Town Board - workshop

But there's a cemetery down here. Right. It's up in the hill. You can see the cemetery. It's up there. Yeah. Yeah.

I find cemetery valley very peaceful.

Are you?

Is Jim taking pictures and putting them on my degree?

He hasn't done that yet.

Oh, are you coming back?

Oh, I'm just bringing another chair so we don't get over anything. Okay, I'm going to get, we're streaming, so I'm going to get started.

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call the Town of Rochester Town Board June workshop meeting to order. If you could all stand for the clutch to relax.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic in which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You do the roll call. Councilman Coleman?

Here.

Councilman Smith? Here. Councilman Nguyen?

Here. Supervisor Nguyen? I'm here. So our first item on the agenda is the acceptance of the agenda. I have many amendments. So I will go ahead and make those. These are amendments to the agenda that was published publicly on Monday. So I'll make the motion that the town board accepts the agenda as prepared by the town supervisor with the following amendments that we will do an interview for the board of ethics directly after our first agenda item. We will add Three discussion items under other matters, so we have an application for a use not considered a request for to review the floating holiday policy and the tag award agreement. We will be adding an amendment to amend abstract six a of 2026. We are adding an amendment to approve the agreement with GovWell. And we are adding an executive session to discuss matters pertaining to the litigation of the Town versus Five Ridgeview and the Town versus Richard S. Miller.

Second.

Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. So first up, we have Heather joining us to give us a presentation of the Rooted in Rochester project. Heather, would you like to come sit with us at the table? Thank you. And you have your computer. Yes, please. So the town received a grant for the Funding Futures Project. And Heather was our local, what's the official title again? The Funding Futures Fellow. And Heather led this year long project to engage with the community. And this is the final presentation for that project. So Heather, I'll let you take it away. Awesome. I think you might have co-host ability now.

Okay, great. Thank you so much.

So there'll be, Heather has a slideshow that will be up on the screen.

I make this question here.

First of all, I just want to thank you, Supervisor Allen and the rest of the town board for having me here this evening. And thank you so much for joining this presentation. I'm really happy to be here. So start off on the first slide. So this initiative was about listening to residents and building a shared vision. We set out to understand what matters most to the people who call Rochester This was a genuine grassroots listening effort and grew steadily over time. RIDDED Rochester invited every resident to participate regardless of background or viewpoints. The goal was simple, to determine environmental and community priorities shaped by the people who live here. So as Supervisor Renown said, this was grant supported, nonpartisan, and grounded in the voices of our community. RIDDED in Rochester was made possible through a grant from Partners for Climate Action, Funding Futures Together, we decided to review them. Part of the climate action has just rebranded to the understory, so if you look for them, that's what you'll find them in here these days. Six Hudson Valley towns were selected for the program, which was a one-year pilot that included weekly trainings and cohort meetings with the fellows from the five other towns. We all ran similar campaigns in each of the towns and learned from each other's experiences in addition to offering support and solidarity. The process was intentionally non-partisan and open to all. Every resident was encouraged to contribute. Gave up the thumb listening, not telling. All ideas that were proposed came directly from the residents of Town Lodges. I'm sorry. Okay. From October through February, people shared their priorities through conversations at events and through surveys and idea submission forms. By May, neighbors voted on the ideas submitted that they believed would strengthen our town. In addition to one-on-one conversations, we had a survey and a project ideas submission form that people could submit online. The survey was intended to help people conceive of project ideas and explore interests, attitudes, and experiences across environmental and community domains. These included energy and transportation, air and water quality, waste management, open spaces, biodiversity, as well as perceptions of community change, governance, and equity. The initial findings painted a clear picture. Rochester residents have a deep and abiding love for their town's natural beauty, its forests, streams, farmlands, dark night skies, and open spaces. At the same time, they're overwhelmingly concerned about the pace of development, the health of local waterways, and the advocacy of existing environmental protections. So collaboration was key to this effort. The Town of Rochester Climate Smart Task Force came together to apply for this grant. Each member is securing letters of support and contributing to a strong, unified proposal. I stepped into the fellowship role to help guide the work. I have lived in the Town of Rochester since 2011 and have worked for many local nonprofits and institutions. I have strong administrative, project, and event management skills, which allow me to manage multiple aspects of the project while staying focused and organized. I have education in agricultural science, sustainability, and business management, and I recently completed a graduate certificate in science and environmental communication from SUNY ASF. I was supported by a wonderful local resident, Judith Karpova, who some of you might know. Faye happens to be a local floral developer and an artist who also led our holiday and wreath-making workshop, as well as the full Climate Smart Task Force, many residents, and local businesses. Everyone helps spread the word, host events, and build momentum. So Rochester is home to more than 7,400 people, and we aim to reach as many of them as possible. Nearly 4,000 ballots were mailed to households in PO boxes, with additional drop-off locations and online voting available. We hosted five community events and partnered with the Plymouth Square Task Force, Table at Tomato Fest, and Heritage Day, meeting people face-to-face. This was a town-wide effort to ensure every voice had a chance to be heard. We received considerable local press from the Bluestone Press and the Shaw & Gump Journal. Mia, who's in the audience, read a couple of those articles, which helped people understand the project, what we were doing, and how to amplify it. We held events for all ages. We had a senior's lunch, a holiday reunion workshop, a children's story reading in the halftime, A mixer and stay time and a final rally of red pepper English. Local businesses and organizations supported the effort demonstrating how excited people are to be a part of the project. Our kickoff nature based workshop, which was led by Joel glansberg from the regenerative resistance Institute and it's also part of the funding futures team. helps set a strong foundation for a small group of poor stakeholders for the year ahead. So the ballot came directly from residents' interests and priorities. Every idea on the ballot originated from community input. Final ballot ideas were consolidated from individual submissions. We connected people who submitted similar ideas and surveyed responses to begin collaborating and encouraging people to vote. The ballot represented the collective imagination and hopes of Rochester residents. It was community generated and a very exciting opportunity. Residents were allowed to vote on their favorite, their top three favorite project ideas. Their choices were ranked in the order they chose, and the results highlight clear, highlight clear areas of shared interest with their priorities. Among the top were update town code and comprehensive plan and shared author spaces. However, as you can see, there's a very strong middle tier and clear proposals and plans were actually submitted for some of the lower ranking ideas. It is important to remember that every idea submitted carries value. Each one reflects a real need, a vision for the future, and an opportunity to strengthen the Town of Rochester through collaboration, partnership, and continued engagement. Residents engaged thoughtfully across agents, handlers, and voting methods. Nearly 10% of households returned the ballot, and more than 120 people expressed interest in volunteering to help bring projects to life. which is a great indicator that people want to work together and share goals that are engaged. We saw representation from Hamlets across the town. For Hompson, Ackward, Palin Town, Cherrytown, Whitfield, and many more. A strong majority of voters were over the age of 18, but as you can see, there were a few that were under age 18. And so once again, it has been an honor to serve this community and facilitate this process. The ideas, the votes, and the energy all came from you, the residents of the town of Rochester. Rooted in Rochester is just the beginning. Together, we can continue building our future shaped by our shared values, influence, and vision. Just so you know, we will be holding a final mixer on July 29th here to help people explore ways to turn their ideas into reality. Game Plan is the next phase of the Funding Futures. It'll be another grant. And it's been announced and will offer support for planning, professional and technical assistance, events, staffing, and more. Teams of three or more who want to work on one of the ideas proposed on the ballot are encouraged to apply. In addition, there are multiple funding options and other collaborative potential to explore. A link to game plan and more information about the final event are on the Rooted in Rochester website. Thank you again for your time this evening.

Thank you, Heather. I thought maybe the board had any questions or comments for you. So the town board.

Could you just give me the, I was trying to get it to the screen, but I didn't see all that's like, what was the total number that participated in the survey from town?

It was, I believe it was 377. Okay, cool.

Thank you. And also thank you so much for all your work and everything you've done and this whole process, Heather. Of course, thank you.

Any other questions? Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, I have a question. You're like, so the 120 people that expressed interest in helping, are those like names that you, are they, you know who those people are?

Yes.

Okay. Yes.

Yes. So I have all that information. I was planning to actually write up a little report that will, you know, give more of the data on all of these different things. So that will be available to

Great. And yeah, I think also my mind has been churning about some of the projects that could align with these goals. And I think, I don't know if it's best for us to talk one-on-one or to wait for the mixer. I have to see when that application deadline is.

So the application deadline is, I actually brought a flyer for it. So if you want this, I can give it to you, but I believe it's September 15th. Okay, great. But applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. So it's actually really encouraged to get them in early. Okay. Yeah. So they might fund projects along the way, which means that you could potentially rent out money. It's kind of a first come, first serve. Great.

Well, thank you so much, Heather. Thank everyone else for coming. And one of the things that came up in one of the presentations was the idea of having community votes.

Sorry.

Oh, I was just letting the board know that one of the things that came up in that discussion was the idea of having community votes and how if we were to try to do something like that once a year, people would get used to the idea of like offering input. And I thought that was an interesting idea. So.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next agenda item is interview for the Board of Ethics with Annie DeWitt. Would you like to come join us at the table? Sure. I'd like to do those kind of look at you.

Sorry, Seth. No, you're good.

Thank you for joining us, and thank you for putting yourself forward for this. I realized at the last minute that I had not gotten a letter of interest from Annie, which was provided, and I linked that for the board in our agenda and uploaded it. I just wanted to apologize for that. That was my fault. What we typically do is a brief interview. This is a public body. So we have a policy of doing interviews for all public bodies in public. And you are welcome to put your stuff down on the table if you'd like. I want you to feel comfortable. As comfortable as you can. I usually kick off the interview with the general questions and then open it up to the board. And we're, like I said, public, we're streaming, so just be aware of that. Sure. So if you could tell us a little bit about yourself, your background in the community, and what led you to want to be on the Board of Ethics.

So I was raised here. Dairy farmer's daughter. Care very passionately about this area. Spent my first 18 years here. Moved away for 22 years and lived in Rochester, New York. Can't get away from Rochester. Moved back in 2010. My mom was not doing well. And I've been back since. Love being in this area. I care very much about our community. I care about our heritage. Uh, I care about integrating, uh, people who've been here forever and people who are, have not been here forever and having everybody be welcome. Um, I think we're at a interesting place where, um, Who are we going to be in the future? There's who we were in the past. There's who we are now and we're developing. Just from starting to listen to some of these meetings, I'm learning a lot. There's a lot I don't know about how a town works. A lot I don't know. I am in service management. I've been doing that for many years. Oh, yeah. I'm in human service management. Which is fantastic. Well, my title is called a senior job developer. But what that realistically means is that I work with people who are all ages and abilities, but they have some kind of disability, often developmental. And either I put together a plan to help them to meet their goals to work and oversee that plan and have staff that implement, or I'm placing them for employment and coming up with a plan to assist them. Interestingly enough, where that kind of coincides with things that I hear at some of the meetings are things like, you know, if you want to have services for your loved ones and your friends, um, and your children and your future of your town, well, then you're going to have to have some resources. Um, so that, that definitely resonates with me as, you know, we struggle to obtain staff who can afford to live in our community because it's expensive to live in Ulster County. Um, I had, I was, my community of service really started in Rochester working with an organization called Daystar. And at the time it was very grassroots. It was being started by the Sisters of St. Joseph and a group of community people. And they were babies who were being born and they were being housed in a hospital for chronic conditions because there was nobody, there was no place for these babies to go and they were drug addicted. So I worked with them. And then when I moved home, I got involved with court appointed special advocates for children. And, you know, this is kind of like linked to ethics. We had an organization was really great, really interesting. I have very personal feelings about being involved in supporting people in foster care. However, us being an independent entity in Ulster County really was not a fiscally responsible situation. So we could continue to be the board and do these things, or we could do what was actually right for the kids in care, which was to merge in with the Department of Mental Health and have them take over the organization for Ulster County because we did not have the fiscal infrastructure to make it viable. So there was a lot of circling and I helped spearhead merging with mental health because ethically that was what was in better, that was more important to secure proper resources and have overhead and administration to better serve the increasing number of foster children in Ulster County versus having our meetings and being on a board. My hope is for our community as we make changes and we grow, that we honor our past. We respect our past. We respect farming because we all want to eat. We all want to honor where we came from and just be equitable with each other. regardless of whether you've been here for two days or your family's been here for 200 years, just being really ethical and mindful of how issues impact our neighbors. That's kind of what interested me.

Okay. Thank you. I did. We do have the law that forms the board of ethics is in the ethics law, which Is a board that responds to complaints. So it's typically applies to public officials and well, it only applies to public officials, employees of the town, because that's the only jurisdiction that we would have. And the board hears those complaints and deliberates. It's a quasi-judicial body. So do you have any experience with conflict of interest, that type? Because the ethics code is very geared towards following law policy and conflict of interest.

So I can give you a specific example. When I was on Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children, We had an employee who was Brent and I had known her family for many years and that employee needed to be terminated. And when that employee was being terminated, the after effects were how we were going to follow up with severance and how that was going to be handled. And I recused myself because it wasn't ethical for me to be part of that conversation. It was a conflict of interest. And there are, you know, especially in a smaller municipality, I know that there are conflicts of interest and I'm okay with sitting it out if I have to, and I'm okay with disclosing. I'd rather err on the side of disclosing and be told, you know what, maybe you should sit this one out or something like that than to potentially cross a line or put myself and the town in a situation that's not right. Transparent.

I will open it up to the board.

Can we start with you, Charlotte?

Sure. So I asked everyone who interviews for the Ethics Committee this, actually let me start with my standard question. Are you an eligible elector of the town? So are you a resident? I am. Are you considered to vote here? I am. Great. That one's easy off the board. Okay, so could you tell me the difference between ethics and morals, please?

Sure. In my view, the difference is that morals are often generated by your internal belief system, be it spiritual, religious, personal values, whereas ethics are kind of go... with the rules and ordinances we agree to in society as being right and wrong and or the standard that we have established that we agree. We have sort of a social contract that this is what something is going to be or this is what we're gonna consider right or wrong or this is within an ethical guideline versus what isn't. So it's a little bit less personal I think and more be agreed to social contracts that we have. And a lot of times that's probably, I'm sure there's a ton of gray area, but I'm sure that there's also a lot of things that are written into laws and bylaws and ordinances and a lot of things that, to be honest with you, I probably don't know a lot about.

Yeah, mostly with the ethics committee. It's strictly to our ethics code or our employee handbook, code of conduct, those types of things, the standards of behavior, workplace things. So great answer. Thank you. I pass.

Well, thank you for your interest in this. Obviously, this is an important board for a number of reasons that you mentioned. And you also kind of alluded to some of the push and pull that's happening between long-time residents and people that are newer to the area and people that are somewhere in between. One of the things that I think I've seen sitting in this position is when some of those tensions come up and there's a project that people don't like or there's a concern about something, allegations can be made. Are they getting money? Is somebody involved? Is something nefarious happening? And so the Board of Ethics is really the board that's going to provide a venue to hear those claims. I'm curious about your process when something like that happens that may be true, may not be true. Obviously there are a lot of feelings, it's important for the process to be open. What's kind of your approach to that? What would you do in terms of starting to address some of those allegations?

I think that if you agree to participate in this kind of board, that you have to accept that you're going to have to look at things Not just only from your own perspective, but you need to consider the facts, consider the documentation, consider, you know, depending on what it is, was there an investigation? What was that data? If it's fiscal, are there fiscal ties that put the town in a conflicting area or it's just not, you know, it's not transparent or there's a clear conflict of interest. being willing to look at the data and hear from people. Because, you know, everybody walks in, you can't help it. You have your own preconceived notions, but you have to be willing to set those aside. And again, going back to, okay, like Charlotte said, there's a handbook, there's guidelines, there's ordinances, there's contracts. So I might feel a certain kind of way. But when I'm, if I was volunteering on the board of ethics, I would need to consider the documentation and that's where my answers would need to come from. Because fairness is really important. That's something I feel very passionately about is like what's good for the goose is good for the gander and being straight across the board.

Have you in your professional career or Maybe served on a jury or anything like that. Been in a situation where we've had to have that sort of level of investigation and adjudication or recommendation?

I have had to make recommendations when we've had to do investigations for employees. From time to time, you will have an employee who makes a choice that is not consistent with the code of ethics for the organization I'm employed by. And we really have to uphold those on a local level and on a state level. Typically, we do have an internal group that does investigations and you have to be transparent if something happens and you can't you know, you can't let, you can't be thinking about things like, oh God, I'm going to be short-staffed or, oh, that person's going to be short-staffed. Something happened. You have to do that very seriously. I think probably, probably I had to deal with more of that as a volunteer for CASA than I've had to in my employment because we have a whole department that takes care of that, which is, which is lovely because,

My final question is, well, we have the Board of Ethics, which we could be in a situation where there happen to be several complaints and the board meets more, but it's been rare that the board has convened. So my question is, is would you, are you interested in any other, would you be interested in any other boards or commissions if in addition, perhaps, or.

If it, if it met with my skillset and interest, then yes. I wouldn't want to commit to something that, that maybe I don't have the proper background or skillset for, but I would consider.

Okay. Great.

I have a question for you, Aaron, which is, um, And I've looked at this since you've drafted the law years ago or so. Is the result of the Ethics Board's adjudication a recommendation or is it a binding?

It's a determination and then it's a recommendation. They don't issue consequences.

And how many seats are open?

Let's see. I think it's two. Yes, I believe two. Let me just double check.

I think it's two residents. Because there is one town board member. There has to be one member of the town board that is also an elected official in town as a member of the ethics committee as well. I am that person currently on the ethics committee.

I think we might just have the one vacancy and then we created the alternate position and that is vacant. Yes. We have one vacancy and one alternate. Yeah.

Great.

Well, thank you so much. So we are now at the public comment portion of our meeting, and this is the portion of our meeting where the public may address the board directly. As a reminder, we do not engage in question and answer or back and forth conversation during this period. However, the board may answer questions or address concerns or issues or topics that are brought up during town board member time, which immediately follows the public comment portion. So with that, I will open the public comment portion. Is there anyone here who would like to speak to the board?

Yes. Oh, not so much a public comment, but in my official capacity as your emergency management director. So I just wanted to update you, Erin, that I pulled out the firewise information that we have. And I also pulled up the comprehensive emergency management plan for the town. And having reviewed it earlier than I was just during this period yet, been looking at a number of the issues that bring up from weather related to all things in between. This, by the way, goes back, this was adopted for our town on December 10th, 2007. So we're coming up on a very close to a 20 year anniversary. of having a number of written documents here. One of the best was, this is when, by the way, Pam Duke was then the supervisor of the town. And in fact, that is 20 years ago, June 2nd, 2006, when we started this whole process. And as an update to anybody in the community, this is something that each town should have. that there are natural condition emergencies and so forth that we have to deal with, whether it be our ambulatory people, our fire, sometimes all of that, as well as those of us involved in law enforcement, possibly. So with the fires, when I think I got into it, that's when I got sworn in as emergency management director. In reviewing, they would like, when they put on this, and I have the name of the person, I'm going to reach out to find out what is the maximum that we could have and have a conference. And this would be a great location that if we could bring in, we're worth it. Old Town, maybe, maybe as far out as Auburn, but it's going to depend on, you know, how many people, and maybe we'll have to do this more than once, which would be fine, but I think it's a great idea, as we discussed earlier, that we got to get ready for a normal fire seasons and some of the other things. And I might remind everybody in the room, just hours ago, just about 24 hours ago, major earthquakes occurred in three different locations. And I think the last as far out as Tokyo, Japan. So these are not things that are not uncommon, you know, to happen. So I think I'll work, continue to work on putting this thing together and we'll exchange some of the ideas and we'll put that thing together. But I just wanted to give you an update that I've been following up on our discussion of that. Thank you.

Would anyone else like to address the board? Okay. With that, I'll close the public comment portion of the meeting. Town Board member time. Any response? Yes.

Jerry, thank you for updating that. It hasn't been dusted off in 20 years. of a hundred year events, especially flooding around here. But separately, I'd also like to thank and recognize Alexis Albaugh for her service on the town board and for the energy she brought to so many things. And we hope that that energy continues with the remainder of the board and with whoever is selecting us for successor.

Um, I just have a general, um, I guess, call, uh, to the community, to all the residents that have come and made comment and urged us to, um, reach out to the planning board over the self empowers, uh, application and its seeker determination. Currently all of the residents at that apartment complex, like they are every summer are out of water and there are turbo trucks in front of there, and they barely have enough water pressure to build their toilet bowls currently. It'll continue like that for the next week to two weeks. So anyone who has any resources of something to do in the form to help all of these residents, many of which are refugees in any form during this situation or anyone knows any contacts, please feel free to contact me because I just find the whole thing to be alarming, ridiculous. I've called Department of Health and anyone I can through official channels. But For those, you know, hundred and some odd people who wrote letters in about the cell phone tower and its effect, would love to see that caution about over 25 residents, including children and refugee immigrants that are living there currently, and also seniors that have terminally ill diseases. So would love to see that energy put into a project directly impacting people here.

That's all I had.

Charlotte, I have a question. Are the tenants of the building forced to evacuate because there's no water?

No, they just they will bring in a portable shower at some point. And then that's what they do every year. It's been at least four years, summers in a row that this has happened that I know of. They also all just got handed leases for the first time ever over the past week, which are really alarming. But I will leave that as a separate matter and not one for the town board. If anyone wants to talk to me as president, they can about that. But yeah, it's an issue every year because the water and the septic system for the apartment complex comes from the granite hotel. And every year when they fill their swimming pool for the season, that is when they lose all of their water. So they just filled the pool right before the weekend. So I figured it was coming soon.

Do they fill that from aquifer or?

They fill it from their water supply there. So I'm not sure if I know they have different hydrants and white tons.

And specifically what kind of assistance?

Just any, like, resources if anyone wants to, you know, write to the Department of Health and call for how ridiculous this is. If we get 100 residents that write to the Department of Health, I'm sure they'll listen about it instead of me calling every year to complain and being one of very few because the residents are terrified to call. They wouldn't even come and make comment about this telephone tower because they've been evicted for, other residents have been evicted before after letting people into the apartments or inspections or whatnot, so. They don't have the resources, the time or the capabilities to do it. So I'm asking for our community to help us with that and how we can.

And the town is taking action on this.

Yes, and also thank you Aaron for taking all my calls to do this errands kind of been ready at the wayside since. The residents got a letter a couple like a month and a half ago and I alerted her to it about issues with the water system and their access to it or not so appreciate your office and just in general, the town being helpful in that aspect for us folks.

So. Jerry, will you stick around for our first agenda item for discussion? Okay. So the fire, I'm very supportive and I've given Jerry the green light to, and the support to help organize a Firewise training because last year, It wasn't directly in our town, but I knew I had employees who lived in this unknown forest who were fighting fires out of their backyard, like from their backyard. So like it is definitely something we learned in the presentation about fires that the ECC hosted that because of the way the Northeast is, we haven't had fires in a very, very long time. which means under the right conditions, there's a lot of fuel in our forests. So it's a very interesting topic and dynamic. And I think it's given the weather patterns we've been seeing, it's really important that people really know what to do in those situations.

And if I might interrupt by what you just said, Right now, in fact, just three days ago, Tim, who is my tenant there, has been in one of their senior instructors, as well as one of the persons who does these fire, these burns, these controls. Albany right now is, they finally got it through the administration that you have to burn off the fuel. You have to do that. They've been doing Long Island constantly, and Albany, around Albany, they're doing burning off of the fuel, because we've had years of which nothing was done, and that becomes fuel. If you want to have a catastrophe, you have that fuel out there. That's what's great about this program. But I think what we need to do is update people. Yes. And understand why you have to burn. You have to do controlled burns. That's an absolute given. But I think we can go further than just the fire issues as well. But if they are doing controlled burns, that's a positive step forward.

Yeah, I started following this because we had someone that is part of that program and who oversees the controlled burn trial program in New York State, came and spoke a few weeks ago here. Um, and I, it was the most, one of the most fascinating presentations I've ever seen. Yeah.

Um, so it's Ryan.

Yes. Yeah. Ryan Trapani. Um, and he came and he visited, we were doing a little work to see if we had a town property where we could do a demo, but he said that property is not a good candidate for it. So, um, but I have a neighbor.

Yeah.

I offered him my property.

Oh, you did? I haven't settled. I've been begging for her. Oh, really? Wow. So we've got, I don't know if this bowl, I mean, that's where my, my field is open.

So, oh, I'm saying it. Sorry.

So we will move on to discussion items. Our first one, I have not done any of the work that I promised I would do two weeks ago, which is why I was hoping Jerry would stick around at least for this conversation. So what I proposed to the board is after coming from a climate emergency preparedness training for public officials, I came back thinking we really needed to have a community meeting where we present all the goals that we need to do. So one of them is taking a look at our emergency plan, which is pretty solid, but I think should be updated for some of the issues that we're seeing. We talked about making sure that everyone knows which agency is who and what their role is, and creating a sort of neighbors helping neighbors group that would take on some of the work that needs to happen in a community when you have disadvantaged, people who have disadvantages, depending on what the emergency is, that can be different things. So what I wanted to have done is kind of called all of the agencies that I thought should definitely be at that meeting and see when would work for them and come to the board with some dates. I do think that having that perhaps on a weekend might be good, but I want it to be a town board meeting because I want the town board to attend and take part of the conversation.

If we want agencies there, we're going to have to have it during the week. during working hours for the most part. I think we like to try to get the most collectively as easy as the least of my nonprofit and trying to get, you know, multiple government entities or different departments together. But since it is more locally sourced, I feel like a weekend probably. Yeah, nevermind.

I'm thinking like Akward Fire District, the current, like, but I think I wanted to reach out to them and let them tell me and we could, Depending on how many people we could have it here or potentially if we need a little bit more space, we could do it at the fire hall. So I had told Jerry that I was going to call him and he and I, I was going to brainstorm off of him what we needed to do. And I haven't done that yet, but I still am planning on doing that.

Let me just add, though, it would be imperative that we bring in Where you can do that is on weekends. We have plenty of weekend residents here who they need to know some of these things because they're oblivious to a lot of they want to get out of the city. But the country has its own issues. And if we don't start educating the people about it. I listen to all that. I've got radios at home, and I'm listening to stuff, as well as doing stuff with Tim. And the calls that are coming through on the weekends are from the Falls right here, the Schwangangs falling, who are up for the weekend, repelling whatever they're doing. They are falling. They're getting hurt. They're getting killed. And also the fires. The fires pick up dramatically on the weekends. people just leaving their little campfire and the winds kick up and we've got a problem. And so I think it would absolutely be imperative that we try to incorporate or do subsequent ones where we have it on a weekend in some capacity because they're not going to come up for this. I hate to say it, but I've seen that before. So... We need to incorporate the people so they understand. And so we'll have to do it when they're here.

Thanks. Anything on that topic? That's my update. Thanks.

I just need any assistance there. Okay.

Yes. Yes. I will definitely call on you for that. My next topic is the, we had a conversation in our last meeting, just continuing at 2026 grant opportunities. What I'd like to do is share with the board what I have learned and some of the work that um, I've done and resources I found out about, let you know about the grants that I would like to spearhead us applying for and make sure that I'm on, the board has to authorize grant application. So I don't want to get started or assign any work to anything, um, any work to anyone if the board, um, is like, no, let's not do that project. So from our stated priorities, what I was focusing on in the consolidated funding application, which is New York State has a portal where you apply for state funding. It's called the Consolidated Funding Application. And what it allows you to do is apply for multiple opportunities as the same agency. So there's a lot of repeat information that you don't have to put in. Some of the grants are basically the same opportunity, but slightly different. So you can duplicate your application and tailor it to whichever grant you are applying for. There are a lot. And so... I am focused on, so there are a few free resources available to us through Ulster County, and I've been working with the grant administrators and the grant writers that are available to us to identify opportunities that match our stated priorities. So one is facilities planning. because we've been talking about our own town infrastructure being a top priority. Another is the comprehensive plan update. And then another is, and this one is the fleet efficiency policy. This ties into getting funding for new fleets that have energy efficiency, so either hybrid or electric vehicles. So those things are related. Then there's the EV infrastructure and EV fleet opportunity, which has the first round of it closed for this year, but it reopens in October. So that one is not one that's due at the end of July. So I just want to pause right there and focus on what I just mentioned. The opportunities that we could have support applying for, the facilities planning grant, there is a competitive grant for net zero facilities through NYSERDA. that's for up to $1.5 million for a single building or $3 million for multiple buildings. It's a 65% funding. So the town would have to come up with the additional 35%. That is one that we could apply for for a facility next year. It's not possible to apply for that for the actual building this year. However, we can use that grant to cover planning. So to get architectural engineered drawings that would propose the type of building that would be covered by this. So we're talking like geothermal, solar, electric, that's what's going to get the funding for that. And also I think that is, I mean, that aligns with my values in terms of infrastructure. I don't want to speak for the rest of the board, but I think it's a good opportunity. So we can use that for the feasibility planning and the plans for that, which are not going to be cheap. So it would be nice to get some funding for that. And Evelyn LaFair, who is, her job is to help municipalities with the Climate Smart grants. She had said that she feels like it'll be complicated, but she thinks that We can pull this off. And then the next two opportunities would be the comprehensive plan with sustainability elements. I did ask her about how we could use our existing grant that's also a planning grant. how we could think about the two happening at once. She said she thought that was very reasonable and that it's possible for us to both do the housing planning work, get started on that, and then start on updating the comprehensive plan if we were to get this funding. So in order, there's a couple of things with updating the comprehensive plan. If we don't have an updated plan with the sustainability elements that continues to increase our points in the Climate Smart program, which gives us access to more funding and gives us higher ratings. So that's the reason why we would get the grant is for that. But I also think we should, we need to update our comprehensive plan. It's 21 years old. And the recommendation is to update those every five to 10 years. So that's another grant. And then the other is the fleet policy, which that one, I was going to, the climate smart committee had asked what they could do. And I was going to request that they sort of take the lead on that application. Whereas I think we, myself and the board, we would need to really take the lead on the, the other two, because I think those are really like our projects, if that makes sense. So I'll pause there. I've included all the backup information from my meeting and Evelyn is very organized and she created a support tool with time benchmarks and everything. So to help lay out what we need to do in order to get these submitted by the deadline.

So for those two, we'd submit for the funding by the 31st of July. Is that correct?

I believe the first one is actually due in August, August 14th. Okay. She had identified that one as a 2027, but she said that she looked into it because I said, look, I really want to see if we can get funding for the planning.

Yeah.

After she sent this to me, I sent her an email, said, are there, we really need to get plans for this building if we're going to apply for this opportunity next year. Are there any grant opportunities that cover that? And she said, well, it's the same, the same one would. I see. Okay.

So, so that one's August, the fleet inventory and the comprehensive plan would be July?

Yeah.

Okay. And then when, when do the awards happen?

At the end of the year.

So we'd have the funding for 2017. I think, yeah, I think we should do it. I mean, that's a tight turn.

But these are stated priorities that we have in the beginning of the year to take action on for this year. So that's why I'm focusing on these things. There's lots of really great stuff, but I'm trying to hyper-focus the energy. And

of Lizzie County giving us assistance with this, um, at the housing forum I was at in April, they made it clear that the county's grant writer couldn't, like, write grants for every single municipality. So do we know that we have, like, that support confirmed with her, like, in, like, her work capacity that she has now?

Oh, she and I, so Evelyn actually works with the, she is not out of the grants office. She's out of her, like, Yes. And so she and I, we, before this meeting, she said this, we can do this together. She did. She said, you know, she said, it's, it's going to be a little bit of work to get that the facilities one together, but she's like, I definitely think it's doable. And I can, I will, I can, I'm available to do this with you. So.

What's next? What do we think the rank is? Let's say we can't get them all done by the deadline. Do you think the facility one is a priority?

Yeah. Our buildings are falling apart. So, yes.

But this would be for a single building, for a town hall?

This would be for a building. And also, the great thing about it is there's two other opportunities that cover... municipal buildings so this if we were to if we were to do the planning work we could apply for more than one and see and it might be are they shovel ready type yes you basically for these applications you have to know exactly what you're doing yeah so we need this to be able to even be competitive yep yeah you have to be like here's what we're doing and how much it's going to cost and we have permit pre-approved permits I mean it basically I'm not all of them are like that but some of them are so we had two meetings potentially well one meeting because I don't think it's going to be ready by the 9th to review the submission right so basically what I would want to do is keep to her time frame and I would be bringing some of the elements and narrative to the board so that we're sort of you guys are following along with the work, and you would be able to review the final submission. We haven't always been able to do that, but I think it's really important for this kind of thing. I agree.

But that one's due August.

Yes, August 14th. And that one is not a climate smart. That is the Building Cleaner Communities Competition grant.

Sorry, I don't feel like all of my grant. Oh, sure. Just to see if there are any other ones. Okay. I love that there's a general that goes through and then you customize to each one. It's so much easier than a separate application for every single one. I'm just seeing what else they might have in there that we could maybe qualify for or throw in there. It's an easy one. Again, Erin, if you need help with any narratives or stuff, I'm happy. If you just want to shoot me the question, I'm happy to do that.

Absolutely. Really, the goal of this conversation was to make sure that You guys are like, yes, because I really, you know, I didn't, I don't, I really want, I don't want any surprises. You know, I don't want it. Obviously, I think we all agree on this, but I just wanted to make sure. I do want to apply for the EV infrastructure grants, but that's not until October. And those grants are pretty forward.

Yeah, those ones, yeah, they're pretty cutting-edge for those.

do you so I think I feel comfortable also if you want to have an out of board meeting conversation about because I start it's there's a lot though I started going through it and I was like this is going to take my whole day oh yeah if I'm doing it by myself that's my jam I I literally just go to three grad classes so So the other one that I shared that Heather had brought up is the funding futures round two. So because this round is up to $25,000 and it's only available to the towns that were in round one. So we should read a little bit more about it, but we actually have a project that's planned that is qualifies for like, that is the second top project idea, which is outdoor shared outdoor spaces. We have a project that we have started that we've started doing some of the planning work on that could potentially qualify for that. So that might be an interesting one to discuss.

Go ahead. speaker I know I want to speak if that's not what happened no go ahead yeah I'm talking about it that was the one it's the new one yeah okay yeah as long as I was just confused by the way the notes were written because it looked like planning was already underway so it wouldn't be implementation it would be it's only planning for that is that what well I'm asking oh yeah so it's um It's basically, yeah, it's not an implementation grant. It's definitely kind of a get your ducks in a row kind of grant.

I see.

Yeah.

So like I said, our ducks are in a row for that one. Just, we just don't, we don't have the implementation for it.

Okay.

Not the other. I know.

Well, I had brought that up.

So we do have a part two of that project that we've been talking about. So that could potentially align, but But that, I feel like then there's kind of more possibilities if it's just for the planning work then. Because, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, do you know exactly where the launch is going to be? Okay. Yeah. Yeah, because I was thinking that would be another place to possibly look at the water quality issues and look at where it might be advantageous to have.

Right.

So that was one of the things I was thinking about when I read the notes.

So... Well, yeah, we'll continue to think about that. And I'll come, I'm coming to that. So the, so my next discussion item, fence expansion for dog kennel. Our dog control officer, I had asked that. So Jill received a donation of fencing, chain link fencing. I asked you to do that.

I drove that way today and I was going to be like, where did that fence come from?

Yeah, so Jill received a donation for fencing from the Wayward Ranch. So generous donation of fencing that they had put up and it's in very good condition. She has, there is a fence contractor that would like to donate their time to install the fence. And Jill had been asking me about what she's allowed to do for the fence and um i had talked to her about getting me like the yeah but that didn't happen before this meeting so the the biggest question i had um she had mentioned that they want the posts to have concrete footings And so that would be in that big yard area that isn't being used. Like it just gets mowed. But basically the idea is that there's a bigger area for the dogs to be outside. So I wanted to get the board's feedback. Like extending down the driveway then? Down the hill.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But not extending from the existing fence to the ballpark.

So if... So basically, what she was... Do you know where that rock out... Oh, I could. Do you know where that rock outcropping is? Okay.

Can I just say? Yes. As a matter of principle, being the one who has complained about the unsafe fence to keep our children in the playground, I understand it was donated, and someone's donating the work for that, but we are already talking about potentially moving the kennel Like putting in another fence, like that doesn't seem nice. It just doesn't seem ideal. And we already have a fence on that same parcel. That's a huge issue that we haven't replaced. That's like a child safety issue and the dogs aren't safety issue right now. So like, Just like holistically, I have a problem with us not making sure we repair the other fence first before we do the approving.

Well, this is, I mean, this just is something that was completely isolated to Jill. And she kept asking me where could she put it? And I said, well, I really think that the board needs to weigh in on this because it's a change to town property. Yeah. It's not a permanent change, but I agree with you about the fence, and I am hoping that we will have it repaired before the summer program starts.

Hear me out. What if we put a dog park in at the end of that triangle, close it in, and use the fence there to repair it? We get two birds stoned at once.

Dog run at the end of the park. I mean, I can definitely talk to Jill about if we can. It is taller fence, though. You can't jump over towards the playground fence. Yeah. And they had 600 feet? I couldn't get her to tell me how. She didn't know how much it was. There's a lot.

Nope. It's a lot. I was so excited. I thought that we somehow got it for the park when I saw it. I literally was so excited.

Yeah, and he just got it and brought it one day and said, I just got this donated. Where is this patching for the children? So, basically, we'll delay the actual, like, perimeter approval, but I wanted to keep it on the agenda because I told her if she got back to me by today, we would.

I'm fine with it. I've seen priorities. I agree with you. No, I totally agree with you.

If she knows the length, sit with her.

Okay. That would probably be something that would be helpful for her. Okay.

Just as.

yeah yeah that's what I had said that I would do is if she told me how many feet, it was I would stake out a parameter and but yeah so um so the battery energy storage system regulation, I wanted to share a status update for the board we I met with our planner Dave church and Eva. from all of these organizations that are tied to different, Ava Hoskin, who had emailed the entire board basically. So you might've gotten her email. She is a subcontractor to NYSERDA, the Clean Energy Communities Program. And she's an advisor that works with municipalities on regulations. So we had like a two hour meeting to talk about all the different elements of what is involved in passing zoning regulations for battery energy storage systems of the type that the town board has put a moratorium on. There are two components that we want to work on. One is the education component and one is the siting component. So before we even start drafting, We want to look at our zoning and look at a map and see, is there any place in town that this would actually be something that is beneficial or feasible? So I sent her the GIS data of the town zoning and she is going to put together a zoning map for us. where she identifies any area in town, which is basically going to be on the 209 corridor. There's like no other place. So she's going to identify whether like any place that could feasibly support. Because of the connect. Well, I'm conjecturing, but because of the connectivity to the infrastructure.

Three-phase.

Yeah. So, but she'll tell us. I'm just saying, I'm imagining that's where the most would be. So that's where we're going to start.

You've also got that whole high voltage wired cord work going through my walls.

Oh, okay. She'll know. She's going to have the utilities mapped on. So she's going to take our zoning.

I'm not advocating that. Yeah, yeah.

I'm just saying that.

Okay. I mean, there's already high voltage wires.

So what she's going to take is the utility data, our zoning, analyze the parcels, where they are in relation to like, and then show where this could be a possibility before we even really start thinking about how are we going to regulate these? Is it going to be by zoning district? Is it going to be by criteria? And then the other part of it is the education component, which is for both, not both, which is for town board members, planning board members, Um, fire districts. So we started sketching out what that could look like. And, um, Ava will, she will support us in planning those and networking with the different agencies. Um, in addition to helping us draft the local law. And then we also have our planner. involved. So that's my update. I shared with the board the email from Ava that summarized our meeting, and then she shared with me about 12 resource documents. The only one I linked into the agenda is the one for local governments, but I put in our documents for the board, all of these resource documents. It's a lot to browse through, but the one that's most relevant to the board would be the one that I linked. So once that map is created, I will share that with the board. And then we will also be talking about having an information session. where it's more just, uh, open, you know, where there's a panel, the public can come ask questions, um, offer concerns. And that's where we would start is we would start with that really, um, not, not start by pushing a public hearing or local law start by getting input from the public and agencies about what their concerns are. Um,

It was like a good F word.

Yes. The next topic that we have been punting, but I am committed to making progress. So roadway safety and speed limit reductions. Zolli had put together a traffic traffic issues spreadsheet based on the outreach that he performed last year. Last year? Was that last year? Or was that this year?

That was last year.

That was last year. So he shared that spreadsheet with the board a while ago. All I did was I went through and I found the speed limits of all of the roads that were on there and I entered them into the spreadsheet. The other observation I made is there are no speed limit signs posted. I don't know if you guys have noticed this, but I mean, okay, I was on Cherrytown and I didn't see one until I was, I started at Samsonville. I didn't see a single speed limit sign until I got to around where Pine Grove is. Lucas Avenue.

I correct my statements where the ones I notice are mostly on county highways. Yeah. County roads.

But Lucas and County Route 6 don't have any speed limit signs.

Lucas does.

Not until Cotterkill. Not until Cotterkill.

Not in our town.

I just drove it.

There's one that says end. My whole life, it has never been there because until I was 18, from 16 to 18, I didn't know Lucas was 55 because there was no speed limit sign.

When you turn on to Lucas from Route 2... This one just before Kaiserig Road. Yeah, I thought that was one of them.

I live on Kaiserig, I promise.

I may know someone who's been followed up. It doesn't matter if there's... In terms of the law, it doesn't matter... it in terms of the law it doesn't matter if there is a speed limit sign but i was just like there isn't a database of local roads and speed limits that i've gotten though i haven't heard back from brian slack at the county because i did ask him about that um so i was like i'm just going to drive around and like voice record what the speed limits are and i'm like there's no there is one between on lucas between 209 and

Becky's house. It's 40 miles an hour.

No, it says end 45. That's the only sign.

They're all curve suggested or bad weather or downhills. There's not an actual white and black speed limit sign.

And that was my other thing about County Route 6 is you don't get a speed limit sign until you pass Clove Extension. And from... From Lucas all the way down to Clove Road, there's all these yellow signs that are like curve 30 miles per hour. And the speed limit of it, I think, is 45? 55. Yeah. Of Petty Route 6?

It changes, I think.

So it's bonkers to me. It's 55 on Mountain Rest Road and then it changes to 45 on Mountain Rest Road and that's also where you first start to see a sign outside of a pass quote.

So those are the two... county roads, right? Lucas is county. Those are the two county roads that we've received the most feedback on. So county reduction of speed limit is one action. Local road reduction of speed limit is another action. So one thing I was thinking is I could prepare something for Lucas and County Route 6 requesting traffic studies from the county for those two, for that stretch.

She's going to take about 10 years to do anything.

Perhaps. We have a poll. I'm laughing because I have followed those speed limits. I drive for the safety of the road. And if it's snow, it's 20 miles an hour. But otherwise, let's occur. We have no lines down the road. Yeah. Barbara, I've seen you pull into the parking lot. You've got to know the laws to break it. Okay. So what my proposal is, is that we... So because they're two different state roads, county roads, town roads, it's all a very similar action, but it's all different, goes to different places. So I think we should do a request for a speed study.

The other section would be Samsonville Road around that bend by the courthouse.

So did you guys happen to look at any of the links in Brian Suck's email? Did you look at the fatality, the accident? database. I could not believe how many fatal accidents have been on Samsonville Road.

They're always on Samsonville Road. But not necessarily in, well, there are some in Rochester, but most of them are on the World War II site. There's like four in Rochester. Yeah. So I know that the lower part of Samsonville Road is really bad.

So the speed limit on Samsonville is 40. So that was one question I had is typically in the resolution where what we're doing is we're requesting a speed study, but we should put in what we think the speed limit should be and probably put it on the low end because, uh, they typically tend to want to have it be higher. So I did, if I, we can either put thought work into it and I can leave that section of the resolution blank or, um, We can kind of talk about it now, but that was one question I have is like, what are we requesting? What's our thought of?

Holistically for all of these roads, I don't think changing the entirety of the road is feasible, is going to do anything but get the state troopers a lot of ticket money and quotas in. Because people are going to drive them no matter what. I think we need to look at the dangerous portions. Where those fatal accidents are. Or where the majority of the accidents are. And look at different zones of that. Because all of Samsonville. I'm sorry. I grew up five miles up Samsonville off of 209. Even if you guys changed it to 30. I would not have gone that past the Pine Grove. Because no one drives up there. There's a certain area that's more densely populated than the rest. So that's why we need to kind of look at where the neighborhoods are with it. So I think that. I agree in total of it but I think that like for the exact amount we need to look at like exact like mile marker you know kind of mile marker where we want it to be like obviously 209 too I would say at least the courthouse if not like the pipes to Cherrytown to the Pine Grove Pine Ridge turn like that's the most dangerous section I would say where people fly the most people coming off of the Clay Hill there, people coming off the other way. Or even up from Boyceville, I would give them a pretty good.

And the curve coming south from just where Cedar Drive is.

Yeah, I was going to say, actually, I would even say Rochester City. I would go up through those S curves right before Troy's on Samsonville. I would give two. But once you're past there, or even like up past the upper Cherrytown entrance, like past the Veritas Fork, there's not. There's half of the amount of drivers up past that way, I would say. So I think that... To make sure that we get it approved where we go, trying to make sure we look at it like that, like not being like, all right, we want all of Simpsonville road into Olive to be 30 miles an hour from now on. Like they're going to be like, no way. Like they're, it's not, no, they're not even going to entertain it. So I think that we need to make sure that. And same with like County routes. I mean, County route six is a different story that they carved that road out of. I don't know where to get, I don't know how that road came to be, but. Um, like Kaiser, I've still the same thing too. Like there's so like by the school and like the 209 side of it is much more dangerous. I find my driving than the other stuff, like the more Lucas side of it. So, um, yeah, I'm going to look at it more, do it more like detail. Yeah.

I agree with you on that a hundred percent. Um, all right. So I will draft the shell of the request and then, um, HAB-Masyn Moyer- Well, yeah, I think, like.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- yeah.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- So then, on the on the town roadside, can we can we go back one second yes, so if there are county roads that may or may not, but more likely don't see them in science is there a way we can pass the county that more. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Yes, yep.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Also, just so you know the county is. about to do a major traffic study and traffic report. Part of my outreach to Brian was to say, look, I know this is coming. I know there's going to be these recommendations coming in a year. But do you, so is it worth us requesting lowered speed limits, knowing that there's going to be other changes or tools that might be coming down? And he said, yeah, he's like, go ahead and go forward.

I think it is because we want to make sure that our requests are on the radar.

So just, just letting you know that. And, um, Why did I say that in response to your question? Signs. Signs, yes. So I was thinking that I should also put that into him directly, just pose that to him directly, like, hey, I just noticed there's, like, not a lot of signs on these county roads.

Can we request locations or areas, like, it'd be great if there was a sign here between Kaiser Reich and 209, or?

Maybe we need a map. So in the past, when we did traffic studies, we would attach a tax map to it and highlight the areas that we were looking for the study. So that might be a good thing also to make more signage.

Are we still deploying our flashy sign?

Yes.

It's on the field road.

How often do they move that?

I think when the battery dies. It was on Old Kings for a long time. Well, we did that on purpose.

Listen. Other people feel that way. You want to see flying cars? I do wish it was on Kaiser. When we talked about the school, when we had gotten, like, throughout the years, complaints from Kaiser Reich and the speeding there, especially, like, during school hours. they're the only school that doesn't have the flashing school zone signs or a speed limit reduction. We make sure we do like a specific on Kaiser by the middle school and high school. Like there's a sign that says school zone, but like the pavement's not painted. There's no flashing signs. There's no, there's no speed limit sign. There's not even like the flashing, like yellow on and off, but like during the school hours that flash in schools, like there's nothing. I wonder if it's because the- I welcome my friend to have them.

I wonder if there's no crossing of the road there.

And kids constantly walk on that down to the UCAT to get it, the UCAT 209. No, huh? Oh, the county? Yeah, that's county, Kaiser X County. Trust me, I need a Colbert. Okay.

So, all right. So I think we have good direction for the county roads and I will add those things in. So for the town roads, what I just wanted to bring up is in 2022, Legislation was passed on the state level that allows certain towns and villages to reduce speed down to 25 miles per hour. You still have to go through the same request process. So we can't just change. So that was the legislation, but it was for towns and villages with populations over 50,000. So for towns our size, we have to request... zones. If we want to go down to 25 miles per hour, it has to be an identified zone. Otherwise, I believe we could request that we lower our town speed limit to 30 if we wanted to. But otherwise, what we would do is we would identify town road areas that we want to go down to 25, identify a zone, And then that is the request that we would put in. So that's a little bit more work. So that's why I was bringing that up.

I like it though. What if we have Hamlet zones? And make that a zone because we get Main Street here, which is a county road. If we make it like Kaiserreich, Allagerville, County Road 6, all of these roads we're talking about are the centers of all the Hamlets from town. So if we make a Hamlet zone where it's in the center of what were the main streets of these Hamlets is 25 or 30, whatever we set it at. I feel like that's the easiest way.

Yeah, so Michael, can you and I get together and maybe map some of this out and see what those... Okay. I have a hand with that, but that took us on the roads already.

Great. Okay. Yeah. All right. Is there... I mean, the biggest thing, you can have all the signs in the world you want, but if it's not enforced, nothing's going to happen. So is there any way that

contact can be made to law enforcement that we've like received a high influx of calls on these particular roads that become dangerous that could you patrol yes um and the other thing is when we request changes or do any signage changes they have also asked that we notify the law enforcement the law enforcement agencies approached me and asked that we notify them so yeah um I have been calling them to do specific patrols in specific areas, but those are just our usual towpath, Cherrytown.

Yeah, there's never one on Kiseride. Yeah. Which is shocking.

Well, we're on special zones. What has been the, just a great question, what has been the... There have been a lot of bumps with people.

So the first, the weather hasn't been super hot, but the first really hot day, it was a complete, it was complete chaos. And we ended up having five sheriffs come and one trooper car, and they cleared everybody out and threatened to tow vehicles and were on their loudspeaker. We had code enforcement there because someone was selling things out of a van, which is a code violation. And I've been driving through as much as I can and it hasn't been like that. Although it also hasn't been back up into the 90s. So when it starts to get into the 90s, that's when we see people who are just not minding any of the rules. But we'll see if we are trying to work towards having our own law enforcement be present before people start lining up so earlier in the day you know um so that's that's our goal but that's probably we're probably not going to be able to put that in place because of staffing until later in July do we know where all our speed limit signs are for town roads or like have a general idea like there's 10 on Um, Jared had our deputy superintendent has been starting to take an inventory and we're ordering. We've been, so we've been talking about like, um, I'm getting regular updates and then being asked how many signs should we order? So that's happening, uh, periodically. Yeah.

And I assume there's like a recommendation that they should be.

There is.

And we don't, we adhere to that.

No, we don't.

I think Dunn Farm is technically the most street sign, streetless people sign road. Yeah. I had an ex-boyfriend who used to throw beer bottles at street. So I know where a lot are in Dunn Farm. It's not safe.

I know. It's not. Okay. So our next. Oh, go ahead. Oh, sorry. Yeah. I had another question for this.

Just to de-poll. One, sorry, the van selling thing threw me. Do we have a permit process for selling things in the code? Or is it just like legal, not business? Sorry, that just really took my attention when you said it. I was like, wait, selling things from a van?

Yeah, I don't actually know. I think they just told them, you can't do this here, and they left.

I have no idea why, but I was just like, what is the process for that? And the other thing is, I noticed while driving the other day, why on earth is there a staircase leading into a roadway from that parking lot made of stone where there's no crosswalk and someone could just walk out from behind a tree right in front of a car on a towpath and Because the whole thing is so dangerous down there. So, like, I don't know if anyone else has noticed that, but there's literally, like, a stone staircase onto the road from there.

Yes.

Which I find insanely unsafe. Like, there's not even a rope over it. There's not even, like, a sign for the traffic to know that that's there. So, now that that's...

But can any put in a crosswalk to become extremely liable? Oh, I don't want a crosswalk.

I find it crazy that there's no sign, there's nothing. Someone can literally just hop out from the side off of that and you can't tell because it's dug through each other's side.

I thought we ordered pedestrian crossing signs, but those aren't... Last year we did decide not to do a crosswalk, but I thought we said that we were going to get the pedestrian sign. So check. I think they were there last year. Okay. They might. I wasn't looking out for those signs. I remember seeing that. Okay. So our next action items will be for the county roads. We can do the resolutions for those at our next meeting. And for the town roads, we, I like the idea of looking at Hamlet zones and Michael and I knew that I can, make a digital map of that. Okay. And then we'll kind of see how that maps on to the roads where we get where there are issues. And check out the accident dashboard. I could not believe how many fatal accidents. Yeah, they're always on. There are so many. Okay. Okay. We don't really need to talk about the town board calendar right now because we are at 8.11 and we're still in discussion items. So one thing came up this morning that I wanted to alert the board on and make sure that we are taking the steps forward that you would like. So the code enforcement office got an application for a food truck. Now, we do have food trucks in town. However, our new code enforcement officer has deliberated on it and determined that this is a use not considered. We do not have food trucks listed in our code. We have talked about including them in the code. They are not in the code. So it's a use not considered. So the process for use not considered is outlined in Chapter 140-8, the schedule of district uses, where if it's a use not considered, the application for the use comes to the town board and what we would be deciding is just if that use is allowed in that zoning district um and that for that specific application or in general i think in general my art mary lou's on vacation and i i did talk to her today but i didn't want to ask her all these questions but that was one question i had for her um but It's only in, it says district. So it says, this shall not permit the reclassification of uses that are already listed, nor shall the town board permit any use that is not listed in a particular district if that use is already permitted in another district. So it's talking about use in the district. Oh, any determination? Yes, it's answered. Any determination made under this section shall be filed with the town clerk within 15 days and serve to establish the classification of this use for all future purposes. So it would be deciding on food trucks and what they are, what their classification is. Is it a accessory use, principal permitted use, special use, and what zoning district?

So... Well, we get to make that determination as part of the...

Yes.

But it's not a local law. We're adding a schedule.

We're just adding a schedule. Yeah. So... I was not able to, typically when someone comes to us with this type of thing, we invite them to a meeting and, you know, then we kind of deliberate, schedule the public hearing and go from there. Now, this is a little different because it's a use that would be in a district act. Like if we were to approve it, that is like a binding decision.

So how... So there are a number of establishments that have food offered through food trucks. Would they be exempt? I mean, since it's adjacent to a place that does serve food anyways, is that considered part of that same license and approval, or is the food truck on that premises considered a separate use that is a use not considered?

It would be, so whatever we deem it as, if it is a principal permitted use, it would be a separate use. If we say it's an accessory use, then it would not, usually accessory uses don't count as a single use. So that would be part of our decision. And I don't know what would happen with ones that have been approved through other classifications. So there are food trucks that were permitted, but they were classified as something else. And that's not our jurisdiction. really um i mean so say for heritage day somebody wants to bring a food truck how is that sound or how is this that if it's a case it's not a brick and mortar it's not the same thing i think that might be a considered a temporary well these are great questions because a food truck by its very nature is temporary yeah so that to me it's an accessory use um but And I don't think... Initially, though, it's supposed to go to the planning board for a special use permit. What's a camper?

Hmm? What's a camper considered? A camper? An RV? Considered a camper.

Considered...

It's not... Not a structure. It's not... Neither is a food truck. It's movable. They're not brick and mortars. They don't stay where they are. Like, if someone... It's different if someone's saying that they're creating a storage garage for this... or they're setting up like permanent seating for it, like that place that's just past Walmart and Ellenville. But if it's just a food truck that happens to be parking on a parcel, I don't think that that's in zoning code for us to rule on. They can park a food truck, any property that they're allowed to park a food truck on.

Well, but this, they want to park it from April to October and there's not, like there's parking considerations. There's like, I think it being an accessory use. that's to me why it being an accessory use would be appropriate.

Yeah. I think that it's, yeah, I think it's a bigger, I think it's a larger conversation.

I mean, I think it's less entertaining, the application. I think that we should find ways to accommodate it and provide it that they're not in a stupid place.

Yeah, that's how I feel. So the other, so this is what I was going to bring up. Okay. So in this code, we would, we determine whether or not this use is allowed. And if it's permitted, the planning board then process it as a special use, which is a way more complicated thing. So our other path is instead of going through this process, we just go through a process where we include food trucks in the code. I think you have to do that.

I think that makes a lot more sense.

As someone with like, 15 years restaurant and catering experience, a food truck is not the same as a restaurant. Right. And it's not the same amount and capacity, like a food, like if I owned a food truck, yes, I might want to have it on my, like we should have a temporary permit for food trucking over one day. That's allowed in our code or something, but it shouldn't be part of our zoning code. It should be something like a, it's a, it should be part of vehicle and traffic.

Yeah, so I hear what you're saying, but this is a much more intensive use than an RV. You're now involving traffic, egress, things like that. And I mean, this parcel in particular, I don't want to talk about this application, but this is a good example, if you know the parcel in question, of where you need to be mindful of traffic and people pulling into and out of 219 and that sort of stuff. So I think it would be better to bring into compliance people that are on the edge right now by actually defining it in code and having setbacks and thinking about this, as opposed to taking this one and then kicking it in the planning board. And that's going to, I think that's going to be a messier way to do it than to just define it in code. And we've talked about doing it in the past. We just didn't do it to last go around.

Liability wise, I don't know a restaurant owner that owns a food truck that wouldn't try to sue us over that, over telling them where they could, park the truck on a public street or a public like you know what I mean or on like a private property access to be able to park it and operate it like it's to me it's a very weird liability area because of that but I'm finally entertaining this and like going through and I'm having to look up more info and see if there's any other But there isn't anyone else's town law.

But if it's, if it's an accessory use and it's, and we make it easy enough for like, like we're reasonable in terms of how you can cite it, then it could just be coming, getting a building permit to go in there and say, okay, well, that's what I think we should. It's on a 20 acre parcel. It's in the middle of the parcel. It's not going to affect traffic or anything. It's good to go. We get the permit the same day.

I don't think it should have to go before the planning board. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I'd also be interested to see how the city of Kingston does abuse of parking. Yeah. Many of them.

And we're forcing to, I think we looked, I can't, we had the model codes and I don't know why we didn't. I don't remember.

Because we want to get everything through. I mean, again, but I think that the general principle is that they're a great asset. It should be permitted. But there should be some sort of licensing or permitting that regulates location.

Is there vehicle and traffic law about them on public roads? HAB-Masyn Moyer- In certain towns yeah so.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- I think, so I think the next I I feel like I have a clear direction on what next steps are so I think we have some questions about vehicle and traffic law versus zoning and then. HAB-Masyn Moyer- The. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Okay. HAB-Masyn Moyer- So. I have a good understanding of Charlotte. I think I have a really good understanding of the concerns that you have, and I will try, I'll try to lay all of those out. And then I think overall, we are all in agreement that we, we want food trucks in our town and we want it to be a very straightforward process. That's very cut and dry. And yeah, And then the other thing that one of the concerns you have that I'll get clarified is I do think that under a certain amount of time, it's considered temporary versus what we're talking about here, which is someone parking a food truck kind of on a seasonal basis.

Yeah, I see it's being used the way the application embraces that it's an accessory to a pre-existent use already. I was saying holistically is like just someone... owning and wanting to open a food truck in our town, we can't put that in the zoning code. It's just an independent food truck. It's an accessory to, like, it's parked in a restaurant or, you know, at a venue of some sort and being used within that venue that already has a certain site plan and parking standard. I think that that's appropriate for us to have an accessory as, if that makes sense.

And then how would you deal with the hot dog guy who used to park God 209? between the old King's Highway and...

It's just whether it's attached to a brick and mortar or not. It's a brick and mortar.

I don't know. I agree. That was one of the things I wrote down is what Charlotte is bringing up is what is allowed, what is just already allowed versus... What do we need to, yeah, exactly. Okay. So this is something old from last year that we never resolved that came up again recently that I wanted to ask the board about. So I don't know if you remember, but we had this resolution that had gotten added to organizational meeting agendas for three years that said, There were certain holidays that if you were a part-time employee or up, that you, regardless of whether or not you were scheduled to work, you got paid for that holiday. So if it was a holiday that landed on a Monday and it was staff that aren't normally scheduled to work on Monday, they'd get paid for that holiday. And it was very, I brought it up because it is in direct conflict of our compensation and benefit manual policy, which has a whole floating holiday. Like if there, if you're not, if there's a holiday and you're not scheduled to work on that holiday normally, so it falls on a Saturday for most staff or a Sunday, and we haven't established a holiday, right? This isn't going to come up very often, but a holiday falls on a Sunday and we didn't create an alternate holiday on like a Friday or a Monday. Then the employees who work full-time get a floating holiday for that. So that's pretty standard. If a holiday falls on a day you're not scheduled to work, you get a floating holiday. That's in our policy manual for full-time employees. When we took away this three-year advantage of, There were employees that were getting paid extra for like a few years for these holidays that no one else was benefiting from this, except for people that don't work Monday through Friday every day. Getting paid and getting floating holiday? No, we weren't doing that. So the board had discussed, well, maybe we'll consider the floating holiday thing. We'll see how this goes over, right? So- It has come up again. So I just wanted to ask the board how you feel about what the policy is now, or if we should consider extending somehow this floating holiday policy for people that work less than 35 hours a week.

So this is if they are not, a holiday is scheduled when they are not supposed to be working, and they work less than a set time. Well, that, yeah, that's what we're talking about. All right, I'm going to be a no, and I'm going to go call my babysitter and check in that way. Okay.

Thank you. Yeah.

So you're saying in a normal week, this person would work 32 hours, be paid 32 hours. In this instance where there's a holiday and a weekend, getting paid 40 hours.

No. That was what we were doing for three years.

Yeah. That's what was happening. We did away with that. We deleted that. Now it's 32.

You never get paid more than your schedule.

You get paid the hours that you normally work for a week. And you don't get a floating holiday. But employees that were scheduled to work don't get a floating holiday. I think that our holiday policy Who gets a floating holiday?

If there's a holiday that falls on a day that you're not scheduled to work and you work full time, which is 35 hours or more, you get a floating holiday for that.

And what's the logic behind that?

I don't know. It's just in our policy. But it's kind of become moot because if Christmas falls on a Saturday, we observe Christmas on a different day.

I mean, to be honest, I've been an employee for over 20 years. If it fell on a Saturday, you got the Friday. If it fell on a Sunday, you got the Monday. That's how it's always been.

I think our holiday policy with whatever holidays we have scheduled, floating holidays, should be the same for... all employees that are full-time employees. If there's like a gap of like 32, between 35 and 32, then I think 32 should be cut off. So I think everybody should just have the same amount of holidays. if we don't have this floating.

So we take away the floating. It sounds like it's moot. It is. So I think we should just take it away.

For employees who work how many hours?

I think we should take it away for everyone because we don't use it at all. And now it's creating...

I can tell you, as working day-to-day, I hate floating holidays because it's really difficult when half the town's departments are closed down and the other half are open. So I don't like floating holidays. I prefer the whole day for everybody to be the same. I think it's less confusing that way.

Yeah, I think if we decide we want to have 12 paid holidays, then we have 12 paid holidays. If we decide we want to have 15, we have 15. The floating thing is just...

Okay. So I know, I think it sounds like we want to make it simple, not more complicated. And that's, we would, I think, do away with that because I think it's just this thing that's floating out there.

Nice one. So just to be clear, this isn't something that we're using and now it's being taken away. In the work world, a floating holiday would be

Like for a bank, bank employees and security employees, security company employees have different market close days. So they give each X number of days. And so they equalize the number of days for full time employees. The only other floating holidays would be if you are, it would be sort of like a comp day if you're, if you have to work on a holiday.

Yeah.

Yeah. But. Those would be the only circumstances.

The resolution that was added in 2022 just really confused things. And I wish the board had noticed. Well, I think we all did it more. I don't think we caught it. I honestly don't think we caught it. Because when I realized that I was told by employees that I was like, wait, what? And I looked it up and I was like, huh?

Makes no sense.

To get paid for a day that you normally wouldn't work. Correct. All right. So I know what we're doing.

Draft whatever needs to be. Yes.

To make it more simple. The tag award agreement I received this week. So this is for our pro housing grant. Finally got the agreement. I personally would like Mary Lou to look at it. So I was going to wait until she got back, shared it with the board so you can take a look at it, see if there's anything in there. It is a contract with the state. I don't know how much wiggle room we have to change things.

It's kind of weird.

Yes, I agree. But that's because it's homes and community renewal. What do you think is weird about it? I don't know.

So the one thing that I wanted to be aware of is they have this weird thing where they claim ownership of anything produced with any of the funds. And I just think we have to be aware if we're like contract, like, I don't know, it seems very, very much like we'll give you this money, but you don't own any of the data or anything and we can use it, we can repurpose it, we can do whatever. So I just think when we're, if we're putting out bids, we need to make sure that we include

clauses that say like by the way so just so you know usually when we bid this kind of thing the contract is part of the bid package and it's clear we did this for the county grant that you have to abide by everything when they sign the contract they're signing off that they will abide by everything so just but yes we can call specific things out it was also kind of fluffy in terms of they're like

we ever ask you for anything and you do it, you give it to us. Like you need to meet with us, but it doesn't say like four times a year.

It's like, you need to meet with us whenever you want to. It's funny. I like, don't get that at all. But I'm so used to reading these like state contracts that maybe I've like given up.

I mean, I wouldn't sign this contract. I understand. I mean, projects that are both materials produced pursuant to this agreement should be provided to the corporation on project completion and prior to reimbursement of project costs materials should be provided to the corporation in electronic format. A property of the corporation and the corporation preserves the right to modify and distribute such materials. All contracts between recipient and providers hired to produce project material must include a provision requiring project material to be explicitly labeled as works for hire and exclusive property of the recipient and the corporation. So, I mean, it makes sense, but it's just, I don't know, very strong. language. So I think that's fine. I just feel like we should be aware. The bigger stuff was where they just randomly say we can ask you for any details and you provide them but they don't specify what I'm asking. I think it's fine. And it's a it's a nice chunk of money to do something. Yes.

The other thing, the other, so, so this, I thought I was a cynical pessimist, but the thing that I liked about this contract is like, we might decide to give you more money. And I was like, great. And originally they said we would have a year, but it's like, we could decide to extend your terms indefinitely. And I'm like, okay, cool. Yeah. So I noticed those things, but you know what? They're on the first page and that's about as far as I got. So I'm going to have Mary Lou look at this before we execute it, but I will put it on the agenda for the business meeting. So please send any of your requests. We can discuss. I think that section that's like standard language for homes and community renewal contracts, I do not think there's anything about that that we can change, but it doesn't hurt to ask, hopefully. Hopefully they don't. decide that that's grounds to take them anywhere from us for asking?

I would ask nicely.

Okay. Who do you think? So we have a July business meeting review. Basically, all of our discussion items have follow-ups that will be on that agenda, plus our normal business agenda. HAB-Juliette Boone, Are there any other requests from the board to have on the July business agenda that has not been discussed.

HAB-Juliette Boone, So. HAB-Juliette Boone, Okay, I remember it yeah.

HAB-Jacques Juilland, When one thing that's come up that I just would like to discuss report so we're still trying to finalize the getting the shed. for the exchange when we have the MOU on here. I'm trying to figure out because there's some misunderstanding between the vendor about when they can receive payment. Basically, what I'm being told is the final payment can't be made until it's delivered. And so while they're waiting for that, there are late fees or something. And it's kind of like, at the point where we're just waiting on finalizing and zoning stuff. So I was going to reach out to the company and be like, we're going to take delivery next week. But I would like the board to discuss if there's like a late fee or something that we could potentially cover. It'd be like a $100 late fee.

You're asking us to discuss that right now?

No, no, no. Like if it's possible that we could reimburse something that ends up happening.

You want to discuss that right now or you want to discuss that at a business meeting?

Because I want to see what the details are.

Okay. So moving on to resolutions? Okay. Let's go for it. First item, acceptance of abstract 6b. I will make a motion that the town board accepts the 6b-2026 abstract and approved payment in the following amount. General fund $43,122.85. Highway fund $29,410.51. And from escrow, it was $1,687.50. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Next item. is where I added the amendment to Abstract 6A. So I'll make a motion that the Town of Rochester Town Board amends the total amount for the expenditures in Abstract 6A of 2026 general fund from $51,650.03 to $50,675.10. So there were two vouchers that had mathematical errors that were not caught by me, Stephanie, or the audit. And we voided those. So we removed them and they were included in this abstract. So that is it. I have it here for anyone that would like to look. So that's $974.93 that came out of that abstract. One was a bank error in our favor and one was not. So one, the mileage reimbursement was off by a decimal point. So it should have been $48 and not $4.83. And then the other, there were a stack of invoices for the New York Assessors Association. And one of those had been paid and was marked as paid, but the total amount of the invoices was put on the voucher, but it was more than what we actually owed. So- That got voided and then we had to reissue it because that was $250 less than what we approved. And we can only write checks for what we approved. So that's... Tell me about the bank error again. Oh, that's just a saying. It's a saying, sorry. It's a saying, bank error in your favor. It never happens.

Right.

No, it's a monopoly thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was just saying, I was saying it as in like, we owed less. We spent a little bit less money than what we said we did overall. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry to confuse it, but you're right. Sometimes there are big errors and they're never good.

Cause they're usually 10 cents and messes everything up.

Okay. So that was the reasoning for that. So any more discussion on that? So I'll call the vote all in favor. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Do you want to take this?

Sure. I'd like to make a motion that the Town of Rochester Town Board appoints Benjamin Dabrowski to the position of transfer station labor at the rate of $23.75 per hour for 32 hours per week, effective Monday, June 29.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- And this up any discussion. Thanks to Charlotte Michael for being our hiring committee for that.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- I was also the cardboard committee while we're doing interviews, you're saying I should have involved.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- You say 2375 yeah HAB-Masyn Moyer- Okay, all in favor. HAB-Masyn Moyer- I opposed abstain motion carries we're tabling. The next resolution, moving on to appointment of Housing Advisory Committee member.

Bella, do you want to make that one?

Sure. That was your mention, I think.

I'd like to make a motion that the Town of Rochester Town Board appoints Catherine DeWitt to the Housing Advisory Committee for a term that expires... I don't want to speak.

It would be when that expires.

27. December 27, 2027.

Second.

Any discussion? Do I need to add that word circulating?

No. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries.

Is she related to Annie? Is she related to Annie?

I believe niece. I think it must be her aunt. Yeah, niece, right? Because when she said dairy farming, it tells me they're the DeWitts.

So Mead is Catherine's daughter.

Right. And Mead is Anne's sister.

Yes.

Yes.

That's great.

Michael, you've got the next one. Hold on, I thought we wrote something.

So I'd like to make a motion. The town of Rochester town board enters into an MOU with special needs. Gina Bergen-Russell, Brianna Brokema on behalf of the Close and Repeat project. The use of the Community Center for the monthly event and the placement and use of a shed on town property as presented and authorizes the town supervisor to execute said agreement.

Do we have a second? I'll second.

I would put the waiver of jury trial in.

I'm here for it. I'm fine.

Yeah, I'm fine putting it in, I think. I think we should put it in every contract. Yeah, I agree. Um, okay. So I sent you that language. Do you want me to make that edit and then send it back to you?

I think we should just amend the presented the one presented for adoption to include the waiver of dirty trial calls. I'll make that motion.

Okay.

I'll second that. So all in favor of the amended version of the MOU. Aye. Opposed? Nay. Abstain?

Motion carries. Not that I don't support the project. I don't support us making MOUs with non-associations or individuals.

Totally understand. The trust issue. Not that. No, I think it's typically best practice.

I joined the club at your last disruption on town property, so... You what? I joined the last organization that went awry on town. Oh, yes, you did. I joined them to supervise.

You did. You did do that. Okay, so our last public resolution will be the authorization to enter into the agreement with GovWell. Oh, recommended resolution? Nothing. So I will make a motion that the Town of Rochester Town Board... enters into the agreement with GovWell as presented. The agreement as presented. Any discussion?

We don't have to say anything about you signing it. We can just say we're entering into the agreement.

Sure. We can amend it to say and authorizes the town supervisor to execute the agreement. Second as mentioned. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Our next motion is to enter into executive session. So I'll make that to discuss matters pertaining to the litigation of the town versus 5 Richview and the litigation of the town versus Richard S. Miller. Second.

All right. Wait. Are we going to discuss the interview we had also?

Oh, sure. And discussion of... Matters pertaining to the appointment of particular persons. Okay. Yeah, I would have thought about that too. 839.

All in favor? Aye.

Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. We are going to get out of here. Bye. Bye.