1142 ROUTE 311
MINUTES
PRESENT: MICHAEL
GERALD HERBST, COUNCILMAN
ERNEST KASSAY, COUNCILMAN
GINNY NACERINO, COUNCILWOMAN
TIM CURTISS, TOWN COUNSEL
ANTOINETTE KOPECK, TOWN CLERK
Supervisor
Salute to the Flag and Roll Call.
Mr. Griffin stated without objection I would ask the Clerk to file the reports as read.
Patterson Fire Department – None
Code Compliance Officer – June
Code Enforcement Officer – None
Dog Control Officer – June
E.C.I. Officer – June
MINUTES
None.
AUDIT OF BILLS
Mr. Herbst made a motion to approve the following bills chargeable to 2007:
General Fund $73,535.92, Highway Fund-Item 1 General Repairs $93,350.83, Highway Fund-Item 1 Chips $80,612.07, Highway Fund-Item 3 Machinery $18,531.08, Highway Fund-Item 4 Miscellaneous $708.60, Highway Fund-Item 4 Tax Cert. $2,074.03, Highway Fund-Employee Benefits $104.00, Patterson Fire District $1,277.83, Putnam Lake Light District $1,439.00, Patterson Light District $1,565.45, Putnam Lake Refuse District # 1 $32,193.00, Patterson Refuse District # 2 $3,686.17, Patterson Park District $1,811.53, Alpine Water District $7,604.92, Dorset Hollow Water District $1,901.36, Fox Run Water District $30.68, Front Street Sewer District $115.00, Capital Fund $820,142.55, Library $503.22.
Total Abstract $1,141,187.24
Seconded by Mr. Kassay. Roll Call Vote: Mr. Herbst; yes, Mr. Kassay; yes, Mrs. Nacerino; yes, Mr. O’Connor; yes, Mr. Griffin; yes. Roll Call Vote Carried.
MICHAEL
Mr. Griffin stated last year around this time Wyndham Homes said they’ll apply to the Town for a road dedication. They’re still considering it. They’ve met most of the requirements, however the Town Planner has been out there and there’s some issues with the detention ponds and I’ve also been working with a couple of the homeowners out there. There’s some drainage issues and problems which brings us to a slightly bigger
PATTERSON TOWN BOARD
TOWN BOARD MEETING
problem or another problem for consideration. I’m working with the Town Planner and the Codes Enforcement Officer with regard to – in the past the Building Inspector, Codes Enforcement Officer goes out and he looks at the house, he looks at the plumbing, he looks at the framing, he looks at those types of things but he doesn’t really spend a lot of time looking at the grading and a lot of the final details and to make sure the project is being built as per the site plan approval. The Town Engineer generally checks the road and the drainage issues but not the individual lot issues. Apparently we have a lot of drainage problems. The suggestion Mr. Williams, Town Planner, and I talked about is the possibility of considering either the Town Engineer, Town Planner or somebody looking at drainage and grading issues prior to CO’s being issued because we have a number of individuals out there right now that have problems with drainage and the only leverage we are going to have at all with Wyndham is the road dedication. Some of this is probably going to wind up as a civil matter but some of it can be fixed and should be fixed. In one particular instance for a property owner there was only supposed to be a 2 ft. change in grade and because of septic issues there’s a much bigger, significant change in grade which is causing water runoff to the neighbor’s yard which is destabilizing him because there’s huge changes of grade out there. It’s something that I think we should think about. Also I would just ask the Board to hold up consideration on the road dedication until we have a little more information from the Town Planner, the Codes Enforcement Officer and the Town Engineer.
Mrs. Nacerino stated another area of consideration that was suggested in this letter was that the location of the house was changed as well and that’s really a major consideration and could result in major problems down the road as well so what could we do to alleviate those potential problems from occurring in the future.
Mr. Griffin stated that’s what Rich and I and Dave were talking about; I hate to bring in another layer of approval into this but the bottom line is Wyndham Homes walks out of the project, they made whatever money they made and the homeowners are now left to kind of fend for themselves. The soils are very poor out there and nobody seems to be able to grow any grass for a lawn to stabilize any of this. The detention ponds are all things we’re going to address and that’s part of the Windsor Woods – it’s a report from Rich Williams to Tom McGinn and Anthony Molé regarding the ponds and those types of things. At some point for protection of the homeowners we really need to consider how we handle when a developer moves a house 30, 40, 50 ft. from where it was designed, changes the grades where you were supposed to have gravity fed septic systems and now it’s a very elaborate pump up system and where you’re supposed to have drainage areas put in place but because of changes in design or the shape of the houses or they didn’t feel like blasting all they needed to blast they decided to move the house so they don’t meet the grades that were on the plan; resubmit a plan that doesn’t really work and now here we are a year later and the homeowners are basically left on their own and the developer is ready to walk.
Mrs. Nacerino stated they’re major issues so if we have to implement another layer of checking and rechecking so be it because all it will result in is future problems and once a house is put in the wrong place there’s really no going back so what do you do so I think that if you and Rich and whomever get together and try to develop another plan that would be great.
WYNDHAM/WINDSOR WOODS SUBDIVISION
Mr. Griffin stated this is a report from the Town Planner.
Mr. Griffin made a motion to have the Town Clerk attach this to the minutes just for consideration prior to road dedication.
Seconded by Mr. Kassay. All In Favor: aye. Carried.
PUTNAM COMMUNITY FOUNDATION – DOWN PAYMENT
PATTERSON TOWN BOARD
TOWN BOARD MEETING
Mr. Griffin stated Tim, did Anthony go over this with you at all.
Mr. Curtiss, Town Attorney, stated no.
Mr. Griffin stated I thought we had taken care of this at the last meeting. There’s an agreement assignment they had passed – assigned the contract for sale to the Town and we had issued them a check. The document was all signed. I’m not sure why Anthony wanted that back on the agenda.
Mr. Curtiss stated the Putnam Community Foundation signed the contract and the down payment. They need a resolution from you to reimburse them for the down payment of $46,500.00.
Mr. Griffin stated that has already been done.
Mr. Curtiss stated then you don’t have to do anything further.
Mr. Griffin stated I thought we did it. I don’t know what Anthony’s issue was but we approved the whole thing at the last meeting…
Mr. Curtiss stated with a resolution to refund them the $46,500.00, then you’re done.
Mr. Griffin stated as far as I know. You’d have to go back and check the minutes. I don’t think he sent over an additional resolution for this.
Mr. Curtiss stated no he didn’t.
Discussion ensued with Board members regarding whether or not a resolution was done.
Mr. Griffin introduced the following Resolution for Putnam Community Foundation Reimbursement
R0707-01
WHEREAS, the Town of
WHEREAS, the Town of Patterson has received with the contract a credit for a down payment in the sum of FORTY SIX THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED ($46,500.00) DOLLARS previously put forth by the Putnam Community Foundation, and
WHEREAS, the Town of
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Patterson hereby approves reimbursement to the Putnam Community Foundation in the sum of FORTY SIX THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED ($46,500.00) DOLLARS.
Seconded by Mr. Kassay. Roll Call Vote: Mr. Herbst; yes, Mr. Kassay; yes, Mrs. Nacerino; yes, Mr. O’Connor; yes, Mr. Griffin; yes. Roll Call Vote Carried.
HARBY HOUSE
Mr. Griffin stated as you may know this is a property in the back where we are looking to put the new courthouse. Mr. Harby approached the Town. He is interested in selling his property as he doesn’t really want to live next to a courthouse. He’s given us a couple of appraisals, however his appraisals are not going to be acceptable for Town purposes. If the Town Board wants to consider acquisition of that property as part of the overall long term plan for acquiring space or a campus type set up or scenario for Town facilities, we
PATTERSON TOWN BOARD
TOWN BOARD MEETING
would need to do a title search and we would also need to get an appraisal done so if the Board wants me to move forward on that let me know and we can get the appraisal done and use Mr. Roche if we do because he was very reasonable on the others.
Mrs. Nacerino stated yes.
Mr. O’Connor stated yes.
Mr. Kassay stated yes.
Mr. Herbst stated yes.
Mr. Griffin made a motion that we get a price for Sean Roche to do an appraisal on the Harby property.
Seconded by Mr. Herbst. All In Favor: aye. Carried.
Mr. Griffin stated
Length of Service Awards Program for the fire department. I’ve been contacted by Kevin McGowan from
Mr. Curtiss stated you’d have to have a proposition.
Mr. Griffin stated we’d have to have all of the fire departments list of active quotes. We have to have the insurance company run the numbers, etc. and we’d have to have at least one public hearing on it.
GERALD HERBST
Mr. Herbst stated we tabled this the last time because Anthony wanted more information on it. He’s since then got it in and cleared up everything.
Mr. Herbst made a motion that we take the movie license at a sum not to exceed $460.00 for the year.
Seconded by Mrs. Nacerino.
Mr. Griffin stated Motion Picture Licensing Corporation International is going to be the company that we’re going to be doing business with and the license will allow us to show movies for the seniors, etc. at the recreation center and basically this has been reviewed and they looked at the (inaudible) owns and they are satisfied that these are people they want to go with and the annual license is $460.00 per year.
Mr. Herbst stated yes, exactly.
All In Favor: aye. Carried.
SET PUBLIC HEARING –
Mr. Herbst made a motion to set a public hearing for the Trippodo house on 8 Victory
PATTERSON TOWN BOARD
TOWN BOARD MEETING
Road for
Seconded by Mr. Kassay. All In Favor: aye. Carried.
RECREATION REQUEST – LIGHTING/GAMEBOY
Mr. Herbst stated we have a request from Paul. Did the Board read the memo.
Mr. Griffin stated yes, it’s to purchase lights for the gym. All of the lights in the gym have a life expectancy.
Mr. Herbst stated they have a very short life expectancy.
Mr. Griffin stated they’re reaching their limit so they are asking to replace the lights in the gym.
Mr. Herbst stated Paul said if we buy a dozen at a time they’re a lot cheaper so the cost for twelve 320-watt metal halogen lamps would be $598.68.
Mr. Herbst made a motion that we grant him permission to buy the twelve lamps for a cost not to exceed $600.00.
Seconded by Mr. O’Connor. All In Favor: aye. Carried.
Mrs. Nacerino stated I just have a question about this light. How often do these need to be replaced. Is it something that we should budget for on a yearly basis.
Mr. Griffin stated I think the average life expectancy on these things are 1,000 or 1,500 hours and over time they dim and it’s gotten to the point now where a significant number of the lights in the gym are getting to the point where even with the lights on you’re sitting around going gee it’s kind of dark in here so what Paul is doing is he’s going to, over the course of this year into next year, we’re going to replace all of them.
Mr. O’Connor stated it’s labor intensive to replace them one at a time.
Mrs. Nacerino stated I realize that. I was just wondering if we planned and budgeted for all these repairs and maintenance things that have to be done year to year.
Mr. Griffin stated it’s just that it’s over $500.00. It was not a line item in the maintenance budget.
Mr. Herbst stated you all know the story with the game
boys. The cost to reimburse Ken
Lanunzinger’s son for the incident of the Gameboy games that occurred on
Mr. Herbst made a motion that we pay that bill.
Seconded by Mrs. Nacerino. All In Favor: aye. Carried.
Mrs. Nacerino stated I just have a question, actually a statement. I realize that this is a unique situation and I am certainly in agreement with the reimbursement, however I think that we should take some precaution for the future because I know notoriously with kids and games and ipods and things of that nature kids are carelessly going around and maybe we should look to post some signs “Not responsible for lost or stolen items,” which doesn’t put – this particular incident was not a lost or stolen item but I think to protect ourselves for not being reimbursed for every single lost Gameboy, ipod, sneakers, whatever I think that would be something we should do for the lack of…
Mr. Herbst stated would we not be responsible anyway, Tim.
PATTERSON TOWN BOARD
TOWN BOARD MEETING
Mr. Curtiss stated well it would depend on the circumstance…
Mrs. Nacerino stated no.
Mr. Curtiss stated circumstances, yes. If you posted the sign in the locker rooms that you are not responsible for personal items then could they – yes, they could try to sue you but you would have another layer of indemnification and you would have to show…
Mrs. Nacerino stated they would have to produce original receipts for the items…
Mr. Curtiss stated yes, plus you would have to show that somehow the Town was negligent and did something.
Mr. Griffin stated the other thing in the future too is to have a discussion with Melissa and a couple of people down there is to set up some methodology for property of value that is lost, left behind would be locked up, not just…
Mrs. Nacerino stated well this is an isolated incident. I’m talking about general kids leaving stuff around that are very valuable; kids tend to do that and then their parents say well they lost the ipod or they lost their $70.00 sneakers or whatever the case may be and seek reimbursement. If we post some signs then we wouldn’t be responsible if they were negligent in taking care of their property.
Mr. O’Connor stated once something is turned over to our…
Mr. Curtiss stated then we…
Mr. O’Connor stated then we have to have a policy where that should immediately be locked up…
Mrs. Nacerino stated yes you do but…
Mr. Curtiss stated yes, you need a protocol if things are going to be turned in or if somebody has something valuable that they don’t want to put in a locker but they’d like to store we…
Mr. O’Connor stated then they can turn it in.
Mr. Herbst stated we certainly have enough places to lock it up. We have plenty of cabinets that all have locks on them.
Mrs. Nacerino stated Jerry do you want to follow up on that or would you like me to follow up.
Mr. Herbst stated I’ll follow up.
Mr. Kassay stated in private enterprise they have a lost and found department with a log book. They should log it in with the date and time, who logged it in and who secured it.
Mr. Herbst stated if we had done this before, this incident wouldn’t have happened.
Mr. Griffin stated I’m not so sure that that’s entirely – if it had been locked in a cabinet, depending on who had the keys – we had a situation. There’s a program at the rec. center where they have kids come in, they play Gameboy and different types of activities of that sort. A young man left his Gameboy, a paper bag with three different games in it, at the rec. center. It was found by staff at the rec. center, it was put in the receptionist’s office; it wasn’t locked up in the office it was just put on top of the cabinet. The parent came a day later to get it and it had subsequently taken off and walked away. We reviewed the video tapes and it was not entirely possible to determine exactly who took it. It was only
PATTERSON TOWN BOARD
TOWN BOARD MEETING
a limited number of people that could have taken it. There was an investigation by the sheriff’s department. We couldn’t determine exactly who took it so the Board has agreed to reimburse the parent because it was in our possession. When the parent was notified, we had the games. When he came to pick them up then we didn’t have the games so steps have been taken. There’s been some staff members that are no longer with us and we’re going to set a policy now that anything of that type is going to have to be locked up and that whoever finds it is going to be responsible for locking it up so that the incident isn’t repeated.
NYCONN SECURITY AGREEMENT
Mr. O’Connor made a motion that we renew our contract with NYCONN Security Systems, Inc. for 5 years to maintain our fire alarm systems and that the Supervisor be authorized to sign the contract.
Seconded by Mr. Kassay. All In Favor: aye. Carried.
RESOLUTION – EXTENSION OF PAYMENT OF PROPERTY TAXES TO
SENIOR CITIZENS
Mr. O’Connor stated we would like to have a resolution to extend by 5 business days the time allowed for seniors to pay their property tax; those that have the exemption. I was talking to Anthony today and there’s some concern as to what the legalities are. Is it enough for us to do this or does the County have to agree. Can we do this and then let the other legal steps take their place.
Mr. Curtiss stated you can do it with regard to your Town
tax collection. You can not do it with
regard to school tax,
Mr. Herbst stated doesn’t the County collect our tax for us and then reimburse us.
Mr. Curtiss stated no, not any more.
Mr. Griffin stated we are a first class Town now.
Mr. Curtiss stated so you collect it yourself at this point in time.
Mr. O’Connor introduced the following Resolution for Property Tax Extension for Seniors Receiving Senior
Exemption
R0707-02
WHEREAS, In Real Property Tax Law Section 925-B, the Town Board of the Town of Patterson is authorized to adopt a resolution prior to the levy of Town and County Taxes extending the time of collection of taxes by five (5) business days for seniors who receive exemption of Real Property Tax Law Section 467, and
WHEREAS, Sally Parfitt, Receiver of Taxes, feels this is warranted;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Patterson authorize to extend the time of collection of taxes by five (5) business days to those seniors receiving the senior exemption.
Seconded by Mr. Herbst.
Mr. Kassay stated in looking at that memo, it does mention the Real Property Tax Law with sections and based on what Tim was just saying, has anybody researched those sections of law to make sure that we’re not in violation of the Real Property Tax Law.
PATTERSON TOWN BOARD
TOWN BOARD MEETING
There’s two sections, 925-B and 467. I’m not familiar with what they say.
Mr. Griffin stated in discussions with Sally she indicated to me that this had been researched and was satisfied.
Mr. Curtiss stated if you couldn’t do it, Anthony would have given me memo stating that.
Mr. O’Connor stated I would just like to say that this was done at the request of Sally Parfitt our Receiver of Taxes. It’s to her credit that she has our seniors in mind.
All In Favor: aye. Carried.
BROADVIEW – PRESENTATION
Mr. O’Connor stated I’ve been approached by a company called Broadview Network. They claim they can save the Town a considerable sum of money compared to what we pay to Verizon.
Mr. Thomas Capalbo, Broadview Networks, stated Broadview
Networks is a facilities based company.
I wanted to address one of Mike’s concerns earlier. There are companies that are facilities based
and then there are companies who are resellers of products. Ed and I had an earlier conversation and he
mentioned that you had a problem with one of your previous phone companies that
said they were going to reduce your prices and help you but at the same point
in time they didn’t reduce the prices and they more or less hurt the Town. Since we are a facilities based company, we
are transponding all the services. We
aren’t reselling Verizon’s services. We call up, get our own switches in a
Verizon central office basically transponding our services over the lines. We go from
What I’ve provided for everyone on page 10, the first 9
pages are background and history on our company, is a list of major accounts of
people that we work with such as
Mr. Kassay stated so there’s no penalty or anything.
Mr. Capalbo stated no penalty, no nothing so if in 90 days you’ve tried everything and if you are not satisfied or happy you can switch back. After that 90 days if we do hurt your company in any way after that time, i.e., if you have down time or if anything else that you are not happy or satisfied with, we basically jot down the date that it happened and if it happens more than once, twice, three times in a 30 day period, if you’re not happy with us then you can always get out of the contract without any penalty.
The savings, as you can see, per month will be around $450.00 a month which would be saving the Town almost $5,500.00 over the course of the fiscal year. The way this is done is Verizon right now for 22 lines, which is in the Town Hall here itself, is charging around $21.12 a piece. We’ll do exactly the same thing for $11.50. Again, the way we
PATTERSON TOWN BOARD
TOWN BOARD MEETING
can do this is because we are not dealing with residential customers. We are passing along the savings to our business owners. FCC, PICC and taxes are customary taxes that every phone company has to charge. Usually town halls are tax exempt and that is something that we can do to not have that cost to you. Verizon is charging you taxes so I don’t know if they’ve received your federal tax exempt form. For your local regional long distance usage they are charging you $.048 local, $.08 regional and $.0112 for long distance phone calling. The way that is reduced by us is local phone calls are $.013, regional is $.034 and long distance is $.034 and you can see the difference in usage alone. You are paying $319.91 right now with Verizon and we’ll do exactly the same thing for $80.49. As the Town grows you will be making more phone calls with more employees, you will see that the usage will increase and there will be more savings. That is my proposal. It’s about a 41% savings over what you are using right now.
Mr. Griffin stated we have other facilities in the Town i.e., the highway facility, we have the recreation center and we have the courthouse.
Mr. Capalbo stated I didn’t receive those bills yet for me to give a breakdown but all these prices are again synonymous of your other phone lines that you have.
Mr. Griffin stated are you going to send us one bill.
Mr. Capalbo stated yes.
Mr. Griffin stated we get a bill for every phone line.
Mrs. Nacerino stated what about 4 digit dialing. Do you have that from building to building.
Mr. Capalbo stated 4 digit dialing is handled through your phone system. I’m not sure who you are using for your phone system provider, but that is done through your phone system. This is just for your phone lines for the usage of the dial tone per se.
Mrs. Nacerino stated ok.
Mr. Herbst stated I don’t see a map in here showing which is
local, which is regional and which is what you consider long distance because I
know on my cell phone I found out that
Mr. Capalbo stated the explanation for that is that Dutchess
and Putnam are two different ladders.
Ladders are just separation in the state itself of different calling
areas. Putnam,
Mr. O’Connor stated would your ladder system be identical to what we use by Verizon.
Mr. Capalbo stated yes. Every feature, everything that you currently have through Verizon as far as your features and any kind of calling plan will stay as per all the charges Verizon charges you through the ladder systems as far as local, regional and long distance will stay the same. We aren’t reselling the Verizon services; we are providing the services through our switches so it will stay exactly the same.
Mr. O’Connor stated even though I take your word for
everything you say, I called the Renegades business office, the Rockland County
Disabled Association,
PATTERSON TOWN BOARD
TOWN BOARD MEETING
that they did get considerable savings; pretty much the savings you had promised them. The last company I called, Northern Westchester Medical Group, said they were very happy with the service so far and the savings are just what you said they were.
Mr. O’Connor stated I would like to look into this further and I also think it would be appropriate to contact Verizon and see what they say.
Mr. Kassay stated and we also should get quotes on the other buildings as well.
Mr. O’Connor stated right. The charges would be the same; it would just be the quantity of lines.
Mr. Griffin stated we could do one of two things. One of the things we did do at Glacial was not put all our eggs in one basket as a try out and quite frankly Glacial has turned out to be an extreme disappointment but at least we are not paying on every single thing we own. We may want to try this for three months with the Town Hall.
Mr. O’Connor stated I spoke with Joseph and told him that one of the most important things for us would be the various guarantees that we could get out of it without – if there is a penalty Broadview gets us back into…
Mrs. Nacerino stated I still think we need a comparison though.
Mr. O’Connor stated sure. I just wanted to have some of the details brought out here and get the Board to look into it further.
Mrs. Nacerino stated Tommy if we do start out with just the Town Hall and want to incorporate the other facilities at a later date, would there be a charge for that.
Mr. Capalbo stated no. The switch over from Verizon to us is a non charge.
Mr. Griffin stated I wonder what the switch back is.
Mr. Capalbo stated the switch back within the first 90 days is free. If we hurt you in any way during the time period after the 90 days, you can get out of the contract. During that time period if you do wish to leave and we have not hurt you in any way there are termination penalties as there are with any type of phone company that you may get into.
Mr. Griffin stated do you have a copy of this proposal for the Town Attorney.
Mr. Curtiss stated I have one.
PROPERTY TAXPAYERS PROTECTION ACT
Mr. O’Connor stated I received a letter from James N. Tedisco, State Assembly Minority Leader, that they have a bill in the New York State Assembly called the New York State Property Taxpayers Protection Act and what it does is primarily it’s a – they are trying to get relief packages for localities so the bill would make it so that their State funding for mandates more than $10,000.00 would be covered by the State. Secondly the legislation would cap the annual school district property tax levy to either 4% or the rate of inflation. I’m not saying that the school districts have a tendency to run away with things but they have a tendency to run away with things and when inflation is 4% or 5%, why do they say they have to do 10% so they would have to justify that. This is an assembly bill and I think both provisions of it would benefit the Town. It would be a great step forward. Whether the bill will pass the Assembly is problematical but I think we should agree to send to the State Assembly a resolution from the Town that we think it’s a good idea.
PATTERSON TOWN BOARD
TOWN BOARD MEETING
Mr. O’Connor introduced the following Resolution for New York State Property Taxpayer Protection Act
R0707-03
WHEREAS, the tremendously high property tax burden on New York families and businesses is the number one issue facing our community today, and the sheer cost of living in New York has forced many residents and businesses to leave, thus slowing the economic engine of the state, and
WHEREAS, young people are finding it difficult to purchase homes, seniors are struggling to maintain their homes, and businesses are facing immense challenges to create and retain jobs, and
WHEREAS, New Yorkers face the highest property taxes in the nation, and when measured as a percentage of home value, nine of the top 10 property tax rates in the entire country belong to counties in New York, and the State must act now to thwart the detrimental effects that high property taxes are having on local governments, and
WHEREAS, Assembly Minority Members have introduced the “New York State Property Taxpayer Protection Act (Assembly Bill 8775),” which puts forth new and innovative ideas for property tax reform that limit the amount school districts can raise annually through local tax levies to four percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less; in addition the Act would relieve municipalities and school districts of unfunded mandates, reduce county Medicaid costs, strengthen financial accountability over school tax dollars, promote local government efficiency and encourage local option insurance pooling, and
WHEREAS, the “New York State Property Taxpayer Protection Act” will help fix New York’s broken property tax system, providing homeowners, businesses and municipalities significant and lasting relief from the crushing burden of skyrocketing property taxes;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to acknowledge New York State’s property tax crisis and urge the immediate passage and chaptering of the “New York State Property Taxpayer Protection Act,” which will help local governments reinvigorate New York’s economy by providing incentives for people and businesses to move and stay here, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution
suitably engrossed be transmitted to the Governor of the State of
Seconded by Mr. Herbst. All In Favor: aye. Carried.
ERNEST KASSAY
RESOLUTION –
Mr. Kassay introduced the following Resolution for Approval of Installation of Street Lamp at Intersection
of Cornwall Hill Road and Somerset Drive to be Included in the Town Lighting
District
R0707-04
WHEREAS, on June 27, 2007 there has been introduced before the Town Board of the Town of Patterson the addition of a street lamp to be installed at the intersection of Cornwall Hill Road and Somerset Drive to be included in the Town Lighting District, and
WHEREAS, the Town Board of the Town of
PATTERSON TOWN BOARD
TOWN BOARD MEETING
aforementioned street lamp, and
WHEREAS, the Town Board of the Town of
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Patterson hereby approves the installation of a street lamp at the intersection of Cornwall Hill Road and Somerset Drive to be included in the Town Lighting District, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of
Seconded by Mrs. Nacerino. All In Favor: aye. Carried.
STEAK HOUSE REQUEST – REDUCE
Mr. Kassay stated the situation on Route 22 regarding
speeding trucks, cars, etc. from
Mr. Griffin stated my suggestion would be to put up a toll booth. That would slow everybody down. I’m going to resubmit the resolution to the DOT we passed asking for the reduction and send them a follow up letter to go along with the other follow up letter we sent. That’s about all we can do other than request additional police presence out there.
Mr. Kassay stated addressing the problem personally face to face with the sheriff, all of the troop commanders, etc. sometimes goes a long way.
Mr. Griffin stated any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Mr. Kassay stated resubmit those letters and the copies of the resolutions and make a notation such as second notice or third notice. If you do not receive any type of positive response, let me know and I will pursue it after that.
Mr. Griffin stated ok.
ADOPTION OF LOCAL LAW NO. 7 OF 2007
Mr. Kassay stated there was a public hearing to do with stop sign designations. We are updating our code and some of the terminology and laws weren’t in the code.
Mr. Kassay introduced the following Resolution of Adoption, Local Law No. 7 of 2007
R0707-05
WHEREAS, an amendment to Patterson Town Code Chapter 150, Article III, section 150-6, entitled “Stop intersections designated”, has been introduced before the Town
PATTERSON TOWN BOARD
TOWN BOARD MEETING
Board of the Town of
WHEREAS, a public hearing was held on
WHEREAS, public discussion was heard at such hearing concerning the merits of said introductory local law, and
WHEREAS, the Town Board of the Town of Patterson wishes to amend Chapter 150, Article III, section 150-6, entitled “Stop intersections designated”, which amendment will establish stop signs at several Town and State road intersections, and
WHEREAS, in accordance with 6 NYCRR Part 617.5(c)(16) of the implementing regulations the action under consideration constitutes a TYPE II ACTION requiring no further review or action, and
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Town Board of the Town of Patterson hereby amends Chapter 150, Article III, section 150-6, entitled “Stop intersections designated”, which amendment will establish stop signs at several Town and State road intersections, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Introductory Local Law I-6 of 2007 of the Town of Patterson is hereby enacted as Local Law 7 of 2007 of the Town of Patterson, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a true copy of the law is attached hereto and made a part hereof.
Seconded by Mrs. Nacerino. All In Favor: aye. Carried.
GINNY NACERINO
RECREATION EMPLOYEE RENTAL RATE
Mrs. Nacerino stated the recreation employee rental rate pertains to the use of the facilities at the recreation center. There are different rates for different rooms.
Mrs. Nacerino made a motion to implement a 25% discount for employees wishing to rent any room in the recreation center and for use of those facilities.
Seconded by Mr. Herbst. All In Favor: aye. Carried.
RESIDENTS OF
Mrs. Nacerino stated I have a letter from the concerned
residents of
Mr. Brian Maher,
PATTERSON TOWN BOARD
TOWN BOARD MEETING
rains happen. We had David Raines come up to take a look at it. Every year we’ve been dumping item 4 rock, whatever we can and it keeps washing down the driveway. I have receipts just from the last couple of weeks of putting money into the road. If there is anything you can do, we would all appreciate it.
Mrs. Nacerino stated Mr. Raines is on vacation this up coming week, but when he returns I will be happy to speak to him and also Charlie Williams and also Rich Williams to see if we can do anything for you.
Mr. Maher stated I appreciate that, thank you.
Mr. Griffin stated we will also have the Town Engineer take a look at this and see what recommendations we can make other than black top.
Mr. Curtiss stated I just talked to the Town Planner and there may be an avenue if they have a majority of the homeowners who would like to do this is to have a road improvement district.
Mr. Griffin stated I know it’s possible. I know Charlie has been working with a relatively new product. It’s goes under item 4 and he describes it almost as snow fence. He said it’s a bit of a pill to put down because it sticks to the – what they do is they’ve been using the paver to put down the item 4 but they roll the stuff out first but when they back the trucks up to dump the material into the paver, it sticks to the tires of the truck but the material holds the other stuff on the road and it doesn’t wash off as much and depending on the grades out there, maybe there are some suggestions but between Rich, Charlie and Tom McGinn I think we can at least come up with some ideas; I’m not sure how much financial assistance we can come up with but the financial improvement district might help share the burden equally.
PUTNAM COMMUNITY ACTION REQUEST
Mrs. Nacerino stated we received a letter from Missy Schneider from Westchester-Putnam CAP as attached.
Mrs. Nacerino made a motion for the Town to present a check for the extra $300.00 to send this Patterson resident, this little 7-year old girl to camp at the Patterson rec. center. In checking further with this, there are some scholarships at Camp Herrlich but they have reached their quota and I think that it might be something that if we do have a camp situation next year at the rec. center that we might be able to provide some scholarship funding as well, however being this is just the one incident, I would like to move this forward.
Mr. Herbst stated Tim, can we legally do this.
Mr. Curtiss stated you can’t do it with public funds. You can’t make a gift of public funds even though it’s a terrific cause. I would suggest…
Mr. Herbst stated eliminate the $300.00 fee. We can do that.
Mr. Griffin stated we can waive the fee.
Mrs. Nacerino amended the motion to waive the $300.00 fee to send this little girl to camp at the recreation center from July 23rd until August 17th.
Seconded by Mr. Herbst. All In Favor: aye. Carried.
OTHER BUSINESS
Mr. Kassay stated I spoke to Mr. Lucas today at H. Ted Baumann Park. I was there to
PATTERSON TOWN BOARD
TOWN BOARD MEETING
accept the 45 yards of safety surface that came in. I told him I was contacting Mr. Ted Kozlowski and Donna DiPippo because she was there to do a walk through of the house to see if it is, in fact, on public property.
Mr. Griffin stated it is.
Mr. Kassay stated I just need to see the documentation from Ted and then he will give the ok for that tree to come down.
Mr. Griffin stated Ted went to look at the tree and it was his personal opinion that there was nothing wrong with the tree.
Mr. Griffin stated Rich and I will take a look at it tomorrow.
Mr. Kassay stated then I will check with you to see what’s happening.
PUBLIC RECOGNITION
Mr. Tom Conrad stated I want to know what this Putnam Community Act Foundation is.
Mr. Griffin stated in terms of the refund.
Mr. Conrad stated yes, what was that for.
Mr. O’Connor stated are you talking about Item C under Mr. Griffin’s agenda.
Mr. Conrad stated yes.
Mr. Griffin stated it is a not for profit organization who was assisting the library and the Town and facilitating a property acquisition in the back here for the possible construction of a new courthouse. They had laid out a down payment because they could move much more quickly than we could to secure the property.
Mr. Conrad stated so it’s like an administrative type…
Mr. Griffin stated exactly. They entered into a contract for the property for the Town; the Town did our due diligence, we did an asbestos abatement, corings, title search and a variety of other things, etc. We got appraisals and because have to follow an extensive process for land acquisition there was a concern that there may be other buyers interested in the property and that the Town would have to either pursue it through eminent domain or would have to pay a higher price at a later date.
Mr. Conrad stated so in the future if something like this comes up again, you’d be using them again.
Mr. Griffin stated as far as I’m concerned, this is the last piece of acquisition I intend to pursue as far as my tenure as Town Supervisor whether it ends in January or whether it ends in four years from now but we have a facility crisis with the courts. The courthouse right now will hold about 50 to 60 people. On calendar call nights we have as many as 150 to 200 people there. The question was asked as to why can’t we go to more court nights and the answer is because the district attorney can’t provide the prosecutors. Until the County ramps up their ability to have district attorneys prosecute twice a week…
Mr. Conrad stated I can understand that.
Mr. Griffin stated so that is one of the reasons why we have to remain doing what we’re doing with the calendar calls, etc. That’s why we decided to look at that, plus the library is working out of about 2,600 sq. ft. and they would like to have considerably more facility than that to provide proper services to the Town so it seemed like a good fit plus
PATTERSON TOWN BOARD
TOWN BOARD MEETING
we are very happy to give them that building.
Mr. Robert Odell stated the Harby House, is that in addition to what the property you’re buying or through eminent domain.
Mr. Griffin stated yes. The property right now – it appears that we may not have to pursue eminent domain for acquisition of it, but there would be a total of four lots that we’re looking at and yes it would be in addition to if we decide to go that route.
Mr. Odell stated so that’d be more money you’re paying out and off the tax rolls.
Mr. Griffin stated yes, correct.
Mr. Odell stated Mr. O’Connor how much was the contract for that NYCONN Security.
Mr. O’Connor stated it’s a rollover contract. It is approximately $200.00 and something a month but the contract itself did not have that amount written on it. I remember how much it is; the contract states rollover, continue the same.
Mr. Odell stated it says rollover continue the same.
Mr. Griffin stated yes, right.
Mr. Odell stated well if you’re going to approve something – you don’t know the amount.
Mr. Griffin stated no, no we know the amount it’s just not written on the contract.
Mr. O’Connor stated it’s not written on the contract.
Mr. Griffin stated this will be filled in before it’s signed.
Mrs. Nacerino stated it says C/R which might indicate current rate.
Mr. Odell stated thank you.
There being no further business, Mr. Herbst made a motion
to adjourn the Town Board meeting at
Seconded by Mr. Kassay. All In Favor: aye. Carried.
Respectfully submitted,
________________________________________________
ANTOINETTE KOPECK, TOWN CLERK