Citizens for an Informed Yorktown

After listing all the problem areas and missing or incomplete information, John Nowack stated the delays in moving the application forward were caused by Compass Westchester and not the town. Citing a recent house sale at 512 Underhill Avenue that sold for $40,673 less than the amount of a pending sale, Al French disputed the applicant’s claim that the sober house would not affect neighboring property values.

Considerable time was spent on the septic issue with Supervisor Grace explaining that the approval of the current system was entirely up to the county Department of Health and that the town had no control or enforcement power over the issue. When Nick Toumanious stated that the Department of Health had made an honest mistake in approving the plan and took issue with a written comment from Mr. Capellini that the time to challenge an alleged mistake had passed, the town attorney, speaking in general terms, advised him that there are time limits for challenging certain government actions. Supervisor Grace did say, however, that he would send a letter to the DEC to find out if Compass Westchester would need a SPDES permit.

Mr. Capellini said the applicant had no further information to submit and stood by its record. He reminded the board that if it granted the special permit, its actions did not legitimatize the actions of other potentially involved agencies. He repeated that the Department of Health had approved the applicant’s septic system.

After the board voted to close the hearing, Supervisor Grace said the board was bound to accept the ZBA’s determination that the sober house was a convalescent home (the papers on the appeal of the ZBA decision will be fully submitted by Monday) and that if the board wanted to deny the permit it had to articulate legitimate reasons for a denial. He said the board will begin to review the documents that have been submitted at the November 23^rd work session to “get a feel” for where members stood on the issue but that the plan could change depending on when Susan Siegel was sworn in as a new board member. He outlined the board’s options as approve, deny, or approve with conditions.

3. Water billing amendment to local law, public hearing

Without any discussion or public comment, the board opened and closed the hearing that corrected what was described as an “anomaly:” in the current code dealing with when bills are paid. The anomaly was not explained.

The amendment was adopted.

4. Speed bumps

Acting on the recommendation of Larry Eidelman, the town’s public safety officer, the board adopted a series of guidelines IF and WHEN speeds bumps are to be considered for any given street. Supervisor Grace explained that in the past, residents would approach the board and “rattle our cages” requesting speed bumps and that if they got the board in a receptive mood, the board would approve them which ended up making the problem worse.

5. Accept auction bids for in-rem properties

The board accepted the bids on 6 of the 7 parcels that had received bids at the November 8^th auction. The board declined to accept a $100 bid for a piece of property that Supervisor Grace said was a narrow strip of land that he thought had more value to a neighboring property owner. An eighth parcel had no bids. The total proceeds were $328,700.

6. Costco gas station special permit

Without any discussion, the board referred out the application for the special permit, with responses due back by December 9^th and set the public hearing for December 16.

7. BJ’s rezoning and gas station special permit request

The board set December 16 for the public hearing on both requests

8. Award bids/YCCC

The board awarded a bid to the A-AMP Electric Corp. for $47,361 for the installation of the emergency generator at the YCCC. (Bids for the installation’s plumbing work are still outstanding.)

9. Insurance broker

The board authorized the supervisor to sign a contract with Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. for $39,200 to act as the town’s insurance broker for one year and procure insurance products for 2015.

10.Holland Sporting Club

The board authorized spending up to $15,500 from the Parkland Trust account o hire a company to provide screening of materials. Recreation Commission member Patrick Cumisky suggested to the board that a representative of the DEC be on site when the clean-up is done to make sure the work meets with DEC requirements. Councilman Patel said he wanted to be notified when the work was being done so that he could be on site.