[0:40] Now, do you have to turn the video on though or we just using the voice?

[0:46] » No, Zoom. Zoom will You can't see yourselves.

[0:51] » Oh, yeah. >> Okay.

[0:52] » Yep. >> We're good.

[0:54] » Yep. >> We think we're good.

[0:55] » We think >> we're being recorded at least, so we're

[0:57] good. >> Okay. All right. I'd like to uh call the

[1:00] July meeting to order. We'll start off with the pledge of allegiance. Pledge

[1:04] allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for

[1:09] which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for

[1:14] all. >> Yay.

[1:18] I we have no public tonight. Therefore, there will be no public comment.

[1:24] Uh, I'd like to ask the board to accept the meeting minutes from previous

[1:29] meeting to accept the minutes. Get a second.

[1:33] » Second. >> All in favor?

[1:34] » I. >> Anybody opposed?

[1:40] Motion to accept the consent agenda. >> Make a motion to accept a second.

[1:48] » I'll second it. >> All in favor? I.

[1:50] » Anybody opposed? a lot of reports. Um,

[2:03] no real update on the low control rate other than what we've got sent out.

[2:08] » Other than what was sent out, although Shel did say that there was another

[2:11] complaint. Yes, we had got one. Yeah. Okay.

[2:16] uh parks and recrecks. The uh we had the kids down at the

[2:22] Kent sportsman for child unlimited day. It was a great day. Well attended today.

[2:27] They got to go to a zoo south of us. Um understand that was a really good day.

[2:34] We questioned uh the weather report, but uh you know there was a big part of the

[2:39] trip in a bus. I felt it was safe to go and they were glad that we made that

[2:44] decision at the end of the day. The um

[2:48] » you had the circus. >> Had a circus. So what are we in week

[2:53] three? >> Yeah. Yep.

[2:57] » So far everything's been going great. >> Bowling cranle. They got a lot this week

[3:02] too. >> Swimming.

[3:03] » They swimming. Lots of swimming.

[3:08] I did have a uh complaint about um one of the nets getting a little tattered.

[3:13] It it was normal normal wear and tear as far as I was concerned and we' look into

[3:19] a normal replacement probably at the end of the year uh for for the start of next

[3:25] year at this point unless uh it gets worse. But

[3:30] there is a tree in that tree line that we were talking about that has fallen

[3:34] over. We will get that out of the net. >> Pine on the back row.

[3:40] » Yeah, we took >> Did it fall our way?

[3:42] » It It's still in our property. So, >> I have not complained about it. One of

[3:47] the loan guy mentioned it to me and we had not been over there yet. So, the

[3:52] machine got dropped off to take care of the properly.

[3:54] » Nice. >> The ones that were near the park were

[3:57] taken care of that Monday morning park reopen. They actually closed on that

[4:01] day. >> Yep.

[4:02] » To the weather. >> Excellent. Thank you, Ben. Any other

[4:06] questions or comments on our parks? Direct

[4:11] senior report. >> Um, we had a very successful

[4:16] pit pickic over the beginning of July, the Get Sportsman. I'd like to thank

[4:20] Craig and Dan for stopping by. They helped us cook. Um, Wally's dad, Gordy,

[4:27] handled the grill. It was an awfully hot day. I was worried about him a little

[4:30] bit, but we probably had about 70 members there. It was a very hot day. It

[4:33] was cool in there. People brought salads. I think everyone had a good

[4:37] time. >> Yeah,

[4:37] » I think it was a good day. Um, Abby Music and Denal Collins from Chadam

[4:42] provided a bluegrass band for entertainment. So, they had a little bit

[4:45] of music. There wasn't much dancing because it was so warm, [laughter] but I

[4:48] think it was very successful. So, >> I saw a couple videos and looked

[4:53] » they had fun. It sounded good >> and it was nice in there. It was a very

[4:56] nice location. Um, yesterday I did go to the office for the aging meeting. Can I

[4:59] go to that right now? Is that okay? I'd like to share with you all um a

[5:04] quarterly magazine that the office for the agent is putting out the senior

[5:07] scoop. Um have a lot of information. We've got

[5:11] » I bring them in county. >> And the other thing is the newsletter.

[5:14] We're going to make sure that these are all distributed at the monthly seniors

[5:17] meetings. Um there's over 100 members now. The next meeting will be the

[5:20] beginning of August over the Westg church. Um at the meeting yesterday we

[5:25] had a presentation from Luis Marks from Kinderhook

[5:29] um about the concept of a village members pay a small fee to join and then

[5:35] they're um kind of in a group that will help them with different services. You

[5:40] know it's it kind of is a spin-off for the office for the aging. It's it's like

[5:43] a it coordinates with them because they find the healthcare consortium has a

[5:46] three-month lead time on transportation where these folks have volunteers who

[5:50] can take you to an appointment if you need to go this week. Um but

[5:53] transportation is one of the biggest issues that they have. They're always

[5:56] looking for volunteers. It's mostly the northern part of our county right now

[6:00] that's involved in this. Um the fees $75, $100 a year to join. Um and then

[6:05] they have social events and things that matineese, things like that that they

[6:08] get together for. So it's just kind of like a spin-off for the office for the

[6:11] aging. Um, interesting enough, Columbia County has

[6:16] the second o oldest population in New York State,

[6:20] which is interesting, which is going to be a little bit taxing on our resources

[6:24] in the future. They're concerned about that. Um, office of agents also working

[6:28] on an AI interactive program for seniors where they can either call in or go

[6:35] online to for resources. And they're asking every town to have like a liaison

[6:40] that can go over their services and review it once a month or something like

[6:43] that. So, and I think that was it. >> And then they're having a big picnic at

[6:48] the fairgrounds, right? >> Yes. Their senior day. Yep. In

[6:50] September. Yes. I'm sorry, I forgot about that. Yep. Senior day with a lot

[6:53] of different people there discussing different issues for seniors. So, um,

[6:57] and next month it's going to be someone that's going to talk about financial

[7:00] scams at seniors at the monthly meeting. So,

[7:03] » nice. Any questions or comments for Marie? The only thing I'll I'll add,

[7:08] Marie, is that they might want to just uh link up with Dan Amasi, Columbia

[7:14] County Human Services. >> Okay.

[7:16] » Because they created a resource guide that the county MIS helps them put

[7:20] online. >> Okay.

[7:21] » That uses an AI tool when you type in what you're looking for. It's Dan Masi.

[7:25] » Amazing

[7:28] sort. >> Okay. There was a guy there.

[7:35] » Yeah. >> Yeah. He's he's going to lead it. So,

[7:38] and it's just kind of in the beginning stages, but

[7:41] » yeah, the the one that that they had put up with mental health addiction services

[7:45] and and other counties been really helpful,

[7:48] » you know, and they just kind of wanted you like a wheel with different spokes,

[7:50] you know, that everyone can kind of who Do you know who um who that service is

[7:56] provided through? >> Um I think county MIS uh was the one who

[8:02] helped set it up with John a >> and John was at the meeting yesterday.

[8:06] So >> Okay.

[8:08] » Yeah. >> Okay. Thanks.

[8:10] » Yep. >> Any other questions or comments?

[8:12] » Thank you, Marie. >> You're welcome.

[8:16] » Um

[8:19] planning and zoning. Any uh questions on any of the reports that our liaison

[8:28] » good reports >> signing is just uh busy as usual.

[8:32] » Yeah. >> Um we got a real good board, very uh

[8:35] active and it's always very thorough, consistent, and I don't think you can

[8:40] ask for much more. So >> up top.

[8:44] » Okay. >> Thanks. Uh

[8:48] you both of your guys minutes are are are very good and I can visualize the

[8:53] the me how it went from it. So keep up the good work.

[8:59] » Climate Smart Carl.

[9:01] » Um so Climate Smart met with the joint meeting of beautifification committee on

[9:06] this past Tuesday the 14th. um just to kind of introduce everybody, get

[9:11] everybody on the same page and identify areas where we're uh what we want to

[9:16] work on together. And so I think that was that was good meeting. And uh

[9:21] Climate Smart is going to work on uh some of their long range plans and uh

[9:27] getting set for community day at their August meeting.

[9:31] Um, and at what point in the meeting, Craig, do you want to do the

[9:35] appointments for the beautifification committee?

[9:40] » Um, I haven't Have we Have I been left out of something? Did we get resumes or

[9:47] anything yet? >> I met I met with people individually who

[9:50] were interested. >> Um, and then

[9:53] » maybe we should table it till next month when Dan's here so we can all look at

[9:56] the resumes. What do you think? Because I don't think anyone's going to be upset

[9:58] if we wait another month. It was we didn't after talking with Dan, we didn't

[10:03] do it formally that way. People sent us sent email of interest.

[10:08] » Okay. >> And that's and that's

[10:09] » and sometimes that's good enough too if they do a little description, but I

[10:12] didn't see anything. So, I'm not prepared to I don't even know who you

[10:17] would be talking about. >> Okay.

[10:18] » Yeah. I make a motion that we table it till next month when Dan's here to give

[10:22] us just a letters of interest is all we need. We don't need anything more than

[10:25] that. I don't think they need to do formal resumes or anything. So,

[10:28] » just a little something about him and some

[10:31] » and it would be probably good to have Dan

[10:34] » back too. Not that we couldn't do it without him, but I'm sorry.

[10:37] » He had me nervous there and I thought I missed a

[10:42] » Okay. >> You know, an email or something, but

[10:44] » And one thing, Carl, I wanted to mention,

[10:46] » I've heard some names. Yeah. >> From you, I didn't actually

[10:50] » And then in the you know, in the the report that I emailed, it had people who

[10:54] were uh who were at the meeting and then there were two people uh who were

[10:59] interested who were who were not at the meeting, and that was uh Brenda GS and

[11:04] Jen's donor, right? >> They were out of country for a month.

[11:07] » Yeah, Jen's been out of country, so he just haven't been able to touch.

[11:10] » It would just be typically our committees and our things. We have a

[11:13] paper record a little bit still today >> and we have we put a a folder of letters

[11:18] of interest. Okay. What happens is a lot of times that'll be over. It'll be more

[11:22] than we're looking for, but they're great resources afterwards to pull if

[11:27] somebody wants to step down or can't make meetings, they can pull go to

[11:31] another >> or other committees,

[11:34] » right? And we and in the past, we've used that resource for other committees,

[11:37] too. Okay. >> Because they've already showed an

[11:39] interest to try to help out and volunteer want to be part of it.

[11:43] » So, I'd rather not skip over that. >> Okay.

[11:46] » It's a good tool. >> And I'm happy to say both Climate Smart

[11:49] and Beautifification are going to be a community day. We're not sure if they're

[11:52] going to share a table yet. It's going to depend on space. But I think that's

[11:55] also a good way to see if there's anyone else that we've missed that might be

[11:57] interested also. >> Yeah. And that's that's a lot of what

[12:01] committee was hoping for was that people would see that there is this new

[12:05] committee, there is interest and you know recognize people and have a

[12:09] conversation. >> That's great. Good. Thanks. Thank you.

[12:14] Um, I was going to talk about it in my

[12:17] county report, the EMC, and I didn't get, once again, I'm going to follow the

[12:22] same thing. I want some letters of interest, and I thought I'd start with

[12:26] uh, you know, our climate smart folks to advertise amongst them

[12:31] » since they're close to it, but we don't need to. and um I can send them the same

[12:37] offer as we maybe post and we'll see letters come in and maybe we can uh

[12:45] nominate somebody next meeting. >> Okay. So, I'll follow that same thing.

[12:49] The other big thing down at county that folks will be hearing about is I talked

[12:54] about in workshop to more detail is our uh rates have changed on our senior tax

[13:00] exemption which we currently already provide. Uh so we'll have a discussion

[13:05] as the uh information becomes more available uh on the impact and poss you

[13:12] know that it may have on this town. So

[13:16] » well it comes out of GB any >> [laughter]

[13:22] » rail trail. I have no report. >> One question on that. I saw some states

[13:28] down the bar house where we were talking about y is anything going on there or

[13:33] » just um there's a couple Well, I missed the grant. I didn't we

[13:40] weren't approved for the grant to crossing but blue uh uh greenway.

[13:47] Uh, I was told not to try, but I tried everything I can get. It It fit their

[13:52] description. We were second runners up, but they only handed out money to one

[13:58] project this year out of the whole state.

[14:02] Okay. >> So, they asked me to reapply,

[14:08] but since then we've had some things change with our uh with DOT

[14:13] and I have to renew some of my markings. That's why you see those stakes still

[14:19] existing because some rules have changed. One

[14:24] thing I've learned in uh this side of things in the government thing, you got

[14:28] to move as fast as you can because all the time things are changing and you put

[14:33] a year or two into a project and all a sudden it's different. You saw it. They

[14:39] can't build again. They had a u another section of their master plan that was

[14:46] once approved already, >> but when they went to go do it, DC had

[14:49] changed their rules. So, this was already drawn out. This is sort of what

[14:53] we're kind of running into a little bit with some of these u

[14:58] rail trail permits and applications. It's taking [clears throat]

[15:02] their reason it takes us so long and then they changed the game the rules

[15:07] on this so you work in one direction >> keep moving.

[15:11] » Yeah. Yeah. The goal post keep changed them the other day. So someone now there

[15:17] we're trying a little different approach. Um, I may send

[15:24] I'm on the fence on sending the greenway back, but I do know that it's not it was

[15:31] correct when I originally applied. Things have changed since then and I

[15:34] can't get I am bond to I can't get everybody to work together to help me

[15:41] represent the corrections. >> So, it's very frustrating

[15:47] with the positive mark that we're out there. We we know where our local DOT

[15:53] wants us to be. >> We know the design. We know what it

[15:56] looks would look like, >> but there's more players in it. Parks

[16:01] and wreck. >> Yeah.

[16:02] » Uh DEC, believe it or not, has a role in that.

[16:07] Parks and Wreck and DHC don't seem to get along that good for

[16:12] some reason. I don't know if one's got a better office than the other, but

[16:18] um so that's that's my that's my no rail trail committee report

[16:26] community engagement. Dan's not here. I don't know if Marie, you're a part of

[16:30] that. You're co- on >> Yeah, community day is moving along.

[16:33] Vendors, you know, I forgot to look today. We were up almost 40 vendors.

[16:37] » We're going to hopefully max out on space. um anyone that was a sponsor we

[16:41] sent a letter to encouraging them if they sent us a check if they want to

[16:45] display if they're in the town again what we're doing and we're talking about

[16:49] next week we're going to meet on Monday we're going to kind of map out who's

[16:52] going to go where maybe put all the kids activities together this time because I

[16:56] know that was one of our weak spots last year they said that the kids were kind

[16:59] of scattered so maybe want put the kids near the door or something like that but

[17:03] and it looks like the Westg ladies are going to be doing their bake sale there.

[17:09] They always have good pies and pastries. We're have grilled cheese sandwiches.

[17:13] The BFW is going to do their food and I think the Gent Ladies Auxiliary is

[17:17] supposed to be committed also. >> Yeah, they're doing some

[17:20] » Yeah, lots of good food. So >> nice.

[17:23] » It's moving along. Um >> should be a good day.

[17:25] » I think we're a little bit above last year for sponsorship money now.

[17:28] » And I got some more in this one. >> Okay, good. Good. And Dave Romanuk's

[17:33] going to do the bag pipes. And >> do you know Dave Romanuk? Nice guy. He's

[17:37] gonna play the bag pipes with the G band gonna play and I think Marilyn and I

[17:42] can't remember who partner is gonna do the music. Marilyn and

[17:44] » Rick Warren. >> Yes.

[17:45] » Yeah, they're good. >> Yep. So, everything's moving along.

[17:49] » Good.

[17:53] » Any questions or comments for Marie? >> Affordable housing. Every I don't think

[17:58] I don't even know if Dan submitted anything on that. So, um and I don't

[18:01] think anything's been really moving. So, >> Oh, I think he did submit that they had

[18:05] a meeting. >> Okay. Okay.

[18:06] » I think he did submit somewhere for >> affordable housing.

[18:10] » He said they uh >> they did meet

[18:12] » they did a they're expected spend the next three months to

[18:17] » Yeah, they've had one meeting. Yeah. >> Carl, you Carl, you kind of went over

[18:23] the uh beautifification, but is there anything more you'd like because we do

[18:28] have a slot for you now. >> Um no, you know, it was it was nice to

[18:33] have have a young young people's interest in and being part of

[18:38] the group as well as some of the people like Tracy who's been part of Planet

[18:43] Smart before to have uh you know her feedback on the beautifification

[18:48] committee and you know I think we have some really talented people in our

[18:52] community who are you know stepping up to to offer their help with us. I think

[18:57] it'll it'll be a good community to get up and get going.

[19:00] » All right, sounds good. Um, I went over and workshop because I don't believe we

[19:05] were recording. We may have been, but we don't know. We'll never know.

[19:10] » You don't know if we're recording now. But

[19:12] » I was I I proposed to have our new accounting firm, Bob Patterson, come out

[19:18] and speak. Uh, he's put off till the 20th of August. he will come out to our

[19:24] workshop then and introduce and go over things and help set me up for hopefully

[19:29] a uh uh update where we're at. Um I also met with a company called Switch.

[19:38] They're the outfit that owns our level three charger or produced our level

[19:42] three charger to try to come up with some remedies to uh get that up and

[19:47] going again. We've been discussing uh upgrading our

[19:52] phone services here and our broadband in this town hall.

[19:58] I'll have more to follow on that as I get some more reporting.

[20:02] » That'd be a possibility at the garage. >> It's they've been at the garage with

[20:05] Matt >> with Wendy already.

[20:08] » We can get that click out of your lens. >> Bad. Yeah,

[20:11] » it's bad. >> We're dropping. We're dropping.

[20:13] Normally, if you call out, you don't have as much problem. You have the

[20:15] clicking in your ear. But when they call in the phone,

[20:18] » I lost her like three times >> off on us completely. Like hung up.

[20:22] » Yeah. >> You hit answer and they're still talking

[20:25] like nothing on their end. >> I'm looking I'm looking to try to get a

[20:28] company to bundle and improve our services that we have in a package. We

[20:34] have four out buildings that are included. I think what I say 10 or 11

[20:38] phone systems. Uh broadband should be improved and uh everything about it.

[20:45] We're getting pretty outdated here and it shows up at planning board

[20:51] » zoning uh court >> court's number one complaint that I get

[20:57] um you know right to our own very own

[21:00] meetings uh when we can't cast from this laptop sitting here to the TV on certain

[21:06] nights. >> So we got to update it. Uh, a bundle

[21:11] would be nice where with currently with two outfits that Bill's you guys sign

[21:15] them, it's very confusing to keep track of and I think there's a little waste in

[21:20] some of them. So hopefully it works out and I can bring something next meeting

[21:26] that we can improve and get moving on sooner than later.

[21:32] » Highway Ben. All right. Uh we have been quite busy with uh heavy rain and uh

[21:39] wind storms. Uh believe was classified as a micro burst which is a lot of

[21:44] different direction winds, a lot of straight winds. Uh I was on vacation

[21:48] when this happened. Uh it was a very long night for me on the phone. Um this

[21:55] is uh not the worst we've had here in the 19 years that I've been here. Um,

[21:59] but uh the the crew definitely uh had their challenges on some roads. Uh first

[22:05] phone call came in to me just before 10:00 and by 4:00 a.m. in the morning

[22:10] they had every road opened up except for three that had power lines down. Uh by

[22:15] 6:00 the next morning, I had a few of the guys come in

[22:19] » and they were here till 4:00 that afternoon making sure everything else

[22:22] was tended to pushing everything out farther away from the road so the guys

[22:26] couldn't get that far in the dark. uh until Saturday afternoon, everything

[22:30] was clear except for the three roads. Uh I think it was around 4:00 Saturday

[22:34] afternoon, but I got the final call that my last road was open and those were due

[22:38] to power lines >> and we do not touch anything with power

[22:42] lines for our safety. >> Um with requests from me, I reached out

[22:46] to other towns for shared service on this uh matter. Um, Clive, Stockport,

[22:53] Kim Hook, and New Lebanon all came in with chippers and crews to give us a

[22:56] hand. And within four days, we had 99% of all the damages cleaned up and tended

[23:01] to, which is pretty good for the amount that we had. Uh, and then we actually

[23:06] went to the village of Chadam on Monday to give them a hand, which they were

[23:10] very elated to have us come over. The crew has been uh, working diligently in

[23:16] the shop on uh, rebuilding a 2014 utility body. The subtrain was shot from

[23:22] those initial northeast salt. Uh they're in the middle of putting that all back

[23:27] together right now. It's moving quite well amongst all the other repairs that

[23:31] are going on. The uh repairs throughout the town for

[23:36] upgrades on roads uh such as Arch Bridge. We had a tree break the road

[23:42] that uprooted through the creek bed base and the crew actually uh that was the

[23:48] very first project they used the new excavator on and that was a uh

[23:52] definitely a learning curve with the machine with all the abilities it has

[23:56] but they were very pleased to have it and it made the project that much easier

[24:00] to be able to manipulate u laying of the stone in different directions and

[24:05] orientations. Um, I wasn't there when they did this particular project, but

[24:09] when I came back for the uh the end of the trees and um firsthand watched what

[24:16] I bought this machine for, it did exactly what I wanted to do. I was

[24:19] hoping to show video. It's not working. Uh I don't know if it's a server or

[24:23] what, but um we were picking up uh 20 foot logs uh 3 foot in diameter like

[24:29] they were pickup sticks and the machine was able to set them in the back of the

[24:33] truck without the truck rocking and us dropping them in or using chains, which

[24:37] is a safety hazard for the crew. >> Um we picked up uh one road in less than

[24:43] eight hours that was absolutely devastated with uh probably about 18

[24:47] trees down. We were actually able to grab one tree right out of the earth and

[24:51] move it out of our way for safety reason. So I was very happy with it and

[24:55] they actually just finished up some ditch work um on the up side of letter.

[25:00] So if you cover out and about take a ride and see what the machine did, it's

[25:04] pretty impressive. So um we have uh

[25:13] we've been uh getting ready to do some paving and some chip sealing. Uh we

[25:17] intend on doing that the end of July, beginning of August. All depends on what

[25:21] those crews schedules are with the weather and uh other towns that have

[25:26] gotten some storm damage as well. I had to push them off a little bit. So, a lot

[25:30] of jumping around doing other towns, but uh I haven't gotten the dates yet for

[25:33] our systems be done yet, but we will be moving forward on sealing and uh paving

[25:40] some roads. So, with that said, it's been awful warm and

[25:44] smoky outside. Uh, but the crew has been doing a good

[25:48] job. Well, I'm very pleased. And >> you know what I was impressed with?

[25:52] Because I sat on the porch because they had no power, which was kind of weird

[25:56] because we very rarely use power. >> The plows.

[26:00] » They had the plows on and we're plowing down getting the debris out of the room.

[26:04] I never would have thought of that. I was like, "Wow."

[26:08] » The uh the the certain trucks plows are set out that they can be put on.

[26:14] » Yeah. thought of it. Yeah.

[26:16] » Yeah. >> That's the easiest way for us to move.

[26:20] » It saves a ton of time. But to get through 138 miles in six hours with only

[26:26] five guys running and only four trucks had files on them. So

[26:31] » this the county had them on too, I think, didn't they?

[26:34] » They they very well made. >> Yeah, I thought so.

[26:36] » Yes, they did. We got to thank the uh firefighters as well.

[26:40] » Yeah. >> And the farmers

[26:41] » farmers did they helped out a lot. the neighbors came out. I thank them as

[26:45] well. The ones that I knew did stuff. So,

[26:46] » yep. >> DJ Trobridge did

[26:50] » quite a bit. >> Quite a bit.

[26:51] » Y >> he made it up with Chattam.

[26:53] » Yep. >> So,

[26:56] 166 was blocked. So, he opened up every night to Slate Hill.

[27:00] » I would say that >> that our town cannot operate on just a

[27:05] single group of people. is a huge group effort, especially when uh mother nature

[27:12] takes his wrath. Y >> I'm really sorry to call you at 11:30 at

[27:15] night. >> You know, I got we got to thank um you

[27:20] know, Columbia County Emergency Management,

[27:24] Bubba Harrison, he he pulled a group of us together and we were prepared for the

[27:28] worst. We had ice and water coming from through an ice center. Uh we voted on

[27:35] letting uh Chadam fire company be the central location rather than having it

[27:41] spread all over. And if anybody needed it and couldn't get to us, there was

[27:45] people ready to run it. So >> I I felt that this was probably the most

[27:51] organized event in the 14 years that I've been the

[27:56] boss. uh everything came together. >> I was getting phone calls all throughout

[28:00] the night and there was all people that >> I've been wanting to have me make those

[28:05] phone calls to and say, "Hey, what can we do to help you out?"

[28:08] » And uh relaying those messages. >> Chris called me from a couple fire calls

[28:12] and he must he might have called you too, didn't he?

[28:15] » I got you. Yeah, but it was it was it was good to have like you said, Bubba,

[28:21] you mean we I'm sitting on the emergency management for me county and we put

[28:25] together a plan of action for when we have major disasters,

[28:29] you know, things can go on with the fair. You know, we have a huge influx of

[28:32] people and that's where a lot of this leads from is the community outreach and

[28:36] having the right people. probably close to 20 people around the table that all

[28:41] had a role to play and uh it was it was good to see.

[28:50] » Any other questions or comments for Ben? >> No, I'd like to say thank you to you

[28:54] folks that handled this. I feel bad because on my end of town, we did not

[28:57] realize anything was really going on. Unfortunately, where I was, we had very

[29:01] minimal damage. We just knew that Chadam and they were telling us to stay out of

[29:05] Chadam. So >> it was ugly from

[29:09] it was ugly from Kinder Hook Farm. >> Yep.

[29:11] » Diagonal >> through our town.

[29:14] » And honestly over the other bizarre

[29:19] » Megan said nothing her way. >> It was like a different world.

[29:22] » We had a couple trees down in her backyard.

[29:25] » But thank you. Especially Craig, Dan, Ben, your crews, Wall-E, Shelley held

[29:30] the fort down. >> Yep. and choose dispatch.

[29:34] [laughter] >> I just stayed away.

[29:37] » Um, >> unfinished business. I'm going to

[29:41] » to accept Ben's report. >> Oh, yeah. Motion to accept Ben's report.

[29:46] » I'll make a motion to accept Ben's report.

[29:48] » You got a second. >> Second.

[29:50] » All in favor? >> I.

[29:52] » Anybody opposed? >> Once again, thank you, Ben. Um,

[29:55] » thank you. >> Tech update. I'm going to leave for Dan

[29:59] next uh meeting, but as most of us I think sitting here, we all have our

[30:05] emails up and going >> and uh pretty happy. Uh I think it went

[30:12] other than them trying to do it during a storm with many power outages.

[30:16] » No, >> I can't imagine how they were so

[30:19] successful to be honest. Uh so delay it one day which was helpful.

[30:24] » Yeah, Mike and Dan, thanks so far when if you hear this

[30:28] Um, and I think there's some fine tuning, but overall pretty happy with

[30:33] uh, you know, what we're able to to do and uh, get done. So, I'm going to leave

[30:40] that for Dan to uh, follow up on. >> Dan sent a letter and um, this week.

[30:47] » Yeah, I got it. It came out >> in your packet.

[30:51] He did want us to bring up uh one deficiency versus the court ban. We

[30:56] identified in the recent storm is that reliance on the internet to do emergency

[31:00] communication with residents may insufficient as we know as we discussed

[31:04] in the um

[31:09] workshop. >> Y

[31:10] » we've been having a few issues in inside here.

[31:14] Village of Chattam uses a mass texting service and when the dust settles from

[31:19] this tech update, we would like the board's agreement with the board's

[31:24] agreement. We will pursue this enough to find out the option so we could do such.

[31:28] So >> yeah, they're still

[31:32] N. >> Oh, they've been doing it for a while.

[31:34] » Oh, yeah. >> Yeah.

[31:35] » Oh. um or anything because they

[31:40] » I'm on it because of >> course their their water system is is

[31:42] fed through the wells here in Gent the generator wasn't working

[31:48] » and therefore with no power >> they were on they were able to put out a

[31:54] ma mass text to those that signed up for it to

[31:57] » limit their use and

[32:01] » let everybody know that it's a state of emergency. So,

[32:05] » good idea. >> But they're able to keep people up to

[32:08] date at a schedule. So,

[32:11] » I think it's a great idea. >> I think so. A lot of times you can't you

[32:15] don't have access to email or whatever, but you get a text,

[32:18] » right? >> But explore it

[32:21] » unless you're in the hamlet. >> I think it's a no-brainer.

[32:25] » Anything for that's public safety. So, >> yes.

[32:29] » How do you go about gathering all the names though, Wally? How does

[32:32] » you sign on? They have to sign up. >> We do advertise. They just sign up.

[32:36] » Okay. >> Put it in our newsletter.

[32:38] » I was going to say we put our newsletter senior meetings.

[32:41] » I know we can't do anything with the tax bills, but you know, start gathering.

[32:48] » All right. Uh have no new business. Um unless somebody unless I'm missing

[32:52] something, somebody wants to bring something up.

[32:56] Okay. Then we'll work through the bills here. Uh, General

[33:00] A, $33,489.76.

[33:04] General B, $2,148.73.

[33:09] Highway $40,64161.

[33:14] Lighting $676.87 for a total of $76,956.98.

[33:23] Can I get a motion to pay the bills? >> Motion to pay the bills.

[33:26] » Second. >> I'll second it. All in favor? I

[33:29] » I. Anybody opposed? All right. Uh, no public still this point. So, I'd like to

[33:36] accept a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn.

[33:40] » Got a second. >> All in favor?

[33:44] » I >> I Thank you.

[33:47] » Thank you. >> I did have a spare one.

July 16, 2026 Ghent Town Board Meeting

Transcript