Quick and Sludgy

The May 22 Town Board meeting adjourned, with the help of longer days, with daylight to spare, thanks to a trim agenda and moving to table several issues.

The meeting opened with a Public Hearing on the Increase & Improvement of the Facilities of the United Wappinger Sewer. It quickly closed, because, as was learned later in the meeting .... there are still a lot of unanswered questions. How the public is to participate in a public hearing before the information is clarified, made available and alternatives proposed is a mystery, but hey, that box is checked... the Public Hearing was held.

Same for the Public Portion of the meeting -- with no information on the agenda items clarified.. the public is reticent to participate.

A question of 14 inch or 15 inch replacement Laptops was tabled.. it was clear that an email exchange sent to the board "needed more time to be reviewed aka "actually read".

So onward... to a decision that the June 3 Town Board Workshop will be June 10 from 10 to 12:00 -- agenda tbd.

Then a very interesting discussion, after clarifying what commercial building was actually being discussed, about a reduction in tax assessment for 1207 Route 9 -- in 2021, 2022 and 2023... with an agreement that the owner can't grieve his assessment for the next three years, and the assessment of $2.3 Million will be frozen for three years. Sweet. The other "interesting fact" is that the rate of occupancy/rental is a factor. Hmm. Does a homeowner get to ask for a reduction when a child goes off to college and is no longer using their bedroom? Occupancy rates are not just a factor of market requirements - a landlord with bad business practices or skills might also be a factor. This is a slippery slope.. and remember any concession provided to commercial property owners is absorbed by the rest of us. After a tutorial from the town attorney on real estate trends in the town, the board approved the agreement.

Any vehicle impounded will now be charge $50/day.

Then we got to the two resolutions to pay the Town's share (shared with Town of Poughkeepsie/Village of Wappinger) for the improvements to sludge management/digestion for the Trip Municipal Sewer system. The Town Attorney turned engineer for this discussion described the process, comparing it to Wine Fermentation (several faces lost their color at that one) and that the tighter DEC standards for what gets poured into the Hudson River. One of our esteemed councilpersons noted that the residents of his ward don't smell anything so he's not that concerned. Well, with that special community oriented comment, and other questions about the details (glossing over the fact that another proposal for much more money was decided it isn't needed, but now this new proposal will be fine... causing some credibility issues). So the whole thing has been tabled.

The town's stormwater expert was not able to be at the board meeting, but the stormwater report was accepted because of the board's trust in him...which is nice, but have they read it?

May -- now in addition to be Senior Citizen Month, National Mental Health Awareness Month, Asian Month is now also National Military Appreciation Month. This came reminders for all the Memorial Day Observances in the town.

The Deputy Supervisor then took another opportunity to congratulate himself on the posting of law enforcement resources in the Town's two public elementary schools, noting that there was a incident at Meyers Corner Elementary School... which was clarified as a "parent trying to use the wrong door". Maybe we need some time to define what an "incident" is.

The Board then went to executive session at 7:29 to discussion Union agreements. Returning at 7:49 with the Town Attorney stating that "no decision was made" and then they moved ahead to vote on the hiring of two administrators, under a Teamster's union. And they also moved to allow a Town Employee to work on a temporary basis for a position in the County, while not waiving the Town's rights to manage the employee.

Adjournment and a chance to catch the light fading in the sky.