Hoosick Town Board Action – Local Law On Foreclosed Properties Tabled

by Bea Peterson
The Town of Hoosick Board met at 6:45 on Monday, July 8, for a Public Hearing on Local Law #1 regarding maintenance of foreclosed properties. Questions were asked by Dennis Casey and others as to whether the law dealt with all Town properties and/or Village properties. The answer was no, the law dealt strictly with Town foreclosed properties that were not being maintained by the Banks that now owned them. [private]The concern in particular was overgrown lawns and structural safety hazards. Those asking the questions continued to hammer away regarding the information they had in hand. Turns out they had copies of the preliminary draft generated by Town Attorney Joanne Monagan and not the final draft, which the Board members had in hand. Since everyone was not working from the same page, if you will, Town Supervisor Keith Cipperly suggested the Law be tabled. The Board agreed. In response to questions regarding the structure of the law Monagan explained that the Local Law is a consolidation of Federal, State and local law.
Casey asked who the Town Comptroller was. The Supervisor and Attorney responded that in a Town the size of Hoosick that responsibility fell to the Town Supervisor per the NYS Comptroller’s Office.
During the hearing the Board was also challenged as to how they could open a bid to take care of these properties without passing the Local Law. Town Clerk Sue Stradinger explained that the request for bids and notice of the Public Hearing were published the same day in the Town’s legal newspaper. The notice stated the bids would be opened at 6:45 pm, when the hearing started. The one bid was set aside. Since the bid was read aloud, those questioning everything suggested it was only fair to the bidder to accept the bid once the law was passed.
Another question asked was where did a homeowner find out what is considered maintaining a property. The answer is that the Town Code Enforcement Officer Ed King has a book containing all information regarding Town rules and regulations, with a section entitled Property Maintenance Code.
At the start of the regular Town Board meeting the Supervisor requested the agenda be amended moving the Public Comment period to the end of the meeting. The Board approved.
Rain And Heat Affecting The Highway Dept.
Town Highway Superintendent Louis Schmigel told the Board, “If we are not dealing with rain, we’re dealing with heat.” He requested the Board advertise for bids for chip sealing and paving. The Board approved the request. He said so far the Town of Schodack has received the lowest bid to date and if bids received are not comparable, he may go with the company Schodack has chosen.
Supervisor Cipperly thanked Schmigel for his prompt response in making culvert repairs on Cipperly Road. Schmigel said that if anyone sees a problem on the Town’s roadways he would appreciate a call. He said it has been difficult getting potholes filled because of the rain. He also noted that blacktopping cannot be scheduled if rain is expected. He again said he would appreciate a call from anyone regarding road issues.
Town Treasurer Tyler Sawyer requested a budget transfer from the Highway Fund Balance to pay for an attorney in negotiations with the Teamsters Union. He also asked for a transfer of $12,000 from the Recreation General Fund to pay for pool repairs. A resolution was passed approving these transfers.
Town Clerk Sue Stradinger reported fees for licenses and permits received during the month of June. The amount included $1,500 for Basketball Camp, $9,420 for Summer Camp, $2,965 for Swim Lessons, $390 Pool Admissions and $1,485 for Pool Memberships for a grand total of $16,584.25. Of that amount $16,120.33 was turned over to the Town Supervisor.
The Clerk read Town Assessor Tony Rice’s report. It stated that the final assessment roll is available in the Assessor’s office Monday through Friday and it is also available on the Town website. Forms are being sent to those who qualify for exemptions.
Council Reports
Councilman Mark Surdam questioned an interest charge on a water bill from the Village. Supervisor Cipperly said the interest was due because the bill for filling the pool was not paid on time as Cipperly wanted to discuss the bill with Mayor Monahan before it was paid. He said he is now talking with Mayor Borge to see this doesn’t happen again.
Surdam then demanded to know why he had not received notice of the special meeting called on Monday, June 17, at 3:30 pm. Cipperly responded that he had notified all Board members, including Surdam, and Town Clerk Stradinger of the meeting by email. Surdam said he did not receive the email. A discussion ensued as to whether notice of the meeting should have been sent to each member by regular mail. It was noted that the possibility of a special meeting was discussed at the regular June meeting because of the issue regarding how Coach Mike Lilac wanted the Basketball Camp run and the Camp dates would be before this meeting.
Deputy Supervisor Jeff Wysocki reported that Agriculture and Markets had accepted the Farmland Protection Plan. Now they simply needed to submit a voucher for payment of the Town’s work done on the plan.
Wysocki said he had met with the North Hoosick Fire Department regarding its retirement portfolio. Surdam interjected that he had been doing that job for years with Louis Schmigel. Supervisor Cipperly responded that he had asked Wysocki to do it.
Wysocki said the NYS Department of Transportation said it needed more history on accidents on Route 95 before a decision could be made on sign changes on the Route.
The question was asked if the Town had received the $38,000 due back to it on the Caretaker’s Bridge. The answer was no, but Wysocki said he would check into it again.
Councilman Kevin Allard said he had been looking into courses offered by the National Incident Management System for disaster training for Council members. He said NIMS takes a military approach to this program. He believes the courses appropriate for the Board are in the 178 series, which can be downloaded. He added that he will discuss with the County what courses are essential for the Councilmembers.
Councilman Patire reported that he had taken advantage of a free service offered to review the Town’s insurance coverage. He said the Town was overinsured for the Highway Garage but underinsured for the skating rink. The difference in coverage is $51,000 and would amount to an increase next year of $320. Schmigel expressed concern with less coverage for the Highway Department. Patire said the change was for replacement of the building itself. He said all vehicles have 100 percent replacement value coverage.
Then, as suggested last meeting, Allard and Patire agreed to meet at 7 pm Sunday to do a walk around at the pool.
Bid For Tennis Court
At Patire’s request, Stradinger opened the only bid for resurfacing the Town tennis court. The bid to cover the 1,225 square yards of the court from Copeland Coating Co. was $12,000. If the crack was to be repaired, there would be an additional cost of $1,750. The Board approved the cost up to $12,000. Schmigel will review the bid. The money will be taken from the Recreation Fund Balance. The hope is that Copeland will hold that price until next spring when the Town will, hopefully, resurface the basketball court.
Pool Issues
Supervisor Cipperly reported that the pool vacuum had been replaced and the new one was working well. A new handcart, chemical control system and three new electric motors were also purchased as pool improvements.
The subject of vandalism was brought up as the pool was closed for a day due to it. Evidently, two beer bottles were thrown over the fence and shattered near the pool, and some of the glass fell into the water. Cipperly was asked if the security cameras were working. It is believed they were, but no one had the code to view what was on the cameras. He said they have been sent back to the factory to be re-coded and, hopefully, images of the vandals were captured by the cameras. To date no arrests have been made.
Supervisor Cipperly reported that keys will no longer be issued to people utilizing the pool or the skating rink for special events. Instead word combination locks have been installed. Whenever a person uses the facility they will be given a word code to open it. The code will be changed each time someone uses the facilities.
Cipperly also wanted to extend his appreciation to Tom Margiotta who has been at the pool quite a bit of the time overseeing the repairs and maintenance. Allard suggested the Town make him a part time employee and pay him something for all the time he has put in. A motion was made to pay him $600 a year. During the public comment portion of the meeting Dennis Casey suggested perhaps what they should have done was considered Margiotta an independent contractor and paid him $600 by voucher, not made him an employee.
Cipperly asked the Board to approve a $500 donation to HACA (the Hoosick Area Church Association). The request was approved.
He congratulated the HFCS Class of 2013 on their graduation and he congratulated the 12 year old girls softball team for winning third place in the Greenwhich Tournament.
At the request of the Supervisor the Board approved the appointment of Louis Weirbach and Hazel Robertson as Lifeguards and Rebecca LaPorte as a Camp Counselor.
The Supervisor requested approval for the Town Youth Football and Cheerleading program to use the Town athletic field on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from July 29 to November 4 and for the All Star Team to practice in the rink during that time if it should rain. The Board approved.
Historical Tours
Town Historian Phil Leonard’s said he and Charlie Filkins have been working on Historical Tours of the Village. His latest board showed pictures of old buildings and what the building or the spot looks like today. This tour was of buildings from the Miller Museum on Main Street to the Municipal building. He said he and Filkins are now working on narratives to go along with the tours.
Mowing
A bid was opened for mowing the Town athletic field. The bid was $350 per mowing or $55 an hour and included mowing and trimming. Highway Superintendent Schmigel pointed out that even if someone else mowed the athletic field, the Town has several other pieces of property that have to be mowed every week. With the athletic field, it amounts to ten acres a week. He said paying someone to mow the athletic field will not cut down much on mower usage and he still may have to replace a mower at any time as one of them is seven years old and the other one is 10 years old. The main reason for the bid was because of the concern that the Highway crew would be short a person to flag when they are doing highway repairs if that person is busy mowing. It was asked if someone could mow the athletic field on an as needed basis. In any event, the bid was dismissed, and the Highway Department will continue to mow the field.
Substation Continues
The Board passed a Resolution to continue to pay the Hoosick Fire Department $4,000 a year to house a NYS Police satellite office in its building.
Public Comment
Larry Cain asked if there was any action on lowering the Green Heights water bills. Supervisor Cipperly responded that because the area was a separate water district, the Town had to bill the customers. Cain said the situation was ridiculous and a big burden to those people living in that area. Cipperly said he would talk with Mayor Borge.
Bob Ryan asked the Board how much had been spent on legal fees for the Highway Department contract, and he wondered if it was a budget line item. The amount allocated was $12,000. He also wondered if email was a legal notice of public record.
Fran Downing asked how much money was spent to get the Town out of the Eastern Rensselaer County Management Authority. Interestingly, Allard had the answer on the tip of his tongue stating that that was back in 1986 and it cost the Town about $130,000. Downing then asked how much money had been spent on lawsuits harassing local businesses. There was no response.
As there were no more public comments, the Board went into Executive Session.
At the conclusion of that session the meeting continued. There was no old business. In new business the Board agreed that emergency repairs or replacement should be made to the pool fence.[/private]