Karen Smythe 0:00 We are ready to get going. Okay, I will officially call the news to order and join me on the Pledge of Allegiance. Speaker 1 0:16 Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God of Israel, with liberty and justice for all. Karen Smythe 0:33 Okay, next item on the agenda is the acceptance of the minutes we have the April 13 minutes and the April 20 emergency workshop regarding April 13. Everybody had a chance to go through it. Anyone like to make a motion to accept the minutes? I Craig Rothstein 1:04 So moved. Thank Karen Smythe 1:05 you, Craig. Second, I'll second. Thank you. Mark Clarke, any questions, comments? Hearing, none. All in favor. So Frances Uku 1:16 I will abstain on the adoption, and again, out of respect for everyone's time. I won't go into the reasons for my abstention, but I believe, in my opinion, the minutes contain some material omissions and misrepresentations of what actually took place at the meeting on April 13. But as Jen has previously stated, many municipalities don't adopt minutes, so I think my abstention is just, it's just my statement for the record. I refer the public to the panda recording. That's Karen Smythe 1:56 Perry, did you? Did you? Perry Allen 1:57 Duly noted, and I'll invite I Frances Uku 2:03 thank you. Karen Smythe 2:04 And then the emergency workshop, I just wanted to point out there's a shift, a correction, the total numbers remain the same. But it was requested that there is $1,430.82 that was listed as sewer that was actually related to sewer maintenance, and the county actually requested that that be listed as property maintenance. So we just corrected, but the numbers stay the same. Jen Cavanaugh, Clerk 2:36 Total numbers Karen Smythe 2:37 in Melkorka Kjarval 2:37 the resolution, second, whereas, Karen Smythe 2:41 yes, the second, whereas it currently shows 4614 and 15 cents. When we passed it, it said 5944 or 97 because if you look in the fourth, whereas it says unpaid sewer maintenance charges of 1330, point 40 point 82 and so Speaker 2 3:00 they Karen Smythe 3:01 just wanted, instead of listing that as sewer, they wanted it listed as property maintenance, even though it's related to the sewer, so it will still go back to the sewer fund. So it was just, since the numbers didn't change, we just made a correction. Melkorka Kjarval 3:18 We don't need to edit anything in these minutes. Happen these, these are, these are correct? Karen Smythe 3:27 Yeah, no, it is. It is correct as written here, actually, if you look, it says under resolution 1926 corrected after meeting for categorization as per request for Dutch county department finance, um, I'll take a motion to accept these minutes, Perry Allen 3:46 so moved. Karen Smythe 3:46 Thank you. Perry, second, all in favor. Frances Uku 3:51 Well, I don't vote. Karen Smythe 3:54 You can't actually vote, apparently, Frances Uku 3:56 but Oh, I see that. Yeah, the table was the voting table had a Melkorka Kjarval 4:02 Yeah, that was, Frances Uku 4:03 Oh, I'm sorry, that's from those. That's from the resolution. Yes, I Yes, vote to accept. Karen Smythe 4:14 Okay, next item is the agenda. Anybody have any adjustments. I wouldn't add a letter to the agenda. Would you say yes? It's a letter to the town board about this Community Preservation Fund. This is a letter that you were recommending that we discuss as potentially coming from the village board. Correct, Speaker 2 4:38 yes, Karen Smythe 4:39 and it is related to the the Community Preservation Fund, which and the notion, as we talked about, was, rather than have it in your report, that we would pull it forward, as in general business, Melkorka Kjarval 4:52 just because it would, it would, that's it. People would have to vote on it. I wanted to make sure, yes. So I. Like to add it to the agenda. Karen Smythe 5:06 Okay, Perry Allen 5:08 oh, I can second Perry Allen 5:10 that, Karen Smythe 5:11 okay, yes, all in favor of adding the letter discussion to the general business. Perry Allen 5:16 Aye. I have a quick note about a memorial tree that I just like to ask at such base with a constituent. It could very quick question that could perhaps be added in. Karen Smythe 5:27 Why don't we do that at the end of general business? Beautiful. Perry Allen 5:30 I'll just take a moment. Frances Uku 5:35 I was wondering if it would be appropriate, since we are adding a proposed letter to the town, if we might consider the letter that I brought to the workshop that we consider sending to the town board, also about police costs and distribution thereof, I can pull up what I my notes from that meeting. But so Karen Smythe 6:00 what we're talking about is adding to the agenda. Yeah, I'm happy to add in a discussion onto the agenda. Frances Uku 6:08 Okay, Karen Smythe 6:08 we can do that after the memorial tree. Okay, anything else? Frances Uku 6:22 Yeah, and this one's just a very quick one. It's just a discussion item related to the school field lighting project and the I know that that you know that school has withdrawn, but I have some questions from constituents that I've received about the village's role in the review process. And I did look through. And other than Perry's having brought it up at the workshop, we have actually not made an official statement as a board as to our role in so just some clarification that I've received emails that people would like, one of whom is here tonight. Karen Smythe 6:56 Okay, we can add that to the I mean, it's pretty straightforward, but, yeah, Frances Uku 7:02 thank you. Karen Smythe 7:04 Anything else? Okay, so we have the the agenda as as listed in the order it is in, and at the end, we will be adding a letter discussion, letter to the board regarding the Preservation Fund, Memorial tree, police, town discussion and school laying project. Frances Uku 7:31 Oh, I'm so very sorry. I just have one last one. I did send it. I did send it previously to Jen and Karen. I was wondering if it would be possible only because we have the panda chair here. I would be wondering if we could have that agenda item moved to the start of business, just so that he could leave if he so chose. It's It's just what we tend to do for appointments. It's just a it's a request. I'm just putting it to you all. Karen Smythe 8:02 I don't have any objection to that. Anybody else found it to the beginning of general business. Frances Uku 8:08 Thank you. Karen Smythe 8:09 All right. So with that, with those amendments, ask for a motion to accept the agenda. Frances Uku 8:16 So moved. Karen Smythe 8:17 Thank you. Second, Craig Rothstein 8:18 second, Karen Smythe 8:19 thank you all in favor. Aye, great. Okay, next item we have on the agenda is a public hearing for the fee schedule. I need a motion to open the public hearing. So moved. Thank you. Moncorta, second, Craig Rothstein 8:34 second. Karen Smythe 8:35 Thank you, Craig. All in favor. Great. So we have, Frances Uku 8:44 I so Karen Smythe 8:47 this public hearing is about the proposed changes to the fee schedule. One of the first of all, thank you, chan for the work you put in to make it both organized and understandable. This is a fee schedule. In the past, we've had pieces in different spots. This actually brings everything together, and it is something that is appropriate to review every year, which the village has not always done, and it's also very clear, Speaker 2 9:26 okay, Karen Smythe 9:28 yeah, there's some thoughts on the building piece. And so we, and we've had this since March, I think we've had it. We've had it out and about. So the first, the first piece I would like to ask if anyone in the public would like to make any comment as it relates to the fees, the proposed fee schedule. There's nobody here in person who's asked it was looking to speak. Is there anyone online who would like to on Zoom, who would like. Like to say something about the fee schedule. Okay, I'm not seeing anyone as it relates to that, so I would like to so just to start with the building Planning and Zoning department fees, I would like to propose an amendment to what we're proposing. The third item on the first page, construction, residential. The proposal was to go from 35 cents per square foot to 75 cents per square foot. That's a very big jump, and I would like to propose that we take an interim step and go to 55 cents a square foot and $150 minimum, I think it's appropriate to increase. This was what our zoning, zoning and build, our building inspector, zoning enforcement officer, had recommended. He's, he's a big one on, on, fees. I appreciate the the idea, but I think this is a, this is a rather substantial jump, and I'm recommending that the fourth one, construction commercial, that instead of going to 95 cents, we go to 75 cents. And instead of 300 to 75 and then the fifth one, which is decks, porches, instead of 75 cents a square foot, going to 55 cents a square foot, but leaving the 150 as a minimum. And then the last one under barns, pole barn, shed, detached garage, the residential piece going to 55 with a 150 minimum, and commercial going to 75 similar to the ones above, and the minimum would be 250 Perry Allen 11:54 I don't seem to have a copy of Jen Cavanaugh, Clerk 11:58 That. I asked if anybody needed past meeting Karen Smythe 12:05 her. Speaker 2 12:06 And Perry Allen 12:06 then Karen Smythe 12:13 the only other one was page two at the top, the solar energy collection systems, 55 cents. Frances Uku 12:25 Sorry, we run the solar again. Thank you. Yeah, Karen Smythe 12:29 so the current fee is 35 cents a square foot for the $100 minimum. Yeah, the initial proposed fee was 75 cents a square foot, 450 minimum. I would propose that we go to 55 cents a square foot, leaving the 150 No, Frances Uku 12:44 leaving the 150 Yes. And then so sorry. Oh yeah, go ahead. Jen Cavanaugh, Clerk 12:48 On the first page you wanted this last one to line up up here with the 275 you proposed. Karen Smythe 12:54 Yes, that's a good idea. Yes, that makes sense. Frances Uku 13:01 Sorry, Jen, I missed the question. Karen Smythe 13:04 So on the one on the Barnes pole barn, Frances Uku 13:07 yes, Karen Smythe 13:07 for commercial to go to 75 cents a square foot. And I said 250 but it should go to 275 to match the construction commercial. Frances Uku 13:16 Okay, and did residential? Also Karen Smythe 13:19 residential? I'm recommending 55 square foot. Frances Uku 13:23 Great. Karen Smythe 13:25 And are the recommendations coming from you personally, or was it from conversation? So I actually reviewed it again with Lara this afternoon and and we discussed what this was going to and she indicated that she also felt that it was a little too high. Yes, who's been doing that for so she's the one who is in discussion with everyone who comes in. And then there was another spot under Karen Smythe 14:02 sewers, Karen Smythe 14:04 under the sewer section page seven, under the excess grease trap, yeah, so currently it says the RM, O and M fee includes three pump outs, and so that would be on the proposed and Frances Uku 14:38 this is from Jen's email. I think Jen had sent. Karen Smythe 14:44 And so the and the addition, instead of 214 it needs Frances Uku 14:47 to go to 235 Karen Smythe 14:59 anybody else? Have any thoughts or comments, thoughts on online proposed changes, Karen Smythe 15:06 sewer changes is directly related to our costs, so that is reflecting our Frances Uku 15:14 actual cost. We do have a number three, six in the in the sewer department. We have several tbds as fees proposed, Karen Smythe 15:30 yes, so a dumping fee. We don't currently, we don't currently do dumping. We don't charge for that Jen Cavanaugh, Clerk 15:38 as an indicator. These are sections of the code that are slated to be audios and so just kind of not worry about setting rates, because it's stuff that's in the code, but we don't, Karen Smythe 15:54 yeah, like the pre treatment program that would be for an industrial resistance to awareness certain criteria we don't have that. Karen Smythe 16:12 Any other questions, comments Frances Uku 16:14 I did on property maintenance, which is page 11, page 11, so I've not seen the first entry before, lawn mowing, weed trimming. What are we referring to? Karen Smythe 16:30 So in our code, people are required to keep their property maintained to a certain degree, and if they don't, I think it's if your grass gets longer than 10 inches that is then out of code. And so we have the right to, similar to the clearing of a sidewalk, we have the right to mow it and then charge the property owner. Frances Uku 16:57 And we currently Karen Smythe 16:58 just, this is just establishing a fee for that. Frances Uku 17:01 We currently do that, though Karen Smythe 17:03 we have Frances Uku 17:04 and and that is so the so the admin for that, that is something that the Jen does, or that Laura does, or who would be. What Karen Smythe 17:13 do you mean by admin Frances Uku 17:15 for for billing like, who, who? Well, first determining, so do people get issued a ticket? Or how is it determined? Karen Smythe 17:25 It comes from the from the highway department, because they're out and about all the time. And so if there's a procedure that is clearly not being maintained, that's generally brought to my attention and and then the billing does come out of you do the building run? Jen, Jen Cavanaugh, Clerk 17:43 yes, I would do billing on this. Yes, similar to the sidewalk clearing, but we hadn't had it a rate in the past. Karen Smythe 17:51 It's Karen Smythe 17:53 not, it doesn't come up very often. And it's, it's not something, it's not something that we're out measuring with a with a ruler, but it becomes pretty obvious when there's a property that's not being maintained, Frances Uku 18:09 right? I understand, but I mean, the fact that it's here is, is just, it's for consideration, like we if we don't say specifically what, what triggers this offense. Then how is Karen Smythe 18:25 it's in the code. So it's, it's, it's written in the code. I can't remember exactly how New York state code, Melkorka Kjarval 18:32 I think in the Melkorka Kjarval 18:32 New York state code there is like, if it's not being neglected. Speaker 2 18:42 So Karen Smythe 18:42 so Karen Smythe 18:43 I think that's, I think that's related to the definition in terms Melkorka Kjarval 18:48 of, Craig Rothstein 18:49 I've had an experience with this, because years ago, not too many years ago, I had a neighbor complained about our lawn because we were doing no mo May, which I guess, is like that month where people grow beards, and we are actively preparing a sort of wildlife meadow. So we've planted and we've invested, but we do let the grass grow aside from a three foot distance from the curb, which the county, because our neighbors were very proactive, and the county came and told us they would assess a fine if we did not mow. But then they told us that the legality is that it has to be three feet. And I guess that was since obviously the prior is that there's no real there was no real penalty in the village, but so now this would enact a penalty. My guess is it's triggered, like many other things, if somebody complains, Karen Smythe 19:47 it can be if someone complains, it can also be if it's observed. And so when, because a lot of people do you know, the not mowing in May is actually very beneficial to pollinators. So. So one of the things that the public spaces committee is looking at, I would love to see in our code, something that encourages people to make meadows, but to do it in a way that looks like it's on purpose, and not just that. You didn't you chose not to mow. So there, there are standards that are being developed for that, like having, having a space from the road that's mowed, having pathways between the sections, I will say, the house on the corner of London and west market. Craig Rothstein 20:37 Yes, Karen Smythe 20:38 that's, that's what I would like to encourage, because you can see that they've got people they've got typical garden beds. It doesn't always look filled with flowers, but you can see that they're actively attending it, etc. There is actually, there are studies that show that no mo may actually that it's better to create a meadow that stays there rather than just leave it long for one month? Yeah, Craig Rothstein 21:05 we 100% I know this is personal, because it's my property, but I don't want to vote for something that they're going to have to pay for, but the that's, yeah. I mean, if those standards get articulated, that would be helpful, because for us, we do not cut it, but we have planted specific local, indigenous plants. And Karen Smythe 21:26 I think the notion of, again, having, having a section off the road that's been though, having, having pathways through, you know, so it's not just one big, huge mass, so it Craig Rothstein 21:36 sort of mitigates any kind of running Karen Smythe 21:40 foul. It would, from my standpoint, if the county gets involved, I'm not quite sure how, what jurisdiction with the help Craig Rothstein 21:49 I, you know, I don't know. It was just, I don't recall. It was like three years ago, and that neighbor has gone to bring your pastors, so to speak, so and the new neighbors are perfectly Craig Rothstein 22:00 chill, Craig Rothstein 22:01 and I do recognize that there, by being a dog walker, Karen Smythe 22:06 I do Craig Rothstein 22:06 recognize that there are properties that are very obviously, completely untended. So, you know, there's a there's a reason that they should exist. I'm just happy to see we're distinguishing, Karen Smythe 22:18 yes, that that certainly would be my, my intention. But this merely identifies the fact that there that we the village, do have the capacity to charge if we are taking care of someone's property, that's the intention. Melkorka Kjarval 22:34 Is psi actively going to like you mean? PSC, are they going to be writing as recommendations for like a policy or law or that's the plan? Perry Allen 22:48 Yep, excuse me, at our last meeting was we didn't have a huge attendance at the last meeting, so we weren't able to fully dive into everything we want to take care of this year, but that is high up on the priority list. Karen Smythe 23:01 I will also say that town resident Zoe Evans is part of an organization that has launched a program called less lawn more life. I think you remember, I think it's less Perry Allen 23:15 less Perry Allen 23:15 more life. Karen Smythe 23:16 And I think it's less lawn more life.org.org.com, I actually put it in my newsletter. And in it, they literally talk about how to make it look like you are doing it on purpose, which is having this, having a, you know, a pathway. And I think three feet is the standard for Karen Smythe 23:37 like Karen Smythe 23:39 it also, for some reason I think things like ticks can't jump, yeah, Karen Smythe 23:44 so I think that's why it's a standard. So we're hoping to, I have put one of the members of public spaces in touch with Zoe, who will hopefully help us come up with proposed, a proposed code for us to consider as a board. That is definitely Melkorka Kjarval 24:02 the plan. It's great. Karen Smythe 24:05 Any other questions, comments. Frances Uku 24:10 I also have the same question about the trash removal, and Karen Smythe 24:16 that's Frances Uku 24:17 on page on, sorry, on the same page. All of this is property maintenance, the snow, remove all the property and the trash Karen Smythe 24:23 there are. There have been instances where, for example, someone who's been renting literally puts all their trash at the end of the road and leaves and it just stays there. And so it's this is a way to say that you can't just leave it there. I mean, we have all manner of opportunities to make it easy to have your trash picked up. We have bulk trash tags. We have a trash pickup service. And so this is in the case of someone who's literally just. Men left a huge pile of trash at the end of their driveway. If we pick it up, we have have identified the amount that we will charge again. Doesn't happen often, but it has happened, and this just gives us the ability to do that. I will say that what has happened in the past is we have made an extra effort to reach out to the property owner multiple times, and when there's no when there's no response, then it seems, I guess, unfair to the rest of the village to pick up that tab. Yeah, sort of the idea, and again, by having it in the fee schedule, and folks know that that it is a fee that will be charged. Any other questions, comments, Frances Uku 25:49 yeah, just one more on on site. I'm all about the property maintenance page. So, so we have the the fee, the fee, this fees that we established as of this season, and for benefit of trustee Allen, Trustee Rothstein, who were not on the board at the time we did come we started with a fee schedule for snow removal from sidewalks, which then we revised based on feedback received about the about the structure of and so my question this is, this is fine and worked, but my question was more about this snow and sidewalk, the ice, snow and ice removal from sidewalks as a general village wide obligation, like, currently, there's only a minority of of residents who have the sidewalks. But it's, Karen Smythe 26:49 yeah, it's not just residents. I mean, obviously they're, Frances Uku 26:51 oh, businesses, of course, yes, that's what I Karen Smythe 26:54 meant, majority, Frances Uku 26:55 right? But, yes, so, but, but we, as a village, we all benefit from sidewalks being cleared and safe. So this was it's just something that I'm putting it out there for us to consider that maybe in in this upcoming season, or when have you that we could consider a more equitable village wide, shared cost model versus a parcel specific penalty. Perry Allen 27:25 I think it'd be really interesting looking at different options for that in general. Yes, Melkorka Kjarval 27:32 I think I'd be interested in whether or not that something is viable. We're talking about like the village taking on the service, right sort of idea. Frances Uku 27:42 Well, paying, paying, yes, it would be like a utility. Yeah, I Melkorka Kjarval 27:48 think it would be interesting to know the viability of because a lot of places, it's not just the sidewalk, it's where the snow goes afterwards, you know. And some places are harder than others, and because Speaker 2 27:58 they didn't Melkorka Kjarval 27:59 design for a place for you for turning so it becomes like a Treasurer 28:04 and Melkorka Kjarval 28:05 it'd be an interesting thing to know whether or not Karen Smythe 28:07 there's there's also the question of liability. Right now, each property owners is responsible, and thus liable for their sidewalk. The other is, I see, when you're in the middle of a snowstorm, the DPW is clearing the snow, and that would, this would be adding on top of that which, and in most snowstorms, it's, you know, can be 24 hours. So that's also a lot to ask of the staff that we have. So it's, it's certainly a discussion that we can have. But I think the practical side is also important Frances Uku 28:39 to consider, of course, Perry Allen 28:41 some dream of it just growing our public our public works. So there are, like, Melkorka Kjarval 28:52 there are cases where the business district would be like a bid, they do a special thing where they just take care of it, just in that. But that's Speaker 2 29:00 like a Melkorka Kjarval 29:01 very specific Karen Smythe 29:03 we do also in the situation where it's a large amount of snow and or it's we know it's not going to melt anytime soon. The Village does have in our budget a general business district clearing, so we do provide that service, but to shovel the walks all the sidewalks for every single storm is a pretty big ask for the for the team, Frances Uku 29:32 right? But the, but the village would be, I mean, it's, it's charged. The villages would be paying. It's, we would be paying DPW and paying, you know, it's, it's not just an added load on their current, added onto their current workload, Perry Allen 29:49 restructuring the model in some way, yeah, around the program, Frances Uku 29:53 yeah, okay. It's just Karen Smythe 29:55 if the DPW becomes responsible for clearing all the sidewalks, then yes, it would be additional work that we're. Getting the DPW, yes, Frances Uku 30:01 but we would be getting revenue for, like, it wouldn't be free, like residents would need to pay, Melkorka Kjarval 30:08 right? I think she was enacted, or the group out that does the work. Frances Uku 30:14 Oh, I see. What do you mean? Well, then to Perry's point, and maybe you hire more Karen Smythe 30:20 or do a separate contract or, yeah, yeah, that's not, you know, it's something that can be something we can we, can we, can we can certainly discuss in the next one. Okay, any other thoughts, comments, any thoughts about the recommended changes that I made as it relates to the planning and zoning department. Frances Uku 30:46 Yeah, as with Karen Smythe 30:50 other things amended, this is also an in between week, and we can see how it goes. So all right, well, I do. There has been no public comment. I don't see anyone waving their hand to make any public comment at this point, so I will ask for a motion to close the public hearing. So moved. Thank you. Second. Perry Allen 31:21 Second, thank Karen Smythe 31:22 you. All in favor. All right. Okay, so public hearing is closed. So what comes next? The schedule is on the agenda, so we'll hit that when we get there. Next item on the agenda is public comment. So anyone who would like to make public comment about any item at all. Looks like no one in person, anyone online like to make public comment, not seeing anybody waving a hand or unmuting. So we will move on to general business. Okay, so we had panda to the top of the top of the list. So there are a number of things in our practice. Fran has put forth a recommendation that we consider Alex Keller as so the Panda, Eric, while you're here, why don't you come on up, stand at the podium. Why don't you tell us all a little bit about Panda, what you do, how you're structured, and then we'll go Jen Cavanaugh, Clerk 32:39 from there, on the bike, on the mic is a little switch. Just move it up towards your Jen Cavanaugh, Clerk 32:49 face. Karen Smythe 32:50 Just keep talking. Eric Riback PANDA 32:52 Ever since, and in the last couple of years, we've been able to go beyond cable, actually, for about 10 years, we also have had our programming on YouTube, and then in the last two years, we've also added a streaming app, so there are many ways for people to watch programming on panda. And so it's not just limited to people who have cable television. Anybody can see us on really, any TV or mobile device, and we're known mostly for broadcasting meetings such as this. That's one of our core things that we do for municipalities, is we record all of the Board of Trustees and town council meetings. But from time to time, we've also had a lot of other kinds of programming and over the years that kind of come and gone in terms of the quantity of it, but we're right now in poising ourselves to really expand the programming offerings we do both that which we might produce or to as a public access station where anybody who lives here can produce video programming and have it shared through us as a medium. So we're hoping to have a lot more and become kind of more of a video hub for the communities, a place where we're all kinds of information is shared. So our board, we're a 501 c3, nonprofit, and because the five municipalities provide our funding, each of these five municipalities gets to appoint a member to our board. So it's a five member board, and the person who was appointed by the village many years ago, Mark Doran, wishes to retire after many years of involvement in service with Panda and also he also left the area. And has been still carrying on and attending meetings. But what we really need on our board, and we also have a position open to be appointed by the village of Tivoli, is we need people to do more than just come to a monthly or every six week meeting, but to do something in a way of volunteerism to help us achieve our goals. And even before he knew we had an opening, Alex Geller, who's the library director of Red Hook, had approached us and said, I would like to be on your board. And he sees panda as being very integral to communication, civic engagement, education in the community, and those are areas that we would like to play a bigger role in. And so my feeling is that he is very well positioned as a library director. He has connections to the schools that we don't really currently have to other organizations. He also has experience in different kinds of nonprofits, beyond libraries, and I have to say, the the other members of our board, really, most of us came here through media and don't have that kind of experience. So I think having somebody with broader experience in nonprofit organizations and volunteer organizations also will be an asset in helping us figure out how to expand our volunteer base, how to organize ourselves. We had the same bylaws for many years. I think that's something we need to take a look at. So for all those reasons, we think Alex would be a good addition to our board. I understand he does not live in this area, and that is a concern. And typically you want people who are local residents. But my feeling about it is that I would have had no idea, knowing him, that he didn't live here, because he seems to be here a lot and very well embedded in the life of a village in town of Red Karen Smythe 37:02 Hook. Question about your bylaws, are they on your website? Eric Riback PANDA 37:05 They are, and they're, they're very simple. And one of the projects that I haven't gotten to is, and I hope, once we have a full board again, is to really take a look at those because they feel too simple and maybe behind the times, and I'm not sure what needs to happen to them, but I've just had this intrinsic feeling for a long time that that we need more. Just as an example, it says nothing about other than that we elect officers from the board. It really says nothing about the role of the board. What does a board member do? What do we vote on or not vote on? And so those are things that I would think most organizations define a little better. Karen Smythe 37:51 Say, nonprofit bylaws are often overlooked. That is a constant, constant refrain, how we have to do the bylaws. There are also some new regulations associated with nonprofit bylaws as well that probably need to be updated. I guess I can just add from my own stand, Eric and I had spoken a couple months ago. I had I actually have reached out to a couple of village residents. One person wasn't interested, the other person is still thinking about it. So, you know, obviously we as a board, the board can choose to to act now, or the other opportunity would be to publicize it a little more and see if there was anyone else who lives in the village who might be interested. But one thing that I would highly recommend is, even though panda doesn't require terms, I think it would be appropriate for us to have a term for two reasons, one, because it reminds us that this is our board person. To be honest, I didn't know that until you called me a couple months ago. And so I think when it's 10 years plus, it sort of gets forgotten. And I think that's that's not helpful in any direction. And the other is because Alex makes sense because of his position, I think it makes sense for us to have a term so that we can, we can say, in two years, I'm recommending two years. We can say in two years is, you know, a the person has a chance to actually say I don't want to renew, and the board has a chance to say we'd like to get different representation. So that that would be so that is my, my two cents is I myself would love to wait a month, but regardless, I would like to add a two year term. I Melkorka Kjarval 39:47 actually put it in my report or read it together that you guys were looking for a board member, and I guess because it is directly related to taxpayer money like I would like. To be representative someone that is paying that tax, you know, that goes into the ideally, I think Alex has a lot of talent and would probably be a great fit. But I would love to see whether or not we could publicize it and see if anyone else is interested, and then be able to compare that, you know, then that, then we can make a decision. But that's just, you know, everyone else wants to move forward on this tonight. Perry Allen 40:24 Are you saying? Was it publicized with Rev together? Sorry, Melkorka Kjarval 40:27 I wrote it in my report Perry Allen 40:30 tonight. Melkorka Kjarval 40:31 Yeah, because I just said it at so I put it in my report, but I would like to maybe publicize it more so that we could see if there's anybody that is actually lives in the village that could contribute, because it doesn't mean that that Alex couldn't still volunteer and be involved, because he already has a big role in the community. But that's just my two cents. Frances Uku 41:00 My position would be, and again, I don't know when Karen and Eric spoke a few months ago, I just found out about this and reached out to a number of people also who live in the village. It's very difficult to get help. It's very difficult to get volunteers on nonprofit boards, and especially I listen, I do accept. Alex doesn't specifically live, he doesn't pay taxes. He doesn't pay village taxes. However, it's a volunteer position. So it's, it's not that he's being paid out of the money that we pay panda. And he's, I mean, he's, I don't, I mean, being honest, I don't know Alex from anywhere other I'm library liaison, and that was how I found out I know Suzanne of Panda, and that's how I found out of the match that was seeking to happen. But I can tell you that it's very, very difficult to find volunteers regardless, and adding the additional constraint of being a village resident, on a director role, on a board. It just, it just seems to me like they Alex would like to serve. They would like Alex to serve. We can just set a term if it does at any point. In fact, we don't even have to set a term. If someone shows up in a month, we can make the decision to reappoint. Karen Smythe 42:25 I would be uncomfortable with doing that. I see I'd be uncomfortable appointing Alex and a month later saying, Sorry, we changed our mind, sure. That's why I like the idea of a term. Sure, then we've asked someone sure to serve for this period of time. At the end of that term, we can say, ask either if they would like to continue, or we can say, Thank you for your service. Yeah, Frances Uku 42:49 my email, I'm I'm totally down for two for two years, yeah, I was fine with me. Perry Allen 42:55 I'm comfortable with the term as well. I was wondering if two years is enough time to enact projects, or I don't know what the needs that something are, in that way, is two years enough time Frances Uku 43:05 be able to speak to that Frances Uku 43:06 maybe, Eric Riback PANDA 43:06 well, I would say that if somebody is being effective, we'd like them to stay on longer, but two years, like when I first heard that that was proposed, doesn't doesn't seem Perry Allen 43:18 uncomfortable. Okay, cool, Eric Riback PANDA 43:20 yeah. And you know, I, if I, if I may just, you know, couple of thoughts of your discussion, and I understand exactly what you're saying that people would like to have local residents, my view. But again, has been that the reason that you are appointing somebody to our board is that you're our funder, and so your job is to make sure that we have effective board members Karen Smythe 43:51 more Eric Riback PANDA 43:52 so than they and I'll tell you I'm an appointee of the town of Rhinebeck, because that's where I lived when I was appointed. I moved to the town of Red Hook eight years ago, and I'm not sure if she brought it to her board, said she was very comfortable having me continue as their appointee. So even though I live, yeah, the town has a different appointee. So it's not been that unusual for us to have people who weren't residents. And even though Mark has completely left the area, actually, at the time, he was appointed by the village and his wife was appointed by the village of Tivoli. They both lived in Upper Red Hook. Speaker 2 44:41 Yeah, Eric Riback PANDA 44:42 so, Karen Smythe 44:43 yeah, Eric Riback PANDA 44:44 I don't, Karen Smythe 44:45 I don't think it makes sense to require residency. It was merely that. It's relatively new. It's new to you. It was new to you. It, you know, it was, it was merely just a question of, do we want to wait a month to see if anyone in. Their networks came across anyone who might be interested. We do have a lot of good experience with nonprofits, etc. In this village, it was really just an opportunity to give others a chance to see and again, because I think Alex will be involved one way or the other, because of his role at the library. So it was that was really more again, I wouldn't, I would not recommend that we require residency. But again, the two years, also, from my standpoint, was more just so that it becomes that the board is Karen Smythe 45:30 aware. Speaker 2 45:30 You Karen Smythe 45:31 know, each two years, there's some there people can change who are sitting up here, and it just really sort of brings it back to life. I mean, it's a perfect opportunity for you to be here tonight to remind us what it is you do and who panda is, and the fact that it's not just a cute animal, but actually panda stands for something. Perry Allen 45:50 Yeah, I could say that two years, then sounds really good to me. I would. I've worked with Alex on projects before. I think he has incredible vision and energy, so I would totally support I've even just seen what he's done with Instagram and the library. So I think he has clever ideas in terms of video engagement. So just be interesting to see so terms of that. And then with Panda itself, saying that this is who they would like to see, I think that would get my support as well. Melkorka Kjarval 46:20 So you want to move forward tonight? Or would you want? Would you want to consider it in a month? I Perry Allen 46:26 mean, I would feel comfortable moving forward tonight, since, based off of what I've heard and my understanding of it, unless there was other opposition. Craig Rothstein 46:36 I think, I think in practice, it makes sense to make sure that opportunities like this are presented sufficiently to people who live in the village. The particulars of this suggest that Alex would be very good in the role uniquely positioned and skilled to do a very good job, which would be the benefit of Red Hook villages at the same time. I think, you know, in general, I think when, and I don't know how many other instances of this kind of position are out there, but when something like this happens, I think when this kind of district becomes available, I think it does make sense to give some time if residents have not been, if residents of the actual village have not been sufficiently alerted that there is this kind of an opportunity to get involved, and we go ahead and, you know, put Alex in there and he's not a resident. I think it strikes me as maybe a less than ideal practice. I'd be very comfortable supporting his move, but I do feel like like I said, I'm more applying this to unknown future situations, but I think in practice, we should give our residents ample notice that this is available and just to give anybody else who does live here and pay taxes here, you know, the opportunity, like I said, I think in a month, if we were to wait a month, I think he'll end up being Alex, no matter what, and I'd be very happy with that, given his credentials. But I do see as a general practice, you know, giving other people an opportunity would be a nice thing, a good thing. Karen Smythe 48:25 So that feels like, that feels like putting it on the agenda. In a month. I think you all will survive. Fran Frances Uku 48:33 and Alex can appear himself as well. So if that's helpful, yeah, other Eric Riback PANDA 48:39 interests. Another interested candidate, I'd be thrilled to me Karen Smythe 48:46 absolutely perfect. Frances Uku 48:48 Have you had, just as just curious? Have you ever had a situation at Panda where there have been more than one candidate for Eric Riback PANDA 48:59 I've been involved for 12 years and hasn't happened. Melkorka Kjarval 49:04 Do you do like a big ad on pandas and you're looking for a trustee? Eric Riback PANDA 49:09 No, frankly, we haven't. We haven't typically done that kind of promotion, and maybe we, maybe we could be more aggressive in seeking we kind of quietly put out feelers. I Melkorka Kjarval 49:25 remember there was a conversation when the library was looking for new trustees. Was like, when you're using the networks that you know, you end up sort of getting the people that think that they deserve it, and when you do public push, you sometimes get people that don't necessarily think they could do that role and equitably, you get different people that put their hat in the ring. That's, I'm not saying that you're supposed to do that, just like I, I know that I got this opportunity to be on a board and run for office because, you know, someone said you should do that, you know, and like, not. Or gets that tap on the shoulder, Frances Uku 50:04 but in just to the point as well. Interestingly, this is something that we have seen like with the communication survey. Like not everyone has access. I mean, Eric was just talking about how they have been mainly, they're looking to build their presence in other in other communications channels. So it may not necessarily be that they can. I mean, we can, for instance, if we wanted to put out a call for Panda, but I don't know that they necessarily have the resources or the, forgive me, the Intel, the to go out to the places where a different a different category of candidate, like the village, reaching out to different demographics, younger or more web savvy, or I'm just putting it out there that, like I'm happy within a month, I'm just saying that as Eric, not as Eric, as Craig said, likely we're in the same situation in a month. Karen Smythe 51:02 Yeah, okay, very well, yeah. So I going to make a motion that we that we make our appointment for Penda at our June that work for everybody. Second, great. All in favor. Aye. Speaker 2 51:18 Thank Karen Smythe 51:19 you very much. Fran we really appreciate it. Great opportunity for us to understand a little more about that. Frances Uku 51:26 Yeah, good. Karen Smythe 51:28 It was nice. It was nice to see you. Suzanne, I don't know if it was you that was here on Apple Blossom day in the cold and the rain. So thank you. I know that the town comprehensive plan people appreciated the opportunity to be a little farther and wider than they were able to reach on Saturday in the cold and rain. Okay, all right, the next item on the agenda is the sewer budget note authorization. Obviously is something of much discussion for quite a while. And so you all have the resolution to authorize a budget note not to exceed 206,000 to remind you the advance that we that went from the general fund to the sewer fund was $205,430 so this is a not to exceed in my head. I like round numbers. I was thinking 200 but part of that will depend on where we are with cash when we get to basically in two weeks, I have spoken with two banks. So the way a budget note works, it's a one year note with a one year renewal. It does not require publication. It does not require the publication, meaning to put it out to all banks we can select. So I've reached out to Bank of Green County, who we actually we have a loan with right now for our police car, I believe it is. And I've also reached out to M and T Bank, just to let you know, I did get a response from Bank of Green County, and they are offering 3.8585% and it that includes a callable feature, which just means that we can pay off a portion over time. We don't have to hold it to the end. And I believe our current night class interest rate is 3.5% so it's pretty close. When we give the the advance back to the general fund, it'll go into night class, and we will be earning 3.5% so on the toll we're looking at it from a village standpoint, the cost will be, will be limited. Does anybody have any questions regarding this note, we did get confirmation from our attorney that in the original resolution that the transfer when the funds come in, that the transfer back to the general fund has already been authorized in that original resolution. But obviously we will continue to update the board on who, the, who the bank is, what the, what the interest rate is, and, and how, how that sort of the longer term, pay back the plan, Melkorka Kjarval 54:34 how it came, or how it's supposed to be done. Karen Smythe 54:39 So this, this resolution came from our bond Council. It was, I twitched about putting it into our form, but I figured, since it's coming from someone who does municipal lending all over the place, I figured it was best to keep it the way we had it. Speaker 2 54:59 So. Karen Smythe 55:01 Uh, with that, Ben, no, Perry Allen 55:04 just, just no question. I just suppose it just feels this, this is a tough one, you know, it's like, feels like we're being, we're in a rock and a hard place with this. You know, it says I don't, and I don't see another way out of paying the bill on time. And if we don't pay the bill on time, we risk what all of our municipal funding having higher interest rates in the future, right? Frances Uku 55:32 Sorry, which Bill Are you referring to? Perry Allen 55:34 To paying back this bond Speaker 2 55:37 or Melkorka Kjarval 55:37 using the 200 Perry Allen 55:38 what all Karen Smythe 55:39 the consequences are, but it would be considered, I mean, technically, it would be considered illegal. And so we would, we would have accounting violations, and I don't know if that comes with penalties, etc, Perry Allen 55:51 exactly. I don't want to imperil the village, right? That seems against the oath I took. But yet, then I understand why people are so concerned with because here we are with another cost, you know, so I get why there's then, even as much as I will get to later when I talk about the sewer, as much as I'm getting my mind around the sewer and beginning to trust a lot of operations around it. Why still just understand the the public distrust, where, once again, here we have, like another thing that is kind of still fully unaccounted for, you know, even though I still, I can't see another way out, you know. And so this just is a tough one, I suppose. I just want to say that on the record, this is a tough Karen Smythe 56:48 one to have to if you think back to a year and a half ago, that would have been the time to increase the rates, but it was also at a time where we were in the midst of trying to figure out what was going on, and understanding that the operations were not being done, we really didn't know what the numbers would be. So had we increased the rates a year earlier, we wouldn't. We wouldn't have this level of funding Speaker 2 57:17 needed Karen Smythe 57:17 to cover so, yeah, and also, just to clarify, I mean, we starting in January, we knew we were going to have an issue, and that's why we did the transfer, and then knowing at that point that that some knowing we had to pay it back, some somewhere it was going to, was going to have to come from. So this is continuing to clean up what we had been cleaning up since a year and a half Speaker 2 57:44 ago. Perry Allen 57:44 I was hoping that we would receive counsel to approve that I did feel ethically okay with that. I tried to grapple with it for a while, and I was hoping that we could just absorb that in the general fund. It felt ethical, but it did seem clear, at least from my reading of it, that it seems illegal to in that way, unless Frances Uku 58:08 that what is illegal this, Perry Allen 58:09 no, to absorb it in the general fund. That was my last Karen Smythe 58:13 just turning the advance into transfer, whether or not we can incorporate it into the budget next, right? That's Perry Allen 58:21 okay. So that's the question, okay, yeah, yes, thank you. That was a good point. And also reminds me that, yeah, that's a, that's a, that's something we need to clean up then for next year, because there's obviously a path forward there that we could have possibly Yeah, but Frances Uku 58:36 there's this. There is yeah for next year, though, if we are So, firstly, just going back, because I know that you and Craig were not on the board, going back to February when we made this inter fund advance. And the term of that resolution, which is 720, 26 was that we would take up to 200 and the actual amount is about 170 but we would take an advance from the general fund to the sewer fund so that we could make debt service on the on the capital repayment on the debt for phase one, right? So in that resolution, it said that the treasurer would present today, by today, a plan for repaying it. And this, here is a, is a proposal to go out and seek a budget note. And as the mayor noted, she has approached various lenders about that. But this is, this is authorizing the seeking of but not the Not, not approved, not the actual. This is not a resolution. Yeah, Karen Smythe 59:48 it does, actually, if, and that that was clarified, this authorizes the borrowing of up to $206,000 right? And that's sorry. Well, no. Actually the plan, the repayment plan. This is a plan to repay the general fund. Frances Uku 1:00:05 Okay, so then, so then my question, then is, who will be repaying so, say, say, we do get this. It's the three and a half, or forgive me for the exact number, interest rate. So we have that is that who is the who is the recipient, is that who will be repaying? Karen Smythe 1:00:25 Okay? Fund receives it okay. Fund will pay it back. Frances Uku 1:00:28 Okay, the sewer fund will pay it back. But what is the means by which the sewer fund it? It's Karen Smythe 1:00:34 the use fees who are on the sewer system, Frances Uku 1:00:37 right? So the rate payers will have to pay not just the amount back, but interest on, on this commercial budget, yes, this commercial loan, but, but they just, we just increased rates in February. This it's, it's, as you say, it's it's tough because they that's who would be repaying. Speaker 2 1:01:06 There Karen Smythe 1:01:07 is an expected surplus in this year's budget. There's a plan surplus in next year's budget, Frances Uku 1:01:14 in the general Karen Smythe 1:01:15 in the sewer fund, listed as Frances Uku 1:01:19 reserve. Listed as reserve. Okay, Karen Smythe 1:01:22 and so there, there is, there is funding. Is it 200,000 No, but there is funding incorporated in the budget. As it is, we also know the next thing we need to do, as it relates to the rates, which is something we discussed back in, back in January, February, is moved to, rather than have the rigid, rigid benefit unit, where, if you are over 150 gallons, Frances Uku 1:01:49 what I proposed here, Karen Smythe 1:01:50 then it would, I mean, it's something that we have discussed as the sewer group for a couple of years now, is to move to that, and in moving to that, it's a different rate structure, we need to change the code in order to do that. So it's some additional work. We also need to make some major changes to the code. We can do it all at the same time. That would be ideal. But that's something is as we look at that, it just shifts the way the rates are structured, and that will be another opportunity to look at the costs, how things are running, etc. And as we do our capital project to install an expanded EQ tank, there's also an opportunity to make sure that any repairs or maintenance that's needed is covered in that capital project, rather than by the by the existing fund. So there are a couple of unknowns, sort of expected unknowns, for us to review as as we go forward, that we just can't know what was that? Right? Yeah, Frances Uku 1:03:02 right. Perry Allen 1:03:03 If I'm good, I don't mean Sorry, go ahead. If I'm getting my understanding correct, are we then able to long term planning with next year's general fund budget? In essence, compensate for this, Karen Smythe 1:03:17 I'm not clear. Perry Allen 1:03:19 You know, retroactively? Yeah, if I'm speaking Frances Uku 1:03:26 correctly, no to Karen Smythe 1:03:28 understand. I'm not sure how, or if the general fund could have a line item that would be something for the sewer that I think we need to. I would like to have further clarification on what that would be, but I think it's something that is worth looking at. But that's, again, the benefit of having a two year loan, a two year budget note, is it gives us some time, Perry Allen 1:03:54 two years to figure Speaker 2 1:03:55 that Frances Uku 1:03:57 out. Okay, so just going back to the 37 that you so it's about 37 in the reserve that we're talking about potentially using towards the debt service of this budget note, the commercial loan. So with that, because I had prepared a presentation for you in the workshop in which identified that that 37,000 is is being described as serving many purposes. And so if it is a reserve for emergencies, and a sewer fund has to have reserves, a sewer fund has to have contingency I know that we have, we have the alarm system. We've made so many improvements. I have to give it to all of you on the sewer team. I'm very I acknowledge all of that, but an enterprise fund needs you have to have reserves. You have to have a contingency. Anything can Karen Smythe 1:04:54 answer. So Frances Uku 1:04:55 yeah, that's the Karen Smythe 1:04:56 plan reserve from from zero, and you don't create it all at once. Yes, that's precisely the point, part of the plan. Frances Uku 1:05:02 Yeah. But so then if you have a 37 that's supposed to serve as this debt service, it cannot also be the emergency and and reserves, and building the reserves you're talking about, Karen Smythe 1:05:16 that would be correct. Frances Uku 1:05:19 So I'm I'm just saying that what Karen Smythe 1:05:22 and what you presented said that we should have lots of different other pockets which would require another significant increase in the rates. And I feel at this point that that would be asking too much of the people who are on the silver fund. I think we need to have more time to see how the operations go, and to see if there are areas where we have put a budget in that actually has contingency within it. Frances Uku 1:05:51 Okay? So what, yeah, what I would be comfortable with as far as this goes is we have talked about the amendments to the budget that would result from this. I personally would like to see the repayment schedule. If we could split off, authorize the treasurer to go out and seek which exactly which one it is, the terms, the all the repayment options, bring that back to us for the workshop. That's still one more meeting before the end of the year. Karen Smythe 1:06:27 So I'm just going to say, from a practical standpoint, Frances Uku 1:06:30 yeah, Karen Smythe 1:06:30 we need to go to closing. We need to get the money. We need to transfer it back to the general fund. It would make me very nervous not to use the budget note as the resolution as presented to allow, I'm not saying that we wouldn't come back to all of you to say everything. I can tell you that the highest interest rate we will pay is 3.85% if M and T comes back with a better interest rate, we'll take that one, the payment plan ours. We have to pay it off in two years. We have the we will have the option to pay off some of it in six months and another portion in in a year. Because the way it's structured is it's a one year loan with a one year extension. It's the way, legally it's set up. So to say today exactly how much we would pay off in six months, in a year, I think that's premature to say exactly how much, because there are other things that may happen that either could go up or down. So that's it's not going to get lot, much more precise than that in a week Karen Smythe 1:07:30 or two weeks. Frances Uku 1:07:32 I it just didn't seem clear to me from the attorneys or conversation with the attorney that that the idea of a general fund, a village helping subsidizing some of the costs of the sewer operations is completely off the table. And from in fact, what I believe I'm allowed to say that council has suggested that the resolution that I brought was is not the instrument, but the means by which we might solve the problem is that that the spirit of it is, in fact, sound. So I'm just, I'm just putting it out there. I'm just putting it Karen Smythe 1:08:17 out there Karen Smythe 1:08:17 say that he indicated that turning an advance into a transfer, is not something, Speaker 2 1:08:24 yeah, Frances Uku 1:08:24 sure. That's not something. Karen Smythe 1:08:26 As you have said many times, we have days left, and so it's fine to have the conversation. There's the practical reality of having to do the work, to borrow the money and to make the transfer. So I am requesting that you all consider the resolution as it is proposed. And I think unless, unless anyone else has any further questions or comments, I'd like to move to vote if anyone would like to make a motion. Did you want to make a comment? Treasurer 1:08:58 No, I just wondered whether it would be helpful to know the numbers and what actually the interest difference would cost Perry Allen 1:09:08 us. Treasurer 1:09:09 Is anyone Karen Smythe 1:09:11 interested in that? Yes, just why don't you, Mary Speaker 2 1:09:14 Beth, Treasurer 1:09:15 once you come up to the podium? Okay, ballpark, but pretty close if we take a $260 loan out. And at 3.85% we're talking about $7,931 in interest for the year. And if, right now, NY class is offering more than 3.5 that would be $7,210 that we'd be earning on that same amount of money, so the difference is actually $721 Karen Smythe 1:09:48 to the village. Treasurer 1:09:49 Yes, yeah, by doing bank note rather than going through the general fund. Thank you. So. Karen Smythe 1:10:00 Okay with that? I will, I will take a motion to to adopt the budget resolution. So move. Thank you. Mark Clarke, is there a second? Thank you. Before we go to vote, any further comments? Okay? Hearing none we'll do a roll call. Craig aye, Mel Clarke aye, Perry Aye Speaker 2 1:10:26 Fran I'll Karen Smythe 1:10:27 abstain last Frances Uku 1:10:28 minutes. I don't know Karen Smythe 1:10:30 what the resolution Okay, Jen Cavanaugh, Clerk 1:10:42 thank you. Karen Smythe 1:10:48 Okay, all right, tax levy and warrant This is required legal item that we need to formally We passed our budget. Now we need to formally authorize the tax levy and warrant for the fiscal year. Just a couple things about I'm not going to read the whole resolution in detail. The levy that we approved was $1,465,214 that is a 2.3% increase from last year, which is why we say the tax, the tax levy limit, instead of the 2% tax gap. Because there is a there's a calculation that goes into that levy limit, which is why it can be plus or minus the 2% it's also based on an assessed valuation of real property in the Village of Red Hook, which is at $329,291,070 that's actually a 10.4% increase from a year ago, and which means that the tax rate has gone down by about 7.4% the current tax rate, or the tax rate for the next fiscal year. And the county likes you to actually have all the decimals out there, which is why you have them there, 4.441892 last year, we were at 4.7985 so that is a tax rate reduction and all the penalties, etc are, there's no change in that. That is the, that is what we've had as the penalty schedule. And so again, this authorizes the village and the village Clarke to deliver the tax roll and to collect the taxes. Sorry, it just says, deliver the tax rule. Speaker 2 1:12:41 Oh, yes, sorry. Karen Smythe 1:12:42 And warrant to the treasurer. Then collects the taxes Jen Cavanaugh, Clerk 1:12:46 I collect. She sends the releases I collect. There you go. It's very important that they're separate. Karen Smythe 1:12:52 Yes. So with that, are there any questions? If not, I'll take a motion to approve this resolution, which will be number 21 so moved. Thank you. Mel Clarke, second, Craig Rothstein 1:13:13 second. Karen Smythe 1:13:14 Thank you. Craig, all in favor. Speaker 2 1:13:17 Aye. Karen Smythe 1:13:22 Okay, the next item on the agenda is going back to our public hearing. This is the fee schedule. So there were a number of adjustments proposed. So I am going to just say this would be to to adopt the adjusted fee schedule, amended fee schedule as amended. There you go, the schedule as amended. Better. Any questions. All right, hearing none I'll take a motion to adopt this resolution and adopt this fee schedule. Resolution 22 Craig Rothstein 1:14:12 so moved. Karen Smythe 1:14:13 Thank you, Craig. Second. Perry Allen 1:14:16 Second, Karen Smythe 1:14:17 thank you, Perry, all in favor. Karen Smythe 1:14:22 Okay, next item on the agenda, this is the inter municipal amendments for shared services, for Karen Smythe 1:14:34 highways, public works. Oh, so this is, this is they, they got all their comments back. It is exactly what I sent you or what I shared with you at. April workshop. So now I'm just asking for a motion to authorize me to sign this inter municipal agreement. And as a reminder, we don't have to share services, either, we don't have to receive, we don't have to give, and we can determine our own fees as we choose. This just gives us a legal basis and the the appropriate legal coverage when we choose to do that. So moved. Thank you. Second, Perry Allen 1:15:31 second, Karen Smythe 1:15:32 thank you all in favor. Speaker 2 1:15:34 Hi, Karen Smythe 1:15:35 great. Okay, unallocated insurance. Happily, this year we got a quote earlier than last year. We had to have a special day on May 27 I think, because our insurance is up at the end of May, it is seven or 8% increase. It is shy of the budget by about $1,500 so I will make, I will make a future adjustment to the to the budget to cover that. But that's pretty close on 106 or $8,000 for the total the water fund also supports, contributes to the to the unallocated insurance. So I am just looking for, does anybody have any questions about insurance? It obviously covers a lot of it's it's all lumped together. There are a lot of things in there, auto insurance, general liability, excess liability. Frances Uku 1:16:36 Do we have the proposal? Karen Smythe 1:16:39 It was shared with you online? I don't think it's it was long, so I don't think it was I Frances Uku 1:16:44 don't think Perry Allen 1:16:46 it was printed out. I saw it on the email, but I didn't sign in Karen Smythe 1:16:50 here. I don't Jen Cavanaugh, Clerk 1:16:54 have it. I apologize. Karen Smythe 1:16:57 Linked to the agenda. Frances Uku 1:16:59 Yes, it's definitely linked to the agenda. Yeah. But Jen Cavanaugh, Clerk 1:17:02 i Yes. I Karen Smythe 1:17:02 we do use a broker, and we've used Niner New York municipal insurance reciprocal and the insurances, there's been an increase in the valuation of our property, which I think was the they did a an audit of our physical audit of our property a year ago, and that that was the majority of the increase. I will say that I am, I know I'm comfortable with this insurance. If folks would like to speak to other insurance companies. The time to do that would be next February or thereabouts. So I'm just looking, I'm looking for a motion to authorize me to sign the insurance, the insurance proposal. So moved. Thank you. Second. Craig Rothstein 1:18:02 Second, Karen Smythe 1:18:03 all in favor, Craig Rothstein 1:18:07 aye, Karen Smythe 1:18:09 okay, thank you. Next item I have is the public spaces committee membership, but I think we're not ready for that. Perry Allen 1:18:16 Yeah, let's confirm that the members at the next Karen Smythe 1:18:22 meeting to ask you that in advance next item was professional training. We have a resolution. It has the workshop date on it, so that updated, and the motion here is just to authorize different village staff and elected to attend these meetings and to authorize the possibility of village funds to go towards supporting that. It identifies the budgets that we have approved, and and it recognizes the policy that we put in place in January. And so it also just codifies the the procedure for making sure that everybody's aware of what's what's happening and how we're spending our Speaker 2 1:19:18 money. Frances Uku 1:19:21 I had a question about the allocation. What we as a Board have this the $2,000 is that that's something that we have decided is what we would like to allocate for training. I only because, and I mentioned it specifically because we did have a voucher in this, in our general fund vouchers in this batch in which an expense not related to training appears in this, in this line, Karen Smythe 1:19:55 so that that has traditionally been the line that has been used for things like new. There hasn't been much else of the new place nameplates, yes, thank you. And that because we haven't, we haven't pushed the limits of the training budget in the past. So I was going to say, I don't think that we are at the total amount spent this year for for that budget line item. So I figured we could leave that in for this year, for next year, that kind of expense we can choose to put under Clarke, not necessarily Clarke supplies. It tends not to be a lot. And I think, I think nameplates is pretty much the only thing we put, the only other thing we've put in that line, because it's basically, it's legislative contract expense is what it's called. Frances Uku 1:20:56 Yeah, there's been other plates as well, not just, not just trustees in Karen Smythe 1:21:03 except Karen Smythe 1:21:03 that for planning board, for example, that would go on, that would be a planning board expense, for example, in terms of the other, other place, name, plates, if, if there was a new court, Clarke, when there was a new court club, that one's under the court, Frances Uku 1:21:18 no sure those are, those are, those are line. Yes, those are different this. So my only pitch with the with the this resolution, and we've discussed this previously, is for us as a board to to set how much we feel, particularly for training, is worth is an expense that we're willing to take on. And I have, severally. I many, many times discussed my personal experience with nicom training. Also, this is something that Jen, the Clarke, advised me of. This is how I became a i We are all amateurs. And my view, this is just something I'm pitching to you all, that that should be where a mainstay of our investment, budget wise, the village gets so much value for our going to these conferences, which is not so there's the fall training that's the most significant in terms of cost, which I personally feel that new trustees should go on, or at least, or trustees who have not been in a while. And the other was, the others are less expensive, but I just personally feel that it is a very good investment of the villages, type of villages, funds, of taxpayer funding. We do a lot of stuff that I am not a lawyer, as, as has been pointed out many times, I'm not a lawyer. I don't have experience in municipal, municipal finance, in land use. You know, there are all of these things that we're Karen Smythe 1:22:55 no and that's, you know, training. Training is important, and icon does a tremendous job. I think, as we've discussed, it's also a question of the budget. We went through budget process and proof of budget that has a $2,000 line item in it, but we certainly an opportunity to have a further discussion down the road. It's also, if we are going to spend more on training, we're going to spend less than something else. And so that's the question for the board. Is there something that is of less value that one it's not that there isn't value here. There's value in other things as well, sure. And so we can't just say, Well, sure, we'll spend more here without acknowledging what it is we're going to take the money away from Frances Uku 1:23:32 Yes, but we're not, I mean this that that is a that's a policy decision, that's something for us as a board to Karen Smythe 1:23:39 decide what Karen Smythe 1:23:40 decision we made when we put together, when the budget was put together and presented and discussed and then passed. Frances Uku 1:23:45 Yes. But we make adjustments to the budget throughout the year, like yes, Karen Smythe 1:23:50 and this, this amendment is reflecting the budget as it has been approved, and it is, it is authorizing the village officials and employees for the potential village funds to be used for these events. So we can certainly not pass this, or we can pass it and have a separate discussion as to whether or not we should make an amendment down the road to the budget. Frances Uku 1:24:14 I would be comfortable with tabling this to discuss at the workshop specifically, and not so much the what the board has approved, but the the whereas about, about the training policy. So I, I feel Karen Smythe 1:24:28 I'd like to revisit the policy that the board passed in January. I believe it Frances Uku 1:24:33 was yes, and the board passed that previous to that, the board had passed a resolution, Karen Smythe 1:24:38 passed the budget, Frances Uku 1:24:40 yes, but that's, that's, that's the budget, not right now, that's why Karen Smythe 1:24:45 I that's fine. I think we've discussed it a lot. I don't, I don't see it as value to discuss it again, if anyone would like to make a motion to pass this real solution as written. Fran, I would take that if no one wants to do that, if folks would like to, to make the motion, and then we'll just see where, where it ends up. Okay. Is there a second? Okay, hearing none. We will not consider Melkorka Kjarval 1:25:19 that it Craig Rothstein 1:25:21 was the it was Melkorka Kjarval 1:25:22 one of the ones that she asked us whether Frances Uku 1:25:29 or not we had here. So all the more reason to move to the workshop. Speaker 2 1:25:33 Okay, do you mind having A cup of Water Fran, you Fran Craig Rothstein 1:26:24 and so let me just get this straight, that we're the issue is that we have earmarked $2,000 to compensate or to pay for trustees to be trained. And Speaker 1 1:26:39 so Craig Rothstein 1:26:39 is perhaps we need more Karen Smythe 1:26:42 so, so they're so there are two things. One, nicom recommends that the board authorize officials and employees to attend these meetings and to authorize the possibility of village funds being used for that purpose, if that that is the purpose of this, of this resolution, it also is to identify or clarify what the process is, so that if someone is going to go to an event and they are looking for the village to fund some or all of those monies, those costs, that it goes through A process. And so that's the purpose of this resolution. In that resolution, it identifies what has been approved in the budget for the dollar amount, so we can approve this resolution and down the road, have a discussion as to whether or not we want to increase the budget. Right? Craig Rothstein 1:27:37 I think that's salient point. And my question was, does this foreclose the possibility of increasing that line item? Karen Smythe 1:27:43 Absolutely, Craig Rothstein 1:27:44 I'm comfortable seconding Karen Smythe 1:27:46 this. Okay, so then I'm going to do a roll call vote. Sorry, Frances Uku 1:27:50 I just have one more because only it just, it just strikes me as redundant, if we're setting a $2,000 and then also saying that we will come and determine how, how, the excess of I it just, it seems like you could just, yeah, I don't. I don't know that. I understand the resolution. It's Karen Smythe 1:28:16 money that we have authorized in the budget for next year for training. Frances Uku 1:28:21 But budget amounts can change if we decide that. So I guess I don't understand why we have to, as you said, it's in the budget. So what is the purpose of Karen Smythe 1:28:30 the resolution that was approved in the budget and the policy right? It's done setting the policy. There's there's a policy associated with it. So based on the budget, now we divide by four, which makes it $500 so it just gives you the dollars. Craig Rothstein 1:28:47 So it's affirming the procedure attached that line item in Melkorka Kjarval 1:28:51 the budget agreement. Craig Rothstein 1:28:52 This is how that money will be used. With that money could potentially be changed in the future, depending on board decisions. But whatever that line item is, let's take $2,000 out for a moment. There is a line item that provides for some sort of financial reimbursement, or whatever it is for attending training. This is how that item in the budget would be processed, processed in so specifically, and I'm going to articulate, again, because this is not defining a non negotiable sum never to change in perpetuity, but because that sum is open, this is really procedural. And so I understand, I understand better now the purpose of this. And again, like I said, uncomfortable segment, Melkorka Kjarval 1:29:44 it's not setting that. It's not setting the budget. It is referencing the budget correct, saying Craig Rothstein 1:29:48 whatever money is in that line item, this is how we're going to use it, and whether or not that increases or decreases or whatever, this is still how that line item is going to be the. Board. Melkorka Kjarval 1:30:00 And again, it's sort of like the same sort of when we made the policy about the board agreements how we wanted to work. It's like us agreeing how we want the policy, the procedure to go. So we have the same expectations. Craig Rothstein 1:30:12 So I see the point that in the future, it may be valuable to say, well, we need more training. We need more people to go. We need more representation of whatever it is. It's seems like that remains an open thing. So okay, Frances Uku 1:30:28 I guess, since we are using the $2,000 divided, you know, in fours, I just putting something before you. So this would as as defined here. So 2000 divided by four. So that's 500 per trustee. But the fall training alone is roughly, at least, when I went last fall, about $750 and Karen Smythe 1:30:54 the total cost was closer to 14 to $1,500 Frances Uku 1:30:57 I'm talking about hotel and I'm speaking specifically about the conference fee, the conference fee netted up. Melkorka Kjarval 1:31:04 Okay, Frances Uku 1:31:05 yeah, so, so that alone, just without even hotel and the rest of that, which is also required by resolution, it nicoms by the village in authorizing trustees to attend. They're also entitled to necessary expenses associated with attending those Karen Smythe 1:31:26 not necessarily, Frances Uku 1:31:27 but it's on nicom website like, literally, that is, it's if you go, if you go to register for any nicom conference, that's what adopt. This is the reason that we in the reorg, you had the recitals, the whereas is from the reorg state that once Karen Smythe 1:31:44 I expect that to be true, but I find it hard to believe that nicom will supersede the budget approved by a local municipality. Frances Uku 1:31:52 They're not superseding the budget. It's what we decide. The budget should be so, Karen Smythe 1:31:57 but also in the policy, the way we've written it, if someone has expressed an interest to go and it's going to cost more than $500 the board can choose to allocate additional monies to that person, yeah, out of the 2000 or can choose to make a budget amendment by cutting something else in the budget, Frances Uku 1:32:16 right? Karen Smythe 1:32:17 But this resolution is not it's, it's acknowledging the budget that has been approved, and it's saying this is the procedure by which we will determine but by going to a conference, you do not by right, have the village. You do not by right, get that paid for by the village. I certainly can't, can't cite a lower fund, but I cannot imagine that nicom can supersede our budget. Treasurer 1:32:47 No, Frances Uku 1:32:47 no, of course, of course, they can't supersede our budget, but we set the budget, and so we determine what it is that we would like to the only case I'm making is that with this policy, to be able to go to fall training. That would mean that whoever it was that decided that they were going to go Karen Smythe 1:33:06 to go and have the village pay for the full cost, Frances Uku 1:33:10 but we are paid nearly nothing. Why would they? Why would someone Karen Smythe 1:33:13 volunteer? We are not paid nearly nothing. Frances Uku 1:33:16 I mean, I'm paid $8,000 I don't mind. Yeah, Karen Smythe 1:33:19 and if you look at other trustees around in the area, we're actually on the higher side, Frances Uku 1:33:24 yes, but sure that's still a lot. If Karen Smythe 1:33:26 I'm just, I just want to clarify that the Red Hook village trustees are not paid significant and they are not paid less than anyone around us. Speaker 2 1:33:37 That Frances Uku 1:33:37 was never an assertion that I would Karen Smythe 1:33:39 make the piece that I'm missing is we went through the budget process. We all approved the budget. We have a budget line item. We can certainly discuss. What if others would like to make an amendment to the budget. That is not the purpose of this resolution. The purpose of this resolution is to authorize folks to go to these to these programs, and it authorizes village funds to pay for those expenses. It doesn't say that they will all be paid for. It says they could be, but nobody is precluded from going to any of these things. It's just a question of whether or not the village funds will cover the cost. So as I say it to me, it's a procedural item. We can have a different discussion on whether or not we want to make a budget amendment down the road. Again, we've just gone through the budget process, so Melkorka Kjarval 1:34:32 I like the idea of us all having the same expectation. I like the idea of if we want to spend more than the amount that is in the whatever amount that we have a discussion as a board and we negotiate with and, you know, Craig Rothstein 1:34:48 yeah, I feel, if I decide that I want to attend, I will definitely raise the issue with board to cover the entire. Cost, including my lavish dinners, top shelf liquor, not Frances Uku 1:35:06 liquor. You're not allowed liquor. Craig Rothstein 1:35:08 I like sushi, no, no, no, no. But I would, I would be able to bring that up, and then we can discuss that as and when. So like I say also, Karen Smythe 1:35:21 as an aside, as a new trustee, you would have the potential to apply for $1,000 grant. Craig Rothstein 1:35:27 Okay, so that wonderful. So it seems like there are avenues to adjust the finances behind this. So I remain, as you see, Frances Uku 1:35:41 but you had also said in the workshop that that the $1,000 is not guaranteed Karen Smythe 1:35:47 necessarily, Craig Rothstein 1:35:48 as someone who lives and dies professionally by grants, excuse me, which are very hard to come by these Days. Because first, yeah, I can accept that possibility. Karen Smythe 1:36:03 Okay, I think it's time to move on. So we have a motion and a second, so I'll just go down the down the road. Craig, number, Perry, Perry Allen 1:36:12 I Speaker 2 1:36:13 Fran, Frances Uku 1:36:14 I abstain. Karen Smythe 1:36:16 Okay, I'm an aye. Thank you. Okay, on the agenda, we have a sewer statement. Perry Allen 1:36:25 Oh, that's me. Frances Uku 1:36:30 Yes, Perry Allen 1:36:31 it's not an officially written statement. There was a draft that I had sent around earlier, and then I'm having an amazing meeting this morning with the engineer. Verbal statement. Well, I was Karen Smythe 1:36:42 gonna say, Do you Karen Smythe 1:36:43 want to include Karen Smythe 1:36:43 it in when you, when we get to your reports, when you talk about the sewer Perry Allen 1:36:47 that actually sounds I think that would transition very well, yeah, that's fine with me. Karen Smythe 1:36:50 Let's do that. All right. Next item is the letter to the board regarding the Community Preservation Fund. Speaker 1 1:36:57 Okay, Melkorka Kjarval 1:36:59 so I talk more about it in my reports, but basically, the CPF fund, the CPF plan, is getting amended again, second time this year, is being proposed to be amended. Yes, yes, it is being proposed to be amended, and they're having a public hearing tomorrow. They are also going up again to New York State to have it's been a 10 year period that they've been able to tax Red Hood residents and village residents or property owners, because it's actually based on the sale. Karen Smythe 1:37:41 And just to clarify, it, is a tax on the amount above the median sale price in the county. Melkorka Kjarval 1:37:49 So basically, I would like to, and currently we don't have anyone on the committee, the advisory committee, there's no there used to be village representation on the 11 official that way we knew ahead of time about projects that were being considered. We are not part of that process anymore, and I've been trying to get access to those meetings, and I would like us to ask for the town to enter into an inter municipal agreement with the village, so that we make sure that the villages are being represented correctly. Also, I can read the letter. I'm just giving the background a little sloppily, I apologize. If I can just Speaker 2 1:38:45 add Karen Smythe 1:38:45 maybe the IMA is recommended, Melkorka Kjarval 1:38:49 yeah, that's that was my next thing is that is within the plan. And that was actually, that's a page. Is it in the reports? Yes. So in my section, there's a last page. It is a recommendation by the CTF Advisory Committee for the villages to have it put into MOU with the town regarding whether or not some of the fund is held aside just for village projects, and that we would get the ability to finally veto projects. And I think as the fund gets as large as it is, and they keep on sort of expanding the things that can be used for now it's going to be used to bail out their water. Karen Smythe 1:39:40 So that Melkorka Kjarval 1:39:43 we should really advocate on behalf of our constituents. Karen Smythe 1:39:48 Yeah, and I will just highlight, if you look at that page, I highlighted a couple of sections, and they talk about a minimum 10% of the CPF each, for a total of 20. Percent for the two villages, that strategies for when and how to allocate this portion of the fund to the villages should include the power of each municipality to veto allocation of its funds to a project not directly benefiting the villages, and at the bottom of that paragraph, each party to the agreement or memorandum should be designated an active participant in the digital decision making process, because obviously any other village that sold above the meeting price contributes to this fund. And now Clarke and I had had a couple of meetings with the village of Tivoli in trying to sort of get out, get around. How do we, how do we actually engage and have some input and decision making as it relates to this, this money and and this really is it we and so corco has written a letter, and I am planning to go to the to the board meeting tomorrow and will and I'm planning to speak at the public hearing, and would be happy to read the letter if that's something that the board wanted to do, but I certainly will speak on my behalf to say the village should have Direct and I would also add that if the Community Preservation Fund purchases property in the village, it should then become the the oversight should be the village. It should be, should be owned by the village, and not owned and controlled by the town. You Melkorka Kjarval 1:41:35 want to read the letter, so I apologize anyone reading along, it's very small. Upon we the village Board of Trustees officially request the Red Hook town council commit to a Community Preservation Fund MOU between the town and villages. As the town council once again considers an amendment to expand the power and broaden the scope of the Community Preservation Fund in their interest, and as the town council voted unanimously, unanimously on February 10 to 2026 to request that the New York State stem the town of red hooks preservation funds and tax on real estate transfers in the town until 2020. 2051 we ask that the town fulfill the recommendation of the CPF advisory board listed within the Community Preservation Plan on page 2.6 attached, community character includes village character designation commemorates 250 years of independence based on the premise of taxation without representation is unjust. Village property owners deserve to have representation as part of the recommendation process, and there should be an annual amount equitably allocated for village benefits and interests, but no such inter municipal agreement or MOU has been established to protect the interests of village property owners during the 10 years that this tax has been collected. Is a failure of representation the village Board of Trustees, with the awareness of the real estate tax transfer extension is under consideration by the state this year, request the town council delay this amendment until an agreement is reached between the town and villages. Karen Smythe 1:43:10 So the proposal, I guess, the question the request is, is the board comfortable with having this letter come from the board of the village of Fran Perry Allen 1:43:22 I certainly am from my understanding, yeah, I think it's well written, and I unless I hear counter arguments, I persuade me otherwise. I said that logic is sound and I support it. Yeah, Frances Uku 1:43:39 would you like to make the motion. Karen Smythe 1:43:44 So yes, I'm hearing, I'll take a motion to what to to approve the letter as written, to send to the town board. Frances Uku 1:43:58 Yes, and I was, oh no, Gorka, you should move in. Fran, I would love it. Okay, well, just one thing as well. Can, will we have it as coming from you, the letter and Karen Smythe 1:44:10 from the board with board letterhead? Frances Uku 1:44:13 No, I know board letterhead, but I mean signed because someone has to rep like someone has to be signed like all of us, or just from the town, I mean, from the village, like, from all of us. Or Karen Smythe 1:44:24 I thought about that we could all sign it, yeah, okay Speaker 2 1:44:27 with it? Frances Uku 1:44:29 No, yeah, I'm okay with it. I just just into, like, signed us. Is that? Is that? Is that basically the format that it would be? I Craig Rothstein 1:44:38 like, the solidarity, Frances Uku 1:44:40 Okay, sounds good. Karen Smythe 1:44:41 So it would be so we write the to the town council, sincerely, Frances Uku 1:44:52 sure. Karen Smythe 1:44:53 I mean, otherwise we can put all five names, but it is on the letterhead. So yeah, so we'll just put from the. The Board of Trustees, Frances Uku 1:45:01 excellent, Karen Smythe 1:45:02 and I would plan to read it tomorrow night. Frances Uku 1:45:05 Wonderful movie. I like moving so I can second with Perry Allen 1:45:12 that representation. It's great. Speaker 2 1:45:14 Yeah, Perry Allen 1:45:14 we'd Karen Smythe 1:45:18 be happy to have someone else make the motion Frances Uku 1:45:21 really okay, I'll make it Karen Smythe 1:45:23 second. Speaker 2 1:45:25 All in favor, Karen Smythe 1:45:27 wonderful, thank you, Speaker 2 1:45:29 and Karen Smythe 1:45:30 they'll go again. Thank you for bringing that up and keeping an eye on it. The next item was a memorial tree. Perry Allen 1:45:36 Oh, just a quick question, if we had a spot in mind, as we had touched base, there was a constituent I recently touched base. They have a memorial tree that they they would like to plant in someone's honor. They don't have a tree. They just would like it to be near a bench. And I've been scouting around, but just wanted to throw it out there in case one came to mind. So Karen Smythe 1:46:03 this is not the first request, and normally what we have done in the past is directed that to the Village Green Committee and asked them to look at what the possibilities are and coordinate with the person. The tricky part we have right now is most, if not, all of the memorial trees we have done have have gone into Abraham's Park, and we're not planting in Abraham's park right now. Perry Allen 1:46:28 Yes. So actually, touch. Funny enough, there was the the chair of the Village Green Committee also reached out to me, because this person had reached out to them, and they're trying to figure out a way forward. They might be new in the position as chair. So I think they're looking for guidance from us, if we have any opportunities for them. Karen Smythe 1:46:50 Yeah, and I would say for us, the opportunity is either on village property or in the right of ways, that those are the other places. But if you can imagine, if it's in the right of way in front of someone's house in honor or memory of someone else, that's kind of odd, whether or not there are. And the tricky part about a tree is the tree is not going to live forever. And you know there, because there are, we're looking at the possibility of reorganizing in front of village hall. The tree that's out front is, is going to be cut down, because it is, it is, it's blowing up the sidewalk. And so we thought about, well, it'd be nice to have another tree where we go. How do we do it so that it doesn't destroy the sidewalk in a different location? Anyway, it's memorials are tricky. Melkorka Kjarval 1:47:43 Love to revisit the idea of doing some sort of memorial brick area that people couldn't, you know, yeah, with the idea that they do a memorial brick and then that, that money gets used to, like, take care of the trees in the park and the green, you know, like something a little bit less, just one tree that can die. It's more like the memory lives on. That would be a neat program for us to consider. Karen Smythe 1:48:07 But I think both Village Green and public spaces can both have the conversation around, how do we because you also have Memorial Park, but because we have the Veterans Memorial there, it also becomes, is, are they a veteran? Are they not? You know, do we want to have some thoughts around that? So, Perry Allen 1:48:25 yes, certainly Karen Smythe 1:48:25 this is a long way to say we don't really have a good answer. Perry Allen 1:48:28 Okay, okay, I Melkorka Kjarval 1:48:29 should get one. Okay, Perry Allen 1:48:30 I suppose, as well, just as a and maybe this is more of a public spaces thing as well. I'll just as I'm out and about in the village, if I notice any parcels that perhaps could sustain a tree, I'll come back to y'all with it, with a suggestion. I'll touch base Frances Uku 1:48:52 with Village Speaker 2 1:48:53 Green. Karen Smythe 1:48:55 Okay, the next item, Fran, you would wanted to talk about the police town. What I can tell you is that I and Lieutenant Hildebrand are in the process of pulling data. So I would like to hold off sending a formal letter, because I'd like to have all that data. I'd like to have a specific request to the town to say, here's here's the information, and here's what it is we're requesting. And ultimately, that request is going to be, you know, it's going to be looking at, here's the cost of the police department based on the data, here's roughly the percentage of the services of the police department that you're receiving. Speaker 2 1:49:37 And Karen Smythe 1:49:37 so either what you are contributing towards those services needs to go up, or we need to reduce our services to the town. I mean, ultimately, that's the that's the answer, and that'll be the ask, Frances Uku 1:49:50 right? But I suppose I know you're coordinating with Patrick, but what is, what is it that you are because the numbers are in the budget, so our budget and the towns. Cost of the police department is in the budget. Karen Smythe 1:50:02 How much of the how much of police services are are used on town issues, is not in the budget. How much we receive from the town is in the budget, Speaker 2 1:50:16 but Karen Smythe 1:50:16 how much Speaker 2 1:50:18 of the Karen Smythe 1:50:19 cost is effectively used by the town. Speaker 2 1:50:22 That's a Karen Smythe 1:50:23 little trickier to parse out. Frances Uku 1:50:25 I see Karen Smythe 1:50:26 we're working on it. So I guess my request is that before we I'd like to have more of that data pulled together and vetted before, before we, before we make a more formal, public statement to the town, but the concept remains, they get a lot of good service, and they're probably not contributing Speaker 2 1:50:48 enough. Karen Smythe 1:50:49 They're not contributing enough. Put it that Frances Uku 1:50:51 way, we are saying that they're not because, I mean, there was, like, the figure that I shared, like the village. I mean, we, a village resident, pays just under $400 for police service, and in the town, they pay under 20 like it's it's a big it's Karen Smythe 1:51:09 a big difference. However we have, we have full time patrols the town's not but the town has us available. If a call goes out, Speaker 2 1:51:19 we're Karen Smythe 1:51:20 here. So, Frances Uku 1:51:21 so it's not the same Speaker 2 1:51:22 as Karen Smythe 1:51:24 that is that we do have the preponderance of the service, Speaker 2 1:51:29 but Karen Smythe 1:51:30 the town Does, does receive significant and more, more than, more than the proportion that they're paying for. Frances Uku 1:51:38 Okay, very good. Thank you. Perry Allen 1:51:39 That's good that we're coming back Speaker 2 1:51:41 to it, Karen Smythe 1:51:42 though. Okay, school lighting project. Frances Uku 1:51:48 Yes, Perry Allen 1:51:48 I've continued to have people reach out to me as well. So I'm glad that it's coming up. So Karen Smythe 1:51:53 So I guess what I can say is, in that particular situation, that was something that initially went to the planning board, and as I think you all know that the mayor appoints the members of the planning board. The village board approves those appointments, and once approved, the planning board is a separate body. We, as it is our role to set the the code, the laws, and then the planning board's job is to apply those laws to any proposal that's coming to the village. So we don't have direct oversight of the planning board. So that particular project was not something that came to the village board. It came to the planning board and school school construction projects are overseen by the State Department of Education, and so there was an initial thought that they needed to come to the village Planning Board, but the the school ultimately pulled their Frances Uku 1:53:03 application the public hearing Karen Smythe 1:53:06 because from their legal counsel, etc, they determined that the jurisdiction is the State Board of Education and not the village. Frances Uku 1:53:17 So and this is again, press can be wrong, but what I what my understanding? Because, again, we haven't discussed this on the on this board. We haven't discussed this as the village Karen Smythe 1:53:28 would be appropriate, because it's a planning board item. Frances Uku 1:53:32 No, I know it's a they were doing the negotiations with the school, but we are, this is the reason we're Karen Smythe 1:53:37 still It wasn't negotiation. So the school present. I didn't Frances Uku 1:53:41 mean negotiation, Karen Smythe 1:53:43 yeah, and then they rescinded their application Frances Uku 1:53:47 on the Okay, what I understood, and I'm very open to correction, was that the school this is what the school board is saying. Of course, everyone has their version of the story, but the school board is saying that they heard from the village's legal representatives that the village had no objection to their you know, Karen Smythe 1:54:09 I would say that would be a misrepresentation of how it worked. Frances Uku 1:54:13 Okay, Karen Smythe 1:54:15 in that the the school board determined that they can pull their application. So as I say, I you know if, if there's something that, again, they determined that they that they are under the jurisdiction, which, again, they go through an incredible process to get approval for the money in the first place. There's a whole vote by those who are in the school district, Frances Uku 1:54:44 yes, in May, it was Karen Smythe 1:54:46 and so they do operate under different rules. I do believe there was a discussion between attorneys, but it was not the direction of our attorney. It was the it was they took that on their own direction. Yeah. Yeah. So you know, from my standpoint, we should, if anyone asks about it, they should direct their we should direct them to the school. Perry Allen 1:55:09 That's certainly what I've done. I've recommended everybody reach out to the school, to the school board. People have asked if there's anything that we could do in terms of in terms of our role regulating light or sound Karen Smythe 1:55:27 the other, the other that I have also heard is those who have reached out have found the school to be very amenable to meet. They've had good, informative discussions, and that there have been accommodations made, clarification of what the project is and what it does, etc. I've heard that. I heard that from someone who wrote in to wrote in to me, and then this person came back and said, You know, I had a meeting with the school, someone who lives very close, meeting with the school. They answered all my questions. I'm actually very comfortable now. So I it the school is not saying, I'm not talking to you. They are talking to anyone who, who comes forward with concerns, etc. So I do that is what I have heard, is that the school has been, has been very receptive to discussion and questions. For those who might not want the project to happen at all, I would say they're probably not getting what they want, but, but they the, Perry Allen 1:56:33 yeah, Speaker 2 1:56:34 no, Karen Smythe 1:56:34 I haven't heard any of that. Where does the light go and is it? You know, I think they moved it so that it's, with, it's, now doesn't go past 15 feet within their property line, for example. And there's, there's all sorts of details about is, it's a much higher and more precise type of lighting than what I remember from, you know, the big lights that just go that way. It's, we're not in that realm anymore. Karen Smythe 1:57:01 It's very different. Speaker 2 1:57:02 But Karen Smythe 1:57:02 I don't know that. I don't know the details, Frances Uku 1:57:04 right? And the question wasn't even, it wasn't about going forward that, you know, that's, that's not, it was. It was more about the villages, the village's role, and the planning like, because the planning board while they, you know, they they hear, they hear case projects, proposals and things, they they don't have legislative authority in the way that this board does, and this board hadn't made a statement as to what our feelings were, even, you know, we they're just there just wasn't. So that's why people are still coming. Karen Smythe 1:57:39 That wouldn't be something we would do, because it would be an application to the planning board. The Planning Board would review it. We have legal counsel, should they need it for that review, and they make their determination. And in this particular case, the school determined that they could pull their application, and they chose to do that, and normally it would be considered, like illegal for us to give an opinion, try to sway like their their decision. I'm not saying that you were saying, Yeah, Frances Uku 1:58:10 that's Melkorka Kjarval 1:58:11 anyone in the public that like, it's it's really independent, because not happy whether way, whether Karen Smythe 1:58:19 or not there's a legal basis for the board to make a determination would be that's a different that's a different question. Frances Uku 1:58:34 So are we? I again, this Melkorka Kjarval 1:58:36 is Karen Smythe 1:58:36 just the other I mean, I don't know where it is in the process on the school side. Oh no, that's not even discussed at least a month ago. And so, I mean, we can revisit, Frances Uku 1:58:48 yes, in April. Yeah, it was just because it Karen Smythe 1:59:00 was, it was it was confusing. And I think that was probably the hardest part, is it, it seemed confusing that they were going to the planning board and then and then they weren't going to the planning board, but they did do their review at the school board level. So there was a review. There's an opportunity for public comment. And as I say, it's my understanding that the school has made has been very open about explaining the details, and has made some adjustments based on based on community input. Frances Uku 1:59:30 So just to sum up, our position, this is something that the it's at the discretion of the school is that, is that, like we, I just would like to be able to respond to emails like I as the board, what we have decided is our view on Karen Smythe 1:59:53 the not Frances Uku 1:59:55 decision position Karen Smythe 1:59:57 position, I don't, I mean, I don't think it's a formal position. Of the full board, there are laws associated with how this all works, Speaker 2 2:00:04 so it's Karen Smythe 2:00:04 really not up to us to decide. I mean, I assume if, if we wanted to, we could, we could. We could refer to counsel and ask if there's a legal route. I don't know that I see that as our role. I also, I think again, because the school has been so open to receiving comments, and those, particularly those who have lived closest that I have been in touch with, have indicated that they've had, they've had meetings with the school, and they've had, they've made adjustments based on some of the concerns they had. They answered all their questions. I don't see this as something that we as a Board have a role in getting involved in. Frances Uku 2:00:52 Yeah, it's just, again, I as someone as I'm on the board, but I'm also a resident who has these questions, and I maybe it's just the distinction between our role here and the planning board, and they are distinct entities. But when, when, when the school or the, you know, when the when the school? I'll make it the school says, you know, the village is the village that that to me, sounds like us. So I just am clarifying that that's, that's not exactly it's just people, you know, we're representatives, and so people send emails or they stop and they're like, why did the village have, you know what? What was the village's role? And so this is this. This was the only, this is the only reason I brought it up. I Melkorka Kjarval 2:01:39 got a question like that, was confused, and I explained it to them, and they took a little, they got a little, I would say, frustrated, because they found it really opaque, Jen Cavanaugh, Clerk 2:01:52 as Melkorka Kjarval 2:01:52 if I was doing, as if we were doing it on, take on purpose, and I was saying, No, the whole point is that no board has full power, so no one can benefit completely. Like, we make the laws, but we don't get to decide how they're done, you know, have a other interpreted, you mean, yeah, interpreted, right? So then, like, we can't, we can't make a law that would benefit us, and then we get our thing, you know, passed. The whole point is, it's supposed to protect the little guy. But the problem is, when you don't know the system, it can feel opaque and it's, it's, that's a really hard bridge to figure out how to so I i understand how frustrating it is to be on the other side of that, trying to make it clear when it's when it's confusing if you don't understand Frances Uku 2:02:35 the process. Yeah. Karen Smythe 2:02:38 Okay, moving, moving on, on to our reports, starting with our treasurer, Merida, follows our cap balances Treasurer 2:02:48 as of April 30 by the General Fund, $116,023 $16,000 and our NY class general fund, $426,694.47 and our Water fund, $190,097.64 and our nine plus water fund, $154,424.77 and Our sewer fund, $65,669.01 and our payroll clearing account, $90,581.43 $581.43 and our heart struggle account, $42.76 in the village green account, $5,156.35 and the Health insurance deductible account, $10,091.25 as for our reserve savings account, as of April 30, the fire departments had $10,716.16 the police departments $18,413.90 our NY class USDA water reserve account held $151,573.28 our USDA water reserve account held $7.93 a highway reserve account $614.88 snow reserve held $3,538.19 or Cal account held $19,108 $7,579 court reserve, $3,558.81 Cents and the office reserve $1,049 as for monthly expenses for April, the General Fund had $161,073.19 water fund had 179 cents. Arrow clearing. $335 and the zero fund has $14,665.91 Karen Smythe 2:05:30 thank you very much. It's a lot of numbers. I'll take a motion to accept the Treasurer's Report. Perry Allen 2:05:46 So moved. Karen Smythe 2:05:47 Thank you. Second. Second, thank you all in favor. Speaker 2 2:05:51 Aye, Karen Smythe 2:05:52 great. Okay, on to reports, starting with mine. Just want to share that the Carrie de Paola has been hired as our new part time payroll. HR Clarke. She will be transitioning with Irene whole sample over the next several weeks. Carrie also works part time for the town of Stanford highway department, just asking you all to welcome her aboard the Fire Company. I believe you all know, and I don't know if I've officially sent an email with us with the letter attached. If I haven't, I will do that, but we did receive a letter from the Red Hook Fire Company stating that they have ongoing operational challenges that are affecting our ability, this is in quotes, to consistently meet response expectations. They continue to express concern about the difficulty of finding volunteers. We are very fortunate to have a Volunteer Fire Company in Red Hook and Tivoli. We continue to meet to determine the best way forward for fire services for the residents of Red Hook, I can tell you that I did get an Incident Report for the month of April. However, they're still working out the bugs in a new software program, so only about half of them have the type of call that it was. But I can tell you that there were 50 total incidents, and of those, unless I've missed something. Only one was in the village, and that was a medical illness call. The rest were in the town. So there's that. And then the Fran and police department, as we just discussed, we've initiated a full review of the call volume in the town to create a report that indicates the percentage of police time and resources used to support police services in the town. In our 2026 27 budget, the police department total cost is approximately 1.1 million. The town's 2026 budget for police services, including court office services, on 40,000 but as I'm speaking about police, I do just want to received an email from BARDA college. I don't know if you saw the press release from the college, but there was, tragically, a student who took their own life. I believe it was last week, and Colleen Murphy Alexander, who is the Vice President for Administration for BARDA College, sent this email dear Lieutenant Hilton Fran, Sergeant Starr and Detective Campbell. On behalf of the bard community, I am ready to express our deepest gratitude to you and your officers of the Red Hook Police Department for the way you handled last week's tragic event on campus. A student's suicide is devastating. I am especially grateful for your communication and professionalism with our administrators, on site, security officers and Student Affairs staff, and in particular, our student residents, your patience and kindness to students passing through the building unsure of what happened made a profound difference during a tragic time, we are deeply grateful for all you do for the members of our campus community. I did want to share that because I thought that was that was important, unfortunately for the police department, this is not the first incident of of this nature that they have come across, and the fact that they're able to maintain grace and kindness in that in that moment is is hard, all right, sewer expansion project. I don't have any specific updates for this month. Events committee, the Youth Pride celebration, has secured insurance through the Red Hook community center, so their event is a go. Youth organizers and staff are and youth are organizers and staffing for the event. And Red Hook Community Center is providing insurance coverage, and the community center will be tabling, and other local organizations will get invitations by email. We have actually received a certificate of insurance. Parade lineup location has been secured with the Red Hook school district by Amy. The difficult part was they're doing some construction that weekend, the driveway into the high school. So they actually can't use what they originally hoped to use and what was used last year, but they will be using a police lieutenant is at the head of a parade. He leaves exactly on time. He does not wait. So I said it's 1145 that's when it's starting. And it will be June 7. And they have just sent a flyer, which I will pass around so you all can see, and we will, we will have that available, and it's on the website, and there's, is there one on the board, bullet board as well. So it's exciting to see youth get excited enough to do the work to make it happen. And I do just want to say a huge thank you to Amy Smith, because I think she's she's providing the glue to enable these kids to make this happen. So thank you to all of all the above, compost, food waste, county grant information and countertops are available. They were available at the village table at Boston Day I actually was able to give away one one box and sign up one new person, and a plan to spend the remaining funds is I'm working on that saw Hill watershed Community Advisory Council. Actually, I'm not going to read all of the things they were planning to table at Apple Blossom day, and they canceled because of the weather. We did send a request to Dutchess County Soil and Water regarding their buffer program for the Fifth Street pond. First, the group discussed sending a letter to the county DPW project that's coming up in Red Hook. And they also talked about sending a letter of support to the town regarding the town's purchase of the town water district property. Bar college confirmed their continued involvement, but limited in they have done a lot of the testing of the water samples, and they're pulling back some, but they will continue to do some. There's also an application, an aqua side application, which I think is pesticides in water from the Red Hook golf course for the saw kill pond, which is assumed to be at hole number three. And that application has gone to Dec and the saw killed watershed community has put together a letter that they will be sending their next meeting is May 27 if anyone is interested. So the there's something called a wave maker award. That is the Hudson River Watershed Alliance has an event, and it will be June 3 at the Falcon in Marlboro. And if you look online in my reports, or it's Hudson watershed.org backslash wave maker, the sawkill watershed community. And Karen shall McDonald, whoops, I spelled her name wrong, are receiving the 2026 Hudson River Watershed Alliance wave maker Award, which is great. Sawkill watershed has been just hit its 10th Anniversary. Planet smart community Task Force. No meeting was held in April. And then the Dutchess County Transportation council met virtually on April 29 the federal certification review. It's actually for the broader Municipal Transportation grouping that includes, it includes Ulster County and a couple other counties, but they have to do this certification every four years. That has been done there were no corrective actions in the report. The 2026 transportation plan update is in process. This will be an update to moving Dutchess forward. It has a 25 year horizon, and they're currently assessing barriers to transportation, including safety and reliability. And then the other thing that we will be seeing, I think, in the next month, but I'm not exactly sure the dates they do traffic counts every year, and they're in the process of confirming locations. I've actually requested that they do a traffic count for Cherry Street and for Church Street, because those haven't been counted before. If you're interested, there is a ton of information on the Dutch County Transportation Council website. Moving Dutchess forward has a lot of information, and also the safety action the Safety Action Plan that was just formally approved also has a lot of information, so I'll be bringing that up again going forward, and I think that's it for me. Melkorka Kjarval 2:14:50 Okay? So I get to read the police monthly report. Total, it is month of April. There. Were 348, incidents in the village. Red Hook. There were 299, villages Tivoli. There are 85 water tower security checks. 73 uniform traffic tickets. 27 of those were in the village Red Hook. 41 were in the town of Red Hook. Five were the village of Tivoli, and there were two parking tickets in Village of Red Hook, none in the town of red hook for the village of Tivoli. And there were eight arrests total, two in the Village of Red Hook, four in the town of Red Hook, and two in the village of Tivoli. I am going to skip the building. Red Hook together meets every first Thursday of the month, virtually on May 7, at noon, the Rotary's Apple Blossom Festival, slated for May 9, has secured a Red Hook Central School District shuttle bus, which will transport riders from accessory parking lot to the festival, as well as stopping North of the village, I don't know. Did anyone try that? Karen Smythe 2:16:05 It Melkorka Kjarval 2:16:06 was a nice concept. I don't know if the crowds were out there. Legislator Chris Munn shared that he's proposing a law to regulate use of AI government. Cecily Wilson Fran CC remind the group about their summer intern program, typically, library announced their revolution, revolutionary 250 event in coordination with the town on Flag Day, Panda shared they're looking for board members to fill their Village of Red Hook board seat and the next meeting of red hook together will be at 4pm on June 4 to land to launch this year's slate of art box exhibits, as repeated in previous as reported in previous reports, the transitional housing discussion group, which met on January 21 with Krista Hines from Hudson River housing and met again virtually Tuesday, April 28 in attendance with the town supervisor, McKeon Community Center Director, Sarah Lee, Neville Smite And Aaron canon, Vice President for Civic Engagement at Bard, discussions covered what the goals of the group should be if this group was the correct venue for the discussion and possible next steps the issue of lack of access to social services support and interventions for individuals with housing slash mental health or addiction crisis in Red Hook was discussed in depth, Sarah Lee proposed, we invite DCFS Commissioner Sabrina marcoza to speak to the group coordination, sorry, to speak to the group coordination of that is ongoing. Town Supervisor McKeon has proposed finding a location for a Hudson River housing Empire State supportive housing initiative on this project, which would cover rental fees for six bedrooms, two properties eligibility for a specific project, as designed by three slots for unhoused persons with serious mental illness and three slots for unhoused individuals who are part of the re entry population. We have yet to hear such a project were cited in Red Hook, whether Red Hook would be eligible for satellite access to county supportive social services currently located in Poughkeepsie, there was an update email after I wrote my report that I will support and or will be a priority given to radical community members known to be in need of housing support services, a reminder that The emergency overnight warming shelter previously held in st Christopher's basement during the winter of 2526 has been unable to find a location, although funding and staffing are available. I think that's 2425 now, right? That would be correct. I apologize for being now town of redwood comprehensive plan. The town committee meets monthly from 7:30pm to 9pm basically, there's going to be a workshop this Sunday May 17, at Rose Hill bar, and it's going to be noon to 4pm it'll be the first opportunity for the community to see what goals were gleaned from the public engagement. And there's going to be an expo style event. Everyone can walk around and see what they're working up and give feedback. Town Preservation Fund. The balance as of 310, 21, six, $3,778,360 and then I wrote about this the upcoming hearing. I have also been doing some preliminary work to better understand how the CPF advisory committee works. Currently, the advisory committee meets after they sent the project to review. They have not met yet during the year 2026, they do not produce minutes, and instead use their advisory opinions as reference the current appointment list as set at the February 10 2026 town council meeting is as follows, and it still lists Charlie Lang as an architect, which he's Speaker 2 2:19:53 not Melkorka Kjarval 2:19:54 in the in the list of appointments. Um. You. And then I sort of go into why we would write the letter, but we talked about that earlier village of writing communications. The survey will be shared with the public at Apple Boston Day and then, depending on responses, closed so that we can analyze responses. Thank you to everyone who has taken time to give us feedback. There were 69 responses at the time of finalizing this report, 68 Okay, and then the village Red Hook, building department, building permits, issues 12 during this month of April, 2026 certificates, certificates of occupancy. Issue one, temporary certificates of occupancy, one certificates of compliance, municipal searches, stock, work orders do not occupy. Notices and court hearings. This complaint for all zero fire inspection three at the April 9 meeting, the site plan for the regular Central School District lighting proposal, West Market Street and Linden Avenue was withdrawn. The site plan public hearing for 87 east market street was removed from the agenda due to no submissions within past five months. And the site plan for 31 east market street was tabled to May 14, 2026, and then the Zoning Board of Appeals April 23 meeting the area variance side yard setback for property located 744, 7449, South Broad was denied area variance for parking. For property located at 31 east market street was denied area variance application for 25 Fisk Street was tabled to May 14, 2026, public hearing scheduled and the building department for the month of April 2026, was $4,556.13 and that is it Frances Uku 2:21:51 for me. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, Matt. Speaker 2 2:21:52 Okay. Frances Uku 2:21:53 Thank you so f Highway. This is the Highway Department report for I have two months to report out to you for March and April 2026 please refer to the attached resource recovery data report, which is the spreadsheet in front of you. And all of my materials are online. I'm not going to read through everything, but I'll give you some highlights. The Accra fuel surcharge rose from 6.75% to 11.25% in April reflecting increased fuel costs due to I'm sure we can. Most people can guess why, but so we should just be aware of that our total costs for the month of March were 2000 $2,168.18 with revenue for the month of March at $5,494 so that's very good. Also in April, our costs were $1,739.91 with revenue taken $5,005 the revenue also reflecting Tivoli garbage service, which, as has been occurring since November and is in the white into year to date, you can see that that's a very good service that we are providing. Fran Karen Smythe 2:23:21 Yes. Want to point out in your under materials management Yes, are suggesting to give the highway department greater discretion to decline pickups. Just Frances Uku 2:23:31 suggesting Karen Smythe 2:23:32 they have full discretion to decline Frances Uku 2:23:34 very good, as I saw this morning, they Yes. There was a report from Jake. So yes, that's great. So hopefully they will, there will be fewer of the of contaminated, improperly bagged or loosely bound. So that's great. Yes, okay, and that's yes because we do have increased recycling contamination charges in March and in April. So that's just a reminder to residents to be more thoughtful when recycling, the scrap metal program took in income since my last report of $1,490.45 Since the program's inception in September, 2007 donations have yielded A total of $60,963.29 I always find that amount impressive. For Karen Smythe 2:24:24 all. Just to know, when you reference the fiscal year, the budget was 4500 so we've exceeded that by almost $1,000 which is great, Frances Uku 2:24:32 excellent. Yes, that is wonderful. Yes, because we're almost at the we're almost at the end, and we've Yeah, that's great. So also yes. So we have a number of municipal services in the village, as you are hopefully aware. And if you are new to the Village, welcome. I would recommend that you refer regularly to the 2000 the 2026, waste collection guide, the dual stream recycling guide, and pick up calendar. These. Are all very useful guides to meat services we provide in the village, trash and recycling, the food waste, drop off and brush and yard waste pickup and credit for designing these belongs to Deputy Mayor keraba. I couldn't survive without mine. Foreman appreciation. This is for Jake, our highway foreman, Jake Smith. He and the highway crew have been very busy. Seasonal tree removal is underway. Several hazardous trees have been identified across the village. Safety first, always those that must come out will come out. New signage was installed at Abrams Park in April. There's a photo, just a reminder again, to residents, dogs must be leashed at all times. Poop must be scooped. Litter goes in the provided trash bins or out of the park with you. If you notice dog waste bags are out, please be a neighbor and let the Clarke know. Jake and I also began, Karen Smythe 2:25:51 just before you go on those those remembrances aren't just for the park, it's actually for the village in general. Frances Uku 2:25:57 Yes, yes, yes for every and yes and there were, there are actually other things specifically for the park, alcohol and but, but dog dog, yes, that's a big one. Dog is a big one as a as a dog owner and dog walker and street, yeah, just scoop the poop, please. Thank you. Okay, so yeah, Jake and I have also begun early discussions on infrastructure grants for road and drainage improvements on Elizabeth Street, as well as the process for potentially adding stop signs at key intersections in the village. Both require navigating between state agencies and obviously, many, many hours doing so, but it is never too early to start. Thank you, as always, to Jake and his team. We are the envy of all neighboring villages and towns. Perry Allen 2:26:43 I'd love to touch base with you at some point, perhaps, about those that road, Elizabeth Street, I don't know if that's by the chocolate factory there. Elizabeth, you're looking at, Frances Uku 2:26:55 so yeah, Perry Allen 2:26:56 we've been mentioning, I would just love to talk to you about that. Okay, fantastic. Frances Uku 2:27:01 So great. That's Perry Allen 2:27:02 follow up with you Frances Uku 2:27:05 do, yeah, okay, so moving on to village green. Just very quickly this I don't again. I'm breezing through mine. So the village green held its second quarterly meeting on Thursday, April 16, at 6pm chair Tara Barrett, member, David Pearson and I met Alfresco just outside Village Hall, due to the gorgeous weather, members, Jim Cashin, Kevin McGinnis and joy glass were excused. Kevin and joy welcomed baby Lou on April 11, they shared a sweet photo and crowned their child. Future grilled grillage, future Village Green member, congratulations to them. The tree planting the committee has consolidated to a single planting day this fall, and members, they are considering having members assigned a beat to identify good candidates for trees using handwritten postcards. And I did, oh, yeah, it's in here. I did submit a draft for you of what they are considering, and I just wondered if you had an opportunity to Karen Smythe 2:28:00 So on the second page, Frances Uku 2:28:02 yes, Karen Smythe 2:28:03 the what you have there, Bitly, yes, yes, that is not a viable put that in my browser, and that was Frances Uku 2:28:15 not, Oh, I see I did earlier, but yes, I put in the, in the in My report, that both the QR code and that link will be verified prior to printing. Karen Smythe 2:28:25 Yeah, when I put the words there, it yelled at me that my computer was being taken Frances Uku 2:28:32 over, and I had to call somebody, Karen Smythe 2:28:34 oh, Frances Uku 2:28:37 my goodness, what that's Wow. No, no, you're right. I looked, I looked it up earlier, and it seemed it worked for me earlier, but I do see a 404, like you say. So I'll have them take where Karen Smythe 2:28:51 is it supposed to go? Frances Uku 2:28:53 To the village. Green website on the village the village website. Speaker 2 2:28:57 The page, Frances Uku 2:28:57 green page Karen Smythe 2:28:57 on the village website. Melkorka Kjarval 2:28:59 Yeah, Karen Smythe 2:29:00 so I might recommend that it's a Red Hook village.gov, backslash, whatever. Rather, I don't know why. I don't know why you need Bitly Frances Uku 2:29:08 well only because it didn't have unless it's been recently updated, the path was not Red Hook village.gov/vgc, or village green, so that, Melkorka Kjarval 2:29:18 if Frances Uku 2:29:18 that's, yeah, oh, that would be great. Okay, so then I'll check in with you and get what that is, and they can put that on the postcard. Yeah. Thank you so much. And then also, I had a question, since you mentioned it milk, or I don't remember, did you give me this QR code? It's, this is currently not working, but I don't remember if we don't Melkorka Kjarval 2:29:38 think I did that Frances Uku 2:29:39 one. Oh, okay, Melkorka Kjarval 2:29:39 yeah, but I can, I can get you a QR Frances Uku 2:29:43 code. Okay, perfect. The Yes, one of the members did and updated it, but I like that. It has the seal in there, so I thought it came from you. But they can, they can generate Speaker 2 2:29:53 a new Melkorka Kjarval 2:29:54 one. Frances Uku 2:29:55 Yeah, okay, yeah, not to take your time. But is, is everyone okay with this? In terms of copy, in terms of layout, so I can go back to them, Karen Smythe 2:30:04 I think there'll be some more confused about what VGC means. Perry Allen 2:30:07 I was, to be honest. Frances Uku 2:30:08 Okay, great. Thank Perry Allen 2:30:09 you. Frances Uku 2:30:10 Okay, okay, and you would, it Perry Allen 2:30:13 just took me a second to realize Frances Uku 2:30:15 only because I had, yeah, I'm always, I think, Karen, you said this once that you know, redundancy is, I always feel like it says it right in the picture, it says village green, but say it again, okay, people Perry Allen 2:30:27 like me who need it, okay, Frances Uku 2:30:29 no, no, no. It's fair. So many acronyms. Yeah, great. I was like, Oh, you guys snazzy, yeah, sure. VGC, okay, so have it spelled out, Village Green, Village Green Committee, or Perry Allen 2:30:42 we're the village green. Okay, Frances Uku 2:30:45 Hi, we're the village green. Okay, that's okay, great. Thank you so much. And there's Yeah, yeah, okay, great. Thank you. Really Perry Allen 2:30:55 great. I Frances Uku 2:30:56 hope so they're great. They're really a great group. I enjoy them so much. And Mel Clarke has in there as well. So thank you for letting us borrow you. Karen Smythe 2:31:05 I just have a question going back to tree planting, yes, please a replacement at Abraham's Park. Frances Uku 2:31:10 Yes, this is, this is something the committee because it is in an area we had briefly touched on. Karen Smythe 2:31:19 I guess I'm just asking if you would, because the public spaces committee is working so hard on the Abraham's Park. Frances Uku 2:31:25 Yeah, Karen Smythe 2:31:26 maybe if, when, when you all talk about, Treasurer 2:31:32 you can also Karen Smythe 2:31:32 talk about, because if it's in a tree that's in a, again, we're looking at at long term master plan, yeah, or the trees that are already planted are harder to move. There may be some that we move. We may not choose not to because it's hard. But if it's depending on where it's located, it might be an opportune time not to replant it, Karen Smythe 2:31:55 yep, Karen Smythe 2:31:56 if you all would take a look at that. Perry Allen 2:31:59 Yeah, no, we can touch base on that? Frances Uku 2:32:01 Yeah, okay, I just, I believe it's, this was suggested by David Pearson, and I think he has a particular thing, which may or may not, if you, if you can speak to kind of the master plan, or at least where we are now, you could probably give a sense of whether the the tree, it's all the way, yeah, Perry Allen 2:32:21 I was doing it, yeah, yeah, I'll touch base, yeah. Tree catalog, yeah, talk about it, Frances Uku 2:32:28 yeah, great. Okay, so yes. And then, as I say, this is all online. I won't, I won't keep everyone, but I will say, though, that the village did receive its Tree City USA renewal. A successful application was made in December, and we have been a member of Tree City, USA for 24 continuous years. This is something to celebrate. Karen Smythe 2:32:51 Did it come with swag? Yeah, Frances Uku 2:32:55 a whole banner and Karen Smythe 2:32:57 decal can be used as a flag. I mean, I don't remember. Frances Uku 2:33:01 I don't remember. Yes, I think you're right. I think so I have the box. And to be honest, Karen Smythe 2:33:06 usually there are plaques that, because we have Tree City, USA plaques, Frances Uku 2:33:10 right? It Karen Smythe 2:33:11 defines around the village. Frances Uku 2:33:12 Yeah. Karen Smythe 2:33:13 So if there are, if those, Speaker 2 2:33:14 it didn't Frances Uku 2:33:15 come with, it came with 24 a reflective, reflective that has 24 on it, and yeah, Karen Smythe 2:33:22 it sounds like that's something that can be placed on the Frances Uku 2:33:28 so that it Yes, Karen Smythe 2:33:30 give them to Jake. Frances Uku 2:33:31 Give them to Jake. Great. Okay, wonderful. Let me thank you so much for that. Okay, give and then I could, maybe I can talk to Jen, also about the flag itself. And there's other things I could give the D, or do I give all of it to Jake? Because there's if it's if one of them is a, is a new flag, then that just comes here. And then, okay, okay, sounds good, okay. And then, yes, there's anything else. A tree planted on Fraley, which Mel Clarke had pointed out in the I forget whether it was the work. I think it was the workshop, got tipped over during construction. I requested permission from the owner for the committee to adjust it. Dave Pearson, oh, good, yeah. It was bothering me for a long time. So, yes, he did all of that. He I'm Dave Pearson. I give a special shout out to he really crushed it this month. Thank you for all the time and effort. The committee has begun work on future things. Member Jim cashin and the direct library director Alex Geller are working on some initiatives as well. And the next village green committee meeting will be on Thursday, July 16, 6pm at Village Hall. Fran, if I could Karen Smythe 2:34:44 just go back. You mentioned that you're looking at a design around a refresh for the planters out front. That would be so the public spaces committee is also looking at public spaces. And what could we possibly do? Mel Corke and I are looking at the front of village hall, particularly as that tree is going to come down, as to how we might reorganize that. So before any work is done, let's have a conversation only because I don't want three different ideas to be moving forward when they don't work collaboratively, there Frances Uku 2:35:20 would never even be, because Karen Smythe 2:35:21 I think it mean there's definitely an opportunity, as we discussed in the public spaces committee. But we also have talked about it's sort of a bigger look at what the front of village hall we actually had, we actually applied for a mid grant two years ago, I think, to sort of look at not just the front here, but the Fran over there. And so there's, there's a fair amount of conversation around it. So I just want to make sure that we're all talking to each other. More. Hands Frances Uku 2:35:52 light work, right? Yes, no, that's great to know they're, you know, they're, they're willing to serve. So whatever it is that, you know, we decide that Speaker 2 2:36:00 great that Melkorka Kjarval 2:36:02 I do think Speaker 2 2:36:05 would be Melkorka Kjarval 2:36:05 cool you can get these pollinator pathway signs. Have you guys seen? Yeah, Frances Uku 2:36:09 yeah, Melkorka Kjarval 2:36:10 that would be neat if we do end up getting any kind of pollinators. I Frances Uku 2:36:14 feel like the chair weren't wasn't the chair of the public spaces initiative wasn't there, like some talk of one Perry Allen 2:36:20 of the major initiatives on public spaces is reinforcing our pollinator pathway gardens, expanding them in ways. I think that's something that Linda to Gasper is particularly passionate about. I think in ways, whatever, however we move forward with the redesign out front, or any other spaces that we talked about, there are such easy ways of incorporating, yeah, under Frances Uku 2:36:45 native planting, absolutely, Perry Allen 2:36:47 plans that support that we could Frances Uku 2:36:49 ground cover and perennial Perry Allen 2:36:50 pathway, Speaker 2 2:36:51 yeah, Perry Allen 2:36:52 signs everywhere. We Frances Uku 2:37:00 know that's thank you for the engagement. That's Yep, I agree. Okay, just very quickly so we can library Yes, I met with library director Alex Geller on April 25 for an introductory tour and overview of current initiatives. The Library Board of Trustees meets every Thursday, every third Thursday of the month, at 6pm due to a time conflict with the April Village Green Committee meeting, I was unable to attend the libraries in person. Going forward, the director and I will meet on the third or fourth Friday of the month, schedules permitting the library, the library's 2026 27 budget is $562 750 cents. I hope that, no, no, that doesn't make sense. 562 950 $950 funded primarily by red hooks. Central School District and town of Red Hook, the major milestone for the library, their mortgage in is almost paid off. Also. Hello, Dolly. Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is finally coming to Red Hook. And I put finally, because I have a young child, and when he was a baby, I was looking for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, and it was not available. So now it is so thanks to Alex's commitment to coordinating between Redwood Public Library, Tivoli library, the town and United Way this program mails free books monthly to children from birth to age five. Also in the report, I refer everyone to look online my report for programs and services and sustainability efforts that the library is making. And I will just just highlight some community outreach. The library is looking to reimagine its outdoor garden space, which is heavily used in the summer, and the goal is for new furniture, sensory play area and garden improvements by July 1. If you have deep pockets or strong arms or big heart, please don't be shy. Get in touch with the library. Their board will also, yeah, new. Melkorka Kjarval 2:38:52 They're going to have new, Frances Uku 2:38:57 interesting, sorry. Karen Smythe 2:38:59 I assume it's the space that they have, Frances Uku 2:39:02 the tiny, yeah, the Children's Garden, Karen Smythe 2:39:05 that's children's garden right next door to a neighbor that they have, not the children's garden, or is it the garden that it's children the space, the space towards the pond, Frances Uku 2:39:16 well, that they currently one of the spaces that is, yes, adjacent to the Deputy Mayor's home is, is the I was, Karen Smythe 2:39:25 I thought it was the I was. I was thinking it was the space that they created, Frances Uku 2:39:33 the pollinator garden. I think maybe is where, is where that came to your mind. I'm not sure, but yes, anyway, that's outdoor garden space. I don't think specifically that only they may even decommission the part that is currently the, you know, with on the border with the neighbor. I don't know I'm I'm reporting out what was in their minutes and what was discussed. Speaker 2 2:39:58 I'm just having your way. Action because they put down privacy trees that were not privacy trees. Frances Uku 2:40:05 So just, Oh, I see. I'm sorry, it's not Melkorka Kjarval 2:40:07 on you. Fran, please, please keep going. Frances Uku 2:40:12 Okay. Well, anyway, the library board will be recruiting two new board members this summer with announcements going live soon. Please spread the word that's it. Really, Karen Smythe 2:40:22 can I ask who's leaving the board? Frances Uku 2:40:24 I don't know. I don't know. Karen Smythe 2:40:27 And also, just to clarify, it indicates here, the library board nominates trustee candidates, and the village board confirms, Frances Uku 2:40:34 yeah, Karen Smythe 2:40:34 technically, by their charter, they can recommend, but they are not formally nominating. It is the board. The village board function to to provide the to vote so they can recommend to us. It is not the it is not a formal process that they have to nominate. Speaker 2 2:40:59 We can, Karen Smythe 2:41:00 we can appoint anybody we want to the to the library board, right? Obviously, it works better if it goes through the library and they have recommended, right? That's not required, because that's based on the charter that initiated the library back in Frances Uku 2:41:16 Yeah. It's very, very long time ago. Yes, yeah, Melkorka Kjarval 2:41:20 you pointed out this, this thing about how the village does not fund the library, because that's not normally. Normally, it is the whole idea of taxation without representation. Normally, the municipality that is giving in funds is the one that gets to choose who's you know, you have that oversight, the fact that we don't match up with the charter. And then every village person is also paying Tivoli, particularly library, every town person, Frances Uku 2:41:46 every time also, it's all of us, Melkorka Kjarval 2:41:48 no, but we're paying for both villages, and we're paying there are through our school tax. So we are paying multiple taxes. Karen Smythe 2:41:54 Yeah, Melkorka Kjarval 2:41:55 yep, it's really, it's it's not completely, it's not how I would have set it up. So talk about it. Karen Smythe 2:42:03 It's also time. It's, it's, it's well past time for them to revisit their charter. For sure. Speaker 2 2:42:08 Just a Karen Smythe 2:42:10 question, did they talk at all about it? Will there be an increase for the Red Hook library on the budget vote? Frances Uku 2:42:19 I do. I do not this is not something. Again, I this is reported because from Karen Smythe 2:42:24 my meeting, yeah, no, I also found it interesting, because I think there Speaker 2 2:42:29 is. Karen Smythe 2:42:29 And the fact that they're about to hit this milestone, finishing paying off their mortgage, I would wonder what, what Frances Uku 2:42:35 is, what is allowing for the Karen Smythe 2:42:37 extra money? Like, why? Why do they need more money if they're about to have money coming available. But I think it's, I think it was determined to go on, on the ballot, Jen Cavanaugh, Clerk 2:42:49 the school budgets, and I believe, but the ballot proposals there's coming Frances Uku 2:42:55 up for next week, Karen Smythe 2:42:57 on board, bullet board. On the table, on the two. Thank you not to be held Melkorka Kjarval 2:43:02 now that we're getting into Do you think that you could so the libraries do like state reports every year? Speaker 2 2:43:12 Do you Melkorka Kjarval 2:43:12 think you could ever get like clawed to like analyze the state reports like for five years? Just do a chart, just to kind of see where we're at, Frances Uku 2:43:22 sure I can, yeah, so tell me if you, if you email me specifically, I will get that. I'll get that for you. And yes, that's what did I do. I just, like, Melkorka Kjarval 2:43:32 just, Frances Uku 2:43:34 I would be very happy to do that. Sorry. I just, but anyway, I think I'm done there. Oh yes, just the next, their next Library Board of Trustees meeting will be on Thursday May 21 at 6pm that's next week, Thursday on the uppermost floor. And yeah, send me the thing. Mel corco, and I'll get that to you. Karen Smythe 2:43:53 Okay, on to trustee. Perry Allen 2:43:55 Allen, okay, it was my first time, yay. I'll just go backwards real quick here, just to the soft kill water fed community Fisk pond, as the mayor referenced earlier, there was an email that went out regarding that and trying to facilitate the buffer program with touches County Soil and Water. We'll update that as it comes in. Very excited. Then let's move on to move on to public spaces. At the moment, I'm so excited to be back on public spaces. Frances Uku 2:44:30 This is Perry Allen 2:44:31 like my passion, building public spaces. Things that we did at this most recent meeting, we are reconfirming all the participating members for the reorg. Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, it wasn't a very well attended meeting. Attended meeting, so we weren't able to officially confirm everything. I think based off of the responses, our next meeting will be far better attended, and we'll have an official list for everybody to approve at the next meeting. I. We discussed potential ideas for new projects, new public spaces. Some have been mentioned already, such as collaborating with some of the village hall ideas, perhaps looking at the municipal lots, etc, etc. We're also looking at engaging more of the public art aspect of our charter. A few ideas were floated around about that and other potential events or engagement opportunities. Nothing has been decided, especially because it was only a couple of us. We would obviously want it to be a committee deliberation. So once any ideas become more formalized, I will obviously report them back to you, Frances Uku 2:45:40 all Perry Allen 2:45:41 the current projects that the committee is work are working on, is working on developing that pollinator pathway that we discussed earlier. Linda, who's the main who's spearheading that initiative, wasn't in attendance, so I didn't get to hear exactly what we're working on at the moment, but I do know that we are looking at other public spaces in which we can engage in the pollinator pathway, as well, as mentioned earlier, updates to the code in which to be able to reinforce pollinators throughout the village at large. Our main objective, that is very exciting is revitalizing Abraham's Park, which I think we are making incredible progress on, that I think the whole community is going to be very excited about very soon. We have recently received funding. Thank you to the mayor for getting that for us approval for a design slash research intern, a bard graduate, graduating this May will be working with us up until this fall to develop what we're referring to at the moment as a PARCC report, which will include site analysis, history and a resource catalog. By that, I mean a now, natural resource index of everything that exists there. We've been tasked. Various members of the committee have been tasked with collecting wildlife reports, bird reports, tree catalogs, etc, so we can have a total understanding of everything that is in the park. If you know anybody who would be interested in participating in that endeavor, please do let me know. You know naturalist, layman or professionals, we take them all as well. We're going to be having some concept designs and visualizations of the park to be able to share with the public. So we'll be able to be get some, think, a lot of momentum moving forward, and awesome, a lot of materials as well to have for applying grants or looking for any sort of other support in actually, development. Melkorka Kjarval 2:47:58 Can I ask, how are you doing the inventory for the report? Are you guys going to be using, like, the engineering or is it just like, is it like a spreadsheet in Perry Allen 2:48:08 terms of that catalog? You mean Karen Smythe 2:48:10 cataloging Melkorka Kjarval 2:48:11 the things, GIS, location, stuff, or Speaker 2 2:48:13 No, a Perry Allen 2:48:13 little more informal than that, right? We have one of the committee members is a passionate birder, so she's just going to be going out there and based off of her own observations, making a catalog of the birds that she observes. I'm in charge of the taking a tree catalog, so I'm going through and get I can, I can roughly do it to scale drawing, but in the end, it's just a drawing in my notebook that will catalog each of the trees. But we'll get it together and it'll look very nice and really well put together, so we can articulate everything there Karen Smythe 2:48:46 see is doing wildlife. So she'll be handling the wildlife that she sees on she spends a lot of time there. Speaker 2 2:48:53 And Karen Smythe 2:48:53 I will say, David Pearson, who also spends a lot of time, Frances Uku 2:48:56 sure does. Karen Smythe 2:48:57 He will have one to say. Perry Allen 2:49:02 I cannot express how excited I am about how that is moving forward. At our next meeting, I hope to confirm all the participating members to decide on any new projects that we want to work on this next year and continue this work on Abraham's art. Cool. All right, that is exciting. Now on to the sewer. I suppose I will start reading through the report that I had written and then give some of my own personal reflections at the end, for the most for the for today's sewer report, our team needs two times per month to discuss the operations, maintenance and Future Planning of our sewer system. Those in attendance of this. These meetings include H 2o innovation, our own public works department, Delaware engineering, the mayor myself, the Clarke. I'm. And any those who have been relevant to particular discussions, such as at our April 6, 16th meeting, we were visited by the USDA, who had investigated the site for potential energy and cost savings. They expressed genuine admiration for the operations team and really celebrated the work that was being put in. And I really want to put that out there, because that was also something they needed to put into the report. That I appreciated. Their report was very much about trying to identify energy savings, and they made a specific note, totally unsolicited, just to say that the team is obviously working very hard. We did receive a few good tips moving forward, but for the most part, they observed, the plant was running nearly as well as it could for their standards. Aside from that, we also discussed a newly installed alarm system within the plant itself. It has been effective in monitoring the plant, though it does need some tweaking. Over the past month, there have been two alarms notifying staff of the issue immediately. But because of this new notification system, neither matter became anything of significance. It was handled immediately and proved how effective and essential this alarm system is. So it has become integral to the smooth operations and we are receiving a quote for enhancing it. I think there are ways in which it could be expanded throughout the plant, so that any at any point in the plant there's an emergency, we can get immediate notification. Frances Uku 2:51:34 Okay, could you say, when did the alarm system come online? Karen Smythe 2:51:37 March 5. Perry Allen 2:51:39 Thank you. Frances Uku 2:51:39 Thank you. Perry Allen 2:51:41 As I get more familiar with writing these reports, I will get more and more specific with all the details. I think Melkorka Kjarval 2:51:47 you did really well with being specific, by the way. Perry Allen 2:51:49 No, thank you. It's kind of fun to write. Then we had another meeting as well. Since we'll meet two times in between each public meeting at the most recent April 27 meeting, we primarily discuss the future of the plant, including renegotiating energy prices, incorporating solar technology and any other cost effective considerations for future operations. That seems to be a major concern of the team at the moment, is figuring out, as this thing moves forward, how one how we can make it as cheap as possible in every realm, Karen Smythe 2:52:24 cost effective as Perry Allen 2:52:26 possible. There you go. Thank Speaker 2 2:52:27 you. Perry Allen 2:52:28 Okay, yes, no, that's a good point. Cheap gets expensive, as they say. So, yes, cost effective. All right, in the near future, the village will be installing this new a new EQ tank, Karen Smythe 2:52:43 clarify what the near future means. Yes, Perry Allen 2:52:45 please, within a year, within a year. And I would like to also note that this is related to, as I learned today, a judge order in terms of some of the trouble that we were experiencing, this is now part of that process Karen Smythe 2:53:04 to the Perry Allen 2:53:05 consent order yes Karen Smythe 2:53:08 from a DEC inspection visit on March 16, if I remember correctly, and it was April 1 when Delaware engineering took over operations. Perry Allen 2:53:22 Thank you. So to all of that point, I suppose I had a lot of concerns and considerations about the sewer, and I think as this is my first time to say anything publicly about it since the campaign, and as I know as I canvassed, it was one of the things that was most brought up to me. It felt important that I take a second to be able to just make a statement about that. Now that I've had a chance to meet with everybody on the team, with the Public Works Department, with the engineer, especially this morning, we had really a nice hour together where I was able to ask him a lot of really fantastic questions. So once again, I must celebrate and acknowledge the work of the team, because I think there was, as has been acknowledged, a significant trouble in many different ways that has been taken care of, to the point that the USDA can come in and say that it's our operations team is really running something very well. It is clear that it is in a place that is certainly much more manageable, and that the environment environmental fiscal concerns of disaster that were of the past have been taken care of through the fixes that have been implemented in terms of transparency. See, I would like to let everybody know the things that I advocated for and discussed with everybody, so that everyone can feel represented and as well, if I'm missing anything, I would like to reiterate, to reach out to me so that I can represent anything further I have spoken both amongst the team and we received some legal counsel about seeking recourse regarding installation, operations, etc. I have chatted with the engineers about various different disposal options and other means of waste dispersal. And we are actively pursuing every single way of making it as cost effective. I'm going to change that word cost effective as possible through cutting energy expenses, distributing on operation maintenance expenses, other grant and emergency fundings, as well as even generating revenue through the plant in ways. I've also been heavily advocating for rehabilitating the neighboring wetland, not just from the wastewater treatment plant, but also it has a long history before that that also necessitates its own rehabilitation, and so I'm also strongly advocating for that which there is certainly support amongst the team, and we are moving forward to do so. As we move forward, I think it's essential that we steer the public conversation in the best way. I do believe that if I were to say my personal belief right is that we should operate the system as it is and get it under fiscal control, because, as we've discussed even earlier in the meeting today, we had to approve this searching for the loan in a way that illuminates to me why people still distrust and as I gain trust in the team and in the program, In order to be able to communicate that outward, I think we should be. We need to be able to operate it in a way that's environmentally and fiscally sound before expanding. And something the engineer pointed out to me is that that's kind of happening no matter what that even if development moves forward on schedule, according to plan, just by the nature of how construction works municipally, that is kind of what's going to be happening. And I think, in a way that can help a lot of people, at least for the moment, have a breath of have a breath of relief to know that there is a period right now in which we are gaining control of it financially. I can see the work that's being done behind the scenes to figure that out. If we don't, and we will have a period in which we'll, we'll operate the plan as it is, in a environmentally sound way, as we continue kind of moving forward, I in terms of things that I still want to really push forward at this moment, is that task force to of rehabilitating the wetland, Which I'll circle back on outside of the meeting we had discussed at our first my first meeting as on the board of doing a public document which I still really support. I think perhaps there was I miss read correspondence after that or or maybe not, but I think it would be a really fantastic idea to take basically everything that we have and just put together something that's theoretically printable as a as further public education Around the sewer system. I also wonder if there's any way that we can talk outside of meeting in terms of a rebate or at need program for those who are struggling financially with this and as well as we move forward, I think it's essential that we have written projections for phase two users, with and without all of the future developments also being built in so that we can be as up front and have as much understanding ourselves, so as not to fall into any of the pitfalls we found ourselves in this time. Background that being said, I'll wrap it up on that. Thank you so much for listening. Karen Smythe 3:00:07 Thank you very much, Perry, and thank you for digging in as you have. I don't know if you've had your longer version tour of the wastewater treatment plant, so I Perry Allen 3:00:17 still need to do another Karen Smythe 3:00:18 les is looking forward to that. But I do want to say what I what I would love to do is maybe at our next meeting, not necessarily. I mean, could be the workshop, or it could be the one after maybe coming forth with a resolution to create the wetland Task Force. Perry Allen 3:00:35 Beautiful. Karen Smythe 3:00:35 We call it the wetland Task Force or committee, or whatever. But I think, you know, maybe identifying people that make sense to appoint to to that group. And there's nothing wrong with getting going, because I think there's a lot of there's a lot of opportunity to take a look at it and look for ways to make it healthier. I think that's only a benefit for everyone. Speaker 2 3:01:03 So thank Karen Smythe 3:01:04 you. Okay with that, we are on to Trustee rosting. Craig Rothstein 3:01:11 All right, well, should be brief, so I've got a water report from this past month. I'll read that quickly. In April, I toured the village water plant with Jake, who is of some note of fame in the village. I took out of the well placement in around solar field the interior of the main room where the water is pumped from wells into the system, very large pipes. They're very impressive in the room where the main computer resides for remote and on site monitoring. Jake pointed out a well that was no longer used to water quality, again, better understanding of how a more stable internet connection can provide more effective remote monitoring. And currently, right now, without the super stable internet connection, we've got outside consultant, who areas, they drive a couple of hours to come here. It's all billable time. We want to get rid of that and be more efficient. So getting our stuff up there to really solidify the connection. I just got them at the house, and I noticed multiple improvements in the way they do business. I do appreciate that. Yeah, Karen Smythe 3:02:20 just to Karen Smythe 3:02:21 clarify, we do have internet there. It's just Yes. For some reason it is Craig Rothstein 3:02:25 not not. It can be better, yes, more efficient. And we are right. That's there's some details, the average daily water, the average daily volume of treated water, spelling 226,000 number one, 226,898 gallons, total volume of water of treated water, 6,806,009 gallons. The average chlorine residual at entry point is 2.02 milligrams per liter. Jake explains something very interesting to me. He said, If you do happen to smell a chlorine over in the water, it means that there is not enough chlorine in the system. Testing revealed that Escherichia coli and coliform bacteria were absent in all testing sites. Additional notes, there were some completed repairs of pump number 12 that included a new pump and drop line. The check valve in the water treatment plant has been approved by doh and is scheduled to be installed the week of May 11. Karen Smythe 3:03:28 And looking at Wednesday Craig Rothstein 3:03:30 and the replacement of the pump and motor for well 13 is waiting for pump size clarification from Delaware engineering. Karen Smythe 3:03:39 Just a note, I looked up, I looked at the total volume for the month of April, and I looked at and perhaps, perhaps we're in 2026 and not 2024 I just looked Craig Rothstein 3:03:53 at the top of your report. Karen Smythe 3:03:54 I would like to still Craig Rothstein 3:03:55 be Melkorka Kjarval 3:03:57 it's nothing like reading your report out and realizing that there's just one here that Frances Uku 3:04:04 you didn't Karen Smythe 3:04:07 the team, the team has done a lot of work on fixing leaks and making sure that we're identifying and measuring all the water that is going out into the system, but the amount of treated water for this April is actually 15% lower than last year. That was interesting. Craig Rothstein 3:04:25 Now I did not include it in any kind of written work. I've got two projects that I'm interested in working on ground work. One thing that potential for that is to actually be good business owners through the Chamber of Commerce commerce to discuss what they what business owners are interested in, and what you know, there's affordability issues in terms of signage. We're also interested in making sure that signs have an esthetic feel that is consistent with the history of the village. There's also the issue of. Of light poles, and whether or not we can take ownership of a lot of polls that are owned by central Hudson in general. It seems to be that when you own your light poles municipality, it saves a lot of costs. So I'm going through it was helpful to go through some recent billing and just to understand how these things are kind of itemized on what we're paying for and what we could be saving. So I'll have more to report on that in the near future. And if you want me to read this lovely utility bill report. And Treasurer 3:05:29 yes, Craig Rothstein 3:05:30 please, okay, utility bills issued in the amount of $259,658.21 penalties, finance charges issued zero utility payments received. $200,585.05 re levy unpaid onto property taxes. $15,506.43 and accounts receivable outstanding to the village as of May 1 this year, $62,435.77 no bill adjustments. Thank you, Jen, Karen Smythe 3:06:10 wonderful. Thank you so the the only remaining item that I have is I would like to have a motion to approve the audited vouchers as presented by the treasurer, to be paid in the following amounts. General Fund, $31,633.57 water fund, $11,998.17 sewer fund, $22,629.63 finding the most motion to approve those vouchers, a couple that I signed Melkorka Kjarval 3:06:45 that you had put notes on. Yes, Karen Smythe 3:06:49 actually, I'm glad that you mentioned that. Let Perry Allen 3:06:51 me I was gonna say as well. Yeah, there were a few that had notes. I thought we should talk about Karen Smythe 3:06:58 anybody noted I signed them assuming that they would be corrected. Yes, yes. So there's one, there's one that in the water fund, for example. I mean, it's $9.59 so arguably, it's, but it's, it was screwdriver bits, etc, which really should be Tools instead of water repairs, water fund, Perry, you asked in the sewer fund, you asked about the shared services, fuel? Perry Allen 3:07:33 Yeah, just curious. So Karen Smythe 3:07:35 we all we purchase fuel for the DPW trucks from the town. They actually have fuel pumps, and they have a system where they identified by truck, how much gas or diesel you get, and they then send us a bill we have in the past tried to identify, well, that was for water this but all the trucks are used for all the services. So we've gone to an allocation, sort of a percentage by budget. Obviously, in the winter we add the snow, the snow budget is included in that. Now we're done with snow bills, please. And so it's split. It's actually split between five budgets. So it's garbage, maintenance of streets, water. Well, there's water and sewer, and there's one other, which is many of these snow probably snows the other one. And so it's an allocation of that fuel, Perry Allen 3:08:33 gotcha. Thank you. Karen Smythe 3:08:34 And then the other one, yeah, so under sewer supply, so the propane for the sewage treatment plant, that there's a small heater, and it also services the generator. I just I know it was for the generator. I don't know if it was for a heater. It is for the Gen it is for the generator. It's not the heater. And so that actually should be under fuel rather than supplies, and so it's literally just and then under the General Fund, Frances Uku 3:09:10 there was one more you had for sewer that was also a miscategorical I think it was. There was one I didn't sign it because it had a note from you, and Karen Smythe 3:09:24 I tried to lag my notes high so I could find them. Karen Smythe 3:09:38 That was this one, that was the propane. I don't think I have another one, but that was, that was it for sewer? Frances Uku 3:09:51 Oh, interesting. That was and the, yeah, there Karen Smythe 3:09:54 was one in the water budget. Frances Uku 3:09:57 No, no, no, it was definitely sewer, but I can sign it. It. To the because there were, if it doesn't have my signature, then that's then that's the one. Karen Smythe 3:10:05 And then under the so in general fund, we talked about the name plates. And then the only other one was, there was a bill from classic fingers for court gown and rope, and that was identified for police, and it really should be in Port. I don't see any other Treasurer 3:10:38 notes. Okay. Karen Smythe 3:10:42 Thank students, I agree. Okay, so with that, may I have a motion so moved. Thank you. Craig, second Frances Uku 3:10:59 second, Karen Smythe 3:11:00 Perry, all in Speaker 2 3:11:03 favor, aye. Karen Smythe 3:11:05 And now I will ask for a motion to adjourn. I know it's nine. It's 959, whoa, Frances Uku 3:11:15 quickly, quickly, quickly. I know it's 4949 not 15. Karen Smythe 3:11:22 All right, I heard a motion from Craig second Speaker 2 3:11:26 this is Karen Smythe 3:11:27 to adjourn. Thank you all in favor. Thank you very much, and I'm just about to Speaker 2 3:11:31 run out of battery, Frances Uku 3:11:35 so it's perfect timing. Thank you, everyone. Applause. Karen Smythe 3:11:38 Thanks. Speaker 2 3:11:45 Well, I Melkorka Kjarval 3:11:45 always feel like a little bit weird putting my name at the top, I Craig Rothstein 3:11:48 saw that. Transcribed by https://otter.ai