Town Council - Regular Meeting

I raise money or have fundraisers. I apply for grants. If I need to apply for a grant where they need me to have a 501c3 umbrella, I'm fiscally sponsored by an organization like that in New York City, which a lot of independent dance artists are. So if you want to understand that more, I can tell you more about it.

I think that... none of us have a problem with you using the space. And we appreciate you coming before us to ask for permission. I think that the fee structure that Debbie quoted is really intended for commercial productions. We've had filming done here, for example, by, you know, movies and television shows. And that's what the fee is designed for. Certainly, we want to support our local residents and their independent not-for-profit artistic enterprises. So I have absolutely no problem. And I'll ask if any of the other members of the...

I think Mrs. Crawford would be very happy. I agree.

Is she a dance fan, Mrs. Crawford? Arts, yeah.

I have a comment. I just want to say, one, you picked a beautiful location for this film. We're really happy that you're using the park. And will you give us a link so we can see it afterwards? Absolutely.

100%.

I've hired a filmmaker who's a man who works in the Hudson Valley and he makes beautiful films. And the two other dancers that I'm performing with are incredible people. I'm excited about, you know, we choreographed a piece that we have been showing people in small studio sharings. And about 50% of the people that witnessed it said, this should be a film. And sometimes there's things that aren't meant to be on stage. They're meant to be something else. So this is the evolution of it. But of course, you'll get to see it. Yeah.

What was your question, Debbie?

But if we can be able to see the link to see the film on the website. Absolutely.

We have a movie screen here.

We could do a showing. We could have searchlights and popcorn. We could do the whole thing.

You should consider talking to us about doing shows here. We have the Westchester Philharmonic in the winter downstairs. Terrific acoustics. We have shows out here every week.

Okay. Yeah, I'm in. So we could do a summer dance.

Now we're going to have dancing on the website. There we go.

Yeah. Debbie saw a piece that I made at the Katona Museum of Art that was one of the first performances that happened coming out of the pandemic when we still weren't allowed to perform indoors. So I made a large thing that people could follow around and around the grounds of the of the museum there. So outdoor dancing is fun. It's hard, but it's fun. It's beautiful. Yeah. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your time. And yeah, I'll be in the in the park next week. All goes to plan.

All right. And if it's raining.

come back you know yeah we'll come we'll make another another day but if it's drizzling we'll do it we'll still do it in a little bit of rain because it'll be that'll give a different effect but yeah yeah yeah exactly there's a very famous dance scene dancing in the rain singing yes there's a few actually people dancing i'm thinking of the one with yeah with gene kelly Gene Kelly himself. Thank you so much.

Well, he was dancing while he was dancing.

Yeah.

That brain was actually milk. So I think we can. I don't know that we need a formal vote. We certainly have our permission. Correct.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for your time.

You're welcome. Next item, resolution to reappoint Dr. Janusz Richards to serve as a member of the Wrightown Board of Assessment Review. I don't know that we need any further explanation. Janusz has been on the Board of Assessment Review for many years. serves out early and has been recommended to be reappointed by the by the village of Port Chester. And unless somebody has a further comment, how long has he served on the board? Our board? He was on the board of assessment review when I was elected supervisor. So it's at least 10 years.

He's done very good service for the town.

So may I have a motion and a second? I'll make the motion. Second. Call the roll, please.

Councilperson Friedman? Yes. Councilperson Jaffe? Yes. Councilperson Sellier? Yes. Councilperson Arte? Yes. And Supervisor Zuckerman?

Yes.

The next item is also a tax cert. This one is yours, Jeff. This is a settlement of 2 Putnam Avenue in Portchester.

Yeah. Hello, everybody. Jeff Binder, town attorney, special counsel for Tax Cert Matters as well. This is a very minor matter. This is a restaurant in Portchester. The town refund is de minimis. The village refund is about $1,400. and the school refund is about $2,900. This takes care of 2020 through 2023.

And they didn't file for 2024-2025? Okay. Unless there's further discussion, I have a motion and a second.

This is the two Putnam Avenue one that we're looking at?

Yeah.

Some of...

Okay, so moved.

Second. Please call the roll.

Councilperson Friedman? Yes. Councilperson Jaffe? Yes. Councilperson Sellier? Yes. Councilperson Arni?

Yes.

And Supervisor Zuckerman?

Yes. Resolution to engage DCC, which is Delzato Consulting. And the It's actually a piggyback on the municipal contract between Delzato and the village of Portchester, providing information technology to the town of Rye. Debbie, you want to explain this?

Yes. Our original contract with DCC was a piggyback on Portchester's contract. That contract ended. Portchester issued an RFP. There were six Proposals submitted, all but one was non-compliant or non-responsive. DCC, which has been the service provider, was and is compliant, and their hourly rate has not changed. It was $200 an hour, and it remains $200 an hour. So this is a new contract. It's a three-year contract, and I'm recommending that we adopt. I would also add that I've checked, and we are pretty much on budget right now. So things are running as anticipated.

Do I have a motion and a second?

Can I ask a question? I do have a question. How is it that would you said six out of seven were non-compliant or five out of six were non-compliant? Was there something in the RFP that wasn't understood or that wasn't clear that only the person that already held the contract was actually able to submit a proposal that complied?

I think the The requirements of CJIS, and I always have trouble remembering what CJIS stands for when it is in front of me, but it is essentially the rules and regulations dictating how information technology is handled around the justice court and police matters. And there are very stringent thresholds and requirements set forth by that agency, and those were in the RFP, and they were not met. Okay. Thank you for clarifying that.

Is there a cap on this, or is it, how does this work?

The cap is our budget.

Is our budget.

So we set, we adopt a budget every year, and our, we put IT support in that budget, and we are held accountable to that.

Okay. Any further questions or discussion? Nope. If not, please call the roll.

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

Yes. Next resolution is authorizing a payment to Westchester Joint Water Works for replacement of a pipe under what will be our new Otter Creek Bridge. Debbie, it's all yours.

There are two homes that receive their fresh water with this pipe. So to fail to replace it would be to deny two residential properties fresh water. This is the estimate, which I believe is 98,000 and change, is just that. It's a time and materials estimate. The rate is set by the Westchester Joint Water Works, which issues a bid every year for a contractor to perform these services so the rate is already set it's not negotiable uh the requirement of our doing work in this area is that we must do we must comply with the westchester joint waterworks agreement the the um Organization is a consortium of municipalities. So that's set. I would also add that we have been including a utility expense of $100,000 in our estimates for the last several years, ever since we learned that we were going to have to do this. So it's baked into the cake, as it were. And as I put into my memo to the council, we have been asking, as you're all aware, we were advised by our design engineer that due to inflation just alone, our estimate for the project is about a million dollars more than it was award than the budget in 2021 when we got this award. And we were notified by the Department of Transportation that our request for additional funding has been granted. And so we are in the process of, we're going to be receiving a revised agreement from the Department of Transportation, which will cover this cost.

Okay. My question is, is that, Even though it's the Westchester Joint's line and we're replacing it, I imagine we're replacing it naturally because of the bridge and the line's not broken or anything. Further down the line, if anything is left, that line is compromised. Are we responsible for it or is the Westchester Joint's waterworks responsible for it?

My assumption is if we haven't done anything that...

That would be theirs.

It would be theirs, but I think we would have to figure...

It's their pipe.

It's their pipe. We have to pay for it because we're relocating it because of the new bridge.

Voluntarily.

That's understandable. But then going forward, if anything happens to it, it's their responsibility. That's what I'm getting to. Okay.

And just to clarify, if I heard you correctly, with this new funding that we'll be getting because the cost has increased significantly versus the original estimate, That is going to cover this, so this is not going to be an outlay that the town is actually making ultimately that we're going to get. Correct.

Well, that's right. The $100,000 for the utility was built into our ask.

And that ask was granted. And was that for 100% of the project? Was there a match with that project?

The project is essentially 95%, 5%. So the local match was assumed to be 5%. Okay. Okay.

So this is not actually an outlay for our taxpayers. This is an outlay that we need to do that, but we will get that money back. This $98,000 or whatever the ultimate actual cost is.

I would also add that this is their best guess at what it is going to be. It could be less, but it also could be more, and it's determined by their time and materials.

Do they have a... But they have a... somebody in place who gave us this estimate who said that they can do this work now for this money and we're ready to get started on the work now.

Yeah, I believe the work has to be done before we start the work on our.

So the assumption is that there could be slight variations in cost, but it shouldn't double.

That's correct.

Correct. Have a significant change because this is a recent cost estimate that was provided and they were granted or awarded the work.

The bid is not for our project specifically. The bid is for any projects that come up in calendar year, however they define their calendar year. So the Westchester Joint Water Works is bids for this every year, and they have somebody engaged to do this work, whatever happens to come up.

OK, but they still got an estimate from them on this particular job of what it's going to cost.

They worked out that with our design engineer that we provided many, many, many, many sets of plans. This has been going back and forth weekly for months. Thank you.

This project, the bids are due to be open, I think, soon, right?

Next Thursday, I think?

Next week. The bridge replacement, yeah. And we're expecting, Debbie mentioned that we're getting extra money. We've been fighting for extra money for a couple of years now since, well, over a year since we found out The latest estimates were a million dollars or so more than the original estimates. And I've written letters to the State Department of Transportation, to our state representatives, to the governor's office, and then we got a phone call. So we're waiting for the paperwork to confirm that the money's there. And they said by the end of the month, didn't they?

They did say that.

They did say that.

And we shouldn't wait for this to be in writing before we go ahead and vote on this?

We need to do this work before the bridge work starts, so we really have to do it now. The plan is that we are not going to award the contract for the bridge replacement until we've gotten our in-writing... revised agreement.

Okay. Because in the event that we do this work and then something else happens and that doesn't come through, then we spend the money on this work without being able to complete the project potentially.

Well, that's the...

The bridge has to be replaced because the state's going to fire it. So it's really a moot point.

This is a red flagged bridge.

It has to be done regardless at this point because otherwise if we don't do anything with it, they're going to shut it down.

Thank you.

And we would rather they pay for it than we pay for it. Understood.

That's all I had.

I would add that we've been talking about passing, adopting the resolution to award the contract in September. The likelihood is with the DOT's due diligence period, it will probably be in October, not in September.

Maybe. Maybe. Right.

The best information we have at the time.

We have, I think Ms. Edwards is probably familiar with this term from the military, hurry up and wait. So this is, you know, my reference is always keep the wheel turning. Keep the wheel turning. So we have a motion and a second. We're going to vote. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Please call the roll.

No, we haven't voted yet.

No, we have to vote. We have a motion and a second, though.

Did we do that already? No, we didn't.

I'll make the motion.

Second.

Now we do.

Now we have a motion. Please call the roll.

Councilperson Friedman? Yes. Councilperson Jaffe? Yes. Councilperson Sellier? Yes. Councilperson Arte? Yes. And Supervisor Zuckerman?

Yes. This is a beauty. Resolution identifying the town supervisor as a responsible local official authorized to access the Department of Transportation's Equitable Business Opportunity System. Another administrative issue. You want to explain this, Debbie, or should we just vote on it? Unless somebody else wants to be the one.

I'm happy to explain it. So when administering New York State DOT projects with federal that are using federal funds, there is a portal that must be accessed to establish that we're paying the correct rates in the correct to the correct entities and that compliance is all entered through that portal. And so we need to open it. And the supervisor Zuckerman will have the authority to do that. And then we will do the rest for him.

I was just going to ask that. Will you be able to give the password to somebody else?

I am not going to hold on to the password. Believe me. Do I have a motion and a second, please?

So moved.

Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Thank you. I was waiting for a resolution that didn't require The general criteria is that if we're spending money or if it's an item that I consider of vast importance,

we take a roll call. Otherwise, like the minutes and something like this. I'm sorry I mentioned it. And we could have already had three roll calls at that time, Randy.

But let's move on.

This one is the adopting a secret resolution for a proposed action at Crawford Park to put what we're calling a park support building to replace the storage containers that sit in a very ugly manner on the outskirts of the property. We have applied for grants for this. And in order to secure a grant, we have to complete the seeker. In this case, it's what's known as a type two action. And in many cases, actually, we don't There's a question as to whether a resolution is even required, but I always felt that the best practice is to pass a resolution stating that it is a type two action. And the work for this was done obviously by our environmental consultant who advised us that it's a type two action. And she prepared the resolution, that's Sarah Brown. So if there are no other questions, I have a motion and a second.

I have a question. Is there a cost to this? Is there a cost to doing this to us?

To doing what?

Isn't this to do the, so tell me what exactly we're doing.

We're just declaring this to be a type two action.

We're just declaring it to be a type 2. It doesn't need to be evaluated for anything in terms of environmental or anything like that.

No, it has to be by our environmental engineer.

It will have to be. Or it already has been.

It has been. That's why we're declaring it a type 2.

Got it.

Okay, type 1 or unlisted. Okay.

They've already viewed it and they've decided that this is the class that falls under the type 2 category.

Right? If it was, if it was either unless it action or type 1 action, we'd have to file an environmental assessment form. Which we do not because it's a type 2. okay. Thank you for that motion in a 2nd, please. I'll make the motion 2nd. Well, let's call the role.

Council person Friedman. Yes. Council person Jaffe. Yes. Council person Sellier.

Yes.

Council person Nardi. Yes. And Supervisor Zuckerman.

Yes.

Resolution. One monetary resolution. It was actually probably redundant. And as you stated in your play, not even necessary, but just being done out of an abundance of caution. Nevertheless. I did this for you. I appreciate it. I appreciate the opportunity to be heard on an individual basis on that issue.

I just wanted you to know that I heard you. And I said it tongue in cheek. Resolution to engage pond and lake connection with regard to mosquitoes. Debbie? Randy is interested in this.

This matter came up very suddenly a week ago Wednesday. We received an order from the Department of Health with regard to the parcel that is pictured on the screen. It does not have a street address. It is roughly adjacent to Garden Road, which is a paper road. There is actually no road that leads to this parcel. It is a salt marsh. We were ordered to create a plan and engage a licensed service provider to remediate a mosquito infestation, possibly involving Phragmites. we have not up until now done anything in terms of maintenance for the salt marsh it was kind of taking care of itself nor could we reach it if we wanted to take care of it However, the town of Rye, in its capacity as administrator for Rytown Park and co-owner of Rytown Park, we've had a service provider that has been very successfully addressing mosquito infections. situation at the pond at Rytown Park. I inherited them when I came into this job in 2016. They're great. So the first thing I did was I was on the phone with the Pond and Lake Connection. You have before you a proposal from Pond and Lake Connection regarding what it might cost to remediate this program. All of that documentation was submitted to the Department of Health. I received a number of questions in response. Answers to those questions were submitted the 18th of August. I know they've been read. I haven't received any questions in response. So good if it goes. At this time, the only thing we can do is apply for permits. We absolutely can apply for a permit from the DEC that will cost between $400 and $500. And we will submit the coordinates of this property to the New York State and they will tell us if we need a permit. for that work and if they do it'll cost roughly fifteen hundred dollars that's where we are so far um so while this agreement permits us to spend an expense not to exceed twenty thousand dollars we are a far cry from spending that amount of money we're going to take it as it goes um so the order

That required some action within 14 days.

Simply to provide some documentation documentation of our plan of what we propose to do and that we are. Putting that plan. We're engaging a licensed operator to implement the plants.

So is there a timeline? About when the actual work is supposed to be done that did not come from the Department of Health.

I met with the village of a Marinette yesterday. To discuss what they were doing involved in that meeting was also the Westchester land trust, which also received 1 of those orders grams. Yes. So each organization was responding in the way that they saw fit. And we discussed perhaps it would be a lot better idea if we work together on this. So one of the things I'm going to be exploring is I'll be receiving shortly the village of Amerinex contract with their service provider. I want to take a look at what that looks like. Um, and I also will be trying to reach out to the deputy commissioner. That was responsible for issuing this order so that I can better understand exactly what we need to do.

I noticed the, I mean, like, like Randy said, um. You've got 14 days to react to it before you start getting fined. Now that we reacted to it, do they give us a timeline where I say, OK, you've got a certain amount of time? No, they have not. Just as long as you started the process. That's fine. OK. Cool.

We are in compliance with their order. Good.

That's good. OK.

I also have a question, which is you said that there's no road access there. So this remediation, when it does take place, what does that involve exactly? Do you know? How did they get in there? Is it just that they walk through and there's a place to walk?

I'm not going in there.

Aerial spraying?

How did they get in there?

No, not aerial spraying. The Pond and Lake Connection has this really cool amphibious phragmites mower.

So they have a piece of equipment.

Pardon? It's a spray or we don't know what they do? You know, it's a larvicide, but I am not clear if it's a spray. I've heard a lot about dunks.

I know nothing about this, so I was just curious. So they, when they gave an estimate, they know how they're going to go in and they're going to... Oh, yeah.

And they provided... We just don't. They've not only... Yes, they provided the name of the chemical that they will be using and the backup and the DEC numbers, et cetera, which I have passed along.

And I'm assuming, again, that they're, you know... Again, this is designed to kill the mosquitoes and not negatively impact the rest of the environment. Exactly.

Which is why we start with the DEC permit. You have to remember that when you talk about environmental, the DEC is on top of this stuff. So if we get a DEC permit, they're going to want to know how it's being done, and they will approve the methodology.

Debbie, I just have a question. I'm having trouble. If I if you're going down Taylor's lane.

Okay, now I need Charlie's help.

Okay. Yeah.

Nobody's gonna be able to hear you on the dead end. No, you're right. You're right. You're correct.

The lot's right in the middle. So if you go down Creek Road, headed towards the reserve, to the land trust, it's like if you kept going through those... Right through that guy's property. That's fascinating, because it's surrounded by land trust property.

Correct. That's the only parcel we have inside the land trust.

How historically did that piece of land...

Historically, I don't know. Why did you give it to the land trust? Well, actually, Randy, there is a, there is a story behind that. If you recall, the land trust was negotiating a piece of approximately 200 square foot property. Right to do the bridge. Yeah. That negotiation that should have taken 5 minutes. 5 minutes took a year and a half.

And over $10,000.

Right. And we had to threaten them with eminent domain.

And we had to threaten them with eminent domain. So if you may ask, my original thoughts about this property a long time ago were to give it to the land trust. But God knows what would happen if we started negotiating with the land trust about this. So we still have it. If they want it, I would be happy to talk to them.

It's just fascinating. How did that end up being property of the town? I don't know the answer. Charlie might know.

The property card was from the 60s.

Yeah, it's been like that for a very long time. It's just very strange.

Can we look? We should look and see who owned it before.

I don't have any records.

We can go. We'll ask our When our time clerk comes back, we'll ask her to search the records back to 1660.

I hope we can find it before we spend any more money on it.

I like that idea a lot. Anyway, let's have a motion and a second.

So moved.

Second. Please call the roll.

Councilperson Friedman? Yes. Councilperson Jaffe? Yes. Councilperson Sellier? Yes. Councilperson Arte? Yes. And Supervisor Zuckerman?

Yes. The next two resolutions involve the Association of Towns. The first one is in support of the New York Association of Towns Bill of Rights, which is basically the Association of Towns is asking each individual town who is a member and there are over 900 towns in the state of new york in case you're interested to pass this resolution which affirms certain things i'll just read briefly protection and defense of municipal home rule local control of land use and zoning free from statewide zoning rules that override the voice of resident taxpayers, freedom from unfunded mandates, modernized transparency, accessibility, and engagement, and a meaningful voice in state decisions affecting the hometowns that towns govern, among other things. Do Does anybody have a comment? Otherwise, we have a motion and a second.

I have a motion. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

And the last one is authorization for a delegate to the legislative meeting of the New York Association of Towns. The Association of Towns is having a legislative conference and meeting september 22 to 23 and i am going and i believe debbie is going is that correct and this the the town department the association of towns needs an official resolution uh naming an official delegate and that resolution the resolution before you names me as the designate and debbie as the alternate Any questions? If not, may I have a motion and a second? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Enjoy yourself. And that ends our resolutions. Thank you, everybody. Reports. Charlie, do you have an assessor's report? No assessor's report. Crawford Park. Does Candy have a report?

It's submitted with the agenda.

Okay. Submitted with the agenda. Vic is not here.

Vic may be on Zoom. Vic, are you on Zoom?

I hear you, Vic.

We can't see you, but we hear you.

We hear you.

His camera's off.

Is. Oh, yes.

Sure. Which stone is this, Vic?

The replacement stone.

It's the large decorative stone.

The one in the cemetery.

Yes.

Yes, okay.

We're talking Crawford Park, I thought. Vic is also our cemetery guy. Okay, yes. Thank you.

Oh, good. Okay.

Sure. Oh, It can't be cut up in place. All right.

A large tree.

pretty big yeah i saw the pictures all right excuse me all right the uh the path came out really really nice vic

going to I will bring I'll bring up the picture that worked okay so that's what our path looks like everyone and I'm what I'm showing is a flyer that we have around and our website is open for people to donate pavers for our path

I think that's great. What is the price of the papers?

$300? $250? Chance, can you hear me?

think it's 200 and it turns out thank you very much it's 200 for the four by eight pavers and our contractor surprised us and also put in eight by eight pavers so we didn't realize we were getting two different sizes of pavers so we put that in at 500 so 200 and 500

So people know that's the removal of the paver, having it etched, and then reinstalled. That's the whole package, right?

We have blank pavers installed. I'm sorry, do you want to take this, Vic? Okay.

Okay.

So it's a fresh paver. So we've got blanks. The people who order pavers, we'll have them delivered in bunches so that it's cost effective, and then we'll put in the... Yeah, they're not going to do them one at a time.

Right. We also have this program at Wright Town Park.

Yes.

And the cost there is a little bit more.

Yes, yes, the donations are higher. And we've, at Rytown Park, our donations are well over $10,000. Good.

Which basically pays for the installation.

So we'll see where we are at Crawford. We're just starting at Crawford.

My question always is, how are we promoting it?

Well, so far we've just got our, we're just, you know, walking. The website is up not even a week or two. Okay. And we are, well, you're looking at our flyer. And there's our sandwich board sign is in production.

Okay.

That will be out near in Crawford. So when people walk by, they can see that they can donate. And then we'll go from there.

What I would like to do, I'm sorry to interrupt you. What I'd like to do, I know we didn't, because I'm just finding out about this, is when we have our car show, put that in with the cars that are coming in. you know, the people that pay to come in to show the car, slip them in there. Oh, put the flyer in.

Most of those people aren't local. It doesn't matter.

I'm sorry.

I said most of those people are not local people. Almost all of our carshow people are local.

Are they within the town? A lot of them are local.

Okay. Sorry. I did not know that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Even if not, even if they're from Greenwich, they got relatives in Portchester and Wrightbrook, I'm sure.

Okay. No, I didn't realize that the people that were coming to show their cars were that local.

Oh, yes. Yeah.

Okay.

Debbie, just by the way, for Sue and Chance and you, when you want to come up with a multi-tier marketing plan for this, I'm very happy to help.

It's a great idea.

Yeah, because I think for both of them, you know, I don't know, $10,000 at Brighton Park is fantastic, but certainly there are more ways to generate, you know, generate funds for both of these.

Speaking about generating interest, I've had a lot of people come up to me and tell me how great the concerts are here.

Well, that's fantastic.

Right? And then they say, but there should be more people. We have to, we have to promote the Crawford Park concerts better than we have. I know that we put publicity out for Pam. If you could put your mind to that too, because you are so inventive on how to do these things, because they are very good. People come up all the time and say, I was at this. It was fantastic. But there were only 50 people there or something like that. Right. And we have enough room for thousands.

I think we also may want to look into working with Rybrook and consolidating that a little bit. I think there's a lot of local concerts, and maybe we want to look at that also.

Fewer concerts with more people attending each one as opposed to having as many as we've had.

Well, we don't have that many.

It's like eight. I think. It's really not that many. Some people come to all of them, some just to a few.

I understand. And I've been, and I came to them, but it is smaller groups. So it's something to consider. That's all.

All right. That's it for the park, Vic.

Okay, thank you, Vic.

Financials.

I can close these, right? You have no other mediums, right? Do you have any other media?

no that's not it wasn't it at the top well it was at the tops of the PDFs that I have the screen that I had open for so we can't use no no I'll move the file out of it okay You introduced, yeah, those 2. well, they are 2.

I'm just going to, I'm just going to temporarily move them out of here because I know you prefer to use the mouse.

Okay, John Pruskinteli, Comptroller. Before I start, I just want to go through some highlights for the month.

Okay, let's focus on...

Put this one up for now. This one's not working. I need the final in rem first. Great. Okay. So before I get started on the schedules, I just want to go over a couple of highlights. We did receive our band proceeds for the month and 5.2 million. And the net interest rate is 3.058%. Really a good favorable rate. Um, also currently with New York class, we have about 16.6Million dollars invested. 13 of which we're going to have to pay out in October to the county because they allow us to hold on to money for 3 or 4 months and gain interest on that. And for the month we've already for the month of July, we. Earned about 43,000 dollars in interest. So I expect that to go up in September and October because we took some of the band proceeds and put 2 million of it into New York class. So good news. Good news. And cash and CD balances as of today are about 2.7 million. So moving in the right direction, trying to gain as much interest as we possibly can on our investments. Okay, here we go. Um, here we go. Just wanted to point out that here on this line, compared to last year, we're in, I'm not concerned, we're in relatively good shape. Overall receivables, what I call trade receivables, $4.25 million versus last year $4,009,000. So I think it's reasonable. I'm not concerned that we're increased by about $250,000. I think receivables are going to start coming down. I do know some items are on the hopper, and I think we're going to receive some material balances. Okay, so let's go back up to the liens here. I do have a couple of concerns, but there's always a story. And, um, if you look at the interim lean totals again. This year 2.1 million versus last year about 1.6 million in this 2. 1,000,000 up here in this 1.1 1.159 a 1,000,000. There's a 656,000 dollar receivable due from 111 South Ridge Street. Um, a lot of that is dependent on refinancing. I think once that gets refinanced, there's a good chance we'll get that money. It's a discussion we always have and we have it every day and every week and but we're confident that we're going to receive that. All righty. Another concern I have, or not a concern, but something we like to keep our eyes on, is in this $1.8 million here, already there is a receivable from 900 King Street. So it's a new lien. It really won't go into NREM in 2028, but we're keeping our eyes on it. So again, not really concerned with that one. More concerned with the NREM balance, but again, I think we're going to get that money. sooner rather than later.

I'm pretty sure we're going to get the 900 King Street there. They're waiting there. They're going to go into demolition of that building in October. And I'm sure that we will be getting that money shortly. And if not, Carla will send them a letter.

Another letter?

Another letter.

All right. Any questions so far? Okay. Um, but, you know, something to be concerned about when you look at our receivables is. A year round what we don't collect gets reserved as an expense reserve for it. So it's really incumbent upon us. to get as much money as we can by year end, because if we don't, the orders are gonna say, okay, well, you didn't receive all this money, we're gonna hit your P&L, which affects the general fund. So it's really incumbent upon us to receive this money and start collecting. And I do know we do legally, we do as much as we can. I know Carl is constantly sending out letters, Jeff's telling her what to do. So there's definitely communication going on that really, really, really is continuous. Okay.

So lastly, on the other side of the coin, people who don't pay their taxes when they do pay them, they're getting charged 12 plus percent in interest.

Yes, they are.

So we have an interest figure in our budget so that we want them to pay. We don't want to have to reserve against collection.

Right.

But if they don't pay, they're borrowing money. They are borrowing, essentially borrowing money at 12%, which is not a good rate for them.

Exactly right. So, what else? I lost my train of thought. But anyway, once you do not collect this money, it affects the general fund, but just trying to move in the right direction. Lastly, what's not on this report is a receivable from Rytown Park. Okay, so it's about $2 million. There really hasn't been a process set up To collect that money, but right now we set up a policy to invoice quarterly to ride town park for any monies that we've incurred on their behalf. And in addition to that, come. Probably November, October, November timeframe. We're going to look at what we think right? Town park needs next year in the beginning of next year. And any excess we're going to try to claw back and pay off that receivable from right? Town park.

Can you tell me what $2 million was for?

A lot of it's payroll that we've paid on behalf of Rye Town Park.

And why doesn't Rye Town Park have the money to pay that to us?

Well, you know, they blow through it pretty easily, I think. I mean, we spend money there and we're waiting for funding for some of the capital projects at Rye Town Park and also at year end, the city of Rye and us, we make them whole for any deficits. that Rye Town Park may incur. So towards year end, both us and the City of Rye will pay that money to Rye Town Park. In addition to that, we're waiting on additional capital project funding from one of our sources.

But if the money is being used for payroll, how does the capital funding that's coming in. That's going to be capital projects.

We've spent money on capital projects that we need to get reimbursed for. Okay, so I'm just talking to overall cash. There's a couple of components.

Okay.

Like I said, you know, we spent money on a project and we're waiting to get it reimbursed. So that goes into cash. Right. And also we're waiting to City of Rye and the town of Rye will pay Rye Town Park monies towards year end to reimburse them for any deficit that's incurred.

They I'm confused. Sorry. You're saying that the right town park owes the town of Rye. Yes, $2 million. Yes. And then you're saying at the end of the year, the city of Rye and the town of Rye will make right town park whole by giving them money for any deficit operating deficit for any operating deficit. Which means that we end up with that deficit as the town. We're part of it and the city is part of it.

We end up expensing some of it, and the capital project portion of it goes to the capital project fund, which doesn't affect our results. It goes into the capital project fund, which is a different category in our financial statements.

Debbie, can we hold this conversation? I'll explain something to you.

I'm pretty much done. Any other questions?

Yeah. Is there a reason why you can't explain it now? I don't understand. I'd like to understand how it works. And in the name of transparency, is there a reason why we can't?

Yeah. It's a fairly complicated situation. Over the years, apparently, the the town of Rye may have overpaid what it's due to Rytown Park. And our audit reports have shown that the commission owes the town money. And we're trying to put a figure to it. It's not definite how much that figure is and where it's coming from. So basically, it's an incomplete report that John has given. And I'm trying to get a complete so that I could advise the council exactly where we are. It's not a complete report.

Okay. Because a $2 million deficit sounds like a large number.

I'm not sure that that is.

And it sounds like something that we should be concerned about.

I don't think that that's an accurate number.

Okay. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Jeff. We, you're going to start the next interim. In January, correct?

Hi, Jeff finger town attorney. Um. To that question, the answer is yes, we have an ongoing periodic commencement of in Rem proceedings against those who. Didn't pay. So, um, I have a basket of old cases and then our new cases start and then our old cases start to resolve. But I have new cases. This is like a never ending saga, but we're as diligent as we can be to collect. Which would help John. Nothing further report.

Are we in court on any of these in runs right now?

We have one in Ram that's actively in court that has to do with one property in Port Chester, which I will be conferencing as soon as we can schedule that we've been offering. Going back and forth on dates. This is the property that has to do with the Knights of Columbus. And other properties and other batches are in various stages of letters petitions, but no active court appearances at the moment. except for the old cases, which were at the oldest cases, the Knights of Columbus case. So.

All right, thank you. Do you have anything?

Not really.

Yeah, close this, please. I don't want to mess this thing up. Thank you.

We're going to need the image back up, so don't completely put it away.

You have no presentation? No.

Just close it. Hi, Carla Buckley's Receiver of Taxes. I only have too much to say. The school bills will be going out, all school bills, the first week of September. They'll be out in the mail and online for all residents. That's it. The liens were filed July 31st for anyone who owed taxes in 2025 and everybody who needs to know about him was about him and they have been coming in to pay most people. So that's a plus. Yeah, that's it.

Thank you. Thank you. Anybody have anything any members of the council wish to speak on any item before we turn?

Yeah, I just want to mention put in your date books October 4th on a Sunday. We're going to have the our 2nd car show here. It's always a good. It was a good time. Had a lot of cars last year. We're planning on having the same thing. We're going to have food trucks. Hot dogs and all different stuff.

This is a mission. Is it invite only?

No, if you've got a show card and you want to show, it costs 20 bucks to enter. We start taking cards at 8 a.m. Judging stops at 1 or 1.30, I forget, but it's like 1 or 1.30 we stop with the judging. We're going to give out trophies. Spectators are free. We're going to have a 50-50 raffle where the proceeds are going to go for the Friends of Crawford Park. So it was a good time. We had a lot of fun last year. Um, so we're doing it again this year and, uh, just put in your books. We have, I have one more meeting, uh, at the end of the September. So this will have everything finalized to get ready for October 4th. We're just praying for good weather again. That's it.

Yeah, the weather will find us beautiful. Do we, do we have a, an alternate thing?

We have an alternate date. I believe it's the 8th, I believe. No, 18th. I knew there was an 8 in there somewhere. I'm just going to double check my phone. Yeah, the 18th. Yep, it'll be the following week. So, you know, if you don't bring a show card, it's fine. You come. Come for free. Bring your family. You know, the kids, we got the park, you know, you get tired of walking around, let your kids go on the, in the park and try to try the playground.

Anything else?

October is filling up. I believe we have now scheduled our multi-municipal community cleanup day for October 17th and we need to start our meetings on that one. I missed the trunk or treat meeting today. What date is that?

We rescheduled the trunk or treat meeting because Chance Fiorisi was all in on getting the media for today's meeting up. So I think the meeting is going to be rescheduled for either later this week or early next week.

Okay.

And the date for Trunk or Treat this year? I think so. Hold on just a minute. I just saw the flyer.

While we're talking about October, which is right around the corner. We've got the car show. We've got community cleanup. We've got Trunk or Treat. I'm sure we have concerts coming down the pike. Holiday lights coming at us in December.

Hi everyone. So you guys want me to talk about Trunk or Treat? Um, so I'm recycling the past wind signs, banners that we have. So we try not to spend money. Oh, I'm Gandhi. I assist Vic Federico. I am his assistant. So I'm also his shadow. Um, so in regards to trunk or treat, I, um, have some of the old wind signs and banners that we've had lying around from last year and the year before. So what I usually try to do is recycle and reuse. So that's what I will try to do for this, not only for the car show, but also for Trunk or Treat and Holiday Lights. What's her date? October 23rd.

Friday, October 23rd. Got it.

And it's first the Trunk or Treat from 5.30 to 6.30, and then right after it will be the movie, which this year will be Toy Story 5. Oh. And then we will have Mr. Softee here as one of the ice cream trucks. This will be the first time we'll have an actual truck on premise.

Never had a truck before.

No, no.

I didn't realize that. Yeah.

I mean, there's so much candy and popcorn that most of the time, most of the kids are filled with that.

But holiday lights, we have trucks.

Holiday lights. We always have trucks. Yes. And for the car show. But this year for the car show, we are trying to see if anybody will sponsor the inflatable.

so kids will have something to do here at the car show besides climb all over fire trucks correct yeah yeah right something else to do besides trying to drive the cars that are there right correct not good to have a six-year-old trying to drive a car

Especially when they're classics and they could get scratched, damaged. Most owners don't want that. So we're trying to find other distractions. Last year we had a vendor. But he had bubbles and that silly string. And it really didn't work out because some of the individuals that had their cars on display were getting bubbles all over their cars and they had to keep wiping down the cars. So they weren't happy. No, they weren't happy.

All right. Thank you, Candy.

You're welcome.

Anything else? Motion to adjourn, please. So moved.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye, aye, Captain.