price what the repairs would be if it's like sistering partway up or...

I'd like to meet with them when they come out, if we could coordinate that.

Yeah, absolutely. When is that going to happen? I don't have it scheduled yet. I wanted to see if you guys were open to them coming out and looking at it.

Do you think that's the next step or pricing?

No, that's the next step because I asked them if they could look at it and then price what the repairs would look like and give us an idea of the magnitude of what those repairs would be. Because that can help us make a decision as to whether or not it's a fix or replace, I think.

So it's not a lot. But in the 2026, I thought I remembered this, in the 2026 on this line, salt storage and road salt reduction, 25%. Yeah. They're just not going to give us another grant, are they?

Yeah, I'll just say last year they had that same category, and they had only funded it to $670,000, and that was earmarked for three pop-up salt sheds in the Amerondacks. That's all that came out of that. So it was so little money, it didn't seem reasonable to apply for it. I can check what this year's program's details are. You're going right there, aren't you? We'll read it together.

Well, we need to put it to bed, right? Yeah. Let's call a source product.

Oh, this is just telling you what you need?

Yeah, so that's not really telling us.

Didn't Michael say on the Webex that the system was the Zoom? Yeah.

that he was going to look to see if there was anything else he was going to look yeah yeah and so when did we talk to him we talked to him on monday yeah yeah so he is only wednesday he hasn't gotten back to us yet but he agreed that this was an important thing to do given his proximity to the drinking water source and over the aquifer yeah absolutely he did agree but yeah he wasn't aware off the top of his head what other funding opportunities there might be for the town okay and you have your structural person looking at that Yeah, I need to get them scheduled, so yeah. Yeah, if that's okay with you guys, we'll do that.

I want to go on that meeting also.

Okay.

Great.

Very good, yeah. I mean, if we could keep that structure, that's always been my preference, but I'm no engineer, so please don't go by what I think is desirable, but it's so expensive to rebuild one of those.

Well, it's not just that. It's the way that they function. They need a long building with access on the long side. And all of the inexpensive structures that you can buy new are accessed on the short side. And a lot of them are inferior to the one that we have. So you're talking about like... I don't know, help me out here, like they're like fabric structures. They're fabric or they're pretty lightweight pre-engineered buildings.

Right.

And so the one that we have is, it's a stick-built structure and it's made out of individual boards and they're in various conditions, but like piece by piece, it could be replaced without, you know, tearing it apart.

As long as the structure engineer says we can do it, that'd be great. That'd be awesome. Timely, FIFA, New York Kicks.

Yeah, so we did look at the New York Kicks, and we did look at your master plan for the Rec Park West. We did confirm that the Rec Park West master plan is for natural grass fields, which are relatively inexpensive. There's no special stormwater that has to be designed for natural grass fields, and the amount that New York Kicks provides, the maximum is $200,000, which would go probably 75 to 80 percent of the way there to put in those fields. So, we think it's viable, if that's something you guys want to go forward with.

I think we have to. I mean, as it is, you know, if the Red Hook Soccer Club has a lease to or through the 27 year, and that property is up for sale, I think we need to get those rectangular fields built and ready. I mean, it's going to take a while. I mean, wouldn't that be ready for 2017?

They won't be ready right away. They typically need two seasons, two growing seasons for the grass to grow in so that you can play on it without completely destroying the surface.

So maybe their lease is good through the 27th season. I've talked to what I now know is the previous head of the Red Hood Soccer Club. Yeah, I don't know how you all feel, but I think we should go for it. I mean, otherwise they could be without a place and our kids will... How much room is there?

Have Ken and Christina seen the master plan? Do you guys want me to send that? Yeah, please circulate it.

I mean, how many acres is the current field on, like four or five acres?

Well, it's structured three rectangular fields are set aside, the master plan.

Yeah, so on Rec Park West, for the portion of parcels that's like the south portion, we had planned for three rectangular fields that could be used for soccer or lacrosse.

All those things.

Is there a director for the soccer association now?

yeah there's a new one i just i i don't know uh i don't know her um that's all but i i told sherry who was the previous one please get with her and let's let's have a meeting and find out how to how to plan because we don't know if they're going to get an extension on that on that lease because that property is that person right So apply, right? Okay.

I think it's a positive. Okay. Even if it takes two years, we're going to have the bills there.

I will get back to you for your next meeting if there's a resolution that's required. You know, we'll work to make sure that that's available.

Okay. I'm going to step out for a minute and you all can talk about the exciting topic of callers.

I have not had a chance to talk to Teresa about culverts. That was on my to-do list and I have not been able to do that.

Okay, well not necessarily identifying which one. Just for background for the public and for the new town board members, we have had an extensive town-wide study of culverts. And they've been rated and all of that.

Well, I mean, if you need to step out of time, but because Bill and I were talking about there is climate smart communities, which you are a climate smart community, so that helps your scoring. But those climate smart community funds can be used for the construction and you've got those Willett Strive culverts. One of which is the reason Teresa didn't want to replace it is it's down a very large cut. There's a big road embankment, so it's going to require a lot of bigger equipment and shoring and stabilization. So that's one that I think would be good to apply for under Climate Smart.

Well, for the benefit of Kenny and Christina, we got grant funding for design and permitting for culverts. And did you guys do the census, or did ?

The culvert inventory? Yeah. Crawford and Associates did it. Crawford did it.

And they color-coded it. So there's green for good, yellow for pay attention to, and red needs to be dealt with. And there were, I think, about five or six in the red. The willets were in there. And there was a decision made to do those for design and permitting. And then the next phase would be to get money for the construction. If there's rolling funds, as Michael suggested on our call on Monday, we have others in the red, maybe a decision made. So you have a rolling. So then we do a grant to get more money for burning and design for, say, two more. And then the next year you get, you know, it would be good to kind of get this rolling. Because the Wilts one, that was two years ago, right? That the decision was made?

Yes.

So, I mean, I was under the false impression that we were on the go with getting this done, but I didn't understand that there was any... Yeah, I will say...

That grant contract has taken an inordinately tremendous amount of time to get executed with the state. Very, very long. I think they had some staffing turnover. I think we're on our third program manager. But that is now under contract. We needed the contract to be signed between the state and the town. And then what has to happen is then the DEC assigns a program manager So we just got our program manager and we've engaged them and talked to them about the design. They have to bless the design. So we're in that process right now with them. But yeah, the contracting was just a very tremendous... I'm just thinking in terms of applying for... Yeah, no, I think given how it's rolling, I think they're working on efficiency on their end. But yeah, I agree with you.

Okay, strategic planning. So we've heard from... uh julia and uh hudson valley pattern for progress and uh tiffany over at pace land use and they've been in touch with dos and we've been encouraged to apply i think i brought this up at the last meeting while they're not ready to implement zoning or the recommendations of the comp plan because, as Brandy just gave a great example, because it takes so long to get the grant award, then to get the contract, and so on and so forth, we've been encouraged to apply because this is 27 that, you know, we would be talking about.

Well, and Julia did send me some of the details on the funding, the notice of funding availability from Department of State for the Smart Growth program. So you guys got a Smart Growth grant for your comprehensive plan, and because you're doing a comprehensive plan update under that program, you are also eligible to apply for the zoning while your comp plan is in update mode. If you were paying for it outside of a grant funding program, you'd have to have an adopted comp plan to apply. So I think there's no impediment to you applying for the zoning. And then that would allow you to roll right into the zoning once the conference. Exactly.

When it's ready, we're right there. We've got the grant. We've got the contract.

We had a conference meeting last night, and I think the interest from Julia and Erin were both, like, we should apply for this. So we're not waiting an extra year to, you know, do the implementation.

And so are you the liaison? Yes.

Okay.

Will you all get together and try to figure out what amount to apply for?

Yeah, that would be my question. The minimum grant amount you can apply for is $75,000, and you're allowed to cover up to 75% of your total cost, but the minimum is $75,000. So that would be a $100,000 zoning effort. You may want to talk to Pace or your consultant right now and ask them what's typical. I think Rhinebeck asked for 150 for their zoning update, so you may just want to see what's typical. Don't sell yourself short, though. It's a complicated both planner and legal effort, and you want to be able to cover both.

Of course, you have to do a Seeker in the context of that, so remember that's part of your process for that. You're going to have a planner working very closely with you on all of that.

We want to apply for as much as we can, but we don't want to push the envelope unintended too far that we don't get awarded.

And it really depends on, like, what your comp plan is envisioning for new zoning. I don't have any visibility into that right now, but, you know, if there's major overhauls or it's minor tweaks, that'll make a difference.

Yeah, I know. It's not a complete, like, rewrite. I don't think it's going to be, like, an enormous thing.

It's an update. Yeah. Okay.

That's my sense. We don't have like a draft right now.

Sam's on that, right? Yes. Okay.

So, okay, so Jacob, Kathy, Julia, Eric, Tiffany, get together and try to come up with an estimate for what to apply for. We definitely want to apply for that, right? Okay. Okay, and there's New York Main Street, which is another third version of the state funding. Something to consider. We didn't really talk about the building communities competition, right? No.

And those are rolling, so those don't have the same application deadline. Right. And then Climate Smart we talked about for cohorts, and W-Equip we were kicking around for Salt Shed, and I'll double-check, but I don't think there's a lot of... What do you think about... We applied to the county a couple of times about that sidewalk to Hannaford.

Can we go back on the W-Equip for just one second? Yeah, sure. The deadline for that is the end of July, correct?

I believe the deadline for that is with the CFA is on July 30th. That's what I thought. Yeah, yeah.

So we awarded a contract for the rehab of well one.

Yeah.

And we talked with Michael about the issue of funding if we had to drill another well. In other words, they'll rehab that well, they'll try, and it's either going to work or it's not going to work. And if it's not going to work, we have to drill another one. And there is money available in WQIP for drilling a well, right? That's what he said.

Yes, but are you going to be able to wait until you get the funding to drill that well?

Well, the current well is producing consistently, without any deviation, half of what it produced before. So the question is, you know, the comfort level for the water department, and they've been operating this way for six months, so, you know, the issue is, grant application goes in the end of July, they make their awards like the end of the calendar year, right? You know, it would be their comfort level, but it's certainly a source of, I mean, my understanding is this isn't like drilling a well for a house. I mean, this is a very expensive, like six figures.

Well, I don't know off the top of my head, but I'd be happy to check and... I just think...

So what's the disadvantage, though? Just the investment in time in the grant application that we need to do it, like...

Here's the thing. I mean, I think there's an eventuality depending on Water District Number 2 and other issues that we... And there already is a third well, by the way, that was drilled a long time ago. It would have to be... basically redrilled to see if it's viable. It's down near there. But I think in my discussions with the water board, I think everybody recognizes that there's a good likelihood that a new well will have to be drilled at some point, either because for capacity or this well, for whatever reason, isn't going to be able to be fully resuscitated. You know, when we had the last meeting, I was told that these kinds of, oh, it was Jerry who works for the county, you know, it could be $150,000 to drill a well, this kind of well. And so, you know, now obviously it can come out of their reserves from the water department, right? Sure, sure. But if he can get a grant for it, why not?

But are we going to have a negative grant? When we're in the process of, I mean, I feel like we're going to be applying and then maybe fixing the problem.

No, no, no, no, no. What I'm saying is we awarded a contract to have the well rehabbed and it's going to be rehabbed before the expiration of this, before the end of July is my understanding.

And so, I know it's tight. Do you want us to be ready to put in an application if it doesn't work? Yeah, yeah. Fair enough.

Let me look into the requirements of it further.

I mean, maybe it's not doable, but I, you know, I'm looking at this one thing.

Yeah, I just wanted to have enough information to have a... Well, I'm actually looking at a bill from your company for well rehab.

Well, that was for the awarding for the specs. For the contractor, for what we awarded, the contract we awarded. But the fee is $11,900. Yeah, because when you put out something, put it out for bid. It's like you're designing it. You're like you're designing it. And the well rehab is different than drilling a well, which we probably have some considerable time on expenses as well. But, yeah, we're going to see what happens.

Let's see, that's a question for Dan too. Yeah, I will get back to you. That's right. I was just thinking about .

Well, and there's other issues with the, in the water department as well, right? Like we were, we can talk about this later or now, but.

Well, we're on grants now.

We're on grants, right. But, I mean, if we're looking for money, there's dead ends in the system that are causing issues

So we've talked about, but that's not a grand thing, but that is something, I mean, we, you know, if we did fold in bringing the water to, Randy and I have discussed bringing the water to Rec Park West, Because maybe we do want to be able to water those new fields if we're going to build those fields. Can we roll that into the grant? And then we could solve this other outstanding stuff. No, that's New York Kicks.

New York Kicks is just for fields. It's not for anybody to do.

So the issue is there's five houses that are on Linden Avenue, and there's a dead end. and they have sediment buildup in their...

I did look at it for the water department. You did? Yeah, and there is a water line that comes up Fruitbud and goes up the east side of Linden Avenue.

So my concern would be any dead ends that we have within the system, we should look at and we should figure out a way. I mean, it's been since, what, like the 50s that this has been in there. We haven't ever flushed. the lines, and so when you have a buildup of magnesium with... Manganese. Manganese, sorry. Manganese.

We don't know it's manganese, but it's suspected to be. Nobody's actually tested the water, no.

It's fair, but it's going to get tested next week.

Oh, good. So there are two stubs, and basically what I told Hank is, like, we've got to, like, this is ridiculous. It's only two stubs in the whole water system. let's get this solved and one of the ideas on the one was maybe we could also at the same time bring water to rec park west because we need to continue to work on rec park west so either loop it or you have to regularly flush it and we haven't been doing that but there could be grant money to

for the park that could go to Rec Park West, which gives you some component.

I don't know. I would need to check that.

I mean, we'd have to go to parks for that, right?

Potentially, but I'm not sure. We'd have to see if there's a parks, like, facilities grant, which would, you know, facilitate bringing infrastructure in for your future concessions.

Well, because John Kuhn had said previously several times that, you know, in some of his reports, It would be good to have warm, you know, we have to. Well, but for irrigation.

We need to do a restroom. We need to do pavilion. We need to do all of that. But to the point of this has been a lingering issue, we need to get it solved. So you're on it?

Or Dan's on it?

Somebody's coming up with a proposal for us to get rid of these two stones, right?

Oh, yes. Yeah, so I sent a little sketch on Friday, I think, to us.

Oh, I didn't receive that. Who did you send it to?

Whoever was on the CC line for Brandy, look at this. I think I flipped it back to you and Hank.

Oh, can you send that to the whole board, please?

Sure.

Yeah, I did. I don't remember saying it, but it's OK.

There would be, there's an easement that would have to be obtained as well. Oh, yes. One additional property. Yes. OK. You guys want to forward it to Christina?

Yeah. Isn't there a pond on it?

This is between, is it Alder and Linden?

Allen? Albee?

Albee.

I think it's Albee.

Oh, Albee. No, it's not Albee.

It's between Kent or whatever that road is.

Whatever Aspenwall turns into.

Anyway. Can you just re-forward it and make sure it goes to everybody? That would be great.

OK. Did we cover all the topics? I think so. We did. We're going to be very busy.

That's all somewhat dated now.

Yeah, it is dated. Sorry. Notice the DRI. Right.

Okay, so And what we'll endeavor to do is anything that needs a resolution will work with you for your meeting on 14th to have those if you need resolution for your grant application and then I will I or one of our planners will be in touch with the different liaisons about coordinating on support letters for some of the applications. That helps the application. We've got letters of support. All right. All right.

Thank you, Karen. Thank you. Sorry to keep you so late again. What?

It's OK. OK. Was that everything?

I think that's everything we need you for. Let's see. OK. We have your number.

Yeah.

Yep, we tackled number nine. We only have two other things. Oh, well, if you want to stay for one minute, we're going to, we discussed, yeah, we discussed those surplus parcels. Are there any remaining questions on this before we go ahead and set a public hearing and refer this? We never, we never dealt with this. Oh, the Aspen wall bridge. We'll come back to that. I want Karen to get out of here at some point. But if there are any questions related to what she did do, sort of back of the envelope, try to estimate of what the potential So now we have the five parcels in there in the application, not just the four, but the five. A total of 8.55 acres and a requirement under the CPF statute is we refer to the advisory board. Any questions on this? Let's take a public hearing. The only question I have is will the 14th be soon enough? I'm not so sure it will be.

For the notice you're saying?

No, it'll be fine for the notice.

No, the committee's got to look at it. Yeah, the committee's got to look at it and come back to us. They better look at it before the 14th. Why don't you just make the public hearing? It doesn't have to be postponed.

Well, so... No, the... We received correspondence about this, though. Milp Corka, the deputy mayor of the village, has been trying to connect with... We covered this.

she's trying to she's trying to connect with the committee and hasn't been able to well she she had asked to attend the meeting that hasn't happened yeah so many days we're going to we're going to we told her we would let her know when that committee is meaning okay so we have to work her we have to refer how many days is a committee get when a resolution is passed for a referral for the interview to get back to us because some of the other not sure that was in I'm testing my memory. It was 20 years ago we wrote this. Chris, do you know off the top of your head?

I don't recall if there was a specified period.

I don't think there was. Okay.

Just that some do and some don't.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think it's, you know... It's July, so I just want to be cognizant of the fact that it may not... And there's no reason to call more public hearings than we need on this matter because it's not... you know, hopefully folks in the neighborhood and elsewhere will come. So I'm kind of maybe leaning towards doing the first meeting in August. Let's get through the grants. Let's get through all that stuff. And this way we'll know that we'll have something back. It's too late to use to reduce the principal. Yeah, I know. You have to do the funding first.

They don't regularly meet, is that the issue?

They only meet when necessary.

Who's the liaison?

Who's the liaison? Me.

Yeah, all right. Yeah, Melchork is trying to get a hold of them for forever. Well, no, I think she's got...

I'll contact Mary and she'll check. All right. Yeah, I think she's gotten in touch with Mary. Okay. What's our first meeting in August? Who's got a calendar of something to do? Can we change this public hearing notice to... Just remind you that I'm away now. You're away on the 11th.

I am.

New Jersey Shore. Or we can do the second one at this point. I don't know.

Well, you sometimes cancel the second August, so that's true. Yeah.

So. All right, August 11th. I don't know. What do you want to do? I want to get through the burn cycle. August 11th? Okay. 735? Resolution number? 32. 32 as amended. Referring and setting a public hearing. Who would like to move that? So moved.

Second.

Would you please also have the notice amended as part of that to reflect on this now, day 11. 735 as amended. We've got to go back to it. So that's it on the parcels. Any questions for Brandy? Brandy, thank you very much. Do we need to vote? Let's vote. Hurry. A second. All in favor, Kenny. Christina seconded. Christina, thank you. Seconding a second time. All in favor, Christina. Aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Thank you for keeping me.

I'm sorry, did you specify a time for that?

We did 735, Chris.

Thank you.

Okay, can we go back to Aspen Wall Bridge? So, thank you, Brandi. So we have a memo from our other engineers and for the public at home. We have two engineering firms, one that specializes in road matters, transportation projects. And we also went out to bid for this project and we awarded the design. to HPEA, who we had previously worked with on the sidewalk project. They... We had two bids, as I mentioned earlier in the evening. One apparently had errors when they reviewed it. and they're making a recommendation that we rebid in a couple of months that because of timing, there were a bunch of firms that pulled plans but at the end only two bid on it just because the timing was off. They already had sort of their work lined up for the beginning of the summer and they think if we go out to rebid early fall, Firms will be more likely to jump in.

I didn't see the bid documents. Did that get recirculated? We talked about that last time.

When you say the bid documents, the bid submittals or the bid specs that went out?

The bid package that they're bidding on. So that would be the drawings, the submittals, the entirety of the package.

Yeah, that was several months ago. That was a while ago. Yeah. But we can circulate it around again. It may still be on our website. It's on BidNet. I think it went to BidNet as well. But yeah, we can circulate that.

Well, no, you brought it up last time. You actually said you would appreciate if I looked at it because it was expensive and maybe there was a way of value engineering it. But I didn't see it get recirculated. On the bridge? Yeah.

Okay. All right. Well, we'll circulate the bid specs again. Ask HVA to do that. Sorry, let me get back to there in my mouth. So, in essence, there's only one proper bid because there were errors in The other one. And that's the resolution to reject the bids and authorize a re-solicitation. So, any thoughts, folks?

Well, I'd like to look at the bid documents before we re-authorize them, if they're...

Okay. So we can... Well, we do need to act... Because this is a project we need to act, I think tonight to reject the right press 45 days.

Yeah, you need to at least reject. And they're proposing to have the bid receipt date be on or after September 1. So I guess we reject and hold on the rebid until you have, you know, further discussion. But I think that you should have that discussion relatively soon because DOT has to approve the rebid.

And that is a big, obviously, Kristen, you know, a big process.

So... Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, you know, we could do, like, an alternate of the surface of the stone or whatever to try to get the cost down because the cost wasn't what we had hoped. But absent that, you know, this was all prepared.

Well, there's aspects of a project that DOT is going to care about, and then there's other aesthetic parts of the project. So I think it's reasonable. I mean, I think we all should look at the bid documents, but it's...

Right. And just prior to your time, there was a... lengthy public process, information sessions, designs, and whatever.

Totally understand because we have an old stone bridge and there was a lot of sensitivity.

That's why they came around with the stone facade on both entrances and then the water to pass through on the other. My question is do we need to amend this? We can circulate the bid specs again. I'm wondering if the resolution needs to be amended to accomplish that, though.

Do we need to keep the second item there? Can we just remove that and then do a second... And authorize the solicitation of public... And do that in a separate resolution later? I mean, I guess we could, very cross-eyed. Is there anything binding us to re... No, I think DOT is going to wonder, like, okay, what's next?

the engineer that if you took it up at your July, first July meeting, but I think it should be soon, right?

Yeah, yeah, of course. Of course. Okay, so let's do that. Can we amend resolution number, are we on 32?

So who's going to recirculate the documents?

Oh, I'll make sure that James at HVA does that, yeah. It may still be on our website.

Can we do that, can we commit to doing that like this week so there's, to review it before our next meeting?

Sure. And you can, you have the email there if you want to shoot it.

Yeah, make sure the water department knows about this because there's a water department issue about the coordination and shutting it off and everything. Yeah. And they were under the assumption in my last monthly meeting that the thing was out for bid and it was going to get awarded and they were going to get their contractor to do what they had to do.

Okay, so this resolution 32, right, Deanna? 33. 33, thank you. Would be amended so that the title would say resolution rejecting bids for the DOT Salt Coat Bridge project, then the whereas is all fine. fine. The next whereas would need to be shortened so that it did not include and re-advertise the contract. And the now therefore is fine. And then it would have just number one and not Any discussion? If not, all in favor? Kenny? Aye. Williams? Aye. Myself, aye. Jacob? Aye. Kristina? Aye. That is okay.

announcement for the call plan?

Please, would you?

Yeah. So I guess just a brief update. It's not going to be super substantial. The committee had the second workshop about a month ago. There were approximately 100 people attended, 300 plus comments. In the time since, we've had the second survey. We've seen posters like this around. About 75 people have completed the survey to date. We're going to make one last push to have people complete the survey before it closes in the next couple of weeks. So if anybody has not yet done so, either participating at the workshop or completing the survey, we encourage you to do that. We want to hear as much input on the vision as it's been before and so forth so far. Yeah.

And I just had one comment in response to Francis from the village who came at the last meeting and had comments about the split in funding between the town and village on the police. I think it would be helpful to see on the breakdown. We've got a breakdown between the town and Tivoli. for police activity, but I think it would be helpful to see town, village, and village.

Two villages. On our policing reports, yeah. Yeah. Well, and this, again, goes to the issue of this is why we need to have, just like we did with the courts when we went out to get the grant nine years ago, nine years ago, from an official. Not only where the services are being delivered, how the services are being delivered, the costs associated, what can be done regardless of who's paying what share of it. Because as I think I mentioned, the amount that's coming out of the village budget is high on the leasing. But then when you look at fire, I mean, it's like it's almost all of us. made a fire payment on the village in 2026.

It's in their budget. Developed that today, actually.

It's in their budget, but I'm not sure they've made a payment. Oh, okay.

You can't say that you're going to fund one thing from the other. If the fire is uneven, then that's a discussion.

Well, that's why we want to look at, we want to study these services and see how they're being delivered, whether they're being done efficiently. What alternatives exist and that's exactly what happened with the court study and they were given options and you know we'll learn a lot more about it just like some of the questions you've asked about splitting up. This is not just about you responded to something there. How much time are you spending in this village or that village or the town and so on and so forth doing the shifts.

I mean so are we good with that request? I don't know who's the liaison for police.

I am, but I think that that's not a standalone silo issue. It's an issue that I think that we as a board should pass a resolution and fund a study just like they did before, and there are grants for that, to look at, you know, shared services, consolidation of services. I mean, listen, the fire department is not even a municipal entity here in Red Hook, but yet it sits on land and in the village that belongs to the village. I think that you really, if you're going to raise the issue, and I watched, and I'm sorry I couldn't make the meeting, I did go and watch it on Panda, but I think you really have to look at it more globally. And I think it's a fair thing to do, and I think it's something we should do, actually.

I mean, my point is not to draw a conclusion, but it occurred to me when I'm looking at this report that we highlight Tivoli and the town. And especially since it was brought up as an issue, I don't see why we wouldn't just highlight the village, the town, and the village of Tivoli.

So on there? Although the village of Tivoli, you should know the history of them and policing. They have gone, they have It's relatively new that they're using the Redwood Police Department as their primary. They used the sheriff's office for many, many years, and then they switched to the police. We have been consistently using the police, and we do have a small thing for the sheriff which covers it. That's the pass-through for like the bar graduation. Yeah, yeah, but I think Christina's request is a simple lift.

Oh, for the police department? Well, just on this report. See it on the screen where it says town and Tivoli? Yeah.

If they can put... Oh, just add the bill and... Just bring it out so that we have some data and then, you know, see where it goes from there. But, I mean, that would be a good starting point. Yeah.

I think we could ask for that.

Oh, yeah. I do. I don't know... Will they give it to us? No, they'll give it to us. I think the issue is... looking at prior reports which the mayor and I understand and agree with your decision not to include every call like the addresses right as I scrutinize that this isn't really help some of those addresses it's questionable whether it was in the village or in the town there are properties that straddle them and there are events more than just properties there are events that happen in that cross over jurisdictional boundaries. And so there are things, there's a call that they might go on that's a village call, but ends up in this court for a variety of reasons. And so I will ask if there's an easy way for them to do that, but it may not be quite as precise as the Tivoli one, which is very easy for them to do.

This report is also missing the breakdown of the types of incidents that we got from previous ones. Yeah. I was going to ask him to do that. We asked about that.

So could we do both of those things as for the request to ?

I don't think, I think that was an oversight.

I think we can get it. It's just I wanted to flag that because I know that we have the breakdown last time. Okay.

Okay, and then also, you know, we got, as part of Teresa's report, she's talking about three new trucks and funding and all that. And I'll get with Anna, our bookkeeper, and Teresa and let's figure out a plan because obviously we're not going to be buying, we just bought two trucks. We're not going to be buying three new. You know, you have to... I think she mentioned it, the last thing about that one or two trucks. You know, we have to spread these out so that you have a replacement cycle.

Didn't we just replace a plow truck?

Not that long ago.

Not that long ago.

We need to look at, again, the capital.

Remember, it was like $300,000.

No, we've replaced so much equipment.

I mean, she filed back the ones currently that she wants to replace from 2005, 2010, 2011. So there are two that were back-to-back at least.

of those just you know we can do better and spread them out like it'd be good to have well because it does take like two to three years to actually get delivered yes i understand that but you know we also need to we need to be thinking and i'm sure she's thinking about it in the next you know whatever that is next time we're super 10 we'll think about what what equipment inventory you know uh she or he would like uh we need to but also take a look at the demand.

2005 should be replaced.