Village Board Meeting Minutes - September 22, 2008

Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Village/Town of Mount Kisco held on Monday, September 22, 2008 at 7:30 PM in the Frank J. DiMicco Board Room, Village Hall, 104 Main Street, Mount Kisco, New York.

Present: Deputy Mayor Peter DiChiara

Trustee George Griffin, Jr.

Trustee Peter Grunthal

Also Present: James Palmer, Village Manager/Clerk

Whitney Singleton, Village Attorney

Absent: Mayor J. Michael Cindrich

Trustee Anthony Markus

Deputy Mayor DiChiara opened the Village Board Meeting. He asked everyone to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance and stated to everyone that Mayor Cindrich is not present this evening. It is the first time in five years Mayor Cindrich has not been here. We hope he recovers quickly. Deputy Mayor DiChiara: also asked for guidance in the decisions that we make here this evening that they may benefit all the people of Mount Kisco.

Deputy Mayor DiChiara noted that we are slightly late this evening due to an interview that was held before the meeting for an applicant interested in becoming a member of the Conservation Advisory Council. Deputy Mayor DiChiara also asked if anyone in the audience knows anyone who would like to get involved in the Council to please send a letter to Mayor Cindrich or Village Manager Palmer.

1) Communications:

A. Letter from Carol Welch re: resignation for the Beautification Committee

Deputy Mayor DiChiara read a letter from Carol Welch in which she stated she was resigning as of October 1, 2008. Deputy Mayor DiChiara stated this is sad news because Carol Welch has given so much of her time and effort to the Beautification Committee. He thanked Carol for her time and service and noted she did an outstanding job throughout Mount Kisco including Kirby Plaza. He also noted that new members of the Beautification Committee are always welcomed; they do a lot for Mount Kisco. The Deputy Mayor directed the Village Manager to send a thank you letter to Mrs. Welch for her service to the Beautification Committee.

B. Letter from Right Arm Productions re: Photo Shoot Request

Deputy Mayor DiChiara the photo shoot is scheduled for September 30. The letter was sent to us on September 17^th requesting to have the shoot at the Mount Kisco Medical Group. Mr. Palmer stated it is at the Mount Kisco Medical Group which is 90 South Bedford Road, and it is his understanding pedestrians will be walking down along the sidewalk. Trustee Griffin, Jr. believed it is a Wal-Mart commercial and Village Manager Palmer confirmed that. Deputy Mayor DiChiara stated according to the memo there will be no disruption of the flow of traffic. Normally he doesn't see this to be a problem per the Village's Filming Activity Guidelines. In the guidelines it is stated that a written request must be submitted within 30 days prior to the first day of shooting, applicant must give notice to residents within five hundred feet of the proposed filming location, and they complied with that. There is also no problem with items three, four and five of the guidelines. The memo states the filming will take place between 8 am and 11 am, and the guidelines state it should be done between 10:00 A.M. and 5 P.M. therefore that should not be a problem. There was no one in from Right Arm Productions in the public this evening. Mr. Palmer stated that we have not had a lot of filming requests, but his concern is that normally you have to provide advance notice, as the policy states. In this case originally they wanted to film along South Moger Avenue. His concern is their equipment and conferred with Whitney to charge them an additional fee if they want to store some of the cars belonging to their filming crews in Leonard Park, and they would walk over, because obviously they wouldn't want anyone blocking the 172 area. It's just a matter of reaching out to the owner of the medical group and 100 South Bedford Road as well, so even though it's a short time frame, since it's the one location it is potentially doable to grant their request. Trustee Griffin, Jr. asked Village Manager Palmer when did they first start talking to you about this before September 17, and Village Manager Palmer stated it might have been the day before, two or three days. He requested they put it in writing. They might have sent him a notice maybe on the 12^th or 13^th of September, and they were looking at doing some filming in front of the stores on South Moger Avenue. Trustee Grunthal stated it's not terribly disruptive, there's a little bit of public relations for the Village. Trustee Griffin, Jr. agreed and stated if there were any additional cost for police services they should be charged.

Motion Adopted

Trustee Griffin, Jr., Jr.: Aye

Deputy Mayor DiChiara: Aye

Trustee Grunthal: Aye

2) Petitions: None

3) Board, Committee and Commission Reports: None

4) Village Manager's Reports -

A. Level of Byram Lake.

Village Manager Palmer reported that the level of Byram Lake as of 2 pm this afternoon stood at 89% capacity.

B. Webcasting.com

Justin McDermott, Webcasting.com, made a presentation to the board to advise the board of the services that Webcasting.com does now provide to so many other communities, a way for the board to have residents access the board meetings and that would be through streaming video. Webcasting.com is located in Ossining and they are a live video streaming service, which can be applied for truly anything whether it's sports or education or government. Specifically they have gotten in to the government areas because New York State is the only state in the country so far that requires all the cities, and public authorities to broadcast their board meetings. You now view the meetings on your public access channel. These meetings cannot be seen on demand. Viewers will be able to watch on demand through the Mount Kisco Village home page. The meetings are archived for one year in chronological order, and each agenda item is correlated with the video. This is being done now in Peekskill, Ossining, Croton, Cortlandt Manor and Tuckahoe. Deputy Mayor DiChiara thanked Mr. McDermott for coming. He stated he is not sure if the board wants to invest the money right now, but Village Manager Palmer will talk to the board and will be able to give you a better sense of how we are moving towards this at a later date. The cost would be approximately $4,000 a year.

5) Board Reports:

Trustee Griffin, Jr. had no reports.

Trustee Grunthal reported on Conservation Advisory Council is moving ahead with involving students at Pace University with our global warming audit.

Trustee Grunthal also reported on the need to report to the State on our actuarial report, which requires us to report our obligation for post retirement health benefits. We have decided to accept the report as it is.

Deputy Mayor DiChiara noted that last week there were reports about a male found outside, and he thanked the police for handling it professionally and proficiently. It is a matter of public concern and safety. The police responded well, and there additional reports that will come back, which will enable us to have a more definite conclusion. Deputy Mayor DiChiara again thanked the police for their response, and sent his sympathy on behalf of the board to the family.

Another point Deputy Mayor DiChiara made is that he knows over the last several months the Village has tried to shore up code enforcement in other areas. The board has suggested that we increase a lot of the fines for zoning violations; our Village prosecutor, Anthony Grant is working on it. He asked Village Manager Palmer for a status, and Mr. Palmer stated several changes to the fine structure have been discussed by him and Mr. Grant. He will get a report of their findings with some changes that readily come to mind.

Deputy Mayor DiChiara stated the fine structure is very important because when you do have a landlord who is creating very unsafe conditions, the fine sometimes is perhaps less than one month's rent. Deputy Mayor DiChiara knows there are limits as far as what we can fine people, but he thinks we need to get our fine structure revised.

6) Old Business

A. Schedule an Informal Interview for a vacancy on the Conservation Advisory Council.

Schedule an informal interview for a vacancy on the Conservation Advisory Council. We had an interview here this evening. Trustee Grunthal motion to appoint Mr. Andrew Weidmann to the Conservation Advisory Council.

Motion Adopted:

Trustee Grunthal: Aye

Trustee Griffin, Jr.: Aye

Deputy Mayor DiChiara: Aye

B. Schedule an Informal Interview for a vacancy on the Recreation Commission.

An informal interview was scheduled for Donna Cravotta for October 6, 2008 at 7:30 pm.

Motion Adopted:

Trustee Grunthal: Aye

Trustee Griffin, Jr.: Aye

Deputy Mayor DiChiara: Aye

7) New Business

A. Resolution authorizing an Out of State Conference Request for Susan Riley Library Director

This item was tabled to the October 6, 2008 Village Board Meeting.

Motion Adopted

Trustee Grunthal: Aye

Trustee Griffin, Jr., Jr. Aye

Deputy Mayor DiChiara Aye

Rok-Built Construction Change Order request (RB 27-07 MKPL 2007-16) was approved in the amount of $8,363.59.

Motion Adopted

Deputy Mayor DiChiara: Aye

Trustee Griffin, Jr.: Aye

Trustee Grunthal: Aye

C. Change Order Request for the Saw Mill Pump Station Roof Repair.

Leeds Industries Change Order Request for the Saw Mill Pump Station Roof Repair was approved in the amount of $4,800.00.

Motion Adopted

Trustee Griffin, Jr.: Aye

Trustee Grunthal: Aye

Deputy Mayor DiChiara: Aye

Village Manager Palmer stated we did recently award the roof replacement for $95,300, what you have in front of you is something that they uncovered as they were drilling to replace the roof which was deteriorated concrete. Essentially what is included here is the Change Orders for the removal of that concrete to be replaced.

D. Tax Certiorari Settlement

Whereas, petitions have been filed by the property owner below, challenging real property tax assessments on the Town assessment roll with respect to the following parcel:

Property Owner Tax Designation Years

Suburban Propane, LP 69.50-1-3 2001-2006 (Town)

Whereas, petitioner's court challenge is now pending in the Supreme Court, Westchester County; and

Whereas, the Village and the property owner have reached a mutually agreeable resolution;

Now Therefore Be It Resolved, the Office of the Village Attorney is authorized to execute a settlement on behalf of the Town for assessment for no less than the following:

Town Proceedings:

2001-2004: All years discounted

Assessment Year Original Proposed Settlement Reduction

2005 $726,100 $600,000 $125,100

2006 $726,100 $540,000 $186,000

Motion Adopted

Deputy Mayor DiChiara: Aye

Trustee Griffin, Jr.: Aye

Trustee Grunthal: Aye

E. Resolution authorizing salary adjustment for Acting Treasurer Patrice Hogan.

This item was tabled.

F. Request for an Executive Session to discuss pending litigation, personnel and real estate matters.

Motion made by Trustee Grunthal and seconded by Trustee Griffin, Jr. scheduling an Executive Session immediately following this meeting to be held in the Village Hall Board Room, 104 Main Street; Mount Kisco, NY to discuss pending litigation, personnel and real estate matters, all in favor.

Motion Adopted

Mayor Cindrich Aye

Trustee Grunthal Aye

Trustee Griffin, Jr. Aye

8) Bills

The following motion was offered by Trustee Grunthal and seconded by Trustee Griffin, Jr. to pay the bills, all in favor.

General Fund $196,053.07

General Fund Claims 192,897.42

Water Fund Claims 2,474.79

Sewer Fund Claims 63.58

Library Fund Claims 617.28

Senior Nutrition Program 3,483.93

Water and Sewer Fund 213,489.79

Library Fund 7,652.56

Capital Projects Fund 203,334.85

Trust and Agency Fund 18,434.10

TOTAL $642,448.30

Motion Adopted

Deputy Mayor DiChiara Aye

Trustee Grunthal Aye

Trustee Griffin, Jr. Aye

9) Minutes: None

10) Non-Local Business - None.

11) Public Comment

Comment was made by an unidentified female resident requesting a left turn light on Preston Way coming from Kisco Avenue from Target. Trustee Griffin, Jr. spoke to Village Manager Palmer and Village Manager Palmer reached out to the planner. Trustee Griffin, Jr. also suggested a crossing on Preston Way would be a great improvement.

Mr. Tony Giardina commented on his concern for the overloaded trucks during trash removal on the corner of 117 and Lexington, and has a big effect on the trailers.

Mr. Melman commented on his testing of water quality. He has been running a monitoring program in the Kisco River, specifically where the Kisco River comes down Byram Lake Road, runs along Route 117 and crosses over Lexington Avenue. Surprisingly, the quality of the water is good. He has been running tests on it now for three months, and all the tests are coming back favorable. He is finding insect life, which you would not find in a polluted stream, and he is in the process of trying to get a "trout in the classroom" program started here at Fox Lane. This is a program that gets involved to get trout eggs from the State Department of Environmental Conservation to give to elementary and middle school level children and raise them until they are large enough to release in the stream. This has been going on for a few years now, the kids love it and it has been very successful. When he spoke to one of the chief biologists at the DEP today who is a friend, he is familiar with the history of the Kisco River and can confirm there was brook trout there at one time. Today, based on the tests, there should not be any problem to have fish put into the Kisco River and that will start a trout fishery here in town. He has spoken to Trustee Grunthal about it previously and would like to know if the town would like to get involved in it. It would involve getting a permit from the DEC, which is a minor task.

Resolution adopting the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.

Trustee Grunthal read a resolution from ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives). This organization is sponsoring a Cities for Climate Protection Campaign which to undertake five milestones (detailed in the resolution) to reduce both greenhouse gas and air pollution emissions throughout the community. It would involve student interns obtaining records, collecting data. Mr. Gmelin explained the details of what the students will be doing. This is done similarly in the Town of New Castle and the Village of Bedford.

Motion Adopted

Trustee Grunthal: Aye

Trustee Griffin, Jr.: Aye

Deputy Mayor DiChiara: Aye

There being no further business to come before the Board, a motion to close the meeting was made by Trustee Griffin, Jr., all in favor at 8:40 pm.

________________________

James M. Palmer

Village Manager and Clerk

dm

3

Regular Meeting September 22, 2008

Regular Meeting, September 22, 2008 1.

Created by pmaiorano. Last modified 2008-10-09 09:48:05.