[0:06] All right.

[0:12] Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our committee of the whole meeting for today August 31st,

[0:17] 2026. We have a light agenda and then we will have a second session for discussion of matters

[0:23] concerning the medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person, persons,

[0:28] or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment and employment, promotion,

[0:32] and this is a point of suspension.

[0:34] This missile removal of a particular person

[0:36] persons or corporations, so at this time

[0:38] I'll turn it over to our city manager.

[0:40] Good morning, Mayor and Council.

[0:42] Good morning.

[0:43] We really wanted to apologize for having this meeting at all,

[0:48] but we needed to make sure that we awarded the

[0:51] resurfacing of streets for 2020-26,

[0:55] and we're pleased with the results.

[0:58] and so our DPW Superintendent will talk to you about those, but we do also have two other items

[1:06] that were timely. One is just a letter of support that's non-binding in the second and the third

[1:13] item is a proposal that we wish to keep bringing back to the council. So let's just as an introductory

[1:20] item. So at this time I'd like to ask our DPW Superintendent Cornel Hammons if he would approach the

[1:27] and talk to them about the resurfacing of streets.

[1:38] Good morning.

[1:39] Good morning.

[1:40] Good morning.

[1:40] Good morning, Harriet.

[1:42] Good morning.

[1:45] I am August 24, 2026.

[1:48] I am supposed to receive and open for the 2026 resurfacing of street contract.

[1:55] We receive a total of three big and the lowest big with low-lie industry 842,392.

[2:02] dollars and twenty five cents and I recommend that we go out with a low

[2:08] line.

[2:13] Can you what was that the lowest bid did you say one or eight?

[2:17] I'm sorry, eight forty two. Eight forty two. Eight forty two. Eight forty two.

[2:21] Eight forty two four nine two twenty five. Okay, thank you. We work we work with

[2:27] Yes.

[2:30] Cancel any questions?

[2:33] No.

[2:33] I don't.

[2:35] The list of the streets are in the resolution.

[2:38] Yes.

[2:38] That's all.

[2:39] Thank you.

[2:40] And we can add a delete recording of what we see say pretty much.

[2:44] Okay.

[2:46] So just as a public, can we just read those streets?

[2:49] We'll do it in the resolution.

[2:50] But would you read the streets or do you have it with you?

[2:52] I can read it.

[2:53] We do.

[2:55] The streets.

[2:57] Here we are.

[2:59] Would you just read them?

[3:00] Because the public is very curious.

[3:01] Want me to read them more?

[3:02] Please.

[3:03] We heard.

[3:06] Not even though subject to change though.

[3:08] Okay.

[3:09] My words.

[3:10] We got soft division.

[3:12] Or the tool to cater street.

[3:14] Or to domain.

[3:15] We got to lead a drive.

[3:16] Request streets.

[3:17] Smith to South.

[3:19] Orton Drive.

[3:20] Lincoln Terrace.

[3:21] Grant to French.

[3:22] Constant Avenue.

[3:23] Nelson to the dead end.

[3:24] The Boulevard Prospect, the Riverview, the Poo Street, Franklin Hudson,

[3:29] short street, lower Washington Street, a thousand low Washington Street to the city line.

[3:35] Phoenix Avenue, Highland, the Division, Hamilton Avenue,

[3:39] Portland Street, North Division, the Jane Street, Central Avenue,

[3:44] Nelson, the Washington ramp, Belden,

[3:47] had him to St. Mary's, Paulden Street,

[3:50] kind of working over there, so wherever they patch,

[3:52] But whatever you finish paper and from there to a belt and

[3:55] we got Bernard Roe, Nelson Avenue, from Phoenix to Reno,

[3:59] you're going to have a new Franklin to Elm.

[4:01] You're going to have a new Raymond down,

[4:04] Raymond Street, Patricia and Court, and the University.

[4:07] Thank you.

[4:08] I just want to say, I know the public is really looking forward to this,

[4:11] and that's why I ask you to read the names of the thing that this is coming.

[4:14] I know I'm getting phone calls.

[4:15] I'm sure everybody else is getting phone calls and emails.

[4:18] So I want them to know that the city is working to get these streets done.

[4:21] So that's why I asked you to name them.

[4:24] Thank you.

[4:25] Any other questions to comments?

[4:27] Yeah, one for now.

[4:28] Can you just tell us, like, when do you think that they'll start repaying those roads?

[4:34] Well, we've got to finalize the contract and agree with what you might want to do.

[4:38] So I'm hoping we'll get them next few weeks.

[4:41] Perfect.

[4:42] Perfect.

[4:42] Hopefully.

[4:43] Thank you.

[4:44] Thank you.

[4:48] So we have that resolution included in your package.

[4:53] Next up, the city is also interested.

[5:00] In talking to you about getting permission to provide a letter of support as we did last year for the

[5:09] broad Howard development, we have been engaged in discussions with the IDA, as well as the

[5:17] developer about the pilot for that project. And so this pilot that we have negotiated and would

[5:29] be the cornerstone of this agreement, would be constructed in a way so that the city would

[5:36] not lose any of the value necessary to keep its services going.

[5:42] And so we've made that point over and over again to everyone that's talked to us about

[5:47] getting pilots, we have to be able to pass on the appropriate increases from that will support

[5:57] our city staff because every person in the city uses the fire department, the police department,

[6:03] the building department, and all the parks and DPW. So we need to ensure that that's taken

[6:10] care of. And so we have arranged a similar arrangement to the 901 and the calculates what

[6:17] our total benefit would be. There would be an upfront impact fee and a pilot. And so with your permission,

[6:26] I would like to continue on with that negotiation and at this moment, I believe it's

[6:33] prudent for the city to provide a letter of support that can support the developer

[6:38] getting funding in the form of tax credits to support this project.

[6:45] And as you said, this is a non-binding letter, this is just a good formality for this funding

[6:50] options.

[6:50] It's just as last year it's a non-binding letter of support.

[6:56] I'm with me.

[6:58] Okay, so that is included in your package.

[7:04] We also have, I just wanted to get you thinking about this particular proposal

[7:11] because the city has been working on gathering community input

[7:16] for the purpose of determining the best use of space. As you know, the city is in receipt of

[7:25] funding that would fund almost $300,000 worth of professional fees to plan for and start the

[7:37] preparation of bid documents for construction, which would go towards community center.

[7:44] services, and since we originally got this funding for those professional services, we found

[7:52] out that the library is moving to another location, and so we are taking that into account.

[8:01] And we have a survey out, which we're encouraging all citizens, and it's going to be out for a little while.

[8:08] But we also want to do this thing where we talk to the non-profits that already do work with

[8:15] our youth groups and our seniors, because they are already partners for the city.

[8:21] We also want to invite other non-profits who may be interested in talking to us about

[8:28] services that they could offer that would be supportive of community services.

[8:32] One such nonprofit has been growing and growing and activity with the city and it started

[8:41] with Jim Taylor's program for both building. From that program we got kids across the

[8:48] street from Bowman and in the center of our downtown talking about doing woodworking,

[8:55] Floyd, a new group, has come and been very successful at a start, and so they have rapidly

[9:03] increased the number of children who have taken part in this, but this Floyd is interesting

[9:10] because it's not just a child's activity.

[9:13] It's meant to be in its original basis a community activity that can be where all members of the community

[9:23] work together through woodworking and teachers, new schools and teachers, new confidence,

[9:30] specifically it's very useful with children. So once we got swayed coming in, we also have

[9:38] met new people who are also interested in supporting the boat building program beyond what we have here.

[9:45] They've got lots of good ideas. They want to entirely take over the firehouse portion,

[9:52] Bay of the youth bureau building, we envision a glass store.

[10:00] Front window there may be one that rolls up so that the activities on the inside can be seen to the outside and be a welcoming place of learning for use in our community and you know, they have lots more to offer.

[10:18] And so we'd like to continue talking about how they can use more space on a on a

[10:28] world basis. This idea has informed our desire to do the same thing with other non-profits

[10:37] and to talk to them about like what do you have to offer our youth, our seniors, our

[10:43] whole community in terms of serving the community in a community-based program that people would

[10:52] enjoy going to a community center. All of this surrounded with Jonathan's food that he has to offer

[10:59] which is a great thing to add to a community center as well as the workforce development programs that we have going on.

[11:07] So lots of exciting ideas right now at the beginning, so we just wanted to share with you a written proposal from

[11:16] they have to avoid their programs that they like to offer.

[11:19] Some of their ideas, their ideas are not to stop at just the building being used to

[11:25] date 28 Maine, which is the youth bureau, but they'd also really like to ultimately

[11:30] construct a facility that would be a boat building location.

[11:35] They like putting it down at the riverfront, but the riverfront I will tell you is filled with

[11:41] challenges. It's flood zone. We'd have to talk to the Army Corps of

[11:45] Engineer. We'd have to talk to the DEC. So this is something that we're

[11:49] willing to talk about and see what is out there in terms of how could we

[11:55] fulfill this need. So we would like to bring them back to talk to you if

[12:00] included a package here. This is not meant to be the last time that you would

[12:05] hear about this before we do something as meant to be the first time that you get

[12:08] to read more about these programs that they want to offer.

[12:12] And there's no action required today, just knowledge

[12:16] so that when you hear about them later,

[12:18] you'll know who they are.

[12:20] Perfect.

[12:20] And questions?

[12:21] Comment?

[12:22] I just want to see, during the backpack

[12:24] every way I had an opportunity to tour the board

[12:28] building there.

[12:29] And it's really amazing to see what these kids are doing.

[12:32] So this is going to be something.

[12:34] Yeah.

[12:34] It's a great program.

[12:37] It's great.

[12:38] Okay.

[12:39] And that's all we have other than executive session items for the later.

[12:45] We are.

[12:45] We are on reports.

[12:48] Councilor Degucia.

[12:49] Thank you, Madam Mayor.

[12:51] As Councilwoman Changid or he mentioned this past week, the youth bureau gave their

[12:56] Pat Maheld their bookbed give away before the start of the school year.

[12:59] It was very well attended.

[13:01] I want to say thank you to Darrell Francis and everyone over at the youth bureau.

[13:05] Senator P. Harkham, Pisco Police, Pisco Fire Department, the school district, everybody who came out to support.

[13:12] There was a great time, there was food, Jonathan Samora, and his team provided hot dogs and other things,

[13:17] and it was just a great energy and a great event for people to get together and be excited about going back to school

[13:24] and getting some supplies that they need. And also, I was able to look at the boat building

[13:30] area and the work that the children are doing is phenomenal and you know a lot of good

[13:35] things are happening at the U.P. also.

[13:37] Thank you.

[13:39] Councillor Fathlet?

[13:40] No report from the fire department.

[13:42] We did not meet this month, but we will meet next month.

[13:45] So I'll have a report after that.

[13:47] And the next bid meeting is tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

[13:52] So I'll have a report after that.

[13:53] That's all.

[13:54] I don't know.

[13:54] Thank you.

[13:55] Councilman Rigger? Yes, Madam Mayor. No liaison report, but my do have a concern issue. I was

[14:02] on a Sunday morning awoken by the lovely sound of a guest-partly floor.

[14:07] So I was wondering if we could bring back as a municipality of that legislation that we

[14:14] signed off on from the county level, not banning them, but just a moratorium in June, July and August

[14:19] for the gas party blowers, that way people have a full year to kind of come to this realization

[14:26] that they just won't be able to use them in June July and August. They can use them in the

[14:30] spring during the hard cleanup, they can use them in the fall to remove leaves, but just more

[14:49] robust meeting. Membership is growing. I believe that there are seven members. We also had guests from the

[14:56] mobile crisis unit. We had also someone.

[15:00] From what's just a community. College is an observer, you know, just to see how the meeting was being run. And our liaison officer LaLindez was also there. So the commission, they're, you know, they're moving along and building their priorities for the coming year, they're also going to be engaged in the community hub resident input form. So we want to hear what the community has to say what they want to see around peak scale.

[15:28] So just to look out for that is a QR code to be scanned, but yeah, that's all I have to say. Thank you.

[15:35] Councilwoman Talbot?

[15:36] The work at the Paramount is going on going to improve it and they've started work on the marquee.

[15:46] And that's going to be exciting. I'm looking forward to that.

[15:48] I also have just a comment about the parking across the street on South

[15:56] the Asian street.

[15:58] There seems to be a no stopping the events in the area.

[16:05] Let's just say that.

[16:08] And cars were parked the other night.

[16:10] Saturday night, there had to be at least seven or eight cars parked from the

[16:15] parking beyond this point sign down toward the being runner and you know either we're going

[16:22] to allow it or we're not or we're going to deal with it. I don't know but the people in the area

[16:27] are really getting quite upset about

[16:32] it. That's it. Deputy Mayor? Yes we had our library board

[16:37] meeting last week and we went over the budget and our library director confirms with the city

[16:47] County Board of Elections and was officially received by the August 3rd deadline, so that's been done.

[16:53] They're also going to be doing with the Westminster Library Systems, a pilot school library registration.

[16:59] This is a great idea.

[17:01] They're working together with the Westminster Library System and our school district.

[17:05] They're going to give all the students either online or paper forms for all students from K through 12

[17:12] and PEEK schools to register for a library card.

[17:15] So this is a great way to get our students in the library easy way to get registered, take

[17:21] at a library card, and the whole new world opens up when you start reading some books.

[17:26] So I'm really glad to hear that.

[17:29] They also, for their staff, they worked on an emergency resource plan, response plan.

[17:36] They made it a employee handbook, they're training their staff, and the board voted on accepting

[17:43] the Emergency Response Plan and they also voted on social media use the updated some policies

[17:49] and they voted on that.

[17:51] So that's what happened at the Library Board meeting last week.

[17:55] And I just want to say I want to piggyback on the back pack giveaway.

[17:59] It was a great, great event.

[18:01] Thank you to everybody at the Youth Bureau, Darrell Francis, everybody there in all our community

[18:05] partners.

[18:06] And yes, we went to the boat building, place Jim Taylor is just a gem.

[18:11] He's just wonderful with the kids and doing all that great work.

[18:15] We met some of the other staff there that works with that both building place.

[18:20] That would be a great thing to have a clear glass panel there so people can see the great

[18:27] work that's happening there and they launched those boats.

[18:30] Those boats go in the water and we learned a lot that night about the history behind those

[18:35] boats.

[18:36] Those are really historical boats they are building.

[18:38] So, it's a really great thing for our youth to do and the kids there were really, really happy to be doing it.

[18:47] So, kudos to that, we had a senior pool party on Thursday, it rained last Thursday, it rained the Thursday before, it was postponed again.

[18:57] This Thursday, we had the senior pool party without a pool. They had it at the Food Center, and we had our barbecue, and we had a great time and there was a nice group truck.

[19:07] So everything went great except the weather, and there was no pool.

[19:11] But the seniors had a great time as they always do.

[19:13] So thank you to Jonathan, and the complete staff down there

[19:16] did a great job, our city staff

[19:19] just absolutely wonderful, and everybody did have a great time.

[19:22] So we didn't have to worry about anybody

[19:24] diving into a pool because there wasn't one.

[19:26] Senior Advisory Meeting next meeting will be Tuesday,

[19:29] September 15th at 2.30.

[19:32] And that's it for me, Mayor.

[19:33] OK, thank you.

[19:36] Are we doing executive session?

[19:40] Yes.

[19:41] OK.

[19:41] So if I can have Deputy Mayor, do Resolution J1.

[19:46] Councilwoman Talbot, Resolution J2.

[19:49] And at this time, I would ask that we have a motion to go out of this meeting into our council meeting.

[19:57] So much.

[19:58] Second.

[19:59] All in favor?

[20:16] Good morning, welcome to our Council meeting of August 31st, 2026. I would ask that this time we stand for

[20:41] the

[20:41] It's time I asked if we take a moment of silence and not of those who've gone before us to give us the liberties and freedoms that we have today and for all the unrest

[20:49] We have thank

[21:01] you. At this time I'm calling the meeting to order and ask Madam Clerk to do a roll call, please

[21:07] Good morning, council members

[21:11] Councilman Rickard here

[21:12] I'm so woman Chang, president, councilman, do

[21:17] Thank you, President.

[21:19] Councilman Fassett.

[21:21] Councilwoman Tappier.

[21:23] Deputy Mayor Ali, President.

[21:26] And Mayor McKenzie.

[21:28] So at this time, I'm going to answer.

[21:29] We dispense to the reading of the minutes and move them into the record for all the 17th

[21:34] questions.

[21:34] We dispense with meeting minutes and to them into the record as presented.

[21:39] Second.

[21:39] All in favor?

[21:40] Aye.

[21:41] Perfect.

[21:41] At this time, we asked for public comments on agenda items only.

[21:46] If there's anyone present who would like to speak on the agenda items, please come to the podium.

[21:51] Do you have anyone online?

[21:56] You don't see anybody at all.

[21:57] No.

[21:58] No.

[21:58] Okay.

[21:59] Moving on.

[22:01] Communications.

[22:04] No.

[22:05] No.

[22:06] No.

[22:07] Okay.

[22:08] All right.

[22:08] For new business.

[22:10] Resolution J1, please.

[22:12] Deputy Mayor.

[22:13] Yes, Mayor.

[22:13] I move to accept resolution J1 as presented.

[22:16] Second.

[22:16] This resolution awards bid number 2026-003 for the resurfacing and repair of city streets to the lowest responsible bitter,

[22:25] Laura Lee Industries, LLC, and authorizes the city manager to enter into an agreement with Laura Lee Industries.

[22:33] Madam Mayor.

[22:34] Thank you. All in favour?

[22:35] Aye.

[22:35] Any opposed?

[22:36] Hearing none oppose resolution J1, you know as the carries.

[22:39] Resolution J2, please Councilwoman Talbot.

[22:42] Yes, Madam Mayor, move that week.

[22:44] a set resolution, J2 is presented.

[22:46] This resolution authorizes the city manager and city assessor to issue letters of support

[22:52] with respect to certain financing being requested by the developer of a proposed development

[22:58] at Broad and Howard Street, which is called the Broad and Howard development.

[23:03] The Broad and Howard development is a proposed project for the construction of 57 residential

[23:09] units in the city of Beakskill. The developer is working with the city industrial and industrial

[23:15] development agency and city staff who have established that any benefits compared, compared

[23:22] upon this development must be feasible for the city's fiscal needs.

[23:27] Madam Mayor, thank you. All in favor?

[23:29] Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none opposed resolution J2 announced me carries. Thank you, Council.

[23:35] So at this time, we opened the floor of a citizens' desiring to be heard on any topic.

[23:41] I don't see anyone present in the chamber. Anyone present online?

[23:44] No, but I did receive an email from D.T. Henry and reference to RISO J1 that will be put into the record.

[23:52] Okay, great. Thank you.

[23:54] All right.

[23:55] So at this time, I ask for an adjournment to go into executive session for discussions of matters concerning the medical financial credit,

[24:02] or employment history of a particular person persons or corporation

[24:06] or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion,

[24:09] demotion, discipline and suspension,

[24:11] dismissal or removal of a particular person persons or corporations.

[24:15] That will be second.

[24:16] All in favor?

[24:16] Bye.

[24:17] All right. Thank you. Have a good day.

Special Work Session and Common Council Meeting

Agenda

Transcript