Town Board - workshop

But I know that's great. Isn't it beautiful?

Carol Metzger just like did that. I feel like it's kind of a, I feel like this year there's like more of them. I don't know.

We're live in winter.

All right, everyone. I'm going to call the meeting to order. This is the July workshop meeting. If you could all stand for the pledge to the flag.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The first item on the agenda is the acceptance of the agenda. I do have some amendments. So I'll make a motion that the town board accepts the agenda as prepared by the town supervisor with the following amendments to add an executive session at 7 p.m. for the purposes of discussing matters pertaining to the litigation of the town versus Five Ridge View and matters leading to the appointments of particular persons and adding a resolution regarding the EBO account access. Seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. So we will be going into an executive session at seven. The board will be leaving the room for that. So we will go into the other section of the building for that. So the public can stay during that executive session. Our first item is what we have one interview for the community preservation fund advisory committee. And that is with Hans that could come up. We will have some more interview schedules at a future meeting. And that is just following up on people who are representative of the agricultural industry, but Hans was part of our first set of applicants. So thank you for being here. What usually I'll kick off the interview and then the board asks questions and then we try to make sure that we get a good I made notes from our last interview, so we can make sure to try to cover some of the same questions that we did for the other candidates. So first, if you could just start off by telling us a little bit about yourself and why you are applying for this committee.

Sure. My name is Hans Feitrin. Professionally, I work in international conflict resolution, and I'm also the senior advisor to a chairman. of a big consulting firm. Locally, I am a co-owner of Rofkat Brewing. I'm a member of the board of the Rondon-Easables Land Conservancy and also a member of the planning board of the TAO. That's kind of my background. The reason I started to become very interested in the Community Preservation Fund when Peter Nelson started to lay out the rationale why we should have in our town a Community Preservation Fund funded by taxpayers. And I supported his effort. I supported his effort when it came to the vote. at the end. And the reason why I want to be on this specific committee has two reasons. Number one, I feel we have an obligation for the taxpayer to really create a public benefit with any selection of any properties we do. That means specifically That means specifically we need to have a public benefit in terms of whether it's connecting land, which is not connected at this point, whether it's water. We have a big issue in the town with water. And so we have issues currently with water, which we see in the planning board frequently. Other things, the viewshed is very, very important. So these are the things I want to make sure that these projects are selected in a program systematically.

Okay, great. So are you familiar with the Community Preservation Plan document?

Yes, I read the law. I also worked myself through this big folder Peter Nelson put together. I think it was like 140 pages or so.

So have you thought about knowing in advance that this committee hasn't been appointed or formed officially yet in terms of the local law forms it, but we haven't formed it with people. Have you thought about what your approach to being on the board is and specifically how you think the committee or should go about

making those recommendations to the town board for how to use the funds right so i think there are two components so that number one is what do we want to protect and the second thing is how do we do it what we want to protect again it needs to have some kind of public benefit because i think it's important that we take it also the people who haven't voted for this fund that we take them along with us and convince them to make sure that of the value of open spaces That's one very, very important thing for me. The second thing that I would think is important that we are, that we have, sorry, that we have an approach to, I'm sorry, I don't feel so good today. That we, let me get my, okay, yeah.

It's okay.

I think, so that is the second thing is how we would do it. We would clearly need to have a plan how to approach the selection of projects. Thank you so much. And these projects, I'm sorry, I don't feel so good right now. You want me to stop? No, take your time. Okay.

I just... Do you need to stop? Do you need a moment?

I need a moment. Okay. If you guys want to do that, I'm sorry. It's fine.

Take a moment. Go get some chair. Okay. So you want us to proceed with the agenda?

I think proceed. Okay. Okay, great. And then if I feel better, I let you know.

Okay, great. So our next item on the agenda is the public comment portion of the meeting. So that this is where the public can address the board. New this meeting, I've announced this in the past, but I'm going to start limiting the public comment to three minutes. So I'm going to have a timer and when the timer goes off, that's that individual's end of their public comment. And if that's not enough time, then I encourage people to submit written comment to the board if you feel like you didn't get what you wanted across. So with that, I will open the public comment portion of the meeting. Is there anyone here that would like to address the board? Alana? Hi.

I just wanted to encourage the board way, way, way in advance because you guys adopted the county's ADV tax exemption option. You opted into that. I know Marble Town did too. And the housing committee would like to encourage you guys to approach Rich Free in Marble Town. Daisy Foote, who I had spoken to about together going to Rondout Valley School District and asking them to do the same for their school budget, which I guess we vote on in what, April or something? But I know these things take a while. And I wanted to, as a committee, wanted to encourage you guys to start those conversations whenever you have time, if you're interested, but we think you should.

Thank you. Perfect. Thank you. My question, so I know I'm not supposed to ask questions, but hopefully you will address it in the next comment time. The first one is the paper reported that you advised residents to send official documentation of damages suffered in the town of Rochester website or the Facebook page for information about where to send it. First, I want to know if that is correct, and if it is, Steve wasn't able to locate that. So... We need guidance there. The other one was, again, storm related. There are a lot of trees down in the boot hole. You know, and I was just wondering, I walked down in there and you can see they're already blocking what little water we have. So I didn't know whose responsibility is it because it could be a flooding issue. And we have a plank board here. Remember sitting here that last year when we talked about the, you know, the old moony camp and the lake down there and everything, the last thing we need is to have that lake go because of erosion and flooding. So, and then my last thing is, I just want to say that having attended meetings now for months, twice a month, I just boggle at the amount of work that it takes for you guys to run this town. And I have a master's degree in education and taught for 35 years. And I will admit, I could never do your job. So kudos to all of you. This isn't something you take lightly. Maybe 35, 40 years ago, it was different. But the amount of work that's required, the amount of regulations, it's just like I give you all kudos for doing the work you do.

Is there anyone else who'd like to address the board? Okay, I will close the public comment portion of the meeting. And now it's town board member time. Would any members of the board like to address any of the comments or have anything that's on the agenda you'd like to discuss?

I just like to support the housing committee's notion that we be proactive about trying to partner with another township that adopted the ADU exemption to try to lobby the school district to also adopt it because that's the more impactful of the tax pools locally. Thank you to Barbara for recognizing the amount of work that goes into the town board. I appreciate that. And I appreciate anyone who recognized that. So thank you. And thank you for your commitment for coming for twice a month for almost a whole year now and attending our meetings. And then only other thing that was not on the agenda is I just want to say The Rhyme Down Valley Rotary is having a golf tournament. I said this at the last meeting, but I have flyers with me this time. So if anyone's a golfer or interested in golfing or knows anyone who wants to take a flyer to support our local Rotary Club that supports our camp, please do. And I also have strawberry candies, if anyone would like one from the station.

I do want to say something about what I've said. Generally, property owners on the creeks are responsible for whatever happens in their municipal responsibility. And secondly, I would just also thank you for your comment about the amount of work. But I would say that the vast majority that is done by our very able, capable and hard-working supervisor

Yeah, ditto to both those points. Two other updates. We did just get delivery of the shed for the Clothes for Free program. And so we can finally transition the clothes from the pod over into that shed during the next Clothes for Free event. So that would be good to be able to get that out. PB, Harmon Zuckerman, And then I did have a good PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Meeting with the with most of the members of the ambit advisory committee. We also met with K fast. So we had a discussion about some of the recording and some of what they're doing to try and improve relations with the town and improve the level of communication that's happening. And so one of the conversations the committee had, I think everyone felt it was a good initial meeting. One of the conversations they had was in terms of the next payment, which I think the report is due in August, and then the payment is scheduled in September. While they're working to get some additional information and background on the financials, The committee is kind of talking about what documents they would want to see specifically for that next payment in the spirit of helping to partner more closely with them. So I think that's great. Obviously, the board ultimately is going to take their advice and then we'll have to make ultimately the decision on that. So we had added an extensive amount of documents, financial documents to the contract. If there are specific things that we think would be important for us to see for the next payment, I'd like everyone to think about it because we're going to try and have a meeting in the beginning of August, start talking about the next report. So if there are specific documents, for example, I think they filed for an extension on their taxes for the year. So we haven't received a random But if there are specific things like budget versus actuals or other financial documents that people want to see, just let me know so that I can make sure that we're getting those things.

So their year-end is December 31?

Yeah.

Budget to actual would be to the great as of, say, June 30th or whatever it starts in the public interest period they closed.

I think that also, I mean, we're getting into budget season, so they're going to have to provide us budget for next year.

So also, if they have any statistics on the calls. Right.

And uh, I'm just proactive generals to rolling up a budget season, just if they have any capital projects or like fleet projects like new vehicle purchase or anything coming up who planned to just to give us that do you have like a threshold in mind of expenses that was i would say like over a hundred thousand one item you know what i mean obviously i don't need to like don't need to know that they're ordering like a hundred thousand dollars worth of gods and whatever else for the ambulance supplies but just a large you know capital HAB-Juliette Boone, or bonded investment.

HAB-Juliette Boone, Okay, the only thing i'd have to add, thank you for the comment about the forum, I had technical difficulty with it and didn't follow up with it, so I will get back on that.

HAB-Juliette Boone, Okay.

HAB-Juliette Boone, Okay, so we will.

closed town board member time how are you feeling are you ready yeah I'm ready I'm ready I'm sorry I can do my questions yeah um my question is a standard easy one are you an eligible elector of the town of Rochester I am being on our planning board um and then my other question um in the form of I've been asking for this committee is if you were to like grade Rochester or you know rate where we're at so far with conservation before like what we've done in our history thus far for conservation if you were to grade us or rate us so far.

I think there's a has been a lot of effort and especially in the new code we have the conservation easements which drives the town into the right direction. When it comes to the details, I think there's a lot of things which need to be ironed out. You mentioned the conservation easement. It really doesn't have any key because either the town board this enforcing, this driving around and looking at easements, I don't think that's a good time, use all your time. Then the other option is a homeowner's association, which basically can mix their own decisions within a second. The third thing is that it would be taken over by an organization like the one that is opposed. The disadvantage of that from my personal perspective is if I hand over, for example, my property to one of them. Suppose I have a tax advantage, I get tax break. In the current code and current environment, this is not looked at as a voluntary easement. So basically there's no tax benefits. So I would encourage the town board to look into that and to look into opportunities to make this, to make, if somebody really gives something up, gives up a right, that they would kind of get a certain benefit out of that as well. But in general, I really, really appreciate it. And I think the reason why I'm also here is we all want to protect this town. We came here because of the environment. And if you cannot protect this environment, all the reason for coming here and to live here kind of goes away. But we still, I'm sure it's important to have development. I'm sure that there's still growth in the town. But I think that that is one of the really, really critical pieces why we need kind of this public benefit oriented conservation problem. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your interest in this. Thank you for your service on the planning board, which I know is a lot of work as well. So obviously, in your time serving on that board, I think, well, I know you have had a lot of opportunity to hear input from the public on different projects that are before the board. And you've kind of seen a lot of the complexity of trying to address different needs and making sure that you're taking to it. taking into account what the public feedback is on the decisions you make. I'm curious for this board specifically, there's a process with public hearings and making sure that any decisions that the board ultimately makes have gotten similar feedback. Curious how much of the work of this board do you think should be done in public? How much of the conversations that the board is having should be made available? Do you think it should, you know, they should be open meetings that people can attend, that should be broadcast on Zoom. I'm just curious what your philosophy is around informing the public.

I think the open meeting law in this town applies to the town board, it applies to the planning board, the board of assessment review, and the CBA. So I don't think for this, what all kind of puts all these different boards on the same level is that they make decisions for the town. I think this is an advisory committee. In the end of the day, you guys will make the decision. So my point is, and especially when it comes to real estate, real estate is a fickle thing. It's a very, very sensitive thing. I don't think a seller wants to be in the Bluestone Press and see that there are discussions with the town of potentially taking over. So my argument would be in the beginning, when it comes to the initial discussion switch this board would have where it comes about price discussions about how would you proceed and so on, my inclination would be to make it non-public. But since it's a taxpayer funded initiative, I think it's clearly once there is progress and it comes to the town board, obviously it's subject to open meeting and also the public should have input.

Okay, thank you. So given the significant, A, development pressure, B, lack of affordable workforce or normal workforce housing, how would you reconcile development pressures against conservation issues and that there are only certain periods, certain parcels that come up and are available at any given time in a lifetime?

So I think when it comes... to looking at conservation, the code gives us some ideas in this regard. Code says cluster as much as you can. That's the idea also of the conservation subdivision. So I would argue that if you try to cluster and you increasingly kind of create areas for development and building and include that into your down planning, I think that would be very valuable. That is also important, for example, for housing, which we are looking at. That it has access, for example, to a nine where you have public transportation, where you have at least basic shopping, partly. So I think it's a little bit different from the areas which you would protect in a conservation easement, in a conservation plan. And I mean, I would, I would think, again, I want to come back to the public benefit. So it can be parcels which need to be, could be combined, but we try to do it well. It can be certain wetlands, which are really valuable for the town. It can be scenic, scenic areas, which are really critical and make it different. Thank you.

To just sort of go back to the question I had, how do you envision the advisory committee going about the process of considering parcels?

So I think there's two things to that. Again, there's what do we want to do and secondly, how we do it. For the consideration, there are scorecards which you can use to evaluate and to kind of decide what potential projects there are. One of these of course uses a questionnaire which I like because it's qualitative and very, very, I think it gives you the broad range of doing that. So that's kind of from the front, the technique of looking at potential opportunities. The second thing is my understanding is we have about $40,000 in this fund so far. Right, and I don't- 80 now. Well, okay. My speech is killed in this regard, but I think- No, it just says up today.

Okay.

So I think that $40,000 or even that is not enough to make a big, big difference. So I think it's important that that's the how we do it. I think we would need to partner with other conservation partners. And that can be OSI, that can be Ordnance Isopos, and can be even like rooted in Rochester or other organizations. And I think there's a lot of opportunity to collaborate and kind of there's the opportunity to get grants and to work on grants. So I think there's a whole range of opportunities kind of to leverage this initial fund.

Do you have any questions for us?

I'm pretty good. Thank you for your patience. Yeah, no.

Okay. I'm feeling better. Okay. I think that's it. So thank you so much. And we'll be following up. We do have a few more interviews to schedule. And I think I'm probably going to be sending a follow-up email to everyone that we have interviewed just to be posted. So now as It's about seven o'clock. I had announced that we have to do an executive session at seven. The board is going to walk out of the room so the public can stay here while we do that. And then we will reconvene when we're done with the executive session. I'm hoping that we are going to be under 30 minutes for that, but it just depends on how much discussion the board wants to do on the topics.

Very good points.

Yes, we're doing it on Teams. So I'll make a motion that the Town of Rochester Town Board exits into executive session at 7.01 p.m. for the purposes of discussing matters pertaining to the litigation of the Town v. Five Ridgeview and matters leading to the appointments of particular persons and adding a resolution regarding the EBO account. I don't have to tell you that for the executive session resolution, not the town board.

Can we also add a discussion of litigation?

Sure. And so we'll add, did I have a second on that yet? So we'll be amending to add a discussion on the litigation of the town board. versus Richard S. Feller. Second this amendment. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Please don't interrupt me during.

I'm going to move this.

Okay.

We are back.

We exit executive session at 7.41.

Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Okay. So we are back to the public portion of our meeting and I'm just, I have a digital copy of the agenda that I'm following along and I'm just gonna pull that up. So we are doing discussion items, starting with a discussion about I wanted to have a public discussion. We have not had a discussion about the town board vacancy. It's been over a month now. So I feel like it's a good time for us to talk about the vacancy. And I put what I want to talk about in the agenda. So does the board wish to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the calendar year? And if so, what vacancy filling process you like to follow so i just feel like it's probably best to just do a round robin hear from each of you what you think about those so uh councilman win do you want to get this off sure i think we should fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term and um solicit letters of intent um with the hope

by the first meeting in September?

And just as a reminder, for a position like the town board, that process is 100% public. It's also part of our policy. But I just want that to be a reminder. So all interviews and discussions about that appointment would be public.

Councilman Coleman?

I want to pass.

Come back to me. I'm indifferent. While we do need someone in that position, I think that hearing councilman when say September made me realize that we're going to be appointing someone for three months for a month or for four months and for a month and they're going to be into budget season with us and that To me, that doesn't seem conducive. The other times we've had this instance where we've appointed someone, it's been for the majority of the year of the term into the fall or, you know, eight months plus normally. I think most of the times it was, except for maybe the first, I've been slightly less by the time we appointed, but I'm weary to throw someone who's not been in the board seat in the town before into that position that's green. I don't want to push someone right into budget season. That doesn't, I wouldn't have wanted to stay if I got pushed in the month before budget season into this seat through that process, but I'm open to opinions. I'm open to soliciting letters and seeing who throws their hands up, but I don't know how much, how confident I would be in actually appointing someone to the seat, depending on what candidates we get and their experience levels, if that makes sense.

Okay, Councilman Coleman.

I mean, I think there's value to having a full board. Obviously, anytime you have four board members, there's a risk that you're not going to be able to make decisions. At the same time, I think the board currently has developed a good rhythm under your leadership, obviously. I think we've been getting a lot of things done. We've been doing a lot of work, as was mentioned earlier today. I also had the same thought when I was thinking about this earlier today that Charlotte mentioned, which is we have August and then we're going to be in budget season. I know you're already, I'm sure, reaching out to the departments and they're already prepping things for budget. So I do worry that adding a new board member, I think September would be aggressive for us to be able to do that because I'd want to at least have for a position like that, have it out there for three or four weeks for people to respond. And then we have to do interviews. And then I think we're in too much of a crunch where even if we made a decision, the spin-up time to be able to understand the budget process, to understand all of these things is pretty steep. We've also, well, I know some of us on the board have dealt with a lot of new people coming in. And I think there's always going to be new dynamics that need to be figured out there. And I'm concerned that it might distract from a lot of work that's being done. I also feel like, you know, there's an election coming up. And if we make a decision, you know, as a board, the election could end up determining that somebody else fills that seat. And so, I don't know, I'm inclined to wait. But I'm not a hard no, depending on what the rest of the board feels.

By wait, you mean not do anything.

I would be inclined to not make an appointment this late in the year.

Well, I mean, I think that'll sounds like it is. Not fulfilling our responsibility to the residents of the town, which is definitely functioning all the seated soundboard and If it's a matter of a new board member not being able to adjust or not being wanting to continue after sitting through a budget process and then it's up to that time to step away or not be put that person's name for consideration, but I think we owe it to the have what the New York State kind of law requires or suggests, which is a four-member town board with a supervisor.

Oh, can you let Mary do this?

Sorry, Mary.

Because I was going to ask her, because you know if we don't make an appointment, the state can. I don't know how long that usually takes. So I don't, to me, honestly, I don't want to make this political. For me, it's really important to not have the, I'd like to prevent the revolving door that we've had. And there is an election coming up. Having said that, we could also be in the same boat in January. So I think there's a huge benefit to circulating a request.

We could be in the same boat in terms of we could have another resignation or yes.

And so I just think that soliciting letters of intent and starting to go through that process is valuable. I do have concerns about like meeting attendance and making sure that we have a full board. I also, it is so challenging to have people in the seat So if we're in a position where the board is not aligned on who we're going to appoint or, you know, we are four to four, but we're a four-member board right now, so we need three people to be voting on anything in order to...

Which is what's prevented a lot of decisions being made.

I mean, it did prevent... I think it prevented one. There was one decision. But... in terms of the appointment, we have to have, I don't know, we have to have a majority board vote to do the appointment. So I think we'll see through the process, but I certainly don't want to end up in a situation where we are appointing someone who is, we don't think has a good chance of in some fashion remaining on the board. So.

I mean, I see that point, but our position is not to anoint somebody as a successor through an election process or obligation to the residents of the town is to make sure that we have five people. And it's up to us to make sure that the people or person that we choose

termination date but I mean I see your point you're it's just a lot of work yeah of course yeah it's like it changes the whole pace of the board and even though that can't come in January having that come during budget season is just to me not ideal I'm fine with going through the process like you said Aaron I'm fine with posting I'm fine with soliciting I'm sorry um I just, I, depending on what pool of candidates can get will depend on if there's someone who's able to go into budget season or not hitting the ground rolling, or if we are going to have to do some coaching and hand-holding of a new member while also in that process.

If that's a concern, then for somebody whom we appoint but the argument that the appointee might slow down deliberations or upset the pace of our of the way we operate is I think a self-serving argument not one that's in the best interest of the members of the uh not in the best interest of the residents of a town

I appreciate that point. I just have been at a point on this board where another rendition where we were taking extremely long to get through things. Even before we had the resignation and changeover issues where case of our meetings were so long that we were barely productive because we were all just so run down from how long those meetings were and over explanation of things. that i'm trying to set us up for not that again and that i do appreciate the working order we have i'm not saying someone couldn't join into that working order and have it work i just know that unless it's someone who's been in this exact seat before who's dealt with our zoning code dealt with our public hearings and our laws i don't think that it's conducive for any one person to be put into that

situation to me just bottom line we have two board members who think there's a big value in having a five-member board and we have two board members who are totally on the fence about it so the point i was making is i think we should publish We should solicit for letters of interest. We should move forward in that way, knowing that we could end up in a situation where the board is not able to appoint someone.

Is it your position that we should appoint somebody to the board if we find a good candidate?

I think that there's a big value in having another person. If we find someone who we think can do the work, I do. And I mean, I think it's, I guess that's the point I was trying to make is, you know, I think to me, having another set of eyes on everything is very valuable, but if we don't find someone that we can all agree on, then it's kind of a moot point. So I just think we need to go into this knowing that that's where we're at, right?

And they had a non-choice.

I didn't agree last time this happened, and you're still here, so.

A non-choice is a potential outcome.

Yeah.

I think on the positive side, getting people interested, getting letters of intent, having people start thinking about what it would mean to serve on the board, and actually put that in writing is valuable as well because none of us are going to be here forever, so.

I think that there's value in doing it no matter what.

I agree with that wholeheartedly. I just myself don't know that we're going to get someone that I feel comfortable throwing into that time frame of when they would start.

Okay. I think we've probably discussed that as much as we can. I will make sure that we get advertisements out for that tomorrow.

What are we going to ask?

So what we've done in the past and what's in our policy is letters of interest and an optional resume.

And a deadline.

Oh, yeah, and a deadline.

So I think... August to 30 days from now, August... 23rd? 23rd. Or 30 days from the note of the publication, which the publication is tomorrow, make it August 24th.

Yeah. We have our workshop meeting on the 27th. Perfect.

Okay.

Okay. So just that working document of the agenda that I have, I'm taking notes in it.

So you guys can go back and look at it. I just download a copy to take my notes so I don't miss your guys' comments.

OK. I wanted to update the board on cemetery maintenance. Jim Ayers came to me several weeks ago to bring something to my attention. I will be asking Mary Lou to review, but it's not an urgent situation. But there's a New York state law that when there's not a board to take care of a cemetery, the town is responsible for the maintenance of that plot or of the property. And there are some, you know, minimum guidance. We have a number of cemeteries in town, some that have boards and some that do not. There are two in particular in town that do not. And Mr. Ayers is taking it upon himself to revitalize and care for these cemeteries um i got a tour of one of them recently that has 66 let's see 66 known uh 66 known burials and then he's been reading um obituary obituaries starting from like the late 1800s to see if he finds listings of anyone that was buried in this cemetery that wasn't a part of the roster that he has. And he's made it up to like 1930, I think, and found like 33 more people. So there's at least a hundred. It's called Sunnyside. It's in Tabasco. There's not a, there is a town right of way, but there's not currently like a clear public access to it.

So you wouldn't know where it is. Who actually owns, is it a cemetery association?

The town owns it. So there's no cemetery association. So there's a town right of way. There's an old town road that is currently not. It looks like someone's yard, which is why I'm not specifically telling people where it is. Because at this point, we don't want people going to this cemetery. It's also not cleaned up yet. So he's getting it to a point where in the fall, I will work with them to have a lot of brush removed. He and one other person are just doing their own maintenance and weed whacking and mowing and it's really great. They also are cleaning the stones and putting them back in place and There's a second cemetery that they haven't really gotten to that we'll be doing this for. So I just wanted to bring that to the attention of the board because he's also starting to write about the work he and I are doing together. So I just wanted the board to be aware and the public to be aware that that's what this situation is. He also brought up something really interesting to me that I admittedly had not considered as deeply, but that most of our cemeteries in town are full and that it would be of value for the town to start considering what it would take to expand those cemeteries, that there is a possible expansion opportunity so that people who want to be buried in the town will be able to. So that's just a topic. None of this is an emergency by any means, but it's something that there'll be a small amount that we'll budget for maintenance in next year's budget, because by next year, we'll have to do some like mowing twice a year and potentially do some tree cutting to clear the trees that are growing in the middle of the cemeteries. I can circulate. So I have the deed. I have the old maps. These really cool things called boundary lines. Is that what they're called? That the town used to be split up into these rectangles and there are these old boundary lines that still you can still kind of find um and then i have the list of everyone that's buried um in the cemetery so i can um

to my recollections from discussions with Pam Duke 20 years ago or so is that the town owns some plots in Pine Bush Cemetery. Is that the one on 209? Yeah. For indigent persons? Yes.

Jim brought that up to me too.

Do we have a record of those plots?

Yeah, it's kind of like on my list, but I had to follow it up on it. The other, yeah, he did bring that up.

And with respect to the expansion of cemetery plots, would those be, would we be encouraging the existing cemetery associations to add on to those plots and support that in some way? Or are we contemplating, kind of asking the question, asking it rhetorically, are we contemplating creating a municipal type?

I think it's kind of like follow both leads, see which one's better. He has identified a couple of potential opportunities that I think are worth approaching the landowners about and seeing what they think.

I'm just thinking of something.

I'm on the board of the cemetery and there are just a lot of odd regulations.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Yes, I can. HAB-Masyn Moyer- update on the Community meeting still working on getting that scheduled, so this is the discussion item see. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Just some related related notes on that. HAB-Masyn Moyer- In the best time for that for some of the bigger agencies is going to be late August early September. In the meantime, I have been meeting with our emergency management coordinator. I'm getting us signed up. We have to register with the state to sign up for this three-day training on climate-related emergency preparedness. It's put on by the state. And that... The two of us will attend, and then I'm trying to get two other people to attend along with the town. They recommended that we try to get someone from the highway department to come with us. Is that this year, Erin? It's at the end of August. It's August 25th, 26th, and 27th? Or 26th, 27th. Yeah, 26th, 27th, and 28th in Kingston. And that it's... put on by the Department of Homeland Security. And it's, you have to, it's through ACATUS, like you're registered through ACATUS. Then the second thing that we've been doing that's sort of adjacent to the community meeting that I'm wanting to have about planning is planning community trainings for individuals like rural safety living series of trainings i think we've come up with so far four um topics so i'm working with jerry on flushing those out and getting those scheduled thinking about speakers and presentations and how we want to format those but i think it's um I just want to acknowledge that that I think is a really wonderful idea. There's a lot of things that we take for granted that especially the newer generations or newer people moving to the area really are not aware of some of the things that can really be helpful in emergency situations or in just day-to-day life. Anything from why do we still use like the siren and to, you know, that fact that tree removal is like very dangerous and people, you know, should really leave that to the professionals, things like that. And then fire wise also is the other big one that we wanted to do. So does on this, Do any other board members have anything to add on this meeting?

I just have really the Rotary and Blue Pantry are flexible. So you kind of schedule for us as long as they have a week or two in advance. Tuesdays is normally the Rotary's meeting. So that would work out well for us. But outside of that, no specific requests.

OK, great. I think, too, I mean, the meetings sound like great ideas. Yeah, for the educational value. We should obviously, I think, try and broadcast those if we can record them. So the trainings are the meeting, the trains, so they can go on the website. And I wonder, too, if it's something that the county emergency services department might also be involved in. Maybe we could get additional resources or so that they could have, because it's not just a Rochester problem. It would be across the county. So I don't know if you reached out to them or if you want to talk to them in August, see if they have interest in that. So I think it's a good idea.

Yeah, I wrote down no to. I'm happy to. I know how to edit and do film videos. So if we want them on the website of the training, I can make them for us to post on Facebook and on the website for us as well.

Even basic stuff like, how do you turn off the gas to your house, how you turn off the water, how do you turn off the electricity and.

I have from when I did the senior resource fair a couple years in a row for elder care use awareness day I have a couple of resources where they would come out with I seem to find I had it on my water heater, but it has like. They give you, like, little twist tie, like, warning signs that this is your water line, this is your gas line to go tie on it in the basement so you know where the shutoff is and things like that. I just can't remember if it was Department of Health or if it was Office of the Agent, but it's on the bottom there. But, like, those offices had tons of stuff like that available for those exact situations so that it's easy. You can at least tie it on if you're not there. If someone's watching the house, they can still find it. So I will take a picture of mine when I go home in the basement and tell you what departments they were in.

The other thing that I keep forgetting about that I think we should maybe discuss during budget time, but also even educating people, high visibility house members. I know this is something EMS, fire district, like when they need to navigate somewhere, if they can't see or have like the blue signs with the reflective numbers, I know that helps a lot in terms of figuring out where they need to be. And you see them around and it's like significantly easier to find addresses.

So I don't know if we can make, maybe set aside money where people could get them and we could, or, um, per se squad used to do this, used to do what used to do the numbers for it.

Like you could, you could buy them from them or it's.

She knows a while back about the same thing about trying to find a grant or something to fund it where we could give out like a heritage day, give out numbers for people's houses so that they can take them home and put them up. And then he talked to me about the blue plaques and there's a company that does it that you can like apply for funding through, I think. I can leave myself a note to follow back up on that for us.

So I think that would help a lot, especially when visibility and trees are down and you don't know what's what.

So are we ready to move on from that? The next, I'm just realizing actually, I think I need a resolution from the board. So we had decided that for the consolidated funding grant application, we're just doing one for the planning grant for town comprehensive plan with sustainability elements. That's due a week from tomorrow. What I had hoped to have is like a draft of the application that the board would look at and then submit. But I think I need to ask you guys to authorize me to prepare and submit that application as long as I circulate it to you. Because we don't have a meeting in between.

I'm fine with that. And if you would like some help this week, I can come in and absolutely help some of the narratives and stuff like that. Um, I'll set it. I'll text you another day.

Okay. So can I have a motion?

Uh, I make a motion that the town of Rochester town board authorize the town supervisor to apply and submit for the CFA grant opportunity through the county or through the state and circulate the application to the board.

Do you want to specify which one?

Sure. I just couldn't remember all the names just then.

Planning Grant. The Climate Smart Community Planning Grant.

Climate Smart Community Planning Grant. There's too many C's and S's.

Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Let's see. The county just announced, like literally just announced, their own EV infrastructure grant that is due in August. So I'm going to see if it's possible for us to apply for that. But otherwise, we have the ZEV infrastructure one that's in October.

What is ZEV?

So ZEV is the, it's like the state program and it's not, the county program gives you up to $25,000. This one you get like money back from what the project. So whether you be purchasing, there's like $8,000 that you get back for purchasing an EV for the municipality and they have some for doing the infrastructure. The county is just using, funding that they have to create these mini grants available to municipalities that basically for installing charging stations that are available for public use.

Do you need anything else for that?

I will need an authorizing resolution when I haven't even looked at the packet yet.

Erin, is Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley hosting that grant again for the county like you did with the Lujans last year? I don't know. I'll look. I have a log.

I actually, I didn't bring the, I just got to the county to post it on the Tuesday.

Unless it's like CFA would like state or federal.

And then for the funding futures round two, um, it's that does require there to be like three applicants for it, but I am going to be going to be, um, HAB-Masyn Moyer- rooted in Rochester final gathering and I will be advocating that we use that or a plant the planning for new town infrastructure project that I didn't think we had time to apply for the CFA grant for, but if we were to be able to apply for this, it would allow us to put some plans together for. HAB-Masyn Moyer- town infrastructure which does. correspond to the Rooted in Rochester community vote in terms of creation of public spaces and public access. It's this Sunday? Yes, this Sunday.

And when you say that there has to be three, you mean there has to be a three collaboration, three organizations collaboration for the project? And do we have three for that one?

I believe they have. I believe they have are. There's a little group that's working on pulling that together.

Okay, I have a feeling I know what you're thinking.

So don't need any other votes, but those are the updates. I have this placeholder I just nailed Jill down about how much fence as a donation she got so I'm just going to table this and I told her that she and I need to stake. We just need to stake out what it would look like and do take a picture of it so that you guys can see because I don't want to do that without board authorization and then we can also accept The donation. How much did she get? 800 feet. But I also don't know exactly. It was like 800 feet and the most. Yeah. We're also repairing the fence at the park. It got stalled after the storm. I just need to order the fencing and then we're going to install it. But Harry fixed the top rail. So you fixed all the posts and the top rail. So that is.

And are we doing the grill or is the grill being installed by where we purchased it? We're installing it. We're installing it. I just came in to ask you that.

And the old one got repaired. So we'll have two grills. Two grills. Who repaired it? The highway department.

We'll see. I'll be out there with a package of hot dogs.

Oh, so we'll have two girls, which is exciting. We're going from a deficit to an abundance. I'm being cognizant of the time. So just moving forward on the battery energy storage system update, I have a map that I shared with the board that shows where the, basically the area that would be appropriate to put any system in, which is basically along Granite Road. And then- out onto 209. So you guys can look at that map. I think Michael, what did you you wanted to do something with that map that I can't remember?

I don't know. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Okay, and what's that based off of Aaron like like for the amount of like infrastructure, the.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Oh lack of him, so what it is basically is there's a map a zoning map that shows where the transmission line in town is so they have to be close to the transmission.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- way about hello, and I also said in their substations they would probably do this.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- It would be certain types have to be. HAB-Masyn Moyer- The larger yeah.

The other ones would be along the three phase.

So the next step is to sort of take this knowledge and think about where we think it would be appropriate in terms of like our zoning. And if there are any specific places in town, I think short story is a town planner is like, yeah, I don't, I don't know that there's going to be any place that's like actually well-suited from anyone's perspective. But he's going to start taking a stab at the, what that would look like.

And I guess my concern about Granite Pro is the same thing that some that were like, I mean, the community needs the asset, but the location is awful.

Right. There's also a pic. These, I think the thing, these look, these are, look a little bit like, I don't know if you guys saw the picture. I can also organize a tour of one, but the one, the key capture energy NY6 scaled, that's a photo of what a larger system looks like. Um, so they typically would not be visible from the view shed. That's one thing that I would say. Um, so it does look like a very small storage facility, basically.

Um, trails and trails.

Um, so it would be nice to have the, the map data if she has this.

What do you mean by not data?

Like where these lines are.

Okay, I can send you, that's just publicly available information.

Okay.

She just overlaid it onto our zoning, onto the GIS.

Okay, yeah, she has a link.

Yeah. So what I'm planning on doing is having Dave take a first stab at what he thinks given the information that we have about the mapping, he'll take a first stab at appropriate regulations. Also today, I just received the Ulster County Planning Board's memorandum on key siting and zoning considerations. So, I will also make sure Dave receives that because they just published that.

Ours?

No, their own independent little booklet on zoning and siting considerations.

And do we know how long the governor put the moratorium on for the state? HAB-Masyn Moyer- For data centers. HAB-Masyn Moyer- And I think she had.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- No no right wrong I think it's just data centers um I know it's at least a year of the data since I think that's. HAB-Masyn Moyer- That's right, I thought.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- I was just seeing if they were covered well figure this out still before.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- So does that sound the approach that i'm taking yeah doesn't sound continue to sound like what the board one yeah.

And I'm sorry, I'm just going to go check in on my babysitter. Don't leave them.

And would you like, would the board like to tour the facility? I do. Well, I'm down for a field trip always. Great. Councilman Coleman, would you like to talk about our roadway safety family zones map?

Oh, we need it.

I didn't share it because it's like a map down Rochester with five lines.

I thought it was a great map. Other people would agree. But we have it. It shows lines.

I didn't disagree. I just said, what purpose is this going to serve? You said you wanted a map.

Give me a map.

It didn't have any information on it.

It had road names.

Right.

No, it doesn't have any. I mean, I don't think for the purposes of what we want to do, which is have the DOT request that they do speed studies. I think we can give them cross streets and the streets that we wanted. So we had talked about four, was it?

Yes.

Charity Town, Boyce Mill, Whitfield, and Topaz, right?

Yes. So I think You and I need to go back to the drawing board and do a drive around and try to do some specific sections that we can then, it doesn't have to be a map like this, but to share with the board the specific zones that we want to create to do that. It's a great map.

You said Cherrytown, Whitfield, Toca, Oaksville? Oaksville, Oaksville.

Okay. So next up, town board calendar. The main things I wanted to talk about is carving out time for this emergency preparedness coalition meeting that we'll be having sometime late August, early September. Budget season for the board starts up in full in October. So that's after I filed the tentative budget, which is due September 30th. We also have to make a decision about our insurance plan, which I'll be bringing to the board. We also wanted to do some work on our policy manuals and our pay scale. So next month is when I'll be coming to the board to see about how that work is going to get done.

Are you still planning individual performance?

Yes.

And what time frame are you contemplating that?

September, October. So I'm working with our department heads and supervisory employees on that. It's 8.30. I have a few things. I do prioritizing the 10-year financial plan is something that I would like to see us work on in the second half of the year. We have the guidance from the state that I shared in the agenda on multi-year financial planning and capital planning. And I think Stacey linked in the investment policy guidance and then a sample investment policy, which is not exactly the multi-year financial planning, but I do think we can be more aggressive with that in terms of a revenue stream. What I want to do is have a session with the board to kick off the 10-year financial planning work. So I was thinking at our next meeting, we could schedule like a special meeting for that or sometime in August, if that works. So what I would ask the board to do ahead of scheduling that meeting is I think it would be nice when we schedule the meeting to be a little clear about how much time and what our goals are. Um, so I think it would be good for the board to just familiarize yourself a little bit with what the guidance is. Um, I think we all have a sense of what a 10 year financial plan is, but just in terms of like the state comptroller's guidance on that.

Okay. Just clarify. We don't have an investment policy.

We do not. So right now, the only thing we have is. some of our money is in a higher interest checking at home.

Are we required to, are those checking accounts really, are they security? I don't mean FBIC, I mean security. Yes.

Okay. Then, I'm just going to move on because it's 830. But I do want us to schedule to just really dive into those things in office. So, all right.

I think it's commendable to put it together and to start those discussions because it's never happened.

Yeah. And the capital plan is like a huge part of it, which is why it's a little bit like a behemoth. But I think we can make the One of the points of a plan is that you have something that when you deviate from it, you then, you can make adjustments, but if you don't have a plan, then you're kind of flying in the dark. So it doesn't have to be, we don't have to be predicting the future, but having something better than having nothing in place.

Just putting down on paper, the things that you know need to be done.

It's, I was talking to another supervisor who was asking me, they were like, what's a 10 year financial plan? And I said, well, and they were like, how do you do it? And I said, well, you can make a spreadsheet that has formulas in it that predicts out. And they were like, what? And I was like, you just need to find someone that knows how to use spreadsheet. Give us your name. I said that I could share a template.

Did you tell her we have a consultant?

It was a him, not a her. So the next one I need, I wanted to bring this up and then I'll need board authorization. There was an application for a major subdivision that is a $1,550 application fee after they got their zoning determination. So they paid for their zoning application, got the determination, were sent the link to the application packet. They decided that that was too much and they wanted to scale back and do a minor subdivision, which costs a lot less. So the zoning coordinator came to me and said, look, the only work I did on this is covered under the zoning application. So I'm requesting that we just reconfigure their fee so that $600 goes towards their new application and the remainder goes to escrow. This was paid in February though. So it's going to, if we issue a refund from February, we have, the board has to authorize it. So I felt most comfortable with this situation of having the board authorize that.

I think that's crazy.

a refund if it's going to ask for technically I'm taking it out of one bank account I'm taking it out of a revenue stream and I'm putting it into a different bank account and it's no longer revenue for the town yeah okay I'm fine with it I move that we authorize the supervisor to refund the difference between the major subdivision and the minor subdivision application as requested and deposited as escrow and deposited in escrow as necessary okay second second all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carries that brings up this because there was another request for a refund that was did not seem like something that we should grant and what i've done in the past is when people request refunds i bring them to the board and i'm like this seems so inefficient Can we just have a refund policy? Yes.

And what would you think that the appropriate parameters of that policy would be?

I think that if a permit or an application has been issued or approved, no refunds. But I think when there's a gray area, like something like this, maybe that's when it's appropriate. But I think that it would be helpful to the staff if there was something printed on the the fee schedule so that they could just say no.

How would we calculate how much staff time was spent on an application that is subsequently withdrawn and canceled? Because of, like in the case that we just talked about, if somebody from our building department had spent six hours on it, I think that it's fair that the town be compensated to defray all or part of that time expense because that's what the purpose of the application fee is. So perhaps if we had a sliding scale percentage-wise, depending on how much work had been done, that would be appropriate rather than a full refund.

So typically, I'm just going to ask if Kate can be a part of this discussion because typically when it happens within the month, so all permit fees and all the department revenue goes through the town clerk's office. Like I don't handle it specifically. The only time this kind of stuff reaches my desk is when the month has passed. It gets received officially. You guys do issue refunds. You put them in your town clerk report. Do you have a way that you make those decisions?

So it always has to be within the month that I'm collecting. And generally it comes from the building department that's asked for refunds and they will tell me flat out if there has been any work involved in it. Most times at that level, it's usually like a day or two after They file, so there's very little work and they will request the full refund. But there's no real anything set in place other than that. And they're the only department that's ever really requested refunds. But this kind of opens up the whole thought. Like I've had people ask me about the town park. You know, if they had to have a cancellation, they get refunded that way. If somebody drops out of like the summer program, how do they get refunded that way? That becomes... once the money goes to you it's not only been work in the supervisor's office it's also work in the clerk's office to code it get it into the bank it's part of the reconciliation that that gets turned over to you so once it goes to the town board there's a lot more work involved in it i'm wondering if there's like a set fee yeah you don't get back like you automatically will not get back a hundred dollars yeah yeah it didn't finish an application

I agree. I was going to bring that up. It should have a flat fee for at least your hours if you guys have to re-journal and re-ledger and do refunds and change accounts and things on it too. And I second and appreciate Zali's point of making sure that we aren't know just letting people come and get a consultant get a consult here you know on their determination or you know something odd and being like oh you know never mind i'm not going to do this and want their money back because we still have working hours um i'm happy to research and see if i can find other towns like refund policy or something like that if you'd like to bring to august so that's helpful input from yeah listen from the building department to make sure that

that there is some sort of consideration for time that they've spent uh within that policy yeah no i think that's good yeah where i kind of was starting was like if something's been issued i just think it should be no and that should be printed yeah because it's at that point it becomes an option on a uh yeah and i like to cut out decision fatigue so yes this is one place where it's both a decision point for the department and then it becomes a decision point for me and then it becomes a decision point for you guys. So that would be, I think I would like Kate to be a part of that policy discussion. So if you find, if you're able to find some samples, that would be great. And then I think we should just make sure we capture

Yeah. And I can even, I can stop and have a conversation with code enforcement to see if there's one certain type of category they see that they get requests for review funds for more past 30 days or not. You know what I mean? I think that that is kind of like, we have like a time marker threshold of third day of like within the month of like the billing cycle for us, where it's not really a ridiculous amount of work for us to undo it in a time, like a whole paperwork scramble as it is now, like from, you know, six months apart almost. So, um, Yeah, I think that we kind of need like two different point markers in there, like once a time frame one and then once if worker, you know, a threshold of yes or no. I also like strong boundaries in a policy where our employees are having to be like, and if they have a paper to back them up, then that's their policy that makes it easier on you guys for the faces. So, yes, I'm happy to take the lead on that for you, Aaron. find some verbiage and talk to the departments.

There's also different departments have different types of fees.

Like if somebody, if someone's kid is sick, it's like you want to penalize a family for... And usually what the rule of thumb for the rec department is they will find someone to fill the space. They do a prorated refund and then they'll let me know I already got someone to fill the space. So it's basically like... a wash because their program is so popular that they can do that. So they're typically doing those two things at once just so the board is aware that's how they operate.

Do you want me to work on one for the park?

Sure. Okay. Then I wanted to share with the board an update on some of what we've been working on with the constables. As you might recall, we talked about how the town wants to provide the equipment. So bulletproof vests and tasers were the two things that we talked about. So we are still in the budget figuring out what the quotes for those things are. But I wanted to just, I'll share this carrier. This is the one that they've identified as the one that they would like. So I wanted to just have the board see that. And I'll be bringing some quotes about the tasers to the board at the next meeting.

And I think the ballistic vests are given. Yeah.

And those are a really good price. And we still have that grant available to us. Stacey looked into it. And that'll actually make it, well, more like 50% of the cost. So when you think about the value of what they do, it's kind of a no brainer. Yeah. So that, I just wanted to share that with the board and you guys can look at it and let me know what you think later. Okay, I took notes in the agenda. So our August business meeting review, the main things are, I will be asking tonight, I'm asking tonight to schedule a public hearing at our business meeting and we will be, scheduling a special meeting to discuss the 10-year financial plan, and might have a grant application that I need you to authorize. But those are the main things from this meeting. So is there anything else from the board before we move on to resolutions? um for the august visitor nevermind no i'm gonna ask for a workshop agenda nevermind okay um let me think if there's anything okay so resolutions

I make a motion that the town of Rochester town board accept the minutes of the June 11th. Oh, business meeting. June 9th. June 9th. I was like, that's the wrong day. Sorry. The June 25th workshop meeting and the June 30th special meeting all in the year 2026 as prepared and presented by our wonderful town clerk, Claire Gunder. Second.

Any discussion? I opposed abstain motion carries. I'll make the next motion since I have the numbers. I'll make a motion that the Town of Rochester Town Board accepts this 7B-2026 abstract and approves the payments in the following amounts. General fund with the voucher that I just circulated is $60,707.05. Highway fund is $138,107.19. Capital fund, $41,792.40. And escrow has $10,744.78. Okay. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries.

I'm making a motion that the town of Rochester town board authorizes this town supervisor and the capacity of budget officer to amend the 2026 general fund budget as presented on our handout. Second. Do you guys want to discuss that at all? No. Do we just not have the billing codes filled in for this last meeting or something?

No, this is a new one. This is a new one. So this... is funding, I can, I put the note, the notes are in, but basically the, I had to make some just cleanup adjustments. So the assessor aid position that we have on the agenda, I funded that. I also moved the leftover from the shredder that Kate bought to a deputy clerk for the So there's more personnel hours.

That's a typo on the assessor.

No, because our budget is adopted to the one decimal, we do budget amendments to the one decimal. So that's the total personnel line.

$15 million?

Oh yeah, that's a typo. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Yes, expensive.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Yes, sorry.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Yeah, no. Okay, that's typo. So it should be move that HAB-Masyn Moyer- Comma over one HAB-Masyn Moyer- So, HAB-Masyn Moyer- I think we had a second. HAB-Masyn Moyer- All right. You guys good then? All right. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. And this is a balanced budget mod. I... Right, did we vote? We voted.

Yeah, I can say the next one for you. Sure, do you have the name? I just remind me how to pronounce the last one when I go to say it. Okay. The Town of Rochester Town Board appoints Jasmine... Caperton. Caperton. Caperton. to the position of assessor's aide part-time at the rate of $25 per hour for 20 hours per week, effective Monday, July 27, 2026. Second. Any discussion?

Can you say what I'm saying? Thank you. First? Yeah.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Well, we didn't discuss what the stipend should be, so we can make the motion. Or do you guys, let's talk about... What do we do for the historian?

It's $1,200 a year. So I was thinking $900 a year. Sorry, I'm just trying to think. What does this? It's 25 for zoning members. It's 40. 40 for both. They're the same for regular members for both planning and zoning.

Planning board gets a lot more now. Yeah, they get more.

How many events just have come through? Every single...

every single community event. So like, let's see.

I find 900 to be high because my deputy only gets a stipend to be a registrar for $780. So I think 900 for photography is a lot of money.

I was going to say, I think that that's myself a little high compared for a one person like stipend thing, just because that's why I was asking what the different committees make, because that's almost double what this is. And I understand it's still like an equal, probably almost balanced amount of time that that person puts in to like select the photos, edit them, blah, blah, blah, and attend the events and everything. I'm also being very budgetly cautious right now. So I was thinking, what if we started at 600 and then when we get to October, we can talk about it again for next year to be able to plan for it. And then that's $50 a month, which is about what, like it's in between our, what our, our DBA and I was trying to average it by what it would be monthly that we would be giving the stipend, thinking of it. So I think that $50 a month for a photographer, having not budgeted for this, is not a terrible starting place to go from. But I'm open to other things. I'm just trying to be cautious.

I think $600 is a fine place to start.

Yeah. I don't doubt their value. I would love to pay everyone with a stipend position while we pay them.

Should we make that quarterly in arrears so she's paid at the end of each quarter and make that effective July 1st?

Does that work for your office payroll-wise, Erin?

Yeah, it's just part of the voucher. It's just part of the voucher, okay. Yeah, it's not part of the payroll.

It wasn't something like harder or something.

I'd like to make a motion, introduce a motion that the town board, Rochester town board establish a stipend for a town photographer of $600 per year to be paid quarterly in arrears, effective July 1st, 2026, making the first payment September 30th, and authorizes the town supervisor to issue vouchers for the appointed town photographer, Manuela Milescu, to be paid in the next appropriate abstract. Second.

Any more discussion?

It would be helpful when we go into budget season if we could get a good estimate of how many events and then how much time editing photos, because there's additional work beyond the event itself so that we can make sure that we're right-sizing.

And the only thing I will note, just as a legal thing, that anything that goes to print, since it's a paid stipend now, should be copywritten to us. Not the photographer. It should be the town's photos. Does that make sense? Like when they're published. I just don't want anyone complaining. You know, we're paying someone. They're not getting rights to the photo.

Okay. I think we do get all the photos.

Sorry. No, we do. But I'm saying like the actual like watermark or if you put it in print, it should be, it can say Manuela of the, you know, town of Rochester, but it It still has to have town of Rochester and the crediting of it.

Okay.

I've got a lot of artists that are getting paid over the years.

But to make clear, so that we don't get into a Richard Miller situation, the word product is town of Rochester.

That's fine. Yeah. I know we have what level always, but.

Yeah. And I think we should memorialize that.

Yes.

Yeah. Okay. All right. I'll call the vote. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. So the next two are scheduling public hearings for the local law drafts regarding food trucks. I had shared these two weeks ago and requested that the board get me any feedback in advance so that we could schedule the public hearings tonight. I did not get any feedback. So I guess the first thing I wanted to do is ask if the board is comfortable with the versions because we can't schedule a public hearing. We can't like edit it right now and then schedule the public hearing. So is the board comfortable scheduling the public hearing for those versions or do you want more time to look at those drafts before scheduling the public hearing?

I personally am OK with scheduling the public hearing. I do feel like we have an opportunity to edit on the back end, and we are trying to get this law in the book sooner than later. So I did a skim through of it, and I didn't have any major notes. I know I have a difference of opinion on others on the board when it comes to food trucks. And their enforcement and not persona, so. I'm happy to send it to public hearing and have a larger discussion after we get public feedback on it.

Yeah, I thought it was good to hear from the public to see if there are things that we missed. There are things that we may want to. Tweak or clarify after we hear feedback from them, but. I'd like to hear from food truck operators. Yeah.

I'm inviting the ones that come to the public here.

I'm good with it.

Do we invite any of the businesses with food truck? Should we invite all of the restaurants that we know that like I said, yeah, it's like at least three. Okay. And then...

We also will be leaving the public hearing open for a month because we have to do referrals. Yes.

So, okay. I make a motion that the town of Rochester town board schedules a public hearing for local law. What number are we on? There's X, the actual one. Okay, X is the one. It's not a placeholder of 2026. Food trucks for Thursday, August 13th, 2026 at 6.30 p.m. and request the town clerk circulate notice. And do I need to do referral now? I have another solution for that. You do. Never mind. I might go second.

Okay. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries.

I make a motion to the town of Rochester town board schedules, a public hearing for local all Y of 2026. Food trucks for, for Thursday, August 13th, 2026, following the hearing for local law X of 2026 and request that the town clerk circulate notice.

Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. We just need to amend the first resolution to say amending chapter 140. I think I copied and pasted those.

Oh, yeah. I missed the link on the bottom.

Well, and I didn't write it and I forgot to write it, but it should say local law X amending chapter 140 zoning to include food trucks.

I motion to amend. I make the motion as amended. Seconded.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries.

Okay. I motion that the Town of Rochester Town Board refers local laws X and Y of 2026 to the Ulster County Planning Board, the Town of Rochester Planning Board, and the Code Enforcement Office for comment due August 24th, 2026. Second.

Any discussion?

Yes. Okay. Local law Y does not have to go to the county because it's not a zoning law.

But can it go to the county or do you just think they'd be annoyed? They'll probably say that they don't have jurisdiction over it. Oh, okay. I thought it might be helpful to get their feedback on it, but that's okay.

And on local law X, It also needs to go to surrounding towns. Kate has a list, because it's a zoning change.

So I'll amend my last resolution that I motion that the County of Rochester Town Board refers Local X of 2026 to the Ulster County Planning Board, the Town of Rochester Planning Board, and the Town of Rochester Code Enforcement Office, as well as the surrounding towns for comment and agencies for comment due on August 24th, 2026.

And one more thing, the County Planning Board won't be due on the 24th. The County Planning Board is by state law. Don't they get 31 days or no? They have 30 days from the date that they receive it. Receive the referral.

Well, if you have the referral done for me tomorrow, we can do it tomorrow.

Yeah, that's what I was planning on doing. So we should say due August 24th.

Or 31 days after receiving notice. doesn't it?

Well, it's, I mean, it's going to be, you can, you can say that the 24th, I think we also have 30 days for our planning board and in our law, correct? Yes. So you don't really need a due date. That's the due date. It's specified in law for both of those boards and for the, and the other towns is just notice. They don't have to, they can comment if they want to. Um, But we generally don't put in a due date for our planning board or our county planning board when it is on a zoning change.

Yeah, and if they don't hit the date, we can move forward.

But I put it in the referral so that they know when to get back to us.

When you send them the referral, right?

Yeah.

But we don't need it in the resolution.

Okay, great.

Or comment, period. Okay.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- I all right, do you have that yeah okay. HAB-Masyn Moyer- All in favor aye opposed abstain motion carries now, we need a second resolution that the town of Rochester town board refers local ball why of 2026 to the town of Rochester planning board and the code enforcement office for comment. Second. Didn't include that in the last resolution? No, because we amended that after you paid. Okay.

Second.

Any discussion?

Thank you.

All in favor, aye. Opposed, abstain. Motion carries. Okay. Mary Lou, on the next one, should we table the homes and community renewal?

Yes, because they haven't gotten back to us with the changes that we asked for. Sorry, Charlotte.

I know. But it's them, so it just gives us more time.

Yeah, they were conferring with their lawyer.

Okay. Okay. I like that um so i'll make a motion that the town of Rochester town board makes the recommendation of David Roberts, to be appointed to the Ulster county legislature for the town of Rochester seat on the Ulster county. Any discussion. All in favor. opposed abstain motion carries so we'll circulate that resolution to the legislature. um for the next one I wrote a resolution that I put in front of the board um that is for the selection of the contractor for the voicemail bridge replacement project this I shared the bid analysis memo with the board um if we're going to discuss that I just request that we not discuss specific numbers. The tabulation is 100% public. And then we have the sponsor recommendation letter, which is what you will be authorizing me to send through this resolution. Our selection is contingent upon the approval of the New York State Department of Transportation. So if they say no, we have to go back and make a different selection. I'm just letting you know that's why it says that.

Make a different selection or revit it.

Make a different selection, yeah. Well, hopefully they don't make us revit it, but they do their own review and it takes about a month. So we won't really know, we won't be able to certify the selection until, the DOT, but I do need you guys to authorize us saying this is who we are selecting. So we got five bid responses and our engineer found that the lowest bid is the lowest responsive bidder. So that is the recommendation for us to go

They responsible.

Yeah. The, so they are, um, after analyzing the bids, they feel that the lowest is the most close.

Yeah. I should read the rest later so we don't miss them.

So I'll make a motion that whereas a project for the Boyce Mill Road bridge replacement located on Boyce Mill Road over the Falls Mill Brook, Town of Rochester, County of Ulster, pin 8762.64, otherwise known as the project, is eligible for funding under the State of New York's Bridge New York Program, and whereas the town duly advertised for bids for the construction phase of the project on June 9th, 2026, and publicly opened and read said bids on July 8th, 2026. And whereas upon review of the bids by the town's consulting engineer, HBEA Engineering, it was determined that ING Civil Inc. submitted the lowest responsible bid in the amount of $1,915,400 to complete the project And whereas the town has verified that sufficient local funding and or state reimbursable funds are available to cover the total awarded contracted amount, including any approved contingency amounts. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the town board of the town of Rochester hereby awards the construction contract for the Boismill Bridge Replacement Project to ING Civil Inc. for their low bid amount of $1,915,400 Contingent upon approval of the award by the New York State Department of Transportation, otherwise known as NYDOT, and be it further resolved that the town supervisor is hereby authorized to send a recommendation letter to the New York State Department of Transportation for the selection of ING Civil Inc.'s bid. Second.

Second. your DOT does proof?

That's going to happen in like a month. And we have to have like a kickoff meeting and all that. So I think we can just wait because there might be some kind of official resolution. We will not know what the timeline is going to be until the kickoff meeting, but it looks like it's going to go into next year.

I just wanna say thank you to HVEA for all of the work. This was someone who's not a civil engineer and has no engineering background. They made it really easy in their response to kind of understand why they were advocating for going with the lowest responsible bidder. So I feel good that this money, which again is mostly funded from external sources that we're making a good choice of this. I also want to thank you, Erin, for all the work, because I know, I think you're also not a civil engineer, but you've done a tremendous amount of additional work on this and making sure all of the documents are together.

So thank you. HPA is very, they do a very good job making sure that I do the right thing. So they get, I mean, we're paying them, They're getting paid, but they do a lot. They really do do a lot.

I would like to also note that while Erin is not a civil civic engineer, she is also not the person in charge of our highways, roadways, and bridges. So I appreciate you taking on and making sure that this project is moving forward in the way it's supposed to be and all the paperwork is being filed properly. Big lead agency. So thank you, Erin.

Okay, call the vote. All in favor, aye. Opposed, abstain. Motion carries. So the next one, just, I already, I am the authorized, you guys already may be the authorized administrator of our Equitable Business Opportunities portal account. So I actually already submitted this form, but our engineer was like,

because i asked if we had to submit a resolution he said they said no but sometimes they come back and say yes so just make one i move that the town board of the town of rochester to a resolution authorizing uh the town administrator signature for equitable business opportunities evo portable um And say that resolve the town board here where I authorizes the town supervisor to sign the certification form with fire to alter an email account is needed. To have the town's engineering consultants HP a engineers have a user account for purposes of working the system on the town's behalf and any related documents necessary to carry on its implementation.

So any discussion. I did change it from town of Pauline to town of Rochester, just so you guys know. That got pointed out to me several times, but I did catch that. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. That's the agenda, folks. Motion to adjourn.

Is there a second?

Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Good night, everybody. Thank you.