Can they walk and chew gum at the same time?

The July 24 Town Board meeting was a bit of a doozy, not because of any tough subjects or issues to work on, but rather the randomness of the information discussed and the manner of the discussions. Starting with an inchoate agenda - which clearly was not proofread, reviewed or prepared for by the town board members or the professional staff prior to the meeting -- the board, after accepting the minutes from the previous meeting a month ago - adopted the agenda, with the exception of discussing a "Town Wide Moratorium on Building" which was tabled because Councilman Phillips was unable to be present.

As Mr. Stenger, an attorney in town, pointed out, this change was not at the 11th hour, but at the 11th hour, 59th minute -- and well, since he put on a suit, it seemed he felt obligated to talk during the public portion, but was shut down by the board.

The Town Board has discussed changing the Building Departments Fees and Fines for several months -- and apparently our town attorney just discovered a disconnect in understanding between he and the building department for complicated projects and the fee structure. This means the process of review/publication/passing the local law with the updated fees is again delayed (we are into the double digits on the number of times this has been revised). Remember - they have had a month to work through this. So again adjourned to August 21.

The conversation then moved to extensive stormwater issues at Sherwood Heights/Carmel Heights - costing a resident in the area well over $100K to try to mitigate the issue. Resolution now requires work beyond the resident's property and apparently there was a meeting of the town attorney, engineer, supervisor the resident etc. to figure out a solution and, discuss as MS4 violation and.... drumroll.. the board agreed to spend $13,000 for CPL to prepare a plan for a solution, which the town engineer thought could be accomplished within a month. My goodness! one would hope that in anticipation of a solution that will require funding etc. that some of the preliminary work to identify funds, resources etc. will be put in place, so that the execution of the solution is not a slow walk into oblivion.

An example of the town's slow walk to solutions was next on the agenda. The Building department had identified 4 properties in town that appeared to be dangerous - 120 New Hamburg Road, 1259 Route 376, 101 Old Post Road and 16 Dogwood. At a past board meeting, the board approved the funds to have a structural analysis by an engineer. The report came back that all four structures are structurally deficient, that no structural fix is possible and that all four buildings should be demolished. It is very clear that these buildings are hazards. The town board member who is a fireman asked that the four buildings be marked with large red signs indicating the status of the buildings, that no one should enter and that these signs would signal to any emergency services personnel that they should NOT enter the buildings. Our town attorney, knowing that the structural analysis work was in progress - and had been completed - waited until THIS time, to then begin to lecture everyone on the process for dealing with derelict buildings, and that there are different levels of danger that the building department can determine and that hearings need to be held and due process must be followed - including waiting until title searches on the properties are conducted to determine if financial institutions needs to be notified etc. before posting any signs etc. It is unclear why this diversion was introduced into a rather clear cut discussion about buildings that have ALREADY been determined to structurally dangerous. Why were the title searches not done concurrently with the engineering analysis? Why was a postponement on this discussion until the next board meeting (in a month) even entertained? Yes, due process must be followed and property owner rights respected -- but we do not have to drag this out with each step taking multiple months to accomplish. The Good News - the building department personnel posted the large signs on each property later that night. We'll see how long it takes to demo the buildings.

Then the good news that the MTA has received a grant to renovate the Bank Street Railroad Crossing in Chelsea. The Town wants to enter a Memo of Agreement with the MTA regarding this work -- and request that "sleeves" be put under the crossing to enable any future infrastructure facilities - like gas, water, sewer - to connect on the west side of the tracks, as well as ensuring that emergency vehicles can get to the west side of the tracks while construction occurs. The board adopted this agreement.

Which led to a conversation that has been going on for several years about repairing the boat ramp in Chelsea. The observations that between Beacon and New Hamburg that this is the only access to the River -- which is important to ALL the emergency responders (County, Town, Fire District, State... and added in this discussion Coast Guard) were restated, as they have been in each of the previous meetings -- so the board concluded something really has to be done. This time the Board agreed to begin the process for preparing a grant from the Environmental Fund Program (a matching grant). Letters from the affected emergency responder organizations supporting the need for access to the river were agreed to be solicited. (Could this not have been done sometime in the past?, have the funds for the grant match been identified? ARPA funds - is that agreed to?)

Kevin Hathorn then brought everyone up-to-date in excruciating detail of all the activities of the Veterans Advisory Group -- like soliciting donors for signs at the 5K run, which were not able to be posted at the 5K run, so maybe something else ought to be done with the signs that people donated. The fire pit at Schlathaus park isn't working well, wouldn't it be great to have a fire pit at the town hall (an explanation of why Fire Pits are needed etc. etc. was never discussed, it is presumed so that retired flags can be appropriately burned)... and then a discussion of all the Hometown hero banner vendors, colors, font types, sizes, country of origin of mounting hardware.. and also the pavers for Schalthaus need to be installed somehow.....and a town board member thanked Mr. Hathorn for his work and suggested that a more summarized version of his work would be appropriate.

Then moving on to other infrastructure issues in the town a discussion of all the POTENTIAL work and pitfalls that could happen to do the work to acquire the easements required to connect the Wildwood Sewer District to the Tri-Municipal Sewer Plant. All of these "potentials" were town attorney speculation, none based on any facts of the specific project. It was noted that Woodhill Greens HOA has expressed a reluctance to participate but the source of that reluctance was unknown (so why bring it up? and how was it expressed? a random thought, a formal letter?) However, the board managed to authorize the Town Attorney to begin preparing the documents for the condemnation of any and all easements necessary for the connection of the Wildwood Sewer District to the Tri-Municipal Sewer Plant Under the Eminent Domain Proceedings Law. Given the many months to get the buildings department fee schedule changed, this should be an interesting and long exercise of fits and starts.

The Board also agreed to authorize applying for a grant for the Midpoint Park Water improvements -- with at least three options available 1) Replacing the current facilities with modern facilities 2) Connect to Tri-Municipal District and 3) Connect to the East Fishkill System. This discussion seemed to get lost in the randomness of the agenda and fatigue of everyone involved... given that all the options have very different price estimates and there seems to be no overarching strategy to the towns water/sewer infrastructure systems this seems to be a bit of a paper chase game at this point.

In something that might actually be accomplished this year -- the Martz Pickleball and Tennis Courts are scheduled to be resurfaced ... and instead of 4 Pickleball Courts -- we will have 12 Pickleball courts, making it a premier Pickleball Court site. Costing under $30,000.

Then - after the Meyers Corners Solar Farm Project which is well underway, a discussion of a "Payment in Lieu of Taxes" (PILOT) program was discussed. Developers investment in Solar are not taxable for a period of years, but for commercial development, the owners enter into an agreement with county, school, and town for PILOT fees contributing to the taxing authorities. This project has already entered into a PILOT agreement with the Wappingers School District. A roundabout discussion of previous solar pilot agreements (Route 9D) and what should be negotiated had an awkward moment when it was realized that the lawyer representing the project was in the room. The town board gave the town attorney permission to conduct negotiations with the developer.

The councilman from Ward 1 seemed surprised about the next item on the agenda (after voting to accept the agenda earlier in the evening) and crankily accused other members of the town board of interfering in "his ward" when requesting an update on the status of the Nature Preserve Tenancy Agreement. To date no fees have been paid by the Nature Preserve and they are still receiving their water through a temporary hook-up from a hydrant connected to the water line on Old Hopewell Road. It is unclear why this would be a ward 1 only issue that would not required the full town board to agree to any agreements/payment plans by the Nature Preserve.

Then a series of discussions/resolutions regarding the hiring/promotion of Laborers/Groundkeepers for the building department -- with confusing and contradicting information discussed, further proving that no one reads the agenda/resolutions before the meeting, finally got resolved and approved.

A Deputy Court Clerk promotion was approved and Assistant Recreation Director position as well as a resolution NOT on the agenda 2023-101 providing for a permanent groundskeeper (or laborer.. .I lost the plot after awhile) was approved.

Also .. a sidebar mentioning that the DEC is lowering the levels of chlorine to be discharged into the Hudson River -- but no context, no explanation of what actions will need to be taken, time frames or any other implications....just left floating out there... AND NO EXECUTIVE Session at this meeting.