Town Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everybody, to the Rye Town Council meeting of June 11, 2026. Please rise and join me in the pledge.

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. Please remain standing. Our Lord bless this assembly. decision fair-minded in the best interest for all its residents. Amen.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Council person Debbie Friedman.

Council person Pamela Jaffe.

Jaffe? Pamela Jaffe is here, yes.

Councilperson Randy Sellier. Yes. Councilperson Thomas Nardi. Here. And Supervisor Gary Zuckerman. Here. Yes, sir.

This is going to be some meeting, I see.

Yeah, the heat's making everybody punchy.

It's cool in here. Someone is loopy, so yeah. It's not me.

We have a very long agenda tonight, so let us move it along. Adoption of minutes for the meeting held May 14, 2026. If there are no additions or corrections, may I have a motion and a second?

So moved. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Presentation today from the Friends of Crawford Park, Allison and Carmen. Whoever, both of you together, one at a time.

I'm the president of the Friends of Crawford Park.

And I thank Debbie for inviting us to give a brief update on what we've been up to because we've been quite busy. For anyone who doesn't know what the Friends are, we are a nonprofit volunteer-led organization dedicated to maintaining and beautifying Crawford Park. So it's appropriate that we're here to give you an update. This is very brief. what we've been up to um just to say we work closely with uh vic federico and his staff with debbie and her staff anytime we embark on anything new in the park we've recently had our Sorry. We recently had our spring planting day to add annuals to the sunken garden and pavilion areas. The sunken garden is kind of our showpiece. We focus on that area a lot. You can see some photos here. We planted some new clematis in what we call the obelisk garden, which is behind the sunken garden with the little obelisk in it. We retrained and pruned the roses over the arbor entering the garden and they're blooming right now. They're really beautiful. And last year we replaced all the plastic bench plaques with brass ones just to, again, create a more beautiful park and more durable. And, of course, we participated in the holiday light. We recently planted three new memorial trees, a crabapple, a red maple, and a dogwood. Those are ongoing requests that we get, and we work with Vic on location and choosing the right type of plants. We also recently added over $500 worth of new perennials to the sunken garden because there were some kind of bald areas in there. These included hydrangeas, azaleas, roses, and other plants. And our biggest undertaking was improving George's garden, which is down towards Lincoln Avenue. You probably know it. Laura Klein, my predecessor, who was the president of Friends for many years, had helped get that garden installed on behalf of George Hogman. But it never really flourished and it never really looked finished. So we decided to use some of our funds to put a bluestone path in connecting the two asphalt pathways. We also installed a second bench. And you can see the before and after pictures there.

Big improvement.

This is the other angle looking at the new path. What's next for the friends? Just a few things. We're going to add some landscaping to George's garden in the fall to continue to cultivate it. We need more wildflowers in the wildflower garden and we're planning to add signage there. the pollinator garden carmen's going to speak about in a moment and we need more volunteers so if anybody we have a small but mighty group in the friends but we are always looking for more volunteers so if anybody knows people please send them my way and i did get a suggestion from a park goer who asked about getting a sidewalk from north ridge up to the park i don't know if that's ever been considered but I do see people walking up that hill with dogs and strollers. So if that was something that would be beyond the friends, but maybe the town could consider it. Then a couple of concerns. We had some vandalism last year. Somebody pulled out all of our flowers out of the sunken garden. and literally left them lying on the ground twice. So we've talked about putting signage in there. We don't really want it to be a police state kind of, but if anybody sees people misbehaving, I'm sure you would speak up. i've had people comment to me about a lot of bird poop on the benches so that's just something to you know for the staff to maintain because it's been commented on we also see a lot of trash left around in the sunken garden again i don't know people aren't putting in the containers that are right there and the friends is working with vic to get some storage on site because we carry a lot of supplies up here and we need a place to store our things but overall we work really well with the town we're very excited to help enhance the park and continue to do good things and i'm going to turn it over to one of our board members carmen konigsbach

Just one, thank you very much, Alison, much appreciated. And just one comment on what you mentioned about the vandalism. We're gonna be hopefully expanding our security camera coverage to other areas of the park so that people who do vandalism will be more readily caught.

What is going on here?

Good evening, everybody. My name is Carmen Conex Black. I'm one of the board members, previously a former president before Laura, and I hand it off to Allison right after my tenure. I wanted to speak to the opportunity that I got and welcomed utilization of the resurrection of the sensory garden. That was one of the first installations that we had had when the new playground was installed. And it had come to a little bit of disarray only because, you know, the plantings don't survive, there's maintenance to be done. And we decided that with my leadership, I would just take that on along with the town, with the support of Debbie and with, you know, Victor, as well as Jonathan, who are very helpful. And we decided to take that on and make it beautiful again. So with the support of the town, we will procure over 50 per container, 50 plants per container to address all the sensory categories that children have. And that is taste, that is sight, that is color. for taste and color, they both go together. We have implemented five of those sensory categories. There is one category that's still a little bit lacking because we needed to assess whether the product would survive or not and then take it from there. So as you can see from the actual planting, we had a volunteer who was very helpful and diligent to help us plant these plants. That is Brian, I don't know his name. Butler. Butler, Brian Butler. He was awesome. He was really good at following directions, getting one, two, threes, and getting things done. We managed to plant all three of the sensory planters during the Eco Fest. which was a feat in itself because we were managing so many other things, but we were able to do it. And I'm happy to report that two weeks ago the plants were doing well. They were growing. And I categorized what's working and what's not working. So... One of the things that did work, basically two weeks ago, everything was flourishing. With the heat that came through, two of the items that are not doing so well are the Hakawe planting, which are the palms. Those were almost fried. I'm not sure whether it's due to lack of water or too much sun, but we have to actually look at the implementation of a scheduling of watering because that's important. If they don't get watered, they will not survive and you'll lose your money and the impact. So that's one of the things that we need to address. The other thing we need to address is to the infrastructure of the actual beds. Okay, as you can see, we planted around the tubing We hardly had too much, we couldn't move the tubing, so we had to plant around the tubing. But as you can see, it's very unsightly to see the plants and the tubing for the water as well. So we need to actually do two things, either or. Either put more mulch and pour more soil to bring it to the top of the infrastructure so you don't see the actual planting infrastructure of the planter, or put some mulch. So that is the next step on this endeavor. So whether is that a Zika or is it us or is it the town, whoever it is, we just need to address that because without that, the plants will die because they're not getting the support they need. Okay. Okay.

that out with whoever's going to do it because we agree we don't want the plants to die.

Yeah, otherwise you lose your investment. So, you know, the investment and the impact. And the children have been enjoying going to the plants and actually touching them. They don't pull them because they know not to pull them, but they have been touching them. One of the stars of the actual plantings that we wanted to introduce is a very new conifer that is called Cosmos Chocolate Cosmos. So, When that actual unit is, oh, by the way, this is what it looks like from this side of, for the far side, and that's, so that's what they see from the far side, and that's what you see from the actual, the playground. So they all look the same. So as I was saying, one of the actual highlights is this beautiful plant. It looks like nothing, but that little bud in the middle, it is the chocolate Cosmo. And once it opens up, you will smell the chocolate. You can't eat it, but you'll smell it. I mean, it won't taste like chocolate, but it will smell like chocolate. Another thing I want to introduce is another sensory product, which is edibles. So I'm not sure how that might work, because we don't know if the fauna and the wildlife will actually gravitate to the planters, but we are willing to try and see what happens with that. So we were thinking of small strawberries, and also we were thinking of putting more Spearmint, which is more contained than the actual mint. If you put mint, it goes all over the place. Spearmint is more contained and it actually is really flavorful and oriferous as well. So that is all I have to say for the planters. The only thing my concern is that it really needs a little bit of care. Unfortunately, I could only come and water during the evening and because I'm too far away I mean mostly I work in Greenwich so I can't come out as often but I would behoove that you will allow one of your staff members to actually take the time and make sure that the plantings are watered so the two bins are doing their work so I don't know if it's a section that's not working or not Vic will be able to speak to that because I don't know but he's aware

Now we move on to the pollinator garden.

The pollinator garden was always something that we always wanted to do, was one of our objectives. And we actually decided this year that we were gonna take that on and do it. So with some funds from the Francisco Park, we were able to purchase already established, no pesticide, native plants that would have gotten into the pollinator garden. The pollinated garden is adjacent to the obelisk, right across from the sunken garden. As you can see here in this picture, on that date, at that time, this was how the sun, it's a sun pollinated garden. It's not a shade. So the area that you see that is sunny, that's where the plants were planted. Right now, they look like nothing. but some of them actually flourished and budded, and some of them are still taking their time. As plants do, they will take a little bit of time once they plant it. I will, in a second. So the next picture, These are the kids that actually, the volunteers that actually planted these plants in the pollinator garden. They're a troop of Girl Scouts here in Rybrook, and that was their bronze award community event. So we partnered with them, and they actually installed, named, tagged all the plants in the area. Next. So here's the overview, a top-down picture of what it looks like. That was two days into the actual planting. What you see on this side is exactly what you're going to see on the other side next to the motor beetle garden. So you have the motor beetle garden, you have pollinator garden, you have a break and then you have another continuation of the pollinator garden. So both sides will be native plants pollinator gardens. If you're interesting to know what plants are there, they are yarrow, wild bergamot, culvert root, which is Veronica, there's foxglove, there's butterfly bush, and there's the piece of resistance, which is the infamous milkweed. The milkweed is a plant that everybody wants. No one can get, but it also brings butterflies, which I know is very close to your heart, Gary. Butterflies is important. I agree. With the installation of the milkweed, when you released the butterflies the other day at the EcoFest, I did find a couple already migrating to the area. I don't know if they're still there, but they did migrate. One thing I did need to point out for the area, we need to do something about the dogs. The dogs on leash, long leashes, they always go towards where there's something that they can go at, and they have uprooted a couple of them. I put them back in, but we just need to do something about it. I don't know what their resolve is, but I will talk to Vic and Jonathan and come up with some kind of resolution, okay? I did install one of Ms. Jaffe's pollinator pollinator signs, just so that people know what's there. That is intended for home use, however, because it was here and it was available, I installed it there. However, we have our own pollinator path, pathway signage coming soon. Okay? So that is all I have to say about the garden. It's beautiful. I do have concerns, like Allison has, about the garbage. I have found two diapers in the area. So you know where that comes from, I don't have to tell you. So somehow we have to do a PSA of some sort that they can't bring stuff in and just leave it. So I don't know how we're gonna address that, but it's becoming a problem.

All right.

Well, thank you very much for your support. Thank you for allowing me to take this on. And thank you for letting us continue to beautify the park as we have done for the last, I have done for the last 23 years. Thank you, Carly.

Thank you.

So, Gary, I have one small comment. It's really beautiful and important work.

It's really a request.

You know, one of the things that we've talked about, and Debbie's been working on a bit, is to try to get people from that part of the town that's a little geographically isolated, Ryneck, to... get interested in the park and take advantage of it. And I think recently, Debbie, you can, a group of people, were they from the school or?

Yes, it was the International Committee for the Rynek PTSA.

So and I gather they had a good time and so my request suggestion is that I think it would be great if Debbie could work with you to see if one or more of those people could get in touch with you perhaps join the friends and see if more interest and more awareness of the fact that the park is here for residents of the town and Ryneck is part of the town.

garden club of rye, not the right club. There's one right club that manages the town. BUT THEN THERE'S LITTLE GARDEN. WE DO COMMUNITY AND STEWARDSHIP. SO THAT IS ONE OF THE AREAS THAT WE WANT TO ACTUALLY BRING THOSE PEOPLE OVER TO US SO THAT THEY CAN SEE HOW BEAUTIFUL OUR AREA IS ALSO. THEY THINK THEY ONLY HAVE JEWELS OVER THERE. WELL, WE HAVE BIG ONES OVER HERE AS WELL. SO DEBBIE, WHENEVER, IF YOU JUST SEND IT TO ALLISON OR MYSELF, I'LL BE HAPPY TO MAKE THE CONNECTION AND DO AN INTRODUCTION, EVEN DO A TOUR IF THEY'D LIKE TO. THANK YOU.

Anybody else have a comment?

Yeah, I was thinking with the soaker tubing, if I remember correctly, that sprinkler system is zoned off and should be on a timer. Maybe we can get the sprinkler guy we use, have him come and check it out. Maybe there might be a broken line somewhere when they winterized it. Maybe it might have been a sag. They might have not gotten all the water out. or the solenoid valve is an opening. Because if we have the soaker hose, you really shouldn't have to worry about watering it because that job is for that soaker hose. So what happened...

I don't know. I think it's working.

Yeah, it was working. There is a little, a small... When I noticed...

Yeah, it's because we didn't have a break. Now you're saturating one area and it's not going to the other.

There are two problems. One, it doesn't look nice from above. And two, we have to make sure that it's working.

Right? And the second thing I was going to suggest is instead of putting more soil in, I would suggest maybe mulch, because the mulch will keep it damp.

Exactly. You know, the mulch would be better. We just need to up the level a little bit. Yeah. Because it's just, you can see that it's not up the actual parameter.

Okay. Yeah. I think the mulch, you know, seeing about what it'll cost to put mulch in and see about the repair, you know, what's causing it.

If you like to keep THE MULCH ENVIRONMENTALLY THE MULCH ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY. FRIENDLY. FRIENDLY. YES. YES. OH, YES. OH, YES. OH, YES. YEP. YEP.

YEP.

YEAH.

YEAH. YEAH.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU WANT TO SAY? WANT TO SAY?

WANT TO SAY?

THANK YOU, ELLISON.

THANK YOU, ELLISON. THANK YOU, ELLISON. WHAT IS THAT, PASTOR?

The second thing I was going to suggest is instead of putting more soil in, I would suggest Listen we have to move on.

All right. The system is on a timer. Lenny was just out there about a week ago to check on him. So pretty much I'll have him stop back, see if there's a blockage of some sort. Putting mulch in there is fine. As Tom said, yes, it will absorb water and hold water. So I'll have Lenny check again, but it is on a timer and it does run. Thanks, Vic.

All right, before we go on with the rest of the agenda, I'd like to welcome Congressman George Latimer to our little Rytown Council meeting. George, it's always a pleasure to have you. I'm sorry you had to wait, but we didn't know when you were coming because you're coming all the way from Washington on the Hyper Express Amtrak. So the floor is all yours. Welcome.

Thank you very much, Mr. Supervisor, members of the council, and the folks from Wrighttown who are here either by video or in person. What I try to do every year, and I've done this as county executive, as a state senator representing this community, and a state assemblyman, is to come before each of the different elected boards and give you an update as to where we are. The things that happen in Washington happen quickly, and things change, so even a once-a-year update probably doesn't suffice. But I've got 26 different communities to do this in. This is my ninth, so I've reached the one-third mark through the first half of the year. I'm a little behind schedule. It's also a little bit difficult because I am in Washington most midweeks. I'm grateful that you have a Thursday board meeting. You may be the only or one of two jurisdictions that have a Thursday board meeting, so I'm grateful. It allows me to get off the Amtrak train and be here and give you a quick update. The situation right now in Washington, obviously, you know, we're following it in the national media. You follow it in the national media. I'm in a governmental context, not a political one, so I'll keep my comments as broadly general as I can. We are dealing with a volatile situation. We're at war overseas, and we have domestic issues that divide us and not easily resolved. I am in the minority in my house, and my party is in the minority in both houses, and so the majority party drives most of the policy that we're looking at right now. The issues that relate to you running a government are the ones that I'm going to talk about today. There are many other issues that are out there that are important. The most immediate one is the war in Iran, and not from a geopolitical standpoint, but what the closure of the Straits of Hormuz means for the economy and how that affects you running a government with the things that you have to purchase and services and so forth. We are in a very volatile situation right now. I think we've all followed that bombing began in late February. The President indicated that he wanted regime change in Iran. That has not happened. He has eliminated certain individuals, but it hasn't changed the control of Iran. And Iran found leverage in closing the Straits of Hormuz, which means that products that come down the Persian Gulf go through the Straits of Hormuz into the Gulf of Oman and out to the Indian Ocean. Everybody, I'm sure, doesn't know the geography, we have to study it, has posed a problem and has raised prices across the board for a host of different things. Certainly oil comes down that corridor. Nitrogen comes down that corridor, which is used for fertilizer and so forth. Aluminum comes down that corridor. Bahrain is one of the largest aluminum producers in the world. and it has caused an economic impact across the board. We saw inflation numbers come in at 4.2% increase, the highest in the last three years. And so to the extent that you as a government have a budget and you buy certain products, services, this is the advisory that until and unless we get through this particular situation with the Straits Reform Moves, estimates that you have made, and this is true for all of us in our personal lives, are going to wind up things being more costly than they were in the beginning of the year when you did your budget. There's also some restriction in travel in general in that corner of the world. It is a volatile area. Again, the geography of the Arabian Peninsula, this is the eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula. On the western side of the Arabian Peninsula is the Red Sea that goes into the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean. That is the fastest route for things that are being shipped from the Asia area to North America as well as to Europe. And if activity were to expand through the Houthis perhaps onto the western side and affect Red Sea traffic, we would have more of a problem. So we're keeping an eye out on that, and we're trying to have some influence on the policies of the administration to see how we get out of this in a way that's reasonable. The arguments have been made about Iran's commitment to build a nuclear warhead. None of us want to see Iran have that. We think they're irrational enough, a government, once they have one, to use it preemptively, which no country in the modern era has done. But while we're in the process of dealing with that, we have to deal with the economic impact of the closure of the Straits of Hormuz, We don't see a short-term answer. The president this morning said he would resume bombing, and then he announced about an hour and a half ago that he would not bomb today, and so it's a day-by-day scenario. Tied into this is the presidential policies on tariffs, which have also caused products to increase across the board. And this affects all of us because the tariffs have been almost universal on every foreign product from a foreign country. And many times we think of a product as being subject to the tariff if we know that they're a product, a car from Germany, BMW, let's say, for the sake of this discussion, and Mercedes-Benz. But even in American cars, there are Canadian products within the car, and those products, those pieces of the car, are subject to the tariff. So it's made everything more expensive over time. We did go to court, and won in the Supreme Court that his use of the tariffs was illegal, but he has not yet implemented a rebate program, and there's been pressure that the administration has made on businesses not to claim rebate money. And of course, you know, the president and the administration has a lot of power, and if you run a TV station like CBS or you run a college or what have you, if the president is you know, hostile to your interests and there's issues that won't get resolved your way, you tend not to want to excite the president. And in this case, there's been no tariff rebates that have been significant across the board. So we're seeing an increase in that. That affects the town as an entity and it affects the people of the community and it affects their ability to buy and sell in services. I think we're all concerned that we have not seen the worst of this so far. There's a certain amount of oil that's been out in the marketplace that we're at sea to get to refineries, and at some point in time, if that spigot is turned off completely, we're going to see some significant economic impacts. Let's hope that doesn't happen, because that'll put all of us in some difficult situation. The President's involvement in the budget for 2027 is of direct interest to the town we have entered a request for significant money for the for the bathhouse for Wrighttown Beach Wrighttown Park and we think it's a very workable project to have federal money in it obviously you need state money and other levels of government county money to be there as well UNLIKE SOME GOVERNMENTS, IT IS THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES THAT GENERATES THE BUDGET. WE LEARNED THIS, I GUESS, IN FIFTH GRADE OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. MOST OTHER GOVERNMENTS, IT'S THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH. WE GENERATED THE BUDGET AND SENT IT TO THE COUNTY LEGISLATURE FOR THEIR REVIEW. GOVERNOR SENDS THE BUDGET TO THE STATE LEGISLATURE. IN WASHINGTON, IT IS THE HOUSE THAT SENDS IT. uh... will have his list of uh... preferred actions and he has been uh... very insistent on trying to cut domestic spending across the board zeroing out the community development block grant program uh... cdbg program and some other ones so we'll have to watch and see how the house uh... and the senate as we start to do this negotiations where we come out with some of these different issues i'll keep you posted obviously We have a great liaison through Debbie Reisner every day as administrator, and we'll make sure that you get the updated information so you know where we stand on that. We're concerned in that there's also been a willingness by this administration to take arbitrary action to stop things that have already been approved. by the government. You saw the Gateway Tunnel, the major project between New York and New Jersey, which the president argued was the source of illegal alien workload or DEI policies, and he stopped the project. That had been passed, approved, money had been allocated, working underway. So I caution you, as we're under the current administration, even when we get an approval, even when we get a contract, there could still be a slip between cup and lip. Factor that in as you start to deal with it. We're dealing in a very different environment. When I stood here as county executive along with Nancy Barr, your county legislator, we assured you that money was coming. It was coming. This is a little bit different. So, you know, we'll have to see exactly how those things play out. ICE activity has been around us since Minneapolis a few months ago. ICE has had a lower profile, but they are still there. In part of the town, you see some ICE activity and you're aware of some ICE activity. The village governments have the police structure day to day. The town does not, but it occurs within the town, so there is a factor involved in that. We have tried, those of us in the minority, to prevent the ICE budget from being passed until we got reforms. We want ICE to operate the way every other major police entity in the United States operates. No masking, name badge, body cam, six months of training before you're out on the street, training that includes de-escalation, that includes lethal force preparations and so forth. ICE unique. amongst any of these law enforcement agencies have not followed those protocols. They've become a much less structured and much more at the direction of the president and the leadership of customs and border control to exert policies. How that affects things on the streets of the town, village is to be determined and it is difficult because even the state of New York does not have the ability to interdict those things. You're seeing in New Jersey the state of New Jersey, the governor of New Jersey, being unable to deal with the Delaney Hall facility, it's under federal control and separated from all of us. So those are some of the issues at hand. There are a lot of other issues. I know you've got a long agenda tonight, so I don't want to go on and on. I do want to give you a flavor of some of the things that are happening right now. I'm happy to take any questions that you, the members, have to whatever length you have, and then I'm happy to let you get on with the rest of your agenda. No Knicks game tonight, though, so you're good. Thank God. Tomorrow night.

Tomorrow night. I had one question on a topic you did not touch on because there have been reports in the press recently that the Speaker of the House is advocating for sharp reductions in Medicare and Social Security. Is this a real thing in your mind?

Well, I think it's a policy that he and members of the majority favor. We've already seen in HR1 last summer, the big, beautiful, ugly bill that passed significant cuts to Medicaid and to SNAP benefits. And those cuts, if they're unaddressed between now and when they would go into effect next year, and that'll depend on the electoral results of this year, will have a dramatic effect on people who live here and every place else. I think it is the philosophy to try to cut the administration of other federal programs, VA, benefits, Social Security, they've had a cut in staff. What does that do? You call Social Security to discuss, argue over your benefits, and you have a harder time getting somebody you wind up having a delayed action, which means if you believe you've been denied a benefit that you deserve, that correction of that delay is later and later. Many people give up because they don't want to go through that kind of bureaucratic situation. You can't get an appointment in a timely fashion. And I think all of that is part of the effort to try to de-emphasize these types of programs in the nation. Whether that will be followed by what the Speaker would like to see, which is a direct cut in those programs, is unknowable. I think you're on the borderline with Medicaid and SNAP already of alienating a large group of Americans regardless of their political philosophy. If you touch Social Security, I think you've touched the third rail for what it represents. Now, if there's gonna be a reform of Social Security that is prospective, changing how long you might have to work before you can claim it, but affecting people who aren't right at the door of claiming it, so that you're not telling a 61-year-old person, oh, you have to wait five more years because you planned your life around retiring at 62, 65, whatever. If you do something that's more prospective for somebody who's in their 30s, that would have to be a public debate. What Speaker Johnson is talking about is, I think, driven by ideology. And I don't think it's popular. I don't think it'll come to pass in the short term. But, you know, things have happened in the last 18 months that I've been down that I never would have thought would have happened.

Questions from the council?

I appreciate that.

And I see you all frequently around the community. So anytime, and this goes for any of the folks in the community, anytime we need to have an informal conversation, I'm happy to do it. If there's a specific issue that I need to have myself and my staff come into where I used to work across the hallway and come in to see you all again, I'm happy to do that too. And we'll let that be whatever the next issue might be.

Well, I want to thank you for coming here. You're always welcome. Thank you. We've known you for a long, long time. And we know that you stand up for our interests and just for members of the public. how the Congressman puts out periodic, I don't know what you call them, the ones where you stand in front of Congress and speak on an issue. The videos of the one-minute speeches on the floors. Yeah. Congressman has regular videos discussing all of the issues of import for us. So please tune in.

If anybody would like to be included on that distribution list, I would say, you know, call the administrator's office and we'll work to add names to that list. It's perfectly optional, but the bottom line is we want to try to provide information. It is always hard to know There's 435 of us to know what we're doing. The national media will cover some of us who have reached the level of national name recognition, and you'll see them speaking, but you may not see me or other people. So I want you to know what's available, and I want the input as well on this issue.

Your vote counts just as much as anybody else's.

Well, it counts for one. Anyway, thank you very much for the courtesy tonight. Thank you for coming. You're always welcome. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you very much. Bye-bye now.

Our next presentation is Brian Mortimer coming up.

Brian Mortimer Sullivan, I'm sorry. There we go. I always say Brian Sullivan. I'm looking, it says Brian Mortimer.

Hi, Brian.

Hi, everybody. He's our Climate Smart Community Coordinator, and Brian's going to talk about EcoFest.

Sure. So good evening. Sorry about the mask. I can take it off if you have trouble hearing me, but I'll try to project. I got a cold. So about two weeks ago now, a week and a half ago, we had our second annual Eco Fest held right here at Crawford Park. And I think it was a pretty big success. You know, I think we built a lot off of our first fair last year. And I'll walk you through some of the basics of it.

or crowd from last year, which is nice. Yes.

I think we, yeah, there we go. So I estimated about 350 visitors, which is almost double what we had last year. So I think it was a very healthy increase. and I think that we're well-heeled to keep it growing. So some of the big attractions we had were a beeline bus coming from the county once again, and a fire truck from Rybrook came by to visit a few hours in to give everybody a tour and see how it goes. Um, we had about 30 local organizations, businesses, and artists, uh, present. Um, so altogether we had somewhere in the ballpark of 65 tablers, uh, just as, you know, physical human bodies at those. And then we had about 350 visitors throughout the day. Um, it's mostly families, uh, lots of younger, uh, younger children, excuse me. And we had two sponsors this year. We had Con Edison, which Debbie was able to secure, and we had the Ashley Weldy family once again, who helped us to get it off the ground initially. And from everybody who I've talked to, they had a good time. They're eager to come again next year, and they want to see the fair continue to grow. Yes, so I didn't include that in the summary, but our weather was interesting. We probably ran through three and a half of four seasons. We just missed out on the snow. But even with the heavy wind and the sun showers, I think it was a good time for everybody. So we had a variety of activities on offer. Fiddleheads came again and ran a booth teaching people how to dye drinks with natural ingredients. We had the Clay Arts Center join us once again. They did seed bombs, which can be planted around the community. They had native plant seeds donated by the, I believe, the Portchester Sustainability Committee. We had MC Father Groove, who was here earlier. That's Anthony. He's back there. OK. Hi, Anthony. So he was playing his electric bass with Greg DiMichele, who was our drum circle head last year and this year. And the two of them got along really great. And it seemed like everybody was having a good time with that. We did a big butterfly release, which was eventually successful. We had a good time with that too. And Brian Butler received a shout out earlier, but he helped to lead plantings at the sensory gardens. So all in all, we had a pretty good agenda and I think there was a lot of things for different people. And then our last biggest activity was our upcycled costume contest. So you can see the winners at the bottom there, some people working at the table on the top right. Including your mom? Yes, including my mom who I conscripted very late in the day for it.

The best one was the young lady with the television. Yes, yes. Walking around the park with the television.

There were two Girl Scouts who were, they joined together inside of a TV box set and were just playing different roles. They were newscasters, they were doing a soap opera. They had a lot of fun. And they were two of our five winners. And our winners, there was a cash prize provided by the Ashley Weldy family. And I want to say especially thank you to Jack Weldy for being there to help judge and to just generally be very supportive of the program and of this contest in particular.

Thank you to Debbie for the idea.

Yes. Thank you, Debbie.

That was my pleasure. Thank you for picking it up and carrying it. Pam was the butterfly girl.

You were so cold.

Yeah, they weren't in on it, but thanks to Costco, because I went to them and I got a lot of that cardboard from their bins in the front. So I had their greeters asking me what was up the second time I was doing it in the week. And then going forward We're gonna try to make it bigger again next year. I think we're on a good path We have some a mixture of photos from this year and last year here I've talked with a few different people who are active in the community who are interested in participating now that they've heard about it some more we have I WON'T LIST SPECIFIC NAMES BUT WE SHOULD HAVE ANOTHER SPONSOR LINED UP FOR NEXT YEAR. AND YEAH GENERALLY I THINK IT'S ON A GOOD TRAJECTORY. SO I'D BE HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS BOARD MIGHT HAVE.

I JUST WANT TO THANK YOU BRIAN FOR THE WORK YOU DO TO BRING THIS TO LIFE. I KNOW IT'S A HEAVY LIFT BUT IT GOES A LONG WAY JUST SO EVERYONE KNOWS IT ALSO HELPS THE TOWN AS FAR AS BEING A CLIMATE SMART COMMUNITY AND GETTING OUR CERTIFICATION THERE. So this provides us with a lot of points to help all and team get the grants going and the recommendations in line there. And I do hope it keeps growing and I do hope we get a decent year of weather at some point because every year is,

This year was better than last year, weather-wise.

Except for the gale force winds.

Well, yeah. It worked itself out eventually.

We will persevere. Thank you, Brian. Thank you very much. I very much appreciate it.

Have a good night. I will be here now.

Our next item. One we've all been waiting for with bated breath.

Taxi.

No. That's the second one. Is the report of our auditor. Jeff, do you want to take center stage? No, no, I want to have you maybe stand next to him. I want to say that we're doing really well. Thank you very much.

I'm sorry. Good evening. Thanks for the introduction. My name is Jeff Shaver. I'm a partner with PKF O'Connor Davies. Happy to be here to present the results of the audit for the fiscal year ended December 31st, 2025. I've prepared some slides. We're mostly going to give you an overview of the audit and then I'll give you some financial highlights focusing mostly on the general fund. Lastly, I'll talk about, I'll show you how your debt, that's outstanding. In terms of overview of the audit, the field work is complete. The financial statements have been reviewed by management. We've issued what's known as an unmodified opinion on the financial statements. That's also sometimes referred to as a clean audit opinion, and that's the most favorable opinion that the town can receive. What that means is the financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects, and the note disclosures are complete and accurate and consistent. We as auditors would be required to tell the board if we identified any material weaknesses in your internal controls. I'm happy to report that there were none found. We'd also be required to tell you if there were any instances of fraud noted. Happy to report there were none noted, brought to our attention or discovered by us. And essentially our role as auditors is primarily to render the opinion on the financial statements that I mentioned before. this slide talks about what management's responsibilities are uh... and that's giving us uh... you know all the records that we need to in order to do our audit uh... and and and selecting and implementing the appropriate accounting policies uh... fairly presenting the financial statements in accordance with u s cap maintaining effective internal controls compliance with laws and regulations uh... providing us with orders as uh... uh... all the requested information that we asked for and setting the proper tone at the top We received full cooperation from management. We didn't have any unanswered questions, no loose ends, so to speak. So we received everything that we asked for. It's a pleasure working with Debbie, new comptroller John, good team that you have. And I think this was probably one of our smoother audits that we've had in the last couple of years. We're here on the early side, which is always a good thing. So overall, the audit did go well. Okay, some financial highlights. This is highly summarized. We're pulling it directly from the financial statements. This is the general fund revenues and expenditures compared to the budget. It's a four-column presentation, the original budget in the first column. Final budget, that would encompass any transfers or amendments that were made during the year, followed by the actual revenues and expenditures. And the variance column is the difference between your final budget and your actual results. Towards the top of the page, you'll see revenues. The original revenue budget was $7,122,000. The actual revenues for the year were $6,691,000, some $431,000 less than what was anticipated to be collected. I'll take you through some details on the next slide. On the expenditure side of the budget, the budget called for expenditures of 7.6 million. The actual costs were just over 7 million, and that's a positive variance or underspend of the budget by about 600,000. The budgetary surplus is the difference between the underspend on the expenditure side and also the undercollection on the revenue side. So the budgetary variance in the variance column, 175,000, you did better than your budget by 174,000 net, all said and done. However, that's a budgetary surplus. The actual surplus is different because during the budget process, the town used appropriation of fund balance to balance the budget. And that number was about $592,000. And that's the number on the bottom left-hand side of the screen, the balancing figure on your budget. So when you take that anticipated use of fund balance, versus the budgetary surplus of 175, net them together and that becomes the actual change in fund balance. And that number was 417,000 decrease in your fund balance. You started the year with general fund fund balance 4.8 million and the year at just under 4.4 million. Just some more details on the revenue side of the budget. Same presentation, which is 2024 added here. You'll see the largest single variance is in the real property tax category. There's two things happening here. There's the adopted levy, which always is recognized in full, and there's also any changes in your taxes receivable up or down has an effect on the real property tax revenues. If your tax receivables increase, that means you've collected less of some of those back taxes. and that's a negative effect on your revenues. Governmental accounting standards requires you to collect either within 60 days of year end or during the fiscal year to recognize it as revenue. So the 525,000 is a function of an increase in those taxes receivable. The rest of the variances more or less net out. You had some positive variances in other tax items, which was an interest in penalties, 180,000. Use of money in property, you were under the budget by $98,000, and also you were over the budget in state aid, and that was in the mortgage tax category, about $75,000. So that's how you get down to the net shortfall of $431,000. It's really driven by the real property tax line item.

I'm sorry?

The increase in the deferred tax revenue is the revenue line is the offset. So if your deferred tax revenue or your allowance for your uncollected taxes goes up,

That's the offset.

Yes, exactly.

Yes, exactly. Yes. Yes.

i have seen just over time i've seen it you know you might have a negative year next year could flip the other way i i have seen it fluctuate from year to year so one one year of a negative doesn't necessarily mean that's always going to go that way some more details on the expenditures there's actually more details in the actual auto report but can't really fit all that on the screen I said before there was a $605,000 underspending. Most of that was in the general government support category. That is your largest category of your budget. All your general administrative departments are in there. You had some savings in the judicial line item, $122,000 under the budget. The law department, $95,000 under the budget. clerk 60 000 under the budget and you also had an unspent contingency funds of about 50 000 that brings you to the bulk of the 432 000 underspend and there was also uh same savings in the employee benefits category in the retirement cost thirty thousand dollars and then your health insurance costs about seventy five thousand so those are the larger items on how you were able to achieve the underspending of the $606,000. What does it all boil down to? The fund balance. On here we put two years for you to see. I said before the ending fund balance just under $4.4 million in total. Last year it was $4.8 million. It's comprised of these various categories. Non-spendable fund balance is a carve out for prepaid expenditures or bills that the town has paid in advance for the next fiscal year. You can't spend the money again, so the accounting standards require us to set up that reserve. You have 24,000 left in debt service restriction. I believe that was a source of that was a premium on some of your debt you issued several years back. The assigned category is the amounts used for subsequent years expenditures, or that's the subsequent years or next year's appropriation of fund balance. So in your 2026 budget, you've set aside $409,000 in your fund balance to balance that budget. And that was down from $580,000 from the previous year. So you appropriated less fund balance in 26 than you did in 25. the unassigned fund balances of uh... quarter residual uh... fun bounce because it's the difference between the total less all these other categories and that numbers three point seven million dollars One of the benchmarks we like to look at is that unassigned fund balance as a percentage to your total budget. You're at roughly 49%. That's considered a healthy fund balance. You know, it did come down slightly, but you're still at a healthy level at 49%. Your total budget for 2026 is about seven point, just under 7.7 million. So 3.7 million is just about half. So you're still in a strong fund balance position. Switching gears slightly, I just wanted to show you the debt that's outstanding. This is as of December 31st, 2025. Serial bonds, total $10,140,000. And you can see I've given you some more details on the interest rates and the maturity dates there. There are also bond anticipation notes outstanding. Those are short-term notes. They come due every year, so you either have to roll it into a new one or pay it down and issue a bond. Oh, yes, I was told, yes, I'm sorry. Sorry if I'm being too elementary. And those were $2,352,000 outstanding as of December 31st. So between the bonds and the bans, that outstanding is $12,492,000. So that's all I had for this evening. If there's any questions or comments, I'd be happy to try and answer those.

Anybody? You're good? Thank you, Jeff. We'll see you next year. Thank you.

It's been a pleasure.

Always. See you Tuesday. Our next agenda item is comments from the public on non-agenda items. Are there any comments, Debbie, from the public?

There's nothing on the Facebook feed.

Nobody here. Anybody from the public here want to speak? No? Okay. We don't see too many. All right. Moving on. Resolutions. First resolution is accepting the town audit report. This does not mean we analyze it. We are accepting the report as is. Any questions? If not, may I have a motion and a second?

I'll make the motion. Second.

I think we can do a, don't need a roll call on this. All in favor? Aye. Aye. And now a series of bond resolutions. John? Why are we doing this? I know why, but brief explanation.

We have- I do want to show that, Debbie pulled it off the paper. Okay, this should work.

If we're going to continue to do this, we're going to have to get bigger televisions.

You know, we're looking at all our needs in terms of projects. And we broke it down into those projects that have funding sources.

I didn't know that it would work until we had a presentation in Debbie's office.

And I said, let me have the laser.

It was on a different issue. And it didn't work. This is the last one.

Anyway, we looked at all projects for the whole year.

John, nobody can hear you on the screen.

So we looked at all our projects for the whole year and broke them out into two categories. Those that have funding sources and those that don't have funding sources. So if you look at the costs that have funding sources across the top, some are RTP. um projects right down park and some are tor projects so at the end of the day those projects that have funding sources we're going to need this number here 632 000 for those projects that have funding sources so to me there's a big story here and if you look at these projects what's really impressive here is the amount of grants we've gotten for these projects which really in the long run is going to offset so much of our cost so here the grant here are the grants right here right so to me it's really impressive i mean we got so much money right here see these these are all the grants right here so we got close to eighteen million dollars or sorry so to me that's really impressive so to me that's really impressive um but at the end of the day what's not covered by the funding sources or the bands from the previous year is about what is it 632 000 okay which is right here any any questions on that right there see so again those are the projects that have funding sources any questions okay so we'll take it down to those projects that don't have funding sources and that's right here And pretty much here are, most of these are Rye Town park items, okay? But there's one item that really sticks out, and that's the move to 111 Southridge. That represents the big portion of the projects that don't have funding sources. So that totals $1,963,000. So we sent a memorandum out last night, okay, showing the breakdown of that number, and we can go through that if you'd like, but does anybody have any questions on that? The breakdown of that amount?

No, you sent it out. I don't think we need to go over here. Is that correct? Okay.

Okay. Great. So again, we really went into this in detail. So at the end of the day, we're asking for new funding of $2 million. $872,000, and that's right here, which includes the move to Southridge and everything else that has funding sources and those that don't, okay?

Any questions on that?

doesn't it, the rollover of the?

No, that's not a rollover, okay?

Because we also have the rollover for the other band that comes due in August, right?

Right, there's a $2,352,000 rollover that's going to be rolled into that balance, okay?

So the total bonding obligation is all of this plus the existing band.

Exactly, exactly. Any questions on that? But we don't need a resolution on that previous amount, that previous band funding. That's an automatic rollover, so we don't need a resolution on that, but we need a resolution on all of these items.

Okay.

Right, exactly. So here's the breakdown. So we're gonna have three resolutions that represent these totals. Okay, so I guess we'll go through each resolution. Gary's gonna go through each resolution.

We are going to do each one of them, and we'll summarize them. You've already summarized that. And I know what that is. So let's take the first one, which is a bond resolution dated today. for the issuance of 650,896 principal amount of serial bonds to finance the cost of acquisition, et cetera, et cetera, reconstruction at Rytown Park. There are no questions.

I have a question.

Yes, have a.

Does the Westmore News still exist? No. No. Then we shouldn't have publication in a non-existent publication.

What was that?

Section 6.

Of the resolution? Yeah.

It says we're going to publish in the Westmore News. Good chance.

Thank you very much.

That's what happens when you have a retired partner in a New York law firm. You actually read the bond resolutions.

has amended the motion.

And by the way, every lawyer has to give, as Jeff will tell you, at least one comment on every document. Isn't that right, Jeff?

It depends on the billable hour.

All right.

Do I hear a motion, Randy, to strike the Westmore News for the bond resolution? Randy?

Sure. And replace it with the Journal News?

No, the Journal News is already in here.

Oh, okay.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

All in favor?

Aye. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

No, no, actually you have very... I don't know that it would have any effect since it doesn't exist, and if you do something that doesn't exist, it's of no effect. But the better form is to go along with your thinking, Randy. so with that always true it's gonna happen so uh with that may uh i have a motion do we have a motion in a second on on the bond no no no motion in a second second second call the

The next bond resolution is for $259,000 to finance the additional costs of the reconstruction

of and the improvements to the Otter Creek Bridge. And before a motion is made, I will amend paragraph six so that it is not in the motion, eliminating the Westmore News as a newspaper to be published in.

Can I just ask Gary, what my understanding was because of budget overruns or construction cost increases, additional funding from the state is required most likely yes that's not in this i understand i was just asking about the status of that and is this just kind of AND IN RESERVE IN CASE THAT FUNDING...

THIS IS FOR COSTS THAT WERE ENCOURAGED AS IS BECAUSE WE HAVE ENGINEERING COSTS AND STUFF THAT IS ALREADY, THAT WE KNOW EXISTS. THANK YOU. WHAT YOU'RE SUGGESTING IS... PARDON ME, IS GARY?

I'M SORRY TO INTERRUPT YOU. YOU MENTIONED THAT THE ANTICIPATED OVERRUN FOR replacing the South Barry Avenue bridge over Otter Creek was not in this ban, it is.

That's in this bond resolution.

Yes.

Well, that's what we're doing.

Correct, so it's, we added the anticipated extra million dollars that would be needed into the assumptions for what we will be borrowing.

Even I didn't realize that. Thank you. Randy, good question. So we're looking at the full cost. We're borrowing in advance of the full cost, even though we haven't gone into construction, we don't have any bids?

Correct. Let me clarify that. We've already borrowed, in last year's ban, $1.4 million for Otter Creek. Okay, this year, all that taken into consideration, we're asking for an additional $259,000. So in last year's ban, we already asked for $1.4 million.

That is, that's not really the question. Where Randy is raising, the original estimate was 5 million or so, and now we're estimating 6 million.

6.5.

Okay. We do not need to pay the money. The way it works is we have to front the money. So what you're suggesting is we're fronting the full amount of the 6.5 million, but we're going to get back from the state 95% of the original estimate around 5 million or so.

Yes, and we'll use those funds to pay down the debt. Yes.

But we're not going to have to go back to the well when the bids come in unless they come in over the $6.5 million estimate, correct? So if the bids come in at $12 million, we have to come back.

Yes.

Am I correct? Yes.

Decisions will have to be made. Okay.

Right. We also have to make decisions as to whether we're going to enter into those contracts, Randy, because we're trying to get... additional funds that I've written to Shelly and Steve and the governor, and I have a draft of a letter ready to go to the regional director of the Department of Transportation when we have an idea, when we send the bid. Basically, as I understand it now, we're ready to go to bid. We're getting final, final approval on the design, and we'll hopefully go to bid in the next couple of months. Then we'll have a number. And then we'll decide whether we're gonna enter into a contract with any of the people who bid. So if a bid comes in at $12 million and it's a low bid, we're not necessarily gonna do the work. That's a decision that we're gonna have to make. What we're doing here is issuing a bond so that we have the money to pay whatever we need to pay on this or any other project. And as I've discussed with John, We don't know what the current interest of the bond is, but all our bonds so far are under 4%. The one we're rolling over is 3%? 3%. 3%. Money we don't use gets invested so that it's not being wasted away. We're putting it into funds, and the return on that money is also approximately 3 or 4%. 3.5. 3.5. So technically, we're engaging a little bit of arbitrage here. But we're not losing money by borrowing the money. Whatever we don't use, we're investing and getting interest on.

Have I stated that correctly, Mr. Controller?

Yes, you have.

Thank you. I have a motion and a second for the second.

Second.

Call the roll, please.

Councilperson Jaffee? Yes. Councilperson Sellier?

Yes.

Councilperson Nardi? Yes. And Supervisor Zuckerman? Yes.

Our next bond resolution is for that 1.963 for the furnishing and equipping facilities at 111 South Ridge Street. I think John went over that. Motion and a second, please.

Make the motion. Second.

Call the roll, please.

Councilperson Jaffe. Yes. Councilperson Sellier. Yes. Councilperson Nardi. Yes. And Supervisor Zuckerman.

Yes, thank you. Thank you, everybody. Moving along, our next resolution is... to appoint Paul Rosenberg to the Board of Assessment Review, Joan Feinstein, our current board member whose term expires in 2027 has resigned from the board. Joan had to resign because she is, her house is in contract, she will be moving out of the community and therefore cannot serve on the board any longer. I just want to say that I'll say more next month, but Joan, aside from being a very good friend of mine for nearly 40 years, has served in many capacities for the Village of Ryebrook and other organizations in the town of Rye in the Board of Assessment and Review, including being Mayor of the Village of Ryebrook and President of the Blybrook School Board, and she will be sorely missed. However, Paul, has been chosen by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Ryebrook to be her replacement. And the way it serves for people who don't know the process, there are five members of the Board of Assessment Review. And by inter-municipal agreement, two of them are from Ryebrook, two of them are from the Village of Portchester, and one is from Ryneck. We have sole authority over the appointment from Ryneck. For the villages of Portchester and Rybrook, the boards recommend one that we then approve, and for the other, we recommend a name to the Board of Trustees of each respective village, which they acknowledge, and then we formally approve. So it's kind of a little bit of a convoluted process, but it's a very fair process, and everybody's got skin in the game. So Paul is the Rybrook recommended member, as Joan was, and that's what we're voting on. Any other questions? I hope I explained that clearly.

And I do appreciate that it's Paul. It's a former mayor who, like Joan, understands the assessment values of the village quite well.

And he understands the process. So may I have a motion and a second?

So moved.

Second.

Call the roll, please.

Councilperson Duffy? Yes. Councilperson Salyer? Yes. Councilperson Nardi? Yes. And Supervisor Zuckerman?

Yes. The next item is approving a contract to Casale Construction for installation of a garden path of pavers at Crawford Park from the solarium to the sunken garden. I know you have pictures of this.

I do. Apparently so. Yes, and Chance Fiorisi. Yes. I'll just skip to the pictures.

To show AI pictures. And Chance did a really nice job. In fact, the AI looks so much better.

I'm just curious, how wide is that walkway?

I believe it's four feet. I'd have to look at the RFP to make sure that that's correct. Okay. That looks wider than four. That looks like five to me.

Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. Because you want it for... You want two people to be able to walk down the aisle.

Or they could cross the path during holiday lights... to get their candy canes from the Friends of Crawford Park without walking through the mud.

This will be a great addition and also comes with I think there's additional gardening that's going to be done along the path as well. One of the things I want to mention is that this is a paver path and we have a website

which people will be able to use to make a donation and have a plaque with a message on it that will then replace a plain paver. So ultimately this could all be have bricks that people have donated from the community that they can come and visit and see.

I just have one question on that front or suggestion. Given that this park is primarily used by Ryebrook and Portchester, I know we've done this at Rytown Park, which has a little bit different of a socioeconomic base. I think 500 is a very high entry point. We might want to have a little bit more flexibility there.

If that's the wish of the council, I'm more than happy. We have not had a single donation yet. We have not launched this program without the council approving us to move forward. Happy to reset that level. What we did not do with this... With this construct, which was done with Rye Town Park, we don't have two different levels of brick. So at Rye Town Park, there are two different sizes at two different price points. This paver path was designed with only a single four by eight paver.

Yeah, I agree.

At 500, it's a little steep.

What were we charging for the benches?

You know, that changed every year because the price of the bench changed every year.

From companies.

Yeah, but what was the price? $3,500, right?

You wouldn't be wrong or far wrong, yeah.

Correct.

$3,500, $2,500, I think when I came in in 2016. Of course.

And there are two things. Number one, on the downside, you can't sit on the pavers. You can't sit on a bench. On the other hand, the size of the paver is much larger than the size of the plaque on the bench. Balance. Balance.

And also the bench, you have to buy the plaque.

Yeah, the bench, you do have to buy the plaque and pay for shipping and pay for the installation and the concrete pad on which the bench is installed. All of that.

The engraving on the brick, it's not a plaque, is it? No, it's etched. It's etched into the brick. Yes.

So, what we have here now is a motion to approve the path.

Yes.

Undecided is the actual price and I'm sure that we can have that discussion before the project goes into effect. Okay.

Sounds fair. Okay. I mean, just some simple, if there are 825 pavers, If you cut the price, for example, to $100, that would require 210 papers, right?

Well, you still have 825 papers.

No, I understand. My point is there are ample papers to be purchased.

Correct.

So... That's really lowering the price. Obviously, if you lowered it to 250, you would need 84 pavers purchased.

In order to cover your cost. In order to cover your cost.

Yes.

We want to do the project regardless of the cost covering by the donations. That's an added factor because it's really a good project. It's not overly expensive at $20,000. And

Right, my only point, I agree with you, and you would probably do this even if you weren't trying to recover costs, but it seems like even at a, to respond to what Pam's point, even if you cut the suggested donation substantially, there are ample numbers of potential pavers.

Correct.

And you could cover, you know, and you would have more people participating in the park. I'd be interested.

I agree. Randy, I agree with you. And I think that it's a good suggestion to cut it. Because if we have enough participation, we'll more than cover the cost. I mean, I would look at it as a separate project that we could have people who donate that, the money would go to support the park itself, to put more plantings, to do all the things that we wanna do. If there are 800 pavers at $200 each, what's the number, Randy?

Well, $200 would get you way, way over.

My thing is, what I would be interested in, what is the company going to charge us to have the pavers etched?

$19.

Definitely a price. No. No. That's got to come down. We'll make it come down. Okay.

I would like to get the website set up. If we're going to go forward, I'd like to get that website set up. If I could get some direction from the council on what price point you recommend, that's how we'll go.

I think if it's going to cost us $19, the Friends of Crawford Park or to maintain the park.

Well, we had not discussed this as a donation to the Friends of Crawford Park. Actually, we can't donate to a non-profit organization.

We can segregate the money for Crawford Park to use for Crawford Park and for things like plantings at Crawford Park.

I feel being that it's a fundraiser, because it's a fundraiser, I think $200 max. I think that's enough money because it's going to cost us $19 to have it done.

Can I say something? Sure.

Oh, from the peanut gallery.

He just wanted to show he's been listening. Good work. Just kind of like my Westmore News boy.

I would just like to know how much the paver cost. So it's not just $19. You've got to pay for the pavers also.

No, that's included. Well, there's the $21,000 includes... You mean the blank pavers? Yes. $21,000 is inclusive of the blank pavers.

That's for material and installation.

Yeah, the RFP was... that included the materials.

What are they going to charge to take it? When they have the pavers, the pavers, if you have a blank paver in, they're going to remove it and then put the stamped paver in. Who's going to do that?

Our staff.

Our guys. Yes. Okay. So then, so it's not really going to cost us anything. It's just going to, so.

There'll be no marginal cost.

Yeah. $200. That's me.

I know BMP Ridge Street did this fairly recently when they opened up the new construction. I think it was $250 or $300. And then I recently bought a paper for a friend down in New Jersey after she passed and it's about $300. $250, $300.

I would like to see about $200. I mean, I think that's...

I was thinking $250, but Randy, what is your mind?

I think $200. I would never disagree with Tom. I like $200.

It's a nice cost entry point. And then maybe people will buy multiples.

Exactly. I'd rather see people... I think it's more affordable. That's just me. 200 is agreed.

200 is agreed.

Start the project. Let's go. Okay. First, let's vote on this motion to install it.

I make a motion. Second. Call the roll vote.

Councilperson Jaffe. Yep. Councilperson Sellier. Yes. Councilperson Nardi. Definitely yes. Supervisor Zuckerman.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you, everybody. Okay, the next one is authorizing renewal of our kitchen concession with Cara Tannenbaum. I don't think there's any need really to discuss it unless you want to.

I think it's very successful though, what she's done. I think it's a great thing.

Marcia, do you have a second?

So moved. Second.

Call the roll, please.

Councilperson Jaffe. Yeah. Councilperson Sellier. Yes. Councilperson Nardi. Yes. And Supervisor Zuckerman.

Yes.

By the way, I just, one of the things that has always amazed me about when you have bidding is someone proposed $67,500. You wonder if they just didn't want the project or? I mean, the other bid was, you know, close, you know, a couple thousand dollars over. But it's, you always get an outlier like that. And it just, kind of you wonder.

Yeah, and we know the project is going to be done well because Tony Cassell, who won this bid, also won the one at Rytown Park. He's also the one who did the retaining wall at Rytown Park and is doing the showers at Rytown Park.

He did the wall behind the shower? Absolutely gorgeous.

He also has a contract for United Household. Okay, cool.

And he's impressed our architect. We can't say enough positive things about the contract.

That wall looks really good.

So, we didn't take a vote yet on carry, did we? Did we take it? Yes. We took the vote? Yes, we did.

Oh, okay.

Yeah. We're good.

We're good on that.

All right, that's all right. I already called the next one. The submission of a grant application to Parks and Rec for the playground expansion. This is under the New York Plays program. We already have an application for basically the same thing to the municipal, what's it called, MRF?

MNR, and I couldn't tell you what it stands for.

It's a municipal recreation program, also with the state. So this basically is, we're looking to find money wherever we can. And this is what it's going to look like, hopefully.

This is the rough footprint of the expansion. This is an illustration, just conceptual. Nothing's been selected. The underlying concept for this project is that we provide a place for older kids for their appropriate play. So from 10 years. Exactly, exactly. So the total project cost is estimated to be $660,000. This grant has a 20% match, so the town's match would be $132,000. We're requesting the remainder, which would be $528,000. It includes passive recreation such as chess tables and picnic tables. It includes shade, which has been enormously requested. I would also, as you saw in your memo, we've been conducting a survey using TextMyGov, which has a survey feature. We've had 141 participants in that survey so far. WE ALSO COLLECTED INPUT AT ECHOFEST AT OUR TOWN TABLE AND THE RESULTS INDICATE THAT THERE IS LARGE SUPPORT FOR THIS PROJECT, IF THERE WERE A SECTION GEARED FOR CHILDREN BETWEEN THE AGES OF 10 AND 13, WOULD THIS BE HELPFUL OR BENEFICIAL? AND 83% HAVE SAID YES. IF IT'S FUNDED WITH GRANTS, WOULD YOU SUPPORT EXPANDING THE PLAYGROUND? EVEN MORE SAID YES. LOVE THOSE GRANTS. Interestingly enough, the, what ideas do you have, what do we need if we were to expand and far and away the most contributions were older kids, they want a place for older kids. And that's followed by a separation of age groups which would also be the impact of this separate area. more equipment or structures, again, that is part of this project, followed by a splash pad. That's not part of this project.

Whenever we do a survey, splash pads are always mentioned.

Always. We originally, when we originally did the playground, this is what we did. We sent the survey out, asked them what they wanted. We originally wanted this extra piece of property for the expansion, but there was a tree in the way. And if I remember, two trees. I knew at least one of it was in the way. And that poor tree got hit by lightning, unfortunately.

They both fell down.

Since we didn't have to save the tree anymore, we're going for a playground inspection.

But I will say that everyone we spoke to at Echo Fest at the table, talking about the possibility of a playground specifically for older kids, there was a lot of positive feedback and excitement. So I got an earful of the best older kid playgrounds around the area and how nice it would be to have one closer.

That playground is a big hit. It's always crowded and good weather. It's always crowded. And I know Mrs. Crawford loved having the kids in her yard.

Tommy, you raise a good point because whenever we discuss doing things there, We have to go back to the original reason that Crawford Park was given to the town, and that's for the kids to play. That's key. Okay, I think we're ready for roll call.

I'm just- Wait, we have to take a motion.

Motion. No.

This is supposed to be for kids. The target group would be 10 to 13.

That's just an illustration.

No, I understand. I'm just wondering, are there, because this seems to me, it's been a long time since my kids were anything like 13, other than 10. Are there... What's pictured seems to me to be something I would suspect younger kids would play on. And are there particular types of equipment that are designed for this age group?

This photo came from our landscape architect. There has been no time dedicated to identifying just the right equipment for this setting for our kids in the way that you currently see the playground, which got a tremendous amount of thought and discussion and community input to make sure that the equipment that we put in was an adventure, that it was accessible, to kids of many different abilities, typical and special needs kids, that it evoked the sense of the Crawford property, which used to be wooded. There were fox hunts and dedication to nature. You'll see all of those themes in the playground equipment outside. And I would have every intention of taking that same framework to whatever equipment is selected if we get the grant and we're doing this project.

I would just think it would be challenging to get kids, maybe I'm wrong, who are a little older, to play at a playground. But maybe there is, maybe I'm wrong.

There is equipment that older kids would use. They have one up at Pine Ridge, which was my idea. One of those climbing things that, almost like a spider web kind of a thing. And older kids use that. But we'll obviously do research on it. Let's get the money first.

Let's get the money.

And I think one of the feedback that we do hear from the playground is we do get these fans of middle schoolers on bikes. And they are on the playground with the younger kids. And I think there's a little bit of friction. between the older kids and the younger kids, or at least the parents of the younger kids. So this gives them their own dedicated area and makes the parents of the younger children feel more secure.

It's also family-friendly in that many parents of younger kids also have older kids. So if they take the kids to the playground and the younger kids have someplace to play, what do you do with the 10-year-old while the 4-year-old is playing, et cetera?

And the more kids they get here in the park, the more bodies we have when we host a festival or a music event or a movie. That's right.

All right.

Motion to second?

Motion. To make this application? It's the application. Great. Second.

Second. Councilperson Jaffe? Yep. Councilperson Sellier? Yes. Councilperson Arden? Yes. And Supervisors Agree? Yes.

And now we come to the really interesting part of the agenda, our tax certs. Our internships paid special attention to this. Let's do 250 Boston Post Road. TD Bank.

Sure. Just as a preface to this, I just want to acknowledge Council Member Sellier for volunteering to be our new bond counsel. So I think we can save. We're going to save a lot of money now on bond counsel. It's great. Appreciate that. Anything's possible. I know it. This is a property in Reineck. It's a TD Bank building, and this is a very good settlement that we struck, school districts aware and the villages aware. The refunds have been kept down, and we received some correspondence from the business manager of the school district, very appreciative of keeping those refunds down.

So I'd recommend.

No, Reineck.

Oh, and it's 250 Boston Post Road.

This is the one near Taylor's Lane.

It's the only TD Bank in Reineck.

It says Portchester on the resolution.

Okay, we can change that.

Because there's a TD Bank that's...

There's multiple TD Banks.

Perhaps New Bond Council could serve as CERT Council as well.

I would welcome that. I'll see you at 7.

My office.

I'd rather die.

That makes sense to me

so it's not the one that's been frustrated well you had you had one that was but not the one in right okay that's east coast well in any event this this case among others has been uh discussed before before you go so we're confirmed it is portrait so the resolution has portchester so that's okay the only mistake was was Jeff saying it's in Ryback?

Sorry.

Okay. So it's in Porteous.

In any event, the stakeholders in these cases are aware of it, given our regular meetings with them, and this is a relatively light refund as it relates to all the stakeholders.

Yeah, and this takes care of... Eight years, going back to 2018.

Wow. Two years. They withdrew it.

So the total refund is you add up everything in the right-hand column? In those columns, yeah. Not in... significant amount of money.

No, that's the amount of the reduction. That's the amount of the reduction.

That's not the amount of the refund. That's not the refund. That's the amount.

The total school district refund is $16,000 and change.

Got it. So the amount of the reduction is simply the reduction in the assessed value. Yes.

The reduction begins with 2020 of $167,000, and it goes up to $180,000 and change. It looks like. And we take that all the way forward. 5% or 6% in an assessment. Yeah. This is a settlement that's held down the refunds, and that's a good deal. I would recommend the town adopt it. Absolutely.

OK. One motion. Yes, please. So moved. Second.

Call the roll, please.

Councilperson Jaffee. Yep. Councilperson Sellier.

Yes.

Councilperson Nardi. Yes. And Supervisor Zuckerman.

Yes. The next one is not so easy.

The next one is Doral Arrowood, and this has been the subject of a very lengthy negotiation between the the town, the property owner, and the stakeholders being the village and the school. They are sizable, but they have been agreed to by all the stakeholders. And this case was handled by Dan Tartaglia. I would recommend its adoption.

Let me just go over one thing. This involves only one year. Three parcels up at Doral involving one year. And the reason that this occurs is because the then assessor was not made aware of the fact that Doral went out of business. And therefore, for that one year, the assessment was not reduced. All subsequent years were reduced, that's why they're not being contested. But that one, apparently on the taxable status date, the assessor was not aware that they had gone out of business. It was not made aware by anybody, and so the assessment remained as it was, and that has resulted in the

This is for only 2020. So the structure was still up, but the business was defunct.

What about the townhouses there? Is that that's a separate entity? The proposed development? Or the Doral Greens? The Doral Greens. That's a separate thing. Totally separate.

Okay. Some people there do contest, but they normally go to small things. But we also had a meeting via Zoom with... the village and the school district to discuss this and to make sure that everybody was on board. I was at the meeting and Dan and various financial officials from the entities.

This is the only year?

This is the only year.

For now? What do you mean? So are there years? Well, the future.

Oh, the future, okay. These keep coming back like mushrooms. Yeah, okay.

And you mentioned previously that the school district was getting more involved. And in fact, here in the resolution, it said they actually, the blind group, actually intervened in the case, as you can see.

They became a party. Actually, in all Rye Brook cases now, the Blind Brook School District has been represented by council in all of our settlements. We keep him well-informed, constantly on conference calls. He's on all our regular calls. We don't settle a case without running it by council. him, and that also applies now to Portchester. So Portchester also has counsel.

And they're actually intervening?

It's not a formal intervention in terms of the filing and notice of appearance. Some do. On some cases, the notice of appearance is filed. On most of the cases, they're participating in the conferences that we have before the court. They're on the conference calls. They're appearing in court. But, you know, it depends on the stage of the litigation. If it's going to trial, they'll put in a formal notice of appearance.

Do you want a motion for this? Motion.

Second.

Second.

Please call the roll. Sure.

Councilperson Jaffe. Yes. Councilperson Sellier. Yes. Councilperson Nardi. Yes. And Supervisor Zuckerman.

Yes. Our last resolution. To authorize a climate change mitigation easement with the Village of Maranek for the potential replacement of the Guyon Creek footbridge. Debbie, do you want to just outline what this is all about?

The village, as I know all of you are aware, flooding has been an enormous problem in the village of Ameroneck, particularly in the Rhineck area. New York State funded, why is this not moving? Oh, there we are. So New York State funded an extensive study a couple of years ago that was performed by the landscape engineering firm SLR. And SLR looked at the hydrology impacts of the Beaver Swamp Brook and also several bodies of water that converge This particular area, we're just talking about the Beaver Swamp Brook. In essence, that's what you're seeing here. Here's a picture of the Beaver Swamp Brook, and you will see that there is a tiny little bridge there. That's ours.

That's a great looking bridge.

And mounted underneath that great looking bridge is a sewer pipe. sewer pipe belongs to the village of mamaroneck and the spit of land we can call this a land bridge also belongs to the village of mamaroneck so the town's bridge sits on the village of mamaroneck land and the village of mamaroneck sewer pipe is mounted under it the study recommended that the bridge be removed and the that land bridge be removed so that we widen the channel so that water can flow and there are a number of other remediation projects that were recommended upstream but they can't do any of those until the the little tiny edge of the funnel is removed so is as it was explained to me This bit of land functions as a funnel and when you've got a storm and water is gushing down, it hits the funnel, it all can't go through and what happens? It backs up and floods anything that happens to be low enough for that water to reach and it churns up because as funnels do, it will churn up all the stuff. So it isn't just water, it's water and all the detritus that goes along with it. It's hugely damaging. So that's the problem that they're trying to solve. And the only way they're going to solve it is if they get a grant. And what this resolution is, is the required easement and support for the grant. And the easement is so that the village of Mamarone can go ahead and do their studies and submit this grant and make their plans to go forward. So it doesn't authorize any work to happen. That will be subsequent grants. All this does is support their grant application and provide them with an easement so that they can do their homework.

That bridge was the very first bridge I did at Superintendent Highways.

If you could go back to the slide before that. So if you look at Stewart Avenue, I think I live at the T in Stuart on the southern side. I walk around the block pretty much every day and I'm sure there's a good answer to this.

I'm wondering

Why is that little beautiful wooden bridge, I'm sure it's some historic accident, a responsibility of the town? And would it make sense to just say, hey, womeneric, you own the land, you know, here, how would you like this nice little bridge? Debbie? Debbie? I'm sure there's a rational reason in this wonderful Alice in Wonderland world.

It has certainly been suggested and discussed.

The supervisor has discussed this with the mayor.

Offered it to them for a dollar.

I offered that bridge for a dollar.

We're just not there yet.

Did you discuss it with the current mayor, who seems to be irrational? Yes.

What would be- And the previous mayor.

Less action.

Okay.

So let me give you a history lesson.

Is it because, just because, okay, now, if you give it to the village, okay, the village is responsible for it and has to spend money. At some point, it just seems kind of odd.

Randy, Randy, I want to give you a short history lesson. I love history. At the risk of extending this meeting longer than it should. There was a lawsuit commenced by the village of Mamaroneck against the town of Rye. Back, I forgot the year, the 1990s, if I recall correctly.

I would say the 80s.

Might have been the 80s.

Late 80s.

Do you remember? You were talking about the stipulation agreement.

Yeah. And the argument, because Mamaroneck was... All of the bridges are in the merit. However, and they were taking care of a lot of them, and somebody realized that under state law, all bridges are owned by the town. And so after litigation, a stipulation was entered into, which is fairly complicated, which lists every bridge in Reineck that the town owns and has a description of who is responsible for general maintenance and who is responsible for capital improvements and all of this stuff. Almost all of the bridges are subject to maintenance by the Village of Amerenick. Only two bridges, to my knowledge, or maybe a third, third bridge. This one, called Guyon, which we all call the Continental Manor Bridge, the Otter Creek Bridge, and what's the third one, Deb?

It's the South Ferry Avenue Bridge over Guyon Creek.

Okay. Those three bridges are totally the town's responsibility. All the rest of Amaroneck basically takes care of, including Hillside Avenue, which if you will recall, was subject to a multi-million dollar grant entered into by the village of Amaroneck, the town of Amaroneck, and the town of Rye to get that grant because the one part of hillside avenue was located in the town of rye the and other end of hillside avenue was in the town of amaranek and the bridge of course is maintained by the village so that's how that worked that's why hillside avenue we got totally renovated or replaced with the concurrence of all three communities in the grant we had the jefferson avenue bridge that we had to replace

That was another one.

So that's the short history. This ridge was rehabilitated recently. The wood is beautiful.

Well, we did replace a whole number of bores.

Because originally it was done 17 years ago. That was the very first project bridge because it got wiped out by one of the hurricanes. And the embankment had to be redone. The whole bridge had to be redone because the embankment got wiped out.

So is the idea that that little channel needs to be made wider so water can flow and it can flow out?

The idea would be that little opening would be as wide as... the channel to the north and the south of it. So it would become one clear pathway for the water.

Oh, the bridge one south barrier would be that wide?

As wide as the channel is just surrounding this area.

That's the idea. And the other thing, the people in that area always use that bridge. That bridge was out for a while and they were having to fit because they like to cut through there to make it easier to go to the stores.

So that's the political question involved as to...

Wait, where do they go? They go across, because it used to be the Continental Manor on Boston Post Road, but then you had CVS and you had the stores there, so they go over the bridge and they cut through to go onto Boston Post Road instead of going all the way across and up and around. Because that's down like in a valley. That's down in the valley. What is it? Shore? I forget the name of it. Shore Acres. Shore Acres, yeah. So then they have to come up and they have to go up, you know, up the road a bit. It's a lot more walking for them. So this way they had the shortcut. And a lot of people, they couldn't wait for the bridge to be open.

I'm looking at Randy's.

I'd love to know how many people walk across that bridge to go to CVS to do their shopping.

They go for the walks because they go. Sir Randy? There's also a footpath that goes, a walking path that goes along the shore there. You come off the bridge and you go to the left and it goes up towards Stewart Avenue, I guess.

So here's the thing. Pam, you were the one who wrote the note to me today, right? Was it you?

What's that?

One of you wrote me a note as to... I did. You did. So there's no question that if this project gets approved... The channel has to be widened and the bridge has to be removed. The question then becomes, after all that work is done, what happens to the bridge? Do you replace it? And my answer to Tommy was, the town of Rye is not replacing it.

The village of has built money into their grant application to replace the bridge. Well in excess of the amount of money they put in last year's unsuccessful grant application.

17 years ago. The 300,000 they put in?

200,000.

17 years.

They've put a couple million in to replace the bridge, I believe.

Replace that bridge.

Let me tell you something.

Well, once the channel is wider, they have a lot more bridge to put in. Yeah.

It's going to be wider. It's going to be wider. It's going to be longer. If the project is funded. That bridge.

But this is a pedestrian bridge.

Yes.

Now it is. Yeah. When will the engineers get hold of it?

There is nothing. You can't. Hey, God loves. I'm just kidding. Can we vote on this, guys? Sorry. Did we vote on it yet? No.

No. Motion and a second, please. I'll make the motion.

I don't care. We just want to move on at this point. You know, Tom, we could bring it to your driveway. It will fit. Yes.

Councilperson Saffy. Councilperson Sellier. Yes. Councilperson Ardy. Yes. And Supervisor Zuckerman.

By the way, since it is... Is this the bridge you painted without the Coast Guard? No, that was before. That was before.

Since it is a town...

that bridge that footbridge with the abutment was $75,000 guys okay okay we have reports I don't know if anybody wants to give a report Charlie do you ever report to give

Good evening, Charles Zaba, town assessor. Just wanted to do a reminder, the tentative assessment role is on the town's website. All the letters for the change of assessment notices have been mailed out. I KNOW BECAUSE EVERYONE'S BEEN CALLING ME. THE AVERAGE ASSESSMENT FOR ALL VILLAGES WAS APPROXIMATELY 9%. SO IF YOU WENT UP 9%, YOU SHOULD SEE NO SUBSTANTIAL DIFFERENCE TO YOUR TAXES. GRIEVANCE DAY IS NEXT TUESDAY, THE 16TH. THE TIMES, IF YOU WANT TO SIT DOWN WITH THE BOARD OF ASSESSMENT REVIEW AND SPEAK TO THEM, 2 TO 4. six to eight, and that'll be at 222 Grace Church Street. We'll be on the first floor. When you come in the door, go towards your left, and we'll have a place for you to sit and wait. All right, thank you very much, and hope to see you Tuesday.

Just one thing. You said something slightly inaccurate. If your assessment only went up 9%, your taxes won't go up?

No, it should not go up substantially. All right.

What I say, whenever you make that statement,

on what the schools and the villages and the town does. Yes, whatever the levies do, we'll be... That's what I was going to say.

Thank you. The councilman stole my thunder. Yes, it depends on the taxing. That's okay, it depends on the taxing jurisdiction and the taxes that they choose to levy. Basically, your assessment, if everybody goes up the same amount, then your taxes will not go up any more than anybody else's proportionately.

That's all I have to say about that.

Thank you, Charles. Crawford Park, do we have a Crawford Park report?

We do.

It's submitted. I think I saw Candy in the other room.

Okay, submitted. Financials.

Do you have anything to add?

You did enough damage for tonight, Josh.

So are we moving on to financials? Do you want to?

I thought it was submitted. Candy, do you need?

Candy's been here.

Candy's been here. Candy, you'll go after John then, okay?

Here we go. Gosh, not a lot to report. Let's see. There was one interim property that was paid, three bell place. However, the total interim property balance. 726 went up substantially mainly because a lot of those properties that are still on this report didn't pay their village taxes so that went on to the current lien so it substantially increased the balance from last month in addition to penalty so um again not much of a change in properties that were that paid their monies one but the balance increased because a lot of these folks didn't pay their village taxes and on top of that is penalty so it increased i know jeff is working on this stuff hard so um any questions

No, I see what I see. Okay, great, thanks. You know I look at these all the time.

I know you do, as do I. Yeah.

Actually, we're considering the taxable value of the property and the taxes that we collect of $250 million or so to have tax arrears in the less than $2 million total.

I think that is... And there's one property that's 30% of it, right? Pardon me? And there's one property that's 30% of it.

Right. We're going to get that money, don't worry.

Yeah, it's only 21 properties. I mean, how many people do we tax? 48,000?

Thank you. Thanks, John. All right, Candy. Crawford Park.

Hi, Candy.

Hi, Candy.

Thank you for staying so late.

So for the gross and waived events for May of 2025 and versus 2026, there is a slight difference. SO THIS YEAR WE'VE MADE 75,935 VERSUS LAST YEAR WE DID 62,879. FOR THE WAVED FEES, THIS YEAR WE DID 30,625 AND LAST YEAR WE DID 23,980. This year's event compared to last year's events, we did three more events than last year. So as of now, we have 179 events versus last year was 176. And then the breakdown of the events in regards to private events. For the resident in Portchester events, we've had 32. For Rybrook, we've had 20. So far, none yet for Rynek. Non-resident, we have 37 events. That's for June. That's a total of 89 events. And then for municipalities, the breakdown for resident events, we have for Port Chester 26, Rybrook one, and Rynex zero. No events for non-resident, which is a total of 27. So far we've had three public events And then we have the breakdown of the programs, which fiddleheads, we have 12. Chests, we have 27. Council for the Arts, 7. And the choir, Jessica Zamek at 14, which is a total of 60. And then coming up for the summer will be our concerts. The first one is July 9th. So it'll be every Thursday free at 7 p.m. So it's from July 9th all the way to August 27th. And then we also have a cooking class from Kara Tannenbaum, which will be Wednesday, July 1st from 6 to 8 p.m. And that concludes my report.

Thank you, Kathy. You're welcome. Very good.

Very, very good. I understand the concerts are through August 27th? August 27th. And then for the beach, it's every Tuesday starting June 30th all the way to August 25th.

Thank you. You're welcome. I have just the cooking class. It says it's free.

It's actually not. There is a $10 deposit. The reason we've done that is because every time we've had the free class, people will sign up and won't show up. So at least now it gives them incentive to actually come.

Makes sense. The camera, this one is in person? Yes. No, it's in person.

Okay. But there will be a camera on her, so if there is room for somebody to attend or if they want to watch on video, they can do that.

So the Zoom is free and the in-person is $10.

Right. Usually I'll set it up where it's on Facebook Live, so if they want to, while they're, doing the class, they can participate while she's doing it live.

I have a question while I'm looking at it. We should make a note, the Zanuck Singing Choir, I thought that they would be really good, Pam, at Pride Day if they were included. We should ask them. They practice here sometimes when we go downstairs. I've never seen them.

They're really good. Did they do the holiday fest? I believe they did it last year, yes.

I think we should ask them. I heard them warming up, practicing. They're really, really good. All right. Director of Parks and Facilities. Vic, are you still around?

Yes, I am.

Anything you want to tell us?

No, not really. Just, you know, truthfully, I'll tell you that They're doing a great job there. Candy's doing a great job there. And everything I believe is running smooth.

Thank you. Excellent report. Yeah, I know where you've been.

On June 19th, the Fiddleheads class is having a planting day. so they will be here from 10 to 12 at the garden planting the plants that we've purchased great perfect all right receiver of taxes carla anything to report hi public police receiver taxes

I just want to remind the Village of Rybrook and the Village of Portchester residents that their village taxes are out and they're due by June 30th. Please pay. Because otherwise we have to charge a penalty and I don't want to do that. Basically, that's it. Have a great summer.

Did you hear about the little kind of amusing thing in the Village of Mamaroneck?

No, what? I'm scared.

They mailed duplicate copies of the tax bills to everyone.

Well, somebody's got to pay for the mailing, don't they?

Well, if it was an accident, it would have to be the mailing company, right?

Yeah, I was wondering about that. I don't care that much. But do they outsource that to someone?

If they outsource that to someone, like what happened with us with the county, yeah, they would go, I would think, and set to the mailing company. to the printer of the mail company and say, you made this mistake. So credit us. I don't know what they do, so.

There were some funny things, of course, people saying, do they expect us to pay two bills?

I'm sure they did, because they do that to us with the county, so, yeah.

All right.

Well, in our case, the mailing went out without the proper message, the back.

And they did credit us. They mailed it out. The new president mailed it out. And they did not charge us for the second one, right? Yes. That's it.

Thank you, Carla. You're welcome. Jeff, town attorney, anything?

No.

Nothing happening in court? You can call me about it. Your clerk report is submitted. Do you want to say anything about it? No.

Sorry.

Well, and now we've come to the end.

Motion to adjourn. Before we go to last minutes, I just want to introduce the young woman who has been observing our meeting. This is our new office intern, Ella Schwalb, from Rye Country Day School. And she will be beginning an internship with the town of Rye for the... this portion of the summer welcome all right so maybe she'll be interning in the tax office but she was uh she'll have more fun in your office believe me welcome welcome aboard i just want you to know this was your first meeting here

They're usually not this long.

I think in my now two and a half years, this is the longest we've had.

Yeah.

We've had a lot on the agenda.

Yeah, there's a lot. And with that.

We usually like to get done before 7.

With that.

With that. Comments from the council?

I just want to thank everyone who came to support us at Rye Pride and at EcoFest. And we do have a Juneteenth commemoration coming up on June 26th? 28th. 28th. At the cemetery, at the African American Cemetery.

10 a.m. And I just wish everybody a happy Fourth of July. Stay safe.

And that's about it for me.

Yeah, July 3rd, right?

Yes. All right. Nice.

We'll get to that in a second. Randy, do you have any comments? No. Comments? No?

Okay. We did have a question entered into the comment from Mariana Suma asking when the Blue Mask would be going down on Oakland Beach. She said it helps those who have difficulty walking and those with carriages or wheelchairs. We see the mats at the back of the beach, but no sign of the installation. Ms. Suma, half the mats went in earlier this week, and I believe the rest were going down today, and if not today, tomorrow.

They were put in today, and yes, on Monday, the large mats were put in at the bottom of the ramp.

So the installation will be complete when, Vic? By tomorrow?

Should have been completed the end of today.