Work Session & Regular Meeting
Alright. Welcome to our August 19 combination work session and regular meeting. We'll do the pledge at the start of the regular meeting, which is estimated to be at around 7PM, and we'll start with our work session items. So the first is an update, from the chair of our sustainability committee, Audin, on battery energy storage systems and our RFI process with them.
Update that, Frank, please. Sorry, Lindsay. One minute.
Okay, Lindsay. You should be able to do it now. Okay. Let's see what happens here. Alright. One moment.
we are. Okay. You should be seeing my title slide. Yes. Good. Okay. Alright. Here we go. Thank you very much for the opportunity to present to Croton's Village Board of Trustees on the results of, the August request for information to developers of battery energy storage systems here in Africa known as BESS for short. Okay. In July, we assembled a list of BESS developers and compiled that from a variety of sources, including a list from NYSERDA, the New York State Energy Office that, listed the approved energy storage contractors. We also went to, the Professional Association of the of battery companies called BEST, Battery Energy Storage Technology Consortium. And, also, I have my own professional contacts in the energy industry, many, many, many others. We found a total of 50 different firms, identified them, and then initial contacts were made to verify their statuses. And in so doing, we had to eliminate 21 of them for various reasons. In some cases, they had been merged with or acquired other best firms, or they were simply no longer in business, or they weren't doing business in The United States, or they just were failed to respond to multiple efforts to communicate, telephone, email, LinkedIn, blah blah, which generally indicated that that they probably weren't really in business anyway.
Now the draft RFI was assembled and approved by the village manager. This was in, July. It was distributed to the remaining 29 vendors out of the 50 on August 3 with responses due August 17, which was last Monday. Of that group, six vendors provided full responses by the deadline. Three others bounced back as undeliverable, so we as far as we're concerned, they're not in business. And the other twenties didn't respond at all and did not bounce back. I expect most of that is due to the fact that, they are firms that primarily do larger projects than what we're interested in. We had asked them if they would do, projects between, two and five megawatts. Most of the companies in this business are doing work at the utility scale level, which is five to 10 times larger. So I think they probably looked at us as small potato and didn't bother. Based on experience, we had expected about four or five responses. So getting six was a, success. Any questions before I go on?
Okay. So let's look at the six responders. In alphabetical order, they are luminase, microgrid networks, Newly Elected Energy, Nine Dot Energy, Aurinta Power, and RIC Energy. And I'm sure you've never heard of any of them. Suffice to say that all are well known in the industry. You know, it's not the biggest industry in the world. And, they are actively developing projects in our region and or in New York City. One of them presently has three five megawatt battery energy storage systems operating in Westchester County. Let's see. Hawthorne, Yorktown, and Ossining. Others have other things being developed in other areas, primarily in the City Of New York. So we have our six responders. They are backed up by a variety of different, financial firms. Primarily, they're all, you know, either start ups or companies that are still in the private capital, region. So they have support from organizations like Blackstone, Brookfield, and others that you probably heard, you know, do private equity for a variety of other smaller companies. So the next steps, now that we've got six people interested, next thing I gotta do is, summarize the responses to the RFIs in Word and Excel, and that'll be compiled by Labor Day. And I'll have that, then ready for review by the village manager. Then because now we have six interested, I'm gonna draft a request for proposals, RFP. Assemble that and try to get that out by middle of September with responses by mid October. If we hadn't gotten any responses to the RFI, I wouldn't have bothered to do the RFP. So I thought I'd wait till the RFI was done instead of wasting my time on something that wouldn't go anywhere. If any of the best projects, are proposed as a result of the RFP in middle of October,
the sites and proposals that they're discussing will be reviewed by village officials and checked for their feasibility. If any are acceptable, public discussion and, will then be initiated as desired. If they wanna have, the public meetings or, you know, a training session, whatever you wanna do, we'll have at least something there to bite on and have people discuss. That's basically the story. Thank you for your time and attention. I'm open for any questions, comments, or whatever.
Thank you, Lindsay. Thank you, Lindsay. Great. Great great presentation, Lindsay. Real quick question. Once we get to the RFP process, and I thought the the RFI was superbly prepared, so thanks thanks for that as well. But once once we get to the RFP process, will will the RFP that goes to them include, a a listing of eligible, public, parcels?
After, Bryan Healy and I go through and whittle down the list, it's like he gave me a list of, like, 70 some odd properties. I know a bunch of them aren't gonna make it right away. We have to look at which ones are zoned properly and all the rest of that. That's the chunk of work between now and middle of September. I figured there's gonna be probably somewhere between five and ten that might make it the rest are either too close to homes or whatever. And, yes, there'll be a list of the properties and also the, whatever that tax number is that you need to look it up on, the site at the county to see exactly what the boundaries are and all that stuff. They'll be sent that list that's been approved, and then they will look at them and they'll either come up with proposals or they'll say they're all too small or they're all too wet or whatever and come back to us. And
just a quick follow-up and that that sounds like a good approach on the parcel side. In the RFP, will you or should we include a ballpark figure for what we're looking for in terms of annual rental fees?
I don't think that's wise. We already have a pretty good idea, based on, preliminaries, and I can give you that number where it ought to come out. Right now in Westchester County, the going rate is approximately $30,000 a year per megawatt. So if you had a five megawatt installation, you should expecting that they'll offer you at least a $150 per year if not they're screwing around with us.
So, that's a ballpark. Yep. And I'm hoping it'll be a lot more. Right. And so we we would expect them to to at least understand what the ballpark is these days and, maybe maybe try to wow us, but maybe at least, come in at the ballpark level.
If they don't, you know, we're not required to do anything. Can drop this thing, come back later. It's just that this way we find out if there's anything worth fighting over.
I I wanna ask if, it's possible for the board of trustees to see the RFP before it goes out.
Sure. I have to send it to Bryan Healy, and he's got a bless it seven different ways to Sunday anyway. So I'm sure it'd be fine for you to see that too.
I mean, I don't have any issue with sharing it, but generally speaking, the you know, if the board has agreed to move forward with it, it's an administrative task in actually writing the the document and and publishing it. So, I mean, we can have the conversation either now or later as to whether or not you want to I would like to see the parcel list. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, we talked about that at one point prior. I think it's going to be I I have to talk to Lindsay about it and see because there's a lot of parcels where it simply wouldn't be possible. Right? For example, we can't install it on Parkland because it's not Right. It's not allowed by New York State law. So all of those parcels come out. You know, we can't install it at the fire houses because those buildings are pretty much those parcels are pretty much taken up by the buildings themselves. So we have to go through the list, which we haven't done yet, and narrow it down. So I can report back as to what the what the potential parcels are.
I think that would be really helpful Sure. Because and thank you for doing all that legwork because I know it's a lot of work to go through if you're starting with 70 and you're ending up potentially with 10, however the number is. Yeah. But my question is what if there are a couple of parcels that meet the criteria, you could connect it to the utility line, etcetera, but the board may not feel comfortable with the location. You know, I'm making this up. But maybe it's in a bit of a dense location and it's it's not a location that we wanna entertain. Are we better off crossing it off the list before it goes to an RFP and a vendor spends time on it? Or, you know, I don't know.
I mean, that's really that's really a policy decision for for you all to make. You know, an RFP is is just that it's a request. It's not there's nothing binding about an RFP. It's not a it's not a bid. Right? When you do a bid, you generally have to accept the results of the bid as long as it's a responsible bidder. Right? That's not the same with an RFP. You have full control over it. You could just say, you know what? We've changed our mind. We don't really wanna do a best at this time, and you don't have to move forward with any of them. I mean, I get the point about not wanting somebody to do all the work if it's something you're not interested in anyway. Mhmm. So, you know, that's something that you could think about. But, you know, I think it let I think what's a good thing is to have me and Lindsay go through the list and narrow it down because there there could not there could very well be not be that many parcels that
There it it may not be a high number at all. Yeah. But I would say also looking at the train station solar array as a as a as a comparable example, that came to the board in various permutations a number of times. And so the expectation is that at key at key moments, whether it's approving, you know, the RFP or different or or not not the RFP, approving the the the selected
bidder or other aspects of it, it'll it'll come to the board. Yeah. You would and just to move it hypothetically through the process. Right? You would have to vote to award the the RFP. Right? So you'd have to select a a vendor, and then we would have to write out a lease agreement, which you would then have to approve as well. Right? So there's, you know, would be multiple times as Trustee Simon was saying that it would come before the board. Yeah.
It's RA 40 Mhmm. RA 60, light industrial, and central commercial. So central commercial is c two.
No. Just, thanks. Thanks so much. It was very, very enlightening and and and promising as well.
We'll see. The last time we did this for the train station, it took almost a year to get anything close to a contract. Contract. So, you know, this may be a while before we talk again.
I But that anyway I think it would be helpful to have, a site visit for the board of trustees to go and visit some of the bestes that are out there, Lindsay, that you had shared whether whether in in Ossining Ossining or, you know, just to look at them and I know one is in a in a church. I don't know what
It's behind the church. Yeah. Behind Saint yeah. Saint Augustine's Church in Ossining, just over the border from Croton. It's, like, five minutes from here.
Or, Lindsay, would our own be be comparable of in terms of just take taking a look at it at the train station? Yeah. It should be. I've got aerial views of all the others that are existing, and, they all look pretty much the same. Though, the other ones that one that I mentioned are, pretty much surrounded by, like, open space. One is near the river. You know, they're they're not nearly as urbanized, if you will, as, the one at the train station. Yeah. That and I guess looking at your maps again would be helpful just revisiting that, looking at what is out there and how much space is typically around these areas, you know, because we are getting a bit more dense in the light industrial and the C2 areas here in Croton. So, you know, I don't know. But I'll do that. I'll go back and and just kinda look at the aerial shots of the examples you shared just to see how much surrounding space is open kind of open space around these. So
The one behind the church was gonna be a soccer field, and then for whatever reason, they decided not to do the soccer field. So they just plopped it right in the middle, and there's still a lot of space. Yeah. I know the guy down at the at Saint Augustine, so that's the easiest one to get to. So if you ever wanna set something up, you know, pick a time, like, a month in advance or something, and I'm sure we can work it out. Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We'll care, Lindsay. Okay. Bye bye now. Alright. And next a presentation on the use of, principally license plate reading cameras by the Croton on Hudson Police Department. Alright. Hello, everyone. Hi. Nice to see you all. Chief and detective, would you mind introducing yourselves for the focus spot for how long?
I'm John Nikitopoulos, Croton Point Hudson police chief. Along with me is detective Mark Fielding of this department. We're gonna give you a little presentation on the license plates readers that we currently have, and maybe future sites if you're interested. But the main thing is to talk about the license plate readers that are currently up. I brought detective Fielding with me because he is part of the RTC, which we have been part of for real time. For the last eight or ten years, which Real time crime center. Excuse yes. Yeah. Okay. Which is run by the county. Mark goes down there once a week, generally on Monday, and he puts in time and assist down there. He has access to the cameras down there because he's part of the RTC. The cameras we currently have are stationed at Croton Point Avenue and Riverside Avenue and Municipal And Riverside Avenue. They're the two sites that are currently up. These cameras are used strictly for crime analysis and solving crimes. LPR license plate reader is basically fixed to take a picture of the license plate. We really can't see who's operating the car. The cameras are set up to take pictures of the license plates which helps us with investigation.
So we did send you a study or something that Mark put together which you have on the screen And this has assisted us in numerous cases and some serious ones throughout the crime and and some even some little ones that turned into bigger crimes, really. Yeah. So I will let Mark go through the study with you and explain to it, and then we have a couple of little comments that we put together after the fact. Okay? Thank you. Alright. Thank you. Good evening.
I understand there's obviously some growing concerns about privacy and data retention and things of that nature. So I just wanna clarify that the cameras that we use are not flock cameras. Okay? It's not a a private company that manages data of where people are driving. This is all managed by the Westchester County Police, and it's in the hands of law enforcement. It's the data is also stored there. So it's not like some cloud. This is this is all stored there. No third party has access to it, and only local police officers can access it. Only local local law enforcement. And like the chief said, it the cameras take pictures of license plates and vehicles. They're not taking pictures of your face as you're driving. It's just it's it's for vehicles. Not even every Croton officer accesses the system. It's just, you know, investigative purposes only. These we've been using these cameras since before Croton even had them installed in Croton. We've been using the county wide system. They've helped us solve crimes. It's it's it's countless. I I I will say that every investigation I conduct in some way, shape, or form, we're at least checking LPRs, whether they're in Croton or on the way south to New York City, they're they're always looked at. They've helped us solve larcenies, burglaries, hit and runs, sexual assaults, organized retail theft, scams, fraud, stolen vehicles, narcotics, missing persons. We've had missing person cases where the they're not missing from Croton, they're missing from elsewhere, and they're detected in Croton. So just to give you an idea of like the network and and how it works. There's been times where suspect vehicles from other agencies are detected in Croton. Croton has assisted and our officers have stopped the vehicle. And whether it be identifying occupants or it's a stolen car, it gets impounded, there's there's there's so many things. Obviously, have sent a list of some case studies which we could talk about momentarily. I also wanna clarify that license plate readers are not automatic probable cause for an arrest. I've seen cases where there's reports. Again, I'm not there. I don't know what what's happening,
where somebody was wrongfully accused based on a license plate reader detection from flock camera. I don't know if I necessarily think that is accurate. I mean, who knows what we're being told because we're not there. But you don't know who's driving that vehicle. A license plate detection is an investigative lead. It's no different than other types of investigative tools that we have, like a criminal history search, a a TLo report. There's there's things that that we can use to develop information and that's that's what this is. This is just it leads us to the next step in the investigation. And like I said, we've had countless cases that these have been instrumental and and softened for us. Do we do you wanna go through each case study or
I don't think we're gonna have anything that. Public, maybe a few or, you know, just so they
That's a good idea. Yeah. So I'll go through and the ones that I think should be highlighted. You know, pointing out that the that whole document is part of our Yes. Yes. Agenda for tonight for people that wanna follow-up. In the fall of twenty twenty four, we had a missing juvenile. We used a nearby LPR camera to identify identify a vehicle that arrived to pick up a food order that we that we saw the juvenile ordered. So we were able to identify the vehicle, based on LPRs at the time it arrived for the food order pickup, and we located the missing juvenile. So, again, that's obviously, every missing juvenile incident is taken very serious. Oh, this was the Gouveia property window damage. You guys have all all read through this, assume? Mhmm. Okay. For for those that weren't working here in the summer of twenty twenty two, the Goveia window just kept getting broken. It was three or four incidents separately. Very extensive damage, you know, high dollar amount. We didn't have LPRs at the time, and we used the countywide LPRs to to ultimately solve and arrest the perpetrators of that incident those incidents.
Smash and grab burglary. LPRs were instrumental in this one. We were able to link it to a similar burglary in Secaucus, the vehicle that, targeted our business. We're able to link it to a similar burglary of a same type of business in Secaucus, New Jersey. That one's still ongoing. We we know who the suspects are. I don't know if it's gonna move forward. Nursing home burglary. This one is is still ongoing as well, and I don't know if this one is gonna be closed with the rest. The subjects live in a different state, and we were able to use the license plate readers, including Flock in this case, to show that the suspect vehicle not only was in Croton at the time of the crime, but was in another state at the time of a the time a stolen credit card was used in that vicinity. So that's also gives you the idea of, you know, the network is what is what works.
This one, February 2023, counterfeit currency arrest. I believe this one, a known counterfeit currency vehicle. Someone who operates this vehicle has done counterfeit currency incidents in the past was detected by our license plate reader, which in turn led our officers to go investigate and stop the vehicle just after it had attempted to use counterfeit currency and Croton. It turned into a pursuit, and I believe the suspect was arrested. We've had a couple of these, so I'm I'm just not positive on that one.
Do you get alerted when the if you're looking for a suspect and he's connected to a certain license plate?
Yes. So, not directly. The these cases could be they've committed this offense in other jurisdictions, right, which we would have no idea of knowing unless you're talking to that person that officer directly. So the alert list is through the county system, the the real time crime center. So they have the alerts. So if somebody like, if if we have a an unsolved counterfeit currency case, we would send that to the real time crime center and which our we'd identify our suspect vehicle, and it would get added to an alert list. And if that vehicle is detected anywhere in the network, not FLAC, this is the local, you know, the Westchester Network, all agencies get an alert about it. It goes out over the what's called the hotline radio. So that's how that's how we're involved. If if another agency has a suspect vehicle that's detected in Croton, that's how sometimes we stop the vehicle here Mhmm. Because we know it's here based on the alert. Mhmm.
Elsewhere and then, you know, so we continue to build the case with other agencies. Mhmm.
Summer twenty twenty three, fatal motorcycle accident. Without really getting into details of the accident, the there was a second vehicle involved that fled the scene. And using license plate reads, we were able to identify the suspect vehicle that was missing a piece of its, you know, missing a piece of its mirror that was, found at the scene. So instrumental in solving this. Detective, I wanna, you know, point out just from having, you know, read some of these. You're summarizing them, which is great, but there's a lot of detective work that goes into this before you even get to the LPR. Yeah. Yeah. A lot. Like, just this this this took around three days of searching LPRs Yeah. To find this car. Right. So there's a and and that's what I to my point before that an LPR read is not just automatic probable cause for an arrest. If your car is detected in the area during that motorcycle accident, you're not gonna be arrested for this motor for for this crime of leaving the scene. There's so much more investigative work that goes on behind the scenes. This is just an investigative lead. Mhmm. Yeah. And and presumably, some cases, maybe a lot of them, there's a lot of work that you have to do before you even reach for the LPR in terms Yeah. Of I mean, that's not even including, like, the the investigation at the scene scene processing. Right? We we're not we're typically not opening license plate readers before we actually know we have after our investigation at the scene. In certain instances, that does happen. If somebody fled, you know, you may wanna see where they're going because, again, to my point that, it's not probable cause for an arrest. We still have to identify who was driving. If a vehicle flees the scene
and doesn't get stopped before it reaches its destination, we may never find out who was driving it. Because an argument could be made that, you know, this this I wasn't driving that. It was somebody else, and we don't know because we didn't stop them at the time it was driving. So typically, it's best to get the alerts out there sooner rather than later, so it can get stopped around the time that the crime occurred, and we could identify who was involved. Another smash and grab burglary. I believe this one was over $20,000 worth of proceeds. Again, without the LPRs on this, I don't know if this gets solved. This was a our our LPR at Croton Point Avenue was the one that detected this vehicle, and, again, instrumental in in making an arrest on this. Member of service stolen license plate. Someone that works here had a had their license plate get stolen. Now, typically, if you notice your license plate is missing, you may not automatically assume that it's stolen. Right? It could have just fallen off somewhere, except when it's detected in an alert that it was detected by an LPR read on a different car, then you know that there's some criminal activity afoot. So that happened to somebody close to home because they're an employee here. So that car was detected. Unfortunately, that was the only time the plate was ever used again, and no arrest was made. We were not able to identify the perpetrators.
Stolen envelope of cash. Our license plate reader at Municipal Place detected that one. Stolen vehicle, October 2023. It was detected traveling north on Route 9, and we responded out there and it it drove past us and we were able to stop it and close out that case for Peakscope Police.
Does the board want to continue going through these or do you wanna spend some time asking?
I mean, the police work and the, you know, the need for the license plate readers, I mean, from a crime solving perspective is very essential. But, you know, with the concerns of the public for privacy, just want to sort of talk through that a little bit. So just to reiterate, the system that we have our license plate readers on is run by Westchester County. Correct. That system is not run by a third party. Correct. And that system is not out there for consumption in any way. Correct. When we use flock, right? Because we don't have flock cameras here, but there it's a network. Like, can you just explain that? So,
yeah, flock cameras. I'm I'm sure you've seen the maps. There there there's a lot of them. Yeah. So I personally don't have access to flock. What I what I have to do if I need to see if a vehicle was detected by a different license plate reader besides the ones that are in Westchester, I have to send an official request to a, you know, to other agencies, whether it be the State Police Crime Analysis Center, and and they provide me with the reads that I was asking for. It's not just like I I I pop in and and peek at who was doing what. You know, it's an it's an official request. I need a case number. It has to be an active criminal investigation. And, again, those are different than than how
how the Westchester ones work. You have any mean, part of the issue is that the there is a flock camera map. Right? And some of our cameras are on that map. Correct. And do you have any idea why that would be
So I don't expect somebody who's organizing, like, an anti license plate reader movement to know the difference between FLAC or Recor or Westchester. Okay. You know, it's just different equipment, different databases. So that that particular map isn't coming from Block itself. It's coming from That's coming from, I think, people that are seeing them. Yeah. Right? If you look if you look at the map and you hover over
the ones that are in the village, you'll see that they do label it as core. So but it's, you know, I I they just list all cameras on that website regardless of what model or what company they are.
The general consensus is they're all flock. Yes. Because they because people don't know the difference. It's like using Xerox for photocopier and it's Correct. Yes. Correct. And and I don't expect them to know the difference by looking at it. You know, they, you could definitely see that we have cameras when you drive past the locate the sites.
So when you look on that website, though, it looks like like this I assume the town of Cortlandt must have cameras
On that website whether or not it's accurate. I mean, we can, like, debate, like you know, people get information on the on the on the Internet. So, like, I don't know if it's accurate or not. I just know when I pull up the website what I see. And when I run my license plate number through the have you been flocked, you know, there's a lot of information out there accurate or not. But it doesn't that doesn't show any cameras in Cortlandt. It only shows cameras in Croton.
Then whoever organized the website may have missed the ones in in Cortlandt. You know, I I I think that's why people are thinking it's flop. I don't I think
what all this says to me is and people have questions. People talk I mean, we talk about this at PAC Yeah. That's why we're here. Every single meeting. But I sort of the way when I saw this the way it was set up on the agenda, I kind of thought we were gonna have, like, more of an overall conversation about and maybe I walked in a few minutes late, so maybe we did. What all the cameras are, what the difference is, you know, like the body cam is a whole different thing than this, but it's all cameras. And I think there is an opportunity to educate the public. I'll just speak for myself. I want you guys to be in a position to do your job and to be safe and to be safe from being harmed and also to be safe from being accused of something that a body cam would would be able to protect you from. But at the same time, citizens are super concerned. You're being monitored everywhere you go. And like, I mean, there's a there's a huge lawsuit going on. It's not like it's coming from nowhere. I don't think, you know. So I I think that people's concerns are real. So I do think that if we're gonna have cameras, which we do, and it sounds like we're gonna have others, there is we do have some responsibility to explain to people, maybe not show them exactly where they are because, again, we talk about this in pack. You know, what's the right way to have signage? Right? Should we point out exactly where they are, or should we just say, like, there are cameras? Like, when you pull onto a school ground, it says, this is monitored by cameras. It doesn't say camera. Mhmm. Smile. You're on camera. But I, you know, I do think there's an opportunity and a responsibility for us to be educating people about what's going on. We the relationship with the police department is fabulous.
But when you feel like you're being monitored Yeah. And what's happening with that footage. Also, our contract is not with the county and it's not with you, it's with RECOR. And we don't do we know what they're doing? Like, is that a can you speak to that? Like, what are they doing? I can speak to that. Okay.
The county is actually moving away from Recore and keeping everything entirely on premise at Westchester County PD. So they're gonna but it's also, like, the infrastructure,
like, the county PD has the technological infrastructure to be able to run the count like, do all whatever the back end of it that Recor would almost complete the the transition. And,
another I guess I was gonna mention this later. Another positive thing about this is that we're gonna save a lot of money on maintenance fees. We pay annual fees for the Recor service, which the county is not gonna continue charging once it's been migrated to their system.
It I mean, if the county presents us with one, based on based on the information, right, that we have we don't have a We don't. We don't have an existing intramusible agreement with them.
I would like to suggest that we talk about that, discuss that. I know we don't have an agreement with them now on this, which is why there are a lot of unknown questions. Right? Like, we don't we don't know how they're using the data other than what you're telling us. How? Who's using the data?
But I'm do. It's odd to me that we wouldn't have a municipal agreement with the county over the And the only reason we get some access to the cameras is because Mark happens to work there once a week. There are a lot of agencies that don't have there. A lot of them do, but, you know, like Mark said, if you have to, you would have to request information from the county then to get it. Correct. You know? I mean, we just happen to have some of our staff work there, so we're we can get it a little easier. But So we're on county computers
When I go there? Yes. Yeah. When you what do you see? Like, do you see a car? Do you see a just a license plate? Like, what do you see when you're looking at the footage? You see a picture of the car and a zoomed up picture of the license plate. Mhmm. And, yeah, it's it's it's it's a very clear photo.
Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. So it's, like, in the cloud somewhere? Or It's at Westchester County PD physical storage. So do you have to VPN into the No. No.
So they keep the data physically at County PD, and I can log in Mhmm. To that.
Yeah. I don't know if I I don't know. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's the only way you can get down there. Yeah. I would imagine. Sounds like it. Yeah. Because you're remotely logging in to their system. It's I mean, it yeah. I guess. So Yeah. I don't know if that's VPN.
Same as when you're out. But I also think some of these questions are not I appreciate all the questions that you can answer. Yeah. Like, I have questions that there's no possible way you could answer about data storage and things like that. Like, this conversation is much
So even even, like, before the transition from Record to County, they're doing it themselves. Recor didn't even store the data for the county. The county has always stored the data. Mhmm. But Recor owns it because Recor is the company that We were just using and, again, this is more a question for County, but just to be able to to search, we'd use their system. But it was all Westchester County data was Westchester County data.
I think It's not like flock collecting data and storing it in their server or their cloud. It was always controlled by Westchester. Yeah. I guess I just have data security issues that I don't even I mean, I'm not a data security expert, but I have a lot of data security concerns, not just about this, about, you know, medical records, whatever kind of records you have that are out there. Right? Sure we all do. So I feel like that's the component of this conversation that's missing. I am grateful that you guys are able to tell us all these successes you've had that you wouldn't have had without the cameras. But that I I feel like there's a piece of a big chunk of this pie of this conversation that we can't just have. It's helpful to hear how beneficial it is to you and technically how you use it and why it's important. But It needs to be with the county. And the county is not able to talk about it at the moment. Well, but it's there's gotta be somebody
I I don't I don't know that's yeah. I know not a computer scientist, but I do I do know that this is not part of any national network. Right? Somebody from a federal agency would still need to contact the county police to get data. It's controlled by law enforcement. It's not controlled by FLAC. Okay? I know that's a big concern is, okay, if it's controlled by flock, who can ask flock for the information? Right? That that's not happening here. This is the county that you have to go through and you need an active investigation to get data from them. You need a case number. You need a case number. Yes. Yes, detective, you were talking about making a request of some of the third party networks. Correct. Like, I work. Mhmm. And then you were saying, Ars, it's not like that for us. Can you elaborate on so
So can you elaborate on what it is like? Do you need a written request, etcetera?
So because I work at the RTC, I do I I can log in myself and and conduct my investigation. Other agencies that need data from the RTC would have to submit a a request to them. And, I can't speak for them. I don't work you know, I'm not a county police officer who's assigned. I I I just I'm a Croton cop who's assigned there. But I know that, like, I gave you the example before when I need flock, I have to submit an official written request. It's it's similar to, you know again, I know there's data and privacy concerns. You go into a local business or, like, look, you know, ShopRite, for example, your face they they have a facial recognition camera that it's it's it's like I'm sitting here right next to you. That's how clear the photo If I need that as a law enforcement officer, I have to send an official written request and then I can obtain that. Right? So that's the same thing with license plate readers, except it's not your face. It's just your license plate.
Well, identifying like, you know, I think you can see identifying pieces of the car. Sometimes you can see. Sometimes in the license plate reader, because whenever like, if you get a picture of a tick, you know, in the city, if you get a you can see that it's not just the license plate. You can see the license plate in the picture, but it's like your car. Can you can't necessarily make out a face. But Well, yeah. So I'm talking, like, specifically about, you know, like, probable cause for unrest. There's no way you could use a photo that was taken by the license plate reader to say, oh, yeah. That's John Nikitopoulos, and and he Yeah. You know? And I don't know if you might have you might have walked in, after I said this.
Being detected by a license plate reader is not probable cause for an arrest. I I've seen reports that somebody got arrested because the flock camera detected them. That's that's not how it works. I don't know what those reports are. You still need other investigative steps Mhmm. Because your car being there does not mean you committed the crime. Mhmm. If that makes sense. I just wanna We we believe that the county tells us the truth.
Obviously, we don't think they're hiding anything from us. They're telling it's kept in house. We believe that.
I mean, Mark is part of the the team down there, and he has access to it. You know, we don't use them for anything else other than investigative leads. You know, Mark's just not going on there saying, let me see who's driving through Croton. You know, we don't do that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I don't mean, like, I'm not worried about you guys using it for for those kind of reasons. I don't know. You you you know, you misusing it is not my concern.
Well So kinda like things that the county is misusing it either, you know, as I said.
But it's where it is after that, and it sounds like we we're not totally sure. It's I'm not I don't feel totally sure. Confident from what they tell us that everything is kept in house down there.
So why can't we have a municipal agreement with the county with them putting that in writing to the village? Because right now, we have we have an agreement with RECOR, and one of the issues is it's on it's a public contract. And so in the contract, and this is what's kind of making the public nervous, is that there's under data rights, the contract says user retains all rights and ownership. The provider may use the operational data for, and it says, use with other governmental or quasi governmental agencies. That is in our recourt contract. That's what's making the public nervous as well. It it's from what you're saying, this that's not hap like That's not happening. It's not happening,
but A governmental agency can with a case number, can contact the county police and get and get an investigative lead or or data that they're seeking. It's it's a governmental agency. Yeah. It's not like, you know, some random person who's curious about what's going on can contact them and obtain that, which, again, I don't know if that's the case for Flock because, FLAC is third party. Right? That's that's the concern. In this case, the governmental agency
would have to contact the county for the data. Correct. Yes. But in our contract, the county is not the provider. RECOR is the provider.
It says both. Okay. Right. So, I mean, you know, I I have it up. I don't wanna misquote it, but it talks about the provider may use the operational data for, and if RECOR is the provider and we're the user, in this case, that's wrong. It's creating a in misinformation, if if you will, because the county is the provider of the data.
I mean, I Unless we you know? I I we'd have to look at this in a little more detail.
Yeah. Mean, I'm not I thought the what we signed back in '22. '22. Thank you.
because it's in okay. Take a look at the contract. It's in exhibit c, and this is what was posted online Yep. That was also making Yeah. The public.
Yeah. And in terms of an IMA with the county, I'm certainly not opposed to that, but that would need to be at the the county would need Request to that. Yeah. Would need to do that. You know, they they generate the IMAs.
So So we have no there's no interim municipal agreement in terms of, you know, detective Fielding being in that building or
more it's more of a agency agreement. Yeah. It's more like the mutual aid Yes. Situation, right, where we have you know, detective Fielding is works five days a week, and one of his five days, he's assigned to work at the RTC. Mhmm. So it's just that's where he reports. So when you're reporting to that facility,
are you looking at active cases? Like, what are what are you sort spending your time doing?
Well, it depends on on what's going on in that particular day, but I'm I'm free to work on my own cases. Okay. If it's a slow day there, I can work on my own cases that you know, from Croton, because I'm employed by Croton. Like, my primary responsibility is obviously to solve crimes that occurred in Croton. So, yeah, I mean, I think that's kinda getting away from the
license plate readers I do when I'm there. Yeah. General report. Yeah. Have they have full time they have full time, you know, officers that are monitoring the license plate readers for alerts and things like that. That's not my primary responsibility there. So, I I I do look at the license plate readers there if I'm investigating something or if they need assistance with something.
It's it's kinda like as needed, you know. You know, and we know the information going because counties are the ones that come and hooks up the cameras for us. Yeah. They do the installations. They're the ones that install Which saves us which saves us a lot of money. You know, we just get the the the equipment and they come and hook it up. Right. And and Attorney,
can I ask you, Lori don't mean to put you on the spot, Lori Lee, but how do these intermunicipal agreements work? Does it have to start from the county, or could we draft something up?
And No. It would it would be a county IMA. They generate it using their forms of contract, and they send it to us. So it's generated as it starts the county.
So is this is do all municipalities who are using this have this is this I mean, is this the contract they have? All of those municipalities are contracted with Recor or some nobody's contracted with the county?
I can't speak for other agencies, but I know that the system was Recor. Like, Recor has our maintenance fees. That's just the equipment they used. So now there's gonna be I don't know if they're gonna send something new out for us now that they're switching away from RECORE. Again, because I I can't speak for what they're doing. But if an agency is participating in having license plate readers installed,
I mean, I I think they're free to use whoever they they choose. But if they wanna be on this county network, they'd have to go through RECORE for now. If the county is gonna take on maintenance of the system Right. Going forward, and they're gonna expect us if they're gonna charge us or even if they're not gonna charge us, I would imagine that there would be some sort of IMAT. I I agree. Coming forward. Terminate RECOR. Maybe. I I Yeah. I would I would assume so if the county is is taking over the maintenance, there would be no need for us to have RECORE anymore.
They're not they're not totally Detective, we would yet, though. We've achieved It's close, but not quite We retain the RECORE hardware,
and then the county would So the hardware that we have is, there's there's multiple manufacturers of the hardware that's used to install this. The the cameras themselves, I think, are manufactured by MOBOTIX. Okay. So once and, again, I I didn't organize this whole thing. I once they migrate to the county system, I don't think we're gonna be dealing with Recore at all anymore. So get getting, getting Recore out of the storage system doesn't affect the hardware or anything like that? Because No. It shouldn't right now. No.
So I think and this is this is a suggestion of trustee not taller. I mean, I think that there's an opportunity for us to have a q and a sort of developed with the information that you've shared with us this evening, information that we have from the county, and then sort of what's unanswered from the county and be clear because there are some questions that the county is no longer able to answer due to the lawsuit. So I think we just need to be clear to the community that, you know, what you're seeing on the Internet is not true in terms of, you know, these are not block cams. Maybe explaining, I mean, I looked a lot in terms of what a block cam even was this evening. Really understanding sort of the difference between a third party system, what we're currently using in the county, the county's aspirations to move it entirely in house, kind of all those things in a a way that the public can understand it and hopefully, you know, ease some fear. I mean, we're just not living in the same world that we were living in in 2022, unfortunately.
Right. So there's a great great amount of distrust of the government right now, to be clear. You know? And I I also think that I mean, you know, when we we got that communication from our county legislator regarding the q and a that the county is in the process of putting together or wants to put together once the I I don't I don't remember exactly what this where we were with that. But there is an advocacy piece that we should be doing asking the county to she is advocating for to her colleagues and and the county staff to put together this q and a. But her ask to us was, we should be doing the same thing. There are only so many questions detective Fielding can answer, and I really do appreciate it. It feels like we're putting you on the spot. Know you're not a data expert, but I think this conversation the questions some of the questions we have, you can't possibly answer. But that is definitely not making them go away for me. I feel a little I feel like I have more information than I did. And it it is great to see how successful some of the this has been for us, but I don't feel any better about the cameras than I did before we put this on as a topic. So I I guess my question, you know, I want to keep the conversation going, you know, and I guess drafting a q and a
is a good first start, but also the advocacy piece because we need to understand. We're just guessing if we're not getting the information from the county.
Yeah. Well, and and to what Trustee Nicholson said. Right? I mean, I'm if I'm putting putting together q and a, I'm not going to guess. Right? I mean, if there are things that we don't know the answer to Right. We just have to say we are not able to get the answers to these questions at this time. And, I mean, the county is not going to comment on pending litigation.
Right? I mean, there's not But but I think sometimes an answer is we don't know we don't know an answer is an answer.
Right. But I think that that I would I would not leave that question off just because we don't have an answer. I that the more transparent we can be yeah. I'm agreeing with you. Okay. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. But, you know, it's just that there are gonna be some things that we don't know the answer to, so we have to say it say that. Yeah. Yeah.
Can can can I ask a question just for clarification, of the detective? Is the license plate reader cameras the same as this the red light cameras?
No. The license plate cameras, they they don't issue tickets, which is the primary, I think, responsibility of the red light cameras. Right? They'll they'll send you a a fee in the mail for not stopping for a red light. The license plate cameras are are not that. They take photos of the of the vehicle as it passes and stores that for investigative leads.
You like like, I think one of the trustees mentioned, you you might see a a human being driving the vehicle. Might be able to talk to a female, not a male. Correct. You know? Yeah. Something like that. Versus a blue shirt, things like that. But there's nothing that's gonna automatically give somebody probable cause, for an arrest because of a picture that was taken of the car. It's just you're you're there's so many so much glass involved. Think about it. The windshield, the the side windows, window tints, it's it's almost impossible to see in the vehicle. You know, and then, like, the I just creators hone hone in on the plate. Correct.
Right. I I think that that's an important point for the public is that, we can those of us who know the vernacular, we can say it's not probable cause, but perhaps that would be part of the q and a or the FAQ to explain exactly what that means. Probable cause means you can make an arrest based upon this one photograph.
Yeah. There's other investigative steps that need to take place Okay. Once you identify a suspect vehicle.
Thank you. Yeah. Welcome. So it was earlier mentioned that not all the officers in the department have access, to, you know, the LPR data from the real time crime center. I assume, well, detective Fielding obviously does, chief, I assume you do. What other, what would, what other situation would, you know, create, why would an officer have access?
We generally try and keep it in house to supervisors and stuff like that. There are a couple of officers that like to follow-up on some of their own cases, so we may give them temporary access to to use it to follow-up on their own cases. Okay. So as a general matter, it's the detective, sergeants, and on a temporary basis officers involved. It's generally supervisors and above. Okay. Okay.
Correct. From You know, we didn't touch base on the ones in the cars. We do have ones in some of the patrol cars that, you know, officers are driving around and and it reads the license plates as they go by, and it may blop up on the screen that this car had suspended license. That's probably caused to pull them over. Mhmm. You know, and stuff like that. So, you know, we do have several of those also.
That's that's non law enforcement. So that's just used for enforcement and for permits.
You know, the big thing with our cameras is we're not using them to focus on any particular person, group, or anything else. They're just used for investigative purposes Right. If we need them. Okay? Other than that, they just sit there and take pictures of the plates. Mhmm.
And I I think a big concern with the flock this flock movement that seems to be growing is, you know, who who has access to it, who can access it, who is flock giving it to. Right? In our situation, we know who has access to it. Cops that work in Westchester and Putnam. Right? Or or who are assigned to the real time crime center. Mhmm. So it's not just some random third party company that happened to grow nationwide and is giving the data out. But
Correct. And I don't even deal with Block directly. I deal with a a crime analysis center that then takes a day or two to get me the results that I'm looking for. So it's not like I can just log in and and and peek at what's going on with FLAC. There's a there's a process, which I imagine is the same process for an outside agency looking to get data from the county police. Hey, I'm investigating this. This is my case number. I'm looking for this crime window in this location. Right? And the county police, again, I I I don't work for them. They, I'm sure, have their policy on how to answer those things, but I I know that a lawful request for information, I'm sure they would provide. So
who would, work on this FAQ? Is it like, would it start with you, manager, and then you would get the input from detective and
Yeah. I mean, I'll have to I will talk to the chief about it and see. Yeah. So but we'll combine our forces and put it together.
Yeah. Thank you. And then from a timeline perspective on kind of a separate issue, where are we at with the body cams?
The body cams, the manager and I have a meeting tomorrow. We're going to try and finalize the policies we have. Once we finalize them, we have to send them back to Lexapol because they're the only ones that can edit what we changed, okay? Once we get that back, we're going to put it in part of our policies. We're gonna send it out to the rank and file so that they have a copy of it. I have a meeting scheduled for September 9, I believe, to sit down. It's gonna be a staff meeting with the supervisors. We're gonna start to explain what the policy and program is about. We have the cameras right now. Yeah. They're in. We don't have them in the cars yet. That's gonna be coming soon too because you'll have both body cams and you'll have cameras in the cars. We're hoping to have this rolled out. We're hoping to have it rolled out by the end of September where people start using them. That's our that's our goal. We're hoping to achieve that.
So just from a communications perspective to the public, I think Yeah. We need to we need to have a comprehensive Yeah. Message. Another FAQ and maybe Video.
And then what the you know, I I would like to see the policy, you know, just just just to understand what it
We've been working kind of an overview of what it is. We've been working with labor council for a while now. Yes. I mean, there were there were there were some breaks in between, but we've probably been working on it for four or five months going back and forth about, you know, what to include, what not to include, what, you know, what needs to be revised and that's Hopefully, we're having our final meeting tomorrow where we can all come to an agreement.
House in house. Right? It's housed in house. Yeah. The the body cam data? Yeah. Yes.
Yes. But it it goes to a cloud storage for to keep the you know, so cool so we have it for a definite period of time. But, you know, it's it's housed, so we can just access it. So that's our goal hopefully by October 1, we can have everything operational. We may have it sooner. It may be a couple weeks but we're going to have them. Like I said, the equipment is in now. We have to start setting it up. We have to start assigning but we want to get the policy done because we don't know. It is a subject that we have to negotiate with the union on. So we have to make sure that they don't have any issues with the policy too. So the policy might change a little after we finalize it, but I mean, we've already we've had initial conversations with the With the union. With the union. So So, yeah, we don't see anything coming out of that.
I know cloud storage makes the public anxious because of how it can be hacked or, you know, so if as you're reviewing the policy if you could just shed a little light about this cloud storage, the protections that are on it. Sure. Thank you. Yep.
It would be great in the FAQ is if we saw an mocked up picture, an actual picture, with obviously no but just kind of what you see, just to give people an idea of, like, this is a car with a license plate kind of thing blown up just so people can understand a little bit about, you know, what it is, how much detail you're seeing?
I I could certainly check with the county police about what we'll be able to we'd be able to release and get back to you.
Yeah. I mean, if need be, we could have just one of the police vehicles go through. I think we might have have our own people do something. Yeah. Okay.
You know, because it'll be our cars and stuff So like So that's where we are with all that so I'm hoping to get it implemented very soon.
It's a lot of work pulling that together but the public is super grateful I'm sure for seeing how it's used.
Of course. Thank you. Well, I mean, if any questions develop out of tonight, you can let us know and we'll answer them for you.
Thank you. Can we take, like, a three minute break. Yeah. Take three minute personnel switch around here.
I think we need an official statement. I have to turn it. So let the federal legislature was basically Two plates in my hand. Right. Take care. Good night. You can clean it out. Official statement from the county. What she did was give, like, additional assurance that the county would never use this for Yeah. Or would never hand it over. But that's not that was, like, a her personal opinion. And that's the way any legislator, any or anyone would have answered it. I I understand why she did, but I think the ask needs to be directly to the county. We need to see, as you said, what their policy looks like, and we need to understand. Because I don't the county doesn't own it. Recor owns it. And we have no idea what Recor absolutely no idea what Recor is doing. So not On vacation? No. I know that this is on. Alright.
Well Oh, well. Breaking up. Yeah. Just don't this is we're not mean this is not let's not.
I don't feel like my questions were necessarily answered by by in by the people we had, not because they couldn't answer it. Yes. Because they couldn't answer it, not because they weren't answering it.
Yep. So we're gonna return we're gonna begin a regular session. So we've concluded our work session. So please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag
Alright. Our first item of business is the approval of vouchers.
Yes. Wednesday, August 5 meeting, General Fund is $545,512.10. Water Fund, $54,003.06 $68.97 cents. The Sewer Fund is $2,204.31. Capital Fund, $152, $208.52. And Trust Fund, $8,490.02.
Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Alright. Here. The next warrant. Oh, okay. Excuse me. Next warrant, August 19.
General Fund, $182,077.50. Water Fund, $12,054.52. Sewer Fund, thousand $807.15, and the Capital Fund, $810,638.15.
Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Alright. We proceed to responses to questions submitted via email, manager.
No questions, mayor. Alright. Very good. We proceed to public comment on agenda items. Anyone with any who would like to speak to any item on the agenda, this is your opportunity. Please state your name and address. All speakers have five minutes.
Good evening, manager, mayor, and members of the board. I'm Tom Kaplan. I'm a captain in the fire department, and I have the privilege of chairing our fire prevention committee. I'm here tonight to provide a brief update on our upcoming fire prevention and education programs heading into our busiest season. The National Fire Protection Association's annual fire prevention week kicks off on Sunday, 10/04/2026. To mark the occasion, the fire department will host our annual fire fair, a staple event we've proudly held right here in the village for over thirty years. We invite you all and all members of the public to join us on October 4 from one to 5PM at our Harmon Firehouse. This year's theme builds on last year's charge into fire safety. Safe charging is a superpower. The NFPA is continuing to report an increase in battery related fires, which underscores the critical need for public education and safe use of lithium ion batteries and devices. Accordingly, we're in the final stages of coordinating our senior outreach and local school assemblies leading up to fire prevention week along with updating our website and social media materials. I would be remiss if I didn't express our committee's deep appreciation for the support of our entire department. These dedicated volunteers not only give up their time to train and respond to alarms, but they also prepare and execute these vital public relations initiatives year round. I'd also like to thank the numerous village departments that make fire fair possible, EMS, engineering, police, public works, recreation, and all the amazing staff in the office. We're also teaming up with several outside agencies. This includes having the Westchester County Department of Emergency Services communications division on-site this year for our learn to call 911 station. Kids will get to talk to a live dispatcher
learning how to call 911. Additionally, we've secured sponsorships from several local business partners for various fire safety stations. This is an arrangement that significantly reduces our overall cost and strengthens our ties with the Croton business community. Finally, we're extremely grateful to the board for your consideration in funding a new Sparky the Fire Dog costume. Because our previous costume served us well for over a decade, this new suit will be a lasting tool for the village for several years to come. It's a tremendous asset for engaging the public with our messaging. And we're hopeful that Sparky's cousin, Smokey the Bear, may pay us a visit as we're in coordination with the New York State Forest Service. With the exception of Sparky, we've secured all the other resources required for this year's event. We can't wait to see everyone there, and we thank you very much for your support.
Thank you. Thank you. You. Wait. Can I ask you a question? Are you asking for the funding for Sparky for this year's event?
Yes, ma'am. And I believe there is a resolution resolution, on the agenda tonight, so we're eager, we're eager to see if that passes through, and then, we're we're prepared to cut that cut that order. Fantastic.
presentation that you have previously? Yes. That was would I'll count that as an agenda item. So agenda item? Yep.
Joe Street, assistant fire chief. As you'd heard Tom just mentioned, the increase in the battery fires that that he mentioned according to the NFPA, of course, we've had a few in our own village of those things. It makes this a concern for us because, obviously, we have to protect it all. The battery storage systems that Lindsay talked about, when we get to, you know, citing them, a couple of things concern me. One is, you know, location, location, location, exposures that we have to protect, things of that nature. But the other thing, that that, I need to consider at this point in time is we don't have all of the information we should have and need for the current battery storage area. I can't tell you honestly after doing this job for the last eight months, whether it's on or off, they were nice enough to provide us with a walk through. Is is there battery storage taking place? Are those systems loaded? I can't say I know for sure. But there's things such as the fire safety plan, additional fire training. Well, they did do a walk through with us a few months ago. All of the things that are required, I don't believe are in place. An example, at the Knox Box they installed, which is very nice, so we could gain access to the facility, has nothing in it. Another example. I know you've had some ups and downs, or they've had some ups and downs with the contractor, the management of the location, change of ownership, whatever the case may be. But before we start going into more battery systems in the village, a, we wanna play a role in that, which I'm sure we will. And we want to understand the areas that they're gonna go into because we gotta protect them. The other thing that's a little bit outside the box is, I guess, a question to Brian. Do we require financials from these investment companies? Lindsay started out saying there was a 100 of them, and we only heard from six. And a lot of them have been in business, out of business, sold,
this, that, and the other thing. I'm I'm hoping that we do get financials from them to see how solid they are and are they going to move forward with us in a progressive way, as an entity, and not just, make an installation for us and find out in a year or two or five that they're no longer in business or somebody else bought them, and they don't care about battery systems that are placed in our village. So, that's something that I think the RFP should absolutely contain, which I I think is important to know what their financial status is of any one of those companies, especially after listening to Lindsay's some of his explanations. And that's it. That's it for right now.
I think it's just important to point out that the battery system that's at the train station as well as the future systems that may or may not be researched further, are lithium iron phosphate. They are not the lithium ion that have caught fire in previous places. The lithium iron phosphate is much more durable. Yeah. Yeah. But the chief raises good points, and we'll we'll Well, well, I will investigate his other his other points. You know, I'm not I'm not aware of what the answers are. Right? Just learning about them now.
Ed Riely from, Truesdale Drive. Thank you to the chief for bringing those two items up. It's a shocker to know that the fire department has has to respond everywhere and more than usual to a government run railroad and and and the facilities nearby does not has not been told the status of a very controversial, type of, power accumulation. And the first thing I when he mentioned that they went to 41 companies or whatever and half of them are out of business, we've seen this before with bus electric buses and everything else under the sun. So, thank you very much, chief, for bringing those up. It's also interesting based upon the, camera presentation by the police department is, probably half the crimes are solved with private cameras. I provided information from my cameras on Truesdale Drive for people stealing checks out of mailboxes and stuff like that. Sometimes we haven't. Sometimes we don't. And and I hope they continue to rely on that. What concerns me is the state of New York just passed a law that says the state or any one of its functionaries, including the village of Croton and their police department, can't cooperate with federal authorities on illegal immigrants and that there are now 27,000 illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, which the state of New York is not gonna share information with the federal government. If that's the case, I hope the federal government doesn't share any money with them. That would be appropriate. And at 17,000 convicted illegal immigrants in the city of New York, the city will not be able to share
the status of those criminals with the federal government. So I I would and then I would like to know, oh, well, we'll do it for criminals. We'll do it for murderers. We'll do it for rapists. That's what you said when the state of New York and its governor and its assembly and its senate passed no cash bail for murderers, rapists, burglars, and everybody else that committed crimes in New York, we don't trust you. You're not trustworthy. I'm sorry. So I hope that it's certainly a big issue with cameras and license plates. Also, a lot of the stuff on here has to do with environmental review of projects. There's three items on here. And that the current proposal, which is creating so much heat besides bringing pot to Croton, which was a decision by the village board, irrevocable, which shouldn't be, but it's irrevocable, is to build a to encourage a 49 unit project across from ShopRite, which like the other project, which was built by a a contractor with a good reputation as opposed to a contractor with a bad reputation, the one that's completed, which is mostly luxury, is well built. It just looks like crap, but it's well built. And it was built too high. In other words, the Top Deck is perfectly viewable by the people on Van Wyck Street, a place they used to live. So I know a lot about that. And its elevator and its appurtences are too high, Necessitating that that contractor come back, rebuild the reinforcement structures on that hill about three different times, and plant trees, which then block the view of some of the people in Van Wyck Street. So it looks like we're headed down the same road. And just for the review, I'd like to remind people, one of the worst offenders for pollution besides the state of New York and its park system and its railroad is Westchester County sewer system. And that they not once, but twice, the sewer system of Westchester County has broken and dumped effluent into the Hudson River system and the Croton system, so much so that the Croton River was shut down, I believe, for a month, and the Hudson the Hudson River was shut down for two months. During the summertime, when it gets hot, people are supposed to go swimming at places like Croton Point and the Hudson River, and denied you revenue because you couldn't put canoes and kayaks on a on a Croton River, not that it's a lot of money.
So and that sewer system, which these major projects, which you encourage because there's two members of your board, want to be a housing state housing community where you pledge to change the complexion of the community and to encourage regional planning as opposed to local planning, which is what the citizen of Croton elected you to do.
Hi. Thank you. My name is Nora Regis Audin. I'm on, Van Wyck Street. I am speaking today about the I know it's a to schedule the public hearing on Local Law 10, but I did wanna just address it now so that because I have concerns, and hopefully, we can revise it before scheduling needs to occur. I understand that something about the pigeons was rooted in health risks. However, I know manager Healy has done a lot of research. And my friend, Kate Elliott, I have as well. And pigeons don't carry bird flu. I know that there have been other members of the public that are concerned about that. Pigeons don't carry bird flu. Their biggest risk comes from their droppings when they are dried. But even that it's a disease I can't pronounce. Pit otosis, comes from, there's only been ten confirmed cases by the CDC over the past sixteen years. And most of the symptoms they're flu like. It's not pleasant, but, it only has, like, a fifteen percent mortality rate. Pigeon not pigeons. Chickens, on the other hand, actually do carry bird flu. And I think that we should keep backyard chickens. I like the resolutions about backyard chickens personally. A friend mentioned that the New York State sells them in groups of six, so that might be something to go back and look at. But I like chickens. We aren't thinking about banning chickens. So I, with my remaining time, I'm gonna read Kate's letter because I think it's, really good. To the mayor and board of trustees, I'm writing because I'm having a hard time understanding the need to for a complete ban on keeping pigeons in the village. And I keep coming back to one basic question. What is this specific problem the ban is trying to solve? If the concern is public health, I'd like to understand what evidence shows that responsibly kept domestic pigeons pose a meaningful risk. If the concern is cleanliness, odor, noise, or overcrowding,
those are issues that can be addressed directly through reasonable rules, sanitation standards, limits on flock size, housing requirements, enforcements of existing nuisance laws. Those kinds of regulations would address the actual concerns without banning pigeon keeping altogether. I was also struck by comments from the May 27 work session where the village attorney reportedly suggested that even a temporary moratorium might be excessive given that only one resident has expressed interest in keeping pigeons. If that's the case, it's hard to understand why a permanent village wide prohibition is now being considered, especially one that would exist in a impact an existing keeper and his birds. I'm also concerned about the decision to not grandfather existing pigeons. Was mentioned as a nearby example where pigeon keeping is prohibited, but existing owners are grandfathered in. That feels like a reasonable and humane compromise here. If the village believes a ban is necessary going forward, why not allow the current flock to remain? If the board is rejecting that option, I'd appreciate an explanation of what specific harm would result from allowing these existing birds to stay under reasonable conditions. I also wanna ask how pigeons being defined. Would domesticated doves be included? Since pigeons and doves are part of the same biological family, that distinction matters, and it should be spelled out clearly in any law. Finally, I hope the board will consider the animals themselves. Pigeons are intelligent social animals that form strong bonds with each other and with their caretakers. Asking someone to disperse an established flock isn't just regulating a hobby. It has real consequences for living creatures that have formed a home and social structure here in Croton. I am not arguing for unlimited or unregulated pigeon keeping. If there's legitimate concerns, they should be addressed. But regulation and prohibition are not the same thing, and a ban should require a clear, well supported justification.
I'm gonna skip her questions because you guys have them, and just go with her closer because it was good. Also, hi, Kate. If there's a specific issue at a specific property, that should be addressed directly. But a village wide ban feels like a very broad solution to what appears to be a very limited situation. Croton's a community that values fairness and thoughtful decision making, and I hope those values guide this process. At a minimum, I ask the board to reconsider grandfathering the existing birds so they can remain with their owner. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Can I talk? Yes. Of course. Hi, everyone. First, I feel like I'm
My name is Tony. I live on 148 Old Post Road North. I'm the owner of the pigeons. I feel like I own an explanation to to the town because I know a lot of people. They've been supporting me, and a lot of people, they have questions. So the pigeons I have, I tried to explain last time, but it I think you guys were in a rush or something. So the pigeons I have, I vaccinate them two to three times a year. I train them well, I release them once a day, probably one or two hours just for training. I feed them on the wood feeder. They don't get feeded on the floor or outside. As a specific person keeps describing them, they're like rats or roaches. They're not. They're blessed by Jesus Christ. I feed them well. I vaccinate them two to three times a year. I train them well. I feed them on the on the wood feeder. I water them. They have, like, their can. It's not like they drink anywhere. They have grids on the floor which means they won't be eating bad food so they're not gonna contain like it's hard to explain myself. So it's it's like they're gonna get disease from other pigeons because the food they eat, they only eat it from the clean, like, feeder where I give it to them. Whatever comes out, it goes down the grid, and I clean them, like, two to three times a a week. So it's not like they're gonna eat bad food and get disease. And, honestly, I never heard about people having problems for pigeons getting different disease, which a person again, I've it's been mentioning, trying to explain himself, I guess, trying to give people bad ideas. So, I don't know. Like, it's it's very hard for me to explain myself probably in English to you guys and understand me well,
but I've been keeping them since I was six years old. I never had any problems from from them. My father had them. I got this from him. He died. He passed from from this world, and I feel like they're my my memories from him. So so, like, dividing me from them is just I I just can't see myself without them. I specifically bought this house for them because first of all, when I saw the house, I searched this town. It shows like I'm I could keep pigeons and that was a law. So and then I wanted to make sure I called the village. They told me I can keep the pigeons. I emailed just to have a proof. They told me I can keep the pigeons. So now it feels like personal to me trying to remove them. And as I mentioned the last time, it, I mean this town is amazing and it seems like everybody like it's very respectful. But it seems like somehow somebody got it personal with me which I don't even know the reason why but I don't understand why should separated from them. I don't understand why they should be removed if I got done everything right from the beginning. Pulled the permit, done the shed right, get the get the approved to keep them. So I would really appreciate if I could get an answer for that. And I just need to know what I done wrong. Like, why do why do you guys have to remove them if I done everything right from the beginning? So, that is all. If anybody from town, they they have any questions after this, I could explain. I could try to explain. I could answer any any questions you guys have. It's not like I read something because I didn't even know I'm supposed to stand here and talk. I thought I'm just supposed to listen
because I just noticed yesterday this this meeting just happened. I didn't even know I'm supposed to stand and talk, but I wasn't prepared for everything. But, if anybody has any questions after we're done here, I would be more than happy to explain myself for everything. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.
Mayor, I'll just note that we received a number of written comments which are posted as part of the agenda backup.
Thank you, manager. Yep. And thank you for coming out to speak. I know that this is a topic of a lot of interest. And, again, as was previously noted, there will be a public hearing on this. The board is not making a final decision tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Report from the village manager. Oh, thank you.
K. So, just a few items this evening. The first item I wanted to talk about was PFAS and the water supply. I understand that there was, some, commentary about this late last week. Our water supply is safe. It does have some low levels of PFAS contamination, which are well below the state, the state and federal guidelines. The exact levels are listed in our water quality report that gets sent out to every user of the, of the water system and is available on the village website. But there is no no reason that the public should have any immediate concerns. We constantly monitor the water quality. The water is tested on a regular basis, and, the test results are sent to Westchester County. And, you know, we have a very competent water department that maintains our water pumps and our water supply. And if there was at any point an issue or concern, you know, we would immediately communicate that with with all the all the residents of the village. That being said, you know, we do want to, take steps to recoup whatever funds we can so that if there needs to be potential remediation in the future, you know, the residents and the rate payers of the Water Fund do not have to fund that. Why should why should residents have to pay the costs of what corporations did, you know, thirty years ago? So, back in 2023, the board did retain this, law firm to represent us in these various lawsuits. To date, we have, recouped over a million dollars in in funds for this, $1,078,778 to be exact. And these funds are in the in the Water Fund and can be used for future projects related to the water system. So those funds came from the corporations that voluntarily agreed to settle with the attorney With our action? Correct. Yeah. With our law firm. The remaining companies that did not settle were a lawsuit was filed against them last week. And so we will now you know, this law firm, which is not our our village law firm, it's a special counsel, law firm, you know, they're going to represent us as this case moves forward, and we will see what the, you know, what the verdict is on that. So are there any questions on that before I move into the rest of my report? Thank you, manager. Where is the report located on the The annual water quality report? Yes. Yeah. So you can get to it either on the water department page. Okay. Or if under the citizen action center, if you click public documents,
all of the water reports are listed there. Thank you. Yep.
I was gonna mention mayor manager. We are we are part of the National Rural Water Association. We're we're not rural, but It's kinda funny, but, yes, it's based on population. I worked with them for many years. Great organization, and their their members are smaller water systems like like ours. And so much of our legal work legal activity has gone through that. Yes. Yeah. Correct. And they they as I as I mentioned, they're well respected for what they do both legislatively and legally. Thank you. Yep.
Okay. Just an update on the food scrap program. I reached out to our coordinator, and she let me know that we currently have 229 families that are participating. So we did see a slight uptick since we released our PSA on the program. But there is still room for 70 more families to, participate. So if there's anyone interested, you know, we can, you can either contact my office or just go on the village website and get the contact information for, the food scrap program, and we'll be more than happy to put you in touch with the with the right people. In terms of leaf blower violations, we have issued a total of 16 this year, so there's been three additional violations issued since the last meeting.
I mean, the enforcement the enforcement officer has the discretion as to whether or not to issue it to the homeowner or to the landscaper. Generally, our practice has been that, you know, the homeowner has been or I should say the property owner has been receiving the the violation. Okay. Yep. The 0.5 Moon Bay Bridge project is moving along. I I feel like I say that in almost every meeting, but it is true. Our final, plans, specifications, and estimate or the PS and E has been submitted to New York State DOT, and that was submitted on Monday. They are going to be reviewing that. We have received some additional funding from New York State towards this project. So, the bond that the board approved in June, which was for, $1,250,000, we most likely will not have to, take out because of this additional funding from the state. So we're very happy about that. So more to come on that. The Farrington Road steps, the railing is going to be installed over the next weeks or the railings on either side. And then, once that's done, they will be ready to open. So, you know, DPW thinks by the end of next week, they'll be open just in time for a school to begin.
We are working on our new website, which is very exciting. We're hoping to launch that a week from tomorrow. So I had originally thought or I I was under the impression that, people were going to have to resubscribe to get the emails, but that's not the case. Everybody's email addresses have been migrated over. So, I just wanted to clarify that because I don't know if I've if I said that at a previous meeting or not, but people will not need to resubscribe. You will continue to get our emails. So Miguel in my office has been working with all the different department heads to make sure their information is up to date and, populate the calendar and everything else that goes along with launching a new website. So, hopefully, we're ready to launch that next week. The governor has signed our red light camera bill. That bill was signed into law on August 14. I'm sure the mayor may have some more comments on this later in the meeting, but we'll probably have a work session discussion on that at some point in the future. And then lastly, we received our sales tax, payment from the county for the second quarter, and we saw a 5.1% increase in our sales tax payment from last year to this year, so that was very much appreciated. So that 5.1% turned into equals roughly about $40,000 more than what we got last year. So and that is my report.
Oh, I'm sorry. What did I say? Oh, I'm sorry. I meant the school speed camera bill got signed into law. The red light camera bill was signed into law last year. Yeah. So I apologize. No. The governor signed our our speed our school speed zone, camera bill until logged on August 14. Thank you. Yeah. Sorry. I apologize for that.
And while we're on that topic, I'll just note, and I meant to mention this in our earlier work session. Although there is authorization for red light cameras, the village has currently none deployed, and I agree that should probably be a work session now that the two have been two authorizations for the automated traffic enforcement, have been signed. We should have a work session on that.
And as a $4,040,000 additional dollars over your budget, like, how did we plan sales tax?
No. We're we're we're significantly over, well sorry. Let me clarify. Are you talking about the year that just ended May 31 or the current year that we're in? So most of that month, two thirds of the money that just came in goes to the old year.
Because it covers April, May, and June. Got it. So, but we were we generally have been somewhere around a 250,000 or slightly more over our, projections. So, like, in last year's budget, we had 2,125,000 budgeted, and we brought in 2,399,000. So try to, you know, budget conservatively so that, you know, we end up with a surplus. So And that's what the county is seeing as well. They're you know, they just released new updated numbers and they're seeing a positive increase in county sales tax, which is fantastic. Yes.
And with that, we proceed to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion on the consent agenda?
Just a few words here and there, mayor. Just congratulating the police on the triple a gold award. That's so wonderful. So we we've gotten that before, and it's terrific that their their good work is recognized. Thanks to Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber for once again sponsoring our October Halloween scarecrow contest. Thanks to the manager and all the individual managers out there for the good energy consumption report. And and then the the I was gonna say a word or two. I think we've said it all about I guess, thanks for the to the fire department for their leadership in general, but particularly on the on the sparky fire fire costume. We act in in Tacoma, it's incredible how how these costumes and are are so are things that kids are so responsive to. We had in Tacoma, we had Froggy, the recycling toad, and it became so successful. They wanted to they wanted federal funding for a second one. So, you know, that was that was pretty terrific. And and finally, just very glad that we're we're we're making progress on the with DOT on the rapid reflecting flashing beacon for Maple and Wells, and hopefully, we can get that up and running as soon as possible.
I think this is just a process question. I would like to pull out the, MTA MNR referral to the Water Fund Advisory Committee for discussion.
So is that You don't need to you don't need to pull it out. You can because it's combined in resolution with a lot of other things.
But you can have the discussion on it right now, unless you unless you specifically wanna vote on that separately than the rest, but
Consent of gender requires unanimous consent, so we will remove it Further discussion?
I just wanna call out that the, you know, part of the consent agenda, which is amazing news, is the flashing beacons that will hopefully be installed before the school year or soon after the school year starts on Maple Street, which is fantastic. I also just from a process perspective for folks in the audience that are here, we are scheduling a public hearing next week for our local law 10, which includes the the fowl and pigeon conversation. So the the public will come next week and make statements on that, and then we'll decide whether or not we'll vote at that point or we will table that conversation or, you know, make some changes next week based on public feedback.
You think that it makes sense to schedule a public hearing the last week of August? Or do you think it makes sense to move it to September when it this is obviously a popular topic and I wanna make sure that everyone who wants to speak on this topic is able to, and the last week of August.
No. Well, I mean, it's I I did think about I had the same concerns, but I figured school has already begun at that point, so people are gonna be
just wanna be I just know that it's very it's a very, popular topic, and I just wanna make sure that we are not scheduling it. We are scheduling it at a time when everybody who wants to have their voice hear heard is able to have it heard. I don't know if, you know, Labor Day is late. School is starting early. Labor Day is starting late. I just wanted to I just wanted to think about when we've scheduled it.
Yeah. There's no requirement that you close the public hearing. Right. Right? You can you can keep it open till the next meeting if you feel like there's additional comments you may wanna hear. Mhmm. So Okay. I just wanna let everybody know, it seems like our Zoom computer has It's not looking great. Oh, okay. So we've lost our attorney. Oh, that's a problem. Yeah. So we're still we're working on it, I just wanna Does that mean that can the public watching it on Yeah. No. It doesn't affect anything on that. It's just it's just that we can't display the agenda or and we don't have Zoom at the moment. Okay. So but we're we're trying to stream's
Manager, just a question because I'm even though I'm nine months in, I I still am new. Feel new. Item number 6, consider acknowledging receipt of local order number 14. So what is being asked of us on that? Like, when you consider acknowledging receipt of it, it doesn't mean that are we
All you're all you're doing is saying, I've received this. Yes. Alright. Because you have to you have looking on it. No. You have to receive it Mhmm. And then refer it. Right. Right?
So that's I just wanted to make sure that's all in his decision. Correct this. You can't can't give it to someone else unless you have it first. Alright. Thank you. Alright.
Yeah. Could I just go back to the item that trustee, Nicholson pulled out? Do we have any do we have any information on I know there was we weren't sure what the timing was gonna be with the flashing beacons. We were waiting for something. Can you just talk a little bit about
Yeah. So in Maple Street, it's a state road. Right? And so even though we've installed two flashing beacons on Maple Street already, New York State DOT asked for some additional information this time compared to the other two, so it took us a little bit of time to get that information. We have since submitted everything. I've spoken with the sorry. I'm I'm blanking on what her title is right now, but one of the engineers in the, Quatna office, the Northern Westchester office, who said that she was ready to issue the permit, but we can't start work in the state right of way unless we have DOT's approval. Right? So, until we get that permit, we can't start the work. So, I'm hoping that at the very least we will have some of the work started before school begins, if not fully installed so that people will at least see that it's making progress. But we're certainly gonna do our best to have it done before September 1. So
Manager, the the did I see on here the the sidewalks regarding the snow removal?
We're scheduling a public hearing for that. That's, local law intro number 12. Mhmm. Also for September 2. Same day.
Yes. We would discuss that as part of the I mean, although, I mean, the laws if you wanna discuss we could discuss it now as well because if if a majority of the board wants to do it, we might as well add it to the law now so we don't have to rehold the public hearing. So Yeah. I mean, you know, like I put like I put in my memo, and I apologize for not being able to put it up on the screen here. Mhmm. You know, it was it's my it's it's my understanding of the law, right, that we generally only exempt sidewalks that have geographical Mhmm. Limitations. Mhmm. Right? So, like, if you live if you live on top of a hill, but your property goes all the way down to the bottom of the hill and you have a sidewalk at the bottom of the hill, it would be unreasonable, you know, for you to get down to the bottom of the hill. And so, you know, you're exempt from that Mhmm. From that regulation. Mhmm. You know? And so I put together in that memo showing the areas that, specifically on Farrington. Right? There's, the the Bank Street affordable, condominiums. Right? They don't have any access to the sidewalk on Farrington. And then, the four homes on Palmer, don't have any access from their properties on Palmer to Farrington. Mhmm. I did not include the last two homes on Palmer because they do have access down to Farrington. They have staircases on their property that connect right down to the sidewalk. Right. So in my interpretation, that's not a limitation. Obvious that's a policy decision that's up to the board. If you wanna determine that, you can do that. I don't know if there are other circumstances in the village where if you do do that Mhmm. You know, you may get further requests.
Yep. I don't know if my other colleagues are familiar enough with this to weigh in. I know how I feel about this No. And I will share. I think that adding there are two two households that are now being kind of excluded that are on Palmer that because they have stairs down to Farrington, they're not included in the exemption. I think we should just include all of Palmer and not in Disclaimer. Not disclude these two houses.
Yes. Regardless. Correct. Well, we've only heard I I I don't know if the board received. I've heard from one
Homeowner. You're right. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know if you're gonna do that, I don't know if you wanna also include I mean, there's there's other homes there on Faring like, the home on there's two homes that have Farrington addresses that have the same situation, right, that have sidewalks on 2. On Palmer or on which way do they go? Both.
it's 24 And 26 Palmer. Right. Mhmm. And then 27 and I think that might be 31. I can't really read that. I think it might be 27 And 31 Farrington.
Well, 20 so 27 Farrington has a has they they front Farrington, obviously, and then they have a they have a walkway that leads them up to to the sidewalk on Palmer.
Yeah. I mean, I I I just Uh-huh. I just caution again that the purpose of of looking at this whole section and making the changes that we did is that DPW was overburdened this past winter. Right? And so my only concern is not my I don't necessarily have a specific concern about adding two more houses here. My concern is that if we change our criteria for what we what we use to add the sidewalks Mhmm. Do we then start getting requests from other areas in the village that, you know, for every every house that has two sidewalks?
Yeah. Because you I mean, you could have corner lots. Corner lots. There's a lot of corner lots. There are a lot well, that's my point is Yeah. Yeah. I I understand the idea of adding these in because it's only two. But it's also then what's can't Stairs are dangerous.
Yeah. Very steep set of stairs stairs Right? I mean, I'm pretty familiar So with that
So if we were to do that, would that mean that none of the sidewalks on either side of Farrington would be able were were gonna be shoveled by any so I'm looking at 24 Farrington. So it looks like if that's the case, then there are sidewalks on both sides of that street, neither of which would end up being cleared. Will the DPW DPW would
Yeah. So the law the law exempts the law exempts the owner from having to do it, so we end up doing it. The law doesn't say we have to do it, but we end up doing it.
Right. So the residents are just doing the ones that are I do feel like this is a little bit of a special situation where
it's not like their house is on the other side. Like, if their house is on the I'm looking at it sort of driving
North, I guess. It's a pretty special situation where both of the sidewalks on both sides well, actually, I I I don't know if it is or not. But in this is a case where both sides of the street are impacted by the decision we're gonna make, which would mean that then d p no. This would be impassable on the sidewalks if DPW didn't do it. It's not like you could cross the street and walk on the other side. The one the one sidewalk that abuts the
Bank Street condos, we we have been doing that one. It just, for whatever reason, has not been included in the list. Okay. So so we're we're making that correction now. I'm not sure who has been doing those Palmer sidewalks. Maybe it's the maybe it's the homeowners who have been doing it. They've, you know, maybe they've had to drive all the way around and and do it. Mhmm. So
They they could have. Yeah. I mean, you know, we we do our best to try to check different areas in different storms. I think a couple years ago, they were were on the final. Yeah.
So I mean, yeah, my perspective is to add them as well as the two houses on Farrington.
You know, and I I think it's a harder task in in the future, you know, to to evaluate new requests, but I don't think that should stop us from from going forward with these two. Mhmm.
Well, if there are future requests, then I think we will have to reevaluate, but we can add it for now.
Okay. Yeah. I'm not I'm not against doing it. I just I want I wanna make sure that the sidewalks are clear so the kids can walk to school because these kids Yeah. Would do not get a bus to school. That's what I'm thinking as I'm considering this. Mhmm. So just just to be clear, are we just adding to the two the two houses on Palmer, those two sidewalks, and
Has to be don't I don't think yeah. Agree. Sorry. Let's get the now that we got our computer back, let's get the memo up. Rachel, sorry. Go to local law number 12. Demo. Alright. So let's go down to the second. Okay. So there we go. So Can you can you make that Yeah. Can you sorry. Can you zoom in a little bit? So, I mean, those two it's it's a little bit strange because the two homes on Palmer, right, their backyards are Farrington, but then the other two homes, their front yards are Farrington. So maybe we just stop at the two on Palmer.
I mean, it seems like you should have to shovel the sidewalk in front of your house. Like, when you need to, like, walk downstairs and go to another street, like, that seems like a lot of effort. Right? I mean, if we're already excluding those houses. I mean, this would it's like they have to drive all the way around the block to do No.
That's that's what I mean. Yeah. When I was looking at this, I'm like, I'm I'm really shocked that these people on Palmer have not complained in the past. Mhmm. So unless it's just not being done, period. Right? Which I mean Right. It's it's possible. So okay. So we will did you get the Zoom up? Sorry, Rachel. Can we just take a minute break here so I can get the Zoom back up? Because I I would like Lori Lee to top since we're changing the law, I just would like to get her opinion on this. Thank you. Thank you.
Yeah. Don't turn it. That's fine.
Very good. We're we're discussing we had a little conversation about local law introductory number 12 Yes. Which has to do with changing the sidewalk exemptions with regards to snow shoveling.
Yes. I remember we talked about this at the workstation. Yes. So the village board,
So they want We just did the two. Just do the two. Is that what we said? Is that right? So everybody's okay with that?
Alright. So we we need to change the length of the exemption area in the law to include two additional properties. So k. Can we still schedule the the public hearing for now with the understanding that we'll update the wording before the before the law is published?
Alright. I just want I just wanted to make sure we were doing everything by the book. So
Correct. I need to I need to have I need to have superintendent Balbi just measure it out and update, you know, whatever it is, you know, 250 feet to 350 feet, whatever it might be. Great. So Alright. Thanks.
Well, if I was there, you know, I'd I'd have out my tape measure, and I'd go out there right now for you. Okay. No problem. Yeah. Yeah. We can, you can make that change once you have that number and just get it uploaded. That's great. Perfect. Thank you.
K. Alright. So I guess, do we have a motion to approve the, consent agenda as amended?
Yes. Motion by Justice Simon, second by Trustee Nicholson. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Very good. Alright. And then we had the item that was removed. Do we wanna discuss that? Yeah. Let's put that let's put that one first, I guess.
Okay. Yep. Oh, well, I guess that would be the correspondence resolution because that's that's where it's under. Alright. So, yeah. So it's the first resolution there, Rachel. Okay. So, now therefore be it resolved. The village board of trustees hereby undertakes the following actions. One, approving the request to hold Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce scarecrow contest during fall twenty twenty six. Two, refer the consistency review request from MTA Metro North Railroad to the Water Fund Advisory Committee for their review and comment. Three, filing for the record the 2025 energy benchmarking report, the letter from Westchester County Department of Senior Programs and Services for the senior citizen hall of fame, and the letter from AAA Northeast announcing the 2026 gold award for the village of Cortlandt Hudson in the AAA Community Traffic Safety Award program.
So I will I wanna thank you, manager, for meeting with me this week. I know we discussed this MNR project and, you know, the the questions that I raised around it. And I left that meeting at the at that time feeling like, okay. We'll refer it to the WAC. But after thinking about it, I would like to just have the discussion, you know, with the board and get their their thoughts on it. And also just give more visibility to this project, to the public because it's if someone's just glancing at an agenda, they're not gonna really understand that this is probably one of the most significant metro north railroad projects, I think, facing Croton On Hudson in in a while. What this is, it's it's related to coast coastline resiliency. Right? And, you know, in in efforts to improve the resiliency of the railroad, what they're looking to do is, proposed installation of new signal equipment and fences at various locations along the Hudson River all the way up to Peekskill. This is the the phase that we're in. Poughkeepsie. Poughkeepsie. Sorry. Yeah. But even further then. Yeah. Yeah. And, I know, you know, we've already given permanent easements and temporary, I guess, placements or Easement. Both permanent and temporary easements. Easements years ago for for this, but, I just wanted to explain that this work, will occur adjacent to the the Croton River and the Havistar Bay, significant with significant fish and wildlife habitats. The work will, occur within, you know, the active rail corridor. There'll be in water river work, going on at several locations for the placement footings for platforms, lots of steel work. And
when I reviewed this, you know, we're asking the WAC, the Water Advisory Commission, to, you know, review it for consistency, the coastal form. And I know that that group and deputy mayor, your chair, take their jobs seriously. And I felt, because I'm on the whack, that there's no way that I could personally answer any of these coastal assessment, determinations based on the information that Metro North has provided. I think that what they provided is incomplete, and I know that the engineering department goes through painstaking efforts to make sure applications are complete before they pass them along, you know, to planning boards and other boards. And, you know, I do have concerns, you know, around this. This project, you know, it's let me say. So we don't know, you know, what equipment is being placed in the floodplain. We don't know what the elevations are of everything they're doing. How do we answer how it will impact the scenic vistas of the river when we have no information about heights of anything. We don't know what the fill is. Will construction alter drainage? The plans, the maps they provided I'm calling them maps, but they're dated many of them are dated draft November 22, and the document is signed by a senior planner at Dubery on behalf of M and R. So, you know, basically, you know, we don't really know how large this project is, what the height is, what the footprint, the dimensions, the foundations. There's in water work being done. We don't know how the footings will be installed, what equipment's being used, where the staging areas necessarily are, how they're managing disturbed soil, if they're do you know? So my request is to discuss with the board, can we ask M and R for more complete information before we refer this to the WAC? Because the other option is we just refer this to the WAC and we sit around the table, and maybe three of the five of us or all of us say, no. We don't have the complete information here. This is a project that will likely cause many nuisances to the village, and I think it would be very helpful for us to have more transparency around how they're going about this project. I know that we don't have control over Metro North. They can do whatever they want, and we can't impose any fines on them. I mean but here's an opportunity for us to say, wait a minute. This is coming to our Water Fund Advisory Commission
to evaluate, make determinations on the LWRP, 43 or 44 points. We we need more information on the project. So that way, we we have it on record, you know, more information for the public. And that's that's my that's my ask. I mean, I did a lot of research on the project and I can tell you that they made determinations but they did not share any data to back up their determinations. And the determinations came from a planner, not Metro North themselves. So, you know, I'm personally not comfortable with this.
But so thank you, Trustee Nachtaler. As I said when we met on Monday, I agreed to request more information from, the planning firm. And I also said that the WAC was more than, able to invite a representative from their group to attend the meeting to answer the questions that you may have. So I don't think people would sit around the table and say, oh, we don't have enough information. But all all of that aside, you're this is a referral. This is an administrative task that you are doing, and it goes to the WAC, and it then it comes back to you. So even if you don't you don't have to agree with what the WAC says, you could take what the WAC says and say, no. I still think we need more information. And then my opinion, that would be the appropriate time for this board, the village board, to ask for more information. This is not this is not your your time right now. You this is the WAC's time. So, you know, I think the proper course of action here in accordance with our law is that this gets referred to the WAC. The WAC if you read the section of the code with the WAC, they are entitled to ask for more information, delay their decision. They can ask for experts and charge the charge it to the consultant. Right? I mean, they have a lot of power to do these, consistency reviews. So, but there's no there's no this is not this is not an application like a special permit application. Right? This is not a village application. This is you don't have any
as Stacey Nachtaler was saying, you don't have necessarily any authority over the project that they are conducting. You know, certainly not any activity in the water. Right? That's coast guard sorry. DEC and Army Corps. Mhmm. Mhmm. You know, and the rest of it on their on, you know, Metro North or MTA property, right, is, you know, as as we know from many activities over the year with with the railroad, right, we don't have, you know, authority over. So
And this is gonna be in the river. People will see this activity on the river walk. You know, I just think when is the time where we have any leverage at all to be asking for more complete information on the project? You know, is it and and I just I don't personally understand how the WAC could do its job with
No. I know. But as I as I just said, on on Monday while we were in my office Yeah. I I asked them for more information. I've I've made the ask already. Thank you. Yeah. No. So I I mean, I just I don't necessarily see what benefit well, besides the fact that I don't think it's it's necessarily right in the process, but I don't really see the benefit in delaying it for another two weeks to you're going to see the information anyway at at, you know, because it has to come back to you. You're not being asked to make a determination. You as the village board are not being asked to make a determination tonight. All you're doing is referring it to the WAC so that they can I know? It's just that I'm on the WAC. So I'm thinking know. But you're not but you're not you're not sitting in your whack capacity right now.
I understand. Yeah. Manager, just I I think I heard you correctly. Is is it possible to have either Metro North or the Dubery firm available for
And Yeah. Because they'll and like I said, they'll be able to either answer your questions or say, I I'll need more time to get that information. And then if the WAC feels like they can't make a determination, there's nothing that requires you to make a determination in one meeting. You can hold it over until the next
your next meeting. And you've given them, I would I would imagine, of course, you know, Trustee Nachtaler was there with you, but the range of information that you're interested in in terms of the upside. So they should come prepared. Yes. They yes. So unfortunately, the
the lead planner on the project is out of the office this weekend, but she will be back sorry, this week. And she'll be back on Monday. Okay. So Yeah. We're meeting Tuesdays, so Yeah. That's fine. Okay.
So I agree. I mean, I think that process wise, it should go to the WAC. Yep. Yep. And and then they can if they have the ability to ask for more information Yep. That's the point. I also just wanna say I appreciate your research. I appreciate your concerns. I have a very big concern. I think the biggest economic risk to Croton On Hudson is the tracks being underwater in twenty to thirty years. And that's a real possibility, and that's, you know Yeah. Why they need to do this work. So unfortunately, it may cause some nuisance in the village, but Or safety in general. And safety in general. Yeah. We're gonna see these tracks flooding and they they do need to do this work. So I do support being careful, but at the same time, I also don't wanna be a roadblock to important
work that needs to be done from a track. You know, and actually, I I I commend you, Trustee Stacey Nachtaler. It's it's an innovative approach to try to get them to actually come into the WAC and and meet with us and and be available for to supplement the information that they've given us.
Yeah. Thank you. I'm definitely not looking to be a roadblock to progress on coastal resiliency. Well, technically, would if it's an opportunity to share more transparency around this project for the village because we know that we're gonna be getting calls when stuff starts popping up. And if we don't know, you know, it just
we don't we know what that position is like. And if we can avoid it, great. So Yeah. Is this also an opportunity for us to invite our planner to sit into that meeting just to help to give some perspective, and some additional, guidance to the WAC as they approach the pre you know, the proposal Mhmm. To help them ask questions. I know that everyone on the WAC is very skilled, but I do think that this is both a environmental situation and a, you know I I transportation situation. I just think I I have grown to really appreciate what Valerie and her team bring to the table. And I think this could be another opportunity to, you know, just have, you know, more perspective and and people at the table from Croton.
I don't have any objection to that, but I think we should let the WAC review review it. Can we offer it to the to them? And make that decision if that's what they would like.
So All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Very good. Trustee Nachtaler, do you wanna vote nay? Or
If well, you said you're they're gonna come and speak at the WAC. Yeah. So I'm I support that.
Two. Bless them. Thank you. Whereas the village of Cortlandt Hudson recently solicited sealed bids for trade labor services under bid number 22 of 2025. And whereas this bid was broken down into the following categories allowing vendors in individually bid on the categories applicable to them, general construction, plumbing, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, masonry, and roofing. Whereas six bids were submitted by the deadline of 01/22/2026. Whereas that the six bids received, two vendors submitted proposals for the plumbing portion of the bid. Whereas the lowest responsive bid received was from Joe Lombardo Plumbing of Suffern, New York in the amount of $42,557.60. Whereas Frank Balbi, superintendent of public works, has reviewed the bids and recommends moving forward with this bidder. Now therefore be it resolved that the village managers hereby authorize to award bid number 22Of2025 for trade labor services plumbing to Joe Lombardo Plumbing of Suffern, New York in the amount of $42,557.60.
So that that dollar amount just kind of represents the average, you know, that's that doesn't mean that that's what we're gonna pay him because it's based on how often we have to have service calls. Payment until their call their services are called Right. Yeah. So that's just based off of what an average year of plumbing is. Yeah.
The village issued an invitation to bid on 07/16/2026 for the purchase of a 2025 or 2026 Chevrolet Tahoe police pursuit vehicle. Whereas one bid was submitted by the deadline of 07/24/2026, whereas the lowest bid received was from emergency vehicle specialists of Poughkeepsie, New York in the amount of $51,900, whereas John Nikitopoulos, chief of police, has recommended moving forward with the low bidder. Now therefore be it resolved that the village managers hereby authorized to award bid number seven of twenty twenty six to emergency vehicle specialists of Poughkeepsie, New York in the amount of $51,900.
Whereas the village issued an invitation to bid on 07/30/2026 for the purchase of a loader mounted snowblower, and whereas four bids were submitted by the deadline of 08/11/2026. And whereas the lowest bid received was from FDR Hitches of Roselle Park, New Jersey in the amount of $62,599, and whereas Frank Balbi, superintendent of public works, has recommended moving forward with the low bidder. Now therefore be it resolved that the village manager is hereby authorized to award bid number 10 of 2026 to FDR Hitches of Roselle Park, New Jersey in the amount of $62,599.
I I know FDR is looking down from above. Just a very very glad that he's being celebrated with
Mhmm. And I know the DPW team was very excited about this particular piece of equipment. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, the
the superintendent's memo was excellent, I thought, just in in terms of describing the efficiencies that it helps bring about.
Yeah. And it assures us less snow. Yep. Yeah. We're already we're gonna have no snow. Yeah. We've already talked about sidewalk shoveling, snow blowers. Right.
also the parking alternate side parking. Yes. Yeah. That's coming next. Yep. Fix the roof when the sun is shining. That's
Whereas the replacement of traffic signals on South Riverside Avenue at its intersection with Benedict Boulevard and its intersection with Croton Point Avenue was included in the twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six capital budget, whereas the level technical specification needed for the development of the bid documents requires third party assistance. And whereas Nelson and Pope Engineering Architecture and Land Surveying of Melville, New York has provided the proposal in the amount of $9,500 to develop the bid documents and provide assistance during bid review. And therefore, it be resolved that the village manager is hereby authorized to accept the proposal from Nelson and Pope Engineering architecture, and land surveying of Melville, New York in the amount of $9,500.
Well, mayor, the firm has been doing a great job for us in grant writing, been doing a great job for us in planning. And so I'm I'm glad to know that learned recently that they've got this capacity as well, and it's it's an in effect, like, bringing on additional staff capacity so that the superintendent doesn't have to put aside everything else that he's doing for a week to to to prepare the paperwork for the specifications.
You know, we have over the past couple of years, you know, the board has wanted to support a lot of capital projects, which is great. And, you know, we want to improve our infrastructure. Mhmm. But there's only so many hours in a day. Right? And so, you know, like, for example, this project was funded last year in, you know, June 2025, but it just there's a lot of work that goes into this type of bid specification, and so Mhmm. We haven't been able to get it done. So, you know, I was happy. But like trustee Simon said, I was happy to learn that Valerie's firm also offers this, you know, capacity. And so I was I was very happy to get the proposal from them. Indeed.
Whereas the village of Cortlandt Hudson assumed the ownership of and maintenance requirements for the 0.5 Moon Bay Bridge over the Metro North railroad tracks in 1996. And whereas in order to address past safety issues and the proper maintenance of the bridge, the village is moving ahead with the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the 0.5 Moon Bay Bridge. And whereas on 02/07/2024, the village board of trustees adopted resolution number 29 of 2024 to accept the proposal from Tectonic Engineering of Rocky Hill, Connecticut to provide consulting and engineering design services for the project. And whereas Tectonic has provided a proposal to cover an additional scope of work related to submissions required by the New York State Department of Transportation in the amount of $32,230, now therefore be it resolved that the village board hereby authorizes the village manager to accept the proposal from Tectonic Engineering for the above scope of work and be it further resolved that funding for such work is available in account H5110Dot2106Dot15287.
So, manager, how does this work evolve, you know, from what we previously had in terms of the the engineering work?
This is these are just additional scopes of work. You know, New York State DOT, as they go through their review process, you know, asked for, I mean, I could I could pull it up here. Yeah. We do. Exactly. But this they just asked for tweaks to different things that were outside the original scope of the of the proposal. So they they calculated that that that additional asks came up to that number. So it's nothing like, oh, gee, we never looked at that before. This is an additional requirement From DOC. Sure sure it's worthy, you know, coming from the state DOC. You know, superintendent Balbi reviewed it and agreed with it. So yeah.
With the resolutions concluded, we proceed to public comment on non agenda item. Oh, sorry. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Alright. With, resolutions concluded, we proceed to public comment on non agenda items. Anyone wishing to comment on anything, this is your opportunity. Please state your name and address.
Hi. Dave from Farrington. Thank you for this time to speak. First, I'd like to say thank you to whomever is responsible for the yellow markers in the no parking spots on Riverside at in at Farrington And High Streets. This is a big help trying to navigate the those left turns, so thank you. Now as much as smoking on commercial aircraft is now unthinkable, future generations will wonder why gas powered leaf blowers remained commonplace long after their harms became abundantly clear. It's because lawmakers like you that we all wait, covering our ears and mouths and sheltering our children inside, waiting for the toxins to dissipate. Mayor Pugh, do you remember playing outside when you were a kid? Do you remember when your parents asked you to come inside from the backyard because carcinogens are coming over the fence? Did you close the window to concentrate on homework, but a machine was making a 100 decibels outside and making it difficult to concentrate? Well, that's what our kids have to deal with now. Board of trustees, mayor Pugh, you have not acted in the interest of public health in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and so far 2026 after the knowledge, the facts delivered to you by the CAC in October 2020. Now just about six years later, with towns across Westchester already multiple years into full year ordinances, you've not seen fit to follow their lead, but instead punted the issue of this public health threat back to the CAC with a huge list of new asks that has resulted in exactly what you wanted, further delay. You've given them a task equivalent to Charlie Brown reading War and Peace over summer break. You only acted finally on May 27, three months ago. They told me to expect a recommendation
three months from now. You've asked too much of the CAC. It's taking too long, and it's not the CAC's fault. Let's take a closer look at that first c in CAC. It stands for conservation, and this committee works very hard for Croton. But with all this respect they deserve, why are you relying on them to advise you on legislation intended to protect the public health of Croton. What is the CAC's expertise or even experience with hearing loss? With carcinogens, with carbon monoxide inhaled by children. We all demand faster action. We demand you protect public health. Not later. Now. It isn't protecting public health in Croton what your seat what you are in your seats to do? In less than two weeks on September 1, a four month long assault on the public health of Croton begins again. Decibels that strip the naked ear, toxins known to cause cancer. Cool. It appears this legislative body of Croton is okay with that. This is what I ask of you beginning September 1. For the next four months, every time you see, hear, or smell a gas leaf blower right on through the day of New Year's Eve, I want you to remember that someone, a whole lot of someone's including you is in harm's way. Hearing damage, emphysema, asthma, lung, and esophageal cancers, cardiovascular disease. I hope it's not a child. Your child. My child. The case for ending the use of gas powered leaf blowers has been made over and over again going back years. The only question is if you as the elected leaders of Croton are willing to do something about it for the town you were elected to serve. It will take commitment and maybe some intestinal fortitude. Do you have it? Is our public health worth it?
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Just off topic, I'd like to say that, I've done my lawn for seventy seven years, and my wife insisted that an outside guy do it. Part of the landscaping industry, you know. Guy makes about $65,000 a year, and he's the manager as opposed to the other guys who make, like, 35. And so they showed up, and he showed up one of those big jobs, lawnmowers that the village uses, which makes a lot of noise. And I have an electric lawnmower, which makes a lot or not electric lawnmower, a gas lawnmower, which makes your lawn so he started doing it with the gas powered loose blower, and I ran out and said, you can't do this. You can't do this. Uses electrically for which I have, which sucks. They really suck, and it costs a lot more. Don't have the power. Don't have the they don't last very long either, the charge. So he put his away, and and, I said, let let me see that one. It's a gas powered and he had a low noise gas powered leaf blower. And so between whatever leaf blower he uses and my lawn mower, which spits out stuff, makes dust all over the place, blows crap away, I bet you we make as much noise as any damn leaf blower does. It's when you gang up on leaf blowers. So and I think that maybe gasoline lawnmowers and neck because they hate gasoline or whatever the hell else. I'd like to remind you of some this one I was off topic. I was looking as we were dealing with this outrageous housing proposal across from ShopRite, and I believe housing's going in there. It should only be half the size, maybe 30 units. It should look nice. It's gonna have to reinforce the hell out of the bank. You can use Van Wyck Street as an example. Reinforce the hell out of that bank
and and make a project look attractive, which the other track is either me mediocre or terrible. The exceptions being the one that's a plain development next to Harmon Deli, the three story job, fits perfectly. It's a narrow building. And then the one in which you approved years ago on a corner where Big by Susan is and a and a and on top of the pot shop. It should be appropriate sized building for the lot, and it should be in sync with the neighborhood, the landscape, and the neighbors. Neighbors have rights and the infrastructure, which, is in doubt down there. In passing these documents around, somebody passed the comprehensive plan from 2005 around. And I looked at the front page, and it burst in it laughing. I had a laughing out loud because they said as follows. This is a favorite of our state senator and our governor. Talking about transit oriented housing. Talking about transit oriented housing, you know, a lot parking lot a. This is a, new,
up and coming idea, transitory. And it's especially put in place in the states of California and New Jersey. And when I read that, I said, if we follow anything in housing that the states of New Jersey or California do, we're in big trouble. We already lost a million people out of this state in the last three. A million people left this state. There's only two other states proportionally lost more, and that's California, Illinois, which is terrible, and New Jersey, and their housing plans suck. If you drive up and down the East Coast Of The United States, which I do regular basis, you will see what their transit oriented housing plans look like. And Montrose is a perfect example, and, of course, Parking Adder will be another. Montrose looks like a maximum security prison. And I assume as we develop, that's the kind of housing we're gonna get, especially with some of the contractors that have proposed stuff to us lately. So I just wanted to bring that to your attention.
My prime concern right now is R U 46. R u stands for Russell, damn, Uclaf, which was a, German, French pharmaceutical firm that was searching for stuff to deal with thyroid problems. And then they had a six digit code, which they shortened, 46, three digits, and then they dumped this abortion pill in the market. And when you look at the development of that pill in Europe, it had the same tawdry, dirty, corrupt, development as of The United States with state and federal officials. Last thing I'd like to put on the record, this is a card on how to save a child after the first drug has been administered to a a woman. You can save that child. You can save those twins If you get help within seventy two hours, it's the same treatment that is used for miscarriages.
Hello. Ned Rust, Morningside Drive. I didn't realize there was a meeting tonight till yesterday, so you guys are in luck. And I didn't have so I didn't have time to prepare a full five minute speech. And you're extra lucky because I'm going to offer you some of the best life advice I can. I know everything in the world is really complicated. There's a lot of gray. There's a lot of nuance. There are a lot of exceptions and extenuating factors and cat and caveats running over all around and, you know, threatening to bite us in the butt. But, here's a handy way to make things really simple. There are two types of action you can make in this world and things you can say. There are considerate ones and there are inconsiderate ones. And you're either thinking more about other people when you do or say something, or you're thinking more about yourself. And guess what the leaf blower preservationists are doing when they, or when they have their paid servants, fire up these outdated cancer causing pollution machines? Are they thinking about others, about the carcinogenic legacy of aromatic hydrocarbons on the children of our community, about the respiratory and auditory health of our landscape workers. Is that considerate, or is that inconsiderate? It's a simple rubric, and you can take it to your work here on the board too. I thank you for your consideration, which, by the way, can be sometimes be include being brief and decisive. Thank you. Thank you.
Does anyone else wish to comment? Seeing no one else wishing to comment, we proceed to reports. Trustee Slippen.
Thank you, mayor. There aren't a lot of committee meetings going on. I can't even remember the last time we had a regular meeting.
This is July 15. Okay. So there haven't been a lot of committee meetings, but I do wanna shout out the arboretum who has met throughout the summer, and the arboretum looks terrific. I don't know if people have made it there recently, but it looks terrific, in spite of the Beaver Dam or because of the Beaver Dam. So thank you to the arboretum folks for doing so. Also, our newly formed, although not technically village committee, the Friends of Croton Parks have been busy at work all summer long. Also, I'm sure that Trustee Nicholson is gonna speak more about that, so I won't say too much but I do just want to thank the those two organizations for their their work throughout the summer. And I just wanna take a minute to talk about committees in general. I heard this quote this week or read it, just about democracy and how it really doesn't happen without public participation, and I really believe that, which is why I have been so adamant about working on our our our volunteer committees, our citizen committees, you know, and getting them in a place where not only the volunteers are being well served, but so is the community. I know there's been a lot of conversation recently about the minutes and the agendas and how everything is working, and I do think that it's a work in progress that we have not perfected yet. Trustee Nicholson and I spent a lot of time on the guidelines and how that was all gonna work and what that's gonna look like, and we have certainly not perfected it yet, but in my meeting with the manager this week, I probably much to his annoyance said that I would like to have another work session or minimally a meeting with the committee chairs just to talk about how it's going and how we can do better because I really do appreciate all those people who do so much work in all different capacities for the village whether or not everybody agrees with everything they're doing all the time. I think we should really be grateful to them. So I just I think the work is really important to everyone in the village and how we're doing. You know, another component of that which I've been talking about frequently is the inclusion of high school students on these committees. I think it's gonna be a very nice way, to create another connection, bring in another perspective. I do think that there are some items on the guidelines that we put together that I like to revisit. I don't know how exactly that happens, if that has to happen at a meeting because we adopted them, if it can happen more informally.
And I don't need to go into them now. But, the activities fair that I hope Trustee Nicholson will join me at is gonna be on September 15 where we will talk to some high school students about participation on these committees. So I just wanted to first say out loud to, you know, all the families whose kids are in the high school that that's gonna happen on the fifteenth, but it is also open to high school students who are village residents that maybe don't go to the high school. So I just wanna remember that that's an important component, but also talk about making some adjustments to that. So I don't know how that happens, but maybe you and I can continue that conversation and
Yeah. I mean, depending on what they are, it was adopted by resolution. So I think it says that it's supposed to be revisited during the organizational meeting, so that would be December.
I just I think the way it's written right now, maybe it would exclude some people that I would otherwise I think we it says that students have to be village residents, which is not even consistent with what our regular committee rules are. I I don't wanna spend too much more time talking about this. Meeting's already gone on for a while, but I did wanna bring it to your attention. And I also I just wanna make sure that people are aware of this. I want to, we had a meeting today regarding some more planning for Gouveia, which is a very frustrating and exciting project, for me, but and for a lot of people, but I do think the progress is getting made there and will continue to get made there. There is work being done. I hope that we can continue to highlight the work that's being done there and share it in the newsletter and on social media because progress is getting made, especially our our this new group, Friends of Croton Parks, has some really exciting ideas along with collaborating with the Recreation Advisory Committee and the Arts and Humanities Committee.
So, you know, there is progress that I would like to be celebrating whenever we can because, it's been a very long how long is it? Twelve years? But there was a progress made there today. The other thing, I know that, you know, there are a couple you know, there are a few hot topics happening in the village right now, and obviously, there's been a lot of attention to the re vising of the law that includes the pigeon situation. I think that what got us to where we are now are a couple things, you know, that have been an unfortunate in how it got here. You know, some decisions were made at the zoning board meeting that have impacted where we are now, and some I just I really wanna be thoughtful about how we proceed, and I really wanna make sure that everybody gets to speak at the public hearing and that we are not making decisions. You know, we're putting numbers on animals. You know, I'm hearing from people. You know, it's not it seems that when we when we embarked on this project, it seemed like it was gonna be a simple way to make things better, and it's very complicated. I think that we I just wanna be very careful about how we're considering what we're doing because a lot of people are gonna be impacted and a lot of people have opinions about it. And I don't
we can't fix the the way that decisions were made in the past, but we're gonna have the opportunity over the course of what I hope is a robust public hearing, to make the right decision that is going to be the best for the village going forward and not create more issues. That's my report.
Thank you. Judy? Judy? I I like to change my vote to no, referral to the WAC.
Go to the video team. You you can't change it absent another resolution that is a subsequent resolution, and that would have to be at the chair's at the chair's option to re re resolve an action.
Okay. In other words, you can't I don't know. You can't call the resolution yourself.
Yeah. Once the once the vote is done, it's final. Right? It's like you know? So you can't you can't re
Well, a single recall your vote. Yeah. Or change it in the same meeting that we just spoke about five minutes ago. No. I'm saying what I'm saying is a single member of the board of trustees cannot reopen a resolution. So you'd need to ask the chairman of the mayor to, to call the question as to whether you would like to reconsider the resolution in its entirety and then revoke.
Okay, mayor. I'm sorry to bother you with this. I'll know in the future not to do this. If we can possibly reopen it, everyone will vote the same way, and I'll just, for the record, vote no.
I don't think we've ever recalled the vote, and I think it's fine to note your objections and proceed from there.
Okay. So But I I'm not I do not wish to reopen the view. Right. So how Judy will note my objections on the minutes?
Yeah. Just as part of your as part of your report. Right? Just say that, you know, trustee Stacey Nachtaler, upon further, reflection
Yes. And also comments I heard from here, which were upsetting, so we don't have to get into that. But thank you for noting it, Judy. I appreciate what you do. Okay. So Sunday, this past Sunday, August 16, I attended the fiftieth Annual Jewish Music and Arts Festival put on by the Westchester Jewish Council. Pam Goldstein invited the board and, you know, I had the privilege of of going. And, you know, it was it was great. They had a lot of great vendors, a lot of great music, and, you know, lots of great attendees and and good engagement. So there were lots of great services too, for the community. So, I appreciated that. Also, I appreciated and I didn't get his name, but, he was in the fire EMS group. But I'm grateful for everything that the fire and EMS teams have been doing. I heard they answered five calls today. We know that they've had, you know, super challenging rescues at the county. It sounds like county park calls have been kind of heating up. So, you know, I guess with summer and, you know, you have more, you know, folks there, partying or, you know, having a great time. But, you know, I'm really grateful to them. And I do wanna mention that the county emergency service group put out new fire safety tips and videos, which I think, manager I don't know if that's something we can ask the Fire Council or, you know, the group to put on their website or maybe if you if it's appropriate to add a link on our website. But I found these fire safety tips videos done by the county to be, like, really helpful. Know, they're short. Them. Yeah. Yeah. They're good. Yep. You know? And, like, the gentleman who spoke tonight, he said that, you know, they've been answering a lot more calls than usual. And,
you know, so I I think it's, it's helpful if we can, you know, promote those.
We can link we can link to those, and I'll I'll, you know, reach out to the chiefs about using their social media to promote it also. Yeah. Thank you.
And I do wanna thank the planning board. You know, they've worked very hard on the 425 South Riverside, project, and I thought that they handled the planning board meeting, you know, with, real professionalism. You know? And I know that the public is, and and thank you, Lori Lee, as well and and to our planner. I think everybody did a great job. So I know, you know, that we're waiting the planning board is is waiting for that application to come back with more specifics. Right? Yeah. So, you know, we'll see if it ends up getting on the September
Yeah. The August 25 meeting was canceled. So the next meeting would be September 8. Right. Yeah. So the and the deadline for that would be Monday.
Yeah. So Yeah. So I know there's a lot of public interest in that, but I I thought the planning board did a a really good job. Great. And I do wanna just give a shout out to the VEB, the Visual Advisory Board. They met. I know trustee Slipin was on the call with me, and so were you, manager. You know, they're a small but mighty group. So, you know, I know we're gonna look forward to the meetings in person as well. I understand. Right? They'll move from Zoom to in person, which I think will be great. And, I know thank you, manager, for sharing, giving them, advanced peak and opportunity to weigh in on on the color for underneath the 0.5 Moon Bay Bridge for So, you know, that was that was good,
good timing on that. I appreciate it. We're happy I'm happy to have them weigh in on stuff, you know. It's it's what they're that's what they're there for. To do it. Yeah. So Yeah.
And just the seniors club, you know, the senior club, I'm I'm a liaison with deputy mayor Simon, and they meet every Friday, eleven to one, and their meeting's from twelve to one. And they have a pizza party coming up at the yacht club, September 11. For senior members, it's just $5 or $10 for guests. So that's you know, at the yacht club, should be fun. And then there's a senior barbecue, which is actually, that's August 28 next Friday. So that I'm trying to see where that is, but I think it's Probably at Senosco. Yeah. DPW's cooking. It's I would assume it's Senosqua. Yes. Oh, yes. Yeah. So that's this Friday for anyone that wants to go. Should be fun time. And I know that, deputy Mayyos Simon will update on some exciting your exciting FDR trip. Right? Coming up. Seniors. Okay. Yeah. So alright. So that's yeah. That's it. Thank you. Oh, sorry. The, my notes are getting smaller and smaller, my font. I do wanna acknowledge all the letters that we received on the pigeon topic
on kind of both both sides. You know? And I was very moved by the speakers tonight, you know, including Tony and and Nora and, you know, everyone who spoke on the topic. So I think like Trustee Slippen, I look forward to the public hearing and to further discussion around this to make sure that, you know, we all do the right thing and and just feel good about any changes that we propose to the law. So thank you.
Thank you. So I will keep it brief. I just wanna thank the DPW and recreation department. This for the summer concert series, it ended really successfully the other evening, Friday night. It was a beautiful night, and it was so nice to see a couple that actually got married down at Senesqua.
And the bride and groom did their dance, and Valerie and I were like, what? Yeah. So amazing. Just it's so special to everyone in the community. It was so nice to see. And the DPW has been working the DPW has been working so hard on all of the various road projects in the village. I noticed that the sidewalks on Old Post Road are being taken care of, which is very exciting.
happening as we speak, which is really exciting. And then kind of all of the new painting and roadwork and Cleveland Drive are just beautiful. That is amazing. Then the recreation department has been working on the successful camp years, a challenging Silver Lake year, but, you know, really putting in a lot of great effort there. Maria alluded to the meeting that we had today with which which with the landscape architect that the board had contracted with to do a master plan of the grounds of Gouveia Park. So it was amazing to see someone that has had history with the village and has done various village projects in the past, was a former resident, sort of see what his vision was of the of the park and what it could be. So, you know, it continues to move forward, which is really exciting. As Maria said, Friends of Croton Parks is now a nonprofit separate from the village. So if residents are interested in supporting parks,
they are gonna plan some upcoming opportunities where they'll be doing a workday at Cuauhabea Park where they'll be doing some weeding and some, you know, beautification. So that's really exciting to see. And with that, I will pass it to my colleague.
Well, thank you very much. And and I think, like we've all said, it's been a it's been a month or so since we've sat in these seats. So just a few things to catch up on. On July 16, our bicycle and pedestrian committee met. Mayor was there, and so was I. And we got an update from the team there on the next steps on the the redo of the bicycle pedestrian master plan. So we're looking forward to progress on that. We we received a lot of plaudits from everyone on the Cleveland Avenue repaving. Everyone was just very pleased about that. So we were it was quite good to hear that. And we talked a little bit about some of the funding that we're seeking from Project Mover that set aside funding for infrastructure projects, and we'll be submitting some paperwork to them on funding for bike lanes, additional RRFBs, bike racks, and and signage. So we'll we'll have more to report on that in the future. Unfortunately, on July 18, we had to cancel the our bike skills training class, which is 50% indoors, 50% outdoors, because that that was the the height of the Canadian forest fire bad air days. And so it was it was canceled for that, and I think it was raining as well. So we're working with with the recreation department to to reschedule it for some time in the fall. So I'll I'll let everyone know about that. On July 24, I sat in on the quarterly Zoom that congressman Lawler has for for local elected officials in the district, and he gave us a a quick briefing on the housing bill, the road to housing, which we've talked about briefly here before.
Some work he's doing on surface transportation reauthorization and how he's pushing back against some of the proposed amendments to the grants process, which would tend to politicize it. So it was always always good to get information from that office. On July 25, just congratulations to the recreation department for the community paddle. It was it was terrific. My wife, Linda, and I were pleased to participate. Mayor was there as well. I thought it was a great success. I think there were about 40 or so folks there, mostly in kayaks, a few a few rowboats there. And, of course, we Marc Cheshire did a great job in in in trying to put the whole thing in perspective with a little talk on one of the islands. And, so I wanna thank, recreation. Also wanna thank the hundred and twenty fifth, committee, chaired by Carolyn Whiting, which actually came up with the original idea to do the community paddle in 2023, and it's continued every year every year since. So and I think it's gonna be continue to be a great institution. On April, as trustee Nikhil said, Croton should be very proud, I think, of the planning board's care and deliberate work that they're doing. Our engineer, our planning staff, and our village attorney are really, really doing a fantastic job in in making sure that we're going step by step and and holding holding the proposed, you know, developer to a very high standard. And the the the absence of any subsequent meetings since the twenty eighth, I think, is a good indication that's working. On July 29, I think all of us were participating in the Lions barbecue. Was grateful for the invitation and to participate in that. And it's amazing how much good work the Lions do for Croton. They should really be applauded for that. On July 30, I had
the great honor to appear with senator Pete Harckham to receive a $100,000 in Crest Funds for the village, which we will hope to use for the Harmon Firehouse new roof with additional other funds. And assuming that we go forward with that, it'll be a couple of years, I think, before the funds actually float into our our account. But once once we get the roof work done, there's a potential for putting solar panels on on on the Harmon Firehouse just like we have on the on the Washington Engine Company. We've looked at this before through the sustainability committee, and fact is you can't put solar tiles on a on a bad roof. So we gotta get that got gotta get that roof done. And, of course, Independence Day, we were all there as well. Dwayne Jackson and Joe Serrato are are great reenactors doing that in blistering heat, you know, just wearing wearing these heavy cotton, you know, or whatever they were, burlap colonial uniforms. And it was especially I'm so grateful to the village manager and everyone for having had the idea of of not doing that on on July 4, but doing it on August 1 when there were less distractions like the big ships that were coming into the into the into the port in New York. And, of course, we had we had a second half of that because in addition to the great reenactment, I think it was longer than I've ever ever experienced. They did a fantastic job. But secondly, then we were able through the heart committee to honor Marc Cheshire and the historical society for all the all the great work that they do. And second last second to the last is National Night Out just last week. Again, I think we were we were all there. Thanks for the police department, fire department, EMS, everyone,
drone. DPW, Truesdale. DPW, every everyone that participated. It's a great it was a great community event and a great great coming out. And, of course, thanks also to the the golf course for the wonderful food. So it was just great. And as long just wrapping up, as long as trustee Nikhil mentioned it, we are taking the all of the seniors that want to it's at it's at least 30. So last time I checked the registration, we're taking them up to FDR. I'll be giving them a tour of the of the library and the museum, and we're very excited about that. And for those of you that aren't going on that trip, but would like to like to make a special trip up there between now and December, long story short, you know, until about 1812 or '13, there were no copies of the constitution of of the Declaration of Independence. You know, there were there were there were newspapers that had repeated the words, but there were no copies like we're used to seeing. So the the federal government at the time was had the idea of commissioning a a a steel plate that that had the reproduction of the words and signatures of the of the declaration. And they were generous enough to print up 200 copies for the for the whole country. There are only 50 left of that that are known of, and we now have one of them at at FDR on loan to us through December 26 by the great David Rubenstein, who's a great philanthropist and owner of the Baltimore Orioles, who are now tied with the Yankees in case any anyone knows. So if you're interested in coming up, just, just let me know. But we're we're very much looking forward to, the seniors being there on February 10.
Alright. Thank you all for your comprehensive review of the intervening weeks, and thank you to everyone that spoke to tonight's meeting. I want to thank the trail subcommittee to the Conservation Advisory Council for a cleanup on August 8. And, also, there will be a meeting before this, but I wanna give people maximum notice. A village town hall on a putt potential New York Forward application. New York Forward being the younger sibling to the Empire State Development Corporation's downtown revitalization initiative. This would be potential state funding for economic development and the creation of various amenities in the village, something that we are eligible for as a pro housing community. A new round has not been announced yet for New York Forward, but it has been budgeted for. So in order to prepare our application, we want to get public input sooner rather than later. And our planner slash grant writer will be explaining some of the thinking in terms of the overall strategy for this application, and we will also be hearing from mayor Marjorie Hsu of, the village of Sleepy Hollow, which is a previous, New York Forward winner who'll be described summarizing some of the projects that New York Forward has allowed Sleepy Hollow, to pursue. So that will be taking place on, did I say, September 3 because lunch. That's right. It is. It is. September 3. The Thursday. Alright. So very good. In this very room. Yep. In this very room. So, more information will be coming out shortly, but it is on our village calendar, and I hope we have robust participation. Manager, do you have anything else to add?
Not at this time. The BEP. Oh, wait. Sorry. Jan Johnsen. Jan Johnsen rather for the VEB. Yes. Do I have a motion on Jan?
Motion by trustee Slipin, second by trustee Simon. All favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you. To clarify that, over the chair. Yes. The chair.