Alright. Good evening, and welcome to the April 15 work session for the Village Board of Trustees. I'm mayor Brian Pugh, and I'd like a motion to enter into executive session to discuss matters concerning specific personnel. So moved. Second. Motion by trustee Simons, second by trustee Nicholson. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you.
• Do I have a motion to close the executive session and return to our work session?
Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. Very good. Next, we begin, well, do you wanna do that first? Sure. Okay.
• Yeah. Sure. No. The manager will be providing a brief statement.
Thank you, mayor. So, I was asked to provide just a statement based on the actions of the planning board last night related to the cannabis dispensary. As many are aware, the planning board approved a change of use last evening for a cannabis dispensary at 370 South Riverside Avenue. I've been asked to to provide some further detail regarding the application process that led up to the meeting last evening. The village was contacted in May 2025 by the business operator, Vincent Silvestri. He met with the former village engineer and provided some initial information on his proposed business. Mister Silvestri was told at that time that the village did not believe dispensary could open in that location due to the distance requirements imposed by the state. In October 2025, a building permit application was received for the proposed dispensary at 370 South Riverside Avenue. It was at this time that the applicant produced a copy of the municipal notification form with the village time stamp of 05/08/2025. Despite a diligent search, I have not located the physical copy of this form in our offices. I believe the form was submitted during the meeting in May 2025 and not transmitted to my office. If it had been, it would have been put on a village board agenda for community notification as has been done with previous applications. The village attorney immediately contacted the office of cannabis management to submit our protest against this location. We provided evidence that the day care center serves a wide variety of students, including those who are school aged. Now the nevertheless, OCM reaffirmed their decision that the location met the appropriate distance requirements in November 2025. Since the thirty day window for comments had lapsed, the village attorney and I then worked diligently with the applicant to find an alternative
• alternative location for them to open their business. Despite investigating numerous locations in various areas of the village, we were unable to agree on a suitable location to move the business and were pressed to make a decision on the application that was submitted. After getting further guidance from the village attorney, it was determined to proceed with the submitted application and send it to the planning board for a change of use approval where reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions could be imposed. The village engineer will now review their building permit application, and if everything is code compliant, issue the appropriate permits.
Oh, I appreciate the timeline and the update and because that's all really important information. And anybody who was watching the meeting last night was not ex myself included, was not expecting that statement to be given to be shared right now. So I don't know that by sharing it, although I appreciate that you did, we're reaching the intended audience of people who might have a question about that. So I don't know how like, how is there some way we can get that information out to the public in some way beyond the handful of people who are watching on TV and in the room. Because I do think it's relevant and people people are watching this and they would like to have that information. So I don't I don't necessarily need an answer right now about how we're gonna do that, but I would like it to go beyond an unannounced announcement an unannounced statement on this work session agenda where I I didn't anticipate we would be doing it.
share that information. Right. I mean, I don't I think we you could just we could post it. We could send it out. We could put it on the is it is it it on the project is that on the project's page? You know, I don't I would like to think about it sooner rather than later. Okay.
Manager, there was also a statement made by, Mickey Weiss. I almost said Mickey Mouse. I'm sorry. I was it was a long night last night. I'm sorry. The attorney. And, it was basically, I think led the public to believe that he had was given, two parking permits, for employees by he either said the village manager or the village. And that obviously seemed odd to me because they haven't gotten the change of use that wasn't approved yet. So if you wouldn't mind clarifying that Yeah. Because I I don't think that was a correct statement.
Yeah. No. The applicants the applicant's attorney contacted me yesterday, mister Weiss, and asked about the possibility of purchasing parking permits in the South Harmon lot. And I I had advised him that we do permit businesses to purchase up to two permits for use in that lot and that, in the past, the land use boards, either the planning or the zoning board, have allowed for that to be a condition of their approval based on their their parking needs. And the example that I gave him was, you know, Baked by Susan had that as part of their approval, was that they had to purchase permits in that lot. So but, no, there were no permits that were sold in advance. Mhmm.
One thing we we could think about just as a possibility is in in addition to what trustee Slippen said is now now that we have an official application, backup materials, drawings, things of that nature, we could create the equivalent of a project page, you know, for that just so that people have access to it that don't normally look at the planning board
agendas and things like that. Sure. So that it would be there, and it's just like everything else is there. Yep. I'll take I'll take a look and see if there's somewhere that would be appropriate to Yeah. Sorry to add to your load in the middle of the budget, but I feel like it's important. And I yeah. It's important. Thank you.
Okay. And now we proceed to our regular budget programming, beginning with a review of the proposed fee schedule.
• And bring that up. Do that, please.
• I'll ask Mark and Vinny to join us at the table since they have I think most of the fee changes are related to their items.
• Sorry. I'm just having a technical difficulty here.
• Did you get it? Okay. I think I You have it. Alright. Got it now.
• Okay. So
• the majority of our fees are left unchanged in, you know, this fee schedule compared to the current fee schedule. So we'll just kinda go through them, and, obviously, if you have any questions, please feel free to stop us as we go along.
• The first the first one is on page three. It's the village resident senior rate for the winter storage of the kayaks. It's currently $80, and recreation is proposing that that be increased to a $120. I believe that's just to to match the percentage discount for the April to October period. Right, Mark? Yeah. That's correct.
• K.
• The extra duty fees, for the police officers now on page four. That rate is increasing just to, account for their increase in their salaries as of June 1.
• On page five, we have parking. So this is, you know, this is a fairly significant change that we're proposing here. We're proposing that the hourly rate at the train station on the well, every day, weekends and weekdays Mhmm. Go from $1 to a dollar 50 per hour. It's been sixteen years since we've increased the daily rate. And, you know, the the time has the time has And and everything
that's part infrastructure of parking, including enforcement technology and all of that is significantly gone up in in Correct. And, you know, I I think there was a lot of reluctance from myself included
to we didn't wanna go to $2 an hour because that felt too high. Yeah. And we didn't wanna go we didn't wanna make it where people had to carry change to pay. And so that I think that was that was a lot of the reluctance to raising this fee over the years. But, you know, I was able to do an analysis of who's paying down at the train station, and the vast majority of people are paying with either credit card or on the app. Yeah. Mhmm. You know, I mean, out of we have 15,000 transactions a month down at the train station, roughly. Mhmm. And we bring in less than $2,000 in cash every month. Wow. So, I mean, we bring I we probably bring in, what, 150,000 a month in in transactions, in daily transactions, and and less than 2,000 of that is cash. So, I mean, I I think and for even for the people that pay cash, most of them are paying the max amount anyway. Mhmm. Right? Because they're going to the city for the day. They're going to work, whatever it might be. So, you know, they won't have to worry about coins anyway. They'll, you know, they'll can use a 10 and a 5 and they'll be set. So
• so I think that the time has come Yeah. For
another sixteen years. Another sixteen years. There you go. Yeah. The other thing I just wanna mention, because it kinda came to mind is, you know, we do get the request for seniors to have a waiver during the week in terms of parking fees, you know, having a resident waiver for seniors. You know,
I I I think that, you know, at this, like, we should probably study how much that could potentially cost. It's probably not that much at the end of the day. I mean, I'm I'm willing to to discuss that if that's what the board wants. I just think it's a very slippery slope because we've gotten those requests from the fire department, from EMS, from other volunteers, you know, the committee mem I mean, we've we've gotten a lot of different requests over the years for discounts. And it's always been it's always been easy, right, because our answer is, unfortunately, we don't provide that. Right? So we have a uniform. It's not permitted. And then I think if we start doing it for one group, I think that's we get into we get into an issue with that because where exactly do you do you stop?
So, I mean, obviously, people I would say seniors. I mean, like, if we if we did explore it for that particular group, I mean, I think Yeah. We're exploring it for that particular group. And again, like, it's sort of to understand kind of how much that would impact our revenue is it's probably not
that large. I I mean, I really I mean, we'd have to ask everyone that has a permit. I mean, I'm assuming you were you're only talking about village residents. Right? Oh, yes. Yeah. So Yeah. Village residents, seniors. Right? And then it would not be permits.
Right? So, like, just like village residents can park for free weekends. If you were a senior, why would you buy a permit? Cause you could just park for free. You know? Oh.
So What if I think, not to stereotype, but the ones that I know that go into the city tend to see shows. And if that happens on Wednesdays, I don't you know, is is it an option to offer one of the days during the week free permit parking,
you know, in over in is it g or whatever those letters are for The Weekend. Yeah. The Weekend ones are valid in f. F? Yeah. Mhmm. So I Yeah. I mean, we we can look at it.
Do any communities offer a senior discount for their train stations? I haven't studied I'm not I'm not aware of any, but I haven't looked at it in any detail. In trying to make this work with a daily permit, I I don't even, like, you would have to pre register the car some way, and then, like, how do you know it's actually the senior? I mean, the car could be registered to the senior in theory. I I Dobbs
Ferry does something where they I I don't I'd have to look at the details. Again, if it would But they require the senior has to come to the police station and get
the permit or something. Like a special permit that they can then Sounds like the same way that you would get. Like, rules are very strict around getting a handicap Yeah. Sticker for your car. It sounds like it might be the same. I mean, I think it could it would be interesting to understand what it would look like and how many people would be interested in it, but I don't.
I like I said, I just think that it would be very difficult for this board to implement that. And then, you know, I mean, if the fire department comes here and says you know, which I mean, to to be frank, they have. They've asked for this and we've told them no. Yeah. Mhmm. And so, I mean, I just think it would be very difficult for you to tell them no.
So Well, we did we didn't tell them no. We said this should be part of a larger consolidated
set of incentives that we discussed that has not been finalized. Manager, maybe maybe just as a one step forward, take a look at when you can at some of the other communities and see if it exists in any form. Yeah. Just just as as as the base. Okay. And then we can make a decision about what the second step might be. Yep. Alright.
And then the resident, nonresident permits are are slated to go up by $3. That's what we have done in most years. We we paused for a little bit during the pandemic, but most years, they go up.
• For the engineering department, so, you know, the village engineer and I looked at the, building permit fees, and a couple of years ago, we did do an increase in the fees. We're still towards the lower end of what communities charge, and so, we're looking to make some further changes here. The where you see the 200,000 and the 500,000 in red, under the valuation of work, those numbers were previously, 50,000 and 200,000. Right? Is that correct? Yeah. So,
• basically, you know, people have to pay more per thousand on their permit than they have previously.
Yep. And then the the fee itself is going up. Yep. Manager, I I I have a question. I and I tried earnestly to answer my own question and failed. Okay. So now I'll ask you. Under building permit residential accessory dwelling units Yes. Where it says fee above reduced by 50%, and then the actual fee
in there is blank. You just walk us through that. Yeah. Sure. So, basically, it's every you know, so it's the building permit residential one family and two family. Mhmm. The engineer would calculate what the fee would be based on those conditions. Gotcha. You know, and then let's say the fee ends up being a thousand dollars. Right. Then you divide that by half, so the ADU fee is $500.
to work up to get down. Okay. Correct. Yeah. I mean, we can try to make that a little Yep. More
I mean That's that's the law. It is. It's in the law. Yeah. Which law? New York City? No. No. Our our village ADU law. Yeah.
• on the commercial side, the building permit commercial multifamily. Is there a call a core building permit fee? Are there unit based fee components?
• Just and is there opportunity to raise the prices on the multifamily development to give us maybe some more income so we can lower fees for village residents for summer camp and and day care. So, you know, it's just a a question for whether Sure. Board would consider that, to raise the fees on the
So I mean multi family. Yeah. I'll just I'll just say that, you know, based on the fee schedule you have before you, the multifamily commercial mixed use fees are higher already than the residential building permit fees. You can choose to make them higher if you want. I mean, they're you know, generally, those are developers and commercial entities. Right? So you could make the delta between right now, it's, you know, the the residential permits are are basically, it's, you know, $20 per thousand. And for the commercial, it's $22 per thousand. So, I mean, you could increase that spread if you wanted to. Mhmm.
• did you wanna did you wanna make it 25 instead of 22 so that it'd be a $5 difference per thousand?
I I can try to have that information for tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the other thing is, you know, it it would be great if we could sort of increase that to give our residents a break on something like day camp for sure. But the challenge is that it we would need to forecast that Yeah. I mean, it it's a it's a much lumpier
Yeah. Data set because you have, like, one Well, sometimes we significant building application, then you might not have something
for years. Right. And day camp is every year. Right. And I I would like I would like to think, and we can have the conversation, you know, that that the rec department has come up with with the fees that they think is is appropriate to meet their costs. Yeah. So I I I think we wanna be careful about about upsetting that, you know, just on taking it from one, giving it to the other. And but, you know, it's
happy to have the conversation. But I appreciate the spirit Yeah. Absolutely. Of it. Yeah. The intent wasn't to decrease
Yeah. And I mean, I think, you know, I the the board has made significant investments in the engineering department, right, in terms of personnel. And, yeah, you would like to get a return on on that. Yeah. So I think it's I think that's reasonable. Yeah. I think if 25 is something that, you know, isn't sort of in line. Completely out of line. Yeah. Yeah. I think that would be fine. Okay. I'll try to find that out.
• The building permits for sheds, for spas and hot tubs, those are just increasing by $10.
• Building permit extension fees, that's going up from 100 to $200. Extension of a temporary CO going up from 100 to $200.
A question about the fire inspection. Yes. Maybe this is in our accessory dwelling law as well, but I was wondering, shouldn't an accessory dwelling unit have a fire inspection as well?
No. Those so the fire inspections are only required for, you three or more units. That's a state that's a state law.
• These are the periodic inspections. Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when when a ADU when an ADU is constructed, right, there are inspections that are done as part of that. And, you know, Vinny could maybe detail it a little bit more. But, you know, one of the things they look for is to make sure that they have smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors and that sort of thing. But the state state law dictates who needs to be inspected on a regular basis. Okay. I see. Thank you. Do have anything you wanna that pretty well. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So but continuing on with the fire inspections, you know, last year, we had fees on the books for fire inspections for a a while, but Mhmm. For various reasons, they had not been instituted by the engineering department. So last year, when we hired our new fire inspector, we started that for the first time. And so, you know, now that we've had a a year of doing it, we're we're proposing that the fees be broken out a little bit more just based on the amount of time that the inspector has to spend at these different types of institutions.
you know, Jim Ferguson, our inspector, has also made himself available for businesses that need to be inspected outside normal business hours, right, which is very appreciative, you know, by the owners. And, you know, we appreciate his flexibility, but, you know, if if that's something that they require, then that should, you know, be an additional charge on them. Mhmm. So so we have that included here as well. Remind us the frequency
of the multifamily? How how often multifamily is five five and above or being being in So all multifamily,
any so anything that has three or more units is every 24 months. So when every every other year. Every other year. Yeah. So, you know, then the other the other ones like, the business and the offices, those are every three years. Schools are every year. Mhmm. Gas stations and auto repair, I believe, are every three years. Public assembly is every year. And then those the private club private club, supermarket, warehouse, those would be every three years. The nursing home is every year. So
• thank you. Yep. Okay.
On the on the next are are we done with this I think we're done with fire inspection. Yeah. On on this next page, just just a just a note for the future. Okay. Or maybe we can just deal with it now. But when when we take a look at language that may may no longer be relevant, I'd I'd recommend, unless I'm missing something, 862101 conducting an alternative activity at a sugar house. I didn't know what that was, but it's it's where you you you have the maple syrup
Resting so that the moisture can be taken out of it. So Oh. Yeah. I don't know. It it may it may be a quiet activity that we just that we just don't It's very interesting. So this those all those
operate those are called operating permits. Right? All of that language came directly from New York State. Yeah. Well, chapter 86 is building construction, and so the state, maybe at the end of 2024, I think it might have been they provided a new model ordinance that all communities basically had to adopt. So that's part And that's Okay. That's where that came from. Yep. Yeah.
So There is the Great Sugar House neighborhood Yeah. In Salt Lake City. Oh, is there really? Yeah. Now now I understand what Okay. What they were doing there. So so I used to ask my friends in Salt Lake,
where did this name come from? They just kinda shrugged their shoulders. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. The really, the only ones that we issue in terms of all these different operating permits are for tents. Mhmm. You know, most most of the other ones don't apply to us, but it was something that was that was required in that law.
• Alright. So the next one is, on page 10, plumbing inspections. Yeah. Can I just
right before there, you know, I think that we don't have to deal with it now, but, you know, I think we've we've promised ourselves that at some point, we would we would reconsider or at least think about the recreation fees for ADUs? You know, currently at 12,000, you know, causing great heartburn to the planning board. Mhmm. Mhmm. So, you know and I I think one one of the things we talked about is is just telling them that it's okay if they wanna wanna have a lower number, even a very low number as their as their base, you know, as their starting point, as opposed to having 12,000 in there for, you know, what amounts to, you know, this this small thing. I mean, could could we make the
pass suggestion since the building permits are 50% reduced, maybe we reduce this by 50% as well for ADUs? Well, I I think that that would be good and but but also
just spend a little time with our planning board colleagues just to let them know that that they have the flexibility,
you know, to go lower. They Well, that I mean, then you would need to rewrite the Yeah. Yeah. You'd have to rewrite the law. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I I think that
my my view right now is that, you know, just having observed all the applications before the planning war on an ADU is that the sick Six is a more reasonable number, but it's certain it it would probably cause the same level of stress, you know, both on the applicant and the
and and the and the planning board. Well, that was just my suggestion. I mean, you could if you wanted to change it to a flat number that was less than that, then you wouldn't have to amend the law. You can just pick a number. Yeah. So You know, you're I think you're talking, you know, in some cases about
either elderly occupants or single occupants. You know, I'd be I'd be very since they've gone to zero on a lot of the I'd I'd be very happy with twelve fifty, you know,
I mean or you could just make it $500, you know, in a lower fee. Well and and, you know But I mean, there are a lot of these coming on, and we certainly could use the funds for our parks. I I think I think that's a goodwill
we can $7.50. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Let's go with 7 That's a good number. Think Let's go with 750. 750? Yep.
I Even? I mean, you could I think that's fine if that's what you wanna do. It's just I I think a thousand might just flow better because I think you're think a thousand I I mean, this is I think a thousand dollars makes sense. Make it a nice round number. It's A thousand significantly
It's significantly below what the other one here are. And and it's not nothing. Right? Because I I think that there is a, you know, there is a need for Exactly. Yeah. It's not nothing, but it becomes one of those additional things that you see at closing or settlement or something like that as opposed to, you know, 12,000 on a dwelling. No.
Yeah. And I yeah. That's 1,000. Okay. Is that something that we wanna let the planning board weigh in? I know we're making the decision, but I mean, is it something that
Oh, they've they've been begging. They just want Yeah. Yeah. I'm not following it that part of what's going on with the planning board that closely. I just wanna make sure that we're not arbitrarily.
Think number. Okay. I think they'll be thrilled and delighted. Okay. Then that's fine. Agreed. Yep.
That's okay. Making a decision for them. You know? No. Thank you. It's a good point.
Onto the plumbing fees, those are going up by $25. Signed permit going up by $25.
Oh, may oh, manager, I'm sorry. Yeah. I I thought I thought you were gonna do you you did plumbing already. So I just wanted to just general question. Sounds like rental registry is up and running. Yes. And we're getting some we're getting responses. We are getting responses. Yep.
So people are coming in to register. Interesting. So that's good. They have another six weeks or so to to get it in without a without a penalty. Yep. Awesome. Okay. So this is this is just a change. I don't think it's a bad change for use of the village street or sidewalk. Right? You know, if you need a dumps if you need a dumpster it's primarily a dumpster. Right? Our practice has been that you can have it on the street for free for three days. Now there's still work that needs to go into issuing that permit and notifying the neighbors and notifying the police department and everybody. And so, you know, it's been recommended that this actually have a fee attached to it now of $50. So
Sure. People feel comfortable with that? Thoughts on the, daily fee after that?
I don't think there's a downside. If I mean, it might make people get it off the street quicker. Yeah. Yeah. So.
I don't think it's really gonna prevent any meaningful construction work, but it might motivate people to move a little faster. Yeah.
you know, we have few vacant properties that that's been implemented well. Yeah. There there's very I mean, there's very few of them. Right. First year the first year we did it, I think we had eight bills that we sent out. Mhmm. And then when we did the renewals of the the second set of bills this year, I think we were down to six. Good. So, you know, I don't I don't know if that was just, you know, if there was true causation there or if it just so happened that that's the way it worked out that, you know, hopefully, you know whatever whatever it was, the result was that we have less vacant vacancies now than we did a year ago. So yeah.
I have a question for Vinny about the tree preservation fund. So I've heard that that is somewhat difficult to calculate, using the system that we put into the law.
• Okay. Yep.
• It
• Okay.
So the law does provide multiple options. So if that does happen, we do have another I believe we have another calculator that's listed in there that we can use. Okay. And that's actually so both the assistant engineer and the assistant building inspector are going to a class at Cornell that in Westchester, Cornell, Westchester over the next two weeks to become master tree stewards. Oh. Yes. So I think that would probably be a very good question that they could bring up at that class. Yes.
Tell tell me more about being a master tree steward. Yeah. It's actually it's a it's a great program. Our Yeah. Pete Anficciatro was certified in that. And so, obviously, we lost that when he retired. And so we we had wanted to get we wanted to get people certified once again. So, you know, they go they go to this class. They just you know, basically, they learn how to, you know, identify trees, figure out if they're healthy or not, you know, that that sort of thing in in their inspection role. That's great. Cornell's a great place for that. Oh, Cornell's Yeah. Wonderful
So I know we've had I mean, with the tree law, had so many conversations about arborists. Yes. And so just to get that those skills is is fantastic. Yes. Absolutely. It's awesome.
• So then zoning board on page 12.
• So we're we we changed so previously, the applications were listed the fees were based on whether or not Seeker was required for the applications. And so after Vinnie and I, reviewed it, we decided to change it so that it would be if it was a one or two family residence, it would be the lower fee. And then if it was a multifamily or a nonresidential property, it would be the higher fee. Mhmm. So so that's the change there, and then the variances for sheds and fences are going up as well.
• Right. On page what is this? Page 13. The only change here is the deposit that's needed for, if somebody needs to use a fire hydrant for whatever reason. Yeah. That that's just based Frank has to increase that number based on what an actual what it cost is to actually replace a a fire hydrant now. So
On page 14, the cost of the storm water connection that's going up. And then, you'll see here in the description for the tax levy bills, you know, there's a for people that don't pay their water bills, their alarm permits, all there's all you'll you got a whole list of them at next week's meeting, right, all the different bills that actually get transferred to a person's property tax bill. There's a there's a transfer fee for, you know, not paying your bills. And so, you know, we've had a dilemma in the finance department, you know, about sometimes for whatever reason, somebody may owe, like, 10¢ on a water bill. Oh, okay. Right? And so it's like, we're gonna we're gonna transfer 10¢ onto their water bill and then hit them with a $50 fee. Right? And so we decided that we were gonna put a minute it has to be at least $10 owed before before we transferred it to the to the bill. So, you know, if if somebody owes less than that, obviously, they'll still get that on their next bill. Mhmm. Right? When they get their next water bill, it will say, you know, you have a delinquent balance of 10¢, but it it's just not just not worth it to to do that to the person to make them have to pay such a large fee for such a small amount owed. So That sounds fair. Yep.
• Page 15, fireworks permit. We haven't had one of these in a while, but, you know, just wanted to raise that fee to, you know, be a little more in line with what it would cost to do.
Yeah. It's just it's just reviews. Right? I mean, you know, there's and, you know, Paula, not that she probably wants to talk about this, but she could. What what's you know, there's very specialized insurance for fireworks and you have to have the fire department on standby, you know, that it obviously takes their time to do that and so it's just trying to compensate for that. Absolutely.
I just have a question for Mark on vending and parks. I'm trying to remember. I think a couple of years ago, we had a hard time getting food vendors for the Senasco movie nights. How is it going? I'm sorry. Concert nights. Yeah. Yeah. How is it going getting vendors?
Is it is it a challenge? Is it has has We don't do that naming the main office kinda Okay. A little bit. Far as I know, we always had vendors.
Can move on. Okay. Move on to rec. Okay. Yeah. You wanna open up that? Alright. So, Mark, do you have anything you wanna start off with?
• I mean, basically, it's you know,
• Yeah. You know, that that is a big sort of a.
• I think it's 7140.
And that is you so you guys are forecasting same number of, concerts as Yes. The past. Yeah. Yep. Seven. 716.
great. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I know they'll appreciate that. Yeah. Mark, I was $40,100. Mark, I just wanted to say that, you know, trustee Nach Taylor and and I are liaisons to the seniors. So, you know, whenever we can on, you know, most Fridays, we we we get there. And I'm personally just astounded by the range of activities that are ongoing from your department for the seniors, whether it's shopping trips, Korean barbecue, Broadway shows, museums. You know, by the time Joanna is finished just talking about the next two or three weeks, what's coming up, you'd have to you know, someone of any age will be out of breath just listening to that. So I really, I really take my hat off to you. Yes. And and, manager, we we had talked earlier in the year, late last year to the seniors about, senior leadership about upping the budget a little bit, and I think this budget reflects
that commitment that we Yeah. So the senior as as you can see, the senior budget did go up. If my math is correctly, it looks like it went up by more than 10%. Yep. So Mhmm. Yep. Yeah. So it's
a some some opportunity for growth and new activities. Yeah. So Yeah. And and I just like to add to
Yep. It's incredible. Yeah. And we've got some things when we when we get to the capital side of the budget that we think will help as well. Yes.
Like a new shuttle bus, which I know that's Yes. That that is looking good too. Bus has a lot of mileage.
So I would like to propose an increase, and this is kind of un un un unbudgeted at this point of kind of what the line item and where it will fall, but I'd like to see us, really with more focus on team programming and increasing team programming. So even, you know, I'm suggesting an addition of 5,000 kind of TBD into youth programming that we can think about, you know, we've Debbie Braddock is here who's the RAC chair. You know, we've had some early conversations with middle school principal and kind of understanding what what the kids may be after. And I think that, you know, $5,000 would at least allow us to run a trip, run a couple trips next year. It's not a lot of money, but at least it would give us a starting point. In the past, you know, as we as we know before COVID, you know, we did have a active teen programming happening where kids would kinda go on adventures using school transportation, and we know that the school is willing to provide the buses. We would just need to provide the funding. And with $5,000, we can provide funding for the buses, but we can also provide some part time support for your department, Mark, in in in just some additional hours just to sort of get something going. And I don't know what that something is right now, but and I really do would like to work with the schools and understand kind of what the kids' points of view are. I have a 13 year old at home, and I was sharing this information with her. And I'm like, wouldn't it be great if, you know, you there was a bus to Playland and there was a Playland trip, and she immediately said, no.
• So I will I will not pretend in any way that I know what a 13 year old person wants. Yes. Okay. Because I it's proven to me every day. But I know. I know. But I I do think that we just need to make this investment. And it's similar to what we did with the shuttle bus, you know, just trying to make make a small investment to see where we can build from. I I took a six year old to play land, and it was great, but I I won't predict beyond that age.
Yep. Dara, I mean, I I think it's a great idea, but I I'm strongly suggesting we need our help now.
• What we do now and how we do it Yep.
• Yeah. For something like that. It's not just something I don't think we can take on what we have.
I fully support, you know, adding additional hours into your office. I mean, I think that that is something that the board, you know, we've talked about, it hasn't happened. You know, Joanna's getting some additional hours in senior services this year, but it is, you know, in order to sort of get us to the next level from a programming perspective, I absolutely agree with you. Mhmm. We do we do need more hours in your office. You know, again, like if we have a little bit of money to, like, work with the school district, like, maybe it is just maybe it is just one or two programs. Like, maybe it is just, you know, a bus. You know, I like, the fifth graders are able to go to the Cortlandt Town teen center, right, in fifth grade. And some of the other local school districts have bus support where the the school districts are paying for the bus to run to the teen center so the kids can get exposure to the teen center, and then really take advantage of so all of the programming going on there. You know, if if we did even like a pilot where we supported a fifth grade night at the teen center, which, you know, that that would just allow some of our fifth graders to get some exposure at the teen center, and then maybe they'd enjoy it and be able to take advantage of that resource. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Just to let you know, we've tried that before in the past.
Did not work. Yeah. I'm not saying it wouldn't work this time, but it is something we have tried.
It didn't work because it the there was no attendance? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. The kids Yeah. I feel like this is a conversation we keep going back to about how wanting to expand the offerings to the youth and to the teens, but not being able to figure out what that you know, so I mean, I think I feel like that's a maybe a conversation to bring back to the I first of all, I support adding $5,000 to this if we if that seems like something that would move it forward. But I do think that in the past, we've had conversations about
• maybe having the recreation advisory committee do some outreach to find out Yeah. What that age group wants to do. When my kids were little, they did there were ice skating trips Yeah. I think. And those I mean, they weren't super well attended, but They were were some of of the best attended. They were? Yeah. Because so No. Sorry. No. Go ahead.
I mean, even yeah. And I I do think, like, trying to leverage the Cortlandt teen center and, you know, they've got a full staff there. Right? They've got a full staff. They're gonna do programming.
like, a bus driver dropping. Right. Right. Right. Then that would be right. That'd be like a supervisor. Right? To have someone that's, you know, that's there. Mhmm. Yeah.
Lindsay Lupicello, who is the program director in Cortlandt Mhmm. Does have a good relationship with the PBC principal, and they do marketing, and they do back to school, you know, school nights and whatever. It does come down to a lot of people say that it is transportation is the challenge. And then it is that sort of 13 year old resistance to all things of, you know, you need to get them in early so that they have some friends to know and then they wanna go and they see it's fun. But, you know, I think it is, you know, with this would be an an initiative to have some real conversations Yeah. With a middle school and Cortlandt Teen Center and
And I think there's at least one member of the recreation advisory committee who will have two middle schoolers next year. Right? I think Francis's kids are going to middle school, so she might be a great resource Mhmm. Figuring that out. Does the rec department still do that when you're I guess maybe when you're moving up from CET to PVC, there's some, like, an event? Because that was sort of the inter as I I mean, my kids are older now, but that was like the introduction to like what the teen program was. There was, like, a graduation party for the kids going from CET to PVC. And I like, a lot of most of the kids went to it, I think. Yeah. I mean, it's it's kinda it was well as things Right. You know, twenty five years ago.
Okay. Well, I mean, I would be in favor of saying, like, let's put $5,000 more into that and then, you know, pending some recommendations from recreation advisory.
Can can we straight in Debbie. Debbie. Debbie. Can we get a mic out to the the chair? Come on up to the table, Debbie.
fifth and sixth grade is a tough age because they're still not old enough to
• We were thinking more of the seventh going into seventh and going into to survey them the first week of school. Would you be interested? Just like you said, maybe one or two programs to start. Yeah. And, again, one of the vendors business willing to But it's it's the communication, you know, that would come through the school to the families.
• And to have it in the town of Portland, a lot of children play sports within. So it would be for both girls and boys, and they would do it in a buddy system. So they wouldn't be going into a room by themselves. It does take time. Fully committed to do whatever. It's something for young people outside. It could be within the recreation area or, like, with us supporting with the school. So if that's something you folks do, it would be very helpful. When they get to high school, they don't do. That's cool with the seventh and eighth graders who are now
• any scare for what truly Right. Yeah. A heart attack. Right. So,
I mean, I'll put that on for the recap discussion for you tonight. Do you a second on the 5,000 or just
Okay. Think I I I don't think we need to, like, vote on it. We'll just talk about it as part of the recap. Sure. Yeah. And make the changes then.
• Alright. So any other questions for for Mark in recreation?
Alright, Mark. You're free to go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We're look all looking forward to summer programming
more than you know. And speak weather. Speaking of trips, if there are any seniors that are listening that don't know yet, we are taking all of the seniors up to the FDR Presidential Museum And Library on September 10. So Yep. Excitement is building. Oh, that's exciting. With a special docent
wonder who that would be. I don't know. Okay. That's pretty special. Let's see how the how the bus ride goes.
• Village clerk DeSanto. Come on down.
this is the administration budget, which is basically everything pretty much everything that we haven't covered already. Mhmm. So, you know, there weren't really too many changes in the board of trustees account, a ten ten.
• For the justice court, a eleven ten, there were increases in the stenographer costs, compared to last year. I think that was pretty much the major change there.
• Because there have is there a desire by this board to have night court? You know, I mean, is is this the time to discuss it? I mean, my understanding is that,
• you know, if if it's to support vehicle traffic and criminal matters,
• I'm not sure I'm not sure it would be an advantage
I don't in having it. I I don't really think that that's something that's in your per I don't think you can force the judge to do that if he doesn't want to. So I don't really think you guys can decide that.
Not a not a not a Well, there might be a fiscal impact, but it would be first and for the the question would begin and almost end with the
judge justice. Yeah. So Okay. So for example, if the judge said that he wanted to do that Mhmm. He would have to then come to you and ask for for you to budget for it. Mhmm. Right? But you couldn't say, we budgeted for it, now you do it, to him. Oh, okay. Yeah. It has to be the other way around. Correct. Yes.
It I mean, it just it didn't it when I ran the numbers in my own head, it didn't seem to make that much sense because I think seems like what happens at night court is potentially you're negotiating and lowering, you know, a fine. And now if we're getting more people to come in and do that, at the end of the day, we'd be maybe generating less
revenue, but it costs This is money. All hypothetical, obviously. But I think what other places do when they have night or evening court, you know, sometimes they start at five or 06:00 at night. The court office would open later that day so that it would they would still be working a normal seven hour day, so it wouldn't be overtime. So, you know, like, for example, instead if it was court, it was at 5PM, for example, the office wouldn't open till 11AM so that they could be there, you know, for the for the court hours. Josh thing does that. Yeah. So but, again, it's all hypothetical because we're not really accountable. Okay. But Yeah. Thank you. Not our not our decision.
• Okay.
• Our next number, 1210, is the mayor's line. There's no changes there. 1230 is my line. We did have an increase in the funding for the grant assistance. That's where we pay Valerie out of for her grant writing
services. And, you know, I just point out that, like all good grant writers, she is a profit center, you know, for Yes. Definitely. Having made that amount back
Next one is auditor's line. Those are all contractual numbers that just, you know, basically go up a little bit every year.
• 1325 is the treasurer's line. So we had a we had an adjustment here this year where, we switched how the positions were budgeted. So the deputy treasurer who handles the water billing is now in the water fund, and the junior accounting position that was in the, water fund is now in the general fund budget. So then that's there were, you know, some changes related to that.
Sorry. Back to the auditor line. Yeah. Sure. It it like, it seemed like it decreased significantly, you know?
So I think if there were if the I I didn't have up last year's numbers, but we budgeted last year for the fixed assets. So, basically, every certain number of years Mhmm. We're supposed to have our, fixed assets auditor come on-site and catalog all of the all of our assets that are worth more than $2,500. And so because our former treasurer left last year, around this time Mhmm. We did not do that last year. So it was budgeted, but we didn't we didn't do it. So we saved that money to have it done this year, but we didn't have to budget for it in the upcoming year. Oh. Yeah. Oh, okay. So that that that would explain the the the decrease there.
Getting old, Ryan. Tell me about this. We're reading too much. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Oh,
okay. So so the original that was a little loud. Sorry. The original number is what is what I explained is because of the the increase for the fixed assets. The reason why the number went up, for the revised is because we had an additional bill from O'Connor Davies related to our fiscal year twenty five fiscal year twenty five audit. So there was additional services that they needed to provide that were above and beyond their normal scope of work. So that's why the that's why the, revised number is higher. Okay. So Thank you. Okay. Sorry. I'll let me just pull that up on my screen so we don't have that happen again.
• Our next number is tax advertising. This is just the annual, ad that we put in the paper when we're doing the tax lien sales.
• Village clerk, 1410.
• We have a new position budgeted here. Right? Deputy village clerk. Currently, I am the deputy village clerk in addition to manager, so we're splitting that up. We used to have a deputy village clerk, and then when that person left us in 2021 because of the pandemic and, you know, fiscal constraints, we did not fill that position. So we're now in a we're now in a spot where we can bring that position back.
• Because we have a deputy clerk, a separate deputy clerk, or we will be having a separate separate deputy clerk, the memberships and training line increased for for the two positions that will be there.
• I think that was Paul, you have anything else you wanna add to that? Okay.
Manager, I would just Yep. Just ask that the forthcoming redo of the website is within this budget.
No. That's actually in the publicity. Just on the Yes. That's in sixty four ten. All good? Okay. Yep.
• Okay. 1420 is law. This is where we pay the village attorney, our labor council, the village prosecutor comes out of this account.
• You know, those numbers are pretty pretty flat from from last year, I think.
• from the revised.
So so the yeah. So the revised, we we put money in to pay for the telecom special counsel. Okay. So we we use them for the telecom law that's still, you know, in progress. And then we also use them for the Verizon Fios negotiations. So that's why there was the the increase between the original and and the revised there.
And will we be getting well, we we will be getting out of the tax cert business eventually because we Well, we're we're out of it for new things. Right. So these are these are just the pending ones and and hopefully they're resolved fairly soon. Yeah. Unfortunately,
they don't they take a while. Right. Yeah. So, I mean, we're probably gonna have that for another couple of years, I would say. But, no, we're not getting any new ones. Yeah. So
I think if if we needed to increase the retainer fee to have possibly more legal services, you know, just maybe in the recap or a consideration, you know, as we look to juggle all these
demands and Yeah. I think anything like that should probably just go into, contingency.
• Alright. So next is village engineer fourteen forty. So we have let me pull up the and look at the same thing. You know, so there's a difference in the salaries, which are, you know, the standard increases. And then
• we also have why is that so much different?
• Oh, I see what okay. And then yeah. Because in the in in the 2026 budget, we had, the fire inspector as a part time position, and now it's a full time position. I was just trying to figure out why that those numbers were so different. Yeah.
• So that's the big that's the difference there in the personnel.
• You know, with the with some we have additional staff now. Right? So there were some increases in the trainings and this and the memberships that were needed in the, engineering department.
• Anything else you wanna add to that, Vinny? Yeah.
• Can you for our for our viewing public and and the board, can you define Nizbak?
fabulous. Yeah. It feels pretty good. And, Benny, while you're on the hot seat, I know this is your first budget with us. And just, you know, just wanna get your overall impressions of your role.
• Great. Thank you. Thank you. Yep. Thank
• Thank you. Yeah. And, I mean, I'll just I'll just add to that that, you know, we're seeing some really good progress with a lot of things in the engineering department. Mhmm. We've been able to implement a number of initiatives that the board had wanted to see. So, you know, we're we're making some good progress in there. It's great.
And we've also added on a lot of a lot of new responsibilities Yeah. For them in the last year. Appreciate your team.
So the next one is sixteen fifty, which is central communications. Yeah. There were there was a slight increase in the managed services. That's our IT, consultant.
• You'll see that the cost for Amazon Prime went away because Mhmm. Nikon actually worked out a deal where they were able to provide that for free to all municipalities. That was Wow. We thank Nikon for that. So
• our electricity costs went up pretty substantially. They went up $15,000 from last year to this year. Postage, anyone who's bought stamps recently knows that postage continues to go up. Right. And and is scheduled to do so again very soon. Yeah. So, I mean, we may you know, this is we don't really know how you know, what it's gonna end up being. So we're really trying to push people to sign up for the online bill billing Yeah. So that it's Mhmm. We don't have to mail out the I mean, we still the the large majority of water bills and tax bills are still mailed mailed out to people. So,
you know, we'd love to I I think your your goal is a good one and and, you know, we know you'll you'll be effective in implementing it. When you think about all the all the responsibilities of the village and you look at that number and knowing what a stamp cost Yeah. Know, it's it's not bad, you know. It's really is interesting.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you is know, the postage costs are spread out among the three budgets. So, you know, this is not the full number. But, yeah, it's in the grand scheme of things. It's not it's not a huge there. It's not a huge cost. Does the this would have been a question for Mark, I guess. But when recreation when you pay for something online with recreation You don't get a receipt in the mail. I don't get a receipt in the mail anymore? Okay. Just couldn't I I know in the You past used to. Okay. I just couldn't remember if I I couldn't remember if I did. No, you Or did. If you if anyone does, let me know. But no, you Yes. Should We we all that's transmitted by email now.
• Okay.
sheet. I think is that a title? Maybe that I think that should have been nineteen nineteen ten. I'm sorry. Thanks. No problem. I think that actually should be, yeah, 1910 through 1990. Yeah.
• Because there's multiple there's multiple ones in the nineteens. Insurance. Yeah. So 1910 is insurances. This this is the property insurance for the village, the flood insurance, and the employee bonding levels for those that handle money. So
• and also the health care consulting is just our annual compliance with, the Affordable Care Act. Mhmm. So, we did get an increase in the insurance rates this year.
• Yeah. It's kind of unavoidable, I think, in this in this day. Upheaval. Yeah. So we'll just Paula will be putting together the insurance application. This this the insurance number is only an estimate. You know, they basically they basically give us we estimate that the rate's gonna increase by 5%, whatever it might be. And then we have to put together the renewal application that goes into detail, all the different things that we have and what we don't have, and then they formally provide us with what the quote will be. So we don't usually get that till the budget's already started. But Yeah. It just
Should we be successful in removing the salt shed out of the floodplain. We would not have to pay that number. Yes. We would Another save
Very good. Okay. The next one is $19.20. These are our municipal dues. So these are just the organization that the village itself is a member of. So I think tomorrow night will also be as a potential recap item talking about the we got received a request from the association of businesses in Croton to become a dues paying member. So discuss that tomorrow, guess. I'll look forward to discussing it.
• Nineteen thirty, judgments and claims, we don't budget for that anymore. We we'll just pay that out of contingency if it's needed. Same thing with, surveying of land. 1950, our taxes and assessments. This is, the property taxes on the garage, the sewer taxes for all the different village properties, and then the ETPA payment is a is a pass through Mhmm. That's assessed on the village, and then the village assesses it on the property owners. So that is just a pass through number.
• Maple Commons 1955 is the pilot. You know, again, this is the money we collect the full pilot amount, and then it's our responsibility to provide it to the school dis the the portions to the school district, the library, the county, the town, and then we keep we keep our portion.
Correct. That's how much we have to pay out. Okay. Right? So we bud so we budget for the revenue. Yes. And then we we budget what we have to pay out. Okay. Yeah.
• $19.60, the certiorari refunds, that's in a separate fund balance now. And then we no longer have to pay the MTA payroll tax, thanks to the new law last year, so that's zero. Mhmm. And then 1990 is our contingency account, so which this is significantly increased from last year just in recognition of the increased unknowns in the world. Mhmm. Right? So and and just the general practice, at least what I've been able to find, right, is that your contingency account should be about 1% of your total budget. So, you know, ours is ours is a little bit more than 24,000,000, but, you know, 240,000 was where we where we settled.
I could do this Yeah. Really No, it is. We were we were significantly below Oh, okay. Where we should have been. Okay. Right? Because we were last year, were at a 160
Yeah. I know. So, you know, but I mean, what's what's very good about contingency, right, there's a couple of good things about contingency is that the contingency money can't be spent without board approval. Mhmm. Right? Because you have to approve trans the you people cannot charge I can't have the treasurer put a purchase order towards contingency. Mhmm. It has to be transferred from this account to whatever account it's actually supposed to go into. So so you guys have full control over the money that's in contingency. Mhmm. And then whatever money isn't spent, right, it just adds to the hopefully, it will add to the fund balance that's left at the end of the end of the year. Yeah.
So So, I mean, it's a $77,000 increase or a 47% increase, which is That's yeah. Significant.
Yes. Correct. You could but like I said, the 240,000 is the ideal level. Yep. You know, if you decided that you wanted to reduce that number some, you know Mhmm. By 25,000, I'll just throw that out there. Right? I mean, that would still put us at we'd still be in a much better spot than we were this year. Yeah. You know? So, yes, you could you could reduce that if you wanted to. Okay. Right.
• Alright. The next one is 4020, which is the registrar. This is a pass through account. You know, the New York state allows the registrars to keep the, money that people pay for the birth and death certificates. So the money people pay to the village, and then the village pays it to the registrar.
• Next is parking, $56.50.
• Okay. Our our longtime head PEO at the train station, Andy Andy Myers, retired. I shouldn't say he he didn't really retire. He he was retired for, like, all of two weeks, but he stepped down from his Monday through Friday role, and now he only works one day a week for us. But as a result, you know, we've been able to see a slight savings in the in the part time personnel line in the at the train station.
• And then next is publicity, sixty four ten. So, you'll see here there was a significant increase between the original and the revised budget that had to do with the website, that had to do with the communications Mhmm. Firm that the board hired. Mhmm.
• Yeah. There were there were a couple of couple of changes mid year that that went into this line. Mhmm. And then, you'll see that, unfortunately, with technology products, right, they just go up, you know, and and the percentage increases can be fairly significant from year to year. So And the forced upgrades. And the forced upgrades, right? Mean, that's the thing, right? I mean, they can just tell you, oh, we're not we're we're not doing this product anymore and you're you have to move on. Mhmm. So,
• okay. And then next is $75.10, which is the historian. So the historian has requested, you know, significant more money this year than what he normally does. But I think, obviously, it's you know, for the value that we get from Mark, it's well worth it. Totally. You know, he's he needs a new computer. He's asked to have money put in for reenactors for Summerfest Mhmm. For the revolution. And then they've asked for some metal file cabinets to store their large maps Mhmm. Down in the Yeah. And I was gonna, you know, save this for
trustee reports next week, but just as long as we're talking about the budget, the historian's presentation at the Yacht Club this past Friday night on the destruction of Riverside Mhmm. Was not only fantastic, but probably the best attended of those types of things. I think there was well over a 100 people Oh, wow. There that came out to do And my only regret is that it's not we didn't video it, but, you know, maybe, you know, I'm sure he'll You can give an encore. He'll be we we can talk him into doing it again. But the the drawings and the old maps, you know Yeah. We found going all the way back to the seventeen hundreds was really remarkable Wow. Just to see the progression and evolution of Riverside. So it was it's everything we spend here, I think, is really appreciated Mhmm. By the public. Great.
Okay. Next is 8010, which is the zoning board. No real changes here. We just slightly decreased the contractual expenses.
• 8020 is the planning board. The increase here, right, is that, some of Valerie now that Valerie is also serving as our planning consultant, we've put money in the budget here to, pay for some of her expenses. A lot a lot of her time that she's if she's coming to meetings or if she's working on applications, that's gonna be billed back to the applicant. Yes, bro. But there's other things like, for example, the sign law, right, that she works on that that we have to to pay for. So Okay.
Well, again, if you add if add her two roles together, she's still a prophecy. Yes. Correct.
• That's the e $7.60 is well, that's emergency disaster. There's no money there. Okay. $87.90, natural resources. This is the the WAC and the water control commission. We just shifted the money around here a little bit. No changes.
• Alright. And then the 9 thousands are, all the different
• benefits, insurances. Right? So these are it's just going in order. We have our contribution for the employees retirement system, our contribution to the police retirement system,
• our Social Security, Medicare, workers' comp, life insurance, unemployment. Right? And then we have health insurance, eye insurance, dental. The Medicare part b for the retirees were required to reimburse, and then physicals for new employees that if somebody, you know, gets hired mainly for DPW or the police. And the employee assistance program is a new somewhat new at this point, program that we offer for employees who may be in need of some assistance.
So it the insurances are relatively flat, which is kind of interesting. And then our it's in the various $9.10 in that line $9.10 to $9.50. But then the other insurances are tremendous. Right? Like, that's the biggest increase in the budget. Right? Yeah.
But last year, we had an over projection in the budget. Last year, two years ago, where a number from New York State came in lower than expected. New York State, for the first time ever
I think this was two years ago. Right, Paula? For the first time ever, they actually reduced the premiums mid year. Okay. So for, like, six months, we were paying less than what we had budgeted. So we we had a nice little It was a good savings. Yeah. We had a good savings there, but the good times were over. Yeah.
• They yeah. They went they went right back up. So,
• you know, I mean, what's what's very good, the dental insurance has largely been very stable. The life insurance, we actually got a significant reduction last year from what we had been paying. So that was good.
• You know, the pension contributions, we we are keep we keep awaiting the the long promised stability that, you know, we've been told is coming. And, you know, just with how things are going, I don't know if we're gonna get there this year either.
• But, you know, everything else is is kind of based off of income. Right? The Social Security and the Medicare is based off of what we pay people. So Mhmm. Those are all just, percentage calculations.
okay. So if there's no other but I'll just go the last page of the is the debt transfers. Mhmm. Right? The bonds and the and the bands.
• So
And the reason why we're spending more to transfer to the debt service is because we wanna pay that down more?
No. That's that's just based off of our bond repayment schedule. Schedule. Okay. So, right, every year we get the schedule from our financial advisor, and we just have to budget for those for those amounts. So
okay. So that's that's it for the admin. If we don't have any other questions, we can let Paul and Vinny go home. Thank you both. Thank you both very much. Appreciate Thank you. Good night. Good night. Alright. So we have our our committee budgets. We don't I mean, except for our RAC chair who's doesn't have a budget. I hope we don't have any other committees here. Is that why you're here, Debbie?
• Supporting the other team. Very nice. Thank you.
So we'll just you wanna pull that pull that please? I wanted to point out these I think all these budget amounts are really good, but some people might be worried. Well, where's the sustainability committee? And it actually shows up in the recycling portion of the DPW budget That's where the assistance to the food scrap to the food scrap program is coming from through the sustainability.
No. They don't have so they don't have any staff I mean, this they have they don't have a secretary that takes their minutes, so we don't have any we don't have to pay a staff member for that.
No. I mean, they they just they review applications. Right? So they don't they don't, like, run they don't have programs that they that they run.
• Alright. We're talking about the visual environment. We are. Yeah. Okay. So
I I think, you know, I guess it's just a question whether they would like the opportunity to be proactive and make a recommendation, like, you know Yeah. They can they can do that. Not much money at all, but just to help enhance, you know,
beautify an area that might look a little bit Yeah. But that would be I mean, that would be outside their their role. I mean, they can make recommendations. That's totally within their role, but they wouldn't be spending the money to implement them. Right? I mean, they've they are an advisory board. They would make recommendations to you guys. And, you know, if you want I I don't know if you wanna pick an I I don't know what it would be. We want we would like to see more Streetscapes. Yeah. Yeah. We'd like to see more benches. That's our favorite topic. We'd to see more benches on the on the streets. Right? And so, you know, you guys would say, okay, well, can put $2,000 towards buying benches. Mhmm. But DPW would actually Okay. Buy the benches. Right? It wouldn't be the VEB. Right. Yeah. Or if it's plantings that Yeah. Something like that. But they can they can absolutely make recommendations on their own initiative. They they that it says that in the code that they're allowed to do that. Yeah. Great. Yeah. Thank you. Yep.
• Okay. So just, you know, the we have the different lines here. So the police advisory committee is in the Can you tell me where you were? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This is 3189. 3189. Yeah.
So there's 4,000 for the police advisory committee, is a increase from last year. Thank you.
Okay. So, I do just want to say that the police advisory committee is doing a lot more programming than they had. Am looking at the right?
• So I there there was some space between what was requested. I don't know why I can't find this. What was requested and what was what we gave them. Correct. Correct? Yeah. So could we just talk a little bit about that? Sure. I just need to pull it up here. Give one moment. I just know I think Carolyn might be watch I I know that she's not in town right now, but I think she may be watching. So I just wanna make sure we address to the chair if she's watching.
• And gratitude. I mean, it's a really it's a pretty incredible committee to spend time with. The amount that they accomplish is Yeah. Impressive.
So I believe if if I'm looking at the the most up to date version that she submitted, it was for $5,455.65. So and so we went so the and their budget last year was 2,500. Right. And so we it's base I basically kind of went Doubled there. Well, I went to the middle, right? I went I increased it by 1,500 and went to 4,000. Mhmm. So but it I mean, let me just if I can maybe just jog my memory here for a second.
• Oh, yeah. I mean, one of the you know, a thousand dollars of this request, right, had to do with the soccer game that has been talked about. And,
• you know, I've kind of said that I don't think that that's something that they should continue to pursue. Mhmm. So
Yeah. I mean, I looked I looked you know, she gave me a very detailed budget, which I very much appreciate. And so just based off of, you know, some of the things that were outlined here, I, you know, modified it accordingly.
Okay. So we're giving the pack. How much? I'm sorry. 4,000 total. 4,000 total. Yep.
When they they asked for 5,400, I believe. Right? Correct. Yes. But it's an increase from the 2,500
• Okay. And then the next one is in thirty three ten. That is the bike ped committee. They they just asked to maintain their funding of $1,500. So that's what they had last year that or that's what they had this year. That's what they're they asked for next year.
A big chunk of that will go towards the continuation of slow down Croton, but but with potentially
• possibly some other media that they would look at Okay. In addition to the the lawn signs. Great. Yep.
• And so, their funding increased by about,
• what is that, $3,500. They went from 7,500 to 11,085. So, the arts and humanities committee had asked for
on the light fixtures or the Yes. Banners. Yep. Some of the banners. Yep. And
also, like, all all the programming or a significant amount of the programming that occurs throughout the year. Maria, can you talk to us about the programming,
that they're planning? So are they still planning on doing the jazz concerts? Are they looking to increase their programming?
I think they are. The plan for this year is to be doing some more classes is probably the wrong word, and when Valerie watches this and sees that I call Arts workshops. Yes, workshops. Oh. Thank you. Nice. And we've actually been able to finally coordinate with Maple Commons for use of the common room there. So there's gonna be, you know, there's there's always discussion of lack of space for running programming and there's a brand new space the community room at Maple Commons. There's ample parking and so there are gonna be a wide variety of classes, some sketching, some poetry writing, some, you know,
they mean Foot club is the wrong it this is Valerie have Yeah. Have I have it. I have the list here. Alright. So it's how to photograph reflective objects, color theory, drawing class, open still life, sing song book, art for all, tips for portrait photography, and artist talk series.
Wow. So the thought is there's a huge wealth of artistic talent in the village. Yeah. And this would be a great way for the Arts and Humanities Committee to tap into the resources we have and make it available to residents. In a space that's not we don't have to they don't have to fight for that space with other people at the moment. Yeah. So I'm excited that that's gonna be able to get off the ground. And there's not a lot of fee, associated with that. A lot of those programs where there, you know, people would pay a fee, you know Materials. For the materials. Mhmm. But, you know, the programming itself does cost money. Most of the most of the artists will be donating their time. Mhmm. But, you know, there are some costs associated with running any types of programs. Sure. And the jazz the jazz concert is series is just phenomenal. I mean Yep. You know, there's real they're really that committee is an incredible cross section of the artists in Croton. Mhmm.
So so they had asked for 19,000 excuse me, $19,460 in their budget request. Basically, the a large the large portion that I didn't include in my budget had to do with, they were proposing a a large, public art project at Duck Pond. And I'm not saying that that's necessarily a bad thing, but I just think they have a lot of great things planned. And so, you know, if they can do all of these things that they have planned and they still want to do that, I think you can obviously consider that from contingency if that's what you wanted to do. But I just think they have a very ambitious schedule, and so I don't I don't necessarily see if they would actually be able to
to get to that this year. Agreed. And I think that this is an increase over what this not I think. This is an increase over what Yeah. Was budgeted last year. Yeah. There's, you know, another whole section of the artists' banners Yep. Scheduled to be
Yeah. There's there's more banners. They have line dancing. They have the art art workshop series. They have six concerts. They have, murals, and they also have something to do preserving the Quaker Bridge. So a lot going on A lot of room. Yeah.
Not related to budget, but I didn't realize Maple Commons had a common room. Is that something that you pay a fee to use, or is it free? The the the the management's
always, been very generous about, knowing that we can use it, you know, enough notice in advance.
Any fee involved? There's not any fee involved. It it took a lot of, coordinating to try to I don't know what other what other work has been done, but for the arts and humanities team that's really is looking for other spaces to run programming, It was a challenge to the the person who manages that space is not there every day. Yep. And so and now there and there was a transition in that role. And so over the winter, the arts and humanities committee hit we actually held one of our meetings in the space so everybody could become comfortable with it, and we could envision some things that might be able to go on there. And then there was a transition in the person that was in that role. And we've just this week reconnected with the person who is in charge of it. And Valerie and another committee member are gonna go meet with them. When we met with them in the winter, the manager said, there's some type of you know, when you're running programming somewhere else, there's some type of insurance something that would So need to the village, although there's not a fee for this committee to use it, the village is gonna coordinate whatever the insurance will look like for the use of the space. But I do think that there is opportunity for other the the room is not very it's not utilized frequently at all right now, so I think that there is a great opportunity for other committees to be using it. So I'm happy to share It's the like I'm just making this up, but if Mines Club needed a place to be Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's similar to the space somewhat that is at Symphony Knoll that's used for meetings sometimes. My understanding is there some some meetings are from other locations are being pushed to Symphony Knoll
• currently, and the vision is that this space could be utilized potentially in the same way.
Yeah. I guess maybe that's something we could now that this is kinda moved moving forward Mhmm. After a couple hiccups, we could, you know, maybe let the other committees or somehow let them know. I'm happy to give you the name of the new person, all that contact info so that we could let the other committees know
It's an option. Mhmm. That it's an option. Yeah. It would be nice to have a picture of it, how many people could it see, you know, just Yeah. I don't know that off the top of my head. No. Good. No. It's it's probably about three quarters the size of our community room downstairs. Okay.
And and the the ownership of Maple Commons is very supportive. Not only, you know, using it in general, but I was in a conversation with them on something else, and they were just actually they they knew all about the the art stuff. Right. And they thought it was terrific. Yeah. Guess the Reagan's are very are big supporters of the arts. So this specifically was you they were they were pleased to Okay.
But I do think there's there are other things that could happen there. Thank you.
• So, the funding for IDEA and Lorraine Hansberry, those are the amounts that were requested by those committees,
• which are increased, I think, from last year.
• Sorry. Hold on.
• So idea committee had 3,000 last year and they've asked for 6,000 this year. And Lorraine Hansberry had 7,000 last year and they're down to 4,000 this year. They had that big event that was part of the county that they got the funding for the county for last year. Yep.
So And the idea committee, I mean, they kind of ran out of funds pretty early on this year, I think in January. So, you know, we kind of missed the opportunity to have some cultural events. We wanted to do a cultural event around Black History Month. We wanted to do one around Chinese New Year. We wanted to do one around We They, sorry. The idea committee wanted to do one around Women's History Month, so that sort of just allows them to have kind of a full fuller year of programming. Okay.
Which is great. And then the heart committee, I left the funding, flat at 3,000, which is what they had last year.
• And
• What was asked for in this year's but or what was asked for in the budget request was $39.45.
• So
Well, I really appreciate this process manager. It really is from the committees, they gave, you know, really good feedback that they kind of were able to ask and then kind of find out. You know, last year, we really got granular, so this is this is fantastic.
Yes. Yeah. I I I, you know, I've reached out to each one individually to let them know what had been decided so that they were aware of it. And then, you know, I reached out to them again to let them know that this meeting was taking place.
• You know, I'm hoping that the fact that people aren't here means that they either are happy with what they were given or at least understand why they were given what they were what they were given. So The bike committee will be here tomorrow night, actually around the corner. We'll we'll have our second session, so Well, and I can only speak to the committees that I'm the liaison with, but, you know, my I've encouraged them to,
you know, ask for everything you want. You're probably not gonna get everything fully funded. Yep. It's good for the man it's good for you to know, you know, if if every committee could have everything they wanted, what would it look like? And it's not, you know, wasn't necessary I don't at least my committees, I don't think were disappointed. They understood. But everybody did get a little bit more, and I think that the the bill as a community, we appreciate the programming and the and the effort that all these committees are doing. So the least we can do is try to find some of the Yeah. Fun Some some middle ground that makes people happy. Oh.