Town Council - Regular Meeting

They must have they must have revenue. Is there any reason we can't start this meeting? We have I don't know. Maybe. Yes, I'm ready. I'm having trouble reading. All right, guys. Ready?

I know. I watched you do it there. Remind me my desk. Welcome everybody to the Ry Town Council meeting of April 16, 2026. Please rise and join me for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Please remain standing. Oh Lord, bless this assemblage. Grant us the wisdom to make every decision fairminded and the best interest for all its residents. Amen. Thank you. Amen. Call the roll. Call the role. Madam council person Deborah here. Council person Jaffy here. Council person Randy Sier here. Council person Thomas Nardley here. And supervisor Gary Ser

here. Uh adopt general the minutes of two meetings. The regular meeting of March 19th, 2026 and the special meeting of April 7th, 2026. Uh if there are no additions or corrections, I have a motion and a second to approve both sets of minutes. So moved, seconded. All in favor? I. Thank you.

Um next item is a continuation of the public hearing to use the eminent domain procedure law uh on a parcel uh near the uh Otter Creek Bridge. Uh this matter is actually scheduled for a closing tomorrow. So uh unless something untored happens, I'd like a motion to adjourn the public hearing to uh the next the next regular meeting of May 21st, 2026. And um with the uh hopefully understanding that at that time the the matter will be closed and we will uh not be going forward.

So moved. Second. All in favor? I I I um comments from the public on non-aggenda items. Are anybody from the public wishes to speak? Debbie, do we have any comments on Facebook? Not yet. Thank you. I'm sure you'll let us know if there is. I will.

Thank you. Uh, first resolution is a resolution to engage Labella Associates to conduct a survey of a tax parcel in the RIX section of the village of Mamaric, which is part of the town of Ry. Um, Debbie, do you want to just briefly tell us what this is about or would you like me to? So the as as many of you know the town owns a very small parcel in the rneck uh section of the village of the Marinette which is part of what's what's known as the Taylor's Lane site. Um we are having it surveyed so that we know exactly where the property lines are and um as a precursor to deciding what is the best use for that property. Uh and the uh we uh put out an RFP to uh three qualified um land surveyors and the best price was from Labella for $3,250. Any questions?

Yeah. What what's a a guesstimate of the size of the park? We could ask the assessor. Ask the assessor. That is a good question. I I don't remember off the top of my head what I think it was maybe 1.2 something acres.

Off the top of my head. There is there is a fence on the property that belongs to the village of Ammerit because it is a brownfield site. Uh and we want to find out exactly where our property line is with regards to the fence. The there are several possibilities for this uh this site. uh one is that the uh that we give it or sell it for a very minor place price such as $1 to the village of a Marin the part that that is a brownfield part and um they could develop it possibly as a playing field which is permitted. They've done a comprehensive study of that site. Um the other is we could sell part of it to Mango Landscaping which is already squatting on part of our site with their garden equipment

and uh the remainder remains to be seen. There are a lot of things but first we have to know exactly what we own and then we can make a determination as to what the best use is. It is currently of no use to us whatsoever. It's just sitting there. So I know that the um village of Mak has been remediating the bulk of that property. That is correct.

Um and I understand that that process is pretty far along. Um has the parcel that the town owns been subject to any remediation? The answer is that the entire area identified as the brown field and uh which was capped includes a portion of the town's parcel. There have also been uh chimneys installed throughout the brownfield site and there are uh at least two chimneys on the town property as well. Um, and the the um the fence reappearing. I I it apparently existed once. Um, it reappeared recently. Um, and it reappeared at the behest of the Department of Environmental Conservation because that was part of the requirement. So, Marin put the fence up exactly where the DEC told them to and that is why there is now a fence on the part of the town parcel. Does that answer your question? part of it. So, the remediated portion is fenced in and there is a portion of the town's property that's outside of that.

That is correct. And would it be a fair assumption that because that is outside the fence delineating the remediated area, that area is not in need of remediation. Without having a hazard mitigation study done, I could not guarantee you that. But that is the assumption. Yes. The assumption would be that since they were remediating all of that site that they would have

done a a deep dive to see what needed remediation and what did not. But once we have a new survey of the site, we'll know what we own and then we can engage whomever we wish to engage whether it's the uh the owner of the adjacent land uh Mangon or whether it's the village of Mamarin. But we can start to make decisions as to what we would do with it. Or or the property could be conveyed as is without any if there was some question about its environmental situation, it could be sold on the basis that Yeah.

Yeah. That Yeah. That that would be down the line. If we if we sold it, we would sell it as is. They're not going to engage in any right those in any cost to to do that. If somebody wants to take it on, you know, then then that that's a discussion to have. But I don't think we can really do anything until we um Always good to know what you own before you sell it. Exactly. Exactly. That's the whole purpose. This is a Oh, sorry. Okay. Debbie first.

I just We have an invasion from I love it. Um, Randy asked several of my questions, but that was my question. Now, DEEC should have that specific information though about which part of this parcel or this larger parcel needed to be remediated, which part is part of the real. So, so we ought to have that information with respect to the piece of it that we own. We we do because they they told they told Marin where to put the fence. The thing that started this was Mamaric put the fence up and we knew that some of that property was our property where the fence is. Why are you putting a fence on our property and then we did a deep dive and we found out exactly why.

And was it at at Marinik's cost that they put the fence up? So in effect they put the fence up on our property that needed to be fenced in for the area that's still the brownfield area and they paid for it versus having us have to pay for that section of the fence. That is correct. So we thank them for putting up the fence but we still want to understand where our property is and where is that that that is correct. You have you have conducted a good analysis. Thank you. Okay. And then to Ry's point clearly you know depending on what we do with that piece of property or or further remediation is needed or anything like that.

Uh Pam had a question. one. Um, you know, I I think a lot of us are always surprised at the parcels that the town owns sometimes. And while they were doing work on their adjacent parcel for remediation, were they aware it was a town's parcel that they were fencing in, or did we find out kind of secondhand? I'm not sure of that. Uh they they put the fence where the DEC told them to put the fence and so that's the bottom line with that. Am I correct? Yep. You are correct. So and then we were eventually No, I called them. Okay. Oh, didn't we tell you?

Nice. Okay. I'm glad that they're doing work. I would add I've had a number of conversations with the village manager and the village assistant manager about the site over time multiple managers um and uh there have been multiple studies done by environmental engineers on this site there have been um uh an environmental engineer on who's been uh employed by the or I guess engaged because it's a firm engaged by the village to monitor this property, test it regularly to there's an extensive study on the chemicals that have been detected both in the air and in the water the groundwater and the ground. There's a lot of there's a a substantial study on this

and they are at the end of their this whole journey. But my assumption is they're not at the end of remediation if now is when they decided to fence it in. I mean my assumption is the the reason to fence it in was to fence in the the portion of the property that's potentially unsafe. Yeah. That's why they would fence it in. So if they were finished with the remediation and the area was clean, they wouldn't all of a sudden require a fence. I want to be clear, they haven't cleaned the Taylor's Lane site. They have not done that. They aviation they they've capped it and a lot of time has ensued since the capping that was capped in in the 80s 1980s.

Okay. So they have done no active cleaning of the site. This is also First of all, the usage for the site, the fact that that it is a brownfield and has been remediated doesn't mean they can't use it for something. The um they are projecting, for example, the report I read the report that they they wrote and it can be used for things such as recreation. They could put a playground there. So, it's not that dangerous. Um Why did it need to be fenced now then? I guess that's my question. What what prompted DZ to decide now after all these years to put up a new

because the fence was there and it came down over the years. So apparently somebody said, "Where's our fence?" Okay. Okay. So this was just replacing a fence that had been there. It's not a new fence without additional testing to see whether a fence was still necessary or not potentially. Right. They did do recent testing and that's that was part of the results that came in on the study. Okay. which also have led the DEEC to now say, "Okay, now you can start thinking about doing something with this property." Yeah. And by the way, it's going to be, I think, a wonderful thing. It's one of the largest parcels of open space in that area,

as you know, because you live nearby. And I think it's going to be um something that could be quite nice.

Whatever MARC decides to do with it. Well, this there there's a history to this piece of property that hope knows. This was originally conveyed our share was originally conveyed. I think this is the property for affordable housing. Am I correct? Yeah. So, this was conveyed to me a while ago for the twice. Right. Right. Debbie, correct? I was going to say it was conveyed and then reconveyed back and then conveyed again. And the theory was that the village was going to use this as an affordable housing site, which never came to pass. So there is a big history with this project. Um, and we're going to try to move forward and and and finalize it in some way, a way in which, you know, I personally do not know at the present time, and obviously the council will be apprised and see what kind of decisions we can come to.

Is this where the most recent they had an affordable house? I don't know if it was in the village of Amarin or the town of Amarinic last year or two years ago. That was very controversial. Was that on this piece of property? No, that was separate. Okay. I didn't think so, but I Do you remember when this was? Thank you. This is like in the in the 80s and 90s if I recall correct from something like that. I thought the late 80s. Just trying to remember what I've read in history. Um I know it's on Post Road. Where is it? Like what's there where the TV bank is? Well, okay. Down by Toyota and all those. That's what I thought. Okay. On the right hand side if you're going south. If you're going south on the left hand side

on the left hand side going south. Uh, okay. A motion and a second, please. I make the motion. Second. Oh, please call the role. Council person Freriedman. Yes. Council person Bathy. Yes. Council person Sar. Yes. Council person Nardy. Yes. And Supervisor Suckerman. Yes. Thank you. What's so funny? Council people remember the system. Shall I ask? No. No. No. No. No. No.

Okay. Uh, next item. Charlie, resolution to authorize a tax curera settlement for Gabe Realy Corp. on Fox Island Road in Portchester. Um, hi everybody. Jeff Binder Town. Oh, you're doing this. I'll do it. I mean, okay.

Charlie actually just gave me the numbers, so I'll just I'll just do it. Uh, this is one of Dan's cases that was that's been settled in the village of Portchester. This is on Fox Island Road. It's a single family home and the school district um as always recently is monitoring all these settlements uh through their council and is aware um of just about every settlement that we have uh pending and brewing in Portchester. They participate in the court hearings. They um they're consulted by us. Um we check with them before we're going to settle something. And so we stay in very close contact with the school district through their through their attorney. So this is yes in Portchester and the um the refund that the village of Portchester uh will have to pay as a result of this settlement is $7,445 and the school district refund is about $13,000 672 and I would recommend that this board approve this settlement so we can move on. motion. Any questions?

And that's for that period from 2020 to 2025. That's the total. Yep. If there are no questions, may I have a motion? I have a second. Move. Second. The roll, please. Council person Freriedman. Yes. Council person Jaffy. Yes. Council person Sier. Yes. Council person. Yes. And supervisor Z. Yes. Um, that finishes our resolutions. Do we have reports

Andy, you're up.

Hello. I'll just tax.

Okay. So this is um January through March's um year to date. This is from last year versus this year which for uh revenue or gross we are up more than I'm sorry we are up compared to last year and with waved fees we're a little down from last year. Well that that just means we have fewer fewer fees fewer events. Correct. fewer um

like most well we didn't have the board of elections here in February I believe that they come by so they didn't come in February but they're scheduled for June and then the teachers haven't been coming as often to have their meetings I think they've been here twice but the other times they've canled I I don't know if it's that they haven't had enough teachers attending their meetings. So, they haven't been coming as often as last year. Um, based on events, we have less events this year compared to last year, which last year was 93 and this year it's 79.

And then this is the breakdown from private events which For residents, we have um eight for Portchester, four for Rybrook, none for Reinneck, and then for non-residents, we have 13, which is a total of 25 private events. And then for the municipalities, for residents, um we have for Portchester 7, Rybrook 2, which is a total of nine. So far, we've had three public events. And then we have the breakdown of the programs. With Fiddleheads, we've had nine. That's the cooking class. Chess 19. They're here usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Council for the Arts, which we've had four so far. They're here every Tuesday. And then the choir, uh, Jessica Zamk, we've had 10 so far, which she's here every Thursday, which she'll be here later on tonight.

Very good. I've heard them. They are excellent. And then we have our last concert, which would be on May 3rd, which is Sunday, at 2. Um, you can purchase your tickets online. And this was from our last concert on March 22nd. We had a soprano and was that the fourth the cellos, right? First,

the soprano. This concludes my report. Thank you, Candy. Any questions? Actually, yeah. I'm just looking at the numbers and I mean, we're down substantially in the public usage and then we're down overall events. Are we seeing for the remainder of the season? Do we think that's going to mitigate?

It always happens during winter where it does slow down due to the fact that the only location that is open is the mansion. It could be because of the fee rental per hour that diminishes us having more events. But for the summer, we have pretty much every Saturday and Sunday for the pavilion and the mansion almost all booked. Question. When someone, you know, like the school district books a space and then turns it down, is it possible to do a small survey, send them a survey to ask why, just to see what might have happened?

We could. Most of the time they'll just say, "Oh, we forgot that we canled or that we're going to host our meeting in the school." Sometimes they only have three, four people that show up to their meetings. So instead of them coming here, they just say they'll do it in a room in a classroom in the school. I think it's good for us to track it anyway just in case someone does push back and it's you know a price issue or something. It's good for us all to know. Yeah. Th those are they don't charge for No, I'm just saying for such things,

right? It's the unpaid usage. But then the other thing that really actually made me happy was looking at your event breakdown and we always worry about Portchester utilizing this space as much as Rybrook and noticing that the majority of usage at least in this portion of the of the um of the report in this these series of months Portchester is higher than Rybrook. So, it feels like we're making Yeah, it we're making egress into that village, right?

We're still having still not having Rhyneck show up. I don't know if it's the cost or if it's the travel, but it'll be nice to see some Reneck people using the uh mansion as well, the facilities. They might not. It might speak to publicity that our publicity doesn't get there that the people in RIne Randy could speak to this better than I that um our publicity, you know, the people in RIC may be plugged into the village of Marin publicity rather than the town of Ry publicity. I don't know. Any thoughts, Randy?

Uh I agree. I think that's the You know, I don't know if it's worth any outreach, Debbie, or to the school because I see that a lot of well, a fair amount of the utilization is kind of youth related stuff. So maybe some publicity in the schools um might be worthwhile. I mean the reality is it's um there are facilities in Mumarin that are a lot more convenient. Um but you know this is a beautiful place and it would be nice if people so maybe some having appropriate communication with someone at the in the schools um

schools synagogues churches you know where weddings and bar mitzvah it's a good idea um and I'm happy to help with any publicity and marketing outreach you know that I'm just also wondering we do um table usually during Portchester day and Rightbrook birthday. Is there something similar with me that we might be able to get out there and show off visuals of the space? Not that I'm aware of but um I'm not aware of uh any kind of a a r Yeah, I am loud. I'm not aware of a rhinag day of any kind,

but we could there might be things in Ramarik. We we could we could talk to Mayor Torres and uh and also Councilwoman uh Lucas. Yeah. Don't they have the carnival each year at Marinet Harbor? They do. Do they have anything aside from having rides? Do they have any other municipalities or anything there? I have to say the last time I was at the carnival, I wasn't aware of things like that. I wasn't paying attention. Chasing my kids onto rides, but

there's something that goes Sorry, I'm so bad with But on the main street, you know, the one that passes down past the movie theater like some once a summer it seems like they You mean? Yes, thank you. That's the one. Um, but they do block off and I've seen tableabling there. So, I wonder if they would municipality to municipality allow us to promote the space a little bit. Well, usually when they close it off is for the firefighters like the parades that they have for St. Patrick's Day and I think Fourth of July. I think something in the middle of the summer. I don't remember. I'll find out. Okay, awesome.

I think sending to the schools to make a presentation in a slideshow and look at you could have your all the things you could have here might might be helpful, right? Okay. Just a mailing even just a mailing might be good. So old school I know that cost money. It does. But we need to spend money to promote.

We could probably ask them if we could promote on their Facebook or Instagram about the space. Sorry, we're just spitballing ways to try to get Reneck more in the party. Well, we have um we do include but we do include we include RIne in the community cleanups every year and they participate every year in small numbers but nonetheless. Yeah. No, they're so it's they're dedicated which is great. So I think Ry's point is you know just showing equal dedication back. I think spending a little bit of time on marketing plan and some brainstorming. I think that's a great idea.

Yeah, I think that'd be great. That's it for me. I've created enough problems. Thank you, Candy. Rick, do you have anything? Just drove in. I don't know. Don't know if you noticed the van that was down there and did the pole and security company. Yes. Yes. We have two new light poles. I mean two new security camera poles up.

One at the front entrance and one at the ball field. So when you're leaving, you'll see it tomorrow. The electrician will come and hook them up and we'll be in play. Then he'll be heading over to Rytown Park to work there. Um, otherwise we have the community cleanup coming.

So will that be basically recording every car that enters? Yes. So and how long will they 30 days it holds?

So it should be if there is an unfortunate incident. We I I think it was last year there was a stolen car in Mam Marin. The person took it into Greenwich out of Greenwich into Rybrook. He got a flat tire. Uh the cops were chasing him. He came up Betsy Brown, entered our park between the guard rail and the fence, drove across our lawns, and got stuck down the lower end. Um because it was all muddy and soft and we had the whole thing on film. It was hysterical. He was

have it on film. If we The camera's now at the bottom at the entrance. Is there a camera also by that walking path from Betsy Brown down the bottom? One down the bottom right now is the first one down there. But we have one at Betsy Brown's walkway. There is one. Yes. We also had an incident where we had uh three young men start a fire out by the container gardens and we were able to um the police saw who they were and knew who they were and because of that camera Betsy Brown. Yeah. Yeah. We're we're in the surveillance state.

I know. I know. I just haven't heard of that. So it always interested me when I heard in about incidents in my past life. I would always ask and what happened to the miscreants? Were they appropriately punished? Do we know? Uh definitely the guy that stole the car because that he involved I think five municipalities. So yes, he definitely was prosecuted. The young men were their parents were called to the police station and

Yeah. Yeah. So, yes, we've had a couple of incidences here. We had $6,000 stolen out of some woman's car and it was on the camera that we were able to get the car license plate of the person that stole it and cops went to the house, arrested the person. Um, don't don't go to the bank and drive to a park and leave the money in your car in broad daylight. Okay. Community cleanup. Um, I'll just do this part of it for Crawford Park here. When you when you leave Crawford Park, especially now, the tunnel of flowers as you're leaving along the roadway, the cherry trees, well, they're old and dying. We are going to we're replacing, not we're not getting rid of them. We're adding 20 more trees in between each tree so that as it dies off, new trees are growing. So, that'll be our community event. Huh?

Were they donated? No. Okay. Do we know what's killing the trees? Huh? What's What's killing them? They're old. Oh, they're old. They're old. Okay. You know, ornamental trees can give you 30 to 50 years. Okay. So, they're they've been there Mhm. a long time. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Rick. And then just a quick overview for the rest of the cleanup. And if you want to take it, feel free. No. No. Please. Okay,

so once again we've got four different locations this year. We'll be down in RIneck at the Marin River PC along the waterfronts. will be here with our cherry trees and then Pascilo Center will have planting and that's going to be from 9 to 11:00 a.m. What we are doing that is super fun, super fun, um 11:30 to 12:30 we are moving to the library where they're going to be hosting a seed swap earlier in the day during our cleanup and we are going to have a speaker series hosted at the library. So, we will have um Ranana from Fiddleheads and I just want to make sure I pronounce that correctly and John Hazeline from Meals on Main. And basically, it's going to be about sustainable say sustainable food, sustainable living, growing your own, what's being done for food insecurity in this neighborhood. And speaking of food non-insecurity, we're very lucky in that um we are getting pizza donated and there will be refreshments at this event. Um so many thanks to help me here

Colony Colony Grill. Um and then also we're going to have raffles. So anyone who comes to the cleanup will find out about this. We're hoping to draw them into the speaker series. will be giving away a lovely garden bed which right now is living in my garage as well as another couple prizes. Anyone who comes to the speaking event is entered to win one of the prizes. So hoping to just generate some community engagement as we hit Earth Month. Good job. Thank you. We're trying. Thank you. Very good, Pam. Thank you. Oh yeah. Now that we got the the nice stuff out of the way, now we'll go to the money stuff. Hi, John. Hi everybody.

Do you have your screen? Is there something there? I don't see anything should come up.

No, it's not there. But I said they should be here. Look at my cataracts. Can't see anything. Not here.

Not there.

Yeah, it's the other one. I want the uh Okay, here we go. First, stop right there. Everybody ready? All righty. Five and three with the table.

Okay. It's a little bit too large. A little bit up a little bit. All right. That's good. Okay. So, this month we added another column so that everybody knows it's the inrem and inrem eligible column. As of 3312026, it's the $424,000 total. So that's new since last month. I'm trying to add some information on there to make it more understandable for everybody. So that basically represents um inrem amounts and inre eligible amounts that cause those properties to go into foreclosure or inrem or will be going into foreclosure. So that's the original balance that 424. So we're trying to make things more understandable. So to quote that famous rocker, every picture tells a story, don't it? Rod Stewart anyway. So okay. So if you look at that 524 and compare it to the 1811 356, that amount represents everything against those properties that hasn't been collected since then or is in default. for example, county and tax, county and town properties, school taxes. Those properties have not paid those taxes, most of those taxes as of today, 331 2026. So that number is substantial. It's 1.8 million and um but we're making progress on it. In April in REM properties for about $200,000 were collected. So making progress. I know Jeff just working on that hard. And so that's that number in a nutshell. Very important. It's the INREM lean totals. Okay. And um if you go down to we have

additional leans that aren't in REM and won't be in REM for another year and a half that represents 487 329. And our total INREM receivable balance is a 237 right here. What's really import know about that is that in essence that's far receipt. So we pay that in essence our responsibility

that in essence is our responsibility our receivable that we have to get collected to make us whole. Okay. Sure. So I'm looking at the end of 2025 versus where we are in 2026 and our receivable bills are much higher. Is that a concern? And do we know why? A lot of it's in Okay, you should I think you need to there's some substantial balances in there. There's a $423,000 balance in there for one of the properties. So yeah, that that we will that we have hope of collecting. Hopefully we will collect that. Um, should I get into more detail on that? Yes, sure.

Check. We will collect all of it at some point in time, 100%. The question is when and that's the ultimate foreclosure if it needs. Yeah. I mean ultimately, but if you take a look on um the next schedule, I hate to interrupt you, John, but if you look at the next schedule u schedule, our schedules uh A, B, C, and D, those are inrem schedules. There's only one property remaining in REM from 2024

and and that's in court. Um and then we have the the 20 the 2025 properties uh are total of one two there are 10 properties and um we've collected two of those and we collect in April yeah we collected two um the complex at Portchester uh those two properties and the one in uh the one in Rybrook, I believe. Yes. The um

right, if you go down, it's the Hendle Art Arleene property for $58,000. Yeah, right there. See, we've collected that also. So since the end of since the end of March we have collected 200k of inrem and to Gary's point we expect to collect everything and I guess that's my question if we have negotiated settlements there's no negotiated none of this no negotiated it's not okay no negotiation okay okay

okay and the the pay I mean Jeff is in charge at this point he'll give them for example about Jeff can explain that but you know there's always a story with it and he will give them time but at some point they will have to pay. Okay. Thank you. So nobody gets off the hook. Good to know. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you to to my to my here.

All righty. So, if you go down to the um school tax receivable number of 1,843, okay, um we've collected a lot more since the end of March, but and so in April, we're going to have to make whole those municipalities for those amounts we haven't collected. And as of today, it's going to be about 680K that we're going to have to make the municipalities whole. So there have been some additional collections of that 1843, but as of today we're going to owe the municipalities about 680k and that's normal. And compared to other years it's a very good number compared to other years. In other years it's been as close as 2 million. So moving in the right direction.

Does anybody have any questions at all on this material? No, I I just want to comment that um you know when we we see outstanding receivables in the form of taxes, the uh the receivers's office is constantly sending out notices. So money is is coming in and uh even though we want everybody to pay all of their taxes on time, the town is not at a detriment when they don't because the the tax rate the pardon me not the tax rate the uh penalty rate and interest rate is very substantial. It's like 12%. So uh we actually carry a number in our budget for taxes and penalties because we're assuming that a lot of it will be coming a lot of our income will come not just in the taxes but the penalties and interest. So all of this gets gets figured in and uh you know we have to complement the receiver.

Yes. and uh and the attorney who follow up this and of course John who's done a fine job in keeping track of all of these numbers. Now, thank you. Yeah. So, another note on that 1843 which is due now, but again, we're going to owe us 680K at the end of April. Carla's team to date has collected about $72 million in school taxes and we've already paid that out to the municipality. So, they've done an incredible job. $72 million is a lot of money. Any other questions? I think it's just a lot less concerning. Oh, yeah. I mean, 72 million. They're business. They're really

That's not here anywhere. You don't see it, but I I thought I'd mention that. And also, thank you. Right now we have a we we're we're in a very very good cash cash position because of those collections. So as far as cash goes, we're in very good shape. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, John. Sure. Um all good everybody. We're all good. Thank you. Thank you.

Um tax receiver Carla uh he went home ill today so hope will say something to us. Um, just to remind all property owners that the 2026 county and town is due by April 30th and they could um we encourage people to try to pay online. It's uh for the AC check $1.50 charge and also uh they could pay by credit card. There's a a 2 35% charge with that. And also we have the a security box in front of the building at 222 Grace Church Street. Just leave the uh you can leave your check in the bill there and we will send you a receipt or they will send you a receipt and you could come in person as well. So we want to just remind you if you pay it if you ask your bank to pay to send in the payment please ask them to send it in before April 30th. If you go to the post office, please go to the window and have it handstamped because you cannot depend on the a post office just putting it through a meter. By law, they cannot accept it by a meter.

I'll follow. Okay,

I'll follow up on that. Um I hate to denigrate the United States Postal Service. However, if you're paying the tax not through your bank, which does it automatically, if you're paying your real estate taxes, whether it's school, village, town, or county, please do not mail your payment through the postal service. It has become very unreliable. the easiest thing and I and I'm sure that if you do not know how to do it, uh our very excellent staff in the receivers's office will show you how to set up an account with your bank because that is the easiest way to do for a $150 charge. You don't have to worry about the payment getting there on time. Gets there on time, gets debited from your account. debited and credited at the same time.

And what's the stamp now, Gary? And the stamp is going up to 80 cents, I understand. So, let me see. So, that's 70 cents. A 70 cent real payment for doing it online. That is correct. That's the way to do it. And if you drive over there, the gas now, thanks to Trump's war, will be God help us. So, it really is the cost effective way to do it. And it's I I will confess that I did it on the way over here. Um and it took me about 12 seconds.

Yeah. I mean, that that's that's a very good testimonial. It's even easier than dropping it in the in the box in the front. You don't have to drive over there. You don't have to worry, oh, are they going to pick it up in time, etc., etc. We do, but the easiest thing is to use the AC system. And I believe, I'm not sure, I think you can schedule a payment in advance. Yes. Once you register, you can register. You can schedule your payment in advance. So, just make sure you have money in your account and it'll be it'll be debited. It'll be debited. That's an important point. That is that is an important thing. But a bounce check doesn't count. Does not count. In fact, a bounce check will incur penalties.

Yes.

So, I urge everybody who's paying their taxes to to take the very modern up-to-date system that we've installed in the town of Ry to make the payments as effortless as possible. I know it's it takes a lot of effort to get to pay your taxes. Nobody likes to write that check, but we have to do it. And um I'm just saying this is the best and easiest way to do it, the most sure way to do it. And as I say, I hate to denigrate the postal service, but we've heard too many stories about mail not getting delivered on time. And this this not get getting delivered on time comes with a penalty. So, it's really important. Okay, I've said my piece. Uh Hope has said her piece. Thank you. Uh Jeff, do you have anything? Town attorney such a pleasure.

We have collected the 200. None of this is being recorded on the program. two minutes. No, we can hear you if you don't step up to the mic. That's okay. Okay, we don't need the banter. We've said what we had to say. Let's move on to the town clerk's report which has been submitted. Yes, talking about that. So, uh unless uh let let me just go around the room before we adjourn. Does anybody do you want to talk about the events coming up? Ah, I Yeah, you have it up there. Let's talk about the events coming up, Debbie.

All right. We have our uh Rytown Park annual community conversation coming up on May 17th. That's Saturday. Thought I thought May 17th was a Sunday, but Sunday. All right, we need to fix the flyer. We need definitely to fix.

It is Sunday, May 17th at 10:00 a.m. under the pavilions at Rytown Park. Please um come participate in the conversation. The park commissioners will be there and they are here to hear they're there to hear what the community has to say. Come and see all the work that's gotten accomplished and all the work that's planned. So, please come. And then following that is our Pam. Do you want to talk about Echo Fest on May 30th? We are in, it's funny, we're planning Echo Fest and Pride at the same time. I'd say we're a little bit ahead on Pride. Um, as a far as far as the event details go, but Echo Fest will be here at Crawford. It'll be on May 30th, 11 to 4. And there'll be everything from vendors to workshops on sustainable living to demonstrations. It's just going to be a day to get out there and learn how to be green in your own house and in your community and kind of embrace that lifestyle a little bit more. So, and it should be a fun day. And then here you go. We just had Thank you, Vic. And thank you, Charlie. We had a fantastic walkthrough of Rytown Park on Tuesday prepping for Pride. And we're reimagining Pride a little bit this year. We definitely are marketing it as one of Westchester's most family fe friendly celebrations and we want to lean into that. So, we're going to have basically we're going to have the art show that we always have. We're going to have the fair where there's going to be services and information given out to LGBTQIA+ youth and adults. Um, there are going to be activities and crafts. We are adding in performances this year. So, the arts

and craft portion of it, the tableabling is 3 until 6. 5:00 we're going to have local theater groups, local high schools perform right in front of the tower building. Then at 6 o'clock, we'll unfurl the flag and we're going to take off on our mini march, our little parade, and we'll go right down the boardwalk to what would we call that area? It's the I'm going to call it's like the great lawn. It's like the great lawn. There's a small arbor. Yes. There's a little pavilion there.

Um we're going to have food trucks. We're going to have a DJ. Our a gazebo. Yes. Our DJ is actually helping us. He's in the other room right now. Um that was Anthony calling out. He's got ideas. What we really want to do is bring it closer to the beach and get people to see and hear and participate and come off the beach and say what's going on there. So, we will have an afterparty. So, we'll have music and we'll have singing. Vic actually is bringing us um a certified talent this year and we're just hoping to get bigger and better. Sounds Sounds like a great celebration. It'll be fantastic.

Good. Is is there a budget for this or is everything being donated? We have a small budget um that we approve I want to say our part of it's about 3,000. I would say that's the right range. I don't remember exactly whether it's 2,000 or 3,000 but it's Yep. And that's Pride. P R Y D E does fundraising and gets grants. Okay. And they are equal partners. Plus, this year, for the first time ever, we have the city of Ry as a partner. Okay. So, that is going to actually make it better to promote. It'll make it better as far as budget goes. Okay. Just mention food trucks and all these different things. And I know food trucks, people are going to have to buy their food.

I understand that, but sometimes sometimes there's a minimum that you need to guarantee them before they come. No, some some you do, some you don't. Usually vote for the ones you don't. Okay. Okay. Because amazing relationships. Thank you. And the certified talent is free. Yes. It's been great in the past. It's been a really nice community event. So, like we said, we're very happy to see it five years later that it's, you know, we keep changing it. We keep changing the formula. Keeps getting better. It keeps getting better, right? Really, every year since we started, it's better.

So, we're very excited. I think in today's world, inclusiveness is very important and recognizing everybody in our community regardless of who they are is really important. So, thank you for taking the initiative and really bringing this to the community and keep keeping at it. Yeah, I think very appreciate it. People do love it and they come back year after year. So, if we can just channel more of that and really make it a destination event, that's what our eventual hope is. Thank you, Pam. That was a little Anybody else? June. Nope.

With that, I'm going to ask for a motion to adjourn. Our upcoming meeting is May 21st. Motion to adjurnn, please. So, all in favor? Randy, who do you