Town Board - Regular Meeting

under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Just for before I get started, um we do have written down here that we're going to go into executive session at 10:30, but it's actually going to be we need to like finish up with the main part of the agenda. We may not get to everything. Um I need to like move it to 10:00. Um I have a flight to catch this afternoon to go visit um a sick parent and I have to make that flight. So, um, we're going to roll. So, if everyone could work with me, if there's something that can wait until next week, push it and we'll proceed. Um, anyone from the public who wishes to speak.

Pam, good morning everyone. This is a just a simple request. Um, a couple of the hearings last night were put off till April 6th. Could we is it possible to get all of the public hearings that are scheduled now on the website? There is a section under the upcoming documents to post what public hearings have been set so that we know how many have been set for that date. I it seems like there are quite a few. I'm just asking if that's a possibility to get that done. Okay. Whenever you can. Whenever you can. I know it's a very busy schedule and everything is running very quickly these days, but I'd appreciate that.

Um yeah, Shelby can get that taken care of. She's got a list. I've got a list, but that's easy. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Um, next item on the agenda is the irrigation code permit and fees. And so started to work on this last week. Have

pretty much handed it out to everybody. Tell them to look it over. The goal is to sort of streamline the permitting process for the grandfather irrigation which requires annual permitting, the uh new turf irrigation, which also requires permitting, and then add a permit for drip irrigation. Right now, we don't have one. You're allowed to do temporary irrigation for 150 days, but that doesn't seem to be working. And um it's almost impossible to enforce the code the way it's currently written because it's done by number of emitters. So in order for the building department to figure that out, they either have to uncover it, measure it, it just doesn't. So we're just trying to make it clean and simple by requiring it for all drip irrigation no matter the length. Um and right now, no matter the location, um there were some members of the um like landscaping industry who wanted us to only require permits for drip irrigation, the nearshore overlay. So that's something to consider. Um I talked to the building department about it. They said they could handle the volume if they require it everywhere. So, that's just something that will probably come up in the public hearing. But for now, our goal is to just clarify and streamline the permitting process because right now, as it currently stands, it's not very efficient and it's a little confusing. Um, so it doesn't have all of the eventual changes that are going to happen in the irrigation code, but it's just cleaning up this portion so that everybody can get their annual permits renewed before the mid July renewal date. Um, and in this we also want to bump the new renewal date to June, so it's before the middle of July, the hot irrigation season, so that we know we've at least looked at them. Um, and this year we'll give some leeway because we're going to be approving this closer to June. Um, but just that's the gist of it.

Mhm. Honestly, just curious, how's the building department um doing collecting chloride tests and trucked in water receipts? Is that I'm sorry. They're the they're now requiring that the homeowner provide the chloride tests with the renewal of the permit.

Okay. So, we don't because we don't have interns that are going out to do the fluoride testing. So, now it's a requirement put on the homeowner. Um, and then the receipts should be coming in with the permit. Um, and that's, you know, hit or miss depending on the system, whether or not they use them, whether or not they captured rainwater. Okay. you know, but this is going to hopefully streamline some of that. It still requires the fluoride testing. It still requires the receipts for the grandfathered irrigation. Um, you know, I think once the code is fully overhauled, the goal is going to be to sort of grandfathered irrigation, the well-drawn irrigation, especially nearshore areas where it's more sensitive and and of course a conversion to sistns or some other method of water capture. Um but for now we're just trying to clarify the perpeting process. I think that's a good idea.

I think this will make it so much easier for the building department. It will make it easier for enforcement and it'll take a lot of the questions out of do you need do you not need it? Right. You just need it. You just Yeah. You just need it. They don't have to go and dig through your yard. Um, and you know the cost for an a drip irrigation permit right now the like working group has proposed $50 for the permit. It covers the um administrative fees of processing it and if there's an inspection that they need to do,

it covers that as well. And then just because this is like uh it seems like if this rolls out this for like this season um just commun like I like what is the plan to kind of like communicate with all the landscape vendors to well they've already gotten one email blast

showing them what this proposed change is with a description of the modifications that we're currently making. So, we'll send out another email blast with all the documents updated with a new application with the permit like copies of the permit um forms and stuff. So, they'll be up to speed. Um and we're not going to try to make it like retroactive. So, if you've already installed like go back and permit everything, we're not going to do that. It's just moving forward and then um you know, if you have to modify or fix it, then come back and get it permanent, but just trying to move it forward. Got it. Cool. Um, when I was just going through this, um, the 82-5B like irrigation permit, I didn't see it matching up with what the existing code was.

825B. Where are you looking at the I'm looking at the irrigation number of emitters? Yes. Part. Yeah. Right. It eliminated the number of emitters. So if you look at the code Yeah. So 825B like there is no mention of right we eliminated it used to be that you needed if it was uh if this is not nearshore this is existing code or what was given to me is I thought I had existing code but I didn't go back. So 825Bs.

Yeah. So it eliminated the number of emitted specified in 828. So I think you have the corrected version that already has. It's not red line for some reason. Okay. There is a red line version, but if you just printed it without downloading it, you don't have the red lines. All right. Okay. That's the trick. You have to download it to get the change. steep. Yeah. Okay. Um so, okay. All right. So, and then here like in the nearshore well in all drip irrigation systems will require an irrigation permit like just small changes that are just

Yeah, I didn't have a problem with those. I just wasn't seeing like the red line. And then what it also does is it eliminates um the allowance for drip irrigation for 150 days for new plantings and it just requires a permit. Yeah. So yeah, cuz then it's like what do you when you counting it? Yeah. So often

well and Yeah. Is it 150 consecutive days? Is it 150 days spread out over days without rain? Is it I mean we've heard all of the all of the tales. So, and 150 days isn't typically long enough to actually establish plantings. So, then it's kind of a a silly silly code causes problems. So, we just eliminated that and inspired for irrigation. Yeah. No, I like that just because we do find places where the the planting one is still there years later. May not be even used, but there it is. Right. So, and if they want to keep it there, they can renew the permit. All right. I'm good with like moving this forward to like setting the public hearing.

So it be April 6, we'll set it for April 27. If if possible and we have to do a special earlier, can we do a special setting it for April 6th for the hearing? Yeah, actually we are going to have a special on the for the Easter egg for the 24th the Easter egg. Okay. Cuz it would be nice to be able to get this out sooner rather than later so they can do their thing. right now.

When's that schedule for? We're going to have a special on the 24th. Yeah. So, we can on April 6. I think Shelby, am I right that we only need three days notice for a code change for hearing? Yeah. And because we want to try and get this in place before the season gets underway heavily, right, Mary Ellen wants to reach out to everybody and send them updated forms and so that everybody can be and we have people reaching out asking for it. So

thanks for your work on the snake. Oh, it's not done. It's move forward. Yeah. Anything else? Not all that. Okay. School street. School street. Yes. Um I just wanted to um just let the public know kind of where we stand because there's all sorts of, you know, conjecture and speculation out there. So Thomas, can you let us know where we stand with respect to closing?

Right. Um, yeah. So, we've got a survey, we've got a title report. You know, we're I've contacted the the way this works is there's a firm upstate that is representing the lender. They draft the closing documents and send them to the referee, who's Mr. Murphy, that did the auction. the the foreclosure attorney um I think I sent in forwarded you an email last week that their documents are in production or in queue for production. So um basically once Mr. Murphy gives the documents we can schedule a closing. Um so I'm not you know I don't have an exact date on that but it would you it doesn't take that long to produce you know a set of closing documents. Um, I'm sure they're doing a lot of them, but yeah, we should be able to close, you know, I would guess within the next few weeks, but I'll just keep keep pinging the uh foreclosure attorney to, you know, get a get a more solid timeline. But yeah, I think, you know, everything's kind of moving at the same pace as it typically does for one of these auction closes.

Okay. We had done a bond anticipation note um to pay for it. And just to clarify, the bond anticipation note will only be used for the acquisition. So the $791,000 purchase price plus whatever closing costs we have, the title search, um the appraisal, survey, um not the appraisal, the survey. So that's all that that can be used for because there is speculation out in the community that we will take the difference between this, you know, $800,000 and 2 million and spend that on renovations. That that's not what the bond anticipation was approved for. So we will once we're moving forward with that, if we're moving forward to that, um that's my next comment. um we will extinguish that excess bond anticipation note authorization so that it gets taken off of um the table. Um we are going to initially pay for the purchase um with general fund money because last night we signed the facilities or we authorized signing of the facilities master plan um you know contract or engagement letter and we're going that pre that property is in the mix of what is going to be evaluated for all public buildings. Um, so that we know like we get a sense of what are our needs now, what do we think our future needs are, how is the public using our space, how are our employees using the space, what could the different locations be used for. So the possibilities for that building that, you know, we, you know, that we talked about, you know, when we first looked at acquiring the property is, would we use it for um, seniors? Would we use it for the fit center? Would we use it for housing? you know, last week at the shelter reporter session, you know, it was brought up again about a need for housing for medical staff. So, while the facilities master plan is

working its, you know, way through the process, um we hope to have that done sometime midsummer, um we won't go ahead and um we'll pay for the funds. We will pay for the purchase out of general funds and then if we are moving forward for a municipal purpose then we will start the process on bond anticipation notice. There is a cost associated with that. I don't want to incur that cost by starting that process until we know that we definitely need to access those funds. Um if we choose that we're going to do something with housing. We would reimburse the general fund with community housing funds. So depending on what direction we take, we'll pull the trigger after we get the facility's master plan and talk about what we actually want to do with the property. So that's sort of where we stand just to kind of let the public know, right? That's that's where I see it going and that's kind of where we started um back in January, I guess it was, when we had the opportunity to take advantage of this unique opportunity. So just wanted to put that out there. for the update unless I'm missing something that someone else can think of. No,

I think it's really good especially to explain the difference between like the 2 million and what we're going to use it for and then what was the word you use? Like extinguish the rest of it. Um I think it's really important for people to know that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because I've been hearing that like oh they're going to spend and it's like no we're not. We just we didn't want to tip our hand to other biders as to what our top price was because we did have one off island developer who was kind of like pushing it like okay just about to slam the gabble down then it would be like go up $1,000. I was like okay yeah testing. So

so that was that topic. Great. Um, comprehensive plan timeline. So, the comprehensive plan was distributed to everybody last week. Um, I understand from last week's work session that you, um, talked about, um, pulling together our comments for two weeks. So, um, yeah, I actually we handed the comp plan out to everybody and then didn't really get into talking about the exact timeline. Um, but I asked everybody after the meeting, how long do you think you're going to need to look at this before you can get your comments back? Um, and the consensus was like two weeks. So, next next week, is that still a good timeline to have any comments back?

So, we're talking about having adopted changes the comments back by the next session work session on Tuesday. Just want to Yep. Yeah. I mean, I know and then we would just go through all of our comments at at time. We'll go through the comments and we'll go through chapter 11 all at the same time because at that point everybody will have been able to catch up with everything. Um and then depending on the amount of changes, if there aren't many, which hopefully there aren't, um or if they're minor, um depending on what comes back, we'll see how long it'll take to make those changes and then hopefully we can start setting public hearings. That's the goal.

And can you run me through how we're imagining we'll do the public hearings? will be like a portion at a time. You know what I mean? Like how I think we probably want to do sort of like a general one because um you want to do the whole document. Yeah. I think that Yeah. The public may come forward and say these are the areas we have concerns about. So we might not necessarily need to go chapter by chapter. So we'll take it from there. But I think we'd want to do like a normal public hearing on a Monday night and then maybe do something on a weekend, you know. Saturday or something like that just so we capture more.

Yeah, we were when we originally discussed it, we were thinking of doing it um hybrid and encouraging people to come via Zoom because this is the best venue for trying to have a public hearing. If we do it in the auditorium, you can't really record it. You get terrible audio. Yeah. And so everybody would really have to show up in person because there's no way to do like a Zoom from the the auditorium at the school. So the thought that we had had was it was best if we do it here from the boardroom with the Zoom function that we know is working and then if you know this room is full people can log in and participate in Zoom and then it's also recorded so people can watch it later.

Um and it's in better quality then to try to have it at the the school auditorium and the library is not an option. We've done it there in the past but yeah we did the community. Yeah, the community center. Do we have any communication there or Well, it it's No, it's just as bad as the auditorium. You'll only Yeah, it's it's just not a good setup. You have the acoustics. It's hard to record it. The audio is really hard to hear later and there's no Zoom really for it.

Okay. So, but if we pick it up on the 24th, um then we also gives us the 31st to pull together, you know, if we spill over to the next week to discuss it. We have the possibility of setting the public hearing on April 6 or an April 27th public hearing. And it'll probably take a couple hearings. I mean, that's I was going to say, you know, you know, I'm being optimistic. It won't be one and done, but at least we can get started on the public hearing. Um, and then we'll also have to reach out and uh probably start SRA because we're going to want um

whoever we choose for SRA to watch the public hearings because they have to take that into account when they're doing their review. Yeah. And we'll also have to send it up to the county planning commission commission. So, would we do like a like a special on a weekend? Mhm. Because I'm thinking is we might do an initial one, you know, on April 27th, um, and then adjourn it to a secondary one. Do like a Saturday or a Sunday or something. Okay. Yeah. So, that was kind of like the thinking to like just start to get a timeline in place. That's so exciting. You're telling me. I can't even imagine. I can't even imagine. It's been like six years.

Yeah. You started out on I've been on since the beginning. Okay. Right. So, I'm just making a note to myself. To be determined Saturday or Sunday. Okay. All right. Look how fast we're going. I know this could be the shortest work session. At least since I've been supervisor to the airport. Yeah. um tumbler is on purpose. We haven't had an opportunity to sort of get caught up. Well, I don't know. I could start with committees and maybe I'll do that like

Yeah, it's been a few weeks snowtorrms and I like from like February like I've got like notes in here. I don't know. So, anybody has anything on fire? I was going to say, yeah, word of mics hasn't I think they have they did a code review and that was cool. Yeah, I was going to say like that's just we're moving along on that code review and then the plain language guide they're working on. So awesome. Yeah.

Uh capital planning and grants. I think what we you did there um we're going to be sending out soon to all the department heads you what their 2027 capital planning requests are so that we can start to evaluate those at the committee level and then make recommendations to the town board to take you know so when we start the budget season you know late summer we'll we have what those are and and and Mosiano just usually gives us um grant updates which any grant that we've applied for we have to do a grant resolution. So those kind of

do we think that we'll be just with capital planning? Do we how far do we think we'll be through the facilities master plan like by the time we need to do you know what I mean? I'm thinking like some of those downtown revitalization grant do you think we'll be able do we think we'll have enough in hand to be able to consider some of those programs? Um the timeline is what 14 weeks on the facilities master plan. So, if we can um get the engagement letters signed this week, they could probably start um in the next week or two. And they're they're ready to get started. So, the timing is good. So, we could have something by early summer.

Yeah. I just know I was just thinking from like AOT like there's like the there's like other like planning and engineering and stuff like that and maybe we might be ready for Yeah. the next phase. And Joe won't be at next week's meeting, but on the 31st, um I was going to have him come in and sort of just do for the public like um we've posted the facilities master plan on the town website um the proposal that we received. So um he's going to just come in and sort of do like an overview for everybody just talk everybody through it. Um but yeah, I mean that's one thing. We also some of the downtown revitalization and also um

I think there's like another one but that's like the one that just keeps sticking in my mind like that I just keep thinking about with the facilities master plan for a lot of those I think you need a more hashtag plan before you can apply you need to go to the next step but also the comprehensive plan too some of those um it would be good to have the comprehensive plan completed too to be able to push those forward board. I know Jen Des talked about that year or so ago. Yeah, um let's see. Community Housing Board.

Oh, such cool stuff going on. So, we've got the needs assessment vendor was chosen. Um so, we actually just need to like I think I it is sent to you. Uh so, we just need to get that authorized. I know uh Barbara's Lim is anxious and the county is anxious for us to spend that money. Um so it's the Nelson Pope Forgees that the folks that we had worked with before. Um so Fran and Nadine have kind of taken lead on that and they feel really good about it. So um that'll be great to see that kind of going.

My thought was to put that on for the next work session since we have the special to authorize that community housing board survey.

Sweet. He'll be really excited. Uh we got the LOI finalized, so that's amazing. Um and Gwen and I are going to chat this week about uh getting a timeline for the uh kind of fiscal study. And uh I talked to Bill and Espen um and they are working uh with Miriam to have kind of like an outline of stuff that we want to put into the contracts. Um so hopefully I pinged him this morning. So hopefully in the next couple sessions I'll be we'll be able to bring that to executive session just to like make sure that we're all aligned as we kind of start that. Um and the new members I think are awesome. Uh Nadine especially has been super helpful. I think she's going to be great with this process. Um and then I also just wanted to bring up I think I had talked about it before but Bran had flagged this idea um about basically doing an additional loan for the ADU program. Uh the notice is like a lot of folks it's not quite enough. Um, and so they're kind of talking about think I think it's like out to the board of like thinking about how much how much they should put in. Should it be just to kind of cover like a need for septic or just in general? But his idea also was is to put either like have it be like a loan or a grant and with that make it uh the ADU tied to affordable rates. Um, which I just thought was like super awesome. So, they're kind of figuring trying to figure out how much of the fund is potential that they could set aside. Also knowing that some of it might be needed for our 10 units. So, but I love the way they're thinking. So, I'll be super excited to see how that plays out.

Ben, did they miss it?

Um, CPF. um CPF they uh we had a great presentation by me uh this last week on um thinking about doing potentially a community guardian and walking path and activity area for seniors at the seven cartrite project. I thought that was super awesome. Um working on the stewardship plans. It looks like there might be some firewood available on property. So there'll be more posted on that. And then the thing that I'm really just tracking is we have a super outofdate acquisition plan. And so they I know that they're working on it, but um I know we're pushing. I was just like I was like when was the last time we did this? Like guys guys um so that is definitely uh that is definitely on my radar with them. Amber, do you have

um just um Piconic Bay Regional Advisory Committee um the um committee met last Friday and we're just we're pulling together operating rules and um regulations for the committee to actually operate by you know how pick a chair um whether or not we um when somebody bring when a member town brings something to the advisory board for an opinion um if there's going to be formal opinion, then you know, three fifths out of of the towns have to approve it before we spend money on the attorney that has been hired. Um, or if there'll just be a a non-written verbal opinion. So, we're moving forward on that. They're also reviewing the CPF um legislation update from a year and a half ago to just go back and clarify with the state to see whether or not they want to clean up some of the questions that the committee has. And if they if the state isn't ready to pick it up or make amendments just because it only has been a year and a half, then at least then the advisory board will be able to say, "Okay, well then this is how we're going to interpret these um nuances that aren't quite clear yet." So there's progress. So moving forward on that. That's it on CPF plan. We've already talked about CAC. Not a lot there. We just reviewed the history center and this they've reviewed the Sylvester Manor application. They're still working on like uh evaluating the properties, but the weather's been terrible. So not guaranteed they met recently. I was going to say that's later committ.

Yeah. EMS is meeting tomorrow. Um green options is tomorrow. Um, green options is waiting on actually they just got released the final fiveoint presentation from what is it now something of the Rockies I don't know it used to be ENL um and so they should be able to start scheduling their presentation to the board um they're also working with Ken to look into solar at the recycling center and Um, that's all I know.

Um, last meeting. Um, one thing, um, I guess we talked about it. U they, they would like to come to a Tuesday work session to present the proposal for the solar at the D. Yes. So, we need to get that on schedule. Yes. and was going to come present and give us a presentation in advance and work with Joe Fedora on that. Make a note to reach back out to him because I feel like the initial date we talked about might have come and gone. Okay.

Nothing else of any earth shattering importance. Okay. health and wellness which is yeah health and wellness we just expand it to 11 people um so that they can break down into more focused groups um and hopefully be more efficient. So that's that's kind of where we stand with them. WAC had uh five more reviews which we discussed. So that'll be next next public hearing, right?

Yes. Yeah. There were two two two docks that were re reviewed, one in Daring Harbor. Um the some of the committee uh tabled the the discuss the discussion because they want more dis disinishment of a non-conforming doc. So Jack was going to go back to the applicant and discuss it with him. And then the other one was the veagan doc which we have a hearing scheduled for. And the planning board did a final cursory review of the wetlands code. So that's pretty much that should be coming to us. Be coming to us.

And then they discussed site plan review of Sylvester Manor which you know we got their report. Okay.

Um WAC uh WAC is working on um a whole bunch of things. They're looking to do a know your water weekend in the summer. So, they're planning for that to just to promote education and encourage people to get their water tested by a professional so they know what they're drinking. They're also working on um doing more water testing in the center in um select areas um and coordinating that with the Suffach County Department of Water. So, they're working on getting the messaging like the the letter ready and then um they're going to work on mailing it out to everybody and then they're going to set up an info session for the people who are going to um who they're reaching out to to participate. That's going ahead. Um we're waiting for uh USGS to get back to us on a couple different projects. So, we're looking for some information about the saltwater study um when those wells are going to kind of be online and they'll start collecting data. We're also looking um for an updated I guess proposal for the 10-year baseline study on the water quality. Um so, those are just some of the things that they've got going on.

Did they do the monthly well testing, monitoring wells? They did. They did that, but there's a couple of the wellheads that were either frozen or clogged and they weren't recording correctly. So, USGS is supposed to be fixing those up and getting them back online. Um, yeah, that was it for green options.

Um, WestN water advisory committee, we know what you were talking um met last week. Um we have um uh they're doing a little bit of work over at the um location where the wells and all the equipment are. Um it's under it's we're going to see site plan review. Um it's going to come to us just to review even though um you know sometimes people are like why are we submitting site plan review for ourselves but I think it's a good idea. So that'll be coming to us sometime soon. Make everybody else do.

Exactly. Exactly. And then for Westside Water customers, one of the things um I'm going to work with Lee on next week is just um take a look at where we stand with there's money that was create um when Southern County Water took over as the operating um the operator for us. We had money that had been accumulated, we Western Water District had accumulated to pay for some of the improvements, but then when Suffach County Water came in, they took on and financed all of the improvements. So, we pay them there's like a debt service payment that gets made annually. So, we had money set aside to we had to raise the rates in order to cover that debt service, but we also had money set aside in the first year. We I think we anticipated, you know, we have to take $25,000 out of reserves to cover everything that was needed to pay down that debt service. Um, we end up, I think that first year paying 27,000. Then the next two years, I think the net was like 1,500 or something. So, but each year Suffach County Water Authority does raise their rates a little bit. We did get the money from Fred that Fred Field applied for us from DASME 500,000 to pay down some of that debt. So the West Water Board is looking at do we do they want to keep the rates flat and just continue to draw down on the money um in the reserves or do they want to bump up rates just a little bit to sort of keep up with the cost of inflation. So, there was a little bit I think a mixed um feeling on the board, but Lisa and I are going to like crunch some numbers and I got the updated debt service schedule from Suffach County Water Authority on on Monday, so or Friday. So, we'll um look at that. So, the Westm Water Board will take a look and evaluate it because the, you know, they're they're tuned into their, you know, their district and

then it will have to come to the town board for approval on changing rates. Did the $500,000 that Fred Theal was able to get, did that go into paying down the infrastructure? Yes. Right. So that went in. So it reduced at that point. Yeah. So the original infrastructure cost the town or Westlake water district 1.7 million. So then that got, you know, there was a little bit of debt service that paid it down and then it got reduced by the 500,000. So that's we were paying a service a sir charge is what they call it for the debt service of 93,000 and now it's down to about 63,000 per year. So that was a good thing.

Um and anything from zoning board of appeals? Actually I guess there was cancellation of meetings last month.

Yeah, there wasn't nothing nothing to report literally no thanks. No thanks. I have two things outside of committee. So, um, the Kagestria Partnership put out an RFP specifically for Shelter Island wetlands. And what they're doing is they're going to hire someone to do a mapping and assessment of all of our title wetlands and rank them um in order of which ones have the highest probability of being restored, what like which ones are the healthiest, which ones are the weakest, which ones have potential to be restored and rejuvenated. Um, so that's going to come with a GIS based mapping and prioritization tool. And, um, so, uh, Joe and I sat in on the interviews. There was seven different applications that Pep received. And so Joe and I represented the town in that. And then there was, um, someone from the Nature Conservancy, two people from PEP and and another organization. Um so that's something that we can look forward to this year is getting um a solid evaluation of all our title wetlands done.

That's exciting. Yeah. And it's no it's no cost to us. It's it's a grant through PEP. So um that's wonderful. And then

the other thing I have is that the um for the septic grants, the county and the state septic grant values have increased. So, anybody who has a grant pending approval should watch their email because the county is slowly going through all the records and they're sending out emails to confirm that you're still interested in receiving a septic grant. And then if you are, they're sending out emails to let you know that there's a potential for your grant value to increase, but you have to reach back out to them and say, "Yes, I'm interested and I want my grant increased." So, just keep in mind that that's happening. So, the county grant is going from $15,000 to $20,000

and the state grant is going from $10,000 to $25,000. So, that'll be helpful. It's not pennies. So, if you're still in the queue waiting for a grant or you're looking into getting grants, um just know that there's a lot of a lot of action going on and you should pay attention to your email because that's how they will reach out to you. That's that's really good news. 45. Yeah. Yeah. That one I thought we knew was coming with the um Yeah. the legislation that got passed. So that's 45,000 which I mean the cost of the installations have been going up like some of them have been you know like

50 you know mid50s um complications push it up to 60. So, do we ever do like a workshop in the summer to like walk people through how to put those together or do we like do we have any any uh information? Yeah, I was doing them. I was doing education sessions at the library and then I was actually going to do one last summer and then uh people told me I wasn't allowed to because it was a conflict of interest and um it was a campaign season. So maybe since I'm not running for anything, I can do this here and no one know me. Okay. Um because it's really just education for the public. Yeah. No, I'm just like I know that like

people have asked me like I was like my husband and I have like thought about it and I'm just thinking if I'm on the board and I'm not sure where to start, I'm sure that there's a lot of other people out there that are also uncertain. Absolutely. Um and we'd love to see we'd love to see some systems upgraded. Yeah. Reclaim your water.org. Yep. That's where you start. Yeah. Reclaim our water. Um, and then it has all the links and it's an a completely online application. Now, in order to submit the application, you need a copy of your deed, your certificate of occupancy, your most recent property tax bill, and the declaration from your homeowners homeowner's insurance proving that you have coverage on the house. Cool.

Um, pretty much everybody's eligible unless it's new construction on a vacant lot. That does not qualify. um if your property is in foreclosure, you don't qualify. And if you don't actually own the property, you can't get a grant. So, um you know, you have to own the property that you're applying for. So, those are kind of the caveats. Seems reasonable. Yeah. And as long as you're replacing an older system with a new nitrogen reducing system, you qualify. Cool. Yeah. And I'm just looking at my little spreadsheet that I track these things on. the grant uh the cost the total cost has been between like 40,000 and 64,000 in ones that were installed in 2025. Yeah.

Yeah. The more complicated like if you're very close to groundwater then it gets to be a complicated installation. Um and those are the ones that end up being more expensive because you just need more. There's a well relocation needed. Yeah. Well relocations tend to also cost an extra 8 to 10 grand. So that's all I got.

That's awesome. I have like two other things that just like I just wanted to talk about the hazard committee that we've been the hazard mitigation committee that's been super super interesting. It's going really well. Um we also had a we had a very interesting meeting with the power folks. Um just like learning about the lines coming to the island. There had been like questions about that and basically what happens if one of them goes down. Turns out we have three lines. Anyway, that was really interesting and we met and talked about building code uh with Reed and like anything that we should include. And then the only other thing that I wanted to just talk about was we in the meantime we went to Association of Towns. Oh yeah. I guess

I was like I was like it goes all the way back.

Wow. Um, and I just wanted to share like the two probably most interesting things that we like at least that like I learned about was getting a bunch of information on like the town uh historian and some preservation of documents stuff that I brought back to Michelby. Um, and so that was really helpful information and also connecting with the Southold historian who anyway had a great conversation with her. And then there was also a workshop that I'll be attending um for an income survey, how to do an income survey for the island, which I think could help us with some grant writing. So anyway, those are my two little things. That's it.

Okay. I would like to make a motion to go into executive session for contracts and also to discuss a potential CPOS. All right. All in favor? I I I thank you everybody.