Disdain for Members of the Public requesting to speak, Budgets and Grants

The Town of Wappinger Board Meeting of October 24 included a public hearing for water/sewer rates, but in keeping with the arcane rules for public participation that are not obvious to the casual observer, another member of the public was grudgingly allowed to speak about his concern for the size of his water bill.

Budgets requests/changes for 2023 were presented by department heads. Insurance premiums, including for cyber liability, are expected to increase and employee raises of 4.5% anticipated.

A resolution to apply for a grant from the Hudson River Greenway to make improvements, specifically for the recently removed bridge, at Reece park was approved.

The two grants totaling $200K, arranged by the county legislator, in 2021 to make improvements for Carnwath seems stalled by the town attorney's limited understanding of what the grant could be used for and the town engineer sizing the projects not on what can be done with that amount, or a phased approach, but rather extensive updates to Carnwath which would go far beyond the amount of the grants. Time is running out to use the grants.

The Board went into executive session and emerged at 10:45 with the proclamation that no action was taken in the executive session.

A town board workshop is scheduled for November 5 10:00 to 12:00 to review/discuss the 2023 budget and a Public Hearing on the budget is scheduled for November 10.