Village Board Minutes - June 4, 2007

Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Village/Town of Mount Kisco held on Monday, June 4, 2007 at 8:30 pm in the Frank J. DiMicco Board Room, Village Hall, 104 Main Street, Mount Kisco, New York.

Present: Mayor J. Michael Cindrich

Deputy Mayor Peter DiChiara

Trustee George Griffin, Jr.

Trustee Peter Grunthal

Trustee Anthony Markus

Also Present: James Palmer, Village Manager/Clerk

Whitney Singleton, Village Attorney

Mayor Cindrich opened the Village Board Meeting he asked everyone to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance and asked everyone to please reflect on why we are here and asked for guidance in the decisions we make this evening that they will benefit all the people of Mount Kisco. He also asked that people remember in their prayers the family of Butch Clark a Fire Fighter and life long resident of the Village of Mount Kisco.

1) Communications:

A. Letter from Bruce Hartleben re: vacancy on the Architectural Review Board.

The Village Board of Trustees scheduled an informal interview with Mr. Hartleben for Monday, June 18, 2007 at 7:30 pm.

3) Board, Committee and Commission Reports: None.

4) Village Managers' Report -

A. Level of Byram Lake.

Village Manager James Palmer advised that the level of Byram Lake was at 97.8%. The daily average pumpage for the month of May was 1,666,194 million gallons per day, and the Saw Mill Pump Station inflow averaged 1,532,523 million gallons per day and the outflow averaged 1,527,913 million gallons per day.

B. Level of Byram Lake Historical Data.

Village Manager James Palmer briefly reviewed the Level of Byram Lake Historical Data from 2003 to 2007.

Motion made by Trustee Grunthal and seconded by Deputy Mayor DiChiara to go forward with the Geothermal Design for the Mount Kisco Public Library authorizing the following expenditures: $31,000 for Architectural/Engineering redesign fees; $2,000 for NYCDEP and NYSDEC Permit Fees and $15,000 for the test well for a total cost of $48,000.00.

Motion Adopted

Mayor Cindrich Aye

Deputy Mayor DiChiara Aye

Trustee Griffin, Jr. NAY

Trustee Grunthal Aye

Trustee Markus Aye

D. Executive Session to discuss pending litigation, personnel and real estate matters.

Motion made by Trustee Markus and seconded by Trustee Griffin, Jr. scheduling an Executive Session following the close of the Regular Meeting to discuss pending litigation, personnel and real estate matters, all in favor.

Motion Adopted

Mayor Cindrich Aye

Deputy Mayor DiChiara Aye

Trustee Griffin, Jr. Aye

Trustee Grunthal Aye

Trustee Markus Aye

5) Board Reports:

Trustee Griffin, Jr. reported as representative of the Memorial Day Parade Committee we had a great parade.

Mayor Cindrich echoed Trustee Griffin's sentiments and also thanked the American Legion and the Memorial Day Parade Committee for all their hard work.

Trustee DiChiara reported that throughout the last couple of years he has been reporting on different aspects of the quality of life issues in the Village, mostly discussing residential housing and making it safe. Recently he has been receiving a lot of complaints about the issue of commercial property owners abusing the public's trust and abusing a lot of our local codes without enforcement, specifically Elman's Tire on Lexington Avenue. Trustee DiChiara requested that at the next Village Board meeting Building Inspector Austin Cassidy be invited to the meeting to perhaps discuss some of these issues. He also reported that the Village is digging up cement outside of Eduardo's Restaurant that has been used as a parking lot for a number of years by the restaurant. The Village approached the owner of Eduardo's Restaurant and asked him to rent the land that he has been using for free for a number of years and he refused. The Village is now taking steps to dig up the asphalt and taking back Village land that has been used by a local business owner who doesn't want to pay the Village any rent and is taking advantage of the community. We should try to do whatever we can to bill Eduardo's for our costs associated with pulling up of the encroachment on to Village Property. Trustee DiChiara also wanted to encourage people to use and patronize restaurants and businesses that cooperate with the community and that are friendly to the community.

Mayor Cindrich stated that he and Village Attorney Whitney Singleton drove around the Village last week and the encroachments violations that the Building Inspector and Code Enforcement are well aware of into the right-of-ways are the things that I find most disturbing. Vehicles are being parked on the right-of-ways and reducing sidewalk widths. We have to be proactive on this and when you talk about the property on Lexington and Moore Avenue. I think it's been four months since I brought this topic up with the Building Inspector. The property owner did a little bit of restoration work on the right-of-way area, but this morning there were four or five landscaper truck's on the property as if it were a construction yard. These are things that maybe you have to get up at 6:30 in the morning to find these problems but somebody has to find them.

Trustee Griffin, Jr. stated that everyone in this Village is well aware of the lack of code enforcement that's been going on in Mount Kisco for years. As a former member of the Planning Board for years and years we tried to set standards and make rules to better the livability of the Town and they were just ignored. Our Code Enforcement people did not follow through with their job to see that it got done the way it was designed to be done. I don't like spending more money, but if we have to get more Code Enforcement people, more Prosecution people to get things done then we have to do it, because it has to stop.

Mayor Cindrich replied that he didn't think that more is the answer. I think it's the people that are charged with the responsibility that they don't follow through.

Trustee Markus stated that if we have been sitting on an issue for years that's not improving then maybe it is time to look at it from a different vantage point and having to hire additional enforcement personnel as required then we may have to go that route.

Trustee Grunthal excused himself and left the Village Board Meeting at 9:45 pm.

6) Old Business -

A. Rene Dubos Center for Human Environments, Inc. Update.

Mayor Cindrich requested that this item be discussed in Executive Session this evening.

7) New Business

A. Resolution authorizing the Village Manager to sign the agreement with the SPCA of Westchester.

The following resolution was offered by Trustee Markus and seconded by Trustee Griffin, Jr. authorizing the Village Manager to sign the contract between the SPCA of Westchester and the Village of Mount Kisco (June 1, 2007 - May 31, 2008) in the amount of $5,146.96, all in favor.

Motion Adopted

Mayor Cindrich Aye

Deputy Mayor DiChiara Aye

Trustee Griffin, Jr. Aye

Trustee Markus Aye

law.

Village Attorney Whitney Singleton reported that Governor Spitzer had sent to the Legislature a bill to repeal the enabling statutes of a number of moribund urban renewal agencies, industrial development agencies, municipal housing authorities, parking authorities and other public authorities.

Village Attorney Singleton noted that there maybe a need to preserve the Parking Authority with regard to the enactment of certain parking regulations and in order to preserve it all he would need to do is contact the Attorney General's Office in writing informing them that we wish to preserve the Parking Authority and the reason why and it will be pulled out of the Governor's Legislative Bill.

The Village Board of Trustees agreed to remove the Urban Renewal Agency legislation and they agreed to keep the Parking Authority.

8) Bills -

The following motion was offered by Deputy Mayor DiChiara and seconded by Trustee Markus to pay the bills, all in favor.

General Fund 446,499.81

General Fund Claims $445,114.75

Water Fund Claims 293.64

Sewer Fund Claims 562.92

Library Fund Claims 528.50

Senior Nutrition Fund 1,761.59

Water and Sewer Fund 13,161.48

Water Fund claims 12,606.37

Sewer Fund claims 555.11

Library Fund 961.96

Capital Project Fund 14,332.17

Trust and Agency Fund 19,100.18

TOTAL $495,817.19

Motion Adopted

Mayor Cindrich Aye

Deputy Mayor DiChiara Aye

Trustee Griffin, Jr. Aye

Trustee Markus Aye

9) Approval of Minutes -

Motion made by Trustee Griffin, Jr. and seconded by Deputy Mayor DiChiara approving the following minutes:

Regular Meeting May 21, 2007

Motion Adopted

Mayor Cindrich Aye

Deputy Mayor DiChiara Aye

Trustee Griffin, Jr. Aye

Trustee Markus Abstain

10) Non-Local Business - None.

Mrs. Joyce Wall stated that she would like something done about Depot Plaza in the mornings. People are parking illegally, there are also skate boarders on the street and the area terribly congested with taxi cabs. Can't something be done about this?

Mayor Cindrich replied that he would like to see legislation enacted that a substantial fine would be issued for an idling taxi cab at a parking meter.

There being no further business to come before the Board a motion to close the meeting was made by Trustee Griffin, Jr. and seconded by Trustee Markus, all in favor.

The meeting closed at 10:15 pm.

__________________________

James M. Palmer

Village Manager and Clerk

Regular Village Board Meeting

June 4, 2007 1.

Created by pmaiorano. Last modified 2007-06-19 15:11:25.