1 1 2 MEETING HELD VIA ZOOM 3 4 TOWN BOARD MEETING 5 of the Town Board of the Town of Newburgh held at 1496 Route 300 in said township 6 at 7:08 p.m. on Monday, the 8th of June 2020 7 8 9 PRESENT Gilbert J. Piaquadio, Supervisor 10 Elizabeth J. Greene, Councilwoman Joseph P. Pedi, Town Clerk 11 12 13 PRESENT Paul R. Ruggiero, Councilman REMOTELY Scott M. Manley, Councilman 14 Mark C. Taylor, Attorney for the Town 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 REPORTED BY: Michelle L. Conero Court Reporter 24 3 Francis Street Newburgh, New York 12550 25 (845)541-4163 TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 2 2 MR. PEDI: It is 7:08 on Monday, the 3 8th day of June 2020. This is a regularly 4 scheduled meeting. 5 The first order of business is roll 6 call. Mrs. Greene. 7 MS. GREENE: Here. 8 MR. PEDI: Mr. Ruggiero. 9 MR. RUGGIERO: Present. 10 MR. PEDI: Mr. Manley. 11 MR. MANLEY: Here. 12 MR. PEDI: And Mr. Piaquadio. 13 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Here. 14 MR. PEDI: If everybody would please 15 stand next to a flag and we'll do the Pledge of 16 Allegiance and Moment of Silence. 17 (Pledge of Allegiance and Moment of 18 Silence.) 19 MR. PEDI: Thank you, everybody. 20 Let's go on to item 4. Mr. Supervisor, 21 are there any changes to the agenda? 22 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Yes. The changes 23 will be item 6 will come off and item 9 will come 24 off, but we have two new ones. So it will be a 25 new one, number 11, will be the home rule which TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 3 2 is the road district resolution, and a new number 3 12 will be the landscaping security for Cortland 4 Commons. 13, announcements. 14, public comment. 5 Thank you. 6 MR. PEDI: Any other additions? 7 MR. MANLEY: I have none. 8 MR. PEDI: Next we go on to item 5, 9 approval of audit. 10 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: So we're looking 11 for a motion to approve this audit in the amount 12 of $710,740.68. 13 MS. GREENE: So moved. 14 MR. MANLEY: I'll second. 15 MR. PEDI: Motion made and seconded. 16 Any discussion? 17 (No response.) 18 MR. PEDI: Mrs. Greene? 19 MS. GREENE: Yes. 20 MR. PEDI: Mr. Ruggiero? 21 MR. RUGGIERO: Yes. 22 MR. PEDI: Mr. Manley? 23 MR. MANLEY: Yes. 24 MR. PEDI: And Mr. Piaquadio? 25 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Yes. TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 4 2 MR. PEDI: Number 6 has been deleted. 3 So we go on to item 7, animal control, a T-94 4 withdrawal. 5 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Cheryl 6 Cunningham, our animal control officer, is 7 looking to expend $205.49 from the T-94 account. 8 That will be to the Newburgh Veterinary Hospital. 9 This is a donation account, not taxpayer money. 10 Does someone want to make that motion? 11 MS. GREENE: So moved. 12 MR. MANLEY: I'll second. 13 MR. PEDI: Any further discussion? 14 (No response.) 15 MR. PEDI: Mrs. Greene? 16 MS. GREENE: Yes. 17 MR. PEDI: Mr. Ruggiero? 18 MR. RUGGIERO: Yes. 19 MR. PEDI: Mr. Manley? 20 MR. MANLEY: Yes. 21 MR. PEDI: And Mr. Piaquadio? 22 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Yes. 23 MR. PEDI: Next we go on to item 8, 24 fleet maintenance, surplus vehicles. 25 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: So we have a TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 5 2 list in front of us of surplus vehicles, some 3 going back as far as 1992. So we're looking to 4 declare these vehicles -- I'm not going to read 5 them off but as presented, that they become 6 surplus and then they'll be sold at auction. 7 Does someone want to make that motion 8 for the surplus vehicles? 9 MR. MANLEY: I'll make the motion as 10 presented. We also have boats and a trailer along 11 with vehicles. 12 MS. GREENE: Second. 13 MR. PEDI: Motion made and seconded. 14 Any further discussion? 15 (No response.) 16 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: When we say 17 boats, we're talking about rowboats. 18 MR. MANLEY: Rowboats, yes. These are 19 rowboats. 20 MR. PEDI: Mrs. Greene? 21 MS. GREENE: Yes. 22 MR. PEDI: Mr. Ruggiero? 23 MR. RUGGIERO: Yes. 24 MR. PEDI: Mr. Manley? 25 MR. MANLEY: Yes. TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 6 2 MR. PEDI: And Mr. Piaquadio? 3 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Yes. 4 MR. PEDI: Item 9 has been deleted. We 5 go on to item 10 for Code Compliance, approval to 6 purchase copier. 7 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: This will be a 8 Toshiba copier used by the Code Compliance 9 department. This is a leased machine. It's going 10 to cost us about $97.88 a month. If we approve 11 this as is, it will be right around $100 a month 12 for a copier. We'll own it at the end of five 13 years. 14 Does someone want to make that motion? 15 MS. GREENE: So moved. 16 MR. MANLEY: So moved. 17 MR. PEDI: Motion made by Mrs. Greene. 18 MR. MANLEY: Second. 19 MR. PEDI: Seconded by Councilman 20 Manley. 21 Mrs. Greene? 22 MS. GREENE: Yes. 23 MR. PEDI: Mr. Ruggiero? 24 MR. RUGGIERO: Yes. 25 MR. PEDI: Mr. Manley? TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 7 2 MR. MANLEY: Yes. 3 MR. PEDI: And Mr. Piaquadio? 4 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Yes. 5 MR. PEDI: Next we go on to a newly 6 added item, item 11, home rule, establishment of 7 road improvement district. 8 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: We dealt with 9 this last year. We're looking to make a road 10 district. 11 Mark, do you want to add in here a 12 little bit? You're the attorney. 13 You've got to unmute yourself. 14 MR. TAYLOR: Can you hear me now? 15 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: We can hear you 16 now. 17 MR. TAYLOR: Okay. So the developer of 18 The Ridge project has requested that the Town 19 Board request the State Legislature to allow the 20 Town to establish a road improvement district. 21 That requires special legislation to pass by the 22 legislature and signed by the governor. 23 Essentially with the road improvement district, 24 the improvements for the project, entailing 25 roads, can be financed by the district and the TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 8 2 property spread the cost of that financing over 3 time. Essentially it's a financing vehicle to 4 start the improvements of the project. 5 They have also requested the Town Board 6 to establish other improvement districts which 7 are already allowed under Town Law and in 8 connection with the project, for drainage, for 9 sidewalks, for lighting. There may be one more. 10 That's essentially -- an action tonight 11 is essentially to approve the request for the 12 legislation with regard to the district. 13 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: All right. Thank 14 you, Mark. 15 So with that, again we went into great 16 detail with this last year. The governor's office 17 saying if we resubmit it there's a good chance it 18 might go this time. 19 So does someone want to make a motion 20 to approve the resolution? 21 MR. RUGGIERO: I'll make the motion. 22 MS. GREENE: I'll second it then. 23 MR. PEDI: Was that Councilman Ruggiero 24 who made that motion? 25 MR. RUGGIERO: Yes. TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 9 2 MR. PEDI: And Councilwoman Greene, you 3 seconded it? 4 MS. GREENE: Yes, I did. 5 MR. PEDI: Great. Thank you. 6 Any further discussion? 7 (No response.) 8 MR. PEDI: Mrs. Greene? 9 MS. GREENE: Yes. 10 MR. PEDI: Mr. Ruggiero? 11 MR. RUGGIERO: Yes. 12 MR. PEDI: Mr. Manley? 13 MR. MANLEY: Yes. 14 MR. PEDI: And Mr. Piaquadio? 15 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Yes. 16 MR. PEDI: Next we go on to item 12, 17 Cortland Commons, landscape security estimate. 18 This is also an added item. 19 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: This was an add- 20 on item. This is landscape security for Cortland 21 Commons, Karen Arent. 22 I'm going to ask Betty or someone, 23 because I don't have that copy in front of me, 24 the actual amounts. Go ahead, Betty. 25 MS. GREENE: I'm looking here. In the TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 10 2 amount of $35,259. 3 MR. MANLEY: Do we also have to add the 4 escrow amount? 5 MS. GREENE: Okay. The amount of escrow 6 for this project is $2,000. 7 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Thank you, 8 Betty. 9 Does someone want to make that motion? 10 MS. GREENE: So moved then. 11 MR. MANLEY: I'll second it. 12 MR. PEDI: Any further discussion? 13 (No response.) 14 MR. PEDI: Mrs. Greene? 15 MS. GREENE: Yes. 16 MR. PEDI: Mr. Ruggiero? 17 MR. RUGGIERO: Yes. 18 MR. PEDI: Mr. Manley? 19 MR. MANLEY: Yes. 20 MR. PEDI: And Mr. Piaquadio? 21 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Yes. 22 MR. PEDI: Next we go on to item 11 for 23 announcements. 24 MS. GREENE: I have none. 25 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: You have none, TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 11 2 Betty. 3 MR. RUGGIERO: I have none, Gil. 4 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Okay. Scott? 5 MR. MANLEY: Just today we put out the 6 thing on the website today so everybody knows 7 tomorrow and Wednesday we're going to be doing 8 micro-sealing on Meadow Hill Road, so you might 9 get some delays and/or slight detours. And 10 Tuesday and Friday Gardnertown is closed. Gidney 11 Avenue to Route 300. That's on Friday. That's all 12 I have. 13 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Thank you, 14 Scott. 15 Just one quick comment here, Joe. I 16 just want to say things seem to be getting better 17 as far as the virus goes. We can really thank God 18 for that. At least I do. Hopefully we'll get back 19 into summer here soon. That's all the comments I 20 have. 21 We can open it to public comments. 22 MS. GREENE: I will make one other 23 comment before you do that. I noticed today a lot 24 more traffic on the road. Everybody, do that 25 extra special and be safe. TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 12 2 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Okay. Now I 3 think we're going to go into the public comment 4 section. Again, if you want to address the Board, 5 just identify yourself and your address. 6 Bob, do you want to go down one at a 7 time and unmute them? The first one is Bill's 8 iPad. 9 Well, okay. Do you want to raise your 10 hand. If you have a question you can raise your 11 hand now, or a comment. 12 Bill, you've got the floor. 13 MR. FETTER: Good evening. Bill Fetter, 14 Rockwood Drive. On the surplus equipment, is that 15 a sealed bid or is it a live-type auction or an 16 online auction? 17 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: The one we're 18 actually using is doug.deals. If you go on the 19 home page it will show you. Anyone anywhere can 20 actually place a bid. The highest bid for the 21 rowboats -- 22 MR. FETTER: I understand that. Would 23 it be a one-time bid or would it be a competitive 24 bid? 25 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: The item is TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 13 2 shown and you can go on and say I'll pay $50 and 3 somebody can come behind you and say 75. The 4 highest bid. 5 MR. FETTER: Okay. Thank you. I'll 6 take a look. 7 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Thank you, Bill. 8 Does anyone else have a question? 9 Brian Costa, do you have a question? 10 Can you unmute Brian? 11 If not, that's okay too. I think he's 12 just listening. 13 MR. PANTOJA: My name is Nelson 14 Pantoja. I'm the owner of Empanada Nirvana on 9W 15 in Newburgh. I'm trying to appeal a decision with 16 my signage. They said that my artwork is 17 considered signage. I got a little overzealous 18 with the signs that I put up. Because there was 19 a post there, I thought I could just put signs on 20 top of it. I was wrong. Mr. Pedi told me I can't 21 do that. My artwork has been there for a little 22 bit. 23 I am a disabled teamster, twenty years. 24 I got disabled in 2018 and I own this trailer. I 25 am part of the community Feed the Hudson Valley. TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 14 2 I donate food. I work with the kids. We just got 3 featured in Bon Appetit Magazine Plus Newburgh as 4 a road trip destination. 5 They're telling me that I have to take 6 down my artwork because it's considered signage. 7 I feel that it shouldn't be considered signage. I 8 lease 3.5 acres there. Mr. Pedi pointed out to 9 me that I'm only entitled to put a sign in 30 10 square feet. I complied with all of that, and I 11 apologized to him because I did have some 12 psychedelic large signs up there. I was like, you 13 know, I didn't realize it. I thought because I 14 had 3.5 acres I could do that. I had a lot of 15 sculptures out there. None of it is political. 16 None of it is offensive. You should see the look 17 on the kids' faces when they come up here. Every 18 person that comes with a dog gets a hot dog. 19 Every child that comes in gets a free Icy. 20 I'm a member of this community. I love 21 Newburgh. I mean we just fed 500 people like 22 three Saturdays ago for free. We did the shelters 23 in Newburgh. We did the ministries. We did St. 24 Luke's. We did the police department. I'm part of 25 this community. I would like to be able to show TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 15 2 my artwork if that decision can be appealed and I 3 could be given permission to put my sculptures up 4 there. And I have, you know, sculptures on 5 breast cancer awareness. I have a 911 memorial 6 I'd like to put up there. It's a prime spot, 7 especially in the times that we're going through. 8 Everybody who has come to my trailer knows you're 9 going to have a good time. There's funky music 10 playing there. The food is good. If you need 11 something I give it to you. 12 I'm asking if I could put my artwork 13 back up there. I have permission from the owner, 14 okay. I never had a problem there. We just got 15 featured in Bon Appetit Magazine with Newburgh 16 and I'm blessed. I'm blessed. I really am. I got 17 good people coming there. 18 I would like to see if you would allow 19 me to put my artwork back up there. We lease 3.5 20 acres. It's not blocking traffic. We don't have 21 any problems there. 22 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Nelson, why 23 don't we do this. I appreciate you coming in, 24 and I appreciate what you do with the donations 25 and all. Why don't we just like get together and TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 16 2 we'll have a quick meeting with Joe Pedi and Code 3 Compliance to make sure we're all on the same 4 page. I don't see any problem with artwork 5 myself. If there's anything else there, let's put 6 it all on the table and see where we stand and 7 get it ironed out. 8 MR. PANTOJA: I understand the 9 compliance officer said that I'm using my artwork 10 as signage. I looked up -- I'm sorry. I'm 11 interrupting you. 12 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Let's have a 13 meeting and see where it is. If we have to, we'll 14 come up to your place and see what you've got. 15 We'll work with you. I think as a contact you can 16 use my number here, 564-4552. My e-mail is 17 supervisor@townofnewburgh.org. Either way we'll 18 get back to you. I appreciate that. Thank you. 19 MR. PANTOJA: So I can reach out to you 20 this week? I'll send you an e-mail? 21 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Absolutely. 22 We'll reach out. We'll try to get together as 23 quick as we can and try to resolve it. 24 MR. PANTOJA: Yeah, because I'm 25 disabled so it's like this is all I've got. You TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 17 2 know, I'm not going to sit at home, you know. 3 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Okay. 4 MR. PANTOJA: So I'll reach out to you. 5 I'll send you an e-mail. Thank you for your time. 6 Everybody stay safe, and thank you. 7 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Same to you. 8 Take care. 9 Who else do we have out there? 10 I see Lauren Mandel there. Do they 11 have anything? 12 MS. MANDEL: I just wanted to let the 13 Town know I was invited by the Town of Montgomery 14 to do a virtual Narcan training for Keep It 15 Moving. I'm going to be doing that for the Town 16 of Montgomery on June 16th. I just put that offer 17 out there for the Town of Newburgh. If you guys 18 are interested, I'll be happy to do that for the 19 Town of Newburgh as well. 20 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Okay. Can we do 21 this, though. Can we join Montgomery? Is it a 22 Zoom thing where we can just join in? 23 MS. MANDEL: Yeah. I'm going to 24 actually make the invitation tonight, and then I 25 can send it to your office and you can promote TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 18 2 it. 3 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: We'll put out a 4 mass e-mail. Those who want to join can join. 5 That would be fantastic. Okay. Thank you. 6 Who else we got? Pat Johnson, does he 7 have anything? Pat Johnson? 8 Do you want to unmute Pat Johnson. 9 MS. JOHNSON: Hi. 10 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Do you have 11 anything to tell us? Good news I hope. 12 MS. JOHNSON: Well, I guess I can just 13 thank you for the beautiful Memorial Day ceremony 14 at the Town Hall. It was really very, very 15 touching and very nice. It was a nice turnout as 16 well. 17 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: I appreciate 18 that. Everybody needed to get out. What better 19 reason to get out than Memorial Day. 20 MS. JOHNSON: Absolutely. And thank 21 you, Scott, for the wonderful job you do with 22 keeping everybody informed. And even though I've 23 gained some weight with your recommendations for 24 restaurants, but thank you very much. 25 Somebody had asked on Nextdoor about TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 19 2 one of the roads that's being closed next week I 3 guess, so I told her to call the Town Highway 4 Department for the information. 5 MR. MANLEY: Pat, I answered that a 6 little while ago on Nextdoor. 7 MS. JOHNSON: Okay. Just thank you all 8 for the wonderful job you do here. 9 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Very good. Thank 10 you. 11 MS. JOHNSON: Bye. 12 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Do you want to 13 unmute Reed. 14 Reed, do you have anything for the 15 Board? 16 MR. LOAR: No. Thank you very much. My 17 wife and I are in the process of moving to 18 Newburgh and I just wanted to log in and check 19 out a Town meeting. 20 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Very good. I 21 appreciate that. Good luck to you. 22 MR. LOAR: Thank you so much. 23 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Good night. 24 The other one is Rich Steger. Can you 25 unmute Rich. TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 20 2 Rich, do you have anything to say? 3 Can you unmute everybody? 4 I don't know, Rich, if you want to tell 5 us anything. You're still muted. 6 Rich is unmuted now. 7 MR. STEGER: I don't have anything to 8 say right now, but thank you. 9 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Okay. Very good. 10 Thank you for joining the meeting. 11 MS. SMITH: Hi. We had Lauren but we 12 missed me. 13 I also wanted to say, Scott, thank you 14 so much. You're doing an amazing job. You really 15 are. I love the updates every day. All the work 16 you're doing, collaborating with the City of 17 Newburgh and getting the food and getting the 18 food out there. I think that's incredible. So 19 great job, Scott. 20 MR. MANLEY: Thank you. 21 MS. SMITH: You know, Lauren and I got 22 on a little late. I actually wanted to ask, was 23 the issue with Black Lives Matter discussed at 24 all? 25 MR. MANLEY: No. TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 21 2 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: I don't know. 3 Have we gotten any invitation to that? Not that 4 I'm aware of. 5 MS. SMITH: I just wondered if it was, 6 you know, talked about or any kind of response 7 from the Town, you know, like a statement. I 8 don't know if you guys had thought about that. 9 Like we support Black Lives Matter. That's all. 10 Just kind of putting it out there on the table to 11 you. 12 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: I can tell you 13 this. That the Board will be looking at all the 14 procedures with the police. Most of the 15 procedures are written by the Department of 16 Criminal Justice Service. 17 MS. SMITH: Good. 18 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: They are 19 modified a little bit but they're all in 20 accordance with the certified police department. 21 So it will be looked at. Fortunately we haven't 22 had any issues here in the Town. It will be 23 looked at. 24 MS. CONERO: I'm sorry. If I could 25 interrupt and ask for your name, please? TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 22 2 MS. SMITH: Donette Smith, Rockwood 3 Drive. 4 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: I think we got 5 everybody that's watching, so I think we're good. 6 With that, does someone want to make a 7 motion to adjourn? 8 MS. GREENE: So moved. 9 MR. RUGGIERO: I'll second it. 10 MR. PEDI: Motion made and seconded to 11 adjourn the meeting at 7:31. 12 Mrs. Greene? 13 MS. GREENE: Yes. 14 MR. PEDI: Mrs. Greene? 15 MS. GREENE: Yes. 16 MR. PEDI: Mr. Ruggiero? 17 MR. RUGGIERO: Yes. 18 MR. PEDI: Mr. Manley? 19 MR. MANLEY: Yes. 20 MR. PEDI: And Mr. Piaquadio? 21 SUPERVISOR PIAQUADIO: Yes. 22 MR. PEDI: Meeting adjourned. 23 24 (Time noted: 7:31 p.m.) 25 TOWN BOARD MEETING - 6/8/2020 1 23 2 3 4 C E R T I F I C A T I O N 5 6 7 I, MICHELLE CONERO, a Notary Public 8 for and within the State of New York, do hereby 9 certify: 10 That hereinbefore set forth is a 11 true record of the proceedings. 12 I further certify that I am not 13 related to any of the parties to this proceeding by 14 blood or by marriage and that I am in no way 15 interested in the outcome of this matter. 16 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto 17 set my hand this 12th day of June 2020. 18 19 _________________________ 21 MICHELLE CONERO 22 23 24 25