Town Board

May 21, 2019

 

CLOSED SESSION

Litigation and negotiation: Engineering and town attorney

 

OPEN SESSION

 

1. Con Ed/ NYSEG updates

Gomer Street: work will begin between Sterling and Farmwalk.

New poles: Con Ed will be replacing 160 poles. See town web site for the affected streets.

NYSEG has hired a company to trim trees in right of way. If a homeowner has an issue with a tree, they should contact the utility.

 

2. Courtesy of the Floor

Turkey Mountain 50th Anniversary Celebration: John Schroesder of the Yorktown land Trust reminded residents of the June 1st celebration scheduled for 1-4pm, with a 1pm ceremony.

 

Mohansic Trailway: Jane Daniels of Yorktown Trail Town Committee announced the completion of two bridges on the new trail that links Baldwin Road to Route 118. Although some work remains to be done, the trail is now usable.

 

Underhill Avenue /Hanover St intersection: A resident advised the board of the latest incident where trucks took down wires on the street and also how trucks continue to ignore the posted weight limit signs. See item below about postponed public hearing on making a portion of Undeehill one way.

 

Ethics Board: Susan Siegel, the person writing this summary, asked for the board’s help involving the lack of response from the Ethics Board regarding a complaint she filed 10 mnths ago.

 

Curry Street park.  Citing the swamp like condition of the ballfield, Mr. Settembrino asked the board to find an alternate use for the site, but Mr. Brynes acknowledged that the condition was “not great” but that many families use the park.

 

3. Cancelled public hearings: Speeds in park zones and Underhill Avenue one way

Councilwoman Roker said that both hearings were being postponed pending additional information from the town’s traffic consultant. Acknowledging the problem with the configuration of the Hanover/Underhill intersection, Mr. Pagaennli said that improvements would definitely be made this year but that the town wanted more information before deciding what was the best possible solution to the problem. Mr. Paganelli also noted that part of the problem, not just on Underhill but on other streets, is that the overhead wires are too low.

 

4. Water usage rate increase/public hearing

In a power point presentation, Water Distribution Superintendent Ken Rundle explained the work of the department, the need for millions of dollars for infrastructure upgrades and the rational for the proposed $0.90/1,000 gallons increase that he said would cost the average household about $69 more a year.  (The presentation is available on the town’s web site, www.yorktownny.org.)  Mr. Rundle said that the rate increase would bring in an additional $650,000 a year and would only be a temporary stop gap measure.

 

No one disagreed with the need for the increase, although Mr. Grasso noted that the increase would be a hardship to the town’s seniors.  In response to a suggestion from Highway Superintendent Paganelli that the local law that sets the rate include some type of automatic increase so that the law wouldn’t need to be amended every time expenses went up and the rate needed to be increased, it was ultimately decided that there was no feasible way to include such a provision and that the best way to deal with the need for future increases would be during the annual budget hearing.

 

The board closed the hearing and voted to adopt the new law that raised the rate to $7.15/1,000 gallons, lower than the Cortlandt rate of $7.83 but higher than the Somers rate of $6.38.

 

CLOSED SESSION

Personnel