Town Board - Regular Meeting

Since they could see him now for two days.

Oh my gosh. Does Ollie know? He does. All right. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Okay i'd like to call the town of Rochester town board June business meeting the order, if you could all stand for the question.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- 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. HAB-Masyn Moyer- To call it. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Here. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Here.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- When it's absent supervisor now i'm here, so the first item on the agenda is the acceptance of the agenda. HAB-Masyn Moyer- So i'll make the motion that the town of Rochester town board, this is this is where it went. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Right. HAB-Masyn Moyer- I got my notes, yes, except the agenda as prepared by the town supervisor with the following amendment that we will add a discussion of health insurance. HAB-Masyn Moyer- In the discussion. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Any discussion all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carries so just a note for the board and the public, we have a quorum present, but we only have a quorum. So in order for any motion to pass, all three of us have to vote in favor. So a two to one vote would be a failed motion. So this is our business meeting. We start out with a bunch of reports. Then we will have the public comment portion of the meeting. Tonight, I scheduled an executive session for 7.30 PM. So no matter where we're at in our agenda, At 7.30, we will go into executive session. We will be leaving the room for that. So we will leave the room open. The stream will be on, we'll put it on mute, but no board activity will happen starting at 7.30 p.m. from when we exit executive session, which I think will be about 30 minutes to an hour. So just wanted to... everyone to be aware of that. So first off, we have the financial reports. So I've submitted through the town board and the town clerk the financial reports for the month of May. These are also available for the public at the link that's at the top of the agenda for the Google Drive link. Just the kind of high level notes about the financial reports. The general fund took in $182,689.15 and our expenditures for the month were $238,431.93. Highway Fund saw an income of $8,434.88 as revenue and our expenditures for Highway Fund for the month of May were $234,818.70. I did do the operating transfer from Highway to Capital So capital funds, the only activity in capital fund was a revenue of $80,020.07 because that was interest. For ambulance fund, we did do a payment in the month of May. So total revenue was $28.18 of interest and expenditures were $54,917.50. Street lighting saw a revenue of $1.35 and our expenditures are $547.77. So for the board, I sent you that in a single PDF file, has all the financial reports, including our budget versus actual. So this is five months into the year. It's starting to represent a good snapshot of where we're going to be. for the year. So we will actually be starting budget talks, but the budget process is gonna start in July, but it's good to get a good hold of where we're at. So that's for you. So supervisor's report for, I only wanted to share one correspondence Um, that came to me at first, I thought it was meant for the planning board, but it was for, it was addressed to me, but I wanted to share it with the board. Um, it's basically a, uh, complaint about an upcoming project that's going to take place on towpath. So, um, right where the deep bowl, uh, swimming is, there's a venue being built and, um, I will share this letter with the board. I have to scan it in, but there's some legislative ideas in here and just some concerns that I think don't apply to the planning board right now, but they would, they might apply to policies or legislation that the town board might want to enact. So this just came in yesterday and I didn't have a chance to scan it in. For my just general supervisor report. I wanted to report that we, grievance day was held on May 26th. It was held over till May 29th. And I thought to bring my report. I've got the numbers. I was going to share those numbers with the board. There was a number of grievances as the board is aware, also stipulations, and I believe they have a breakdown of the numbers here. So there were 170 grievances, 158 stipulations and one correction. All determinations from the Board of Assessment Review have already been sent out to the grievers with the determination. So that will all be reflected in the final roll, which will be published on July 1st. But again, anyone that did put in a grievance or stipulation should already know the outcome of that process. And there was a change, a reduction overall, I believe of $31 million. So 328 properties were reviewed of which 265 properties received a reduction in assessments close to $31.7 million. This whole process has been an undertaking and I know that there are many different viewpoints of this process that people have, but I think going through it and seeing this This is really what a reval looks like. And I believe one of the things we kept saying is a big chance to make sure your property values are correct is to apply to be seen before the Board of Assessment Review. And I think this is evidence of the responsiveness of both the Assessor's Office and the Board of Assessment Review to reviewing and accurately assessing those properties. So I would like to thank the Board of Assessment Review and the Assessor's Office and everyone in town for going through this process with us. And we will look forward to the final roll being filed. And then we will have a better idea of what our assessed value is for the town. Last week, my office attended a training for bookkeepers and municipal officials. It was a financial training and a policy training. It was really great. It was held in Marbletown at the Rundown Municipal Center, put on by the state comptroller. I and my staff I think really got a lot out of it and learned some things, including the fact that in addition to auditing the bills each month, I will be submitting the bank reconciliations to the board because it's recommended that the board reviews those as well. So that isn't something that had been on my radar. We've never done that as a board before, but.

Except for all accounts. So you'd want mine?

No, I think, well, It's just the ones that I oversee. Oh, OK. Because we usually don't review any of your account information. And I've also been, I printed out through the board, but our bank balance statements so that you can see where we're at. We have well over $2 million in cash, but those are across all of our funds. and more revenue plan to come. So the second training that I attended with Councilman Coleman, it was put on by the County Health Department in partnership with Ulster County Emergency Services. It was a disaster preparedness training for municipal leaders to really get us thinking about how we should be prioritizing disaster preparedness and thinking about it policy-wise, legislative-wise, and also how we are connecting with each other. Part of the training, it was a four-hour training, and at the end, we did a tabletop where we went through a disaster and sort of assessed where we're at as a town and how we would respond in that situation and identifying the holes in our, in what we currently are planned to do and know to do in those instances. And then we created like a 30, 60, 90 day, what are you going to do after this training? So I put that at the end of the agenda because I wanted to share with the board what I, my came up with after that as what our priority action should be over the next two months, because it was really great to go to this training and, um, it made me really realize how important and what a high priority it is for us to make sure that we have a really good plan in place and that we have really strong relationships with the other agencies in town that, um, are the first responders. Um, We, I also, they gave me one of these. I'll pass it around. It's the disaster preparedness for municipal officials. I can copy it, but it's really helpful. And I also got a bag of swag.

That's great. I wish I had said that as a parent. Better speak my language. Love swag.

Yeah, well, there's a go kit in here.

I was going to say, I got like all my like to go first aid or like band-aid packs. Yeah, this is, yeah, it's a, it's a go kit.

So, and it was, there were 14 municipalities there. So it was a great to hear from other municipalities. And, you know, like the city of Kingston was there and they obviously have a much bigger population, bigger budget. This is something they've been working on for a long time. and the knowledge sharing that happened was very incredible. The next thing I just wanted to share is every month we have a department meeting that's supervisors and department heads where we come together and we discuss town business, departments, And we had that meeting yesterday. I thought it was really, I thought it was a really good meeting. And I just wanted to extend my gratitude for our leadership in town for being so dedicated to, you know, good, I would say excellent government operations and recognizing the challenges that we have in resourcing our department so they can serve to the best of their ability. So I just, I go away from those meetings feeling very energized to work together with everyone to resolve issues and to continue to improve government operations. So that is it for me. Kate, do you have a final question?

For tax collection, I will be closing out Monday with the county. And then I'll have final numbers to you by the end of June. For town court for the month of May, $53,099.10 were selected. I have received two resignations. One is from Sheila Brown. What was her title? Was that just... Cleaner and after school. Okay. Record. Record. Record. And then we received a resignation effective immediately from Councilwoman Alexis Alba.

And the one for Sheila is a special thing that I can explain to the board.

So she's retired.

Well, I guess that's kind of part of it. I had to do that. I will explain that to the board. And those two resignations, do you want me to explain them? With the Board of Elections? Sure. So I spoke to Board of Elections. This will be a position that will go on this year's ballot. Since the Democratic Party does their petition, if they choose to hold a candidate, they will have to have a special meeting for that, like a caucus. And the Conservative Party is holding theirs next week. And there is no indication that the Republicans will be having party lines November. But it will be on this year's ballot. Okay.

HAB-Jacques Juilland, And you could still appoint.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- To study just be like. HAB-Charlotte Pitts, Yes, but it would just to finish out this year and that term ends January 31 27 so it would be a year term. HAB-Charlotte Pitts, This is the field. HAB-Charlotte Pitts, yeah yeah.

Oh, yeah, that's what I thought I was thinking it was.

Yeah. So I did reach out to Alexis to thank her for her service and everything she's contributed to the town and to the board with her time. So just we have gratitude for anyone that serves. It's not an easy thing. It takes a lot of time. And it's, you know, it's it's always a work involved for all of us. um, especially board members who have, you know, careers and families and children. So I just wanted to thank Alexis for that. Um, department reports. So highway report, I don't have a highway report. The two things that, um, I would like to share though, are the voicemail road bridge is like super, super red flagged. So it had been closed to pedestrian traffic, but apparently pedestrians had been ignoring that and walking across the bridge. And I'm going to make this known and the highway department made it more, they fenced it off, but that bridge is at risk of collapsing under its own weight at this point. So it is a very unsafe structure. People should not be under the bridge. around the bridge, on the bridge. Um, so that's, we got a very strong warning from the DOT regarding, uh, doing a better job safeguarding that structure. And I'm reaching out to everyone who lives in that area to let them know how important it is that they not even go like under the bridge.

What bridge is that?

Voicemail. It's being replaced this year, but, um,

We should do laminated signage there.

Yeah, I think we need. I think they put up a fence, but I haven't been able to go check out what they did.

I mean, it's really easy to add them later because I have some thoughts on creative things that we could do to make sure that it's safe and blocked off. So I'll go like our Harvard.

Sure, other matters can encompass.

Yes, yeah, I was going to say I'm going to leave myself out on other matters to just bring up the voicemail bridge.

And then we did... advertise the bid package that's on the contract reporter. That is a 300 page bid document. And there have already been contractors who've been signing up for that list. The contract reporter, you like subscribe to the bid. So there was a flurry of interest when it got published. So that's a good sign. Um, I have a report from the recreation department. So, uh, this is from recreation director, Ashley Sweeney. Um, tomorrow is the last day of town of Rochester afterschool program for the year. The recreation department would like to thank the afterschool counselors for an excellent school year. Thank you, Lisa Babcock, Jennifer Connor, Sheila Brown, Samantha Riddick, Lacey Freer, Aiden Lasher, and Eliza Fetke. Registration for the 2026-2027 school year will take place the last week of August. Please call the Recreation Department for more information. Our next Walk for Wellness will take place on Monday, June 22nd at the Walkway over the Hudson. That sounds fun. We will meet on the Highland side at 9.30 AM. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. Please call the rec department if you have any more questions. Don't forget to bring water and wear red to support heart health. Summer staff CPR training will take place on Monday, June 29th at the Harold Lipton Community Center. CPR training is required for all of our summer staff. Summer program will begin Monday, July 6th. At this point, trips are booked and we already We are ready to roll with approximately 40 kids and nine counselors in the program daily. State of the date, Heritage Day will take place on Saturday, October 3rd from 12 to 6 p.m. on Main Street in Accord. The Town of Rochester Recreation Department will once again host our Jenny Bell Pie Contest. We hope to see you there. Okay. And Councilman Nguyen is absent. HAB-Masyn Moyer- And so we don't have a town justice courtroom, so I will move on to board and committee report us starting with historic preservation Commission and.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- So for the historic preservation Commission this Saturday is the farm and inventory event at 10am here, and that is where the group of farmers have spearheaded this idea of collecting the data of. operating dairy and chicken farms in the town of Rochester, and they'll be placing those on the map. They also have scheduled a pre-revolutionary war stone house bus tour for July 12th. There will be more details to follow on that. There will be five homes in the town of Rochester that they will be going to. And I just think that's a great start to the summer with promoting revolutionary Europe. And let's see. I think that's all I have for now. Okay. Councilwoman Smitha.

Thank you.

I did not get an elder care report this month from Constable Miller for the Housing Advisory Committee. I'm just kidding. Oh, there's some. So they are working on, they had an interview for someone who had expressed interest in joining the housing committee, which I think that they have either or they are about to this week conduct and then have as an item. So at our next meeting, we might have an appointment recommendation from them or might not. but I believe that it is on their discussion for their meeting next week, so the interview's happening before then. And then they've kind of started to form little subcommittees naturally, like, out of, like, assignments. They're not really subcommittees, but, like, there are certain members working on certain tasks and certain working on others at this point. So some are working with... doing reach out to ECC or Oh no, what is it? I forgot what it is now that we merged them. Did I say the right one? Yeah. For reaching out to like the newly merged ECC and seeing how, like opening up the conversation about how conservation and housing can work together in our zoning code or in general and how they can promote that as a thing together as committees since the ECC and Climate Smart have been doing so much work with the rooted in Rochester. And also it's just, it's a, It's a conversation that comes up a lot that they're normally butting heads of issues of priorities for a certain lot or things like that. So they want to see how they can work together. And I think also on the parcels identified in the original CPP plan to make sure that they're not all of the same parcels are the ones identified for both potentially. And then They also want to start doing some research on, um, land banks, uh, for us and potentially getting some GIS training or education. I have no idea, Michael, maybe because you've done GIS for years. And then I will leave. And yes. And so they're working on that. I think that they're also looking at other creative ways to create, um, funding for housing and like get funding for the town for housing and then also for different types of campaigns they can do in town to help promote different forms of housing like long for instance long-term uh rentals of different campaigns they might be able to do to try to promote that over short-term rentals in the area since there's so much promotion of that available already so um that is them uh i'm gonna leave the other update about housing in general to the supervisor or leader. And then for the Rotary Club, we will be doing our chair project of redoing all of the wooden and leather or cloth armchairs here at the community center and also at Town Hall. And we are going to redo the arms for them. I am going to take this bad boy home with me tonight to just see the exact inches of, so I can get exact numbers for the material for the seats that we need on them. Um, but yeah, we're very excited to do the projects we're going to be doing on the 16th. We're going to come pick up the chairs and move it off site. That way they're doing anything for prep for summer program, or if anyone has an event or anything, it's a weekday here, yoga is happening. We don't want to be sanding and having, you know, um, chemicals and stain and stinking outside the community center. So, uh, I have a very large garage, that's a workshop. So I offered to do them at my house. It also has a pool. So we're having a pool, yeah. Or if anyone wants to join. And there, so we're very excited to do that project. We also have some fundraisers coming up for the Rotary Club that I'll let you guys know about. And we are currently, probably by the end of June, we will have finished and submitted a grant for, We are writing for a grant for Stewart's Gas Cards for the amount of volunteers at the Ackford Fire Company. And then after we can successfully get that one done, we're going to do it again in the fall for the Kern-Hawkson Fire Company. The one on, you know, tech Rochester area. And then again, we're going to try to keep it like quarterly to keep doing it for a different fire company, but we should hopefully have the first one for them done. Which will donate the cards to the fire company and they will give you them amongst the members and however they determine, you know, if someone's active what not. But specifically for the volunteers that are rankers, we said that we wanted, like we've heard back from public comment here, they wanted to make sure that since we're a nonprofit and comply with the word, that we did that one. So that's happening. And we are also HAB-Masyn Moyer- Don't might be coming to resemble on Kate we're also doing some history walks on different rail trails and the roundup school district, I think our first one going to be done in rosendale on the trestle on the cement plant. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Where it's just going to be a nature walk on the rail trail, you know, probably like less than a less than a two mile like looping there and back and you'll get to. They're an in-depth history on the different things along the trail there. So I'll keep you guys posted when we get the actual date for that scheduled. I think they'll need to do one before the end of the year there for them.

And that's all. So the next set of, I have it in the agenda. We had received the resignation from Alexis. She had been I had assigned her the liaison duties for Climate Smart, the Agricultural Advisory Committee, and ECC. I notified the chairs of those committees to let them know that I would be filling in for now, but I don't have anything to report on those. So Michael, do you have anything?

Yeah, I'll try to be quick. Planning board, so we had a meeting earlier this week. very well attended. It went for a while. There weren't a lot of items on the agenda, but there was a lot of public comments, especially focused on some of the feedback that we heard both in our special meeting and at our last workshop meeting. There were certainly some new comments during that session. There was also some of the comments aligned with what we had heard in our meeting as well. They continue to be Very busy in terms of the work that they're doing. One request that they had was, could we possibly look at a microphone that would be available for the public? Because sometimes it's hard to hear people when they're speaking. So I don't know. I know we had talked about that.

I just need to stick it to this so I can do that once we're done. I would leave if you want.

Yeah. And I think also, I don't know if it, so when projecting the TV, like they want to make sure that they're hearing it as well, not that it's just being broadcast. So. I can do that for them. We had talked about the prioritization last meeting. So I know you sent a note to Dave Church about that. But I can know he could start working on some of those, looking at the code for some of those priority items that we had talked about. Zoning Board of Appeals, no updates there. There was no meeting this past month. HAB-Jacques Juilland, Ambulance improvement district, I need to reach out again to the committee we haven't been able to coordinate time to meet so I turned back for a few. HAB-Jacques Juilland, amount of time that works for everyone, and I also still want to. HAB-Jacques Juilland, Take a pass up on their offer to meet with the committee so i'll follow up with them and see if I can find a time now that some other projects are finishing up. And then free exchange for cycling. So I had stopped by the exchange of the transfer station. I know it's good there. I know it's operating with a very small group of volunteers, but it's a well oiled machine at this point. Everyone's organized. They have a good system for denying stuff that shouldn't go in there. And if there is stuff that's not moving, they're either recycling it or it's going into the bin. So I think that's working. And then we've been talking. I know we have the clothing exchange on the agenda later. So we did get the site prep work done today. Thank you to William and Jake for getting this done so quickly. Checked it out. Looks great. So we are ready once we get the permits taken care of. So we're just waiting to hear back from the vendor who is currently out on when we can schedule that delivery. And then we'll get the permits in line and make sure we get that. And then also Tom Preston- Talk to the REC department today, let them know that you know we'll kind of look at options and then review with them and make sure it aligns what they need, and hopefully we can get that closed out. Tom Preston- And then i'll have a few things on the mo you I know what's on the agenda, but I think. Tom Preston- Mary Lou had gotten back to me and we're probably going to need to at least push that to the next meeting.

Okay. Okay.

Just because I don't think, unless we can look at it. We probably can't, but we haven't seen it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Great. Thank you. Thanks everyone for all your extra work on those things. So now it's the public comment portion of our meeting. This is the time to address the board. I think everyone here has heard the spiel, but we will not respond to questions during this time period. the town board may decide to answer or respond to anything brought up in public comment during town board member time. Is there anyone here who would like to address the board?

Yes. Barbara Fordell, Accord. I'm going to refer to a couple things. One, I wrote my own block to make sure I stay within my five-minute time, other than that's very disturbing, that last meeting. To see the mob mentality and Mr. Phil Rose be told after 10 minutes that his time was up and he said he didn't care and he proceeded. That I had all I could do to hold my tongue, believe me. So that was very disturbing to me to see that mob mentality come in and act like that because I saw it in rebound. And now I'm seeing it on this end of the spectrum. So I'm thinking, where the heck am I living? So anyway, the other issue is that I am referring to a letter that was sent to you from town businesses, Arrowwood Farms, Braxton Alexander and Company, Cove Valley Creative Arts Therapy, Flying Boost, Hans Auto Service, Lindsay Arnold Nutshell Realty, New Earth Permaculture LLC, Sacred Traditions, Saunderkill Farm Market, Star of the Meadow Flower Farm, Taft Street Realty Incorporated, and Tributary Farm. And I'm referring to this letter because this letter has no, I got this from the Planning Board Secretary, and it has no signatures. It does not state anybody's name of who wrote it. But I know my neighbor Bob Lesenow was asking me to want to read it into the record. So that's all I know as far as, but so I, who actually wrote it? for these companies, these businesses? I really don't know. But I'm referring to the fact that the statements that are in here are absolutely false. They refer to a deeply flawed conditional negligent debt in which the main mitigation strategy revolved around just lowering under the tower. Deeply flawed. There are, and my husband read them, 338 files online on this project. And there is no proof of any of the allegations in this letter that was addressed. They are talking about, no, they said that the town register's own code required a full economic analysis. And if they took the time to look at those files, that is in there. If they showed that, they said that the major factor, aesthetics is a major factor for a positive debt. No, that is a list of many. That is one of them. They went with the abstain till 11 o'clock till the end of the meeting to hear the attorney explain why they went with the conditional negative debt. They were able to get 23 conditions to be able to address all the problems with this. So I was also disturbed that Julia Walsh stood up and misrepresented the town board position, trying to convince the planning board that you were wanted the positive depth, even though you just sent a covered letter with those clients. So I felt that that was very unethical. They mentioned about how now the businesses and the public can participate. This has gone on for 18 months. This has had nine public hearings. The attorney for the book, for the applicant said the most they've ever had is five. So they're already exceeding. They also said in here that the federal shot clock They did not believe that that case was applicable. And Steve said that, no, it is. They have a shot clock, which means they have to get it done in a timely manner. So as far as I'm concerned, having seen our zoning, I mean, our planning board in action back years when I was doing the Meadowlakes thing, and now to see them now, and I want to thank Mr. Coleman as a liaison to actually be present at the meeting. That is very important to me because you can't sometimes get it from notes and you can't get, so that was very, so I felt bad for him to sit in the audience and actually have even misrepresented. So, so like I said, I just very disturbed that they are, that anybody in these businesses, if they knew what they were really signing, I wonder if they would really sign, you know? So, I'm going to put it in another letter from Steve, which I think he's the better writer. And he handed me this sooner than out the door and said, here, you want to read something, read this. So this is a group that has been putting pressure on the town of Rochester, town board and planning board to turn down the proposed Verizon cell tower on Grand Earth. The group has uniformly misrepresented the facts of the review and have leveled unsubstantiated charges of malfeasance on the part of the town's planning board. The group has become typical NIMBY protesters, abused both town comprehensive plan and the zoning code language in an attempt to bend public opinion to their viewpoint. Fortunately for the group's integrity, below is the town of Rochester's planning board site link with 338 files covering their view, as well as many letters from misinformed people that wrote against the approval of the Verizon cell tower. The Town of Rochester Planning Board bent over backwards to assure every procedural requirement was duly given the hard look as required by the law. The anti-tower folk have admitted to bullying both the Town Board and the Planning Board into turning down the tower when the fact is that should the Planning Board turn it down, Verizon would sue and the Town of Rochester would lose. Health issues have been proven to be non-existent as determined by the federal government. and the 1996 MCC Telecommunications Act for his local review boards from even considering health, let alone denying tower applications on the basis of health. And I also want to just add in here, when I asked my husband, what's the science when you take a cell phone and you put that next to your head, you are amplifying the signal when you put that to your head. The claim by the anti-tower group that the planning board didn't do What is required by CEQA, the State Environmental Quality Review Act, and the Town of Rochester Zoning Code is demonstrably false, to which a reading of the 339 files will attest to. Verizon hired extremely competent professionals to study the question, and they found the lost property value charge to be without letter propagated by the group and signed off on by various businesses in town. was based upon the planning board's main mitigation strategy revolved around lowering the height of the proposed cell tower from 145 to 145. The reason that the main focus is because essentially the only aspect, which is the aesthetics, concerning the receiver review, that could be called an impact which required mitigation on which the CMD delivered. The opposition was more a mob of people unwilling to accept the reality of a cell tower sighting. They don't want it. So they spent months throwing shit against the wall to see if anything would stick. It didn't. The planning board will no doubt approve the application for the cell tower at the applicant fulfilled all that was required and more seeing as the public hearing was held in session in nine times. That was from my husband. I can give you a copy of that. So as far as I'm concerned, every single one of these businesses should be sending once they research those 338 files, should be sending an apology to every single one of those planning board members for accusing them for not doing their job. Because those people were there till 11 o'clock. They work hard. And you know what? Steve used to get paid $25 a meeting. So I don't know what they get now, but they don't get much. So to accuse them of not doing their job, to me, it's just like, I'm not letting that go down. I'm just not letting that go down. Sorry.

Would anyone else like to address the board?

Just so that I'm not a, I'll go Campbell from the Daily Primer, just so that I'm not intrusive when you get to the point where you're making the motion to go into executive session. I would like to know the name of the specific litigation But also the appointment, the name of the position here says particular persons, which you do not have to discuss. But the appointment, the position would be appropriate, particularly since there's now an apparent vacancy of a town board member, which would be session, which you probably already know because you have this gathering.

Would anyone else like to address the board?

So I'll close the town board or I'll close the public comment portion of the meeting. It's now town board member time. Do any of my board members have anything you'd like to share or respond to?

I do, but I'm going to go first.

Well, I'll just make the motion. Yeah, I was going to put that in the motion.

Okay, so only response I wanted to have. I was going to bring this up later during other discussions, but since we had a comment about the planning board meeting the other night, while on vacation, I watched as long as I could before I had to leave for dinner of that meeting. I got in about two and a half hours of it, almost three, and I watched a good amount of it and I appreciate the public defending our boards and committees and our volunteers who sit in these seats. And thank you for that, Barbara. And being accused of not doing their jobs. I think that if you show up at your meetings, you're here in the seat, you make sure you're engaging and you do your homework and things that you are doing your job and what we've come to you for. But there was one thing said that I don't personally agree with and that that it was said tonight, and it was said in the last meeting that, and it was said in the planning board meeting by our attorney, and where it was alluded to, that Verizon is just going to sue us if we don't approve it. And I don't think that that holistically and in general should be the way that our planning board or any boarding commission operates, that We approve things based off of the risk of being sued because with, I think it was 178 public comments when I read through them all on an airplane on the way to Florida last week, that there's over 150 comments from the public that none of them are in favor of a project that's before the planning board. We're at risk of getting 178 Article 78s against the town and then paying all of those legal fees and lawyers. So I think that in general, that narrative is really not the one we should have or the precedent to set that we approve things at the risk of being sued by applicants. because that just, to me, doesn't seem holistic. And the other thing I want to say probably is that when the planning board was talking about the economic study and not having proper, not knowing what to do because of the home sales and they're within any areas like that, I was literally sitting there watching myself on one, like screaming at it, being like, because it's all rentals in that area or camps. they need to do a rental impact study on that road. If that's what they're trying to gain is the actual impact of that neighborhood, the majority are rentals. And my biggest, I just want to say, since I was at the meeting, my biggest issue is the planning board approving any, like in general, any board approving something that doesn't, that's at risk of losing its water and septic systems on that parcel for the existing buildings. and having no infrastructure then for the entire parcel at the same time of being approved for a brand new structure. That's not, you know, ideal for me. And I don't know what we could possibly do to put it in the code for something like that, that like preexisting buildings have to be up to code on a parcel or something like that before any new buildings can be created. Like, I think we need some verbiage in our code to be able to make sure that that happens. Because the fact that it can happen right now is kind of crazy to me. And that's all.

Do you have anything?

No, well, sure.

We like to talk.

I'll echo Barbara's comments that the planning board does a tremendous amount of work. They're all very dedicated. They're all... looking at these documents and spending a lot of time on all of these projects. And they deserve our gratitude. And so I just want to express that again. I do think, to your point, Charlotte, there is a lot of interesting discussion about some of those topics in the course of the meeting and what happens when you open up a site plan review for special use permits and if you have things that where the code may have changed in the meantime. And so I do encourage people to kind of watch that discussion. There's also some discussions around the difference between what the criteria for an application is as opposed to the requirements for evaluating an application. And I just find those things interesting because I think, and we made this point, and I also agree that this board has been very explicit that we do not want to weigh in on the, validity of this project or evaluate this project, but that is with the purview of the planning board and not something that we want to wade into. But where we do have influence is in future changes to the zoning code. And so that, you know, when I hear these comments, when I look into these issues, when any of us have conversations with Mary Lou, it's to that end, to understand where the gaps in the code are, where things could be buttoned up, where things could be changed for future projects. But I do think, and with respect to You know concerns about litigation is very loose fond of telling us, you know ports are open, I think she says 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I don't know if it's actually true but.

yeah respect anyone can see this online filing it is right.

And I and I don't see that motivating the decisions, I think what is motivating the decision with something supervisor now and. made the point of saying is they take an oath to uphold the laws of the state of New York, as we all do. And so they are following the code and that is their responsibility, not to tweak the code as they see fit, but to interpret the code as it has been written. And that's what I see in a lot of these discussions that I just want to make sure. I think that's the driving factor, not any concerns about who might or might not sue. And I'm not even saying that.

I just meant that narrative because it's come up a lot throughout this process from comments. And I even heard it at the planning board meeting also from members. So I was like, I don't love this narrative. Yeah, I agree. Why we should be sympathetic. You can process an application through or whatnot. So in general, I don't think that our board's doing that. I just don't think in general that should be the narrative out there from any side.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- And Mr Campbell, I will put all that in my motion, when we go into executive session, just so you know, but we have a couple minutes I was hoping we could do a few of our resolutions and then right at 730 we'll we'll do go into executive session. HAB-Masyn Moyer- So the board get the edits that I had to the May 28 2026 workshop meeting or do you want to take those into the next. HAB-Masyn Moyer- hour okay like that before. Okay, so I'll make a motion that the town of Rochester town board accepts the minutes of the May 14 2026 business meeting the June 3 2020 special meeting and the May 28 2026 workshop meeting as prepared and presented by the town clerk. Thank you, Kate or Kate did those minutes. very quickly so that we could submit the record to the planning board. And I just want to thank you so much for prioritizing that over your very long list of other things. I also second that. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Do you have those notes? Oh, okay. So I'll make a motion that the Town of Rochester Town Board accepts the following donations in the following amounts with gratitude. $63 from St. Paulie's Textile. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Next up, acceptance of Abstract 6A-2026. Thank you to Charlotte and Michael for auditing those bills today. I'll make the motion that the Town of Rochester Town Board accepts the 6A-2026 abstract and approves the payments in the following amounts. General Fund, $51,650.03. Highway Fund, $51,759.29. Nothing for ambulance fund, nothing in capital fund. Street lighting fund was $526.59. And in escrow, there were $4,657.50 of expenditures.

Thank you.

Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. So I did want to review the appointments with the board in executive session, just... Um, so we'll skip that, um, and move on to E appropriations for a part-time clerk position. Um, I'll make the motion that the town board establishes the position of part-time clerk. This is the second of those that we have a non-competitive civil service title at a rate of $25 per hour, consistent with the adopted wage scale. The position is limited to a maximum of 20 hours per week and will begin June 26th, 2026 and is assigned to the code enforcement office slash building department. Second. Any discussion?

And so this clerk, it would be technically under the town clerks.

Nope.

No, right. It's okay. That's what I thought that it goes, it gets broken out because they're there.

Okay.

I just wanted to confirm that. Nope. I'm good though.

Okay. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Opposed. Abstain. Motion carried. So that was an aye. Yes. Okay.

Sorry, I thought I read a typo while I was at night.

So we're going to skip the appointment of the part-time clerk. So are we tabling the MOU until the next meeting?

Can we just put it in discussion? Sure. There's a few tweets in there.

And then for the code enforcement software, do you guys want to talk about that before we vote to adopt? Yeah. Okay. All right. So we're about to go into executive session and then we'll come out and discuss the code enforcement software. And then we have another public comment and then we'll move on to the actual discussion items. Okay. So I'll make a motion that the town of Rochester town board enters into executive session for the purposes of matters pertaining to the litigation of the town versus Richard S. Miller and matters involving the appointment of the summer recreation aid positions and the appointment of a part-time park position. Certainly. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. So can you mute that? Oh, good. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Okay i'd like to make a motion, the town board and since executive session at 830. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Any discussion all in favor. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Opposed abstain. HAB-Masyn Moyer- So we're going to pick that up with our resolutions. HAB-Masyn Moyer- So I would like resolution D, which we skipped. HAB-Masyn Moyer- So that of summer recreation aids. I'd like to make the motion as presented on the agenda. Second. Any discussion? No, sorry. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. So for F, we need a little bit more time to... review to check references. So the board is going to schedule a special meeting. So do you have the calendar? What am I saying? Monday the 15th. So there is a meeting at the community center on the fifth test.

I think the 15th, the 17th are booked next week.

So could you guys do Tuesday?

Next Tuesday? What time?

I mean, we can do it at some point. You guys can do any time. We're just doing the chairs that day, so I just don't know how it's going to be done. That's that Tuesday.

Oh, wait, actually, why don't we do a special meeting at 9 and you guys can meet us here to load the chairs.

9 a.m.?

Yeah. Do you want to do it that way? And then I'll be here anyway to get the chairs. I can do that. You know what I mean?

Will we be ready to do the code enforcement software?

I think so.

Okay. So you're going to do the meeting here at 9 a.m.? On Tuesday? On Tuesday, yeah. When do they have exercise class? 10. Oh, okay.

I'm like, no, 10 or 11, and all of you start to dance with me.

I can't remember. I know some of the things that she does.

Exercise class at 8. Well, it's booked at 8. I don't know if it's on stuff.

Yeah, she books it. But yeah, I don't think it's at 8.

It's booked from 8 as well.

Well, on the 15th, there's a meeting that starts at 6. HAB-Masyn Moyer- We could do it before that except 630 looks like. HAB-Masyn Moyer- We could do it before that we could do five.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- On Monday.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Yeah, what do you think about that.

I mean, I'm gonna have a HAB-Masyn Moyer- Person to HAB-Masyn Moyer- Play. HAB-Masyn Moyer- So short with our junior member.

I'll make a motion that the town of Rochester town board schedules, a special meeting for Monday. June 15th at 5 p.m. at the Herald-Lifton Community Center and requests town clerk post notice.

Do you want me to put it on the calendar?

Do you want me to do it? I was going to say, I don't want to. Yeah, I don't want us both to play with one another.

Do I have a second for that? Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Okay. I'm going to take a chair stand. Okay, great. Yes.

Yeah, then I can take a chair. Sorry.

All right. So now we are going to we have the second public comment portion of the meeting. Was there anything you wanted to address? Okay, great. So we'll move on to discussion items. Councilman Coleman, the two resolutions that we tabled one is the approval of the MOU. The second is the code enforcement, building department software. You wanted to discuss both things.

Yes, second. Kate, do you want to be on that meeting?

On Monday?

Yeah.

I'll be at the county probably by then. Oh, wait, Monday at nine o'clock of training. We're doing Monday at five. Oh, yeah, good.

But I can also come back. I can also take notes.

Okay. Oh, wait. Oh, I can't. My daughter has commitment for college. I can take them. I think I do have some. Yeah.

Do we want to talk about first?

I love you. Or do you want us to review this document and I didn't talk about it.

Let me just talk through it and then I can send it out to everyone. So Mary Lou looked at it and was fine with changes.

So just to be clear, this is only about this shed.

Well, so I got um Kate sent me the agreement for the use of the space and there is some overlap so I may go back through and reference the shed agreement as an addendum throughout and then just remove the duplicate of the language about like the space and everything because when you look at the um contract for using the space it talks about leaving in a clean condition only going so it's stuff that's

So what we decided our last meeting is anything related to that, we were just going to handle in the agreement for using the space.

That's what I'm saying.

And anything that's just dealing with the shed is just going to be in this MOU.

Right. So when I made the last edits that I sent to Mary Lou, I didn't have the contract yet, the agreement. So I just have to go through and just pull out the duplicate. Oh, you didn't have it sparse, the two separate.

Okay.

And she was fine with that. The things that... So I did get some feedback from the group. And... Let's pull up the version. Make sure I don't miss anything. Okay. So some stuff. So there was a name change both for the group and for the individual. There was a request to add a second person who's involved with the organization. So we added those people. One of the things that we had talked about that I wanted to make sure everyone was okay with was, we had talked about the shed being donated to the town What I wanted to include in there was for the initial period, which is a three-year period, the shed is not going to transfer. So they can have it here. They can make use of it. However, if they decide that they want to go to a different location or they want to do something else, they can coordinate with the town. And as long as they cover the cost of expenses, they can remove the shed and put it at the location. So if they decide they want to move it to another location, place within a three-year period, they can coordinate with us, move the shed at their own expense, and then that would terminate the agreement if they don't want to use the community center anymore. So I wanted to make sure that was okay. So that'll be in the version that I sent around to people.

The point, the issue being that if for some reason they aren't holding this event here, we don't want to be tied to them using The shed here.

Right.

Yes, but if they're donating it to town, then only.

I'm saying the donation would happen after the initial three-year period.

Oh, I got you. Okay, sorry. I thought you were saying that was a stipulation of the donation.

I was like... I just want it to be a gesture. The concern is... Yeah, I didn't want it. They want to know that there's a home here. And I think we all agree that it's a successful program. But we obviously can't make commitments like they're not renting the space on a permanent basis. It's not like there's not a lease. Yeah, there's not a lease. So I think that's a way of saying, look, we're committed. We're not going to just turn around a month from now and be like, thanks for the shed. You guys got to leave. So I think that's a reasonable accommodation to make in that case. And then I'm going to add the reference to the community center agreement. I already sent that to them. They said everything. And that looks fine. How'd they sign that? key policy. I have to look because I think the agreement has a key policy in it, but I just want to say that copies of any locks, copies of any keys for locks placed in the shed will be provided to the supervisor and then within 24 hours of any locks being installed and that the town reserves the right to remove any locks if necessary to enter the shed. And... One thing in the termination for cause, it just said the town may terminate this agreement. I just changed that to the town board may by resolution terminate this agreement so that it's, you know, there's not concerns that a single person would make a change, like the board will actually evaluate it. And then they also requested that there be some kind of cure period if there's an alleged violation. So I added that we would allow 15 days to cure before termination, except in the case of emergency. So, and I think those are the major changes that I added so I can send it around. Well, I think the bullets we have are violation of agreement terms, unsafe conditions, failure to maintain insurance or misuse of the property.

So I think- This is for the shut.

Yeah. With what I said before, which I have to go through and make sure there's not duplication in terms of the actual agreement. But yes, violation of this agreement terms unsafe conditions in the shed, failure to maintain insurance, which I don't know if the agreement has an insurance requirement. I don't think it does.

We had put it in ours.

Yeah.

So can you, you'll circulate this. Yes. I'm having a hard time. Yeah. Yeah.

And so this, this will be a clean version with red lines of the changes I just talked about. Like it's going in. Okay. It's a, it's the, it's the version we already had discussed. Anything new will be red light. Okay. Great.

Um, and did they respond at all about, or did Mary Lou have comments about it needing to be an LLC or Inc or an incorporated nonprofit, anything like that? Like if we can make an MOU with an individual. um she she said this was fine the way she structured so she did change the way the language was written to allow for that so we don't need to gotcha okay so she made it so it's an ed and an mou with an individual not the verbiage that we typically use with the um like organizations because we are not that because we are just doing it over the shed which is being donated by an individual the

And we are not tying that to the use of the space. The use of the space is going to be just the terms of the agreement.

Cool. Yeah. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that insurance-wise we were covered. Yeah. It was allowable.

Can we move up? Yeah. Good. Okay. So code enforcement software. I got the... Code Enforcement Office sent a correspondence letting me know what their topic was, but I think Michael, you still had some questions. And I just wanted to see what, do we think that we are in a position to make a decision or do we think that it's possible that we'd wanna re-release the RFP?

I think we're in a position where we're ready to make a decision. I think the board still had a question about, you know, be careful about these investments in software that you want to make. It does seem to me like this would be like a multiplier in terms of reducing the amount of manual things that they need to do. But I think the software that they're interested in actually has like a forward-facing component. And I spoke to a nearby township that uses it and they said they've noticed like a reduction in the amount of calls and like office visits to do things because a lot of people are going online and asking questions there and that's helping so it seems to me that the things that i things i'm always concerned about when looking at software especially if it talks about ai and especially if it talks about you know especially with smaller companies and newer software products is does it actually do everything that they show in the demo and so i was asking i saw the demo sort of demo for all the products i think the one that they're interested in looks really good and a lot of the questions i had for the references they provided was does it you know are these things working for you didn't is it working as expected is it helping you reduce the amount of work. And the other good thing was the office of the group that's using it is similar in size to our office. And so they've definitely noticed it. So I think if the board wants to move forward with trying to address some of the challenges that that office is facing right now in terms of the inundation of materials, then we're ready to make the decision. And I think their choice Seems like a good one.

So you don't want to wait to make the decision?

I think we should talk about it, but I'm comfortable. If we want to wait until next week, we can do that. Because I have a call in to one other person, one other reference that I want to just talk to. But I think it's fine. I think we should wait until Monday.

Oh, yeah. Can we wait until our special... Can we add that to the agenda for our special meeting? Yes. Because I was going to say, I just got a call with an RIT person. Yeah, we can send them the name. If they have any reviews or they know that one program works better than the other with Microsoft, read in their experience since they work with so many townships. I will send names to them.

I think the one thing we should make sure, so the one point that this other town made was they had been using a previous software, so they had a lot of stuff that was already in a system right and we don't report it and we don't so i think two things i would recommend if we want to move forward one was we should just make sure they have a good understanding of what that migration looks like and how they're going to get information even that they're prepared because there's going to be a lot of the company both the company and our office because they're probably going to have to do a lot of work yeah no i get stuff in there i um

That was the main part of the department demos that I was a part of, was that discussion.

And then the other thing is, I know they're, I think they were proposing like a three-year deal. And I think we should consider whether or not we want to commit to three years or trial it for one year, like basically do it for one year and then assuming everything works well, we can commit to something longer.

That seems like a lot to try to figure out when we only have two business days.

I think it's just a question of would they entertain doing an agreement for a year as opposed to three?

Well, just if they have a buyout or a cancellation. Well, basically, they'll give you an off-ramp option after one year or something.

Right, and they may do that anyway. I think they were basically saying, if you lock, you can lock in the price for three years if you image three years, or you may have like a 5% escalation or whatever. So I think that's something we should talk about. I'd hate to commit to three years, and that turns out it doesn't work for their needs.

I mean, we already did that. So I'm going to mention that one. because we did MunicoLab and we've been paying for it and it hasn't been used at all.

Beautiful.

Yeah, for the building department. Don't you remember doing that?

My whole reason for wanting to make sure these ones might work with MunicoLab.

Yeah, let's do it on my diet. What was the... Oh yeah, the... the this is a two-month process to onboard to any of the programs so for me it's like i would feel like abandoning something after a year sounds we're gonna have to

Yeah, like what we got put into with the records management scanning thing. Like, we did all of this work for it to just not yet come up with or to switch to a different system or to have the equipment not work, blah, blah, blah. So I also agree with that, that weighing our options there, but also paying attention to what our cancellation or, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's all I'm saying. I think we preserved the option.

Okay, yeah. So... The remaining discussion items, what I just, I wanted to share is hoping our emergency management coordinator was going to be here tonight, but I'll give him a call. Come on a second. Well, I asked for a minute to go brief. He says to just go check out. Oh, sure.

Sure.

Briefly just. Okay.

Or you could just build something for us. We'll have it for years. All right.

Need any water?

Need the water?

Me? Sure. All right.

So it's thunderstorm alerts.

And then the rest of us begin really bad every day.

They say that they don't, we do need some rain.

I know it's looking so pretty in green now. It's sounding good.

Brown and crunchy plants time. I was messing around by, uh, part of my garden and I haven't done much in And there's like a little box foot there. And I was like knocking something off it. All of a sudden I hear like this like angry buzzing. And I'm like, what is that? Swarm of like, I didn't know what they were. Like, I don't know how I didn't get stung.

Yeah, you lucked out.

Yeah, and I'm allergic.

Are you? Oh, that's uncomfortable.

I was like, what's that weird buzzing sound? I can't even see it. It's like a tiny little nest.

Do you have to have an EpiPen?

Should.

Yeah. My brother's allergic, but it seems like the only time that it really affects them is anything from, like, the chest up.

Well, I got stung by a bee on my foot yesterday, and I had, like, a foot.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, it was, like, hot by the room. Yeah. What do I have on here? I do. It's probably expired by, like, six years.

I'm glad you know.

It's still clear. I think I can image it.

I probably did get stung in the toe once, and his big toe is about that.

Yeah, I got really bad lupus last year. But it's different things. I'm more allergic to stung than others. I want to expire in 2025. That's still good. Where are you at?

Six.

And I'm here. But yeah, when I got stung last night, I was like... I sit in there, I forgot I got stung. And then I like stood up to go walk the hill. Yeah, like water.

Okay. So emergency preparedness. I just wanted to get some input. This has been, there's two things. I don't want to rehash the entire training, but the main, point of like the thing that takes the most time in planning is the community building aspect of disaster preparedness because um it's everything from knowing and having a plan for vulnerable populations to knowing exactly what the emergency response protocol is and having that communicated clearly and consistently so the um There was the things that I put in on the, like, what's our near-term action plan. Number one is to schedule a community meeting with the purpose of having like a discussion about forming like a coalition or like an action team. So it would be like a community meeting where we would invite fire district EMS, food pantry, we would invite, the Red Cross said that they could attend these types of things. I'm gonna say no.

No to the Red Cross? Yes, I was on the Ulster County Food Security Action Network for three years and we wrote the food portion of the county's emergency preparedness plan. which was after at multiple date points, the Red Cross was supposed to be here if there was a pandemic and they never came here to this township. Well, they were part of the district. So they were part of. Yes. So I would just advise maybe a different. keep our options open is all I'm saying. But they just, I know that from seeing the county's plan, what was supposed to happen and what actually happened, they didn't even contact us. So I, which I understand on the scale of unpredictable size.

So I guess for that, I wanted to see, I like the idea of thinking of having a coalition for this. I wanted to, Get the board's input and then perhaps at our next meeting we could schedule that and have a list of who we want to invite. It would be open to the public, but I think inviting the agencies. Yeah.

I think that's a good time for it too, because do you remember when Commissioner Dunning came in and he really would like to sit down and put like an action plan together? And I know at one time Charlotte was talking about somebody shadowing Jerry. Yes. So I think that's like an appropriate time to do that. A lot of the energy's there. Yeah.

Well, apparently we're having like tornadoes every now and then.

Right. Then the... other big thing is the two other, this is about the three, the three main actions that I think take a little bit of time, but they're all about creating a bigger network. So one, because we're going into the heat season, having an emergency shelter group, because right now it's just me. And I think we just need like, we need a group of people who aren't staff members necessarily but who can we can have our own communications and that way when we're opening the emergency shelter there's more people to staff it because i'm it's always last minute yeah i think that that's a great like having like a

like a roll call to be able to allow you to be like, like if people have keys that can just be like, yeah, I'm available, like get there on blackout or whatever.

And then that includes things like the supply kit for the shelter. So I think we should have like, when we are open for a cooling center, what do we make sure like is in our kit when we're open for a warming shelter? And then the bigger thing is when we are a like shelter shelter, Because there's different types of shelters. But having a kit together that's sort of like the grab bag kit, but it's more about a stay here kit. And then the other sort of group I was thinking of is we, Rosendale has been doing this. We've been talking about this. As a board we've been talking about this at supervisor association meetings, but having transforming our elder care program into a vulnerable population. group that is the whole task is. Like. networking and community building and making sure that we have a plan for all of it, but specifically was thinking about this in terms of disasters, but it could be anything from, you know, that to getting rights to the library. I mean, like that group could do a lot more than just this, but it made me think like, okay, we really have to do this and we need to do it sooner rather than later. So those were the three things. things I would like to prioritize. There were some other things that I think I just wanted to share. The text system, we need the text alert system for emergencies. One really wonderful little note was when we're doing, because I'm the I do all of the notifications on Facebook and on our website and in these weather events, especially things change. And so I just, I really liked this idea, but to date and timestamp and number every single message so that you can, it's clear that like something came before it and this is like a new one. rather than, because sometimes the way social media works, or even your email, you'll pay attention to one thing, but not, or you'll be fed the old thing, but not the new thing. So I thought, I just want to share that. And then there's apparently some funding opportunities, and there's a few that I was going to mention with the upcoming grant opportunities that could also help fund some of this work, so. Any thoughts about that? This is just kind of what... Michael, you were there, so I don't know if you disagree. I know you'll tell me.

No, I think they're all great ideas. I thought it was a useful session. I think the biggest thing is involving the community. Yes. One of the things that struck me was you want to think about... your at-risk populations, you know, whether that's associated with income, age, language, medical issues. And we as a town don't necessarily have a good understanding of that. But the people that do is the community. Like people know their neighbors. They know, oh, you know, so-and-so lives over there. They don't have access to an air conditioner or they don't necessarily have enough food in their house to get past a couple of days. So building that out is what we need people to help them.

Yeah, the good neighbors take care of neighbors. I think the other thing that kind of I opened, like, you know, that the at-risk or vulnerable population can be different depending on what the disaster is. So also kind of identifying that with the top disasters you would know, like in a flood, people who are going to get cut off. Like, they are an at-risk population that might not otherwise be an at-risk population and are different. So that is also, like, part of it.

Yeah, it's true. We have multiple, like, hamlets or neighborhoods that do get waterlocked. Yeah. If we get more than X in that number of inches per hour of rain. Like, when I lived on Sonykill, I got trapped because I lived right in the middle and I couldn't get out anyway during, like, one of, like, the hurricane pushing storms that came up the east coast, but... Yeah, I think it's super important. I think that, I think that making sure, like, obviously we don't want any of these things to happen here, but I think that making sure that there is a plan and there is at least some type of guide, even if it's not a step-by-step like playbook on what to do in every single response of like, these are where our stations will be for each area, like of an emergency, if we need to have a shelter stations, blah, blah, blah. I think that that's really important for us to have. Um, and yeah, I, uh, I'm happy to help and be on any committee or since I've already written a chapter of emergency planning before, um, that was like a county level, like very long, like 30 pages, the book chapter. So like, I have somewhat, it was a few years ago, but like, I have some experience in it. So, and we did do another, like our recommendations that they didn't change any of our recommendations that they put in for the action network because like we literally, they were extensive. Like we put what to do if it was a medical related illness and like how many other, like we added a whole, like, I think like, chart it was a chart that was like one or two pages of like resources for other things to be able to refer out from your organization if you were a food organization feeding organization so there's a couple different things from that that I think that would really help with this and I've also just done my work in the nonprofit sector I know a lot of nonprofit leadership in this area that even if they don't have offices here they still do a lot of work here or have case workers managing a lot of our residents in different areas so I think that, yeah, those are the people outside of neighbor to neighbor, like you put it, Michael, like the people who actually are, you know, boots on the ground working with individuals that are in these underserved or in these vulnerable populations. Like, like they know it's like when you were naming things, I was just like, oh, yeah, I was like, well, I know at least five people who are deaf in town that only use sign language to speak and I could. I know where three of them live, but I don't know where the other two live for if there was something that they wouldn't have gotten alerted for or multiple things like that. People who are in wheelchairs, people who are amputees, anyone who are on oxygen and ventilators. If there's a huge electric outage, like if we had a list of those individuals, so we can go and have someone go out to check if they need a generator, like, there's ways to solve that like like i know five guys that give their generator their gas power generator to an old lady on oxygen instead of using it at their house for a huge emergency so like i think that that's great trying to get like a rural connection of emergency and also like volunteers to help and that's right i think it's great like having people who can come and you know, are willing to come meet you out if there's a tree down across your driveway and you can't get out. You know what I mean? Like, you know, something we can work out with that.

Yeah, I think one of the reasons why I think that this community meeting, I kind of want it to be a town board meeting because I think both of you, Charlotte and you, Michael, would be like, it would be, I would want you both there. You know what I mean? So I think we're going to, you know, I thought of both of you with all of this. Yeah.

I love those trainings. Cause I, I, I'm that person that likes to be prepared for anything that it expect the best to be prepared type of thing. So I like the grab bags. I wanted to do that for a while or like, I kind of did a similar thing for our elder care day event that we did two years ago. I did like a little like resource bag and then like goodies of things for them. So I love all of that but and I can help with I'm very good at bulk sourcing so from my work at the food pantry so like to get inventory and procurement for all of that stuff I'm happy to assist her too.

Okay great so it sounds like putting I'll put some of this on the agenda for our workshop meeting so that we can take I agree with you Kate about you know there is this idea keeps coming up and I think capitalizing on it and the very good relationship that we have with our emergency responders in town. I think we want to make sure that we are as gelled as possible. And there is a very direct connection because the town supervisor, for example, issues the emergency declaration, which triggers a lot of things. And so it's not, the town, there's a lot that the town isn't doing, but there's also a lot that the town is doing. So quickly, because I would love to adjourn at a reasonable hour for the first time in a couple months, upcoming grant opportunities. There's the consolidated funding application is open and there are some opportunities available that dovetail with our priorities. So Charlotte, I wanted to talk to you. And then there are some that are made available to us if we have achieved bronze status by the time we submit our application, which we probably will. So I wanted to start planning on that.

um and do you mean state pro-housing bronze right no no county um i'm talking about climate smart climate smart yes yes thank you um and then there's a cfa right now for housing also oh okay and that's why i thought you were talking housing so you and i so we can set up a time that i can come in because uh i've started my new job now that i graduated college and i have a much uh much more flexible, stress-free, um, schedule and, uh, workload. So great.

So there's a number, I feel like if we can get, I think we should really try to get something together by the deadline and it feels far away, but it's really not. Yeah. That's what I thought. It's really not. And we really have to, I think the board, we really have to be unified in that, um, Traffic study follow up. I'm going to table that because that's really Councilman Wynn's project and we had it on our last agenda. So the one big thing I wanted to bring up for the board and then we have some other matters is our health insurance plan is projected to a 16%. This is an expense that is not tenable for our staff or the town, honestly. So I started working on what are our options. And I wanted to share two things. One at the department meeting that we had this week, we talked about what I'm going to do is kind of more department meetings where I'm going to sit down with smaller groups of staff. and go through the options that we have through our insurance broker and kind of see if any of this is feasible for staff. Because if we're going to switch plans, there are a couple options that would not be a big increase and wouldn't change too much. But the structure of them is a little different. And I don't want that to negatively impact anyone that's relying on something that they wouldn't. Like one is a co, we don't have a copay plan. So like one is a copay plan where the copays begin after you've met the deductible, which the town pays the deductible. And so it's not, it's like $30 to the doctor, which is reasonable, but there are other things. Parts of that. So anyway.

We sign them in December though, right? It's like, well, for budget season.

No, we have to sign it at the end of September.

Okay. I couldn't remember what our calendar year was. Okay. So we do have like the summer to kind of. Yeah.

But I don't. Yeah. For me, it's like not that much time. So I want to get, because this stuff can take a lot of time. So we're also going to be approaching. So the county just switched to Marshall and Sterling. as their broker. So the towns are going to approach the county about going in as a group. We have no idea if this is going to pan out, but we're going to talk about it next week. And so I know that's the school district.

Oh, yeah, we could also schools can all join you from the county also. And they all that's what they cited as their reason for the giant budget hike at Grondau this year and cutting 28 positions.

Right. So like, yeah, I think if that's a possibility and it does lead to reductions, I think, I think we should be open to that, but it also might not be something that pans out this year. I don't know. So I just wanted you guys to be aware I'm doing, I'm going to do a lot of the prep work and I'm going to investigate as wide a range of options as I can get real input from our staff and, And then I'll be bringing stuff continually to the board because I want us, I don't want to make a decision that we don't have our staff included in.

Oh, correct.

So then under other matters, Charlotte, you wanted to have, you had an idea about the voicemail bridge blocking it off.

Yes. Do we, does our highway department, do we not have any temporary construction work fences? I think that's what they put up. Like the metal ones or are we talking like the plastic? I have to go back because I'm talking about the metal ones that you'll see outside of like a demolition site. It was chain link. That's what I mean. Yeah, like a chain link. Yeah, they put up a chain link. On the actual bridge though.

Yeah. That's what the DOT told us to do. I haven't gone and looked at it, but there was an email that said that that got done.

Yeah. Do we have any liability from it?

Yeah, we have been notified in writing by the DOD.

Right, but is there a way we can mitigate that by following certain guidelines? Like if we put up a chain link, does that mitigate some reliability? I mean, we can't physically stop people crossing it, like any kind of sign or something. Does DOT have policies that way?

It's not the DOT. It's us. It would be our insurance policy.

Oh, you mean do they have a policy for site safety? For containing a site?

It would be our general liability insurance. Right.

What I'm saying is if we follow all of their guidelines.

I can ask our insurance broker, but it doesn't matter. Either way, we should follow all of their guidelines. I don't know if it's going to I mean, we're, we're responsible if a, um, speed limit sign isn't pounded in all the way. So like, I have a feeling, I know how it would go, but that's why we have to take every measure we can to keep people away from destruction. Do you know what I mean?

I'm going to take a drive by tomorrow. You take it more of like wanting to know the protocol for, uh, sort of like liability to make sure that we're covering that we're not negligent.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was thinking other, I'm like, what's the guide and have we followed it?

Cause if not, is there something that like based off of the, we got the DOTs put in writing what the town needs to do. Yeah. It does happen this week.

Yeah, it's not just like we put up cones and they're like, we'll close everything.

Yeah, it's not like we just put up the orange temporary plastic fence and a piece of paper. Disgusting. I'll go take a drive by tomorrow. I still have some ideas. I just want to look at it exactly like how far and tall from the bottom to the top of it, like that type of stuff. Because I do have an idea of something.

Yeah.

okay um that would not be very expensive and we also might be able to see if um county dot has it available thing i'm thinking of so i'll do a little research and hopefully have a better answer by tuesday if not um great uh grant opportunities the only other one oh shoot sorry sorry it's okay we hopped i just forgot i wanted to mention this um there is a very large pool of a brand new type of, or a brand new like section of parks grants for New York state that 15% has to go to rural townships or communities. So we get kind of like a bonus, you know, points just for being rural here. And I really, I know we just did the project back here. We have, HAB-Juliette Boone, Had the project on the veteran veteran and the Andrew I always forget how to say his last name memorial part. HAB-Juliette Boone, That have been redone and we mentioned before, and people have asked before about a kayak law into the creek. somewhere in town, like some have said the scenic one, trying to get that one redone or the one on the berm road. And I would really love to look at the possibility and help with the prep work in any way I can to potentially write a grant for us to put a boat launch in at the berm parking lot. put a kayak launch in where people kind of naturally have been doing it anyway there off the little seating area and then redoing that seating area and maybe putting in like the stretching equipment or some type of like micro park in there where the picnic tables are and like yeah having it redone there because there's a decent amount of funding and there's also like another bonus category if it has a water recreation there's an additional funding pool or like boat launches for recreation so for that we um

We do have our DEC permit in. There is a plan for the kayak launch itself. It will cost the town less than $10,000 to build the structure. But we have been talking about phase two would be exactly what you were talking about. Yes, yeah.

I knew that we had kind of had something in the works, but I wasn't sure if we fully set it in stone in motion or anything yet. I knew we had done.

The permit's in. It's taking a really long time to get a response. So I don't know if it's going to happen this year because of...

time that we have to be near the work near the stream but yeah yeah i thought that that would be great when i saw that there was a new funding pool and especially one that like incorporate um waterways i'm like seeing waterways into the planning of them like there's kind of two different ones but new york place just opened up a kind of a bunch of new categories that they'll let you apply for projects and those aren't due till i think end of October, November. So we have like a really decent amount of chunk of time to try to get some prep work on it. And it didn't look too extensive. So I just want to make sure I mentioned that one.

Yeah.

Since I saw grants on there.

Okay. Great. So then the other, other matter that I wanted to just share, which everyone, the board knows at this point, but that our home rule authority legislation did not get brought to the floor for vote in this session, which adjourned on June 4th. So that is something that we have to try again for next year. And which means on the right side that we can put the changes in that we were talking about.

Yes, the positive spin is that we have time to make those fixes now. And I just publicly want to say from this situation that I want to thank Aaron's office and just the board for The lobbying, the work, the support that we've put into this and the housing committee has put into this and your clerks have put into this and all of the calls and emails and correspondence you've had with our representative and our members of an Albany. And this was not something that the town dropped the ball on in any way. The assembly last year closed on June 17th. I would not have been on vacation the first week of June if I thought the assembly would have closed. And this was a risk of happening. Like literally we were told we were good to go all the way through. So I just wanted to say for the record, thank you so much to you and to our official brother and sister in Albany. Two days for when you're going to close session is not cool. It's all going to die down. Um, and I'll see you guys when you reopen. Yeah. That will be there.

And then for the, uh, any other matters from the board?

Oh, I just have one question. Um, once the, um, the mobile, um, shed, the food pantry and fridge are open, are we going to do another ribbon? Can we do a ribbon cutting for them there? I think they would.

I think they would do a ribbon cutting. Yes.

But just offer to put it on the channel website. Like how we do for the bath. I just think that that's nice. Yeah. Make sure that.

Yeah, it definitely. Like that. And that reminds me, I did get correspondence from community member B. How good about the health, the mobile. Health. units that the Allendale Library is doing and she had suggested that I reach out and see about it having a stop here. I haven't looked into it yet, but that was something I was going to investigate.

I did ask the county about that at the housing forum because they had mentioned the UCAT, the new mobile one, and I said are they going to Rochester? They wouldn't answer. Yeah. Okay.

So for June workshop meeting review, the Rooted in Rochester results will be compiled and there'll be a brief presentation that I will just schedule at the start of the meeting for that. We want to schedule a community meeting for coalition building for climate emergency preparedness. And then we definitely tabled a couple things that I think we'll be working on in that meeting. And then a reminder to the board that we scheduled a special meeting on June 30th at 5 p.m. to interview candidates for the Community Preservation Fund Advisory Committee. And we agreed that that would be held in public. Yes. Do you have good applicants? Yes.

Do you have enough to fill? Yes. Do you have some options? Yeah.

Okay. We'll take it. And if there's nothing else, I make a motion to adjourn.

Oh, at 921. Thanks, everybody. Thank you.